English Speaking, Pronunciation, Clarity and Confidence (ESPCC) Course

 

There were at least three “inspiration(s)” for the course: Arthur Lessac, the “Lectio Divina” tradition in the Christian church of reading Scripture, and technique of “embodied oral reading.”

Lessac’s work is referenced many times on the website and the blog. (Also see the website of the Lessac Institute.) One of the key features of his “method” was training students to do daily “homework” based to a large extent on oral reading of select short texts, embodying the aspects of the language and “healthy” speaking practices.

Lectio Divina, in its many forms, involves, in essence reading, out loud, in private, to enhance and deepen the understandinig and experience of text of some kind, usually Biblical Scripture. Contemporary research has established that that regular practice leads to improvement in everything from reading comprehension to pronunciation, although the concept of doing that alone, by yourself, is not seen as every “contemporary” in teaching and learning theory and methods.

Embodied Oral Reading developed out of Haptic Pronunciation Teaching, a key feature of that method. (See the EOR page on the website.) The EOR practice, in turn, is based on Lessac’s method. The “beauty” of the EOR technique is that once students are trained in a haptic gesture (involving gesture and touch) that focuses on one aspect of English pronunciation, such as rhythm or a vowel or consonant—and brief practice with a model text, they can then easily take that Movement, Tone and Touch Technique (MT3), and apply it to a text that is especially meaningful to them, practicing with with in a modified Lectio Divina format.

As a consequence, the ESPCC format can be readily applied to a wide range of students populations who have at least lower intermediate level of aural comprehension of English.

The 11-week online course is designed especially for non-native English-speaking adults who 

  1. Do not have the opportunity for much, if any English, face-to-face conversation in their daily lives but 

  2. Who want to keep improving, nonetheless, 

  3. Who have an IELTS reading ability of about 4.0 or above, and 

  4. Do not have a lot of cash to work with!

  5. Are disciplined students who can work well independently.

ESPCC features Embodied Oral Reading to develop English fluency and confidence. Embodied Oral Reading is done out loud, in private, using stories and other short texts that are accompanied by special gestures, using concepts and vocabulary that students are already familiar with—essentially, what they understand, but perhaps may not be able to talk about fluently.  

ESPCC provides student with a set of skills which once learned they can continue improving with beyond the course. It is especially recommended, for example, for students who do not have access to conversational English currently:

  • Adult students with the equivalent of about an IELTS 4.0 or above.

  • Undergraduate and graduate students in programs not taught primarily in English or requiring work on specialized vocabulary, such as business or teacher training without the opportunity to use the language in conversation regularly.

  • Parents whose spoken English is not strong and whose children are in public schools in North America

  • New immigrants and family members who cannot currently access English instruction

  •  Students who are in religious studies where they will serve in a language other than English, but where being able to read Scripture in English in public is essential,

  • Retired “senior” English L2 speakers who may be “home alone” in some sense much of the time but would value spending 3-4 hours weekly to develop the clarity of their spoken English.  

 It is based on extensive research (and decades of teaching experience) in oral reading methodology and the well-known "Lectio Divina" tradition in meditation practice, using extensive oral reading as homework—not in a class.

The key neuroscience-based innovation is the precise use of gestures and touch in the visual field. Synchronized with speech, these multimodality gestures create optimal conditions for attention, learning, retention and recall.

Course work is done individually, with four or five, 30-minute homework assignments and a live 60-minute zoom feedback meeting weekly. (which is also recorded for later access, if necessary.)

  • The emphasis is on improving the English that learners understand well but do no speak with the same level of success. 

  • Learners finish the course being able to speak more rhythmically, more expressively, more precisely and with greater confidence.

  • There are several possible story and text types, sources of vocabulary and pronunciation improvement specifically for them that students can choose to use in their embodied oral readings (EORs):

    • General academic English (for high school learners and older)

    • General business English (for adults)

    • General workplace English

    • General seminary/Bible-based English (for students in Christian ministry or training)

    • General informal conversation-based English (especially good for parents whose children's English is better than theirs!) 

    • General instructional language used in teaching (for non-native English speaking teachers)

    • Personalized, story-based English (for those want to improve just for the love of English)

  • Course includes:

    • Introduction and weekly lessons which include

    • Weekly 30-minute recorded lessons

    • Weekly 60-minute follow up, live (or recorded) lesson

    • Daily, 20-30 minute homework assignments

  • General Syllabus

    • Week 1 - Rhythm 1 (and word stress)

    • Week 2 - Fluency 1 (and sentence stress)

    • Week 3 - Consonants

    • Week 4 - Vowels 1

    • Week 5 - Vowels 2

    • Week 6 - Consonants

    • Week 7 - Basic Intonation (7 basic tone patterns)

    • Week 8 - Advanced Intonation (expressiveness and melody)

    • Week 9 Rhythm 2 (Rhythm, linking and pausing) 

    • Week 10 - Fluency 2 (Expressiveness and confidence)

  • Example one-week lesson plan:

    • Thursday: View recorded lesson.

    • Friday: Do homework.

    • Saturday: Do homework.

    • Sunday: Take the day off!

    • Monday: Do homework.

    • Tuesday: Do homework.

    • Wednesday, a.m or p.m., depending on time zone, attend live Zoom lesson follow up session.

  • Homework format:

    • Review one part of the video (5 minutes)

    • Practice the haptic gesture featured in the weekly lesson (5 minutes)

    • Practice the Embodied Oral Reading (EOR) in the course materials (10~15 minutes)

    • Find some words or phrases that are not in the lesson to practice the lesson's  haptic gesture with! (5 minutes)

  • (Optional) personalized Zoom meetings available for additional fee upon request

  • Customized course versions tailored for organizations of almost any size.

  • Next course: October 3rd ~ December 18th.

  • Cost: $300 USD ($420 CAD) 

  • To enroll or for more info, contact Bill Acton at wracton@gmail.com

  • Further details are available at: www.actonhaptic.com/espcc

  • Instructors with training in haptic pronunciation teaching are invited to apply to be a collaborating instructor in these courses. (Or offer the course through their school!)