PTSD: Pronunciation Teaching Somatically (Experienced and) Delivered

Learning and teaching pronunciation does not have to be traumatic, although for some it just may be! There is, however, a great deal to be learned from body-based treatments of PTSD and related traumas that apply to our field--especially in terms of directionality, what comes first, methodologically, in therapy or teaching. 

Not sure how I missed this extraordinary (and extensive) review last year, (2021) "Somatic experiencing – effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review, " by Kuhfuss, Maldei, Hetmanek and Baumann of University of Tier. 

Excerpts from the abstract and conclusion: 

• "The body-oriented therapeutic approach Somatic Experiencing® (SE) treats post-traumatic symptoms by changing the interoceptive and proprioceptive sensations associated with the traumatic experience. Findings provide preliminary evidence for positive effects of SE on PTSD-related symptoms."
• "Moreover, initial evidence suggests that SE has a positive impact on affective and somatic symptoms and measures of well-being in both traumatized and non-traumatized samples. Practitioners and clients identified resource-orientation and use of touch as method-specific key factors of SE."
• "It provides promising findings indicating that SE might be effective in reducing traumatic stress, affective disorders, and somatic symptoms and in improving life quality . . . SE seems to be characterized in particular by its cross-cultural applicability and its combinability with other therapeutic procedures."

SE therapy, in essence, targets the specific body sensations associated with trauma, "from the body up," so to speak. For example, past trauma may be triggered, experienced throughout the (See the matrix at somatictherapy.com) body, e.g., eyes, hands, feet arms, skin tone, blood pressure, breathing muscles, all of which can be managed and moderated consciously with training. The effect, in part, is to change the emotional loading of the past experience and ultimately its ongoing impact on spontaneous, real time functioning. 

So how does that translate into pronunciation teaching? One obvious connection is that if the learner is provided with a rich, physically engaging experience in the body synchronized with a sound or a sound pattern, the chance of the sound being remembered should be enhanced greatly. (Wow . . . all that earlier "physicality" in teaching sounds may have been on to something, when it came to anchoring a sound in memory!) 

The KINETIK method, like many other highly somatic or kinesthetic approaches is based on 

• Lessac's notion of "training the body first," early attention to and emphasis on body engagement
• Observed Experiential Integration therapy (especially effective in treating PTSD)
• and extensive use of haptic techniques (gesture + touch) from Haptic Pronunciation Teaching

What is the relatively radical key here is that the method, itself, places great importance on the directionality overcoming barriers to learning by using body awareness, in some sense like Mindfulness training, while directly connecting the "feeling" to the concept or event--rather than the converse. 

Are you headed in the right direction as well? 

Source;

Kuhfuß M, Maldei T, Hetmanek A, Baumann N. Somatic experiencing - effectiveness and key factors of a body-oriented trauma therapy: a scoping literature review. Eur J Psychotraumatol. 2021 Jul 12;12(1):1929023. doi: 10.1080/20008198.2021.1929023. PMID: 34290845; PMCID: PMC8276649.

Triggering pronunciation and accent change, safely: the drama, not the "trauma"

Clip Art: Clker.com

A recent article in the Economist has a great cartoon up top with a sign posted at the front door of a campus: CAUTION: LEARNING MAY CAUSE TRAUMA! Avoiding emotional discomfort, especially events or micro-agressions that might trigger it (See earlier blogpost on that!) is apparently becoming a priority, a growth industry on campuses in North America (according to this recent piece in the Atlantic)--and pronunciation teaching as well.

I had two related conversations about a week ago, one with an instructor who did not do pronunciation, in part because it could make students uncomfortable. One further response to the question why (no pronunciation work) by the part-time instructor was something to the effect that: If students complain of hurt feelings, I'm out of work!

And a second, with a student who had recently completed an "awesome course that had totally transformed my thinking."  Even though the student reported that it had been an extraordinary "growth" experience--and the course, itself, was rated very highly--he had, nonetheless, severely taken the instructor to task on the final course evaluation for "inflicting" temporary, but undue pain and emotional distress along the way.

For decades many in the field have been focused on avoiding discomfort in language teaching, the theory being that learning is always best facilitated in relatively "stress-free" classrooms. (I realize that perspective may still be very much limited to North America, Europe and other pockets of excessively "consumer-sensitive" educational culture.) Research has long since established that some degree of stress is fundamental to learning of all kinds. Inescapable. Unresolved stress is another issue, of course.

From the "traumatized" student's perspective, the process trumped the product. In many ways, the institution's system of course evaluation, focusing on feelings and global judgements, is biased in that direction as well. In effect, his point was that there simply had to be a less emotionally "unsettling" way to achieve the same degree of understanding and "enlightenment". So, how do we construct "safe" challenges for today's students that at least momentarily move them just far enough out of their comfort zones long enough for the requisite learning experience without offending them?

Think back. How many of your "great" teachers could use the same tactics today and still keep their jobs? Two of my all time favourites are the "Rassias Method" founder, John Rassias, who, for calculated, dramatic effect in one famous demonstration, breaks eggs over the heads of select students, and, second, the "theatre of the absurd" approach to French, something like this at Amherst, that I survived as an undergraduate back in the 1970s!

One of the key elements of the earlier attention to culture shock, for example, was attributing emotional ups and downs of the adjustment process to the encounter with the new worldview and cultural norms--not just the teaching style of instructors. There was a time, too, when instructors were  not as vulnerable. As evident in the Atlantic article, even the tenured are no longer "safe" from the consequences of injured student egos and feelings, regardless of source or justification.

Most of the cross-cultural research on culture shock, including my own, was done during the more structural/behaviourist era in the field, where the role and authority of the instructor were quite different from where we are now. Although we have since found any number of ways to mediate the social and cultural dimensions of the cultural adjustment process, something like "pronunciation change shock", often a most personal and unsettling experience, often remains to be consistently and safely overcome or integrated. Can it, too, be made relatively "stressless"? To the extent that relative judgment as to speech "accuracy" is a public, interactional phenomenon, probably not.

A better approach has to be informed instruction that fully recognizes, manages and realistically embodies the essential, natural psychological processes of new identity formation that are especially evident in pronunciation and accent change (focussing on the broader, inherent DRAMA, not the inevitable--but passing--emotions that are being targeted, and consequently exaggerated and triggered much more readily, today).

Again, how do we do that? The "simple" answer is explicit use of drama, both as a metacognitive construct to understand the process and a classroom activity. (My favourite "go-to" or at least place to begin for newcomers to the idea is Gary Carkin's website.)

I have had a book project on the back burner for sometime now, one that, essentially, is composed of videos and annotated transcripts of classes from colleagues in the field that illustrate how that transformative "drama" safely and creatively plays out in the classroom.  I'll talk more about how I, personally, approach that shortly, here (and in v4.0 of the EHIEP system and the accompanying "Best of the HICPR Blog" book, available later this fall.)

In the meantime, I'd welcome your perspectives.