Our catch phrase is on its way.
Dear Fellow Earthlings:
“The Jingles” have helped a great many people over the past 20 years. How is it that, basically, 10 well thought out sentences can help people gain control of the way they sound, in most instances (if they follow through to the end) resulting in nativelike pronunciation expertise in the language whose phonology they have chosen to master?
The key to “The Jingles” is target language speech motor skills development. The first 10 JINGLES, known as “Series A”, focus on developing the proper amount of POWER and SPEED, with fluency as a by-product. This is done through the use of an extremely powerful TRAINING MODE (TM), which the Jingles client is called on to produce at the proper time in contrast to kerm production of the “regular mode”.
The second 10 JINGLES, known as “Series B”, call for the client to place greater emphasis on FLUENCY and POWER OUTPUT REFINEMENT, which results in speed control development. This set of goals is fostered by a TM that features attenuations of articulation intensities that are more subtle than those found in their Series A equivalents.
By the time the client is ready for Series C, kee has almost attained kerm goal: the ability to produce sounds and sound combinations indistinguishable from those produced by native speakers of the target language. The 10 Series C Jingles’ main function is to provide quantifiable confirmation that target language nativelike competency has been attained.
In Summary:
Series A (A-J) TM? Yes rm? Yes, but not often 1) develop power 2) develop speed 3) contribute to eventual fluency
Series B (K-T) TM? Yes rm? Yes, but not often 1) develop fluency 2) refine power output 3) polish speed control
Series C (U-DD) TM? No* rm? Yes To confirm that the client does indeed sound native.
* People training to become Jingles instructors DO have to practice their
Series C Jingles using the TM as well as the rm.
I also offer an additional 366 “A Jingle a Day Keeps the Accent Away” (Check out “Pronunciation Muscle Builders” on the internet.) jingles that provide a less intensive means for “approaching”-- rather than actually “attaining”-- nativelike speech motor skills application expertise. These “jingles” (spelled with a lower case “j”) are of particular benefit to the person whose native language is an Indo-European language, since the basic motor skills synergies such a language presupposes are much more akin to those of English than are the motor skills of non-Indo-European tongues.
Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.