Symbiosis: Waiting for Godot (and research on pronunciation) to tell us how to teach!

Rereading a nice 2007 article from Educational Leadership by Marzano & Pickering, "Special topic: The case for and against homework," when I came on this paragraph which also could beautifully describe the state of the field today on pronunciation teaching:

"If relying solely on research is problematic, what are busy practitioners to do? The answer is certainly not to wait until research “proves” that a practice is effective. Instead, educators should combine research-based generalizations, research from related areas, and their own professional judgment based on firsthand experience to develop specific practices and make adjustments as necessary. Like medical practitioners, education practitioners must develop their own “local knowledge base” on homework and all other aspects of teaching. Educators can develop the most effective practices by observing changes in the achievement of the students with whom they work every day."

Clip art:
Clker

What I particularly like are two phrases there: "research from related areas," and "Like medical practitioners." I am currently finishing up work on the pronunciation homework procedures in AH-EPS. There is virtually nothing in the field that is of use, but in Education in general, there is more than two decades of (often very controversial) research on the topic. For one, based on the general formula, an undergraduate should have a maximum of 3 hours of it  every night. (Next time my grad students complain about all the reading . . . ) And second, the tie to the medical profession, as clinicians,  is exceedingly appropriate in haptic-integrated pronunciation teaching. HICP.

 

Keep that one handy the next time somebody in the coffee lounge or from the conference podium throws a "Well . . . research has not yet established that that technique is effective!" at you. And, of course, KIT!

March 2007 | Volume 64 | Number 6, Responding to Changing Demographics Pages 74-79, retrieved May 5, 2013.

HICPT! (Hapticians of the world, connect!)

Clip art: Clker

As announced some time ago, one of my goals at the TESOL Convention is to begin a new international organization for those "hapticians" among us and those who are interested in haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation teaching, working title: HICPT! (Pronounced: Hiccupped!) Have several (half serious) ideas for a organizational bi-line, such as:

HICPT: Getting in touch with pronunciation teaching
HICPT: Hands on pronunciation teaching
HICPT: Moving and touching pronunciation teaching
HICPT: Post-pronunciation, pronunciation teaching
HICPT: From text to texture
HICPT: Hands up!
HICPT: What? Me? Homework?
HICPT: I like the way you move there . . .
HICPT: Haptictalk!
HICPT: The felt sense of how spontaneous speaking happens

Will begin to get out the word at the Convention. After the Convention we'll look into getting some kind of forum set up, other than these two blogs. If you are interested in joining, keep in touch!

Postmodern pronunciation practice . . . as therapy

The "clinical" in "Haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation" is key to understanding the focus and methodology of EHIEP (Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation)--and much of what passes as pronunciation instruction in general. The central focus of Scott's 2007 article, Teaching as Therapy, is the postmodern replacement of the "moral" in education with "emotion," in part realized in the "hyper-individualization" of contemporary Western culture:

"Contemporary approaches to teaching (‘constructivism’), then, are not necessarily an educational cause to celebrate, or indeed the ‘reform’ that the dominant rhetoric paints them to be. Rather they are a remaking of education and schooling to match the ideals of the postmodernist (hyper-individualist) era, which, it would seem are neither better nor worse than what went before, merely different . . . the pain and uncertainty of the postmodernist project of self creation, with its heavy and inescapable burden of responsibility, goes a good way to explaining why ‘constructivist’ approaches are resisted by students. Sensibly, it would seem that they prefer to leave the responsibility with their teachers rather than to risk being found inadequate for the task of constructing themselves and their learning."

That we must now "manage" emotion in teaching is, as Scott later notes, both inevitable and predictable. But the degree to which we are actively involved in assisting students in "the task of constructing themselves and their learning" is the question--especially the latter. The EHIEP system does, from that perspective, depart from radical constructivism, exerting extensive and direct control over early pronunciation learning, including responsibility for moment-by-moment classroom instruction. 

Great, Scott! I feel better already . . . 

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 . . .