HICPR: Haptic Pronunciation Teaching @ TESOL 2014 in Portland!

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Haptic Pronunciation Teaching @ TESOL 2014 in Portland!

Time to start preparing our proposals for TESOL 2014 in Portland! TESOL 2013 in Dallas will be hard to beat but Portland is also a great venue--and it is a much shorter drive from Vancouver, of course!
At Dallas we had four haptic events: (a) a PCI, (b) a workshop EHIEP intonation for NNS instructors, (c) a workshop a haptic approach for working with the Academic Word List, and (d) a "Breakfast with the Stars," where I got free burritos for talking with a dozen or so around the table about EHIEP!

If you are thinking about going to Portland next March, here are a few of the topics that we have been considering. If you'd like to join as a co-presenter--or do one or something else yourself--let us know:

A. Another PCI on basic of haptic-integrated pronunciation teaching.
B. A paper re-interpreting previous research on gesture in SLA to show how haptic engagement has been there but, in many respects, just "not noticed." (my current project, but would love to share that w/somebody!)
C. Workshop on haptic anchoring of vocabulary (more general than the one last year on AWL)
D. Reports on ongoing research on the effectiveness of EHIEP techniques
E. A workshop on pronunciation homework, with haptic focus
F. Another NNS instructor-oriented workshop on "expressiveness" (i.e., more advanced intonation)
G. fMRI-based study on basic haptic anchoring
H. Haptic approach to teaching contrastive vowel systems in pronunciation teaching
I. Haptic phonetics (I may do that one or get a colleague here to do it!!!)
J. Haptic pronunciation discussion group (usually @ 7:00 a.m.)
K. A booth in the exhibition area (We will have an AH-EPS booth there to sell AH-EPS, of course, but will also try to figure out how to promote and sell other haptic "devices" and instructional programs.
L. Aerobic haptic demonstration (That went so well at BCTEAL in Vancouver that we have to do it at Portland, too!)
M. Poster sessions (There are any number of pieces of the basic EHIEP approach that could be done very effectively in a poster format.
N. Electronic village presentation of AH-EPS (absolutely essential this year.)
O. EHIEP and L2 identity embodiment (a former grad student has great data on that one)
P. Haptic pronunciation modelling in elementary ESL/EFL work (I'm doing a plenary in Korea in January on that topic
Q. Application of HICP principles to the teaching of sound systems of other languages.
R. Workshop on annotating written dialogue (especially with haptic parameters) for use in pronunciation teaching
S. Action research report on EHIEP protocol implementation in college EFL class (the data is available for that now)
T. Research summary report on the basis of HICP (similar to the one Karen Rauser and myself just did in Vancouver)
U. Demonstrations of AH-EPS (a freebee because we'll be paying for a booth at the convention)
V. Demonstrations at the AH-EPS booth throughout the conference (You can't up that on your CV, but it will be fun!)
W. Workshop on basic haptic pronunciation teaching techniques
X. Workshop on using haptic pronunciation techniques with graduate students
Y. Workshop on making your own haptic videos
Z. Get together of "hapticians" who are members of IAHICPR (Was supposed to have an organizational meeting at Dallas but we were having too much fun!)

I could go on . . . but I've run out of letters . . .KIT

No comments:

What is haptic pronunciation teaching?

Basically, it is using gesture, touch and movement to teach pronunciation of English (or any language). What makes this method unique is that it is based on controlled and systematic use of gesture in doing that. (Often the problem with gesture use in language learning is that it can be "crazy" or random or intimidating or inconsistent, or not well-developed and tied to clear outcomes.)

The earlier "Essential Haptic-integrated English Pronunciation (EHIEP) approach," now KINETIK, does a better job of enhancing presentation, modelling, feedback and correction. The method is simple and easy to follow. Once a 30-minute module is finished, teacher and students have a set of techniques to use in class anytime a pronunciation problem or opportunity comes up!

Haptic Preliminaries

I often begin workshops or papers with the comment that in about 40 years in the field I have had just one idea: that the systematic use of body movement is essential to effective and efficient pronunciation instruction. That has never been more relevant than today, with the general deemphasis on pronunciation and introduction of technology into the field. From both perspectives, the "haptic" perspective approach developed here offers great promise. I can at least promise you a "moving" experience!

What is the KINETIK Method?

KINETIK is the name of the new v6.0 haptic pronunciation teaching system. About six years earlier we were using the acronym, "Haptic Integrated Pronunciation for Other/Extended Circle English Speakers" (HIPOECES)--still there in the url of this blog!

Haptic-integrated clinical pronunciation is:

A different way to learn pronunciation, based in part on Arthur Lessac’s notion of “Training the body first.” It is also based on research in the use of movement and touch in learning and training. It:

Looks somewhat like a combination of aerobics, sign language and Taichi

Provides a basic foundation for continued, self-directed pronunciation learning and classroom instruction

Designed for use by relatively untrained teachers but appropriate for all teachers (and learners) of all levels

Focuses on pronunciation used in conversation (not all words in English)

Is a highly “brain-and-body-friendly” system that promotes efficient learning of integrated tasks in general

Designed to promote integrated classroom pronunciation instruction and enable integration of conscious pronunciation work into spontaneous speaking.

Introduction

This blog was formerly named: HIPoeces (pronounced 'hI-pƏ-cIs), basically an approach to teaching English pronunciation to speakers of "outer and expanding" circle Englishes (including that population commonly termed: non-native speakers) but also compatible with the use of local models other than simply Standard" American" or RP. Using Kachru's "Inner, expanding and outer circles" model to characterize the breadth of Englishes and speakers of those, HIPoeces (now HICP) systems focus on developing haptically-centered pedagogical models and methods which can be adapted for teaching the pronunciation of various Englishes as they are spoken and taught by "owners" of those varieties.

In theory, the underlying principles can be applied to teaching the sound system of any language. Most language instructors intuitively use a great deal of movement and tactile anchoring in the classroom. The essential question is how to use that resource systematically, especially so that those learners who are less "haptic" in nature are also "moved" by the method.

Simply put, the HICP model/method is based on the idea of speaking along with arm and hand movement, not all that different from that used in sign languages. Most movement patterns are taken from either typical classroom pronunciation instruction practice or from related fields, such as psychotherapy or sports.

Most blog posts link to research that relates to the general HICP model, that is studies dealing with the role of gesture, touch, movement, learning modalities, learning in output, use of the visual field in learning, and experiential learning.

DEFINITIONS:

"Haptic" techniques- procedures that involve both movement and touch (Obvious examples include clapping hands, tapping feet, or holding an object and shaking it to the rhythm of a poem.)

"HICP techniques" - procedures that are haptic and also explicitly coordinated with phonological structures and/or discourse prosody (For example, clapping hands on primary stressed syllables in multi-syllable words, or doing a dance step on key words in conversational turns.)

"Haptic integration"- The haptic dimension probably functions as much to anchor visual and auditory material as it does to assist the learner in getting the "felt sense" of the sound or sound process. Lack of integration into spontaneous speech being such a serious potential shortcoming of instruction, haptic engagement seems a promising bridge to more accurate fluency.

"Visual field" - in HICP extensive use is made of the visual field in front of the learner. (For example, a modified version of the IPA vowel chart is anchored haptically in the imagination of the learner, directly in front of the upper body, and used for several purposes throughout the program.)

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Haptic Pronunciation Teaching @ TESOL 2014 in Portland!

No comments:

Post a Comment