From warm up to wacky: Experiential learning and expressiveness in pronunciation teaching

This is a follow up to last week's post on a new haptic pronunciation teaching workshop we are doing this month at the BCTEAL Regional Island conference focusing on expressiveness. A recent study by Rangel, et al. looked at the interaction between instructor expressiveness and learner experiential learning style preference. (Hat tip to Mike Burri.) What they found, in effect, was that expressive delivery in training works well, or at least better, when the trainee is more amenable to experiential learning. 

Clip art:
Clker.com

What all of us in pronunciation work know is that you must engage learners expressively--or you lose them. Furthermore, getting beyond the basics is futile without something of that experiential "abandon" and receptivity. This is the conundrum: pushing learners beyond their comfort zone so that they can both understand and communicate expressiveness can be lethal. (It is the "Achilles Heel" of many loveable but wacky practitioners!) 

For that "expressive" instructional style to work requires a complementary openness to a less explicitly cognitive and more intuitive response from students. Here is how experiential learning style  is defined (excerpt from Rangel, Chung, Harris, Carpenter, Chiaburu and Moore, 2015. See full citation below.) 

 ". . . a form of processing that is intuitive, automatic and associated primarily with affect and emotional responses (Novak & Hoffman, 2009; Pacini & Epstein, 1999). 

 . . . the experiential learner typically demonstrates low(er) levels of cognitive engagement in the traditional learning process, and instead requires external, affective cues to effectively activate the experiential system and, thus, information processing. Such cues can be provided by one’s instructor when he or she employs expressive, stimulating delivery techniques." 

Does that sound like your typical (traditional?) pronunciation class or lesson? The problem, of course, is setting up the classroom experience so that effective experiential learning can happen, so that even the less naturally experientially-oriented learner can still join the party. 

Haptic pronunciation training is, by definition, highly experiential (as unpacked in any number of previous posts) and (should be) very stimulating, but why is requiring "uptake of" expressiveness, which requires more experientially-directed learners, especially at the conversational discourse-level absolutely essential? 

The Rangel et al. study points toward the answer: It allows more direct, albeit perhaps temporary, unfiltered access to the intentions and emotions being communicated by the speaker. Meta-communicative analysis can follow, of course, but the research would suggest that reverse is almost surely not the case. 

So how do you do that? How do you create an environment where experiential, expressive learning is not only tolerated but embraced by students, especially those in highly visual-cognitive career tracks? (Recall the great Nike commercial: Just do it!) 

One image that certainly comes to mind for me is that of a poetry instructor I had as an undergrad. She gradually enabled/required an extraordinary level of expressiveness in reading poems, where we all seemed to be completely at ease, uninhibited and "in" the experience. 

 If you have thoughts on that or references to published methods that do that quickly and well . . . please express them!

And stay tuned. We'll be trying out a new expressiveness-orientation model in the workshop at the conference. 

Full citation:

Bertha Rangel, Wonjoon Chung, T. Brad Harris, Nichelle C. Carpenter, Dan S. Chiaburu and Jenna L. Moore (2015 ) Rules of engagement: the joint influence of trainer expressiveness and trainee experiential learning style on engagement and training transfer. International Journal of Training and Development 19:1 ISSN 1360-3736, doi: 10.1111/ijtd.12045

Digital vs haptic reading (Something just clicked . . . )

Linked is a summary of a talk by Anne Mangen of Stavenger University in Norway that looks at the impact of eReaders on reading comprehension. Are you now an eReader? Or still a "dead-tree-ite?" The consequences of the shift toward eReading, like the shift away from handwriting instruction and even keyboard entry in writing, are just beginning to be addressed in research. What is lost or gained in "Kindle-ing" a novel as opposed to holding a hardcover book in your hands as you experience the story? For some--and this is certainly related to personal cognitive wiring--the difference can be striking.

Reading Mangen's comments examining particularly the hands as haptic agents in the reading and writing processes, I was also "struck" (a near haptic occurrence!) by the parallel between typical disembodied pronunciation instruction and the EHIEP approach. Although we do focus on the visual space in front of the learner extensively in early training, precise hand movement and touching of one hand with the other or touching the head or upper body is key. The haptic video EHIEP package involves almost continuous pedagogical movement patterns conducted by the hands. As we find ourselves being rapidly pulled down the "eRabbit hole" we can still grasp ( 掴む) the felt sense of expressive oral language in interpersonal communication and reconnect with our bodies and voices . . . handily . . . 

Correcting pronunciation: from mime to meme

Clip art: Clker

One of the best analogies for the felt sense of using haptic techniques in correcting pronunciation is pantomime, or miming. Some of the best video examples on Youtube are those of "robot dance." Unfortunately, I have yet to find a good one that does not have X-rated comments appended to it . . . So we'll have to settle for the text-based document from the drama club at UA-Monticello. It describes several of the basic mime moves that are used in training. Three or four of them focus on "box" structures that actually quite close to both the felt sense and the pedagogical movement patterns of HICP. The "meme" side of the process, to quote Wikipedia, " . . . acts as a unit for carrying cultural ideas, symbols or practices, which can be transmitted from one mind to another through writing, speech, gestures, rituals or other imitable phenomena."

Following on the earlier post, by both instructor and student having developed a good felt sense of the sounds represented through PMPs, the feedback is "transmitted" more efficiently. What exactly do you meme in class? Could it use some correction? Try starting with mime . . .  Better seen; better heard. 

Aesthetics of embodied pronunciation teaching

In an attempt to "smoke out" some of the more cognitive/aesthetic features of HICP work--recalling Ecco's "Everything is related to everything" principle--I came upon this set of parameters of quality and excellence that, like the previous "felt feelings" post, seem to be equally applicable here {The bracketed comments are mine.}:

Photo credit: People Mag.

• Consistency is the key factor {especially as regards execution of homework}
• Content must be consistently processed {especially in terms of felt sense anchoring}
• It should be neither under or over-filled {(Timing, mood and pace is critical.) or over-embodied--as depicted there at the right . . . }
• It should "burn" all the way down . . . {Attention and intensity must be managed effectively.}
• It should have a good mouth feel {of the L2}
• It should look good {or at least learners should be at ease with the most "gesticular" pedagogical movement patterns.}
• It should have a good aesthetic quality {be seen as close to expressive or interpretative dance}
• It should taste good {We do use "breath wafers" and aromatic hand creams at times!}
• "Subjectivity of taste is one of life's fascinations!" {Personal, felt-sense is the "heart" of HICP work.}
• Anything less is but a weak imitation . . . perhaps close, but no cigar!

Hand signs and symbols in HICP

I have described the pedagogical movement patterns (PMP) of the hands in HICP work in various ways: sign language-like, choral conducting, baseball hand signals, ballet-like, etc. The best analogy for me has always been classical dance of Japan and India. Having attended many dance performances in both traditions, the use of hand and arm movement still seems to me to best illustrate the ideal felt sense of PMPs in our work. The problem with bringing in those artistic "hands," has always been the lack of a description or analysis accessible to outsiders, not those of the culture.

Clip art: Clker

This link to an article by Parimal Phadke in a less-than-scholarly website (w/apologies, of course), is one of the best I have seen in conveying the meaning of the hand and foot engagement in (some) Indian classical dance. The "take away" from the piece, is that the hand and arm movements--from that cultural perspective--do not have intrinsic meaning, are not associated with baseball or iconic gestures, but, instead, serve to give "rhythmic form" to the dance so that the artistic expression can be more freely presented.

And so it is with HICP: the PMPs need to be learned at some level initially for the process to work. The PMPs of each of the six protocols take about 30 minutes to learn sufficiently so that the instructor can begin to integrate them regularly into the classroom instruction. If you do or have done or love interpretative dance or a related form, you are a step ahead. Or, might want to start here . . . HICP hand and arm movements across the visual field should not be thought of as conveying any deep "social meaning" or connection to common conversational gestures. They comprise but a form to put the dance in . . .

Preparing hands (and body) for haptic anchoring and ballet

Clip art: Clker

Here is a 1937 newspaper article describing an absolutely amazing exercise reportedly used by Russian ballerinas in developing hands that are " . . . graceful in repose, direct and free in movement . . . ", an almost ideal "felt sense" for haptic integration work.  After you have practiced it yourself daily for about a week, begin having learners do this deceptively simple routine occasionally, especially if the class is tense or not focused, before haptic anchoring (where hands touch in various ways on stressed syllables or words.) Follow the directions carefully and repeat exactly as prescribed. The efficient, systemic effect on the body is striking, the best I'm aware of . . . hands down (gracefully in repose, of course!)