Play it again, SLLP! (Avoiding the 8 deadly sins of second language learning practice)

Clip art:
Clker.com

With apologies to Humphrey Bogart, a good first question in a learner interview is something like: How do you practice your pronunciation or English? If he or she plays or has recently played a musical instrument or sang well, I will follow up with an analogous, music-based prompt. 

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Glyde at ultimate-guitar.com has a new piece on something like the "8 deadly sins of bad (guitar) practice--and how to overcome them," which applies beautifully to our work: (His specific "how to" recommendations have been omitted for the time being.)

• Playing instead of practicing guitar
• Focusing too much on new material
• Going through the motions. 
• Failure to break up large practice sessions
• Failing to avoid distractions
• Failing to avoid boring practice routines 
• Failing to set up a practice schedule
• Failing to apply what you know

Not sure that I have ever seen a better, comprehensive framework for embodied practice. I'm going to come back and look at how that approach works specifically in haptic pronunciation teaching. In the meantime, feel free to comment on any of those. 

And, if you are serious about getting even better results with a wider range of learner "styles" this year, just begin by candidly sketching out for yourself how/if your system avoids those pitfalls (or persistent SLLP ups!) -- and have a very good 2015!

 

Bill

Grow Staged (Haptic-integrated) Self-directed (language) learners

Clip art: Clker

Here is a Slideshare presentation of Grow's (1991) Staged Self-Directed Learner model. The four learner stages (dependency, interested, involved and self-directed) are matched with instructor stages (authority or coach, motivator or guide, facilitator, consultant or delegator). The EHIEP system focuses especially on the first two stages in order to enable the latter two, which are more a function of the complete language study and experience, not just pronunciation, per se. For any number of reasons, the nine basic modules of EHIEP are tightly controlled and monitored. At the conclusion of that program, at Grow's Stage Three, the learner should be well trained with a set of learning and anchoring strategies that are appropriate for both individual and classroom work.

As noted in a couple of earlier blogposts, one of the "shibboleths" or critical benchmarks of effective HICP work is what we call for lack of a better term, full-body listening. Learners consistently report that they are much better at being able to listen and "play back" what they hear, not just the words but the expressiveness involved--through their bodies. Some say it is as if the recording goes on in the chest as well as the ears. Good (haptically-integrated) pronunciation and listening is GROW'n--not just bored into being that way!

Why do "HICP-EHIEP?"

I realize that that working title for the English application may be a little hard to embrace. (Hiccuping apes, in general, do not have an easy time of it!) Here is an elaborated version of what is now in the right column.  HICP-EHIEP:

• Is a different way to learn pronunciation, based in part on Arthur Lessac’s notion of “Training the body first” 
• Looks somewhat like a combination of aerobics, sign language and Taichi 
• Provides a basic foundation for continued, self-directed pronunciation learning and classroom instruction 
• Is 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
• Can be delivered entirely through (haptic) video and (optional) web-based consultation