Write off anxiety about problematic pronunciation?

Clipart: Clker

Clipart: Clker

In our continuing series about dealing with stress associated with pronunciation change, here's another possible technique suggested by research by Ramirez and Beilock on mediating test anxiety. (Something analogous is often suggested in recommendations on the use of pronunciation "logs" or "diaries," as well.) In their study, they found that " . . . The students who aired their anxieties (in writing) showed an average 5% improvement on the second test, whereas the others broke under pressure and their scores dropped by 12% . . . the cathartic effect of writing about your emotions is exemplified by blues music. Putting your thoughts and feelings down has been shown to increase emotional and even physical well-being," Of course, if not managed right, that could be also be a pronunciation-pedagogical "Pandora's Box," but that function is basic to all effective change process. In a very real sense, the act of "embodying" the concerns regularly in a notebook probably contributes much more than the comments in reply made by the instructor. (I'd even go so far as to say that the physical, kinaesthetic act of doing that on on paper with a pen, as opposed to electronically, is essential to effective catharsis and anchoring!) I'll conclude with a couple of verses from a song, a 12-bar blues, I wrote several years ago on the lack of respect given to the syllable in pronunciation teaching, The Syllablues: 

Oh . . sometimes I do get stressed, Baby

And sometimes, I don't.

Oh . . sometimes I do get stressed, Baby

And sometimes, I don't. 

But when I do, Teacher,

Jus' "swish" you'd take note.

But when I get stuck in a backgrounded theme, I

Get real down an' doubt.

But when I get stuck in a backgrounded theme, I

Get real down an' doubt.

I get confused, compressed and depressed

Can't get my feelings out. 

I feel better already. 

PEPI: Process-Experiential Pronunciation Instruction - I

This is the next of several posts unpacking the PEPI model introduced in a recent post. We'll generally focus on the 8 outside boxes and the related quadrants of the clock/circumplex:

Clipart: Clker

          Symbolic meaning (External-oriented)
11  (o'clock) Verbal expression
1    (o'clock) Concepts and Identities
         Motivational/Behavioral (Change-oriented)
2    (o'clock)Wishes and needs
4    (o'clock) Action tendencies
         Bodily/Expressive (Internal-oriented)
5    (o'clock) Nonverbal expression
7    (o'clock) Bodily sensations
         Perceptual/Situational (Stability-oriented)
8    (o'clock) Episodic memories   
10  (o'clock) Primary appraisal

The function of a haptic anchor or haptic-integration is to experientially link those four dimensions in various combinations in instruction, depending on immediate focus of the learning task. For example, attention to change of a particular segmental problem is at least initially an "up and down" process. Vocabulary anchoring might emphasize the upper left quadrant. Anchoring meaning may be more of an upper right quadrant activity, etc. The linkage between the quadrants and categories is the "sticky" haptic center. 

Process-experiential Pronunciation instruction

Logo: Process-Experiential Therapy

Once every couple of months I check in with my local counseling psychologist/researcher in the building next door on my current thinking as to the development of this work, one of those who introduced me to Observed Experiential Integration over five years ago. Yesterday's question was: How can I better conceptualize the role of haptic integration within the appropriate balance between cognitive-conceptual and body-based somatic pronunciation instruction? He referred me to Process-experiential therapy. To the right is the logo from the PE website which outlines the general model. If you just substitute "haptic-integrated" for "experienced emotion" you have a very interesting framework for the theoretical foundation of our work, especially in light of recent developments relating to the importance of learning about this approach--experientially! (The logo, itself, not surprisingly, maps on very nicely to the general character of the visual field as detailed in several earlier posts, with "up~down" being "internal~external, and "left~right" being "stability~change.") What is even more striking (to me at least, not my colleague!) is that the 12 boxes also map on beautifully to the "vowel clock" framework described in earlier posts as well. In the next few posts, I will unpack and slightly alter the labels of several of those "boxes" in examining the empirical and theoretical bases of HICP. If you are one of my grad students, you have your homework!