We CAN Save Earth! Installment 475

Dear Fellow Earthlings,

Over the years I have been able to refine "The JINGLES" pronunciation training system.

As a result, client progress takes place much more rapidly than it used to

Back in the late 1990s native speakers of Japanese, employing Jingles training, took

between 5 and 6 years to realize their goal of nativelike English pronunciation competency.

By 2010 the period of time necessary for this to happen halved.

Today most of my clients can reach "90" (the level defined as "nativelike") in one year's

time.

However, I have isolated three factors which inhibit Jingles clients' ability to achieve

their pronunciation goals:

1. lack of proper training,

2. confusion caused by the various varieties of English pronunciation,

3. unease about whether progress is truly being made.

To deal with these factors, my staff and I constantly explain proper training techniques

to our clients -- providing demonstrations -- and then following up these efforts by

monitoring client efforts to do as their instructors have asked. This engenders proper

training.

As for varieties of English, my staff and I keep things straightforward: We help each

client develop the type of pronunciation that kee kermself wishes to develop. At the

same time, we make recommendations regarding what types of pronunciation choices

are most appropriate in various circumstances.

Clients gain confidence when my staff and I have them produce oral presentations,

engage in conversation, and/or read aloud. It is at these times that they begin to grasp

how much progress they have made.

There is yet a fourth factor which inhibits pronunciation improvement: "Comfort

Level Fossilization" (CLF). This happens when clients who are living in an English

speaking environment are deluged with so much English that the training benefits

derived from practicing their JINGLES are overwhelmed by the sheer volume of

"relaxed", "adequate" English pronunciation which they deal with every day.

This is why, ironically, Jingles clients who are NOT in English speaking environments

24 hours a day, 7 days a week make faster, more dramatic progress in their target

language pronunciation development than those who are!

The best way to deal with CLF is to develop your English pronunciation before you enter

an English speaking environment. If this is not possible, then there is an increased need to

train properly, ask questions of your Jingles instructors, and rely on our feedback as you

journey along "The JINGLES ROAD"!

Steve Walker Earthsaver and Jingles Creator

EarthSaver