Bill Acton's Embodiment Blog: peer monitoring

Showing posts with label peer monitoring. Show all posts

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Individual versus pair work in (haptic-integrated) pronunciation teaching

The advice out there on using pair and group work in pronunciation teaching is mixed. For focusing on the comprehensibility side, for example, Gilbert and others have developed a range of effective communicative pair instruction formats where articulation of the sound is essential to meaning. In general, the enthusiasm for group and pair work, although well documented in other areas of instruction, has not been validated, the subject of published research in pronunciation teaching. Neither has peer-based monitoring and correcting of oral production in class, especially at the segmental level, been systematically explored. The same applies for what goes on in individual practice or after class in the form of homework or ad hoc student-initiated practices. (There are a few examples, such as Stevick's classic, Success with foreign language learning . . . available on Amazon.com for about $265 now!) That is all indicative of an overall "non-clinical" approach to instruction in the field today--the motivation for this blog!
Most would agree that both group and individual work are advantageous in all contexts but often unrealistic in some settings as well. In EHIEP work, for effective results, both must be exploited continuously. The key--somewhat being enabled now by the development of cheap, accessible web-based technology--is the idea that outside of class learners should be able to learn and practice key pronunciation features from mirroring video models (See previous post.) At the same time they should also be working on their own, personal word lists and mini-dialogues, embedding and embodying new and changed elements. Efficient integration of pronunciation instruction in class and subsequent integration by students of those targets into their spontaneous speech, requires both effective "inside out" personal work and "outside in" social practice. The next breakthrough in pronunciation teaching is "mirror-ly" a matter of time--and (haptic-integrated) technology--as individualized practice first more systematically complements and then ultimately replaces the classroom. Keep in touch.

Monday, March 5, 2012

Attending skills workshop at BC TEAL

Just got word that our proposal to do Attending Skills Training: Peer monitoring in conversation instruction at BC TEAL in May has been accepted. (I'm doing it w/Mike Burri, Nate Kielstra and Mitch Goertzen.)
Here is the summary:

Clipart: Ciker

Attending Skills are a set of techniques that are effective in creating a context where students of upper beginning level and above can work in small groups and (a) practice strategies maintaining conversations, (b) become better conversational listeners and (c) provide productive feedback to classmates on speaking performance.

Developed over 50 years ago by counseling psychologists, attending skills are standard practice in most “helping” disciplines and have been applied extensively in second language teaching (Acton and Cope, 1999.) In this workshop, participants will be introduced to a method for teaching “attending skills” in classes of any size, to learners from teenage to adult. Focus of small groups is primarily to identify the use of good conversational strategies by the “attender”, not the facilitating “talker”. They will then learn strategies for instructor mediation and whole class participation, and have the opportunity to participate in a small group. At the end of the workshop, participants will be provided with complete guidelines for adapting attending skills training to their classrooms.

Acton, W. and C. Cope. (1999). Cooperative attending skills training for ESL students, in JALT Applied Materials volume, Kluge, D. and S. McGuire (Eds.), Cooperative language teaching in Japan, pp. 50-66. (That chapter is also available now online from ERIC and a few other places.) Attending skills work or something very much like it is often essential in giving learners a productive, comfortable classroom setting in which to focus on integrating new sounds. If you are in the area, hope you can attend!

Thursday, December 1, 2011

(Haptic) Peer-assisted pronunciation learning

Clip art: Clker

Here is a 2011 presentation by Kapelus of George Brown University on Inter-professional Peer-assisted learning (IPAL). Note the "Reasons for Using Peer-Assisted Learning":

(a) Offer education to students on their own cognitive level.
(b) Create a comfortable and safe educational environment.
(c) Socialize students and provide role models.
(d) Offer students an alternative motivation as well as another method of studying.
(e) Enhance intrinsic motivation in student.

One of the potential benefits of HICP instruction is that it offers a wide range of opportunities for students to work together, monitoring and providing feedback to each other on their pronunciation. For example, in signalling a different or improved pronunciation of a word or phrase, pedagogical movement patterns (PMPs) are used by students and instructor which, in effect, focus more on movement and touch than on only the (auditory) dimension of the sound (that coming in through the ears!)

Such PMP-based feedback generally "works for students on all levels," is safe--is not threatening or intimidating, provides models quickly and efficiently--nonverbally for the most part, is certainly "another method of studying"--one that facilitates integration effectively, and is highly motivating (in part because of the pervasive physical engagement.) In fact, HICP is without peer!

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What is haptic pronunciation teaching?

Basically, it is using gesture, touch and movement to teach pronunciation of English (or any language). What makes this method unique is that it is based on controlled and systematic use of gesture in doing that. (Often the problem with gesture use in language learning is that it can be "crazy" or random or intimidating or inconsistent, or not well-developed and tied to clear outcomes.)

The earlier "Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation (EHIEP) approach," now KINETIK, does a better job of enhancing presentation, modelling, feedback and correction. The method is simple and easy to follow. Once a 30-minute module is finished, teacher and students have a set of techniques to use in class anytime a pronunciation problem or opportunity comes up!

Haptic Preliminaries

I often begin workshops or papers with the comment that in about 40 years in the field I have had just one idea: that the systematic use of body movement is essential to effective and efficient pronunciation instruction. That has never been more relevant than today, with the general deemphasis on pronunciation and introduction of technology into the field. From both perspectives, the "haptic" perspective approach developed here offers great promise. I can at least promise you a "moving" experience!

What is the KINETIK Method?

KINETIK is the name of the new v6.0 haptic pronunciation teaching system. About six years earlier we were using the acronym, "Haptic Integrated Pronunciation for Other/Extended Circle English Speakers" (HIPOECES)--still there in the url of this blog!

Haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation is:

A different way to learn pronunciation, based in part on Arthur Lessac’s notion of “Training the body first.” It is also based on research in the use of movement and touch in learning and training. It:

Looks somewhat like a combination of aerobics, sign language and Taichi

Provides a basic foundation for continued, self-directed pronunciation learning and classroom instruction

Designed for use by relatively untrained teachers but appropriate for all teachers (and learners) of all levels

Focuses on pronunciation used in conversation (not all words in English)

Is a highly “brain-and-body-friendly” system that promotes efficient learning of integrated tasks in general

Designed to promote integrated classroom pronunciation instruction and enable integration of conscious pronunciation work into spontaneous speaking.

Introduction

This blog was formerly named: HIPoeces (pronounced 'hI-pƏ-cIs), basically an approach to teaching English pronunciation to speakers of "outer and expanding" circle Englishes (including that population commonly termed: non-native speakers) but also compatible with the use of local models other than simply Standard" American" or RP. Using Kachru's "Inner, expanding and outer circles" model to characterize the breadth of Englishes and speakers of those, HIPoeces (now HICP) systems focus on developing haptically-centered pedagogical models and methods which can be adapted for teaching the pronunciation of various Englishes as they are spoken and taught by "owners" of those varieties.

In theory, the underlying principles can be applied to teaching the sound system of any language. Most language instructors intuitively use a great deal of movement and tactile anchoring in the classroom. The essential question is how to use that resource systematically, especially so that those learners who are less "haptic" in nature are also "moved" by the method.

Simply put, the HICP model/method is based on the idea of speaking along with arm and hand movement, not all that different from that used in sign languages. Most movement patterns are taken from either typical classroom pronunciation instruction practice or from related fields, such as psychotherapy or sports.

Most blog posts link to research that relates to the general HICP model, that is studies dealing with the role of gesture, touch, movement, learning modalities, learning in output, use of the visual field in learning, and experiential learning.

DEFINITIONS:

"Haptic" techniques- procedures that involve both movement and touch (Obvious examples include clapping hands, tapping feet, or holding an object and shaking it to the rhythm of a poem.)

"HICP techniques" - procedures that are haptic and also explicitly coordinated with phonological structures and/or discourse prosody (For example, clapping hands on primary stressed syllables in multi-syllable words, or doing a dance step on key words in conversational turns.)

"Haptic integration"- The haptic dimension probably functions as much to anchor visual and auditory material as it does to assist the learner in getting the "felt sense" of the sound or sound process. Lack of integration into spontaneous speech being such a serious potential shortcoming of instruction, haptic engagement seems a promising bridge to more accurate fluency.

"Visual field" - in HICP extensive use is made of the visual field in front of the learner. (For example, a modified version of the IPA vowel chart is anchored haptically in the imagination of the learner, directly in front of the upper body, and used for several purposes throughout the program.)