Gestures "count" in pronunciation teaching!

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Clker

New study by Fenn and Duffy of Michigan State University and Cook of University of Iowa, summarized by Science Daily, demonstrates that using gestures as a teacher--at least in 4th grade match--results in better learning for students. (Other research has detected the same tendency in one-on-one tutoring as well.) In the study, the focus was an algebra equation. The "gesture" group saw an instructor gesture with one hand, mirror image, to the side of the equation being talked about as it happened. The control group was just "talked to."

They (not surprisingly) offer no explanation as to what may have been behind the striking difference in post treatment testing between the groups, but they do offer three near breath-taking observations ". . . Gesturing can be a very beneficial tool that is completely free and easily employed in classrooms . . . I think it can have long-lasting effects . . . Teachers in the United States tend to use gestures less than teachers in other countries."

The study used "deictic" gestures (pointing at something physically present or conceptual). It is still an interesting piece of evidence. (They could, of course, have tested the main effect by having another group that did not see a gesturing instructor but were, instead, provided with left or right pointing graphic arrows superimposed on the screen.) Just thought I'd point that out . . .

In AH-EPS all pedagogical movement patterns involve deictic anchoring in the visual field as well. That  has to count for something, eh?

Anchoring pronunciation: Do you see what you are saying?

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

You can, in fact--if you are pronouncing a sound, word or phrase using EHIEP-like pedagogical movement patterns, PMPs (gestures across the visual field terminating in some form of touch by both hands.) Not only CAN you, according to research by Xi and colleagues at Northwestern University, summarized by Science Daily, but your eyes strongly interpret for you the "feeling of how it happens." The visual "character" of the dynamic gesture (its positioning, fluidity, distance from the eyes and texture on contact with the other hand) may well override the actual tactile feedback from your hands and proprioceptic "coordinates" of movement from your arms.

In the study, subjects were simultaneously presented with video clips that slightly contradicted what their hands and arms were doing. It was clearly demonstrated that even though subjects were also instructed to ignore the video and concentrate on the actual positioning, movement and related information about touch and weight coming from the hands, the "eyes have it." What they were seeing reinterpreted the other incoming sensory data.

As noted in earlier posts, visual can often override other modalities. What is "new" here and contributes to our understanding of how and why haptic-integration works is that the subjects' perception of the EHIEP sound-touch-movement "event" would appear to be strongly influenced by the style or flair or precision and consistency of the PMP. That has been one of key problems in creating the video models: insufficient clarity and consistency in the execution of PMPs (by me!)

This is both good news and bad news. Good, in that the PMP is, indeed, a potentially a very powerful anchor--and that the visual "feel" of each can contribute substantially to anchoring effectiveness. Bad, in that for maximal effectiveness the video/visual model needs to be exceedingly precise and consistent. (I have explored the use of Avatars instead of me but there are even bigger potential issues there.) Preparing/getting in shape now to do a new set of videos after the holidays, based on this and simular research. Can't wait to see what those feel like!

Conducting "tense" intonation work

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Always nice to discover a piece of research that seems to confirm the validity of something you have been doing. The linked research explored the perceived vocal tension associated with certain gestures used by choral conductors, specifically,

(a) palm up
(b) palm down
(c) pointing gesture
(d) flat gliding motion to the side
(e) a clenched fist.

The pedagogical movement patterns of the hands across the visual field representing intonation contours include all those gestures except the last (which is used in one of the rhythm-oriented PMPs.)  In fact, most of what we now use for intonation PMPs (there are basically 5 or 6 of them) came from observations I did about 15 years ago on the gestures used by pronunciation teachers during intonation lessons. What was most striking in the 2004 Fuelberth study was that the relative tension generated by those conducting gestures seemed to correlate well with their functions in HICP as either focus conveying (a stressed syllable of varying intensity) or a lead up to (or follow off from) a stressed element.  We do, of course, also refer to "tense" and "lax" vowels in some phonetic systems.

It is a case where a little "tension" works well in anchoring the felt sense of both discourse prominence and expressiveness. All together now . . . 

Breaking Dawn I and vampire haptic "collisions!"

In case you haven't seen it yet, the first few minutes of BDI have a virtual plethora of gestures ending in touch tied to stressed words in phrases or sentences. I had a hard time following the fascinating, emotionally riveting dialogue, while taking notes! (Understandably, eh!)

Following up on the comments to the previous post, those are NOT examples of what HICP refers to as "haptic anchoring" or how the term "haptic" is used in various fields today. They do involve all the essential elements (movement, stressed syllables, touch, discourse focus, etc.) except one critical, technical feature: fixed, designed points in the visual field where the haptic "collision" occurs.

In an informal sense, the haptic event does certainly help to emphasize or fix in memory the meaning of at point in the narrative, but as noted earlier, the experience is being encoded into memory with all sorts of other visual and emotional information that may or may not be helpful in trying to recall how it was pronounced later. (For an interesting, concise business-like summary of nonverbal communication/body language, see this piece by Alan Chapman.) So if you find yourself getting thoroughly carried away during BDI, it is technically not the haptic anchoring . . .