As Jinglers Develop, They Need Only Follow the Numbers to Confirm Their Progress
Dear Fellow Earthlings,
Yesterday I praised one of my clients for showing me how much her English pronunciation had improved. For the first time ever, she had garnered an applied speaking score of 89.9, which is only 0.1 points from the native speaker level of 90.0.
A score of 90 indicates that a Jingles client has produced all of kerm gestures (kerm sounds and kerm prosodic features) with a degree of competency/accuracy comparable to that produced by native speakers of the "target language" (TL).
In the case of the client I have mentioned here, she very nearly produced each and every gesture of the contents of her applied speaking performance in a completely nativelike fashion. She is beginning to enter the domain of target language native speaker expertise.
Perhaps I praised this client a bit too much. You see, she then asked me:
"So why didn't I reach "90" today? Go ahead and be candid."
At that moment I realized that no matter how good an instructor is, kee should exercise caution in praising a client too much. Some people react to even a small amount of praise with feelings such as:
"What is that you REALLY want to say?"
or
"Do not flatter me, please."
So, to be "candid" with all of you, I am going to continue to make sure I do not praise clients excessively. Not praising them at all can also result in complications. So I must continue to polish my balancing act when it comes to to praising my clients.
From now on, I will stick to the numbers: A score of 90 indicates nativelike production, but 89.9 does not. And a score of, say, 87.5 today is higher than the 85.6 a person had attained a month earlier.
I must let the numbers speak for themselves. In addition, I will, of course, continue to provide the training that my clients need as they seek to improve their English pronunciation and listening comprehension skills further.
Yours very truly,
Steve Walker
Earthsaver and Jingles Creator
© 2013 Steve Walker, The Jingles-The Japan Foundation for English Pronunciation, Summit Enterprises.