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!

(New) v5.0 Haptic Pronunciation Teaching as "Metanique": any text, story, class or time

If you are new to haptic pronunciation, here is a quick history. (If not, drop down to after the bullets!) To understand the importance of this new development, Haptic as Metanique, a little background is helpful:

• 1970's - I was trained in pronunciation teaching, especially from a speech pathology, highly tactile and kinesthetic perspective
• 1980s - Extensive work in accent enhancement involving both kinesthetic and psychological models
• 1990s - Large class teaching of pronunciation in Japan and research on uses of gesture in ;pronunciation teaching
• 2000 ~ 2020 - Development of haptic pronunciation teaching, inspired in part by work in psychotherapy for PTSD, especially use of the visual field and touch.
• 2020 - v5.0 Haptic pronunciation teaching as "metanique" (a system of procedures where attention to pronunciation can be mapped on to any meaning or narrative-based classroom teaching text or technique. 

Haptic (Pronunciation Teaching as) Metanique is, in effect, a series of complementary overlays to any L2 instruction that can be applied in any class any time that any learners (all ages and contexts) are engaged in meaningful texts or interpersonal communication practice. 

We use the Butterfly above as our symbol of metanique, in general, a gesture complex that, in a sense, floats above or lands on any word, phrase, clause of sentence, embodying it. The Butterfly pedagogical movement pattern has been central to the haptic system from the outset. (See a demonstration of early butterfly and other PMPs.) and others from v1.0. Here is an example of how  metaniques, in this case the Butterfly and the intonation PMP, Touchinamis, might be applied to presentation of a model dialogue to embody lexical items (words), the rhythm patterning or the intonation contours:

X is Y /and Z, / but A, / who is from B, / is very much C, / to be sure. 

ooO        oO       oO              oooO                 ooooO                 ooO  (using Butterfly)

--/           -/          -/ \               ---/ \                  ----\                     --/ \   (using Touchinamis)

The concept is that anything that is the focus of instruction, where it is embedded in a vivid context or narrative, where some complementary attention to form would fit in relatively seamlessly without disrupting comprehension or production, can be "metaniqued!"

For more on metaniquing and v5.0, join us at the upcoming webinar in November (or possibly the webinar upcoming on 10/2 -- if you hurry and register at info@actonhaptic,com!