Looking, sounding and feeling confident in front of your (English language teaching) class!

Something of a radical idea . . . You can substantially improve your "Classroom English teaching presence" by talking pretty much to yourself . . . without much talking with anybody else in the process. For some, unfortunately, that is their only option. Have a course for them.

Well . .  more technically: Enhanced (virtual and physical) English-teaching classroom presence (EECP) --for anybody who needs it! Another of the new v6.0 KINETIK Pro-D courses! This one is designed especially for those non-native English-speaking instructors who have not been fortunate enough to do a training program where they had the opportunity to develop their "classroom English" skill set under supervision, as in a good internship or practicum. It is all done on Zoom or a comparable platform:

• Can be either 10 or 20 weeks in length, with one or two meetings per week.
• Cost varies, just based on number of participants. For example, the 10-week course for a class of 10, meeting once per week, would be about $500 USD per student; for 25 students, $200 USD each--and anything in between, even 50, at $100 each.
• Works best if all the instructors are teaching in the same school, or at least with the same type of students. 

As with all KINETIK courses, it makes use of content from the instructor's current (or favorite) course and:

• Develops improved general speech rhythm and clarity (including pronunciation)
• Features innovative "embodied oral reading" and "embodied. spontaneous oral recasting" as a basic homework/practice format. (using the student/instructor's own course content.) 
• Identifies and helps moderate both visual and speaking mannerisms that can be effectively "upgraded"-- particularly in the "Zoom Room!"
• Provides a powerful, embodied set of strategies for enhancing memory for content and expressiveness (primarily haptic in nature, using gesture and touch), most of which are directly applicable to any classroom or student population. 

Courses can be offered through a school or you can sign up independently. New classes commence when there is a group of at least 10 students--in compatible time zones!!! 

Look good? Contact us for more info, go to www.actonhaptic/eecp or wracton@gmail.com.

Cognitive Restructuring of Pronunci-o-phobia - (and Alexa-phobia): Hear, hear! (Just don't peek!)

Clker.com

Caveat emptor: If you are emotionally co-dependent on Alexa, you might want to "ALEXA, STOP ME!" at this point. We love you, but you are lost . . .

New study by "a team of researchers at Penn State" (Summarized by ScienceDaily.com) explored the idea of using ALEXA to help you "cognitively restructuring" your public speaking anxiety, Anxious about public speaking? Your smart speaker could help. Actually what they did was to compare two different ALEXAs in talking you through/out of some of your public speaking, pre-speech anxiety, a more social one with a less social one. (Fasten your seat belt . . . ) Subjects who engaged with the former felt less stressed at the prospect of the giving a speech. From the summary from the researchers:

"People are not simply anthropomorphizing the machine, but are responding to increased sociability by feeling a sense of closeness with the machine, which is associated with lowered speech anxiety . . . Alexa is one of those things that lives in our homes, . . As such, it occupies a somewhat intimate space in our lives. It's often a conversation partner, so why not use it for other things rather than just answering factual questions?"

Houston, we have a problem. Several, in fact. For instance, if ALEXA can do that, imagine what a real person online, just audio only, could accomplish! Forget Zoom and SKYPE! I'd predict that that may even account for some, if not a great deal, of the reduction in anxiety alone. In that condition, a real person might be exponentially more effective . . . worth checking on, I'd think. In addition, from the brief report we get no indication as to what ALEXA actually said, only that "she" was more socially engaging in one condition, than the other. 

What it does suggest, however, is that we should be able to use the same general strategy in dealing with the well-researched anxiety on the part of  instructors and students toward pronunciation work. The impact of a person facing you as you try to modify your pronunciation is important. For many learners, they literally have to close their eyes to repeat a phrase with a different articulation--or at least dis-focus their eyes momentarily. That is is an especially critical dimension of haptic and general gesture techniques in pronunciation teaching. 

This idea is explored in Webinar II in the upcoming Haptic Teaching Webinars I and II, June 5th and 6th. Please join us! (Contact info@actonhaptic.com to reserve you place!) 

And if you'd like to continue this discussion, give me a call . . . Keep in Touch!

Source:
Penn State. (2020, April 25). Anxious about public speaking? Your smart speaker could help. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 18, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/04/200425094114.htm

On developing excellent pronunciation and gesture--according to John Wesley,1770.

Have just rediscovered Wesley's delightful classic "Directions Concerning Pronunciation and Gesture", a short pamphlet published in 1770. The style  that Wesley was promoting was to become something of the hallmark of the Wesleyan movement: strong, persuasive public speaking. Although I highly recommend reading the entire piece, here are some of Wesley's  (slightly paraphrased) "rules" below well worth heeding, most of which are as relevant today as were they then.

 Pronunciation

• Study the art of speaking betimes and practice it as often as possible.
• Be governed in speaking by reason, rather than example, and take special care as to whom you imitate.
• Develop a clear, strong voice that will fill the place wherein you speak.
• To do that, read or speak something aloud every morning for at least 30 minutes.
• Take care not to strain your voice at first; start low and raise it by degrees to a height.
• If you falter in your speech, read something in private daily, and pronounce every word and syllable so distinctly that they may have all their full sound and proportion . . . (in that way) you may learn to pronounce them more fluently at your leisure.
• Should you tend to mumble, do as Demosthenes, who cured himself of this defect by repeating orations everyday with pebbles in his mouth. 
• To avoid all kinds of unnatural tones of voice, endeavor to speak in public just as you do in common conversation.
• Labour to avoid the odious custom of spitting and coughing while speaking.

Gesture

• There should be nothing in the dispositions and motions of your body to offend the eyes of the spectators.
• Use a large looking glass as Demosthenes (again) did; learn to avoid all disagreeable and "unhandsome" gestures.
• Have a skillful and faithful friend to observe all your motions and to inform you which are proper and which are not.
• Use the right hand most, and when you use the left let it only be to accompany the other.
• Seldom stretch out your hand sideways, more than half a foot from the trunk of your body.
•  . . . remember while you are actually speaking you are not be studying any other motions, but use those that naturally arise from the subject of your discourse.
• And when you observe an eminent speaker, observe with utmost attention what conformity there is between his action and utterance and these rules. (You may afterwards imitate him at home 'till you have made his graces your own.)

 Most of the "gesture" guidelines and several of those for pronunciation are employed explicitly in public speaking training--and in haptic pronunciation teaching. Even some of the more colorful ones are still worth mentioning to students in encouraging effective speaking of all sorts. 

Exciting pronunciation improvement: the "Harvard way," so to speak!

Note: Decide whether to process "exciting" as a gerund or adjective--or both (preferred) before reading this post. 

Photo credit: LinkedIn.com

After decades of trying to dial down anxiety in pronunciation teaching, having students calm down, relax or get in the zone affectively, leave it to Harvard researchers to "discover" that getting excited is actually a better state of mind to be in when preparing for what would normally be some anxiety-provoking activities or challenges. The results of the experiments, reported by  Brooks of the Harvard School of Business, and reported by Science Daily, demonstrated, "that simple statements about excitement could improve performance during activities that triggered anxiety."

That is big. The basic premise of the studies was the value of having subjects practice saying things out loud like "I'm excited about X," or, alternatively, "I'm calm about X . . . "  Those using the positive approach turned out to be consistently better at performing the task ahead.  Furthermore, Brooks notes that, "  . . . It really does pay to be positive, and people should say they are excited. Even if they don't believe it at first, saying 'I'm excited' out loud increases authentic feelings of excitement." What the "excited talk" subjects experienced was both more excitement up front and lower anxiety during the performance task itself (measured in part by heart rate.)

Such applications of "Positive"psychology" have been around for a long time. The mechanism behind such results is clear: professed motivation, even if somewhat "insincere" and artificial, in some, relatively limited contexts works well. The Harvard studies appear to have focused primarily on public oral performance, such as giving a speech. Speaking. See the connection? The subjects were already speaking more confidently before they had began . . . speaking.

In haptic pronunciation teaching (and probably every good public speaking training system), in part because of the"full body" engagement, we see the same phenomenon: learners do, indeed, get "excited" (or maybe even a bit agitated?) up front, but then demonstrate less anxiety in responding to modelling and during oral practice and error correction. Exciting, eh?

What comes first? Speaking confidently or confident speaking?

I know . . . trick question. A recent Facebook post by the seriously "positive" Tim Murphey got me thinking. He was commenting on a study commented on by Lynn McTaggart at Positive News.org.uk, commenting on a study done by Michigan State University researchers. (One of my alma maters, by the way, so it must be true!) The point of the article was that people speak in public more confidently when they think about others in their group and not just how nervous they are or whatever. Murphey's point is that when we are connected, we are confident. (In the original study, however,  they seem to have not controlled for the intentional mental focus on anything other than stage/speaking fright--a near fatal flaw--an effect well-established by research and practice in several fields.)

Acton Haptic -
English Pronunciation System

Mea culpa. I tend to be a little skeptical about claims in "confidence before competence" models, especially in pronunciation teaching. An interesting 2007 doctoral thesis by Montha Songsiri of Victoria University, nonetheless, demonstrated, at least in part, how pedagogy can indeed engender confidence in speaking that appears to show up in greater intelligibility and more accurate pronunciation.

And then recently I did a 10-day intensive speaking/pronunciation/accent reduction program using a modified version of the AH-EPS system with pre-MBA nonnative speakers--and may have watched it happen: Beginning with a great deal of speaking in public (oral reading and highly formatted interactions, coupled with public speaking confidence tricks such as posture, breathing)--and concentrating on something other than performance anxiety--seemed to "work!" (In this case, the pedagogical movement patterns of AH-EPS to some extent, I assume.) Where participants' improved pronunciation came from exactly and so quickly is, of course, impossible to say, but the degree of reported improvement alone was almost surprising.  But I am confident in speaking from that perspective, of course! 

A nose for pronunciation? Nothing to sniff at!

Clip art: Clker

I love Science Daily. They throw up some of the wackiest or most politically loaded stuff consistently in the form of summaries, but there are almost always gems like this one: a study that figured out the social/communicative function of sniffing in rats, by Wesson of Case Western Reserve. (To do "haptic" you just have to look outside the field of pronunciation teaching--at least for the time being.) The subordinate rat sniffs more; the dominant, less.

Relevance? There have been a few other posts that dealt with the role of breathing in voice training and anchoring--especially nose breathing, taking in air before doing a pedagogical movement pattern as you articulate a sound or word or phrase. The physical benefits of getting all that extra oxygen into your brain and relaxing your upper body are enough, of course, but now, from this research we see the bigger picture. It is, of course, important that students do the PMPs along w/you when doing corrections or presenting new stuff. (We do not use the expression or technique "repeat after me." The operative term is: "Do that with me, " or more simply: "Together.")

Observers of my classes have often asked, "Why all the sniffing?" Now we know. 

"Effortless," fluent English speaking--even without conversation?

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Wow. Once in a while you stumble on a commercial English teaching website where the claims are almost breathtaking. Here is one. There is 2-minute video by the creator of the program that is worth watching, if only to see the model of "effortless" English that he uses in pitching his stuff in the form of the promise of 7 rules and related materials which you can get for about $97--and to contrast that with what McCarthy is saying, as reported in the previous blogpost. The contrast is striking, to put it mildly. The "effortless English" system, like so many approaches to speaking fluency (as opposed to other aspects of communicative competence), is based on the concept of individual practice in private, without reference to how fluency, as characterized by McCarthy, is developed in conversational interaction.

There was a time when that, the "public speaking" approach, was the industry standard. No longer. There are, indeed, aspects of the experience of speaking a new language which appear to be "effortless." Most, however, are related to the felt sense of using what is known, not learning what to use. It is, of couse, possible to train to "speak" fluently, colourfully and rapidly--and still be utterly incapable of communicating interpersonally with the rest of us out here. ( I'm sure you know a native speaker who fits that category.) The antidote: something like attending skills. At least for the time being, there is no good substitute for f2f, or something very close to it, for developing genuine fluency. Now that's not hard to understand, is it? 

Accented, embodied, Asian female professional L2 identity

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

How's this for an "embodied" conference presentation proposal?

 "In this workshop, examining current theory on L2 identity related to Asian professional women and embodiment theory, participants work through a series of haptic-based (movement and touch) exercises, including a set of speaking/rhythm-based exercises, which provide a helpful anchor for shifting into confident and accented, professional English." 

         It was submitted to TESOL 2013 by two of our female, Asian--graduate students. Both are interested in the general question of L2 identity. (One of them has also submitted a poster proposal for a related classroom-based project as well.) The basic idea is, after setting up a conceptual framework on accent and identity,  to use a haptic (movement and touch)-based classroom technique to anchor something of the "felt sense" of confident delivery and  performance-- even with possibly problematic, accented speech. What it is getting at is the notion of establishing a sense of confidence in the learner more intentionally, explicitly identified and experienced as such as the selected professional style and register of speech is practiced in class. The process, at least for some, provides a more readily accessible anchor, a way to step back into that emotional "space," if you like, what it is like when "We are  speaking confidently." I have used something analogous for years in giving my professional NNS students a way to get focused before they step up to the podium. 

Exceptional flunk'n pronunciation!

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

So I'm looking for frameworks for describing a "perfect" native speaker's pronunciation, and I find this fascinating "Exceptional-level" assessment "criterion" used for grading public speaking performance, on the website of an (anonymous) "arts and sciences division" at a university (italics, mine): "The speaker has exceptional pronunciation, grammar, and articulation, and makes exceptional use of vocal variety in a conversation with forethought of delivery. That is, the speaker exhibits exceptional flunk[sic], properly formed sounds which enhance the message, and no pronunciation or grammatical errors. In addition, the speaker’s vocal delivery is exceptionally and appropriate well paced, easily heard by all audience members, and variety in pitch to enhance the message." Now if the reference there is to the vocal style, let's say, of the Norwegian band, Flunk, then it all makes sense, but otherwise this appears to be but another case where poor proofreading (or poor writing, or worse) is just as problematic as poor pronunciation . . . or worse.

A speaking warm up (for imaginative, creative native speaking instructors with a little extra time on their hands only!)

One of the "advantages" of being a native speaker--or highly advanced level L2 speaker--is that you can benefit from warming up reading out loud decontextualized, near-nonsense sentences, focusing, for example, on vowels and consonants. It is a well-established, highly effective practice in public speaking. In Lessac's exercises he includes that type of work as well. You can quickly enhance the felt sense and resonance of the voice, along with sharpening articulation and clarity of speech, by producing dozens and dozens of words containing all the vowels and consonants of the language.

The nonnative speaker, of course, has a least a couple of problems with that approach. The sentences are often designed to be vaguely humorous but generally opaque, although the creative native speaker can probably visualize the scene or quickly come up with an imagined context for the isolated sentence. The pronunciation of some of the words may not even be obvious to the native speaker--without the presence words with similar vowels or consonants nearby--let along for the nonnative.

Clip art: Clker

That approach is doubly problematic for HICP work in that the focus is almost exclusively on language that the learner has at least some possibility of using in conversation or at least hearing it in some context. Hence the need for a very different approach in developing good warm ups and attempting to change a quite restricted set of vocabulary initially. In effect, the emphasis is on word change, not generalized vowels or consonants.  Haptic anchoring is highly effective in setting up new pronunciation of individual words, phrases and sentences. The research on haptic memory confirms that those should then become the reference points for figuring out and remembering both the meaning and pronunciation of new words as well. Without anchoring meaning, however, it is another matter.

So, for refinement of your current classroom speaking model, I might still recommend (1) get your body ready (Follow instructions in the recent post of "Perfect Form" in HICP work) and then (2) a traditional "nonsense-sentence" warm up like the one linked above for some, especially those without formal training in public speaking. Try it daily for a couple of weeks, recording it occasionally and reviewing it for clarity and dialect consistency--and to get used to monitoring your speech model a bit more dispassionately. Your voice will thank you. So will your students. 

The "mouth" that roars!

Credit: Edward J. Walsh,
Boys Town National Research Hospital

Linked is a 2011 Science Daily summary of a study by Klemuk, Riede, Walsh, and Titze of the vocal cords of lions--and why they can roar so magnificently. (You are wondering already . . . how does that connect to HICP/EHIEP?) Simple. One key finding was that the fundamental frequency of the sound comes from the unique structure of the vocal cords, not via a signal from the brain. In other words, the big cat just "lets it go" and doesn't rip up things at the same time.

Humans can "roar" as well, with a little training. And every HICP instructor should be able to do it. In the Lessac system, the key benchmark, the "watershed" of the training, is achieved when the student can perform "the call," such as with the phrase, "Ahoy there!" It is done with complete abandon, no vocal stress and loud enough to be heard for (literally) a couple hundred meters, at least--even coming out of the most petite of bodies. It is a often a life-changing experience, one understood well by opera singers and (before the age of electronic amplification) most successful politicians.

Stressing your voice? Need a little more authority in your classroom? Have trouble getting students' attention? Try "calling" on the Lessac system, either from a licensed practitioner or get the book and do it yourself (recommended--takes about 3 months.)

The Krieger method of accent reduction

(Note: What follows should in NO way be construed as an endorsement of this linked Youtube video!)

Clip art:
Clker

I just posted this comment on another discussion board: "His claims are, of course, outlandish. But watch that video a couple of times very carefully. He has stumbled on to an essentially kinesthetic, "ballistic" technique that, for some learners, will enhance their intelligibility—if all they need is more stress contrast and processing time for their listeners. It is used in many public speaking courses, in fact."

I worked with something like that about 20 years ago. I still use it occasionally when I have a learner who needs a very quick fix —and maybe just needs to slow down and kick back." Everybody has a piece of the puzzle. In the EHIEP system we do sometimes do a haptic version of the "Krieger thrust" to affect more integration--but never up front!

Getting pronunciation out of the dictionary in 9 steps . . . for dummies!

With the development of electronic dictionaries, you'd wonder if "dead tree-tionaries" are on the verge of extinction. Not so, not quite yet. The felt sense of a good, print learner dictionary with audio file attached --and there are several on the market now-- is still preferable for most students at earlier stages of pronunciation learning, and for many long beyond that. The combination of the more accessible full visual field of the dictionary entry and the (generally) good color/font layout add considerably to the material available for good encoding and recall. Plus, the "feel" of the physical book and ability to place it in an optimal position in the visual field is hard to match at the moment electronically. (Although probably not for long!)

We have developed a haptic-based protocol for teaching students how to go to the dictionary and have a much better chance of coming away with the pronunciation, grammatical category, meaning and usage. The key, of course, is continuous haptic anchoring and sequencing--not just saying the word or words to yourself or out loud. In the "Public speaking for dummies, 2nd edition"are, in fact, all the basic elements of the protocol (interpreted with a little imagination and translation, of course!), just not quite in this order:

Clip art: Clker

(a) Identify the stressed syllable.
(b) Identify and anchor the vowel quality in the stressed syllable.
(c) Say the word out loud, anchoring the stressed vowel with emphatic (rise-fall) intonation.
(d) Anchor the grammatical category, doing the emphatic (rise-fall) statement, "It's a X!" twice.
(e) Repeat "c"
(f) Read aloud twice the meaning, using a flat, "robot-like" but good-humored, intonation contour.
(g) Repeat "c"
(h) Anchor the usage example twice with "declarative" or "rising/question" intonation, whichever is appropriate
(i) Repeat "c"one final time.

We'll be doing this next month at the Tri-TESOL conference in Washington, "Haptic Dictionary Pronunciation," and at the TESOL convention in Philadelphia next March (2012). Even if you can't join us to experience it first hand, try that 9-step haptic dance with your students. They'll get a lot out of it.

The felt sense of stress timing (Going to the mat with Pilates)

Clip art: Clker

For over a decade (during my "pre-haptic period") I had used the concept of the "upper torso nod" in various contexts to help learners get the felt sense of what the body is doing in English when it stresses words or phrases. The function of the upper torso nod is well documented in gesture and movement research. That training seems to transfer effectively into public speaking with most students, especially in preparing them to give short, focused speeches or oral reports.

The problem was always how to get the bodies to move with correct posture, efficiency and consistency so that there was as little extraneous, random gesturing or wobbling as possible--trying to appear confident and business-like while speaking. These Pilates exercises are about the best haptic grounding for the felt sense of the well executed upper torso nod that I have seen (and tried!) Try it, yourself. I'm sure you, too, will give it your (haptic) nod of approval.