(New) Acton Haptic Accent Enhancement for International Professionals

For the last 5 or 6 years I have been working with a "new" accent enhancement system, based on haptic pronunciation teaching face-to-face, on campus, with select international graduate students and professionals. With COVID, beginning early this spring, I began working on a new online version of that individualized course. It is all one-on-one (or possibly one-on-two) with weekly, 45-minute sessions on Zoom or SKYPE. 

I have been doing accent work since about 1975 or so. The first paper was published on it in 1984. (If you'd like a free copy of that, let me know and I'll send you one.) Our 2013 article gives you a pretty good picture of what it is about. Would love to work with you if you have the "wiring" and time. If interested, check out the AHAE program page. (It is still a work in progress but it will give you a pretty good idea of what it is about.) 

Bill

Haptic Highlights at TESOL 2015 - 2 (Macdonald on Pronunciation and Identity)

Probably the highlight of the conference for me, personally, at least theoretically, was a presentation by Macdonald of Victoria University/Melbourne, based on his 2015 paper, “The tutor never asked me questions”: Pronunciation and student positioning at university, (See full citation below.)

Quoting from the abstract: " . . . puts forward a model for understanding pronunciation and its role in speaker identity formulation. Theory underpinning this model is based on sociolinguistic work on speaker identities as formulated through spoken interactions (Bucholtz and Hall, 2005)".

What Macdonald's framework provides is an intriguing approach to bringing together constructs from a number of fields of study related to pronunciation, including drama, music, voice training, sociolinguistics, paralanguage--and, of course, embodiment. The key is to begin from the perspective

Clipart: Clker.com

of learner identity as a point of departure, focusing on three of the five components of Bucholtz and Hall (2005): Positionality,
 relationality
 and
 partialness (the other two being, emergence, and indexicality).

Macdonald's striking conclusion in his TESOL 2015 paper, Pronunciation and Speaker Identity, cuts both ways. First, pronunciation, itself, probably does not contribute as much variance to L2 identity as is currently believed. Second, that a wide range of variables related to speaking production and social context must be taken into account to understand L2 identity formation and the relative role of pronunciation or accent in the process.  

And finally, the real impact of L2 pronunciation development at any point in time can ONLY be understood in the context of the identity of the individual learner, not in relative isolation. Will unpack the implications of Macdonald's perspective for haptic pronunciation work in subsequent posts.

Full Citations:
Bucholtz, M. and Hall, K. (2005). Identity and interaction: A sociocultural linguistic approach. Discourse Studies, 7(4-5), 585-614.

Macdonald, S. (2015). "The tutor never asked me questions”: Pronunciation and student positioning at university, Journal of Academic Language Learning 9(2), 31-41. 

Power Pronunciation: Posing as a confident English speaker!

Clip art: Clker

Power your way to better pronunciation? We have been aware for some time that one of the EHIEP protocols, what we often informally refer to as the "Rhythm Fight Club," is pretty potent stuff. Learners often report that using the technique, which requires one to play the role of something of a pugilist, not only helps them to speak more rhythmically, often within a day or so, but also increases confidence. A couple have even reported that they thought it was instrumental in helping them develop more assertive personas, in general. Now we know why . . .

You may have heard about the well known work of Professor Amy Cuddy of Harvard School of Business. Here is a TED talk she gave earlier and a recent article on her by Business insider. In part because I am an avid weight lifter, I have been using power posing for some time, myself, especially when I am away from the gym.

Add haptic anchoring to Cuddy Power Posing and you have an unbeatable combination. Literally!

In fact, I just get better all the time . . .

Keep in touch.

Confident, "power" pronunciation: in 2 minutes?

Photo credit: Ted.blog.com

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Here is a 21-minute TED talk by Amy Cuddy well worth watching, "Your body language shapes who you are"--for several reasons. First, at a superficial level it seems to agree with Lessac's "Train the body first" dictum. Second, it is another example of "discovering" biochemical and neurophysiological correlates to body state changes that impact emotional or cognitive performance. Third, it is also wonderfully ethnocentric, egocentric and culturally suspect. What professor Cuddy is recommending is basically (based on what appears to be a solid, experimental, laboratory study): striking and holding a "powerful" pose for 2-minutes to both feel more like an Alpha-fe/male and at the same time boost your power-hormone, testosterone--before going into that meeting where you need to be . . . well . . .more confident and in control.

We know from past research (and this blogpost or that one) that such procedures "work" in some settings. Lessac's system involves any number of body and voice awareness and re-orientation techniques that gradually and systematically change the "vocal life" of the student. As part of a (haptic) integrated method, there is some sense in that. But listen carefully to how Cuddy contextualizes her personal experience to persuasively situate her suggestion that you simply "power up" your posture using the same experimental protocol as in her research. (Any time you see the qualifier "power" before the name of a therapy, technique or training system, step back for 2 minutes, take a deep breath and approach with extreme caution.) Given the cultures, emerging identities (and genders) in your language/pronunciation class, how would that play? Caveat emptor . . . 

Pronunciation more than communication?

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

In yet another study for your "Well . . . duh . . . straw man" file, (Summarized by Science Daily) Trofimovich of Concordia University and Isaacs of the University of Bristol report on a study based on what they term 'comprehensibility': "Understanding accents: Effective communication is about more than simply pronunciation." That question has been the subject of research for decades. That it should be "news" in the popular science press still should not be surprising. Comprehensibility is partially defined, at least in the summary, as simply " . . . linked to vocabulary and grammar." But to what extent is pronunciation just "accent", what is potentially problematic for the listener? The socio-political strategy of educating the public to learn to attend less to accent in some contexts is absolutely valid. But equating or trying to parse the two terms in that manner is a mistake, in a couple of senses. First, as any Linguistics 100 student knows, pronunciation is at least a morpho-phonemic (grammar + phonology) problem. A mispronounced segmental can cause a grammatical ending to "disappear." Conversely, a syntactic breakdown may impact very directly the intonation of the constituent structure. In addition, calling attention to grammar may bring with it even more inherent bias. Second, and more importantly for our work, pronunciation is, indeed, more than just interpersonal communication in how it is experienced by the speaker and the effect that just the act of speaking has on the speaker. For example, resonant, rich, (haptic-integrated) strong pronunciation can have a very positive effect in itself, on both the speaker's state of mind and sense of identity, "intra-personal" communication of a sort, the essence of embodiment.--which in term affects one's attitude toward one's accent. A "pronounced" difference, to be sure.

Raising expectations by lowering pitch

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

At least in North American culture, lowering the pitch of one's voice has relatively predictable consequences. In the 2012 research summarized by Science Daily, summarized by Anderson at Duke, both men and women perceived female politicians with lower pitch to be stronger, more competent and trustworthy. Only males, however, perceived the lower pitch in men as a sign of strength and greater competence. Women apparently saw the lower-pitch male voices as only more trustworthy. Exactly why that happened, the researchers would not speculate, of course, but there are times when advising a student to assume a voice lower or higher in pitch does or does not make sense. The process of helping learners do that often involves haptic or kinaesthetic techniques to establish new awareness of the voice and resonance centers. It is relatively easy, in fact, using body-based procedure to achieve at least temporarily the appearance or feeling of being more confident, what a colleague terms the "Whistle a happy tune" effect. Whether you should explicitly suggest that to students as a strategy, given their respective cultures and interlanguage "identities"-- or even alter your own voice simply to achieve that effect--is another question entirely. In most cases, probably not. Generally, better that the indices of confidence emerge over time, progressively from success and integration of L2 (especially pronunciation) and self, rather than de-contextualized, affective staging. Caveat Emptor . . . 

Expressiveness in pronunciation instruction

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A few blog posts back I assembled a set of musical terms that could be used to characterize speaking performance. For example, as part of a set up for the mood of a dialogue, you could indicate something like "con spiritu, a placere" (with spirit, but need not follow strict rhythm pattern). Another term, espressivo (expressively), appears (as "expressiveness") commonly, for example, in rubrics used in public speaking or classroom presentations, etc. I have over the years done several workshops with titles like "Expressive pronunciation," the idea being that if you can get learners to be more "expressive" (however that is defined) you should be better able to move them to fluency and integration of focus-on-form targets. What is "expressiveness?" Here is 2005 a study by Fabian and Schubert that looked at how that concept was unpacked and used in a study of listener judgment of two versions of a Bach violin concerto. Some of the parameters of expressiveness and related criterion used in the study were:

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• Phrasing (Continuous, Legato, Articulated, Detailed)
• Tone Production (Vibrato, Intensity, Straightness, Lightness) 
• Rhythm (Grouped, Strict, Measured, Flexible)

Subjects were also asked to rate each performance on more global criteria : Romantic Expressiveness  and Baroque Expressiveness. Not surprisingly, each of those two correlated quite directly with very differing subsets of the three "linguistic" categories. The point of the study was to demonstrate that expressiveness can be understood from a set of parameters such as those and that its realization in any piece or context will depend upon the style in which it is situated. The same goes for oral production or interpretation of any text used in pronunciation-focus work: By systematically and explicitly varying those or similar parameters, learners can be assisted in speaking "expressively" within their own personal L2  expressive style or identity, whether more "Baroque-like" or more "Romantically." Just because the learner seems relatively over-"buttoned down," rigid or emotionally constrained does not mean that he or she cannot develop genuine, authentic expressiveness. In other words, If it's Baroque, don't (be too quick to try to) fix it!

Lazy students? It's their "pronunciation literacy's" @ fault!

Clipart: Clker

Clipart: Clker

Interesting piece by Howard of National Geographic News citing Harrison, “Literacy makes you lazy; we don’t memorize 10,000-line epic poems any more," David Harrison, the director of research for the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages, told an audience at the Aspen Environment Forum in Colorado this past weekend." His point, in part, is that literacy in English is achieved more and more by being able to speak fluently and access information when necessary--not by keeping all that stored in the brain--or being able to produce or reproduce "it" with inordinate (or extreme) accuracy, etc. Fair enough. He doesn't really unpack that statement much, especially in terms of the functions of memorizing poetry, which generally demand extraordinary attention to the expressive dimensions of language. (If it takes 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert, perhaps 10,000 lines of poetry is enough to make you an honorary native speaker as well?) From that perspective, from the standpoint of the English learner, he may have a point. The emphasis on comprehensible input and output, along with the  high priority on communicative, intelligible interaction has unquestionably produced a new ideal or model of the successful learner's pronunciation that, almost by necessity must ignore attention to the finer nuances of L2 expressive speech. In fact--and I'll come back to this later--for many theorists today it is as if some level of the expressive system of the L1 must remain firmly in place, surviving principally as "accent" and higher forms of pragmatic competence, to ensure that the L1 identity of the learner is not washed out or assimilated in the process, what we might call "Lazy faire pronunciation literacy." 

Accented, embodied, Asian female professional L2 identity

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Clip art: Clker

How's this for an "embodied" conference presentation proposal?

 "In this workshop, examining current theory on L2 identity related to Asian professional women and embodiment theory, participants work through a series of haptic-based (movement and touch) exercises, including a set of speaking/rhythm-based exercises, which provide a helpful anchor for shifting into confident and accented, professional English." 

         It was submitted to TESOL 2013 by two of our female, Asian--graduate students. Both are interested in the general question of L2 identity. (One of them has also submitted a poster proposal for a related classroom-based project as well.) The basic idea is, after setting up a conceptual framework on accent and identity,  to use a haptic (movement and touch)-based classroom technique to anchor something of the "felt sense" of confident delivery and  performance-- even with possibly problematic, accented speech. What it is getting at is the notion of establishing a sense of confidence in the learner more intentionally, explicitly identified and experienced as such as the selected professional style and register of speech is practiced in class. The process, at least for some, provides a more readily accessible anchor, a way to step back into that emotional "space," if you like, what it is like when "We are  speaking confidently." I have used something analogous for years in giving my professional NNS students a way to get focused before they step up to the podium. 

New L2 identity and new pronunciation in 40 days!

Photo credit: Mens Health

40 is something of a magic number when it comes to persistence (For example, staying afloat that long in an ark!) Turns out there may be something to it. Reported on the Mens Health website is a summary of a study by Rutgers researcher, Philips, of subjects who took on a personal development project that required considerable discipline and commitment. One finding was that,

 “If a person performs a behavior regularly and for long enough [40 days in this study], the behavior becomes part of the person’s self-identity or self-concept . . . For example, if I made a goal to start running and succeeded, I’d begin to see myself as a runner."

What a coincidence! EHIEP basic training  (exclusive of the introductory session) is also 6 weeks long, 42 days--a total of about 24 hours (including both in class training and homework.) No wonder students begin to hear themselves differently who manage to  stick with the practice regimen to the end. As they say, "Life (and apparently new L2 identity) begins @40!"

Embodied exercise: dancing your way to better pronunciation, health, L2 identity and expressiveness!

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Clker

Several previous posts have alluded to "embodiment theory" as it is developed in different disciplines. One of the more relevant applications is in dance, especially ballet. This one, Klemola 1991, makes an interesting observation as to the functions and purposes of general physical exercise:

(a) To "win," be the best,  

(b) Maintain optimal strength and health, 

(c) Expand expressive capability, and 

(d) Explore and articulate self identity. 

Embodied (HICP/EHIEP) pronunciation work involves all four functions, even (b)--see earlier "breathing" and posture-related posts. Expressiveness (c) and identity (d) have also been addressed earlier but a brief elaboration might be helpful here. One of the most powerful effects of haptic anchoring is enhanced ability to manage range of expressiveness, particularly intonation. (In fact, for a time I was using the term "expressive pronunciation" for the entire system.) In the L2 identity literature the focus is principally on the psychological or psycho-social dimension. The HICP perspective on L2 identity adaptation is more Lessac-based, seeing no useful mind/body distinction and beginning formative work "from the body, outward."

Feeling a bit disembodied lately? Not yourself? Can't dance?  Out of shape? It may be your pronunciation teaching.