Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
One of my clients (who requests that I should refer to her as “Ms Teenager”) presented me with an interesting situation today. Although Ms Teenager is still only on Worksheet 46-1*, her primary synergy is already a nativelike 3.5. See the following installments for further information about “primary synergy” (S1): 26, 97, 112, 113, 118, 151, 190, 203, 204.
There are two aspects of Ms Teenager’s development that I find truly fascinating. One is that her S1 is already at 3.5. Most clients don’t achieve that level of secondary allophonomic development until they have qualified Worksheet 90-1 or thereabouts, The other is that her lower secondary synergy (that is, the set of gestures s as in “sea”, z as in “zest”/”easy”/”realize”, h as in “he”, y as in “(y)Europe”, uW (as in “blue”) – known as “lower secondary synergy gestures” or “primary abdominal surging gestures” -- is developing at a SLOWER rate than usual. When I pointed this out to Ms Teenager today, she was rather shocked and upset to hear such news. But, positive person that she is, she asked,
“So what can I do to correct the situation?”
My reply was that she is going to have to employ various speech motor skills employment techniques (particularly with Jingle C and Jingle D) so that her lower secondary synergy gestures (S2L) develop. I explained that since she has a nice, nativelike 3.5 S1 base, she will show dramatic improvement within the next two or three weeks. I also reassured her that although the big difference between the rate of development of her S1 and S2L does surprise me, it does not frighten me or give me any reason to be alarmed. After that I said,
“Okay! Let’s get to work on Jingles C and D”.
Steve Walker, Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
*For everyone’s information, there are 1000 worksheets available, the last numbered one called “Worksheet 505-2”. This numbering system occurred because the first 10 worksheets are called “Worksheet 1”, ”Worksheet 2”, and so on up until “Worksheet 10”, inclusive. After that, the worksheets come in pairs: “Worksheet 11-1”, “Worksheeet 11-2”, “Worksheet 12-1”, and so on, all the way up until “505-2”, which is the 1000th worksheet.
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.