Your pronunciation teaching "going downhill?"

Clip art: Clker

Then some advice from a prominent ski instructor, Robert Forster,  may be just what you are looking for: " . . . stretching [is] the single most important thing people can do for body health maintenance . . . connective tissue shortens with time . . .  We stretch to maintain good alignment of the bones." Most pronunciation instructors would agree that stretching out the muscles of the mouth makes sense but what about all the rest of the muscles of the upper body (and even "lower" body)  involved in speech production that need to be re-oriented for doing new sounds? There are quite a few of the roughly 630 in the body as a matter of fact, especially if you take your haptic-integration seriously, that must be engaged. 

If you are not yet a regular stretcher, just to get you ready for the day, begin with a whole body yoga-type routine, like this one from Biosnyc. And from them, to stretch most everything needed for fluent speaking, other than the mouth muscles,  just do the Cobra, Cow and Cat and you'll be ready to haptic. For a good model of the desired outcome of a good vocal tract warm up, watch this with one by opera singer Jayme Alilaw. By the time she is done, not only her vocal track but her psyche is ready as well. 

Notice Forster's second point about connective tissue "shortenlng with time." The articulatory complex of muscles that produce a sound are no exception, even within a native speaker. To improve public speaking performance, for example, virtually all of the responsible muscles have to be re-activated and stretched beyond their normal speaking range of motion--before they can be retrained. Pronunciation work is no exception. Warm ups can go from me doing the relatively laid back, basic EHIEP warm up to  . . . well. . . .Marsha Chan!

Full-body pronunciation learning readiness

Clip art: Clker

Clip art: Clker

In a recent post I alluded to the fact that karate masters develop the ability to bring their entire bodies into the act of punching. The EHIEP protocols, taken as a whole, exercise the whole body. (The Warm up protocol thoroughly engages at least the upper body.) I am often asked if there are not some learners or instructors who do not feel comfortable doing these kinds of kinaesthetic and haptic activities. If not carefully introduced to the process and "warmed up" properly, there are, indeed, those who have difficulty just moving their arms along with the videos, let alone their entire bodies. I have over the years been especially interested in talking to those people. Some have learning disabilities, some are ambidextrous, some seem just very introverted. One of my standard questions for one of them is always, "Do you do yoga or some kind of full-body physical exercise that involves extensive, formal body awareness?" I don't recall meeting more than a handful who answer in the affirmative. At the other end of the continuum, often those who seem especially good at learning the system--have done yoga or something similar, even some types of full-body weight training or aerobics, where they had to develop close, conscious monitoring of muscle position and elasticity. The key, ironically, is often that conscious attention to movement that develops. One of my favorite yoga instructors is Denise Austin, not just because she is very polished and easy to follow but because of her superb use of instructional/pedagogical language in directing students attention to where in their bodies they should have some kind of operational "felt sense." I'm absolutely certain that if I began class with the linked, 15-minute full-body yoga routine that students' performance in class in acquiring pronunciation would go right off the charts. Likewise, some treatment of that type might even set up an interesting empirical test of aptitude in haptic-integration or kinaesthetic pronunciation work. If you don't have time for that, at least do it yourself three or four times. (Caveat emptor: extremely addictive!) 

Prana(yama)nciation work readiness: Bee "Mmmm"

Clipart: Clker

Some kind of warm up is often essential before attention to pronunciation. The current warm up in the  EHIEP system, designed to loosen up mind and body,  takes about three minutes and resembles a cross between exuberant choral conducting, ballet moves and body building stretches. (See the linked Youtube in the right column for an earlier version.) The warm up function can be accomplished many ways. In developing an EHIEP adaptation for use in India, I went back to my earlier experience with yoga and began experimenting with versions of the "Pranayama" or "Bee" technique. As noted in a recent post, the paralinguistic side of HICP work must be culturally attuned to appropriate nonverbal behaviorial norms of the students. Although it seems to take about twice as long to "get there' (at least for ME!), the effect or mind/body state you arrive at seems remarkably similar. Of course, if you can't do a good lotus position, don't have a venue where your intense buzzing won't be seen as socially dysfunctional--or have serious nasal congestion--this might not be for you. But it is worth trying once, just to get the felt sense of what optimal, holistic readiness is like. So, pour yourself a cup of herbal tea, relax, sit down, and follow the directions. Will give you a buzz . . . Pranayam(a)ise!