Killing Pronunciation 15: Feelings . . . nothing more than feelings?

Finally (what seems to me) a fascinating glimpse, or at least different perspective, into why for many
language learners it can be so difficult to remember how sounds are pronounced in their second language. Fascinating study, by Fandakova, Johnson, and Ghetti of UC-Davis: Distinct neural mechanisms underlie subjective and objective recollection and guide memory-based decision making (summarized by ScienceDaily as "Making decisions based on how we feel about memories, not accuracy.") Now I'm  not sure that SD summary is entirely accurate, but it is close . . . 

Exploring the brain circuits involved in recalling past events, in essence what emerged was the "fact" that one circuit is more responsible for something resembling data, e.g., who, what, where, when; the other, with the emotion or "feeling" associated with the event. What the research demonstrated was that recall was overwhelmingly triggered through the affective/subjective wiring, not the objective circuit(s). In other words, in some very general sense our access to memory is substantially more emotion-based, not visual/objective data-oriented. 

So, other than the fact that there may be some potential gender bias there . . . how does that relate to learning the sound system of a language effectively? Ask yourself: How do you and your students feel about learning pronunciation? Does that answer the question? For many it does. If affect or feeling is that critical to good recall, then pronunciation learned may be especially vulnerable to being inaccessible in varying degrees. 

Now the "feeling" of  pronunciation could come from at least three primary sources: the affective climate of the class where it is studied; the relative engagement or appeal of the instruction to the individual, itself or satisfaction entailed or-- the somatic, physical sensations of what it is mechanically to perform or articulate the sound. 

I, myself, was trained in pronunciation teaching by one amazing speech therapist and early leaders in the field of TESOL. What I learned, which most pronunciation teaching does not take seriously enough or does not really focus on at all is how to help the learner get the richest possible somatic experience (mostly tactile and kinaesthetic) as to how the sound or pattern feels when it is articulated. Part of that, of course, is the metalanguage used in talking about it and to some extent, the procedures and practice routines, themselves. 

In other words, without a good sense of "the feeling of how it happens" (Damasio, 1999), often it just doesn't happen or at least is not anchored adequately to be remembered or recalled efficiently. There are any number of methods or systems for establishing that critical link between the sound and the feeling of the sound, not just its conceptual, visual, auditory and orthographic features. Of course, we FEEL that haptic pronunciation teaching, founded on gesture and touch, has "got that," and more. If your pronunciation work just doesn't feel right . . . get into touch . . . with us, or your local speech therapist! 

Sources: (Cited in ScienceDaily summary)

University of California - Davis. (2021, March 10). Making decisions based on how we feel about memories, not accuracy. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 14, 2021 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/03/210310150347.htm
Yana Fandakova, Elliott G Johnson, Simona Ghetti. Distinct neural mechanisms underlie subjective and objective recollection and guide memory-based decision making. eLife, 2021; 10 

Mind-body Connections in Pronunciation Teaching

Clip art: Clker

For most, the systematic use of movement and gesture--or even haptic is now at least of interest (See, for example the work of Thornbury, Gilbert or Chan.) You really can't be very successful in this business without some somatic (body-based) technique to support or reinforce classroom instruction, even if that just means clapping hands occasionally to emphasize stress placement.

Show me an instructor who loves doing pronunciation work, however, and I'll almost always show you one who is at least an enthusiastic "gesticulator" but probably also a musician of some kind or avid exerciser! Every time I do that informal poll at a conference, the agreement is near 100% in the audience.

Still the best place to get a general understanding of the integration of mind and body in education and therapy is in psychotherapies such as Somatic Therapy: Somatic Therapy: Using the Mind–Body Connection to Get Results. (To access that 7-page primer, however, you'll have to sign on to Psychotherapynetworker.org; go to the "Free reports" tab and download a copy. No need; I've done that for you. I'll be reporting in later blogposts on some innovative and applicable techniques from that source.)

 It is instructive to read comments by clinicians who work in such holistic paradigms, especially to better understand why what we do works. In the piece, Wylie (p. 7) makes the following "prophetic"point--which applies to this field as well: " . . . somatic approaches may become sufficiently ordinary and acceptable that the line between “body psychotherapy” and “talk psychotherapy” may one day disappear entirely."

With emerging video and hapic methodology and technology, I'd only substitute "will" for "may"--and "very soon" for "one day!"

Mirror Neurons, Dance Movement Therapy and Haptic Mirroring

Clip art:
Clker

This 2006 article by Berol looks at the underlying neurophysological basis of mirroring in dance-movement therapy. Of particular interest to our work is both the full-body engagement with the model and the strong emotional, empathetic grounding involved. As noted in earlier posts, carefully managed mirroring offers an extraordinary level of attention to aspects of communication generally thought to be outside of the domain of the classroom, to be learned inductively. It can be, however, very difficult to incorporate into instruction consistently and in a way that is psychologically "safe."

Dance therapy protocols do an extraordinary job of setting the stage for engaging the client/learner in the "moving" experience. The language used and therapeutic process of DMT offer valuable insights into effective task staging of the pedagogical process for pronunciation instruction. HIPoeces employs haptic mirroring (mirrored movement with a range of touch intensities and configurations), using a number of DMT strategies,including teaching from a mirror-image perspective at times. A good first step is to set your mirror neurons down in front of a video of yourself teaching intonation for a couple of hours . . .

Haptic robot (clinical pronunciation) therapy?

Clip art: Clker

Leave it to the Italians to figure out how to do therapy with a "haptically endowed" robot! (There are, of course, occasions when one would prefer a hug or back rub from a robot, rather than the therapist or instructor at hand!) The character on the EHIEP logo, which we affectionately refer to as "EH-bot" was designed to embody the personna of a fun-loving, "hapticobot." The EHIEP system requires consistent, precise pedagogical movement patterns that are haptically anchored in the visual field. Another of the HICP pedagogical acronyms is: MAPLE (Maximally Attentive, Physically Laid back Engagement). Both the precision of robot-like gestures and the therapeutic (relaxed, confident) felt sense of the haptic anchoring contribute greatly to the efficacy of the system.

Students often report that just doing the vowels and fluency protocols can be very therapeutic. One of the serious misconceptions in pronunciation teaching is that motivation, "pedagogical gesticulation" (such as dance or drama) and enthusiasm are always positives. Nothing could be further from the truth. Research cited in earlier posts showed convincingly that effective kinesthetic learning (which is the essence of pronunciation learning) is highly sensitive to distraction. In other words, it can be difficult to remember a sound or movement that was embedded in too many "fun and games." (Lexical items or terms, on the other hand, seem to survive a little better.) Turns out, EH-bot (the hapticobot) may be a surprisingly good model and deliverer of both quality pronunciation input--and appropriately enabling warm fuzzies--after all. Perhaps a more Italian moniker is in order? EH-Botticelli, it is!