Excellent audio-aural-only pronunciation learning? Really?

Yes. Have been meaning to do this post for some time now. Perhaps the best known of the audio-media based programs is the Pimsleur Method, which is basically audio recordings that learners hear, repeat after and respond to. (There is more involved, of course, but the essential learning mechanism is straight, non-visual, (non-haptic!) engagement.)

So, given what this blog is about, how could that be possible? Simple. There are some learners for whom that is perfect, and, as in the Pimsleur approach, it (oral/aural competence) can be done exceedingly well, scaffolding in material and delivered in voices that--for many reasons--seem to "stick" in the brain of the learner. Pimsleur, like Asher (TPR), was first focused on the mechanisms of memory: optimal content, timing and voice delivery parameters.

What is of particular interest in HICP is the latter, the impact of the felt sense of the voice, both the learner's and the instructor's in anchoring in memory. One of my favorite models in that regard has always been that in the book, My voice will go with you, a compilation of the therapeutic/teaching stories of the great hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson. As in any memorable song, speech, sermon, comment or conversation, a great voice with perfect timing can deliver a message that you (almost) never forget. Just takes a little more lesson planning . . . Hear what I'm saying?

What we can learn from (at least) one model of Hypnosis

Credit: The Milton Erickson
Foundation

One of the most important influences on my understanding of how language works, especially the use of voice in therapeutic change and clinical process, was Milton Erickson, considered by many to be the founder of modern hypnotherapy. To quote from the website, "In Ericksonian hypnosis, language is used to direct the attention inwards on a search for meaning or to verify what is being said." Whereas many therapies make extensive use of the visual field with movement or "gadgets,"

Erickson was a paraplegic, who was also apparently somewhat dyslexic, color blind and tone deaf-- and had only one tool to work with: his voice! A book of his collected therapeutic stories, My Voice will go with You, remains a favorite. Note the focus of Erickson's work: (a) direct attention inward . . . and (b) verify what was said. In effect, it is focusing with extraordinary attention on the felt (auditory, kinaesthetic and resonant) sense of a word, phrase or experience.

As earlier posts have explored, the interplay between external visual stimuli and "internal" haptic and auditory is critical to effective anchoring, especially in moderating the effects of both internal and external visual distraction and (often) persistent mispronunciations tied to orthography. In pronunciation teaching (and especially HICP), systematic control of both instructor and student voice quality and expressiveness is key to sound learning. But, as Erickson might have suggested, I need not bother trying to convince you of that . . . you feel (and speak) that way already . . .