English Accent, Pronunciation and Identity Improvement Course begins next week!

The recorded, 30-minute free weekly training lesson will be available on Youtube, Thursday, September 17th  to be precise! (That link will be posted in a blogpost here that includes the lesson materials.)

The next week on Wednesday, on the 24th at 8 p.m. EST there is a live Zoom feedback session on that lesson for students who are also enrolled in the course (for $300 USD)

For complete details, see the course announcement! 

For more information or to sign up: wracton@gmail.com

See ME next week on Thursday!

www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com

Fall 2026 (Haptic) English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement Course (EAPIC)

 You will never find a more moving and touching course than this one! Promise!

September 17th ~November 2nd!

In about three months make good progress in improving your English accent or pronunciation and be trained in how to keep on improving after the course. 

It has been offered online three times a year for over 12 years! This fall's course, as usual, will be different, filled with new features, such as AI. Here is how the course works: 

• The course is "haptic." That means that we use a great deal of movement, gesture and touch to make learning more effective and memorable! 
• In each lesson, after a quick warm up, you are trained in new sounds or patterns, sometimes almost "dancing" along, and then you use those gesture-patterns in practicing a conversation. 
• You do the warm up and conversation several different ways as you practice every day for the rest of the week.
• Using AI you also create new conversations and word lists to practice that are just what you, personally need to improve it!
• The recorded, 30-minute weekly training lessons are free, available on Thursdays on Youtube. 
• There is a 30-minute daily homework practice assignment with each lesson.
• The next week on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST there is a live Zoom feedback session on that lesson for students who are enrolled in the course (for $300 USD)
• During the feedback sessions students are
• Guided in using AI to manage their homework practice and progress.
• Given guidance on improving and protecting their online language identity (For example. how you look on Zoom and how to make sure nobody steals your identity!!!) 
• The feedback sessions are recorded, so you can always access them later if necessary.
• To really benefit from the course, you should (1) have a minimum IELTS of 4.5, (2) do the homework, and (3) enroll for the Wednesday feedback sessions.

The instructor, Bill Acton (me!), has been teaching pronunciation and training English language teachers  for about 50 years using the KINETIK Method. It is an unusual course, using lots of movement and special gestures and touch--and humor and music!

(This is a good course for an instructor who wants an introduction to haptic pronunciation teaching. You can sit in for the same course fee, plus we have a weekly instructor meeting!) 

Please pass on to anybody who could use this course!!!

For more information or to sign up: wracton@gmail.com

My websites:

www.actonhaptic.com

www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com

Moving and touching, EAPIIC course begins next week, 6/18!

 Here is the Link to the course announcement!

English Accent, Pronunciation and Identity Improvement Course (EAPIIC) is  . . . unique!  Guaranteed, this will be the most "embodied" pronunciation course you have taken. The two new features are use of AI for homework and integration of accent and identity.

As the description says, the course is free. the 30-minute lesson is uploaded on Youtube every Thursday, with daily assigned homework. If you want feedback on your pronunciation or your teaching, you can sign up for that, too, at a minimal fee. 

See me next week! (If you sign on, I'll see you, too!)

Bill, Haptician-in-Chief

wracton@gmail.com

(423) 660-7400

Summer 2026 Haptic English Accent, Pronunciation and Identity Improvement Course!

 June 18th ~August 26th!

In about three months make ecellent progress in improving English accent or pronunciation and be trained in how to keep on improving after the 10-week course.

• The recorded, 30-minute weekly training lessons are free, available on Thursdays on Youtube
• There is a 30-minute daily homework practice assignment with each lesson.
• The next week on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST there is a live Zoom feedback session on that lesson for students who are enrolled in the course (for $250 USD)
• During the feedback sessions students are guided in using AI to manage their homework practice and progress.
• The feedback sessions are recorded, so you can always access them later if necessary.
• To really benefit from the course, you should (1) have a minimum IELTS of 4.5, (2) do the homework, and (3) enroll for the Wednesday feedback sessions.

The instructor, Bill Acton, has been teaching pronunciation for about 50 years. His method is "haptic," that is it uses a great deal of gesture and touch to make learning easier and more enjoyable. This course also makes extensive use of AI and identity protection training.

(This is also a good course for an instructor who wants an introduction to haptic pronunciation teaching. You can sit in for the same course fee, plus we have a weekly instructor meeting!) 

Please pass on to anybody who could use this course!!!

For more information or to sign up: wracton@gmail.com

Embodied English Pronunciation and Identity Protection Course

Embodied English Pronunciation and Identity Protection Course (for nonnative speakers and their instructors) is a 12-week, practice-driven course that helps multilingual professionals and their instructors build clearer, more confident spoken English while learning to recognize and resist today’s AI enabled fraud and deepfake threats. It is designed for programs or individuals that want to strengthen students’ communicative impact and safeguard their digital and professional identities at the same time. [pronsig.iatefl+6] 

What this course does

• Integrates haptic (movement  and touch based) pronunciation training so learners physically “map” stress, rhythm, and intonation, making clearer, more intelligible speech that transfers into real world communication. [jalt-publications+3]

• Uses that same heightened awareness of voice, language patterns, and gesture to train students and instructors to detect persuasive language, suspicious vocal cues, and cultural “red flags” in scam calls and social engineering attempts. [hipoeces.blogspot+2]

• Provides hands on practice with a comprehensive, web based identity protection platform (IDentityShield by LegalShield), so participants can see how technical safeguards and human judgment work together. [youtube]

Why this matters for educators

Deepfake audio and video are now realistic enough that even experienced professionals are being deceived by AI generated “colleagues” and executives in live video calls, resulting in multimillion dollar losses for institutions in places like Hong Kong or AI deep fakes such as Only Virtual, where you can communicate with the dead. Traditional awareness campaigns and generic fraud briefings are no longer sufficient; learners need repeated, language rich practice in spotting how fraudulent messages actually sound, look, and feel in interaction. [incode+5]

This course positions language educators as a first line of defense by turning everyday pronunciation work into a powerful lens on persuasion, credibility, and identity—skills that transfer directly to academic, workplace, and online contexts. [actonhaptic+4]

Structure and learning experience

• 12 week core program combining targeted pronunciation modules (vowels, stress, rhythm, intonation, fluency, key consonants) with parallel units on scam recognition and response. [wracton.wixsite+1]

• Weekly Zoom feedback sessions for students that focus on intelligibility, professional identity, and real play practice with scam and deepfake scenarios. [wracton.wixsite]

• Separate weekly Zoom sessions for instructors that model classroom techniques, debrief cases, and adapt materials to different proficiency levels and institutional needs. [pronsig.iatefl+3]

Throughout the course, learners repeatedly rehearse short, authentic style scripts—such as “urgent” calls from supposed supervisors or financial institutions—using haptic techniques to anchor both accurate pronunciation and a critical awareness of how persuasive attacks are constructed. [jalt-publications+3]

Outcomes for students and programs

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Speak with clearer, more consistent pronunciation and rhythm, improving comprehensibility in academic and professional settings. [actonhaptic+4]

• Analyze and respond appropriately to suspicious calls, messages, and video interactions, drawing on linguistic, vocal, and cultural cues rather than relying solely on intuition or technology. [coverlink+4]

• Use IDentityShield tools more effectively to monitor, document, and report potential identity fraud, integrating language skills with concrete protective actions.[youtube]

For institutions, adopting this course means adding a distinctive, future oriented offering that simultaneously advances core language outcomes and addresses a fast emerging area of digital risk that directly affects students, staff, and partner organizations. [getclarity+7]

EEPAIP Course will be available as described beginning May 2026. Most of the basic structure, less the IDentityshield components, is present in the current English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement course, beginning this week, on February 5th. 

Sources: 

1. https://pronsig.iatefl.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/Haptic-Pronunciation-Teaching-IATEFL-Webinar-FINAL.pdf       

2. https://incode.com/blog/25-million-deepfake-fraud-hong-kong/    

3. https://jalt-publications.org/sites/default/files/pdf-article/jalt2012-042.pdf         

4. https://coverlink.com/case-study/case-study-25-million-deepfake-scam/    

5. https://www.actonhaptic.com/about     

6. https://www.getclarity.ai/ai-deepfake-blog/25m-deepfake-ceo-scam-shakes-hong-kong-firm    

7. https://hipoeces.blogspot.com/p/hapticteaching-tips-a.html       

8. https://wracton.wixsite.com/acton-haptic        

9. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eu0lyPJmhE0  

10. https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/04/asia/deepfake-cfo-scam-hong-kong-intl-hnk 

11. https://www.trendmicro.com/en_us/research/24/b/deepfake-video-calls.html  

12. https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/16/tech/arup-deepfake-scam-loss-hong-kong-intl-hnk   

13. image.jpg 

14. https://hipoeces.blogspot.com 

15. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwzrLUnrdLc 

16. https://www.facebook.com/SRteachingandlearning/videos/haptic-pronunciation-teachinghaptic-its-basically-using-more-gesture-in-teaching/2793189254227565/ 

For additional information on the course: wracton@gmail.com

See also www.williamacton.legalshieldassociate.com for specifics on IDshield system. 

DISCLAIMER: This course description was created with the assistance/collaboration of Perplexity AI.

EAPIC AI, AI, AI, AI! (Summer 2025, English Accent and Pronunciation Improvement Course)

The summer course begins with a short recorded introduction available on Youtube, June 26th! (See fuller course description here.)  It includes a new AI-generated personalized homework feature (AI, AI, AI, AI!) The link and outline will be available here on the blog. 

In about two months make good progress in improving your English accent or pronunciation and be trained in how to keep on after the course--in about 30 minutes a day.  This is a 10-week course: 

• The recorded, 20-minute weekly training lessons are free, available Thursdays on Youtube and Vimeo.
• Personalized homework is created by students using Gen-AI (your choice of program; I use Perplexity.) Here is an example of what the AI-generated homework looks like. 
• The next week on Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST there is a live, optional 60-minute Zoom feedback session on that lesson for those students enrolled in the course (for $200 USD) or teachers who'd like to learn more about the system. The feedback sessions are also recorded.

To really benefit from the course, you should do the assigned daily homework and attend the optional feedback sections. The course officially begins Thursday June 26th, but you can join it anytime and still get caught up!  For more info or to enrol, contact me directly: wracton@gmail.com

Keep in touch!

Bill

Haptic English Accent and Pronunciation LITE!

This is an 8-week, weekend version of the regular English Accent and Pronunication Course. (See the description of the full 12-week course here.) 

• The recorded, 30-minute training lesson is available on a Thursday
• The next week there is a live feedback lesson on that lesson 8~9 p.m. EST 
• Both are recorded, so you can always access them later. 

To get your money's worth from the course, $200 USD, you should do the assigned homework, about 30 minutes per day. 

The difference between the regular course and this LITE version is that you need to do more homework during the course and follow up, yourself, for about 2 months after the course with regular practice. (This is a good course for an instructor who just wants a good introduction to haptic pronunciation teaching, too. Instructors are also provided with a copy of the full course with teachers notes, etc.) 

The course officially begins this coming Thursday February 6th, but you can join it anytime for the next month and still get cuught up! The lesson videos are free; you only need to pay ($200) for the weekly feedback lessons.  

 All lessons are recorded and available later in day after the lesson. 

A  Zoom interview is required to enrol for the course. For more info or to sign up for an interview: william.acton@twu.ca.

Keep in touch!

Bill

Mi Coursa; Su Coursa! (NEW KINETIK "GE-T-UP" course!)

GE-T-UP - Gesture-enhanced-teaching-up-take (pronounced: Get-T-up! as in "Giddup!") Custom-made, "memorable" pronunciation course, using your course content. 

• Enhanced memory for course content, especially vocabulary and story. 
• Improved speaking clarity and pronunciation

Here's how it works. Basically, you share with us one or more brief excerpts in the form of stories or written dialogues from any speaking, listening or reading course that you'll be teaching. We'll provide you with a video-recorded KINETIK lesson for your students. There are potentially 10 possible lessons, presented (basically) in this order, but it can be further customized for your class: 

• Rhythm 1 (syllables and stress)
• Fluency 1 (basic)
• Vowels 1 and 2 (tailored to your students' L1s)
• Consonants 1 and 2 (tailored to your students' L1s)
• Intonation 1 and 2
• Rhythm 2 (spontaneous speaking)
• Fluency 2 (spontaneous speaking)

Here's what those lessons look like:

• Students view and move along with a 15 to 20-minute training video
• Video begins with brief training in a GE-T-UP haptic movement, tone and touch technique (MT3)
• That technique is then used in an augmented embodied oral reading (AEOR) of the text from "Su coursa" that you provided. (We may have to add some additional text, along with annotation as to how to gesture along with the text as it is spoken.)
• The homework assignment is explained and practiced.
• Students practice the 5-minute haptic exercises in the homework assignment (ideally) 4 times per week
• Student work with the lesson is always better if they have earlier already been engaged with the text from your class earlier. The lesson also helps students remember that content as well! 
• (Ideally) teachers also use the GETUP MT3 in class anytime from then on to:
• Help students remember vocabulary or new terms or phrases
• Help students improve their pronunciation (and remember it!)

The cost per custom-made module begins at about $200, depending on how many we do together.  If you'd like a (free) estimate and demonstration video made with your material from "Su Coursa," get in touch: wracton@gmail.com

(If you are new into the impact of gesture on memory, check out this piece from the Scientific American last year.)

Spring 2023 we will also be again offering the online 12-week haptic basic pronunciation course through Trinity Western University, and along with that, a 12-week KINETIK Teacher Training course. If you'd like to offer either one of those through your school or some other venue . . . get in touch, of course!

Upcoming KINETIK Courses, beginning September, 2022!

As promised, two or three great KINETIK courses now scheduled: 

(For students, adults, lower intermediate and above) Embodied English Fluency and Pronunciation Course: 10 weeks, beginning 9/19, offered through Trinity Western University (for more details, see earlier blogpost)

• Objectives:
• Good uptake - attention to and memory for course content, meaning, emotion, concepts and vocabulary
• Improved clarity - greater emphasis, expressiveness, fluency and intelligibility
• Greater confidence in speaking and ability to "use what you know already!"

• Weekly schedule
• 30 - minute training (recorded), available Thursdays
• 60 - minute, (recorded or live), homework feedback Zoom class, the following week on Wednesdays (6 p.m. PST)
• Homework: 30 minutes per day, minimum 4 days per week
• Cost: $500 CAD, materials provided
• Preliminary Zoom interview required (contact: william.acton@twu.ca)
• Can also be customized for individual classes or schools.

Instructor Training Certificate Course (KMICC): 12 weeks, beginning 9/22, offered through ActonHaptic.com (for more details, see course description)

• Objectives
• Basics of haptic pronunciation teaching
• Techniques for enhancing memory for course content
• Enhanced (instructor's) classroom speaking model and pedagogical presence 
• Weekly schedule
• 30-minute training (recorded, available Monday)
• ~90 minutes of homework
• 75-minute live seminar on Zoom (arranged according to participants' schedules, usually on Saturday, PST)
• $600 USD, materials provided
• Certificate provided upon successful completion
• Full-refund (no questions asked) up to Week 4
• Preliminary Zoom interview required (contact: wracton@gmail.com)

In all humility, these are terrific courses. If you are an instructor considering having your students take EFPC, contact me and I'll be happy to discuss the course with you. Both courses can be offered for just one school, beginning in January 2023. 

KINETIK English Fluency and Pronunciation Course (5/26~8/9)!

The course is being offered to the public for the first time by the Trinity Western University MATESOL (LIVE on Zoom or by viewing the class video later.) It has a somewhat unorthodox time format: 

• Instructor: Bill Acton
• May 26 – August 9, 2022 (12 weeks), 3-4 hours per week
• Thursday: 7 – 8 p.m. PST 
• And Wednesday, the following week: 7 - 8 p.m. PST
•  Homework: 15-20 minutes per day, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.

Specifics: 
This course is for those who want to improve their speaking fluency and pronunciation of English. It is especially helpful for students who have IELTS level of 4.5+ and do not have time or opportunity to practice speaking English outside of class, themselves, but have reasonably good listening skills.

The KINETIK teaching method includes neuroscience-based haptic techniques (using special gestures and touch) to improve memory for new vocabulary, pronunciation and and confidence in speaking.

In addition to one hour of class each week and one hour of homework review every week on Zoom, for best results students should practice their homework exercises at least 15-30 minutes per day, 4~5 days a week. Book and practice video recordings are provided.

A brief, preliminary interview on Zoom is required to be admitted into the course. If interested, contact Professor Bill Acton (William.acton@twu.ca) in the MATESOL Department at Trinity Western University. Classes are recorded. If a class is missed, it can be watched later. Certificate is awarded for 80% attendance.

Course fee: $500 CAD ($400 USD) Group discounts available. 

Also: The 4-week version of the instructor certificate course is also available this summer, on campus, in Langley, BC, July 18th ~ August 12th. One hour of class, 4 days a week and approximately 6 additional hours  per week of preparation and practice. Cost: $800, all materials included. (A zoom hybrid of the course may be available as well.) Contact me, if interested: william.acton@twu.ca. 

Keep in touch!

Bill

Got the perfect personality style for teaching pronunciation? Probably!

Have often heard it said (and even remarked, myself) that some people are just natural pronunciation teachers and others are not. There was a time when that might have been true or have actually made a more significant difference in the classroom. It should not be today, for a number of reasons.

One of the "problems" with referring to, or overgeneralizing about, personality in such contexts is that the so-called "classic 5 personality traits" (neuroticism, extraversion, openess, agreeableness and conscientiousness) have long since been supplanted or greatly elaborated by a myriad of more complex and individualized theories, models--and products. In other words, unless you are paying somebody to tell you about yourself, you, as an individual really have no chance of genuine or useful insight.

New study by Gerlach, Farb, Revelle and Amaral, reported by ScienceDaily.com, A robust data-driven approach identifies four personality types across four large data sets. offers a different, and I think very useful, perspective. Taking those 5 classic traits and applying a number of statistical "clustering" procedures, they discovered what appear to be four basic personality clusters derived from the relationship between each of the 5 for that type of individual. Here they are. (The teaching-oriented commentary in the boxes is my rough--but accurate--interpretation of their findings.) Find yourself there?

Classic Personality Traits→ New (Pronunciation teaching) Personality Clusters/Types ↓	Neuroticism	Extraversion	Openness	Agreeableness  and Conscientiousness
1. Average (Most of us!) Good teacher,  maybe great Outgoing, relatively emotional; responsive, relates well, (more likely to be female)	High	High	Low	Low
2. Reserved Librarian-ish/ Ed tech-ish?   Emotionally stable but may be a bit boring, reliable; (more likely to be male.)	Low	Low	Low	Somewhat
3. Role model  Team leader, developer, owner? Dependable, in-charge, take-charge type. (More likely to be women than men . . .)	Low	High	High	High
4. Self-centered  Show off, new MA? Very high in extra-version; not always fun to be w/ but can sing (cluster style often decreases w/age and experience.)	Somewhat	High	Low	Low

So, which of those styles probably DON'T fit pronunciation teaching as well? Which are you?

My perspective would be that

• Styles 2 and 3 certainly have valuable niches in our schools. 
• Style 4 is always a wild card and can wind up most anyplace. In the past many of them, trained in drama and the arts, wound up in the pronunciation class. Their unique styles and personas are often a great mix and very successfully conducted, but their methodologies and techniques are often well beyond the reach of the "average" rest of us. 
• Style 1 with perhaps a little more "Openness" looks almost ideal--which is most teachers anyway. More importantly, that "cluster" of skills and dispositions is much easier to enhance, as opposed to attempting to "fix" the other 3 styles. 

And what is it that makes Style 1 pretty much ideal today? Ability to comfortably engage in class, work from a consistent empathetic perspective and be relatively animated and "cheerleader-ish", at times. That general skill set is especially important in providing spontaneous feedback on speaking, including the ability to model.

Just did a quick look at the teacher trainees in our program who will be taking applied phonology with me in the spring: about 80% Style 1; 10% Style 2; 5% Style 3; 5% Style 4! (May have them take some kind of inventory questionnaire that provides similar cluster data.) Haptic pronunciation training is very much a Style 1 method--with some required, additional conscientiousness drilled in. Our experience has been that about 5% do find the training very demanding, at best. Will report back in April if our hypothesis was correct!

Perfect!

Clip Art credit: Clker.com

Source:
Northwestern University. (2018, September 17). Scientists determine four personality types based on new data: Comprehensive data analysis dispels established paradigms in psychology. ScienceDaily. Retrieved September 24, 2018 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/09/180917111612.htm

New Haptic Pronunciation Teaching "Work-inar"!

If your organization would be interested in a 2-hour, highly interactive, experiential webinar on haptic pronunciation teaching (and you should be!), we have the answer! Our new haptic "work-inar" on English pronunciation!

Dates are available beginning in mid-August. The format looks like this:

• Introduction
• Haptic learning
• English vowels and word and phrasal stress
• Rhythm groups and rhythm
• Basic intonation
• Fluency and feedback
• Conversational speed and confidence
• Advanced and discourse intonation
• Integrating "haptic" into the classroom
• Consonants galore (done haptically)
• Q&A

Like all haptic workshops and presentations, it involves a great deal of participant engagement, including mirroring of the pedagogical gestures of the presenter (Bill Acton or colleague) and occasional "dancing" to the various rhythms of the webinar.

There is no charge for this basic v4.0 EHIEP (Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation) webinar--other than the usual, tasteful, low key promotion of all things ActonHaptic.com--although there may be some additional fee attached if it is extensively customized for a local population or if by agreement there is some structured follow up, etc. In late Spring 2018 v5.0 of the haptic pronunciation teaching system and webinar will be rolled out as well!

The idea right now is just to further get out the "haptic word" to the profession.

If that sounds like fun, let us know!

Bill

Haptic Pronunciation Teaching Certificate Course (v4.1) Preview - FREE!

HaPT-E v4.1

v4.1 includes several new "touching" features. The Preview includes:

• Modules 1 and 2 (of the 10 modules system)
• 1 month free access to the course videos
• The Instructor's manual
• SKYPE consultation upon completion of the Preview.
• Option to purchase the course at a reduced price (until January 2017)

For more detail on the system itself, check out the Certificate Description, including the Certificate Forum. v5.0 is now scheduled to be available in January or February, 2017.

If you purchase v4.1 you will automatically be given access to the new v5.0 beta videos as they come on line for field testing this fall. 

To get the preview, contact: info@actonhaptic.com

20 Ideas for TESOL 2017 haptic pronunciation teaching proposals!

Time for doing proposals for TESOL 2017! The deadline is June 1st. If you are interested in being on a team that does a workshop, poster session, demonstration or paper, please let us know. We almost always work with teams of 2 or more and invite those who are not trained hapticians but want to be to sign on to a proposal. With the new v4.0 Haptic pronunciation teacher training program (out soon) you can be quite up to speed by next March!

Hopefully, we'll also have a booth this coming year for the first time to promote v4.0. (With that comes a couple of Exhibitor's sessions on the program as well.) Here are some of the proposal ideas we have been discussing of have presented or published on earlier. A formal proposal could, of course, be a combination of topics with a haptic "core"!

HaPT-E v4.0 -Serious Fun!

1. Pre-convention institute or workshop on haptic pronunciation teaching
2. Spontaneous and incidental correction (using haptic techniques)
3. Haptic teacher training certification course
4. Haptic phonetics (working on that one already)
5. Haptic techniques for vocabulary development
6. Haptic homework (working on that one already)
7. (Ch)oral reading (haptic-anchored) 
8. Changing fossilized pronunciation (haptically)
9. Haptic consonant workshop (working on that one already)
10. Contrastive (haptic) analyses (e.g., Chinese, Korean or major dialects)
11. Fluency training (Rhythm Fight club)
12. Haptic accent reduction techniques
13. Haptic-anchored attending skills
14. Haptic techniques for basic literacy training
15. Haptic discourse strategies/markers
16. Haptic phonics
17. Brain Research on haptic learning
18. Expressive (haptic) pronunciation teaching
19. Haptic linking techniques
20. Haptic techniques for vowel reduction, unstressed and secondary stressed vowels 
21. Haptic-anchoring of online pronunciation instruction

(Haptic) Pronunciation in the classroom: the neglected essential!

TESOL.org

Great new book edited by Tamara Jones, Pronunciation in the classroom: the neglected essential, published by TESOL.org, has just been released. Spoiler alert - before I get to describing it in more detail: We (Michael Burri, Amanda Baker and myself) contributed a chapter: Anchoring Academic Vocabulary With a “Hard-Hitting” Haptic Pronunciation Teaching Technique.

This is a very practical, useful book. I say "practical" because the book is filled with specific techniques for doing pronunciation that even novice teachers can adopt without a great deal of previous training in pronunciation teaching. The assumption is that pronunciation should be integrated into instruction--all over the place, everywhere, most any time. The "neglected" in the title applies not just to the fact that effective pronunciation teaching is often not a priority today but also where and when it is done. Even were we not in the book, it would be a required text in my graduate applied phonology course, along with Applied English Phonology, 3rd edition, by Yavaz.

The other sense of "neglected", of course, from our perspective is the happy inclusion of a haptic pronunciation teaching technique. In this case it is the most popular of the pedagogical movement patterns, the Rhythm Fight Club.

You should get a copy . Also, no worries that we, along with the 20 other authors, get a windfall from book sales. We each do get a PDF copy--and all the glory, of course!

 Keep in touch!

Captain Kirk's 6 principles of leadership applied to teaching pronunciation teaching!

Clip Art:
Clker

In a recent conference presentation, a noted methodologist asserted that "Teacher educators (generally) don't teach ESL/pronunciation (themselves)--and (consequently much of) what they do teach their teacher trainees about it hasn't been tried out in the classroom!"

She has a point.

But I'd even take that a step further and say that if a theorist or methodologist or textbook writer is not currently teaching pronunciation in a real classroom, then her words, theories, observations about what teacher educators do--and recent editions of her textbooks--should all be dismissed as well!

Should that dire predicament describe your current pronunciation teaching praxis (or lack there of) then you need to follow our (unauthorized) adaptation of the leadership principles of Captain James T. Kirk (of Star Trek) as they apply to pronunciation teacher trainers*:

1. Never stop learning (even if it means periodically taking up some kind of new pronunciation-related  skill development, such as another language or musical instrument).
2. Have advisors of many different worldviews (from different theoretical perspectives and related disciplines, such as body imaging).
3. Be part of the away team (Stay in the classroom, yourself, even if means just occasional one-on-one pronunciation tutoring).
4. Play poker, not chess (focus on hand to hand, minute by minute pedagogical experience, not just strategy and meta-communication).
5. Intuition is the key to knowing without knowing how you know (and central to embodied pronunciation teaching and avoiding burn out).
6. Destroy the Enterprise (but first try being just annoyingly heretical, before resorting to calls for revolution).

Even better: "Boldly go where no man has gone before" (but many are now!) and sign on board with haptic pronunciation teaching (No noncombatants permitted!) 

*Revised excerpt from AHEPS v3.0 (Instructor’s) Notes (by Bill Acton), Introduction, pp. 4~6. (For free copy, contact: info@actonhaptic.com.)