Using gesture and movement to avoid "Pop Outs" in (pronunciation) teaching!

I like this study. One of the biggest obstacles in effective teaching (of anything) are sudden distractions, when what should have "popped in" easily in a lesson . . . doesn't . . . because of what just "popped out or up." Interesting piece of research by Klink et al,  on visual distraction--and a potential strategy for dealing with it, summarized by Neurosciencenews.com, Trained Brains Rapidly Suppress Visual Distractions. Title of the original study, published on PNAS: Inversion of pop-out for a distracting feature dimension in monkey visual cortex, (Ignore that term "monkey" in the original there!)

In essence the "subjects" were trained as followed (from the summary):

"The researchers trained monkeys to play a video game in which they searched for a unique shape among multiple items, while a uniquely colored item tried to distract them. As soon as the monkeys found the unique shape, they made an eye movement to it to indicate their choice. After some training, monkeys became very good at this game and almost never made eye movements to the distractor."

So what is a potential application of that "discovery" in teaching? What visual distractions are your students subject to in the classroom? On a task by task basis, how do you maintain student attention to the focus of the activity? 

For example, in haptic pronunciation teaching, instructor and students do a great deal of repeating words, phrases, sentences and dialogues together (not repeating after) while using speech-synchronized gestures continuously. In this choreographed technique, what we call "movement, tone and touch techniques" (MT3s) it is essential that instructor and student gesturing is constantly synchronized, throughout. You can "SEE" just how disruptive a visual distraction in the room in the visual fields of students could be. 

On the flip side, however, you can also "SEE" how MT3 training, itself--or even typical gesture use in teaching or communication, whether designed or impromptu, can, in principle, serve to enhance general visual attention in the classroom. 

How free of distraction or immune to it is the visual field in your classroom? Can you manage it better, more "movingly?" 

Source: Klink, P., Teeuwen, R., Lorteije, J. and P. Roelfsema. (2023). Inversion of pop-out for a distracting feature dimension in monkey visual cortex. PNAS February 22, 2023  https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2210839120

Why haptic pronunciation teaching should be seen as more "memorable!"

(Eye) moving study by Johansson, Nystrom, Dewhurst and Johansson of Lund University, entitled, 
"Eye-movement replay supports episodic remembering." The idea that our eyes may move in the same or similar pattern or path in recalling an event that they experienced earlier when the even occurred has been recognized for several decades, used in various therapeutic applications and has been reported in several earlier blog posts over the last decade. 

This research study provides new, strong empirical confirmation of that underlying process. Subjects' eye tracking was recorded as they were shown various configurations of objects and asked to search out specific features. When later asked to recall details from that earlier phase, the eyes in effect closely "retraced" the paths used initially.  The implications are striking, even for haptic pronunciation work (KINETIK), which, itself, was inspired by the work of Bradshaw and colleagues in developing Observed Experiential Observation (OEI) therapy.

In the KINETIK English Fluency and Pronunciation System, sounds and words or phrases to be remembered are introduced and later recalled, associated with dynamic gestural patterns, accompanied by touch across that are performed in various locations in the visual field of the learner--either by the instructor, the learner or by both, simultaneously. (See examples of what are termed: movement, tone and touch techniques, from an earlier, version 4.5, of haptic pronunciation teaching.) After about 15 years of work, developing and teaching with the KINETIK Method, clearly the "eyes have it!" There are many well-established techniques and methods in various fields that involve synchronization of movement and speech and prompted recall, such as the Total Physical Response Method of language teaching. This research provides further justification for such embodied approaches. 

Speaking of, KINETIK v6.0 will be available for classroom use beginning this fall. More details will be available shortly, but if you would like to check out the general format of the courses, go here!

And, of course, Keep in Touch!

Published:15 June 2022https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2022.0964

"Content-Based Haptic Oral Reading: Enhanced Memory for Text and Pronunciation,":

Workshop to be presented at the TESOL Convention, Wednesday, 23 March, 14:00-15:45 US EST in Room 333 at The David L. Lawrence Convention Center. 

Here is the summary and the proposal: 

This workshop presents an innovative technique, the haptic, embodied oral reading, based on use of adjusted or enhanced targeted language present within typical, written course content or a structured “recast” of spontaneous classroom conversation. The procedure, relying on special gestures and touch, is applicable to learners of all proficiency levels.

Abstract:

Oral reading in its various incarnations may be the oldest and still most frequently employed language teaching and literacy development technique, for both learning and testing. For some learners and classroom contexts, reading out loud can be effective; for others, its applicability is limited. Its place in literacy and early reading instruction with children is well established, unequivocal. Although research on the efficacy of oral reading in language instruction with adult skill development is mixed, it is still seen as essential in oral proficiency testing. The “problem” with oral reading, in part, is that, unless done with attention to more than simply reading the text out loud, there is little empirical evidence that much is gained by the exercise.

This workshop focuses on “embodied” oral reading, that is the practice of performing an oral reading of a “regular” course text excerpt or stretch of spontaneous conversation, such that (a) the rhythm and stress grouping/structure is identified prior to the actual oral reading of the text. Next, (b) some feature of the text, such as intonation or a problematic consonant is briefly “adjusted” or modified. And (c) finally that stretch of speech (typically between 10 and 50 words) is read out loud, synchronized with some type of fluency-oriented gesture, such touching hands on the stressed words in the rhythm groups, creating a more memorable, fluent and semantically anchored experience for the learner, encouraging integration of the adjusted content material.

Becoming a great (haptic), "good looking" pronunciation teacher: Modeling

If your are in the Vancouver, British Columbia next month, join us at the joint 2020 BCTEAL and Image Conference. Always a great get together.

If you haven't done a video of yourself teaching in the last couple of years, you might do that before you read the rest of this post. Better still, doing pronunciation or conversation work where you, up front, are providing at least some of the pronunciation models. (I have a rubric for that for my grad students. If you'd like a copy, email me.) 

I'll be doing a new workshop, "Modeling and correcting pronunciation in and out of class," based on the idea that as an instructor, really any kind, but especially one doing (haptic) pronunciation, your dynamic pedagogical body image (DPBI) e.g., Iverson, 2012, your visual model, your physical presence, movement and gesture in the classroom, from several perspectives, are worth considering carefully. How you dress, your pronunciation and accent, the coordination of your speech with your overall body movement in providing models of language and general postural presentation, all have meaning. When, as in haptic pronunciation work, you are asking students to synchronize some of their speech and gesture with yours, the nature of what is in front of them visually, can obviously contribute to or detract from instructional effectiveness.

In haptic work, in principle, all aspects of pronunciation can be represented/portrayed or embodied using gesture and body movement. From that perspective then, just modeling a word, or phrase or clause, or passage, involves choreography, demonstrating both the sound but also the gestural complex that represents it. (to see examples of the earlier v4.5 version of the haptic system, check out the models on the website).

The same goes for in-class correction or required homework on the form attended to in class or self-correction by the student. The instructor may present the more appropriate form first, choreographed, and then have the student or students "do" the targeted piece of language/text together (never "repeat after me", always "let's do that together.") All key, necessary pronunciation work is to be embedded, practiced, synchronized with gesture for at least a week or so as homework to insure some degree of anchoring in memory and spontaneous speaking, or at least aural comprehension.

For most kinds of instruction what you look like and how you move can be pretty much irrelevant--one of the reasons I love online teaching!!! For some, however, it does, even if it means just cutting down on "clutter" in the visual field up front.

v5.0 will be out before long. This is, nonetheless, a good first step . . . continually taking a "good look" up front at the dynamic model you are providing for your students, and yourself.

Dance your way to better classroom management (and pronunciation teaching)?

Clip art:
Clker.com

Here is a moving study--especially if you are a dancer or dance fan (of which I count myself a member) --summarized by ScienceDaily, conducted by Hujala, Laulainen and Kokkonen of the University of Eastern Finland: "Manager's dance: reflecting management interaction through creative movement," published in the International Journal of Work Organisation and Emotion. 

The researchers' methodology and conclusion, excerpted from the abstract on Inderscience.com: (To buy this piece would cost $41 CAD, or about 8 Vente Carmel Frappuccinos, so we'll just have to go with what we have here!)

"Four managers and three researchers participated in two creative dance sessions with a dance pedagogue. The sessions were videotaped, and the visual material and reflections of participants were used in the interpretation. The use of creative movement 'revealed' unconscious dimensions of behaviour and the relevance of feelings in management interaction. In addition, the therapeutic outcomes appeared to be an essential part of the study for the participants."

Here is what ScienceDaily pulled from the study (boldface, mine):

"They suggest that creative movement harnessing the whole body may give rise to new knowledge about management interactions. Most intriguingly, they suggest that a person's dance moves might reveal unconscious and unnoticed thoughts about their life and their position in the workplace and so highlight the aesthetic and embodied dimensions of management."

We often characterize what we do in haptic pronunciation teaching as a kind of dance, where instructor and learner move together as they work on new or "correctable" sounds, as if in synchronized dance across the room from each other. We have not, however, formally looked at the class management side of what is going on, that is exerting control over the "whole bodies" of learners as we do that.

The methodology seems pretty straightforward (from what we can get from the abstract). Might be a bit uncomfortable for some, to sit and watch videos of themselves teaching, talking about their feelings during synchronized "haptic dance" and how they managed it, but to paraphrase Garth Brooks, to avoid the "pain" might be to miss the "dance!"

Keep in touch.

Full citation:

Inderscience. (2014, March 6). Hey, boss! Lose yourself to dance, know yourself better. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 9, 2015 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/03/140306093615.htm

(Haptic) pair-a-linguistic pronunciation teaching

Clip art: Clker

Saw a recent discussion thread that (incorrectly) identified gesture as a paralinguistic feature of speech. That term, paralanguage, typically refers to pitch, loudness, rate and fluency. Gesture or body movement may be synchronized with speech in a way that it can reflect some aspect of paralanguage, as in when arm gesticulating is coordinated with the stress or rhythm pattern, such that a baton-like gesture comes down on key points for emphasis in a lecture, etc.

Actually, I like that idea, combing or pairing (haptic-anchored) gesture with paralanguage. In EHIEP work we do something of that with pitch, rate and fluency, using special gestures terminating in touch, what we refer to as pedagogical movement patterns (PMPs), that function to control those three features of speech in various ways (typically done in either modelling or error correction or expressive oral reading of fixed texts). To see a demonstration of each go to the Demo page on the AH-EPS website:

pitch - the Expressiveness PMP
rate - the Rhythm Fight Club PMP
fluency - the Tai Chi Fluency PMP

We have yet to figure out an effective PMP for loudness. If you can think of one . . . give us a shout!

Keep in touch.

You can't beat (?) Haptic pronunciation teaching!

A sometimes accurate predictor of a student's ability to catch on to haptic or kinaesthetic teaching is the "baton beat" test. In essence, all the learner needs to do is read aloud a printed dialogue with some words marked in boldface while (a) holding a baton in his or her left hand and (b) tapping the right palm with the baton on the boldfaced words as they are said. (It is not easy; try it!) Some do find it to be exceedingly easy; others couldn't do it well even if their life depended on it. 

Clip art: Clker

In a 2013 study by Tierney and Kraus of Northwestern University, summarized by Science Daily, it was demonstrated that, "People who are better able to move to a beat show more consistent brain responses to speech than those with less rhythm." The review goes on to suggest that rhythmic work may enhance the brain's response to language. Really?

What we do know is that the "baton test," when administered after a couple of months of haptic-integrated pronunciation training, goes much better for most students, demonstrating more fluid upper body motion and speech synchronized gesture. (One of the last techniques in the AH-EPS curriculum is the "Baton Integration Protocol," in fact.) 

You can't beat haptic pronunciation teaching. 

Keep in touch.  

Great moments in pronunciation teaching - "Undercover" haptic burqa work!

Photo credit: socialphy.com

I'm sure that at least some of you have encountered this potential problem. You walk into a room to do some pronunciation work and discover that a significant number of the students are wearing a burqa. That happened to me recently doing 2-hour workshops on basics of haptic pronunciation teaching. The "students" were experienced or in-training teachers. I have often commented that Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation (EHIEP) can be especially effective in large classes where you cannot see the lips or even the faces of students clearly. The gestures themselves, in essence, grab hold of the vocal apparatus and guide the learner's facial muscles, jaw, diaphragm and vocal cords in approximating the target sounds. This was a good field test of that idea.

In that 2-hour workshop format, I did a general orientation to a haptic (gesture + touch) approach to English pronunciation, including: (a) a warm up, (b) lax vowels, (c) tense vowels, (d) tense vowels w/off glides and diphthongs, (e) basic English rhythm, and (f) basic English intonation. For all 6 of those topics, the pedagogical movement patterns (PMP) related to sounds or sound patterns are done with arms and hands touching such that the contrast between any two sounds or sound patterns is both physically and visually very distinct.

All burqas involved snug wrist bands that kept the lower arms of the student covered, even when reaching above the head. The visual effect of several covered students following the PMPs during the session, the synchronized, flowing black burqas was stunning. The degree of abandon in moving with the exercises evidenced by some of them was very much unexpected.

In retrospect, it really shouldn't have been. From both inside and outside the burqa, the attention to motion and touch, not just rich, resonant articulation of the sounds, seemed to be greatly enhanced. For whatever reason, they seemed to readily and enthusiastically "get" or (to use our favourite haptic metaphor) "grasp" what the system was about and its potential application to modelling. anchoring vocabulary and correcting student pronunciation.

Obviously have do more research on what is behind the "haptic burqa" effect!

Haptic pronunciation teaching as theatre, Part Two: EXPRESSIVE

This is Part Two of two that explores how to understand EHIEP and AH-EPS training, based on the Association of Theatre Movement Educators (ATME) characterization of both the physical and expressive dimensions of movement training.

I have excerpted out the basic focus of the four features of theatre movement related to "expressiveness" that follow and have inserted in italics after each one the relevance to haptic pronunciation teaching (HPT): 

• . . . use of the body as an instrument of perception and expression . . . (In addition to enhancing general expressiveness, HPT creates in the learner the ability to "record" and recall words, phrases and sentences based on what it feels like to articulate them and what body movement accompanies each, what is often termed, kinaesthetic memory) 
• . . . externalize and communicate . . . inner state through movement . . . (Any sound or group of sounds can be represented using speech-synchronized gesture systematically in the visual field, terminating in hands touching on the focal or stressed syllable)
• . . . concentration, observation, and sensitivity to others . . . (Perhaps the most striking effect of haptic pronunciation training is the management of attention, if only for brief periods of time, to concentrate on the target sound or word.)



AMPISys, Inc.

• . . . skill, confidence and freedom of expression . . . (Public speaking instructors are generally good at using movement and body-based techniques to promote a feeling of confidence and greater expressiveness. Learners doing EHIEP consistently report increased confidence in speaking and ability to express their feelings more effectively.)

In search of a "touch" for pronunciation teaching

Scott Thornbury, of the New School, recently gave a plenary at TESOL-Spain that at least had a great title: The Human Touch: How we learn with our bodies. (His blog, An A-Z of ELT, is a good read; one of his 2010 posts on embodied cognition I have linked to earlier.) From the abstract, it is clear that the "touch" in "human touch" is the more general, metaphorical use of the word, although the tactile dimension will certainly figure into his comments, particularly as developments in this area have begun linking more and more to the neurophysicality of touch (See earlier blog on the texture of touch in haptic pronunciation work, for example.) Hopefully we can get access to the text or video of the plenary. Thornbury is always a "moving" speaker.

In HICP work the application of touch, within the larger notion of embodied cognition,  is in connecting vocal resonance with some type of pedagogical gesture, what we call: pedagogical movement patterns. For some time I had been puzzled as to why there wasn't more--or much of any--research on the use of touch in teaching, distinct from movement and gesture in general.

Clip art: Clker

What I have only recently discovered, in preliminary "re-reviews" of some seminal gestural research is that touch, as a component of gesture, is often reported almost as an aside or simple descriptor in studies of gesture-synchronized learning or vocal production. In other words, some gestures involve touch; some do not. (One of the early influences on the development of HICP was the observation that in American Sign Language (ASL) the predominance of signs that carry high emotional loading also tend to involve touch.)

In other words, interesting "data" on the effect of touch within gestural systems seems to be there, buried in earlier research. As far as I can tell, it has for the most part just not been isolated and examined as a relevant variable in learning or expression. My current research reanalyzing earlier language-teaching related gestural studies already shows promise. (More on that in subsequent blogposts and other publications, I'm sure!)  If you know of published research that unpacks that role of touch, please link it here! In the meantime, KIT!

More hard hitting evidence as to why haptic pronunciation teaching has so much punch!

Clip art by

Clker

This is really cool. At the BC TEAL conference on Saturday we'll be doing a presentation on the neurological case for why haptic pronunciation teaching works. This will be one of the highlighted studies. First check out this AH-EPS video and then review this summary of research by Propper, McGraw, Brunye and Weiss of Montclair State University, published in PLos ONE, as reported by Science Daily. In essence, the study found that subjects could remember words better if they just clenched their right fist after concentrating on them. It is a bit simplistic and leaves open some obvious loose ends, but it certainly works for us! An earlier study (also summarized by Science Daily), reported earlier on this blog, found that clenching your left hand keeps you from clenching under pressure as well. (Clench both and you are unbeatable?)

The Rhythm Fight Club, the one in the Vimeo video, from the time it was created in 2007, has been the most immediately effective of the AH-EPS pedagogical movement patterns in the system. It looks now like the entire AH-EPS system, including the "knock out" Rhythm Fight Club, will be available for purchase in about a month. Check the new AH-EPS page or the ESLEnglish feature on AH-EPS occasionally. Even better, please go there and LIKE the  page so we can get the word out more successfully.

Mimic movement and pronunciation? Not always your cup of coffee!

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

That's right. Observed a great example of that recently at a conference. According to research by Ondobaka, de Lange, Wiemers, and Bekkering of University of Nijmegen, and Newman-Norlund of the University of South Carolina, summarized by Science Daily, it only works if your students have the same goals that you do: "If you and I both want to drink coffee, it would be good for me to synchronize my movement with yours  . . . but if you're going for a walk and I need coffee, it wouldn't make sense to be coupled on this movement level." Hmm. I can see where not being "coupled" might not facilitate a walk, but how about the impact of the same effect in pronunciation instruction, especially kinaesthetic or haptic-integrated work?

Previous blogposts have looked at a range of factors that may affect effectiveness of mirroring of pedagogical movement patterns, from personality, cognitive preferences and clutter in the visual field, to lack of achievable objectives. Orienting learners (and instructors) to why they should consistently "dance along with" the EHIEP  model on the video--or even the usual practice of mirroring videotaped conversations for fluency, is critical.

As one participant at our workshop commented, "This stuff is paradigm shifting!" (A common response, of course!)  Another participant, however, one who came in late and missed hearing the theory and "goals" of the workshop and left early, had a very different take. Later he told me apologetically--in part by his clearly unambiguous, uncoupled paralanguage over coffee--that it made "absolutely no sense, whatsoever" to him without "getting it all," up front. Q.E.D. (quod erat (non) demonstrandum), so to speak!

Teach rhythm before pronunciation, Baby!

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: CLker

Think that it is time we extracted "rhythm" from the concept of "pronunciation."  Whenever pronunciation priorities  are mentioned, the usual follow on is "rhythm, stress and intonation--and segmentals, of course." Now why "rhythm" should appear first has only to do with certain phonaesthetic and phonotactic rules of English, certainly not based on real practices in the field. Were that the case, the order would probably be more like: stress, intonation, segmentals--and rhythm, if at all. According to new research by Zentner and Eerola, reported by Science Daily, babies, it turns out, have it right, however: " . . . that infants respond to the rhythm and tempo of music and find it more engaging than speech . . ." and " . . . the better the children were able to synchronize their movements with the music the more they smiled." Will one of us please do a study on how rhythm is taught in pronunciation work and language teaching in general? There are, of course, any number of systems that foreground rhythm to varying degrees, especially in working with children, but few with adults, other than recommendations for doing songs, jazz chants, poetry, etc., occasionally--and procedures that focus on analysis of rhythm grouping and listening activities to identify rhythm grouping in speech (all very valuable contributions, nonetheless.) But the idea of systematically establishing rhythm up front first is, for the most part, absent--with a few obvious exceptions such as Chela-florez 1997--one of my very favorites, by the way, which almost gets there but stops short of providing an easily adoptable system of kinaesthetic or haptic anchoring. (I won't bother mentioning how the EHIEP system attempts to do it right . . . ) Just the idea of starting out each pronunciation "inter-diction" (doing a quick, impromptu pronunciation focus during speaking instruction for correction or modelling or anchoring, for example) by doing a little taiko-drum-accompanied dance work would at least be enough to make students smile apparently . . . 

Getting a Beckham-like "kick" out of pronunciation

Clipart: Clker

Clipart: Clker

A group of physics students at Leicester University have figured out how Beckham was able to execute those incredible bending shots on goal. What the group found, the formula they derived (with a little analogical, creative liberty) extends to anchoring (making a change stick) in haptic-integrated pronunciation instruction: My HICP interpretations are in italics.

• The distance a ball bends (D) - the success of the anchoring experience
• as a result of this force (the contact, the kick) - the intensity or "stickiness" of the haptic anchor
• is related to the ball's radius (R) - the size/scope of the anchoring experience, both in time and size
• the density of air (ρ) - the resistance to learning in the individual or in the class
• the ball's angular velocity (ω) - the evidence of cognitive and somatic engagement in anchoring
• it's velocity through the air (v) - the residual, felt sense of the anchoring as it is enacted
• it's mass (m) - the size and emotional relevance of the target being anchored
• and the distance travelled by the ball in the direction it was kicked (x) - the amount of context and connectedness that is accessed during the anchoring

That is, of course, actually a very good framework or set of parameters for assessing the nature and potential efficacy of an anchor in any type of training, not just pronunciation. In HICP, for example, that might mean, a pedagogical movement pattern which accompanies the overt pronunciation of a word with changed vowels, consonants or stress pattern. What a kick!

Connecting sound and gesture in pronunciation teaching

Clipart: Clker

Clipart: Clker

Explaining how gesture can facilitate learning of sound and how sound, in turn, can be associated with gesture is not easy. For some, just "explaining" it experientially by leading them through a few basic protocols is sufficient. In doing workshops (like the most recent one) there will always be a group of relatively experienced instructors who for any number of reasons seem to "get it" it quickly. (Students, in general, get it immediately, regardless!) For those with no background in pronunciation teaching, who are just by nature more highly "pre-frontal" (requiring a great deal of explicit, systematic rationale before buying a new technique) or who are just not very "gesticular," more is required. Have been looking for a relatively recent research summary article or two that I can point to that makes the case  persuasively. Found a couple. This one, from 2008 by Kelly, Manning and Rodak, and this one, from 2005 by Empkin, Cramer and Reikinsmeyer will serve for the time being. The former, although not from a refereed journal, provides a very nice overview of research (and some application) on the relationship between gesture and language. The latter, a report on a research project looking at the effect of haptic guidance on learning of movement, demonstrates clearly what touch contributes to the process. (There are several other similar studies reported here on the blog in the past year.) Until we get some controlled, empirical studies of the efficacy of the EHIEP protocols, inferential evidence such as this and anecdotal reports from classroom trials--along with experiential, participatory demonstrations--will have to suffice. Beginning soon, I am going to begin posting reports from colleagues, "Hapticians" who use EHIEP protocols in their classrooms, along with a bit of theoretical commentary. (Or I may start another blog for that purpose, as noted earlier.) Keep in touch. 

Pronunciation "Vowel-age"

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Caveat emptor: This is a long post. Turn back now, O ye of little faith or short concentration span--or those who find discussion of bodily energy fields disorienting or otherwise!

As described in earlier posts, the types of vowels in the EHIEP system are characterized using "textural" terms, for example: "rough" (for lax vowels), "smooth" (for tense vowels), smooth-dynamic (for diphthongs) and "rough-dynamic" (for lengthened lax vowels preceding voiced consonants.) General phonetic descriptions of English consonants often use terms with obvious "textural" qualities such as fricatives, affricates, liquids, glides, etc.

 Within each of those vowel types, the felt sense of different vowels can be productively described for students in terms of a system or circuit of energy flow, intensity or "voltage," (aka "vowel-age!") in several senses. (There are some other "mystical" senses as well which will be avoided here, of course!)  The configuration or locations of the vowels in the visual field (a general mirror image of the IPA vowel chart for English) involves a set of nodes, one for each vowel, where the hands touch on prominent syllables.

Each node represents a point in the visual space in front of them where the nexus of texture, intensity (voltage) and vowel formants (resonance) of the vowel (and/or word) are anchored.  The analogy I have often used is Kirchoff's circuit laws: (a) the total energy going into a node in a circuit is equal to that leaving it. (A node does not absorb energy, only transfers for redirects it.) and (b) the sum of voltage around a closed system is zero.

The analogy to EHIEP work, taken largely from Lessac, for the learner is this: First, voltage or energy is redirected, expended and captured by performing a pedagogical movement pattern. The action is both communicative and energizing. (You use energy and intensity to perform/say the vowel but it is simultaneously "replaced" or balanced by the voltage experienced and "stored" in anchoring in memory.) Second, although different vowels have different inherent "vowel-ages" or vividness (see posts on the inherent phonaesthetics of vowels, for example, this recent one), the key is to experience them as a system, a whole, not as individual, isolated elements.

That is especially important when the learner's L1 appears to have vowels similar to the L2. One way to demonstrate that, for example, is to do a vocalizing "tour" of the "universal" vowel space, moving a hand slowing throughout as the vowel quality changes accordingly--done admirably by Professor Higgins in My Fair Lady, of course! So check your "vowel-age" regularly. It is certainly worth the time--and energy!

Body movement on tonic stress and emphasis

In this 2009 study in the Journal of Nonverbal Behaviour, Bull and Connelly make a striking observation about the relationship between emphasis and tonic (word or phrasal) stress in English as expressed paralinguistically by native speakers. In essence, some kind of synchronized body movement was (visually) evident on most tonic syllables in the study. Emphasis, on the other hand, tended to be evident in more exaggerated head and arm movement, mapped onto tonic syllables. What it points to is the felt sense of English rhythm: moving along with and on tonic syllables, most of that grounded in subtle (or not so subtle) upper torso nods or movement generated in part by the diaphragm contracting and pushing more air "up" on stressed vowels. So, does it make sense in EHIEP work to practice haptically-integrated rhythm groups (with some kind of touch located on the tonic syllable)? It does from a couple of perspectives, in fact. First, it anchors the stressed element of the word or phrase. Second, most of the pedagogical movement patterns are designed to be synced with a slight head nod and upper torso nod--although the explicit focus is only on the arm movement and hands touching. (In some cases, the PMP is preceded by explicit "breathe in" and executed with controlled exhaling of air as well.) I cannot emphasize enough how effective that anchoring can be. Tonic syllables are definitely worth stressing (and moving) over!

The secret to sticking 3-second pronunciation anchoring: timing

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

A favorite quote from another of my heroes, Robert Reed, former forward for the Houston Rockets pro basketball team: "There are 3 secrets to success in basketball: Timing, timing and timing." In a comment to the previous post on visual anchoring, Smith points to the critical role of timing in multiple-modality instruction. To get the perfect picture of timing, leave it to a pro--like Reed! What could be a better source than a 1.25 minute Youtube training video on learning how to "stick" a free throw? (If due to lack of experiential grounding on the court your mirror neurons don't instantly get the analogy, try reliving an intricate, "Wowee!" Texas 2-step move with your BFF, effortlessly driving a ball 10 yards further than ever previously off the first tee, or sliding an absolutely perfect omelet into the middle a romantic breakfast made in heaven . . . ) Timing. Notice the principles laid out in the video: (a) "physical mechanics, mental mechanics, rhythm and timing" (b) minimizing movement--which minimizes the chance of error, and (c) timing to maximize consistency. Next, the steps: (a) Complete pre-shot routine, (b) Take a deep breath, (c) Do the shot in 3-seconds (See blogpost before last!), which involves three distinct movements (elbow positioning, knee bend and follow through.) That basic framework "works" for almost any HICP pedagogical movement pattern as well: Focus (mental and eye fixation)--Breathe in--Hand positioning--Breathe out and Move one hand across the visual field--and Touch and follow through, in 3 seconds! Put that on your Swish! list!

An "object lesson" in the use of gesture in pronunciation teaching

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

Forgive the lame double entendre in the title of the blogpost--there is, nonetheless, a potentially useful finding (or insight) in this recent research on the interrelation between gesture and speech. (The equally lame title of the Science Dailey summary, "Gestures fulfill a big role in language," also does not do justice to the importance what is being investigated!) Although there have been numerous other studies that have explored the role of gesture in communication and the brain, this one highlights a slightly different perspective--which I like: the brain tends to expect speech to accompany gesture except when the hand is holding or manipulating an object. In pronunciation work the use of gadgets, machines and other "tools" is common place. For years I was an enthusiastic applier of many of them: rubber bands, balls, batons, pencils, boxing gloves, kazoos, sticks (some of which I still use occasionally), red gloves that look like tongues, plastic sink traps that go from mouth to ear, bananas, cuisenaire rods, marbles, plastic earthworms, juice harps, slide whistles, bongo drums, xylophones, desk tops, etc. As noted in earlier blogposts, even clapping hands in doing rhythm work may not be all that effective or efficient. (In EHIEP instruction, the use of objects is extremely limited, except in the case of initial focus on some problematic consonants.) If it is the case, that linking speech with objects may work against our natural neurological wiring, that touching an object in effect may serve to partially "ground out" auditory processing and memory, what might that imply for pronunciation teaching? Using such paraphernalia may be, at best,  little more than a gesture . . . 

Shall we "Pronance?" (Leading your class to better pronunciation)

Clip art: Clker

Now there (with a little cross-lingual liberty) is a term perhaps we could use: "Pronance" (French for second-person singular imperative of prononcer meaning: Strongly marked; decided, as in manners, etc.), something of a portmanteau of "dance" and "pronounce!" 

What an apt description of the leading and following involved in working with pedagogical movement patterns in HICP instruction. (Forgive the possibly excessive use of Wikipedia there . . . ) I especially like the sense of being clearly marked . . . as in (nonverbal) manners as it relates to anchoring. From pair dance theory, the three terms "compression, leverage and tension" can also be used to characterize the process of "conducting" the warm up and haptic-integrated anchoring procedures. In essence, the three refer to "moving toward, moving laterally and moving away from." Earlier posts have looked at pair dancing as a haptic practice. 

Given all the evidence from recent research that the brain makes relatively little distinction at some level between tactile and visual (and haptic cinema!), techniques where the instructor is leading from across the room--generally with synchronized body movement with students--anchoring various aspects of pronunciation, discourse structure and vocabulary becomes an engaging pronunciation dance of sorts, a pronance! A haptic anchor involves conscious control of compression, tension and leverage--upper torso movement back as one breathes in prior to speaking, a slight forward torso nod on the stressed syllable, and various lateral motions involving the hands and arms across the visual field. In that "pronance," the marked, decisive movements of the instructor are key. Do you follow?