CPR for Pronunciation homework and teaching . . . that works!

Clker.com

Excellent study by Martin, "Pronunciation Can Be Acquired Outside the Classroom: Design and Assessment of Homework-Based Training," a real MUST READ for you if you are serious about pronunciation teaching, demonstrating that at least one kind of (computer-mediated)  homework system is not only effective, but may work as well as classroom-only instruction. 

The basic process in the homework phase was what is termed, iCPR, computer-based, intelligibility focused cued pronunciation reading. Learners are provided with explicit instruction, explanation and then both perceptual and production training and practice, with feedback in the perceptual phase/practice only. 

The study involved adult learners of German, extending over 10 weeks, with the equivalent of about 30 minutes of instruction either in class or out of class. The in-class lessons seemed to closely mimic the process and time allocation of the homework. From a number of perspectives, either treatment showed equally significant improvement and student satisfaction. Methodologically, the project seems tight, although the use of the term, homework, is probably a little misleading today when the learner never really "leaves" the web in some form during the day except for sleep . . . 

In corresponding with the researcher, my only question was: How (on earth) did you get the students to DO their homework? Surely it  had something to do with the "sell" up front, the allocation of grade points (easily accounted for in the computer-mediated system) and (probably) early student awareness to some degree of the program's efficacy. So . . . it looks well conceived, a highly detailed blueprint of how to set up a similar system. 

Setting aside the question of just how readily the process can be adopted and adapted for the moment, what this shows or means is that Martin has given us another intriguing picture of the future of pronunciation teaching: pronunciation work handled outside of in-class instruction. 

To paraphrase Lincoln Steffens: "I have seen the future (of pronunciation teaching) and it works. [remark after visiting the Soviet Union in 1919]” or maybe even Marshall McLuhan: "If it works, it's obsolete." . . . The field is changing fast. Pronounced change, to put it mildly!

Source: 

The Modern Language Journal, 0, 0, (2020) DOI: 10.1111/modl.12638 0026-7902/20/1–23 National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations

The "wrong" way to get pronunciation teaching right!

Clker.com

If you don't get the James Clear newsletter already, go sign up for it, or at least read his latest piece on "inversion": Inversion: The Crucial Thinking Skill Nobody Ever Taught You.  Inversion, or "envisioning the negative things that could happen in life" is not a popular strategy today for any number reasons. People who dwell on the downside may not be all that welcome in any social or professional context, but, as Clear demonstrates, used appropriately such "thinking out of the box" processes such as "If we wanted to kill the company or the program, how might we do that?" often reveal unique and innovative solutions. He gives a number of famous examples. 

I recently experimented with that heuristic on my own model, method and business plan with some striking results and . . . revelations. I had earlier worked with an executive coach for about 6 months  and "inversion" would have been absolutely anathema to that process: Think positive; visualize positive goals and outcomes; consider effective strategies and moves going forward. But what if I, instead, had focused in on the consequences of NOT staying  goal-oriented and upbeat? Actually, I might be further along than I am now . . .

Just for a fun thought experiment, try out questions such as these on your own program, course, system or method:

How could I . . .  

• Provide useless or pointless advice on self correction or self-instruction of pronunciation?
• Disconnect student's from their bodies in pronunciation work?
• Undermine students' development of intelligibility or accuracy?
• Help students develop a deep distrust and aversion to an English or English dialect spoken by any other group? 
• Establish impossible targets of perfection for learners?
• Create enough emotional tension or distraction in the room to seriously interfere with students "uptaking" pronunciation instruction?
• Make sure that students don't do pronunciation homework? 
• Arrange student groups to discourage constructive collaborative work? 
• Use correction to badger, berate or bully students? 
• Seriously mess with learners' identities in teaching pronunciation? 
• Make pronunciation instruction as boring as possible? 
• Make students think their pronunciation is better than it is? 
• Successfully ignore attention to pronunciation entirely? 
• Talk more about pronunciation than actually do anything with it? 
• Be an awful model for my students?
• Teach pronunciation without any training in it?
• Teach pronunciation without using phonetic symbols? 
• Encourage students to go to some "Miracle Accent Reduction" website instead of working with me?. 
• Make students think their accent is bad or could not use a little enhancement

 Based on that exercise, I have made some important changes in how v5.0 of the haptic pronunciation system will look when it rolls out. Now I just have to work through what will happen if that doesn't work, of course!

 Please feel free to add to the list in the comment section!

KIT

Bill

Some "felt features" of HICP/EHIEP methods

Found a website with a product that seems to feel very much like HICP/EHIEP:

• Innovative!
• An extension of you!
• Feels completely comfortable in your hands!
• It's 2x as fast!
• Responds instantly to touch!
• So natural, you'll wonder why you didn't get one earlier!
• Touch and go: access data quickly!
• Let's you do everything, just by touching!
• [Methodology] so advanced that you'll forget it's there!
• The most fun a face can have!

I? Pad the list? Never!