Sunday, July 24, 2011

Haptic Cow!

clip art: Clker
I am asked repeatedly, how to apply haptic thinking and technology to more detailed articulatory work with vowels and consonants, much like what a professional speech therapist does. We may have the answer here in an extraordinary invention by Baillie. The "haptic cow," of course, has been designed for training in veterinary medicine. Trainees can (virtually and haptically) put their hand "inside" the cow to develop a required skill set that feels just like the real thing, such as delivering a calf.

Imagine our L2 learner doing the same sort of thing--except from a different perspective and virtual point of entry, of course! Being able to explore the inside of a "living," drooling, pronouncing  mouth with both hands as it does diphthong after glorious diphthong . . . "How now, brown cow?"

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