Monday, September 26, 2011

Developing a touch for discriminating between objects (and sounds!)

How about this from Science Daily: "New research from the University of Notre Dame shows that people's ability to learn and remember information depends on what they do with their hands while they are learning.

Clip art: Clker
According to a study . . . people holding objects they're learning about process detail and notice differences among objects more effectively, while keeping the hands away from the objects helps people notice similarities and consistencies among those things." That suggests just why a "hands on" haptic approach to learning sounds and words, especially distinctions between L1 and L2 sounds, should work -- and why maintaining a "hands off" attitude toward pronunciation instruction . . . may not! "Now just hold ON!" (I can hear your saying.) Exactly.

No comments:

Post a Comment