Enhanced courage and L2 pronunciation through acute alcohol consumption!

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Some studies are enough to drive you to drink . . . and then miss numerous unaccounted for sources of variance.

You may have seen popular commentary on this recent study, "Dutch courage? Effects of acute alcohol consumption on self-ratings and observer ratings of foreign language skills" by Renner, Kersbergen, Field, and Werthmann of the University of Liverpool, published in the Journal of Psychopharmacology.  (ScienceDaily recast the title as: "Dutch courage: Alcohol improves foreign language skills."

This study had potential. What they found, basically, was that rater evaluation of pronunciation , as opposed to overall speech production, was better but  (interestingly!) that the subjects, themselves, did not perceive their L2 speech to be better. The subjects had been provided with a pint of something a bit earlier--not the raters or the experimenters, as far as we can tell.

Another relatively interesting feature was that the evaluations were done by blindfolded judges (which in itself, may have been problematic as noted in recent blogposts here) and the speech was evaluated during dialogue (interesting, again, but not sufficiently unpacked), not just with controlled repetition in a laboratory setting as had been the case in many past studies (e.g., summary of  Guiora et al, 1972 by Ellis).

Two terminological issues:

• By "acute" the researchers indicate that it was a "low dose", one pint of 5% beer or equivalent. Now in the field of psychopharmacology that term, acute, may just mean something like "one time" or unusual. (I find conflicting opinions on that.) In normal North American English usage, of course, that usually is taken to mean something like: severe, critical, long term, etc. --or, of course, insightful, attention to detail, etc.  In Guiora, et al (1972) the alcohol dosage where the main effect was evident was at about one ounce of alcohol in a cocktail, roughly equivalent to that used in this study--but it was not described as "acute!"
•  The subjects were termed "bilingual" (absent any empirical measurement of what that meant exactly) who had learned dutch "recently", at best a loose interpretation of what "bilingual" is generally taken to mean in the field today. That proficiency question may have had significant impact on the outcome of study, in fact.

So, why was the perceived improvement in subjects' speech just in their pronunciation, not other aspects of their speech or behavior? In Guiora et al (1972), for example, to explore that effect, subjects also had to perform a motor skill task, putting shaped blocks in holes of different shapes. What they found, not surprisingly, was at the 1-ounce level, both pronunciation improved and manual dexterity declined. The "physical" correlate was clear. One of the main criticisms of that alcohol study was that the alcohol effect may have been primarily "just" loosening up of the muscles and vocal mechanism, not some more higher level cognitive functioning. (Brown, 1989, also cited in Ellis, above).

Guiora et al (1972) were ultimately looking for the impact of that effect on "language ego", perception of one's identity in the L2. In a way they found that--a correlate. It is to some extent a matter of design directionality: loosening up the body does the same to the vocal mechanism. Will it be any surprise to find out that other non-pharmacological yet still "somatic" treatments, such as hypnosis, mindfulness or simply kinaesthetic engagement, such as gestural (or even haptic) work do something similar? Not at all.

In other words, the "pharmacogs" seem to have come up with a possible explanation for a well-appreciated phenomenon: after a shot, you'll be more courageous (or foolhardy) and your L2 pronunciation will be perceived as improved as long as your date is blindfolded or the room is very dark--but you won't know it, or care . . .

A little more interdisciplinary research and theory-integration, along with more in depth concern for the relevant "cocktail cognitions" of the subjects, might have made this more a fun read. Of course, the ultimate source of insight on the effect of  alcohol will always be Brad Paisley!

Source:

Fritz Renner, Inge Kersbergen, Matt Field, Jessica Werthmann. Dutch courage? Effects of acute alcohol consumption on self-ratings and observer ratings of foreign language skills. Journal of Psychopharmacology, 2017; 026988111773568 DOI: 10.1177/0269881117735687

Power Posing as (but) feelings of confidence?

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Clker.com

There was a well-publicized study and TED talk in 2010 by Cuddy of Harvard School of Business that demonstrated that "power posing" (striking and briefly holding a confident pose) actually made you feel more confident and showed up in changed action and blood chemistry. Those findings certainly resonated with our consistent observations as to the impact of embodied, haptic pronunciation teaching.

But now comes a new study by Ranehill and colleagues at the University of Zurich, calling into question the early research, (summarized by Science Daily.com -- see full citation below) that comes to this conclusion:
"This indicates that the main influence of power poses is the fact that subjects realize that the [sic] feel more self-confident. We find no proof, however, that this has any effect on their behavior or their physiology." (Emphasis, mine!) Feelings of confidence but no observable other effects? Really?

On the face of it, the new study does seem a fair replication, except possibly for this: subjects in the first study were students in the Harvard School of Business; subjects in the second: " . . . 102 men and 98 women, most of them students from Zurich . . . " (Emphasis, mine.)

Need I pose the question?

Probably not!

Full citation:
University of Zurich. (2015, April 1). Poses of power are less powerful than we thought. ScienceDaily. Retrieved April 6, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/04/150401084325.htm

9 ways to add more confidence to your pronunciation teaching!

There have been several earlier posts focusing from different perspectives on the role of confidence in pronunciation learning and teaching. Most of the research cited involved some type of physical action or physical response that functioned to make the speaker immediately more confident. You may start off with something of a gender gap, but here are some possibilities:

• You can create "Flow-ency" using one of the AH-EPS techniques, the Rhythm Fight Club.
• You can have learners strike Amy Cuddy-like poses or just move more confidently before they start speaking.
• You can make sure that learners are well-connected to their network.
• You can do some more work on basic phonemes  . . . 

  

  Clip art: Clker/
  Library of Congress

• Learners can lower the pitch of their voices.
• You can switch to being more of a coach than a teacher.
• You can get learners to be more physical or "listen to that voice in their heads."
• Learners can go to a proposed workshop at TESOL 2015 if they are Asian female professionals with accents.
• You can, of course, just get learners to feel better about themselves . . . 

Any other suggestions to add to the list?

Power Pronunciation: Posing as a confident English speaker!

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Power your way to better pronunciation? We have been aware for some time that one of the EHIEP protocols, what we often informally refer to as the "Rhythm Fight Club," is pretty potent stuff. Learners often report that using the technique, which requires one to play the role of something of a pugilist, not only helps them to speak more rhythmically, often within a day or so, but also increases confidence. A couple have even reported that they thought it was instrumental in helping them develop more assertive personas, in general. Now we know why . . .

You may have heard about the well known work of Professor Amy Cuddy of Harvard School of Business. Here is a TED talk she gave earlier and a recent article on her by Business insider. In part because I am an avid weight lifter, I have been using power posing for some time, myself, especially when I am away from the gym.

Add haptic anchoring to Cuddy Power Posing and you have an unbeatable combination. Literally!

In fact, I just get better all the time . . .

Keep in touch.

Confident, "power" pronunciation: in 2 minutes?

Photo credit: Ted.blog.com

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Here is a 21-minute TED talk by Amy Cuddy well worth watching, "Your body language shapes who you are"--for several reasons. First, at a superficial level it seems to agree with Lessac's "Train the body first" dictum. Second, it is another example of "discovering" biochemical and neurophysiological correlates to body state changes that impact emotional or cognitive performance. Third, it is also wonderfully ethnocentric, egocentric and culturally suspect. What professor Cuddy is recommending is basically (based on what appears to be a solid, experimental, laboratory study): striking and holding a "powerful" pose for 2-minutes to both feel more like an Alpha-fe/male and at the same time boost your power-hormone, testosterone--before going into that meeting where you need to be . . . well . . .more confident and in control.

We know from past research (and this blogpost or that one) that such procedures "work" in some settings. Lessac's system involves any number of body and voice awareness and re-orientation techniques that gradually and systematically change the "vocal life" of the student. As part of a (haptic) integrated method, there is some sense in that. But listen carefully to how Cuddy contextualizes her personal experience to persuasively situate her suggestion that you simply "power up" your posture using the same experimental protocol as in her research. (Any time you see the qualifier "power" before the name of a therapy, technique or training system, step back for 2 minutes, take a deep breath and approach with extreme caution.) Given the cultures, emerging identities (and genders) in your language/pronunciation class, how would that play? Caveat emptor . . . 

Explaining the EHIEP 'haptic' system to students and colleagues

As promised, here is an updated, basic set of "elevator talking points" for introducing Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation (EHIEP):

• It's a new "haptic video" system used in ESL and EFL for teaching English pronunciation, based on extensive research in several fields and has been thoroughly classroom tested. 
• It is designed for instructors with little or no training in pronunciation teaching. For less experienced instructors, all basic instruction can be done by the instructor on the video. (Teachers and students can learn together.) 
• EHIEP uses rhythm, movement and touch along with the "aerobic-like" videos. Students move along with the model on the video as they speak and practice. 
• "Haptic-integrated" means using movement, and especially touch, to improve a student's ability to learn a new sound, remember it and recall it later. Haptic techniques are especially good for helping students more quickly learn to use what they have studied in class. 
• Any teacher can use it, can "outsource" initial pronunciation training and then follow up later using those techniques in tutoring or typical speaking and listening lessons. 
• It is based on a standard, simplified, “essential” set of pronunciation objectives.
• It is relatively inexpensive and easy to use. It requires only a good dictionary and a laptop, LDC projector or iPhone-like handheld device. 
• It is composed of: 
• 10, 20~30-minute teaching modules (best done one per week)
• 12, optional 5-minute consonant teaching mini-modules 
• 3 optional 15-minute homework mini-modules with each of the 8 modules. (Total of 24 mini-modules)  
• It is designed to work in classes of up to 50 students of any proficiency level, teenage and older. Here is a link to a video of an introduction I did for a class taught by a friend recently. One of the key objectives of the course is vocabulary so I emphasize that somewhat. Not exactly professional grade video or production, but you'll get the idea! 
• Excerpts from some of the more recent videos have been linked in previous blogposts. The entire system will be available online in late Spring 2013 and introduced through workshops in various countries and at the TESOL Convention in Dallas (along with the organizational meeting of HICPR at the convention.) The "hard media" set of videos will be available about that time as well. 
• In the interim, if you are interested in field testing a module in your class, get "in touch!." (wracton@gmail.com.)

Confident, successful pronunciation?

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Yet another potential piece for your "Well . . . duh!" file. The term "self confidence" and "pronunciation" are commonly associated, getting over 1,000,000 hits on Google . . . For example, in this introduction to a short piece by Shelly Vernon, the website ESLBase.com begins like this: "Do you avoid teaching pronunciation in your classroom? In this article, Shelley Vernon suggests going right back to the level of the phoneme to build learners' confidence." (Bold face, mine.) Now although implying it perhaps, Vernon never actually says that explicitly in the article. I do like that point of departure, nonetheless.

In a research report, entitled "Minority Report" about to be published (with apologies to the real Minority Report, one of my favorite movies), however, one of the findings may relate to the impact of confidence "on the job" --seemingly supporting Vernon's perspective. In a Science Daily summary, Hasmath and colleagues at the University of Melbourne report " . . . a strong correlation between confidence and occupational success." There are several other tidbits included such as one referring back to earlier studies suggesting height and attractiveness may also contribute to confidence or

 " . . . that workers who described themselves as 'extroverted', 'neurotic', 'open to experiences' or 'agreeable' (standard indicators of conscientiousness) were also found to be more motivated, and doing well professionally." And then the pies de resistance: "Interestingly, members of visible ethnic minorities reported lower rates of confidence, but similar levels of conscientiousness . . . This may partially explain why their wages and rates of advancement are consistently lower than members of a non-visible ethnic minority."

Where to begin . . . psychotherapy, obedience training, elevator shoes, cosmetics or phonemes? 

IN-"gendering" confidence before HICP work?

So, how's this for a conclusion to a study by Estes of the University of Warwick and Felker of the University of Georgia, summarized by Science Daily:

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 "Our research suggests that by making a woman feel better about herself, she'll become better at spatial tasks -- which in the real world means tasks such as parking the car or reading a map.So a little bit of confidence-boosting may go a long way when it comes to reversing the car into a tight parking spot."

In our work more women than men do have difficulty with the visual field framework  . . . of course in the field there seem to be about 5X as many women, at least in North America! Who'd a thought that all we'd need is some self-image work and a little extravagant praise to bridge the "spatial gap?" Try that first chance you get! If you are a non-male, I know you can do it! If you doubt me, try this app (one of my favorites, by the way) for a couple of days!