Embodied Pronunciation Part 1: Harnessing Your Inner Power

Description
Speaking in a language or manner other than what is familiar requires different movements of the vocal organs. While cognition is essential in forming concepts and directing their execution, once the brain has instructed us to speak, pronunciation is a physical act. Gaining control of one's speaking apparatus facilitates changes in voice quality, pronunciation, accent, and projection. This can enhance overall oral production, increase confidence, and improve intelligibility.
This interactive virtual workshop will draw on embodied pronunciation research and practice showing that careful attention to breathing, vocalization, articulatory positions, pulmonic and tactile pressures, pitch and duration, scope and synchrony of body movements, in addition to the systematic use of gestures, enables more effective pronunciation.
Attendees: please plan on moving, vocalizing, and gesturing during this session. We’ll get our motors running and help prepare English learners to speak more clearly by engaging in practical learning activities that sharpen minds, muscles, and memory.
Presenter
Marsha J. Chan
Marsha co-founded the CATESOL Teaching of Pronunciation Interest Group, continues to lead TOP-IG as Co-coordinator, and is a former officer of TESOL's Speech Pronunciation and Listening Interest Section. Her volunteer roles at CATESOL include Web Manager, Professional Development Coordinator, Event Registrar, and Conference Organizer. She is ESL Professor Emerita at Mission College and has served the U.S. Department of State as an English Language Specialist stateside and abroad. She is followed by language teachers and students around the world as as Pronunciation Doctor on KZbin. Author of print and digital learning materials including Phrase by Phrase, Oral Communication 1, Look in the Lake, English for Child Care, and English for Child Development, she has also had articles published in the TESOL Encyclopedia of English Language Teaching, ESP Journal, CATESOL Journal, CATESOL Newsletter, and Pronunciation in Second Language Learning and Teaching Conference Proceedings.