Bill Acton's Embodiment Blog: HICPR

Showing posts with label HICPR. Show all posts

Monday, April 22, 2013

New "Acton-Haptic" Facebook page and beyond!

We are about to move and open up new social media:

Facebook: actonhaptic (That is up now and will be "embellished" in the next few days! When you get a chance, please go "like" it when you have a chance!)
Twitter: @actonhaptic (Will kick that off at the BCTEAL conference later this week where we are doing four haptic presentations!)
email: actonhaptic@gmail.com (We'll use that for all business communications, beginning immediately.)
Website: www.actonhaptic.com and www.actonhaptic.ca (Those will go up as the streaming and download components come online.) For now our "home" for access to the demonstration videos and general information on AH-EPS will remain where it is now at Fiona Bramble's website.
Blog: We'll stay with HICPR for more general haptic research, but the pedagogical work, especially that related to general haptic pronunciation teaching, will move over to www.hapticpronunciationteaching.blogspot.ca.

Saturday, April 13, 2013

HICP, EHIEP, HICPR, HPT, IAHICPR, AH-EPS . . . and HIPOECES!

Clip art:

Over the course of the last five years or so the acronyms we have been using, along with the theory, models and methods have evolved.
Here is a brief tour:

HICP (Haptic-integrated Clinical Pronunciation) – The term we use now for the general approach, especially the "clinical" side that focuses on integration into spontaneous speech and systematic, invasive management of homework practice
HICPR (Haptic-integrated Clinical Pronunciation Research) – The mother blog; can also be "Haptic-integrated Clinical Pronunciation Researcher"
HPT (Haptic pronunciation teaching) – The other blog
EHIEP – The application of HICP to English. Each of us really has our own take on that. EHIEP doesn't require haptic video, per se. AH-EPS does. We have been training people at workshops in the non-video-based use of some of the protocols for five years or so.
AH-EPS (Acton Haptic - English Pronunciation System) – The haptic video system that is coming on the market now.
HIPOECES (Haptic-integrated Pronunciation for other- and extended circle- English Speakers) Name of the blog when it started in 2010. It made sense at the time . . .
IAHICPR (International Association of Haptic-integrated Clinical Pronunciation Researchers). Have list of people who will become charter members of that later this fall when I kick it off officially.
HIC (Haptician-in-Chief) A term referring to me on occasion

Clker

KIT (Keep in touch!) Our favorite sign off.

KIT

Monday, November 19, 2012

Disembodied pronunciation: computer generated, animated images of learners' inappropriate articulation

Clip art: Clker

May start a new series of blogposts focusing on amazing-looking pronunciation techniques that, from a HICPR perspective, are so thoroughly disembodied or "dys-haptic" (generally depending heavily on only visual modalities, lacking a somatic, physical basis) such that chances of them working are probably not all that good, at best, such as this one:
"Improvement of animated articulatory gesture extracted from speech for pronunciation training," by Manosavan, Katsurada, Hayashi, Zhu, Nitta of Toyohashi University, a paper from the 2012 IEEE Convention--available for 31 bucks to nonmembers. (Have not read the full paper, just the abstract. My general policy is to pay for no research papers that cost more than 6 Starbucks Vente Carmel Frappuccinoes.) Computer-assisted Pronunciation Training (CAPT) is probably the future of the field, but a system that creates a moving cartoon-like representation of what a learner is doing wrong and then juxtaposes that with an animated image of how to do it right cannot possibly work effectively or efficiently-expect perhaps for those who are CAPT designers and gamers. (What do they need appropriate pronunciation for anyway?)

However, if that video image were to be merged with "haptic cinema" technique and technology, (linked is a very "a-peeling" example, in fact!) they may still be on to something.

Friday, August 10, 2012

Essentials of Haptic-Integrated Pronunciation Instruction all-day Workshop at TESOL 2013 in Dallas!

That'll be Tuesday,19 March 2013, 9 am-4 pm before the 2013 TESOL Conference begins (It is called a Pre-conference Institute), at the Dallas Convention Center, in fact. I'll be doing it with with Mike Burri, British Columbia Institute of Technology, Karen Rauser, University of British Columbia-Okanagan, and Brian Teaman, of Osaka Women's University, Not sure what the enrollment is limited to; the cost is something like $150, usually. (Well worth the fee, of course!) If you are interested in attending, let me know (wracton@gmail.com). If demand is a big as I think it'll be, I'll make sure we get a bigger room. (We could do the PCI with up to about 40 participants, given the current framework.) As mentioned earlier, after the PCI we'll locate a restaurant nearby for anybody who'd like to be present at the founding meeting of the International Association of Haptic-integrated Clinical Pronunciation Researchers (IAHICPR . . . pronounced: I, a hiccuper!). Looking forward to it! Keep in touch for more details.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

TESOL 2013 in Dallas (March 20-23, 2013) Proposals due!

Clip art: Clker

June 1st, in fact! I'm working on (a) a one-day, pre-conference institute proposal on haptic-integrated pronunciation instruction, as usual. (That has been turned down now four times but hope springs eternal!), (b) a workshop on integrating pronunciation change into spontaneous speech, (c) a reprise of the haptic dictionary demo from 2012 (That went just great but the title was clearly not zippy enough!), (d) one workshop being prepared by graduate students on NNEST intonation teaching and (e) another student demonstration or poster session on "haptic-integrated or embodied L2 identity," and (f) a workshop on haptic-integrated vowel instruction. I am only the lead presenter on the PCI. Also, will have the entire haptic-video system available for download by then and am planning a HICPR (haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation research) meeting in the networking area at the conference as well. How about you? If you are considering submitting something "haptic," let us know! Keep in touch!

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What is haptic pronunciation teaching?

Basically, it is using gesture, touch and movement to teach pronunciation of English (or any language). What makes this method unique is that it is based on controlled and systematic use of gesture in doing that. (Often the problem with gesture use in language learning is that it can be "crazy" or random or intimidating or inconsistent, or not well-developed and tied to clear outcomes.)

The earlier "Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation (EHIEP) approach," now KINETIK, does a better job of enhancing presentation, modelling, feedback and correction. The method is simple and easy to follow. Once a 30-minute module is finished, teacher and students have a set of techniques to use in class anytime a pronunciation problem or opportunity comes up!

Haptic Preliminaries

I often begin workshops or papers with the comment that in about 40 years in the field I have had just one idea: that the systematic use of body movement is essential to effective and efficient pronunciation instruction. That has never been more relevant than today, with the general deemphasis on pronunciation and introduction of technology into the field. From both perspectives, the "haptic" perspective approach developed here offers great promise. I can at least promise you a "moving" experience!

What is the KINETIK Method?

KINETIK is the name of the new v6.0 haptic pronunciation teaching system. About six years earlier we were using the acronym, "Haptic Integrated Pronunciation for Other/Extended Circle English Speakers" (HIPOECES)--still there in the url of this blog!

Haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation is:

A different way to learn pronunciation, based in part on Arthur Lessac’s notion of “Training the body first.” It is also based on research in the use of movement and touch in learning and training. It:

Looks somewhat like a combination of aerobics, sign language and Taichi

Provides a basic foundation for continued, self-directed pronunciation learning and classroom instruction

Designed for use by relatively untrained teachers but appropriate for all teachers (and learners) of all levels

Focuses on pronunciation used in conversation (not all words in English)

Is a highly “brain-and-body-friendly” system that promotes efficient learning of integrated tasks in general

Designed to promote integrated classroom pronunciation instruction and enable integration of conscious pronunciation work into spontaneous speaking.

Introduction

This blog was formerly named: HIPoeces (pronounced 'hI-pƏ-cIs), basically an approach to teaching English pronunciation to speakers of "outer and expanding" circle Englishes (including that population commonly termed: non-native speakers) but also compatible with the use of local models other than simply Standard" American" or RP. Using Kachru's "Inner, expanding and outer circles" model to characterize the breadth of Englishes and speakers of those, HIPoeces (now HICP) systems focus on developing haptically-centered pedagogical models and methods which can be adapted for teaching the pronunciation of various Englishes as they are spoken and taught by "owners" of those varieties.

In theory, the underlying principles can be applied to teaching the sound system of any language. Most language instructors intuitively use a great deal of movement and tactile anchoring in the classroom. The essential question is how to use that resource systematically, especially so that those learners who are less "haptic" in nature are also "moved" by the method.

Simply put, the HICP model/method is based on the idea of speaking along with arm and hand movement, not all that different from that used in sign languages. Most movement patterns are taken from either typical classroom pronunciation instruction practice or from related fields, such as psychotherapy or sports.

Most blog posts link to research that relates to the general HICP model, that is studies dealing with the role of gesture, touch, movement, learning modalities, learning in output, use of the visual field in learning, and experiential learning.

DEFINITIONS:

"Haptic" techniques- procedures that involve both movement and touch (Obvious examples include clapping hands, tapping feet, or holding an object and shaking it to the rhythm of a poem.)

"HICP techniques" - procedures that are haptic and also explicitly coordinated with phonological structures and/or discourse prosody (For example, clapping hands on primary stressed syllables in multi-syllable words, or doing a dance step on key words in conversational turns.)

"Haptic integration"- The haptic dimension probably functions as much to anchor visual and auditory material as it does to assist the learner in getting the "felt sense" of the sound or sound process. Lack of integration into spontaneous speech being such a serious potential shortcoming of instruction, haptic engagement seems a promising bridge to more accurate fluency.

"Visual field" - in HICP extensive use is made of the visual field in front of the learner. (For example, a modified version of the IPA vowel chart is anchored haptically in the imagination of the learner, directly in front of the upper body, and used for several purposes throughout the program.)