Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
One of my clients (Let's call her Carol.) reached 90 in her Jingles two years ago and has been trying to reach the 91 level (attained only by 13 people so far) for the past two years.
In pursuit of excellence in English, Carol studies all aspects of it: grammar, syntax, listening
comprehension, reading comprehension, writing, dialects, drama, pronunciation, and so on. Ever since reaching 90 she has felt a degree of satisfaction with her pronunciation.
However, even as Carol's overall English skills have continued to improve during the past two years, her English pronunciation skills have not. I found this out when I taught her yesterday evening.
I spent time asking Carol about her Jingles at-home training technique and found out the reason why her pronunciation has failed to show any progress over the past year.
She uses the TRAINING MODE only when instructed to do so in class. In other words, she has been practicing only in the regular mode when she practices at home. What is more, when she encounters "Back-to-Basics" sections in her worksheets, she either treats them lightly or skips over them completely.
You see, she is totally fascinated with the 366 Jingles known variously as "Pronunciation Muscle Builders", "the iPhone jingles apps", and "A Jingle a Day Keeps the Accent Away". As she eagerly pursues these 366 very interesting jingles, she never uses the TRAINING MODE. This has, ironically,turned the 366 jingles into just a set of interesting utterances/gestures.
I have asked Carol to, henceforth, NEVER skip any worksheets -- They have been designed to be dealt with sequentially. Not going by the book on them will lead to a diminished rate of progress.
Secondly, she should not consider any worksheet to be less important or more important than any of the others. The worksheets have been designed such that dealing with them in an equitable fashion will lead to optimal progress.
Finally, I have stressed to her the importance of having at least 3 instructors for every ten sessions she takes. For the 20 sessions prior to the one Carol had had with me last night, she had the same instructor every time. This is a no-no!
No matter how good an instructor a Jingles client has, kee must never limit kermself to only one. Intrinsic to the acquisition of nativelike English speech motor skills is the concept that a learner can learn best not by sticking to but one native speaker/one Jingles instructor as kerm source informant,but rather being exposed to at least three instructors during every 10 sessions that kee takes.
It is only by having the client subconsciously compare the inputs received from exposure to at least three (qualified) Jingles instructors that kee can activate kerm genetically predisposed abilities to process the inputs from those instructors -- and use those inputs to extrapolate the techniques that will facilitate kerm efforts to develop a nativelike English allophonome.
Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.