Our catch phrase is on its way.

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

Back at Jingles headquarters in Yokohama, Japan, I encountered a very interesting situation today. Right next door to my classroom, construction on a new building is going on. But before the foundation for the new building can be put in, the foundation of the building that formerly stood in that spot has to be removed. Only then can the foundation for the new building be constructed.

As that major work was going on next door, I was teaching one of my more advanced clients. The gentleman has been working very hard to improve his English pronunciation over-and-above the “90-level” that characterizes the speech motor skills expertise of native speakers of any language – including English. As I was teaching this client today, I noted some weaknesses in the underpinnings of his hightly developed English allophonome.

After about 15 minutes of training and analyis – and with the help of watching three cranes just next door quickly removing the old foundation of the building that had formerly stood there – I suddenly saw that as those three cranes worked next door, my client had three underpinnings (known in Jingles parlance as “Magic Tongue Positions”) that needed to be reinforced. Those positions must be stable, well-developed, and in proper balance with one another if the learner is to have any hope of attaining nativellke English speech motor skills expertise.

These “Magic Tongue Positions” (”MTPs”) are the s/z gestures, the th/th gestures, and the uR (for American English)/ur (for England English)/uu (for Australian English) gestures. At any rate, I gave my client a comprehensive review of the MTPs and was able to get his “foundation” completely stabilized. Suddenly, his pronunciation was once again on the up and up! He and I could only smile. Is it any wonder that “The Jingles” are also known as “architectural linguistics”?

Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

EarthSaver

Steve Walker

Our catch phrase is on its way.