How YOU elocute is how I elocute: Collaborative haptic motor skill (and pronunciation) learning

For a glimpse into the future of instruction, have a look at Chellali, Dumas and Milleville-Pennel (2010) "A Haptic Communication Paradigm For Collaborative Motor Skills Learning." Their WYFIWIF (What you feel is what I feel) model illustrates nicely just what haptic technology is, in essence using a computer-mediated interface to guide movement, using basically pressure translated through some kind of device such as a glove. In the study, subjects were guided to better performance on a focused manual task, moving a needle, by a haptic-assisted instructor. Not surprisingly, the control group, the visual or verbally-guided only group, did not perform as well. 

Another example of haptic communication, as defined in WYFIWIF, might be an instructor first leading a learner through a gesture pattern with haptic technology and then continuing to provide haptic guidance as the learner attempts to practice and master the pattern. The researchers note that in a virtual environment, as in haptics-assisted surgery or training, " . . . haptic communication is combined (more and more with complementary) visual and verbal communication in order to help an expert to transfer his knowledge to a novice operator."

Although the haptic application to our pronunciation work does not involve haptics technology, but rather hands touching on target or stressed sounds--following the visual and spoken guidance of an instructor or peer--the parallel is striking. It is the collaborative haptic-embodied task (instructor and learner engaged in a tightly linked, synchronous, communicative, embodied "dance") that greatly enables and facilitates learning. 

In the conclusion of the study, there is a truly striking recommendation for further research: the impact on haptic communication of the "verbal communications between the instructor and the leaner." We have  over a decade of experience--and a few dozen blogposts--with that! Now "needle-less" to say,  if we can just get our hands in some of those gloves . . .

Full citation:
Amine Chellali, C ́edric Dumas, Isabelle Milleville-Pennel. WYFIWIF: A Haptic Communication Paradigm For Collaborative Motor Skills Learning. IADIS. Web Virtual Reality and Three-Dimensional Worlds 2010, Jul 2010, Freiburg, Germany. IADIS, pp.301-308, 2010.

Flipping over Haptic (video) Pronunciation Teaching!

Nice piece (originally published in Bilingual Basics, August 2013) in TESOL Connections this month entitled, "Three reasons to flip your classroom," by Marshall. A few previous posts have looked at the case for "flipping," that is using video to present concepts and then following up with various forms of in class collaboration and engagement. This is the first that I have seen that specifically addresses "flip" methodology in working with English language learners.

The AH-EPS "method" uses something of the same format:

Clip art:
Clker.com

• a 30-minute haptic video 
• where students "dance along with the model on the screen" 
• as they are introduced to some element of English pronunciation 
• and given a strategy/technique 
• which instructor and student then use later in general classroom instruction 
• to introduce, model, correct or provide feedback
• on pronunciation of sounds, words, phrases or longer pieces of spoken language

If you are not already a "haptician," it may be time to consider flipping . . . Go to the new Acton Haptic website to get started!

Keep in touch!

Collaborative pronunciation group work--by design!

Clip art: Clker

There is , as far as I can tell, virtually no accessible, published research on the efficacy of group work in pronunciation teaching. (If you know of some PLEASE post a comment with the link!) There are any number of informal reports and recommendations along those lines, including Gilbert (2008) (a free pdf that you should be familiar with already!) that has some good ideas for pair work on stress assignment and intelligibility of vowel and consonant articulation, a good complement to the Acton Haptic - English Pronunciation System, AH-EPS. (See earlier post  and sidebar on name changes of both our company and what was formerly the "EHIEP" or "HIPOECES" system. Change . . . )

New research by Vaquero of Hewlett-Packard and Cebrian of the University of San Diego, summarized by Science Daily, demonstrates the potential benefits of group collaborative work, as opposed to working alone. So far, so good. But, get this: " . . . almost equally interesting is the fact that these high-performing students form 'rich-clubs', which shield themselves from low-performing students, despite the significant efforts by these lower-ranking students to join them. The weaker students try hard to engage with the elite group intensively, but can't. This ends up having a marked correlation with their dropout rates."

So, in pronunciation work, especially in classes of mixed ability, how do you do effective group work, if at all? Separate out the "rich" and "poor" clubs? Integrate them? For most, the answer is "Neither!" In AH-EPS work, where developing accurate pedagogical movement patterns (PMPs) is one important feature each module--not initial phonetic accuracy, the opportunity for mixed-level group work is excellent. (In fact, many times there appears to be little or no early correlation between "haptic-ability" and proficiency.)

The nonverbal, collaborative communication centers on PMP execution--best done in groups of three or more--coordinating it with articulation of the sound, sound pattern, stress, rhythm or intonation assignment. (Note: The key "haptic"  principle here is that accurate PMP anchoring should, by itself, in short order enable more accurate articulation--without a great deal of conscious, auditory self-monitoring.)

Any pronunciation class can, in principle, be "grouped" in attending to some suprasegmental targets, such as in Gilbert (2008). For the most part AH-EPS group and (potentially) homework practice is also wonderfully stress-free and noncompetitive--and egalitarian! A "rich" source of anchored, focused noticing. Ah! (or AH!) a new acronym even: AnFoNot!

Collaborative haptic-integrated instruction

As explored in earlier posts, for any number of reasons, HICP work has been restricted to engaging but culturally "tasteful" touching of one's own hands, deltoids (or clavicle) and quadriceps. The "collaborative music controller" developed at Stanford, would, in principle, function like the "haptic mirror neurons" in the brain, guiding and synchronizing the hand of the other.

Clip art: Clker

Imagine the possibilities: being able to quickly train learners in the correct pedagogical movement patterns (virtually) without touching them. As it is now, if a learner is having difficulty picking up a pattern, given the right setting and relationship with that learner, I might occasionally physically guide a hand or arm momentarily--but do not recommend that as a regular classroom practice. If necessary, brandishing a pointless, "guiding" pencil will usually be sufficient.

Were EHIEP  to be imported into a virtual reality system, much of the basic training could probably be done using similar haptic-mirroring technology. By that point it would also be far easier to persuade the "haptically challenged" to "mirror-ly" get with it as well . . .