The music of rise-fall prosodic triggers

Clip art: Clker

Listen to a native speaking English language instructor repeat the citation form a word (in isolation) at the front of the class. Almost invariably, he or she will use what is termed a "rise-fall" intonation pattern, peaking on the primary-stressed syllable. This 2009 summary of a  research report on Livescience.com by Hsu, by Janata at University of California, Davis explains why, in recalling and vocalizing a word, the "music or melody" of the word, its intonation or tonal pattern, should help it "come back."

Haptic research suggests that EHIEP-like "haptic anchoring" of that rise-fall contour (a pedagogical movement pattern across the visual field which includes some type of hand touching on the primary stressed syllable) should enhance encoding and recall. I have yet to do a controlled, empirical test of that prediction with such prosodic triggers, but it has been standard practice for some time to have learners use a rise-fall PMP as one step in working with new or changed sounds or words in homework. They consistently report that it helps them remember the felt sense of a word either (1) in trying to access the pronunciation directly or--(2) more importantly--in noticing after-the-fact a mispronounced or changed target in conversation (as explored in a recent post.)

Try it. Add a little prosodic or  haptic riff to your citation forms. Stay tuned.

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.