(New) Acton Haptic Accent Enhancement for International Professionals

For the last 5 or 6 years I have been working with a "new" accent enhancement system, based on haptic pronunciation teaching face-to-face, on campus, with select international graduate students and professionals. With COVID, beginning early this spring, I began working on a new online version of that individualized course. It is all one-on-one (or possibly one-on-two) with weekly, 45-minute sessions on Zoom or SKYPE. 

I have been doing accent work since about 1975 or so. The first paper was published on it in 1984. (If you'd like a free copy of that, let me know and I'll send you one.) Our 2013 article gives you a pretty good picture of what it is about. Would love to work with you if you have the "wiring" and time. If interested, check out the AHAE program page. (It is still a work in progress but it will give you a pretty good idea of what it is about.) 

Bill

Aiming at good pronunciation: on the Q(E)T

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Clip art: Clker

Always looking for ways to enhance haptic anchoring, I came across some interesting new research  by Wood and Wilson of Exeter University using Quiet Eye Training (QET), a well-established technique for helping one (especially professional athletes under pressure) aim at (or focus attention on) a target.The training assists the shooter in putting distraction out of mind. (Some studies report even more generalized impact on everyday cognitive functioning and sense of control as well.)

This is potentially a good fit with other attention management strategies in the EHIEP approach. Early on in the development of the system we experimented with some eye-tracking techniques similar to those used in OEI but discovered that they were a little too "high octane" for general pronunciation work. (In working with "fossilized" individuals I still use some of those regularly, however.) Since QET does not require instructor presence when the shot is taken, it may be possible to use it in some form. Will figure out how to adapt QET training, how to better enable learners to anchor what they do on the q.t. and get back to you. 

Giving online pronunciation teaching a good "promo!"

Have been trying to figure out how to promote HICP work lately. Recently checked out the "competition" online. Here are a few of my favorites:

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A. Wow! How do they do that?  "WE WILL FIX YOUR ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION PROBLEMS PERMANENTLY IN MINUTES! Our approach is Simple, Easy, Painless and Fun!"

B. Have yet to figure out how to make this easy, but some have: "Do You Want to Speak with Confidence, Clarity & Conviction? 
It’s easy with Ms X,  International Executive Voice and Accent Reduction Coach!"

C. Have never succeeded in totally extinguishing an accent, but apparently some do regularly: "Enhance your chances of success in the working world as well as in social situations by reducing your accent or getting rid of your accent completely."

D. HICP works for all languages, of course, but 24 sounds even more impressive! "Our newest product, "XYZ," provides content suitable for individuals learning American English pronunciation from more than 24 first languages!"

E. Wish we had done enough research to be able to make this claim! "ABC is the powerful, proven system that will help you lose your foreign accent in weeks — not months or years. Practice 30 minutes a day for 4 weeks and greatly improve your pronunciation."

F. When you read stuff like this, you realize just how little you have accomplished in 40 years of work in this field: "DEF offers the most comprehensive accent reduction programs on the market today! Based on results from an in-depth speech assessment and your goals, we will develop a customized program that meets your specific needs and goals. Learn everything you need to be a confident, effective speaker!"

Apparently no need to stick too close to data or the body of research and practice in the field, but we clearly have some work to do in getting out the word on HICP teaching.

Fossilized pronunciation repair--with a touch of haptic "cement"

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Clker

There are probably two or three dozen different blogposts here that report research that indirectly supports the claim that haptic anchoring should be effective in working with learning new sounds and changing fossilized pronunciation. (I have been "looking" for studies such as this one for a couple of decades!) This study by Fredembach, Boisferon and Gentaz, summarized by Science Daily, makes the connection more directly.


The research examined the effect of using touch to assist learners in making associations between new symbols and new sounds. While looking at the graphic form of a letter/symbol and saying or hearing the sound, subjects in the experimental group "explored" the form with their hands as well. The haptic effect was clear: " . . . the explication lies in the specific properties of the haptic sense . . . in the hands, which plays a "cementing" role between sight and hearing, favouring the connection between the senses."

What that helps explain is why using haptic anchors in fossilized pronunciation work should, indeed, assist learners in "replacing" sounds embedded in specific words more efficiently. Done haptically, that does not have to be an especially time consuming process. (See earlier posts on how that process is carried out.) For most advanced learners, de-fossilization is, unfortunately, a painstaking, one-word-at-a-time problem: a new sound has to be associated with the graphic representation of every problematic word, not just encouraged to generalize unattended out through the learner's interlanguage.  In other words, just teaching the "fossilized" how to correctly articulate a sound in isolation is nearly pointless--unless every "misuse" is systematically ferreted out (Ready?) . . . manually, of course!

12-step learner pronunciation goals, process objectives, benchmarks and haptic anchors

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Let's say a learner has a GOAL of being able to produce an acceptable "th" sound. A HICP-based model that would give the learner a relatively clear "line of march" might look something the following. (Note: I have linked above one of the most well-known "12 step" processes. I was tempted to unpack the rich analogy, theology and all, between that and this process, but I'll leave it for another post!) Here is the HICP 12 step learning model for fixing such a segmental problem, based, in part, on the types of staged treatment plans used by speech pathologists. (HICP seeks to bring to pronunciation teaching several of the key techniques from that discipline--adapted to the classroom, rather than the individual client.) It helps to focus the learner on what needs to be done and frames the tasks so that progress can be identified. Also, of course, feedback and "homework" can be reasonably concrete. For an upper beginner, this might be a two or three-week project. (PO~= process objective; BMK = benchmark)

1. PO~ Recognize current version and target sound (aural discrimination).
2. PO~ Achieve new articulation (target sound), in this case both voiced and voiceless.
3. PO~ Practice haptic-anchored new articulation.
4. PO~ Achieve appropriate version of target sound in main word-contexts (initial, medial, final.)
5. PO~ Practice haptic-anchored sound in contexts.
6. PO~ Create target word list.
7. PO~ Practice haptic-anchored word list as necessary.
8. PO~ Create target phrase list.
9. PO~ Practice haptic-anchored target phrase list as necessary.
10. BMK I - Recognize instances (the felt sense) of "current" versions (mispronunciations) in spontaneous speech after the fact.
11. BMK II - Recognize instances of target version usage in spontaneous speech after the fact.
12. Goal achieved: Integration of target sound successfully in most contexts.

That protocol is generally appropriate for changing pronunciation at beginning and intermediate levels. Heavily fossilized pronunciation, however, often requires something closer to the "other" 12 step approach!

(Haptic) Pronunciation Rehabilitation

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Here is an interesting paper outlining a virtual-reality approach to using haptic rehabilitation technology with stroke victims. The parallels to some aspects of haptic-integrated pronunciation work, especially in dealing with fossilized pronunciation, are striking: (a) focus on "daily" actions, (b) exploit the visual field as a 3D structure--not just 2-dimensional, vertical and horizontal, and (c) use haptic guidance and anchoring. Changing fossilized (cf., Acton 1984) pronunciation requires a somewhat different approach where the targets must, at least initially, be words and phrases with high likelihood of daily active or receptive use by the learner. (Often you have to simply "ferret out" every word with problematic sounds, one by one!)

Following Lessac, only then can language bits practiced in (relative) isolation as "homework" begin to integrate into spontaneous speaking. The 3-dimensional space allows not only consistent haptic anchoring of language bits but also provides for registering emotional and expressive intensity, key elements in working with seemingly intractable mispronunciations. From that perspective, the term "rehabilitating (fossilized) pronunciation," has a nice ring to it. Now if we can just apply that principle to contemporary pronunciation teaching in general . . .