Making scents of haptic-integrated pronunciation teaching

Image: Mary Kay Cosmetics

Clip art: Clker

As noted in an earlier blogpost, I have discovered that having students rub in a little "Mary Kay - Mint Bliss" into their hands before we start seems to jump start things well. Now we have some evidence as to why that may work. In research summarized by Science Daily, Yeshurun, Lapid, Dudai, and Sobel, of the Weizmann Institute of Science, in Rehovot, Israel, report on the impact of associating a scent with a visual schema of some kind. What they discovered was that one's "first encounter" with a scent in that context persists strongly, even when other scents are later experienced in the same context. As learners tell me, the "message" of Mint Bliss is something like: stimulating, relaxing and energizing--not far off from what it says on the tube, in fact! (Yesterday, in fact, in the bag of free "goodies" at the TESL Canada conference was a little bottle of Aveda's " Botanical Kinetics" hand lotion.) Specifically, the impact of creating that kind of initial impression of what haptic-integrating is about can be striking and memorable, one that does seem to persist as the new research suggests. Does that make scents--something that you should consider when you "rub your hands together" in anticipation of pronunciation work? 

Washing your hands of pronunciation teaching

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Your students think doing pronunciation work is wrong, find it threatening or just too messy? Have them wash their hands before class. Earlier posts have linked to research related to the benefits of attending to the state of the hands before haptic-integrated work, including my (regular) use of Mary Kay "Mint Bliss" on the hands before having learners work through instructional haptic videos. According to 2008 research by Schnail, reported in Science Daily, "When we exercise moral judgment, we believe we are making a conscious, rational decision, but this research shows that we are subconsciously influenced by how clean or ‘pure’ we feel." For example, "if the jury member had washes [sic] their hands prior to delivering their verdict, they may judge the crime less harshly." In the study reported, undergraduates responded in a similar fashion after washing their hands in a controlled game of "right and wrong." The same principle, as reported earlier as well, also applies in haptic research with various textures influencing unconscious perception and emotional response. Now will that work as well when done before an upcoming half hour of mind-numbing minimal pair drills or before student evaluations are handed out at the end of an especially bad course? Could be . . . Worst case, it'll just be a wash . . . 

The secret to sticking 3-second pronunciation anchoring: timing

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

A favorite quote from another of my heroes, Robert Reed, former forward for the Houston Rockets pro basketball team: "There are 3 secrets to success in basketball: Timing, timing and timing." In a comment to the previous post on visual anchoring, Smith points to the critical role of timing in multiple-modality instruction. To get the perfect picture of timing, leave it to a pro--like Reed! What could be a better source than a 1.25 minute Youtube training video on learning how to "stick" a free throw? (If due to lack of experiential grounding on the court your mirror neurons don't instantly get the analogy, try reliving an intricate, "Wowee!" Texas 2-step move with your BFF, effortlessly driving a ball 10 yards further than ever previously off the first tee, or sliding an absolutely perfect omelet into the middle a romantic breakfast made in heaven . . . ) Timing. Notice the principles laid out in the video: (a) "physical mechanics, mental mechanics, rhythm and timing" (b) minimizing movement--which minimizes the chance of error, and (c) timing to maximize consistency. Next, the steps: (a) Complete pre-shot routine, (b) Take a deep breath, (c) Do the shot in 3-seconds (See blogpost before last!), which involves three distinct movements (elbow positioning, knee bend and follow through.) That basic framework "works" for almost any HICP pedagogical movement pattern as well: Focus (mental and eye fixation)--Breathe in--Hand positioning--Breathe out and Move one hand across the visual field--and Touch and follow through, in 3 seconds! Put that on your Swish! list!

Hands up! (The felt sense of resonance from Baoding)

In recent posts, I looked at various techniques for establishing focusing on vowel resonance in the upper body. For over 20 years, I have been exercising with Chinese health balls (保定健身球), pronounced 'ken-shin-kyu' in Japanese. There are many types. According to "legend," their use originated with soldiers rotating iron cannon balls in their hands to develop strength and dexterity back before the Ming dynasty. Along the way, they evolved into many forms, including beautiful cloisonne-covered 55 millimeter-diameter versions which contain various kinds and frequencies of chimes. High quality balls may also have surfaces that are exceedingly pleasing to the touch. The haptic feedback to the hands, and then to the entire skeletal structure can be simply amazing: when the balls are rotated in optimal patterns--which takes considerable practice--the resonance experienced through the hands, along with the sound emanated and the blurs of colours, can be a multiple modality experience of the first order. To keep the balls rolling optimally requires complete sensory attention and engagement. I can think of no better analogy or model of the type of momentary full-body focus that is always the goal of HICP protocols. Unfortunately, it is nearly impossible today to find a set of four matching balls without going to a shop yourself and (often) spending an hour or two trying to find a set of four that match in colour, weight and surface texture--let alone getting a set of four where the tones of the chimes create a chord of some character that is pleasing. (In the literature on the balls, it is said that Chinese folk medicine practitioners would, based on the personality, physical and emotional state of the patient, prescribe to the artisan exactly how all the various parameters of the ball should be created.) I'll do a Youtube video in a bit to demonstrate. The best "hapticanalogy" I can imagine. Hands down . . . 

Getting (better) in touch with pronunciation change

Photo credit: Mr Bill

Having an adequate sense of touch, at least in the hands, is obviously a plus in HICP work! Individuals vary greatly in tactile sensitivity, some to the point of being almost unable to effect haptic anchoring without some preliminary touch-activation training. Sometimes that involves nothing more than rubbing the hands together, scrubbing lightly with a lofa brush or applying sensitizing lotion, etc. Research has shown, for example, that the superior tactile ability of the blind is due primarily to just having had more practice with using touch for various functions.

And for most students, that seems to be the case: they catch on to  effective anchoring eventually-which entails about half a dozen different types of hand-to-hand contact or "combat." Now researchers at Georgia Tech have come up with "vibrating gloves" that dramatically improve touch sensitivity and performance on certain motor tasks.  I've got to get some of those! Not enough time "on your hands" to develop good haptic technique?  Those could at least put a little more tingle in your teaching!

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

Clip art:
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!

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!)

Developing a touch for discriminating between objects (and sounds!)

How about this from Science Daily: "New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that people's ability to learn and remember information depends on what they do with their hands while they are learning.

Clip art: Clker

According to a study . . . people holding objects they're learning about process detail and notice differences among objects more effectively, while keeping the hands away from the objects helps people notice similarities and consistencies among those things." That suggests just why a "hands on" haptic approach to learning sounds and words, especially distinctions between L1 and L2 sounds, should work -- and why maintaining a "hands off" attitude toward pronunciation instruction . . . may not! "Now just hold ON!" (I can hear your saying.) Exactly.