Embodied pronunciation instruction: Empirical evidence & recent findings
/” Prosody is a central and structural component of the phonology of a language, and it is tightly connected to gesture from a temporal and pragmatic perspective. Gestures and more generally body movements, whether naturally produced or specifically designed for a pedagogical purpose, can efficiently support language learning.” Baillis, 2022
“Gestures are tightly intertwined with speech in time and semantic function” McNeill 1992
Florence Baills presented this PRONSIG webinar as a Fellow researcher in the Phonetics group at the University of Cologne, Germany. Her research is centered on the role of prosody, gesture, and music in the acquisition of a foreign language.
She began by explaining that cognition and learning do not solely take place in the brain but in our bodies where motor neurons are activated too. She also added that to learn a second language we need imitation, identical to the way babies learn, by imitating the persons around them.
Human communication is multimodal and involves a dynamic interaction between the verbal content, gestural and prosodic features. Again highlighting the importance of body language in speech which also links to the Body Language module in my Persuasive Presentations online course.
Dr. Baillis took us through her scientific research project with one control group and one experimental group of embodied pronunciation training. Her objective was to assess the value of a series of hand gestures and body movements mimicking rhythm and intonation to improve the pronunciation of different words in English or any foreign language: the segmental and suprasegmental features.
Working with Pilar Prieto, an ICREA Research Professor at the Department of Translation and Language Sciences at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, they used Catalan native speakers teaching Chinese speakers new sounds, particularly those that are difficult to produce.
Different gestures were used: beating, handclapping and pointing. The former two both highlighted the rhythmic structure of the language often used to stress syllables. This is essential as different languages have different stress/timing patterns so gestures can be particularly useful when the stress pattern is different to that of the mother tongue. It was also important to note that the gestures used in the English pronunciation exercises needed to be imitated correctly by the learners.
The results of their research showed that embodied training is especially helpful with English vowels pronunciation. An additional benefit identified was that working in groups increases social bonding, crucial for motivation. This is called embodied cognition. And this effect is further enhanced when teaching children, triggering positive emotion.
Not only is knowing how to pronounce English words correctly empowering, but it also means your listeners understand you first time and they can focus on your messages and not on understanding your words. Accent reduction is not necessary, but clarity of speech is.
If you would like to discuss your organisation’s (corporate, NGOs, Associations and Universities) Business English (including pronunciation) or Public speaking needs, I offer free 30-minute consultations through my site. I’d love to meet you.