Better pronunciation? Shocking!

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Always looking for new approaches to improving effectiveness of pronunciation work, especially kinaesthetic/haptic systems, like EHIEP. There are going to be some significant breakthroughs in efficiency of our work. I have looked at a number of such innovative possibilites in past posts. Here is another that could well be among those tools in the future. Based in part on the general accessibility of fMRI technology, a wide range of "electronic" interventions are in use by neurotherapists, such as this one described in a Science Daily of research by a team from NIH, Johns Hopkins and Columbia Universities. In the study subjects who got the right level of stimulation of the motor cortex (for about 20 minutes per day during a 5-day training regimen to learn a new, complex joy-stick based complex motor skill set) performed significantly better:  "tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) involves mild electrical stimulation applied through surface electrodes on the head, and works by modulating the excitability, or activity, of cells in the brain's outermost layers." The main effect was still strong three months later. Granted there might be some technical problems with implementing that approach right now in the classroom, but the principle, of accelerating what the researchers term "consolidation," through focused brain stimulation and biofeedback mechanisms is well established and understood. If that is not enough to get a student's motor (cortex) going, what is?

Body (and pronunciation) ownership and the rubber hand technique

Clip art: Clker

A recent study using the "rubber hand illusion, " demonstrated that schizophrenics have a relatively low sense of "body ownership," that is the subjects with the condition had significantly more difficulty in distinguishing between their own hand and that of a rubber "decoy" in their  carefully partitioned visual field during the experiments. One of the conclusions of the study is worth noting: "These findings suggest that focused physical exercise which involves precise body control, such as yoga and dancing, could be a beneficial form of treatment for this disorder."

The concept of body ownership (or optimal body awareness) comes up in several forms in other disciplines as well, from sport  to drama to stress management. The brain of the classic "type A" personality, one prone to be driven and "stressed" easily, is often characterized as having little connection to the rest of the body. (Re-establishing that connection is often the key to stress management, etc.) In my earlier work with moderating the effects of fossilized pronunciation, I was often struck by how many of my clients appeared to have little body awareness. Biofeedback techniques were consistently helpful in establishing workable "felt sense" of both body and pronunciation from which to begin the process of change.

Failing that, I might first send a student to a stress therapist for a few sessions, just to get things loosened up.  I like the parallel of "focused, precise physical exercise" being instrumental in establishing enhanced body ownership. If you are "of two minds" about haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation work, just do a set of HICP or similar exercises consistently and it will soon enough own you--and your body!