BCTEAL Online Collaborative Attending Skills Training Seminar

Still time to sign up for the next British Columbia Teachers of English as an Additional Language (BCTEAL) seminar (See description below!) 

9/23/2023 - 10/28/2023
9:30 AM - 11:30 AM Pacific

$100 for members and $150 for non-members

To enroll: https://www.bcteal.org/

Here's the official description: 

"Attending skills training, as developed initially by psychologists about 70 years ago, in essence, teaches learners (or counselors) to be good listeners while keeping a conversation going. This version of the training, a seminar for teachers of nonnative speakers, developed originally by Acton & Cope (1999), provides the skills and classroom procedures for

•  Creating groups of three or four students, who 
• Carry on an engaging, short conversations, and then 
• Review those conversations with their instructor, exploring the strategies used and key pragmatic features of the interaction and the story, itself.

The system can be done either face to face or online with students. Each session includes small breakout rooms and (modest) homework assignment, along with an optional reading list. All sessions will be recorded, so if the Saturday morning schedule doesn't work for you, you can still watch the videos!

Note: Each week a set of strategies will be introduced that, ideally, participants take to their classrooms and then report back the following week. This is the first time for me to do this seminar online (hence the nominal fee), something of a "Beta test." The plan is to offer it three or four times annually to the public and also make it available to individual schools and institutions.  Join us! Bill

Acton, W. & Cope, C. (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.

Van Dyke, A. & Acton, W. (2022b). Role-play and dialogic meta-pragmatics in developing and assessing pragmatic competence, in Pedagogical Linguistics, available online DOI: https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.22004.van

Van Dyke, A. & Acton, W. (2022a). Spontaneous classroom engagement facilitating development of L2 pragmatic competence: A naturalistic study. Pedagogical Linguistics 3(1) 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.20011.van

CAST away stress: The Forest Walkabout-Talkabout

If you are going to be at the 2023 BCTEAL Annual Conference on May 5th (at 11 a.m.) at the University of British Columbia, please join us, Angelina Van Dyke and myself, for a casual stroll together, with delightful accompanying conversation through the Arboretum for about an hour. 

The teaching technique demonstrated, the "walkabout," is based on two other techniques: CAST (Collaborative Attending Skills Training) and the "walkabout," a feature of Australian culture made popular by the movie, Crocodile Dundee, when the leading actor, reported having had his marriage come apart some time back . . .  because he had gone out for one in the "outback" . . . for three months! (Have reported on that technique earlier on the blog, as well.)

The CAST system, also described on the blog earlier, focuses on teaching ELLs of almost any proficiency level to carry on conversations in groups of three or four, using "attending skills," where one student tells a good story, a second facilitates the conversation, and a third takes notes on the conversation. After three or four minutes, the conversations stop and the instructor then goes around to each group and elicits examples of effective conversational discourse strategies. 

In this case, students and teacher walk through the forest for about 5 minutes as students, in the small groups, walk and talk, attending to their mutually constructed stories. They pause for about 10 minutes, reflecting on the strategies used by the attender in supporting the story teller's story, and then set off again, with three other students taking on the CAST roles. The effect is dramatic, even in the relatively short 60-minute session. (The Walkabout - Talkabout works best when carried out for about 90 minutes--or more!) 

(Note: Come prepared with a good little personal story to share, one known only to you that you can share in about 3 or 4 minutes!) 

KINETIK and Haptic Pronunciation Teaching at TESOL 2023 in Portland!

Haptic Pronunciation Teaching at the upcoming TESOL 2023 Convention in Portland, March 21~24th!

Doing two presentations:

• A pre-convention Institute with Angelina VanDyke. Tuesday afternoon, 1-5, Talking (and analyzing) Pragmatics with Students: Meta-pragmatics and Embodied Prosody. (That is an extra, paid event, $150USD-- well worth the price of admission, of course!) 
• A workshop with Eileen McWilliams, "Prosodic Pas de deux: Teaching Conversational Discourse Orientation," Thursday, 23 March, 15:00-16:45 (At least one of the cleverest session titles ever!) 

I'll be there promoting the amazing KINETIK Method (www.actonhaptic.com/kinetik/) Always open for a breakfast, lunch, dinner or later with hapticians and other lovers of "haptic." I plan to be in the networking area next to the publishers' booths, both mid-morning and mid-afternoon for an hour or so.

Have decided to self-publish an eBook based on the KINETIK Method, working title: Bill Acton's Haptic Global English Pronunciation Program. Will have excerpts available by then which I'll have with me and will be linking here on the blog and on the website. 

If you are a runner, join us each morning for 6-8km "haptic jog" around 6!

Email at: wracton@gmail.com for more info.

See you there! 

Now we are REALLY talking (with students about pragmatics with meta-pragmatics!)

More big news! Our latest research report, our second, "Role-play and dialogic meta-pragmatics in developing and assessing pragmatic competence," is now officially in press with Pedagogical Linguistics, coming out later this fall, hopefully! Here is the abstract: 

Role-play as a bridging and integrating practice in language teaching and development of pragmatic competence in learners is well-established. In an EAP classroom (Van Dyke & Acton, 2021) explored the impact of one fluency protocol, Cooperative Attending Skills Training, by which students were trained to listen attentively to shared personal stories, working toward more sophisticated strategies of conversational interaction. That system included dialogic, pragmatics-focused, spontaneous analysis and instructor-student discussion of interactional discourse features. With that experience, further modeling and conceptual input, participants in this study engaged in six role-plays, each involving a problem requiring pragmatic accommodation. The data from transcribed role-plays were analyzed in terms of pragmatic discourse functions and NVivo-based thematic threads. The generally successful application of the targeted skills and concepts by course end most likely resulted from the engaging meta-pragmatic interactions preceding the role-plays, and the formal and informal instructor feedback related to implicature, prosody, implicit understandings, direct conversation strategies, grammar, and vocabulary.

This is a follow on to the previous piece, probably the second of three or four: 

Van Dyke, A. & Acton, W. (2022). Spontaneous classroom engagement facilitating development of L2 pragmatic competence: A naturalistic study. Pedagogical Linguistics 3(1) 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.20011.van

As reported in a previous blogpost, we'll be doing a pre-convention institute at the 2023 TESOL convention next March in Portland, based on our research. By then the next phase of the analysis, centering on prosodics and pragmatics should be in "presentable form." See you there! 

Talking (and analyzing) Pragmatics with Students: Meta-pragmatics and Embodied Prosody!

Great news! Just approved! That is the title of our upcoming half-day, 4-hour Pre-convention Institute at that the 2023 TESOL Convention in Portland (probably) March 20, 2023. Here is the current program summary:

This PCI focuses on "dialogic” meta-pragmatic analysis, where instructor and students together, analyze pragmatic aspects of conversations that students have just participated in. That is done by first producing rich, conversational interaction which is then analyzed and embodied to be remembered using, in part, haptic pronunciation teaching prosodic techniques.

Here is original proposal that Angelina Van Dyke and myself submitted that unpacks more of what it is about:

There is no shortage of "talk" about pragmatics in research and pedagogy. This PCI explores ways of working “meta-pragmatically” in the classroom with students, examining pragmatic features of discourse. That is done utilizing several techniques that produce rich, conversational interaction which is then analyzed and embodied to be used later.

In terms of methodology of teaching pragmatics, currently most involves (a) explaining what pragmatics, basically awareness and performance in context-appropriate conversational interaction, (b) exploring examples of interaction with model pragmatic features, or classroom practices such as roleplay, and identifying effective strategies and (c) reflecting on classroom exercises or personal experiences in various ways, (Hennessy, Calcagni, Leung & Mercer, 2021).

What is often missing are two elements: an effective framework for setting up student-produced conversational narrative (for context and analysis) and strategies for helping learners remember what they have worked with. In part in response to that key “bridging” gap or function between classroom pedagogy and spontaneous speaking, an especially adapted version of “cooperative attending skills training” (CAST) (Acton and Cope, 1999) is used to produce “pragmatically-rich,” short conversations with potential for metapragmatic analysis by instructor and students. Additionally, complementing the meta-pragmatic dialogic analyses, in order to enhance memory and clarity of expression, entails embodiment of new, alternative or corrected forms and expressions, using movement, tone and touch techniques (MT3s) based on the KINETIK Method of haptic pronunciation teaching. (Acton et al., 2013).

The PCI uses as a point of departure a recent study, "Spontaneous classroom conversational analysis supporting development L2 pragmatic competence" (Van Dyke & Acton, 2022). A key feature of the classroom discourse examined in that research was "dialogic” meta-pragmatic analysis, where instructor and students together, analyze, post hoc, aspects of conversations that students have just participated in.

Join us!!!

References:
Acton, W. & Cope, C. (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.
Burri, M., Baker, A., & Acton, W. (2019). Proposing a haptic approach to facilitating L2 learners' pragmatic competence. Humanising Language Teaching, 3. Available at http://hltmag.ng3.devwebsite.co.uk/june19/proposing-a-haptic-approach
Hennessy, S., Calcagni, E., Leung, A. & Mercer, N. (2021) An analysis of the forms of teacher-student dialogue that are most productive for learning, Language and Education, DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2021.1956943
Van Dyke, A. & Acton, W. (2022). Spontaneous classroom engagement facilitating development of L2 pragmatic competence: A naturalistic study. Pedagogical Linguistics 3(1) 1-28. https://doi.org/10.1075/pl.20011.van

Let's talk (and analyze) pragmatics . . . with students!

There is no shortage of "talk" about pragmatics in research and pedagogy. In terms of methodology of teaching, most of it boils down to (a) explaining to students what pragmatics is, basically awareness and performance in context-appropriate conversational interaction, (b) either listening to examples or some kind of classroom practice such as roleplay, identification of good response language techniques and (c) after the fact reflection of various kinds on B, (Hennessy, Calcagni, Leung & Mercer, 2021).

In an earlier post, I reported on a TESOL 2022 presentation that I did with Angelina VanDyke, "Spontaneous classroom conversational analysis supporting development L2 pragmatic competence." (Published in Educational Pragmatics.)  A key feature of the classroom discourse in that study was "dialogic meta-pragmatic analysis," where instructor and students together, analyze, post hoc (after the fact), aspects of conversations that students have just participated in. 

The second phase of analysis focuses on evidence of student uptake of the instruction in pragmatics related to coursework they had just completed and features of the instructor's spontaneous feedback, supporting that development. We have submitted a manuscript based on that analysis which, if you are interested, we'll be happy to share in the interim. Only one condition on that . . . in return, you "dialogue" with us on it! 

Now I'm sure you are asking "Where is the usual connection to haptic pronunciation teaching and the KINETIK method?" The answer is in the anchoring and embodiment in memory of new or corrected forms and expressions that students go on to practice in context and as homework. For more on that, see upcoming blogpost unpacking that and announcing an exiting, new all-day workshop concept we will be offering focusing on "pragmatics and prosody!" 

Source: 

Hennessy, S., and  Calcagni, E., Leung, A., & Mercer, N. (2021). An analysis of the forms of teacher-student dialogue that are most productive for learning, Language and Education, DOI: 10.1080/09500782.2021.1956943

Clker.com

From conversational analysis (in class!) to L2 pragmatic competence at TESOL 2022!

The full  title of our TESOL 2022 presentation: Spontaneous classroom conversational analysis supporting development L2 pragmatic competence. 

Here is the abstract! (Presentation is on Thursday at 3:30 in room 334.)

This paper reports on research into ways in which an instructor in an EAP Speaking skills course helped facilitate development of pragmatic awareness and competence. The study focused on spontaneous, conversational analysis of student personal anecdotes done in small groups. Results revealed a range of potentially productive strategies and techniques. 

Angelina VanDyke and Bill Acton

Operant conditioning rides again in language teaching!

Clker.com

 "The major difference between rats and people is that rats learn from experience." B.F Skinner

Quick quiz: What is "operant conditioning" and of what value is it to you in understanding language learning and teaching? If you can't answer either part of that question, unfortunately, you're not alone. Your formal training may well have lacked any thoughtful consideration of the concept of "operant conditioning". Following Chomsky's devastating attack on it and behaviorism and the ascendancy of cognitive/constructivist theory, it has in most learning frameworks appeared to have been at least dismissed, at best. Not really, according to an excellent new piece by Sturdy and Nicoladis, "How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?" -- it has just gone underground.

Their basic argument: "Researchers have ended up inventing learning mechanisms that, in actual practice, not only resemble but also in fact are examples of operant conditioning (OC) by any other name they select."

According to the meta-analysis, the most persuasive cases or contexts discussed are (a) socialization, (b) ritualization and (c) early child language learning. At least for one whose "basic training" in psychology as an undergraduate happened in 1962, it is a breath of fresh (familiar) air, not exactly vindication, but pretty close. It applies especially to the more embodied dimensions of pronunciation instruction, such as physical work on articulation and the felt sense of sound production in the vocal mechanism--and, of course, haptic engagement.

But it also is fundamental to understanding and using context-based feedback that is critical to socialization or social constructivism, including the role of ritual, pragmatics and long-term reinforcement mechanisms.

If you don't get a full-body, warm fuzzy from this piece, read it again holding a cup of hot tea or coffee. 

Required reading.


Citation:
Sturdy CB and Nicoladis E (2017) How Much of Language Acquisition Does Operant Conditioning Explain?. Front. Psychol. 8:1918. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2017.01918

TESOL 2018 Convention Haptic Pronunciation Teaching Proposals

It's that time again! Proposals are due June 1st! A number of topics have been suggested for us Hapticians. If you see one you like and want to participate in, let us know SOON!

• Half-day pre-convention institute - Basic training in haptic pronunciation teaching
• Research colloquium on haptic pronunciation teaching - This year's colloquium was very successful. Much more to report on next year. 
• Embodiment and the body in TESOL - This is a broader topic, one that has been suggested to me repeatedly. Reasonably certain it will be proposed.
• Unstressed vowels (a haptic approach) - The haptic pedagogical movement pattern system for unstressed vowels, especially schwa, is innovative and effective, used now primarily in accent reduction.
• Visible gesture in pronunciation instruction - With the recent publication of a couple of articles, this topic is finally getting some serious discussion. (This deals with visual signalling, more than the anchoring of gesture in the body of the learner.)
• Haptic pragmatics - I have done three successful workshops on this topic with Angelina VanDyke. The model has developed considerably.
• Haptic discourse intonation teaching basics - This one follows somewhat from the Haptic Pragmatics workshop. 
• Haptic pronunciation in literacy work - This would be a follow up on one of the presentations in this year's haptic research colloquium. 
• Haptic pronunciation for kids - The haptic model is used by many elementary school teachers.
• Haptic pronunciation teaching for volunteer teachers - The current haptic pronunciation teacher certification course developed out of work with volunteer teachers
• There will be a publishers session on v5.0 of the Haptic Pronunciation Teaching Certification course. 

Those could be in any of several formats, colloquia, workshops, teaching tips, etc.

Keep in touch - and check in if interested by May 1st!

Prosody practice, pragmatics and attending skills training

At the upcoming, Annual BCTEAL conference in Vancouver next month, Angelina VanDyke and I will be doing a new workshop, one based on an excellent presentation that she did last year, entitled: Pragmatic Attending Skills Training for Oral Skills Classes

Here's the program summary: 

Clip art: Clker.com

"Being able to better facilitate development of pragmatic competencies with ELLs is a priority of most programs.  This workshop gives participants experience in combining attending skills training with prosodic pronunciation teaching techniques to enhance use of conversational strategies and responses appropriate to a variety of socio-cultural contexts."

And this excerpt from the proposal:

"This workshop uses a combination of attending skills training (Ivey, 1965; Acton & Cope, 1999) and select procedures derived from prosodic pronunciation teaching to create a framework that facilitates systematic attention to pragmatic strategies and appropriateness, with learners of a wide range of general communicative competence. [It] begins with a general overview of the use of pragmatics applied to conversational interaction teaching, followed by training modules in attending and haptic pronunciation teaching techniques."

The key to the integration of prosody and pragmatics in this case, as we have seen in research in haptics in general, is systematic use of movement and touch to "embody" prosody and expressiveness. Instruction and "uptake" of the pragmatic dimension of the interchanges take place in short dyadic conversations that provides context and opportunity for on-the-spot informal conversational analysis and anchoring of key expressions and speaker intention.

(Pragmatically speaking!), even if you are new to haptic pronunciation teaching, this one should be more than worth attending! (Check out this previous post on an attending skills workshop done at BCTEAL in 2012.)