AFFIRMATION AND NOTICING: InterPlaying while tutoring English as a Second Language

ATLANTA SKYLINE. This photo was taken from the fourth floor of the Scheller Collge of Business at Georgia Tech from a breakout room where I was conducting tutorials with Chinese graduate students enrolled in Quantitative and Computational Finance. (photo by Ruth Schowalter, ESL language coach)

One-on-one English tutorials with international graduate students are intimate and supremely rewarding for both the language learner and the instructor.  Having taught English as a second language at the university level for more than 20 years, I have met thousands of bright, talented and motivated people of the world and supported their efforts to gain a comfortable fluency using their “academic” language—English!

 

Now, as an InterPlay Leader-in-Training, I have been experimenting with ways to use the principles of InterPlay in my language instruction. Before I go any further in this discussion, you might want a working definition of InterPlay. Well, there are many definitions, but here is a simple one for starters:

 

INTERPLAY is “easy, fun, and life changing. It is based in a series of incremental “forms” that lead participants to movement and stories, silence and song, ease and amusement. In the process, we discover the wisdom in ourselves and our communities.” (from the InterPlay website)

To understand how these life changing and incremental principles of InterPlay can be used in language instruction, let me explain a few applications I am currently experimenting with in my one-on-one tutorials with Chinese graduate students majoring in Quantitative and Computational Finance at Georgia Tech.

 

ESL TUTOR AND TUTEE SELFIE. Arthur (his English name) and I took this selfie at the conclusion of our one-hour one-on-one tutorial. I learn so much each time I have the opportunity to meet individually with students, especially now as I integrate the principles of InterPlay into my language instrutction. (photo by Ruth Schowalter, ESL language coach)

AFFIRMING THE GOOD.

As I train in InterPlay, I am learning to discern the good and name it with a greater frequency than I did previously. Affirming the good is one of the tools of InterPlay. However, as a language instructor specializing in pronunciation, I am trained to recognize and record where English language learners are deficient in producing English with an American accent. That is, to point out “the bad” –the opposite of “the good.”

 

This noticing and focusing on the deficiencies is what students demand. After all, that’s what I get paid for, and in their belief system that is the “only” way to make improvements. Acknowledging their achievements, areas of spoken English in which they demonstrate strong skills, is quickly skimmed over, and dismissed as being insignificant in the learning process!

 

Previously, before InterPlay, I excelled at outlining my students’ flaws so I could lead them down the avenue towards accuracy. I disregarded their “humanity” and honored their hunger to achieve. In my rich past, I once had a student from Colombia pout during a meeting where I was explaining why she was failing my advanced-level pronunciation course. She was not impressed with the detailed document, which recorded her speaking errors over the academic session. “In your class, we call ourselves the D students,” she told me. My endless hours spent evaluating the shortcomings of their speech was not proving to be the way to motivate them individually or collectively.

 

I had failed in my ruthless ambition to show them precisely where they could improve. Thus began the reformation of my teaching. My pedagogy evolved. I transformed my role from “evaluator” to “coach.” Instead of grading students based on their performance observing a strict course agenda, I would set up overarching course goals, observe their individual behavior and cheer them on as they meandered on their personal language journey. I developed a new course using the acting tool of improvisation to teach fluency in a manner that enrolled me as “coach” (see this blog, blog, and blog for examples).

 

Once I had figured out the “content” of teaching language using improvisation along with the collaboration of my improvisation teacher, I needed more of a “how” in order to implement these improvisational tools. Discovering InterPlay has become THE HOW!

 

Therefore, “affirming the good” is the first thing I am practicing in the one-on-one tutorials I am conducting now with my Chinese graduate students at Georgia Tech. This affirmation practice requires me to retrain my teaching brain. Really focusing on the positive outcomes of each student’s speech demands patience and being present to the individual.

 

At the beginning of the hour-long session, then, I set up a way to “playfully” interact with the “tutee” and allow him/her to speak for 10 minutes or so without any correction. We do this “playing” while standing up and moving, using our hands, feet, and entire bodies. We have already warmed up our voices and played with vocal variation.

 

Once I have set up an objective, for example, “Tell me about a former work experience,” or “Give me your ‘elevator speech,’” I keep the student on his/her feet moving about the room, experimenting with their delivery while strolling. I stroll or walk with the student too. Once the “walk about” is completed, we sit down and AFFIRM THE GOOD. This begins with NOTICING, another InterPlay term.

CHOOSE A VOWEL. Often English language learners need multiple ways to perceive how to produce target language sounds. Here Boya and I pose with a mirror as she chooses to work with the "ahhhh" sound, which is a low-mid vowel requiring the mouth to be wide open as if having the back of your throat examined by a doctor. Using different lip, tongue, and jaw muscles in another language feels clumsy and makes it difficult to produce sounds accurately. A student's ability to move towards accuracy is greatly increased when having fun, experimenting, being permitted to make mistakes and recover, and then to make choices about future ways to implement these English vowel sounds. Affirming the good in the students progress greatly enhances their optimism in becoming successful communicators. (photo by Shi Tang, QCF student)

 

NOTICING: COLLECTING BODY DATA, BODY KNOWLEDGE, BODY WISDOM

 

InterPlay teaches us to “notice” what our body is experiencing; that is, to tune in and see where we might be feeling tension or energy. Is the tension residing in the neck, the stomach, the throat? In InterPlay, we call these noticings, “body data.”

 

As a language instructor, I am very interested in having my students connect with English and the wider American culture. For me, this connection to our U.S. English speaking culture is more than just intellectual--it is emotional and physical. Having the students be more in touch with their “total” beings, seems a positive way to support their successful language learning. Fluency results from ease and comfort, from connecting with the self and extending that sense of self to others. We use language as a social tool in addition to a cerebral one.

 

Although it surprises my Chinese “tutees” when I ask them how they are feeling and to share what they are noticing in their bodies, it makes sense to them as we continue our tutorial session. Let me explain....

 

Well, InterPlay offers a way to use the “body data”! After I, the instructor, has listened carefully to the student observations of what feels good or bad in the body when speaking English, we discuss “why” these feelings are occurring. In InterPlay, we call this “body knowledge.” For example, one of my students expressed feeling more ease when slowing down his speech and making it more musical. Using his hands to punctuate a key idea felt different (slightly awkward) but effective resulting in a feeling of accomplishment.

 

Many international students learning English for academic purposes equate fluency with speed. The faster one talks, the better one is at communicating. This is a false assumption since their hurried speech generally results in a stream of unstressed words devoid of musicality resulting in a breakdown of meaning.

 

Well, “noticing” how they felt during the tutorials with these Chinese students revealed that when they speak fast, they feel nervous about finding the right vocabulary and cut off from the listener. Relying on being solely in their heads while speaking distances them from experiencing a fullness when communicating with others.

 

“Body knowledge” is knowing when these good and bad experiences occur. I’m experimenting with teaching students to be aware of what feels positive and effective when they are speaking English and to practice those behaviors to increase the frequency of fluency. And then the reverse, if something feels bad when they are speaking English to reduce that behavior—like speaking fast but incomprehensible sentences. Implementing what you have learned from body data and body knowledge is called, “body wisdom.”

 

Whoever thought that as a language instructor, I would be teaching “body wisdom”! As I work and play towards integrating the principles of InterPlay in my ESL teaching, I am surprised, pleased, and expanded!

 

CONCLUSION. You probably won’t be surpised to learn that I have a lot more to say about this topic of using InterPlay to teach English as a second language! I really really do!  I want to tell you right now about “witnessing” and explore the concept of “incrementality.” But, for now, I will stop with this incremental step, this blog entry about the InterPlay principles of “affirmation” and “noticing”!

 

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS: I thank my Chinese graduate students for their earnestness in learning English. They elected to take this “accent reduction” course and are very open to trying new strategies and tools to increase their fluency. I appreciate their trust in my methodologies and vulnerability. What a gift you are to us all.

SELFIE WITH TUTEE. Such fun! A new found way to relax and speak English both on a personal and academic level. I am convinced that academic English cannot be pursued without making personal connections at a very warm human level. (photo by Ruth Schowalter)

EMBODYING ENGLISH: Integrating the tools of InterPlay into my language instruction

EMBODYING ENGLISH. Photographed at the end of a 2-hour "accent reduction" class at Georgia Tech, these 9 Chinese graduate students majoring in Quantitative and Computational Finance, are energized. We were up and moving constantly through out the classroom, as a group, pairs, and two groups of five (one student is missing from this photo). Some goals for today's lesson? Volunteering, having fun, and connecting! Oh yeah, and learning how to express the rhythm of English in strong beats and weak beats! (photo by Ruth Schowalter, aka Hallelujah Truth)

Hallelujah for InterPlay and its improvisational tools! Hallelujah for the opportunity to instruct English to internationals at the university level who willingly "step into" the playful environment I create in my language classroom!

Imagine putting these three particular over-arching goals on my whiteboard at the beginning of my "accent reduction" class (I call it "accent enhancement"): 

Have fun!
Make connections (with yourself and others)
Learn new language skills (familiarize and experience)

Afterall, I am teaching "communication" and shouldn't we all have fun? Isn't it possible that in a highly energetic and happy environment, we might all have an increased opportunity to learn something about ourselves and others? 

The tools and forms of InterPlay (way too comprehensive to explain here) allow individuals to "expand." Yes, by creating ways for international students to move, engage with one another, play with their voices, tell stories, and work with the target language skills, encourages each one to use English in a new way.

Perhaps through play, students will discover a memorable and useful way of speaking that can become part of their "tool box" of communication strategies.  

For example, yesterday (September 24, 2014) in the accent reduction course I am currently teaching to graduate students majoring in Quantitative and Computational Finance at Georgia Tech, I did some of the following activities to teach the concept of syllable and word stress and reduction.

VOLUNTEERING. 
At the beginning of the two-hour class, I contextualized the pronunciation exercises by teaching the 10 Chinese students to use physical actions to volunteer a response. These physical activities took place in incremental steps (which is an InterPlay concept):

GATHERING IN A CIRCLE
1. A brief InterPlay warmup: To activate our bodies in order to use all our resources to learn we moved by shaking one hand, shaking another hand, shaking a foot, shaking another foot, shaking what you sit on, breathing and releasing your breath three times each time increasing the sound with your breath.

2. Vocal warmup:  To continuing warming up our voices and to start playing with vocal variation (pitch, speed, and volume) needed to express the language goals of stress and reduction, we played around with three vowels sounds, moving our arms and modulating our voices from high pitch to low pitch and back again.

3. Jumping in: Several times, we practiced together jumping into the unknown, raising our arms high above our heads and making appropriate noises to accompany the journey into new experience.

4. Before leaving the circle, I asked everyone to find a partner and to make one hand-to-hand contact and to feel the heft and weight of the other person by pushing the other off of their "spot." (This kind of hand-to-hand contact is a tidbit of InterPlay)

TEACHING THE RHYTHM OF ENGLISH.
While instructing on how to produce stress and reduction to create the rhythm of English when speaking either one word or an entire sentence, I had students "play" with scripted words and sentences while engaging with one another by standing up and sitting down, clapping, performing together in two groups of five, and creating original sentences while standing and being "danced" out with gestures, feet, and head bobbing.

PLAYING AROUND WITH ACADEMIC WORDS AND VOLUNTEERING.
Once everyone felt "familiar" with how to produce the strong and weak beats of English and had embodied it for more than an hour, it was time to incorporate the rhythm of English using academic words from the world of quantitative and computational finance.

EMBODYING VOLUNTEERING. Two groups of five students each took turns asking and answering questions about an academic concept in Quantitative and Computational Finance. Everyone in the answering group practiced raising their hand even if they didn't know the answer! It was great fun to hear a student when called upon to say, "I don't understand the question." Or "I don't know the answer." They were actively involved in communicating and embodying English. An incremental step toward increased fluency and comfort in this American culture and classroom. (photo by Ruth Schowalter, aka Hallelujah Truth)

 I broke this exercise down into two parts: 

Part One Volunteering in Pairs. In this large auditorium classroom, I had pairs go to corners of the room and practice enthusiastically volunteering a response to a question. This incremental step allowed them to gain comfort and ease when speaking in English about their terms specific to their field of finance. Many of them had only spoken about these topics in Chinese. Therefore, they achieved two things in this pair work: 

1) Increased fluency speaking about field specific terms 

2) Increased ease in their bodies while speaking English which leads to future confidence when speaking

Part Two Volunteering in Groups. 
After speaking "privately" in pair work, it was time to get a "bigger" perspective on speaking after volunteering, so we divided the class into two groups and students would speak publicly (see the photo above).

SELFIE WITH THE QCF WOMEN AT GEORGIA TECH.

Oh I could write more about this class, but I will stop here for now. At the end of the class I asked the students to pose for the class photo, which is evidence of their enthusiasm and energy generated during this English language class. 

I asked them if we had achieved the overarching goals that I had proposed at the beginning of the class: 

To have fun.
To connect with yourself and others.
To familiarize yourself and experience new language skills.

The answer? They all VOLUNTEERED this answer: 

YES! 
That's Coffee with Hallelujah! How will you embody English today? 
 




ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: First of all, thank you to the 10 Chinese students I am teaching "embodying English" to at Georgia Tech. I appreciate your willingness to play with English and to try something new for you. I am very grateful to Jane Chisholm, who generated such amazing pronunciation materials for this accent reduction course--they are rich and comprehensive! Many many thanks to the InterPlay community, from which I am learning so much about new ways of teaching.