Bill Acton's Embodiment Blog: running

Showing posts with label running. Show all posts

Friday, February 13, 2026

My chiropractor's brilliant analogical endorsement of (web-based) Identity protection by professionals!

I have been at war with gravity for the last 30 years or so, constantly pounding away at every joint in my spine hips and legs on every run. Now over 80, I still run about 20 miles a week, but I can only keep going by dropping in on my neighborhood chiropractor once a month or so to get a few spots untangled and loosened up. Nothing I can really do myself now, after all the years of broken, strained, ripped and contused key moving parts.

Today, after another amazing session, I remarked to him that I have given up on trying to keep it all functioning well enough to be competitive myself. He turned to me, laughed and said, he didn't know any professional like himself who is very active like me, who would ever try to "do it himself," either. He has a colleague who reciprocates, keeping him aligned and in balance in exchange for doing the same for him regularly.

When you get to or strive for optimal functioning, or . .. running, you need a professional with you, a coach or . . . chiropractor!

Got that? The same applies today when it comes to protecting yourself and family from AI-generated deep fakes and scams. I don't have the time or expertise to manage my identity adequately online anymore, and you probably don't either -- something far more eomplex than just keeping me running, literally or figuratively. And it is affordable.

Get on this immediately, my friend. I'm with one of the most well established and best, IDShield, but be happy to point you at a better fit for you, personally, from the other top systems on the market, if necessary.

Bill

wracton@gmail.com www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com

Here are links to a few recent blogposts I've been doing that lay out the basics and data on where we are today:

AI Deep Fakes: Is that really you, Mom? (and how to counter them!)

An AI Scam Wiped Out Her Retirement at 82. How Safe Are You?

20 reasons that I invite educators to join me with Legalshield!

20 reasons that you should subscribe to Legalshield!

Responding to the inevitability of universal, global digital IDs

No Fear! (or AI PHOBIA! ) Thumbnail sketches of seven worldview's ways of coping

AI's (Perplexity) Guides to dealing with AI-enhanced fraud and scams: General, Christian, Muslim, Atheist/secular humanist, "Senior Citizen," and Japanese Buddhist/Shinto approaches

Clker,com

The Hell-O Here After AI Jimmy Buffett Talking Blues

A-Crock: The Replika AI Companion Chat Bot Talkin’ Blues

An ambivalent octogenarian take: The talkin' good mornin' AI chat bot blues!

Loverly AI Ambivalence Waltz lyrics

Saturday, October 29, 2022

"Breathtaking" running and (haptic pronunciation) teaching!

Caveat emptor: Being a runner, I tend to find research "on the run" first which I "test" during my morning 5k and then often gets applied to (haptic) pronunciation teaching and beyond. Here is a great piece unpacking the role of breathing from several perspectives: Breath Tools: A Synthesis of Evidence-Based Breathing Strategies to Enhance Human Running, by Harbour et al.,published in Frontiers in Physiology summarized by Neurosciencenews.com. If your running or teaching needs an immediate boost, there is a great place to . . . run to!

息 Breathing, in many species, including us, has been shown to have a myriad of functions and potential benefits, one of them, the coordination of breathing with gesture related to utterance of sounds as in stressed or emphasized words. In principle, anytime we require a gesture to be synchronized with a sound, taking a breath either fully or in shallow manner prior to the gesture is almost inevitable and unavoidable.

息 In Pouw and Fuchs (2022).“Origins of vocal-entangled gesture,” we see the inseparable linkage and
"co-development" over time evident between language, thought and gesture. From a functional perspective their perspective that at any moment in time when a thought, word or gesture is realized, all three had in effect emanated from the same point of origin in the brain and remain very much connected neurophysiologically (and conceptually.) In other words, to affect one dimension is to touch or move the other two (including breathing)--our human, ad hoc analytic systems and intuitions not withstanding.

息 In KINETIK and haptic pronunciation teaching, in many contexts, we focus learners attention on the breath and general upper torso movement accompanying the breath, as the diaphragm drops, drawing the air in and chest up toward the shoulders, expands. (The shoulders do NOT rise, but remain relaxed.) One purpose is, of course, to capture the learners attention and focus on the task, but, of course, other systems are affected and engaged accordingly. Memory for what is in focus improves, gestures become better defined and synchronized with the words or processes involved, and, consistently, learners become better at alternating between high focus and "relaxed alertness." It is almost, well . . . breathtaking, moment by moment.

Source:

Harbour E, Stöggl T, Schwameder H and Finkenzeller T (2022) Breath Tools: A Synthesis of Evidence-Based Breathing Strategies to Enhance Human Running. Front. Physiol. 13:813243. doi: 10.3389/fphys.2022.813243

Pouw. W. and Fuchs, S. (2022).“Origins of vocal-entangled gesture” Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 141, October 2022, 104836 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2022.104836

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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.)