EAPIC Lesson 1: Rhythm and FALL/RISE Sign-offs

 English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement Course (EAPIC)

Haptic - using gesture and touch

KINETIK – using the whole body to learn

Link to the Introduction video!

***

Link to Lesson 1 Training video

Lesson 1 – Rhythm and FALL/RISE Sign-offs

• MT5 (movement, tone, touch and tempo) Technique
• MT5 video uploaded every Week on Youtube.
• (Optional) Zoom class meeting on Wednesday at 8 EST.

Homework: 

Do at least the 20-minute practice every morning for 5 days. 

Warm up (3x each)

1. Neck stretch (left side, right side, back, front)

2. Upper chest and shoulders (elbows touch) 

3. Nasal resonance (Ying! Yang! Young!) 

4. Back (‘Oh’ cone) and chest (Ooo-Wah!) 

Syllable Butterfly Training

Strong tap on the stressed syllable on right shoulder: X

Light tap on unstressed syllables on left forearm: o

 

Cool. X

That’s cool. oX

Really cool. ooX

That’s really cool. oooX

Awesome Xo

That’s awesome. oXo

Really awesome. ooXo

That’s really awesome. oooXo

Super cool. Xoo

That’s super cool. oXoo

Really super cool. ooXoo

That’s really super cool. oooXoo

Super awesome. Xooo

That’s super awesome. oXooo

Really super awesome. ooXooo

That’s really super awesome oooXooo

FALL/RISE Sign-offs: 

FALLing tone (  \ ) Usually at the end of a statement or certainty. Nice to meet you. \

RISEing tone ( / ) Usually at the end of a question or uncertainty. Are you coming? /

 

Lesson I – Embodied Oral Reading (EOR)

(Syllable Butterfly + FALL/Rise Sign-offs)

1A:  I THINK | we've GOT it | figured OUT.    

           •X                     •X•                    • •X    \

   B: Oh. Can you TELL me | what it IS? 

         X       •   •        X   •              • •X   /

2A: Your MUFfler | I THINK | has a small HOLE in it.    

           •    X•                 •X              • • •      X      • •    \

   B: Oh NO!  Does it NEED | to be rePLACED right now?   

          • X             • •     X            • •      • X                 •    •   /

3A: Yes, it DOES. It ISN’T going to | last much LONger     

        X      •  X         •   X •      •   •            • •           X•.  \

   B: Huh. How MUCH | will it COST?         

          X            • X            •  •       X   \

4A: A-BOUT | a hundred | and fifty DOLlars.        

          •X           •     X•          •     • •       X•    \

   B: Really. That's too BAD. Is there a less exPENsive way?       

          X•               ••     X                   • • • • •.  X    •        •   /

5A: You could MAYbe | rePAIR it, yourSELF.

             •   •     X•               •X     •         • X    \

   B: How LONG | exACTly | will that LAST?

             •  X                 •X•                • •     X   \

6A: If it works at ALL . . . MAYbe | for a couple of MONTHS?

               • • •   •   X             X•            • •     • •       •   X    /

   B: I'll DO that. SEE you | in a MONTH or two!

          •  X   •        X   •            • •     X         • •    \

Homework: 

1. Take notes!!!

2. Practice every day, in the morning, standing, with good gesture, using pleasing (beautiful) voice and volume. (Warm up, training and EOR)

    Friday: Do the training! Take notes!

    Saturday: Do warm up training and EOR) Take notes!

    Sunday: Take the day off! Take notes!

    Monday: Do warm up, traing and EOR. In your notes write down words or phrases you may have difficulty pronouncing well enough!

    Tuesday: Do warm up, EOR and find a dialogue or story about as long as an EOR and practice using the Butterfly MT5 with it. Take notes, lots of them!!!

    Wednesday: Do warm up, EOR, your text, take notes and come to the Feedback session (this one is frree!) 

    Thursday: Do new training video. 

3.  Check out: https://elsaspeak.com/en/ (vowels and consonants)

4.  Check out:https://speechling.com/ (general speech fluency)

5. Check out: www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com (for the optional identity protection app that I'll introduce during Week 3.)

Email me: wracton@gmail.com with questions or to enroll for EAPIC course feedback sessions: ($250 USD)

Spring 2026 English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement Course (EAPIC)

Beginning two weeks from today! 

Spring 2026 English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement Course (EAPIC)

(EAPIC: pronounced "EPIC!") 

Beginning February 5, 2026 

• Better accent or pronunciation
• Better expressiveness in speaking
• More confidence in speaking
• Good method for continuing to improve
• Works for anybody with a CLB or IELTS 5 and up

• 10 weeks, online (plus Introduction video on 2/5/2026)
• (Free) 20~30-minute training video uploaded to YouTube every Thursday
• 15~30 minutes of homework every day!
• (Optional) live homework follow up meeting on Zoom Wednesday at 8-9 p.m. EST. 

•      15-minute Zoom interview required to enroll
•     $250 USD additional fee. 

Weekly syllabus:

1. Basic rhythm 1 (pronunciation grammar) 
2. Fluency 1 (body rhythm)
3. Consonants 1 (common problems, such as 'th' and 'r/l')
4. Vowels 1 (short)
5. Vowels 2 (long)
6. Consonants 2 (students’ “favorite” problems)
7. Melody 1 (little pieces, phrases)
8. Melody 2 (longer pieces, sentences)
9. Fluency 2 (Public speaking and classroom stye)

10. Rhythm 2 (Conversation style)

Typical weekly schedule: 

   Thursday: Do the video along with me (20+ minutes) and keep notes!
   Friday: Do the warm up, training, embodied oral reading (EOR) and keep notes!
   Saturday: Do the warm up, training, EOR and keep notes!
              Notes: Other words or phrases you have difficulty pronouncing well
    Sunday: Take the day off with me!
   Monday: Do the warm up, EOR, practice your target words (with MT5s) and keep notes!
   Tuesday: Do the warm up, EOR,  a new one-page story you have found with MT5s, practice your target words and keep notes!
   Wednesday: Come to the live feedback 60-minute class on Zoom (or practice by yourself!) 

       Here is what goes on in the feedback session: 

                       a. Go over the EOR
                       b. Check students' individual MT5s for accuracy
                       c. Questions from and help with target words of students
                       d. Preview of the next week's lesson

So . . . How does this course work? 

• Gesture and touch make pronunciation easier to learn and remember
• Using your whole body (embodied) makes is easier to pay full attention
• Rhythm and gesture together help keep learning both relaxed and energetic
• Embodied oral reading is great for bringing what you study into conversation
• Practicing the EOR every day trains your mind and body to move and speak more like English speakers do. 
• Use what you know . . . 

Email me: wracton@gmail.com for more information or to enroll (via Paypal or Venmo). To enroll requires brief Zoom chat (just to make sure the course is for you!) 

For a more in depth discussion of the basis of the EAPIC course, go to: https://www.actonhaptic.com/eapic

The Summer 2026 EAPIC course is being revised to include identity protection. Students will also be using IDentityshield system. For a preview of IDentityshield go to: IDentityshield introduction, or  www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com 

Homework for next week 

A. Tell me a little about yourself and why you think this course would be helpful for you.

B. Give me some idea of your weekly schedule, how much time you have to practice!

C. Tell me about your experience with music, playing an instrument, etc., or just enjoying it!

D. Tell me if you'd like to join the Wednesday Zoom feedback class. (If so, I'll set up a Zoom interview just with you as soon as possible. If I do, what would be a good time for you?)

(Haptic) English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement Course!

For a good time, start at the bottom of page! The blog page has the materials used in the video!

Enjoy!

Bill

 Link to Lesson 10 training video (Tour of the key techniques of the course!) 

Link to Lesson 10 blog page

  Link to Lesson 9 ttaining video

Link to Lesson 9 blog page

Link to EAPIC 8 Training Video 

Link to EAPIC 8 blog page

Link to Lesson 7 Training Video

Link to Lesson 7 Blog page

 Link to Lesson 6 Training video

Link to Lesson 6 Blog page

Link to Lesson 5 Training Video 

Link to Lesson 5 Blog Page

 Link to L4 Trainng video 

Link to L4 blog page

Link to L3 training video 

Link to L3 Blog page.

Link to L2 training video 

Link to L2 blog page with the materials

Link to Lesson 1 

Link to L1 Blog page

Link to the Introduction video 

A four-part (haptic) "metanique" for improving English pronunciation . . . and teaching!

Since Haptic Pronunciation Teaching started back in 2005, a basic technique was the "Movement, tone and touch technique," the MT3. It consisted of a gesture carried out while speaking a sound, word, phrase or clause, accompanied by a tonal contour (intonation) embodying emotional or affective meanings, concluding with hands touching on the main-stressed syllable of a word. 

A "metanique" (in haptic work) is a teaching technique format that has a basic function or two, such as assisting learners in getting or remembering language and also has one or more components. (Something analogous to a "tagmeme"). The new haptic metanique i the MT4: Movement, tone, tempo and touch technique, adding the component tempo to the earlier MT3. Tempo, in this case, is something close to pace, or simply speed of articulation. That was added for a number of reasons but primarily to help manage and modulate learner "movement" through the readings. The MT4 uses an annotation system similar to music tablature. 

Haptic work involves the use of a wide variety of "embodied oral readings" where typically there is an MT4 assigned to most, if not all, prominent stressed elements in a word, phrase or clause. To get a good sense of how those work, watch some (or all) of the four videos of lessons from the new Haptic English Accent and Pronunciation Course. That should give you a good introduction to KINETIK method and the new "MT4s."

Introduction (45 minutes)

Lesson 1 (30 minutes)

Lesson 1 Follow up/feedback session (45 minutes)

Lesson 2 (30 minutes)

The complete course will be available on Vimeo later this fall!

Keep in touch!

What to do for falling student confidence!

One of the joys of teaching is all those times when you stumble on a wonderful technique . . . almost by accident, when the lesson that you designed goes way beyond your objectives for it. The research literature is filled with reports of classroom procedures that inspire/develop confidence, (cf. Cadiz-Gabejan, 2021 . . . but not this one in this field.

For you to be able to do this technique with your students tomorrow, I need to give you little primers on haptic pronunciation teaching (HPT) and Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) therapy.

HPT, basically, uses gesture and touch to enhance memory and expressiveness by generally having a gesture terminate on a stressed syllable where the hands touch. The gesture can have several functions such as rhythmic or intonation patterns, or specific vowels or consonants. (For examples of some of the Movement, tone and touch techniques, goto: www.actonhaptic.com/HaPT.)

One of the techniques, used to create the deep falling tone at the end of a conversational turn, for example, has the learner move one hand from in front of the eyes down to about the level of the solar plexus, with the eyes following. The voice also falls as low as possible, in some creating the "creaky" voice quality. One of the students, in working with the practice dialogs "discovered" that she felt more and more confident by using that move . . . beyond the exercises. Her general demeanor and speaking "presence" made that evident as well from that point on. 

I had seen a somewhat analogous technique used about 20 years ago in observing psychologists working with Observed Experiential Integration (OEI) therapy, where the patient basically followed the hand movement of the clinician across the visual field, terminating about the same place, sometimes along with the clinician's voice, sometimes their own, but the effect was the same: a sense of calm and confidence. That location in the visual field, down and to the right, seemed to act as an anchor for a sense of at least temporarily closing down, calm or resting. 

Many systems use similar anchoring for a myriad of purposes. In this case, we were working with a basic sentence-final falling tone--that just keeps falling until it "hits bottom." Have been using it for the last two years in various ways, such as short passages or conversational gambits, with pretty striking results Here is a short video clip from the KINETIK training video series.  Give it a try and let me know how it works in your class (as I'm CONFIDENT that it will!) 

v7.0 will be available sometime later this spring or early summer. 

Keep in touch!

Bill

"Ward off" (at least some) miscommunication in your English conversation teaching

For anybody serious about pronunciation teaching, Nigel Ward's excellent 2019 book, Prosodic patterns of English conversation, is a must. (Full disclosure: I just "rediscovered" the book myself last year,  having incorporated aspects of Ward's work for years but had not connected much to his overall framework!) I'm doing a workshop on February 24th at the BCTEAL Regional Conference using Ward's work, "Nine "touching" conversational pronunciation patterns your students should not be without! 

The book gets a little technical in places but the pedagogical applications are very clear and immediately applicable. Here are some examples of the "patterns." The first six are from Ward; the other four are relatively "standard" intonation patterns taught by most methods in some form. The haptic application of Ward's prosodic patterns includes accompanying gesture and touch, hence the "touching" term in the workshop title. 

• Bookends - "That's really very interesting.  (Two stressed words with a valley in the middle.)
•               \         -------          \
• Down step - "Dinner's ready!" (Drop down of a minor third)
•                  -----    ___
• "Creaky voice - "I'm out of here. (Voice falls to near F1 of voice, with "creaky" effect)
•                                  \\
• Strong clip - "Stop it!" (Strong stress with "clipped" second word)
•               --- |
• Late rise - "I love that TEAM!" (Final rise-fall showing enthusiasm or energy)
•                              / /
• "I'm good." - "I'm good." (Quick step up with clipped stressed word; conversation ending) 
•                _--|
• Fall (2 types)
• I'm coming back next week. (Fall with slight release at the end.)
•                              \.
• I'm coming back next week if I have time to. (Fall mid-sentence w/o release)
•                              \                      \.
• Fall-rise - "Are you serious?" (Pattern suggesting skepticism in this case.)
•                          \ /
• Rise - "Are you serious?" ( A "simple" question, generally expecting yes/no response.)
•                      /

What makes Ward's approach somewhat unique is that the context for using "prosodic conversational patterns" is, of course, in conversation, not taught in isolation. Haptic uses that as a point of departure and embodies the patterns as well. Join us at the University of Victoria in February, or check back for the recording in early April!

Z-OR: Enhanced English Fluency and Confidence

Conference presentation later this month with Eileen McWilliams at the BCTEAL annual conference, entitled: How to Speak with Confident Vowels and Beyond! It is based on research I reported on at the 2022 Spokane ESL Conference: Using what you know: Embodied Oral Reading to Spontaneous Speech, with Volzhanina and Qie.

Here's the summary:

This workshop presents a haptic technique (using systematic movement and touch) based on strategic use of intonation and vowel quality for helping learners achieve more confidence in speaking based on developing awareness and control of the fundamental formant (lowest) in their speech, evident especially when one is relaxed and confident.

There are two terms we have been using: Haptic-Embodied Oral Reading (HE OR), and Spontaneous Haptic-Embodied Oral Recast (SHE-OR). Using the HE-OR technique, which involves using gesture and touch to accompany an oral reading, learners developed remarkable confidence and fluency in speaking and (they report) that the technique also improved their reading fluency. At the end of the study, learners switched to SHE-OR, where they managed their spontaneous speech using a fluency gesture as they were describing various locations and events. The apparent carry over from HE-OR over to SHE-OR was striking. Have just updated our terms a little. Now, instead of HE-OR or SHE-OR, we use the gender neutral, Z-OR, to refer to both fixed text and spontaneous embodied readings and recasts. 

If you can’t join us at BCTEAL, no worries. We’ll post the recording right after the conference.

Why rhythm comes first in pronunciation teaching (Haptic Pronunciation Teaching Tip 63 or so!)

Rhythm, stress and intonation. There are, of course, phonaesthetic explanations as to why we list those concepts in that order, including having to do with relative "weight" landing to the right end and the intrinsic qualities of the vowels and consonants themselves. Try saying those three out loud in different orders. Give native speakers three nonsense words of similar syllable structure and they'll typically prefer hearing the 3-syllable word last. Same applies for compound nouns and many other collocations.

I did a quick survey of a few popular pronunciation student books, checking for order of presentation and practice of those three processes, independent of treatment of vowels and consonants. Some did introduce the processes earlier or later but in terms of actual oral practice, there was/is a general agreement, at least the relationship between stress and rhythm. Work on stress comes first.

Lado and Fries (1954)         S - I - R
Prator and Robinett (1972)  S - R - I
Bowen, D. (1975)                I - S - R
Dauer, R. (1993)                  S - R - I
Miller. S. (2000)                 *S - R - I
Gilbert, J. (2012)                  S - R - I
Grant, L. (2017)                   S - R - I

Haptic pronunciation teaching (v5.0)  R - S - I

Miller (2000) probably comes closest to the Rhythm-then-Stress-then-Intonation model, even though the subtitle of the book is: Intonation, sounds (including word stress) and rhythm, echoing Bowen (1975). I taught with Bowen 1975 for several years and loved it. (Still do, in fact!) Like in Lado and Fries (1972), the earlier introduction of intonation patterns always made sense, in part because we were often working from a structural perspective, with smaller clauses or sentences as we "built up" from the bottom.

When it comes to guidance from methodologists on setting up repetition and practice of words and expressions, however, in most cases the attention initially is almost exclusively on the stress syllable, not the rhythmic structure or tonal expression.  One effect of that is possibly to "train" learners in a global rhythm that is very much analytic, yet random . . . the way anyone's processing and speech would be when the focus is just on stress but not the overall flow and fluency of the discourse.

The new haptic pronunciation teaching system (v5.0 - available in Fall 2019) is close to Miller (2000) in approach, beginning with rhythm and then going to stress and intonation.

So, why not begin with rhythm, add the stressed syllable(s) and then the tone pattern for that thought or rhythm group? Many do, if only implicitly or inductively, using songs, poetry or verbal games initially.  More importantly, however, even at the level of requesting a simple repetition of a sentence, approaching it from an ordered perspective of R - S - I is a powerful heuristic, one basic to haptic pronunciation teaching. For example:

"He worked all day on the report."

.Before learners actually say the expression or word out loud, here is how it works. We use the terms: Parse, Focus, Move --- DO! (PFMD!)

• First, identify the rhythm grouping: (for example) He worked all day / on the report. 
• Second, identify stress assignment: (for example) He worked all day / on the report (underline = sentence stress)
• Third, identify the intonation (pitch movement or non movement): Rising slightly on 'day'; falling on 'port' (with louder volume indicating sentence stress.)
• Then (if you are doing haptic) as you say the sentence, add some type of pedagogical movement pattern/gesture (PMP) on the two stressed syllables, There are several way that can be done, synchronizing the gesture with stressed vowels, phrasal rhythm patterns or pitch movement on the stressed vowels (intonation).  

Our experience (in HaPT-Eng) has been that, both in terms of immediate verbal performance and memory recall for text, the order in which learners' attention is directed to attend to the three prosodic components of the sentence along with the accompanying pedagogical gesture may be critical: R - S - I. And why is that? In part it is probably because it uses gesture and touch to integrate or knit together the three features consistently.

Try that tomorrow. It'll change the way you and your students look at (and are moved by) both oral expressiveness and pronunciation.

And it you like that technique, you'll LOVE the next basic haptic pronunciation teaching webinar (hapticanar) on October 12th!

Good vibrations: Why the kazoo works in teaching intonation!

I frequently find reports of studies that have striking conclusions that I'd really love to believe are valid--but do not provide quite enough detail.  Here's one: Haptic learning system for learning Chinese by Jung, Hwang, and Kyung, Dept. of Digital Media, Ajou University, Korea. A neat little study, nonetheless, one that may suggest some interesting follow up.

Clker.com

The experiment was seemingly straightforward. Subjects in the control group were presented with a  traditional audio/visual presentation of a set of target words and asked to memorize them. (Nothing was published as to exactly what the subjects did on their own from that point.) The treatment group, in addition to the same audio/visual presentation, simultaneously were touching a device that provided them with "feel" or vibrations of different frequencies of the different phonemic tones of the Chinese words as they heard them. Not surprisingly, the "haptic" group performed far better on the subsequent recall test, (p<.05).

Have seen no previous study that used a similar procedure. The popular use of hand-held kazoos in teaching English intonation, however, provides something of the same varied tonal vibrations. Judy Gilbert has been a "Kazoo-enthusiast" for decades, using them in virtually every teacher training workshop. I have been skeptical of their use in the classroom, for a number of reasons, but in teacher training, they definitely have a place.

In haptic pronunciation teaching we use a strong focus on vocal resonance, trying to create as much rich vibration in the bones and sinus cavities as possible to enhance memory for sounds and words, along with controlled gestures, what we term: pedagogical movement patterns. One could easily design an analogous hand-held device that would provide something of the same kind of haptic/tactile input as in the Jung et al. study.  Just need to figure out how to get a similar "buzz" on in our EHIEP haptic research!

If you have an idea how to do that, let us know!

Source: Asia -pacific Proceedings of Applied Science and Engineering for Better Human Life, Vo l.5 (2016) pp.55-59,

Touching teaching of expressiveness!

Photo credit:
discover-victoria-island.com

On February 21st, at the 2015 BCTEAL - Island Conference, Professor Aihua Liu of Harbin Institute of Technology, a visiting professor here at Trinity Western University, and myself, will be doing a workshop entitled, "A touching and moving approach to teaching expressiveness."

Here is the program abstract: 

In this practical, “hands on” workshop, a haptic-integrated (using movement and touch) classroom-tested system for teaching conversational intonation and expressiveness will be demonstrated and practiced by participants. The 8 basic techniques include 5 for intonation and 3 others for adding on changes in pitch, pace, volume and discourse foregrounding.

And the detailed summary:

Teaching English intonation can be challenging for any language teacher, due in part to the unique uses of intonation patterns at the discourse level.  Although pronunciation textbooks for students generally present basic intonation patterns with practice activities, that is, of course, only the beginning. It is one thing to be able to imitate or use a simple rising intonation contour on a type of yes/no question or a falling pattern on a simple statement, but it is still quite a leap to expressing a wider range of emotion in speaking.

The haptic model presented has students initially speak along with a model or instructor when working on a new or unusual stretch of expressive speech. Rather than just speaking the sentences, however, learners gesture along with the model to enhance their ability to not just produce but recall more accurately the “extra” features of pitch, pace, volume and discourse focus (or foregrounding).

The workshop is based on principles of “Essential haptic-integrated English Pronunciation,” developed by Acton and colleagues. Participants are provided with guidelines for using the framework in classes with teenage and adult learners and given access to video models on the web of the techniques presented.

Join us, if you can!

20 contexts for haptic pronunciation teaching

I am often asked in what contexts or classrooms haptic pronunciation teaching works. Assuming enthusiastic, full-body buy-in by the instructor and student, here is a new list of contexts and

Credit: Anna Shaw

classrooms where features of the AHEPS - haptic pronunciation system are being or have been used so far.

Keep in touch!

(info@actonhaptic.com)

NEW! AHEPS v2.0 Haptic Pronunciation Training videos available for download!

For the first time, individual AHEPS haptic training videos are now downloadable. Each of the AHEPS modules focuses on one techniques, what we term pedagogical movement patterns (PMPs). Each module involves basically 6 procedures: (a) a warm up, (b) review of previous module, (c) a demonstration of the PMP/technique, (d) a 5-minute training video, (e) a 2-minute practice video, and a short conversation to practice with. 

If you'd like to work on just a specific PMP, all you need to do is go the the New AHEPS training videos page, check the (free) demonstration video, look over the description page for that PMP, and then download training video:

Acton Haptic English
Pronunciation System
(AHEPS)

• Matrix (use of gesture in the visual field) training 
• Warm up training 
• Single (Rough/short) vowels training  
• Double (Smooth/long) vowels training    
• Syllable Butterfly training
• Basic Intonation training
• Advanced Intonation training
• Tai Chi Fluency training
• Rhythm Fight Club training
• Baton Speaking Integration training

Training videos for consonants will be added gradually over the next three months. 

v3.0 (Fall 2014 or Spring 2015) will probably be both download and subscription-based. 

TESOL 2014: Why didn't they mention THIS?

As evident in the previous post, it was a good conference for Hapticians and friends. If you work at it and go to a conference with focus, that'll always be the case. A few more post-Portland thoughts:

• The 50/50 rule held. Half of the presentations you attend are good. Half of those involve something that you can take back to your school or classroom. (The other half you can still learn from!)
• Of the roughly 2 dozen refereed presentations related to speaking, listening and pronunciation, a little more than half a dozen provided practical training and techniques. Three of those were haptic. (There were another couple dozen or so unrefereed publishers' sessions pitching books, software and materials.) The others were research-based.
• The three haptic presentations (General workshop, intonation workshop and "fight club" demonstration) were not only packed, but fun. We have do much more of that.
• The reaction to our haptic work was better than in the past, in part because we are getting better at presenting it. We are better now at scaffolding in the "body" training so that few in the audience cannot keep up. (Has taken us a long time to get that right.)
• Haptic work is highly relational. At a conference, when you are trying to connect with your audience, that is great. In the classroom, using the haptic video system (AH-EPS) may be a better strategy, depending on your level of training in pronunciation teaching and the nature of the crowd in front of you. (See several earlier posts on that!)



Clip art;
Clker

• The word, haptic, is finally getting out. That has been our primary objective for the last two years. It is apparently spreading a little better "horizontally" than "vertically" . . . After our workshop, one of the participants came up to me very much excited about what she had just experienced. She begins by commenting that the day before she had been to two workshops on pronunciation by "experts" in the field. Then (using emphatic gesture) she says:

 "Why didn't they mention THIS!!!"

Good question.

Good report on haptic presentations at TESOL 2014!

Haptic Thursday
at TESOL 2014

As mentioned in an earlier blogpost, on the first day of the conference we did all 4 "haptic" pronunciation teaching sessions back to back. (Fellow hapticians had submitted about 16 proposals; that 25% were accepted is about the average for TESOL.) A few general notes on the sessions and responses we received:

A. Audience response was, as usual--and for the most part--very enthusiastic!
B. In two of the sessions, the basic haptic workshop and fluency demonstration, the rooms were jammed with about 100+ people, with many not being able to get in.
C. In the haptic research session and the nonnative-speaker intonation sessions, there were between 30 and 50 participants. (The reference list from those is now available on the website." Many great comments and networking followed for the rest of the conference.

My favourite comments: "That was just . . . fun!" and "Best workshop I've gone to in years!" If you missed us, join us at Cornerstone University next weekend, BCTEAL and TESL Canada in May--or TESOL 2015 in Toronto next March!

Keep in touch!

Giving aural comprehension "a hand"-- in haptic pronunciation training

A common question we get is something to the effect of "How do the pedagogical gestures (PMPs - movement across the visual field terminating in touch on a stressed element of a word) work?" 2012 research by Turkeltaub and colleagues at Georgetown University, reported by Science Daily, suggests how that happens. In that study
it was demonstrated that what you are doing with your hands may affect what you hear, or at least how quickly you hear it.

In essence, subjects were instructed to respond by touching a button when they detected a heavily embedded background sound, either with their right or left hand. Right handed response was better at detecting fast-changing sounds; the left, better at slow changing sounds, according to Turkeltaub, " . . . the left hemisphere likes rapidly changing sounds, such as consonants, and the right hemisphere likes slowly changing sounds, such as syllables or intonation . . . " Well, maybe . . .

The study at least further establishes the potential connection between haptic work and L2 sound change. In this case, when the learner performs a PMP, mirroring the model and listening to the model of the target sound--without overt speaking--anchoring should be enhanced, more efficient. Part of the reason for that, as reported in several pervious posts, is that "fast" sounds tend to be in the right visual field (attached to the left hemisphere) and "slower" sounds, the left.

AMPISys, Inc. 

In the EHIEP protocol for intonation, for example, the intonation contour or tone group begins in the left visual field with the left hand moving to the right until it touching the right hand on the stressed syllable or focus word. (See Intonation PMP demonstration linked off earlier post.) In the vowel protocols, similar PMPS are involved as well as the visual display reflects the "fast and slow" phonaesthetic quality of the vowels. (See earlier post on that as well.)

Keep in touch! (v2.0 will be released next week!)

Announcing new AH-EPS v2.0 packages and Demonstration videos!

Along with release of v2.0 of Acton Haptic English Pronunciation System will be a new set of 4, 2-module packages: Vowels and word stress, rhythm and linking, intonation and expressiveness, and fluency and integration. Any one of those packages can be used as a set. Each also includes some basic introductory material to AH-EPS for students as well. 

Also for a limited time, links to Vimeo-streaming demonstrations of the haptic pedagogical movement patterns (PMPs--See the Teaman and Acton paper) are available, included below. Each video will give you an idea of the basic haptic (movement + touch) gesture that is used in presenting, practice and correcting pronunciation in that module.  (If you cannot access Vimeo, email actonhaptic@gmail.com for a demonstration DVD or further information.)

NOTE: Some of the demo links below are now password protected but will be available shortly as part of AH-EPS v2.0, either on the AH-EPS DVDs or as streaming off Vimeo.com. If you would like to view some of the demos, please email me at actonhpatic@gmail.com for a temporary password!

Credit: AMPISys, Inc. 

A module typically includes instructional and student materials, plus a set of videos, including:

(a) A warm up DEMONSTRATION

(b) Demonstration of new PMP

(c) Review of PMP from previous module(s)

(d) Training in new PMP

(e) Practice of new PMP

(f) Practice of new PMP in conversational dialogues

Package 1. Vowels and word stress
(Module 2) Short vowels (lax vowels) DEMONSTRATION
(Module 3) Long vowels (tense vowels, and tense vowels + off glides) DEMONSTRATION

Package 2. Rhythm, phrasal stress and linking 
(Module 4) Syllable grouping DEMONSTRATION
(Module 6) Rhythm training and linking DEMONSTRATION (rhythm training only)

Package 3. Intonation and expressiveness
(Module 5) Basic Intonation DEMONSTRATION
(Module 8) Expressiveness (discourse intonation) DEMONSTRATION

Package 4. Fluency and integration
(Module 7) Conversational fluency DEMONSTRATION
(Module 9) Integrating pronunciation change DEMONSTRATION

Each package includes:
Instructor materials: Complete Instructor's Guide download and Vimeo video streaming of 2 modules (hardcopy and DVDs available)

 Student Workbook materials from 2 modules: Workbook download and Vimeo video streaming of 2 modules (hardcopy and DVDs available)

Cost will be about $35 for download/streaming version, or $90 plus shipping for the hardcopy/DVD version.

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Cost of other packages will range from $50 (consonants) to $400 (including student practice DVD/videos for a class of 12).

In addition to complete AH-EPS packages of Videos and materials (in download or streaming versions), the 2-module packages will be available later this month.

Keep in touch!