The “Silent Experience”: A New Approach to Prosody

Abstract

Oral communication is a physical activity. In second language acquisition, a greater awareness of, and work upon, the body in relation to language production is important for raising confidence and thus improving performance. This applies to the learner but also to the teacher, who serves as language model and motivator. Our approach, transmitted principally in teacher training workshops and training videos, develops awareness of the role of the body and the workings of the voice, through movement and vocal activities. One important aspect of our work is “The Silent Experience”, which involves work on posture, breathing and the articulators without sound, to allow focus upon the sensations within the body, the awareness of what is happening. It is an active silence, helping the mind and body to become (re)connected in language terms. This work is followed by playing with sound, for example via nonsense language, to once again emphasize form and feeling over meaning. We show teachers both how to increase their own confidence in their physical relationship with the language, and how to employ such exercises in work with learners.

Full text

Recherche et pratiques pédagogiques en langues de
spécialité
Cahiers de l'Apliut
Vol. 37 N°2 | 2018
Corps, voix et langues dans l’enseignement supérieur
The “Silent Experience”: A New Approach to
Prosody
L’expérience silencieuse : une approche novatrice de la prosodie
Christopher Mitchell, Marieke De Koning and Rebecca Guy
Electronic version
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/apliut/6367
ISSN: 2119-5242
Publisher
APLIUT
This text was automatically generated on 31 October 2018.

The “Silent Experience”: A New
Approach to Prosody
L’expérience silencieuse : une approche novatrice de la prosodie
Christopher Mitchell, Marieke De Koning and Rebecca Guy
Introduction
1 In a classroom situation, both the physical presence and the quality of voice of the
teacher can influence their pedagogical impact. The movement and perceived energy of
the teacher’s body are observed and judged by the learner, alongside the posture, facial
expression and focus. The pitch, volume, speed, timbre, accent and energy of the
teacher’s voice can all affect the learner experience. What the learner sees and hears,
before the formal act of teaching even takes place, will inevitably play an important role
in their approach to the learning of a language. Thus it is that a teacher’s body and voice
may come to serve as a language model for the learner.
2 However, the teacher, like the learner, lives in an age where technological development
has led to an increased disconnection between the mind and the body, in language terms.
This disconnection had its origins in Europe as far back as the Early Middle Ages when
language started to appear more and more in a written form in manuscripts. However,
this disengagement of the body from the mind became, in a short period of time, a much
more important and widespread phenomenon, with the arrival of the printing press in
the fifteenth century: language became for an increasing percentage of the population
something that was seen, rather than heard and felt, as had been the case when it relied
predominantly on oral transmission. It is a state that has been further amplified in recent
decades by the computer, tablet and smartphone, and the body has had to accommodate
the physical demands of these inventions. In so doing the corporeity of the individual has
to a greater or lesser degree been lost, reflected in a reduced level of energy and focus in
the speaker.
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3 The task of improving the mind/body connection in the field of oral production has a
high priority in the work of THEMPPO (THématique Prosody et Production Orale), one of the
working groups within the Innovalangues-IDEFI project at université Grenoble-Alpes1.
The sphere in which a mind/body disconnect is most acutely felt is in the learning of
prosody, which poses special problems for French learners of English: “French and
English, despite sharing much of their vocabulary, are extremely different both
phonetically and phonologically. This is particularly evident in the domain of prosody”
(Frost and Picavet 235). The fact that the prosody, that is to say the musicality, of the
English language, receives so little attention in the teaching of the language does little to
remedy this situation. This is surprising given the importance of prosody, not only in oral
comprehension (Frost and Guy) but also, in our experience, in enabling the learner to feel
comfortable with the language; the concern that they are not creating the right music
when speaking can be a serious impediment to oral production for the learner. Given the
very physicality of prosody, the reconnection between mind and body is seen by us as a
prerequisite for the teaching of prosody and oral production in the language class.
1. The feeling of what happens
4 Damasio talks about how:
(…) we use our minds not to discover facts but to hide them. We use part of the
mind as a screen to prevent another part of it from sensing what goes on
elsewhere… One of the things the screen hides most effectively is the body, our own
body, by which I mean the ins of it, its interiors. (Damasio 28)
5 Our work, on both a corporal and vocal level, is directed towards recognising the
existence of this “screen”. Beyond the “screen” the individual has access to a state of self-
awareness, and it is this state which allows the learner to become conscious of what is
happening in their body, before, during, and after speaking, and to be more at ease with
what is happening: “Words, thoughts, are movement, movement within ourselves”
(Berry 00:03:32-00:03:42). Vaissière (6) draws attention to Ivan Fonagy’s interest in the
changing nature of the human being and how this variation is reflected in prosody:
The human being is changeable by nature in his/her state of mind, emotions and
different roles (in the family and the workplace). The sounds and prosody of speech
reflect these variations. Verbal style is both a way of being and a way of doing
things2. (Vaissière 6)
6 The more sensitive the learner is to the movement of sound within the body, the more
sensitive they will be to prosody. Guimbretière (27) notes in her observations on the voice
of the teacher that the act of becoming aware of oneself, enables the teacher to accept
who they are. The important benefit of this is that once the teacher has gone through the
process themselves, they will be able to help others to do the same. The development of
self-awareness is, we believe, a vital stage in the learning of oral production in all
languages, at all levels. It is also a means of countering the negative effect of self-
consciousness, an awareness of the self as seen through the eyes of the other. The
distinction between self-consciousness and self-awareness is not found in the French
language where both states are translated by the same conscience de soi.
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2. Two axes for a new approach
7 The pedagogical structure developed by our team, in the framework of ongoing
professional development programmes for teachers, aims to improve the confidence and
the prosody of the learner. These issues are approached via two complementary
interlinked axes. In the first of these, which we call the “Silent Experience”, we lead the
participants in activities on posture, breathing and the articulators. These are followed by
exercises involving voiceless reading aloud and voiceless speaking aloud. The second axis,
the Engaged Body, takes the “Silent Experience” beyond the body of the learner into what
we like to call the speaking arena where the focus is on the relationship between body
and space, social interaction with the listener, the proxemics of discourse and its
interaction with prosody.
8 It is the first of these two axes, the “Silent Experience”, which is the focus of this report.
We consider this to be a precursor to oral production. It is not to be confused with the
Silent Way of Gattegno3 or the Silent Period of Krashen4. Although, like the Silent Period,
it precedes oral production, it does so in an active manner, in different forms, at different
stages of oral production, as shall be explained below. It is a necessary prerequisite to
recognition of the role of the body in the act of speaking. Linklater (328) speaks of the
need to restore the direct “neurophysiological pathways for the voice to travel through
the body, arousing physical, sensory, sensual, and emotional response.” The “Silent
Experience” plays an important role in restoring this emotional response, which is
lacking in the language classroom.
9 Lacheret-Dujour (186) argues “for the grammatical status of vocal expressivity” saying
that:
…while certain universal features may exist beyond the typological differences
between languages, the prosodic encoding of emotion is the result of a learning
process in children’s linguistic development, just like syntax or the lexicon, and
therefore is a grammatical component. (Lacheret-Dujour 186)
10 It is the prosodic encoding of emotion which is lacking in the second language learning
experience, where the learner is not following the same path as the child acquiring their
mother tongue. The “Silent Experience”, followed by activities involving playing with
sound and the use of nonsense language - where the focus is on form rather than content
- constitutes an attempt to recapture that experience of the acquisition of prosody in the
child.
3. The “Silent Experience”
11 A word that is used early on in our “Silent Experience” workshops is
“kakorrhaphiophobia”. This is not only an excellent word for experiencing the mechanics
of articulation in the mouth, but discussion of its meaning, the fear of failure, allows us to
highlight the existence of one of the major obstacles to the learner achieving a flowing
and assured oral production, with an appropriate prosody. The fear of failure is often the
reason why the language learner is reluctant to commit themselves in oral expression
and why confidence needs to be bolstered. This process begins with the “Silent
Experience”.
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12 The “Silent Experience” has three physical components: posture, breathing and the
“articulators”.
13 1) Posture - It is not only the relationship with language that has been affected by recent
technology; the body itself is undergoing changes. Posture in particular is being affected,
with the head bent, near focus scrolling of tablets and smartphones leading to what has
been popularly termed “text neck” (Hansraj 278). Exercises on posture focus on an
upright standing position. In our workshops we ask teachers how much time they spend
with their learners standing, and inevitably the response is ‘very little’. One of the biggest
criticisms that can be made of language learning down the ages is that it has been such a
passive, sedentary activity. Our team likes to envisage a future ideal classroom space for
language learning: a circular area, with standing work stations around the perimeter and
a clear space in the middle for body and voice work, including oral production exercises.
A “good posture” is the starting point in our work, first of all because it provides the
speaker with inner strength, by giving physical support. Being aware of the way we are
standing, on both feet, being aware of our weight dropping down so as to allow gravity to
play its role in finding a natural alignment, will reinforce our physical presence and in
return raise self-confidence. The second reason is a more “mechanical” one: in any body
position which does not fulfill the requirements of good posture, breathing is affected.
This is demonstrated in an exercise where, from an ideal posture position, body weight is
transferred onto one foot so that the learner can immediately experience how breathing
is impacted.
14 2) Breathing - The importance of breathing whenever we are to use our voice is obvious.
Awareness of what constitutes good breathing when speaking will help to alleviate the
negative influence of body tension. In the “Silent Experience”, breathing exercises are
initially performed without sound, enabling the learner to become aware of their
breathing and to focus on the role of the diaphragm. Although breathing is a reflex
action, a more conscious awareness of it will enable the learner to use it more effectively,
particularly in moments of stress such as public speaking. It is at such moments that the
reflex action which is present twenty-four hours a day can find itself challenged by stress.
“If you can feel your breathing, and get pleasure in the sounds of the words, you can build
your confidence." (Cicely Berry, quoted in Barnett 21-22)
15 3) The articulators - In the “Silent Experience”, the organs of articulation are exercised
without sound. This enables the learner to concentrate on the positioning of these
articulators and to feel where they are in the making of different consonant sounds. In
the same way that the child discovers that their body can make sounds (the smacking of
the lips leading to the production of bi-labial sounds being a good example) the language
learner can, in exercises that are initially without sound, explore the articulatory
mechanisms of the target language before sound is added. Exercises are then brought
together in work on voiceless reading aloud and voiceless speaking aloud. The learner has
been observed, in both our workshops and in individual voice work, to be more ready to
play with the sounds of language having done this voiceless work. Other important
features of our work with sound, such as backspeak and non-melodic singing5, can all be
initially explored silently. In the vocalized voice work that follows on from voiceless
work, an improvement in articulation can be expected. Encouraging the learner to
experience speaking as a dégustation of words, in which the goal of luscious mouthfeel is
sought, has been observed in our work to slow the rate of speaking and to introduce
appropriate pausing. These changes should then lead to greater prosodic variation.
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4. The “Silent Experience” and Classroom Pedagogy
16 It is never intended that the work on the “Silent Experience”, as with all body and voice
work, should occupy a whole language lesson. One of the features of our workshops is to
demonstrate to teachers how to insert our work in small doses into a language class,
thereby changing its pedagogical relief. One good example of this is to seize upon the
action of a learner yawning in class to demand the rest of the class to yawn also,
explaining that it is an exercise to stimulate energy and to open up the vocal tract. We
recognise that the activities which we propose, whether they be yawning, backspeaking,
non-melodic singing or any other of the activities not typically found in a language class,
may be perceived by the learners as not relevant to language learning because they
appear not to relate directly to meaning. The perception amongst so many learners is
that the only way to improve their language skills is to do yet more grammar exercises,
vocabulary learning, and classroom presentations, in which the yardstick for measuring
their oral skills focuses on grammar and syntactical competence. Teachers who recognise
that work without sound may indeed have its place in the language classroom need to be
prepared to spend some time explaining to their learners the relevance of all body and
voice exercises.
Conclusion
17 The work of the neurologist Damasio is the basis for a lot of the work of Linklater. As a
voice coach working mainly in the world of theatre, she is principally concerned with the
voice of the actor, but in her introduction to Freeing the Natural Voice (7) she writes:
I will address all readers as actors; perhaps those who are “interested lay people”
might consider that you are in fact performers in the daily acts and scenes of your
lives; as you train yourselves to pay attention to your habits of communication you
will find the same pleasurable state of self-awareness that actors develop as an
essential part of their craft. (Linklater 7)
18 Language teachers are, of course, closer to the actor than many “lay people”, the more
interesting language class environments being akin to a performance space. Cadet and
Tellier (7) have pointed out the link between the actor and the teacher: “As with the
actor, the teacher uses their body and their voice as tools of the trade, both for imparting
information and also for stimulating interest”6. But whilst the actor has instruction in
body and voice techniques, such training is noticeably lacking for teachers: “The body
and the voice are the main professional tools for the teacher and yet, paradoxically, the
hours given over to training on this theme are still very often considered as an accessory”
7. (Jourdan)
19 Our work is an original approach to helping the teacher discover their body and their
voice, and our experience has shown that teachers who learn this approach in our
workshops find the experience pleasurable. Furthermore, they then want to try it in the
classroom: “Focusing on body, voice, and sound. It now makes sense and I finally want to
work that way with my students. Whereas before I would do anything I could to avoid it”
(Bélanger)8. The response that we get very often from teachers in our workshops is that
the original nature of the exercises that they are asked to do leads them to a serious
reappraisal of the place of their body and voice in the classroom. “What these workshops
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have brought me is a moment… not of how to do things, but almost of how to be”
(Avenier)9.
20 Linklater describes perfect communication as “a balanced quartet between intellect,
emotion, body and voice” (9). Perfect communication is of course something that is rarely
achieved in mother tongue oral production, let alone in a second language. Furthermore,
the emphasis on intellect in second language learning, that is to say grammar, syntax and
vocabulary acquisition, at the expense of emotion, body and voice, is, we believe, a
handicap to the acquisition of good prosody, and thus to good communication. Our
“Silent Experience” approach could be a starting point for remedying that handicap.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Avenier, Dominique. Ca bouge: corps et voix dans les ateliers THEMPPO. https://
vimeo.com/224196669/2417ab1ce1
Barnett, Laura. “Cicely Berry, Voice Coach to the Stars.” The Guardian, 24 July 2011,
www.theguardian.com/stage/2011/jul/24/cicely-berry-voice-coach.
Bélanger, Sophie. Ca bouge: corps et voix dans les ateliers THEMPPO. Interview in video,
vimeo.com/224196669/2417ab1ce1
Berry, Cicely. “Series Intro: Working Shakespeare DVD Series.” Youtube, uploaded by
TheWorkingArts, 15th April 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5bPZ7jvsJI.
Cadet, Lucille, and Marion Tellier. “Avant-Propos.” Le corps et la voix de l’enseignant : théorie et
pratique, directed by Marion Tellier and Lucile Cadet, Maison des langues, 2014, pp. 7-11.
Damasio, Antonio, R. The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness.
Harvest Books, 2000.
Frost, Dan, and Rebecca Guy. “L’innovation est le ton qui fait la chanson : une approche musico-
prosodique en secteur Lansad.” Recherche et pratiques pédagogiques en langues de spécialité. Cahiers
de l’Apliut, vol. 35, no spécial 1, DOI:10.4000/apliut.5526.
Frost, Dan, and Francis Picavet. “Putting Prosody First - Some Practical Solutions to a Perennial
Problem: The Innovalangues Project.” Research in Language, vol. 12, no. 2, 2014, pp. 23-243. DOI:
10.2478/rela-2014-0002.
Gattegno, Caleb. Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way. Educational Explorers, 1963
(1st ed.).
Guimbretière, Elisabeth. “Partie 1 - Introduction: la voix de l’enseignant.” Le corps et la voix de
l’enseignant : théorie et pratique, directed by Marion Tellier and Lucile Cadet, Maison des langues,
2014, pp. 15-28.
Hansraj, Kenneth K. “Assessment of Stresses in the Cervical Spine Caused by Posture and Position
of the Head.” Surgical Technology International, vol. 25, 2014, pp. 277-279.
Jourdan, Isabelle. “Posture, corps et voix de l’enseignant débutant : Une démarche clinique de
formation.” Recherches & éducations, vol. 12, 2014, http://rechercheseducations.revues.org/2253.
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Krashen, Stephen D. Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition. Prentice-Hall, 1982.
Lacheret-Dujour, Anne. “Structure et application au traitement automatique. Expressivité vocale
et prosodique, le cas du français.” Journées d’études franco-russes. Textes et Langages : tendances,
sources, perspectives, Lomonossov University Press, 2013, pp. 186-197.
Linklater, Kristin. Freeing the Natural Voice. Nick Hern, 2007.
Vaissière, Jacqueline. “De la voix et du sens - autour de l’œuvre de Iván Fónagy.” Temps, espaces,
langages : La Hongrie à la croisée des disciplines, no 14 L’Harmattan, 2008, pp. 56-70, halshs.archives-
ouvertes.fr/halshs-00676273/document.
NOTES
1. Innovalangues is an IDEFI-ANR project aimed at innovation in the teaching and learning of
languages, principally for students in French public higher education institutions.
2. Author translation for: “L’être humain est changeant par nature dans son état d’esprit, ses émotions
et ses différents rôles (que ce soit dans son cadre familial et dans son lieu de travail). Les sons et la prosodie
de parole reflètent cette variabilité. Le style verbal est à la fois une façon d’être et une façon d’agir.”
(Vaissière 6)
3. A foreign language teaching method based on the teacher being silent most of the time, first
expounded in Gattegno.
4. Part of Krashen’s Second Language Acquisition theory, first introduced in Principles and Practice
in Second Language Acquisition (1982).
5. Backspeak: building words, phrases, sentences up from the end (the back) using phonemes or
syllables where the focus is on sound and not on meaning. Non-melodic singing: singing a phrase
without being melodious, in a “free-jazz” style, as distinct from speaking intonation.
6. Author translation for: “ Tout comme le comédien, l’enseignant utilise son corps et sa voix comme
outils de travail, à la fois en tant que stratégie de transmission et en tant qu’outil d’animation.” (Cadet and
Tellier 7)
7. Author translation for: “Le corps et la voix sont les premiers outils professionnels de l’enseignant et
paradoxalement, les heures accordées à la formation sur ce thème sont encore souvent considérées comme
accessoires.” (Jourdan)
8. Author translation for: “Travailler plutôt le corps, la voix, le son. Tout d’un coup ça prend du sens et
j’ai enfin envie de travailler ça avec mes étudiants - alors qu’avant je faisais tout pour ne pas le faire.”
(Bélanger)
9. Author translation for: “Ce que ces ateliers m’ont apporté, c’est un moment... pas de savoir faire, mais
presque de savoir être”. (Avenier)
ABSTRACTS
Oral communication is a physical activity. In second language acquisition, a greater awareness of,
and work upon, the body in relation to language production is important for raising confidence
and thus improving performance. This applies to the learner but also to the teacher, who serves
as language model and motivator. Our approach, transmitted principally in teacher training
The “Silent Experience”: A New Approach to Prosody
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workshops and training videos, develops awareness of the role of the body and the workings of
the voice, through movement and vocal activities. One important aspect of our work is “The
Silent Experience”, which involves work on posture, breathing and the articulators without
sound, to allow focus upon the sensations within the body, the awareness of what is happening. It
is an active silence, helping the mind and body to become (re)connected in language terms. This
work is followed by playing with sound, for example via nonsense language, to once again
emphasize form and feeling over meaning. We show teachers both how to increase their own
confidence in their physical relationship with the language, and how to employ such exercises in
work with learners.
La communication orale est une activité physique. Lors de l’acquisition d’une seconde langue, un
travail sur le corps en lien avec la production langagière et une plus grande conscience du corps
sont important pour augmenter la confiance. Cela est vrai pour l’apprenant mais aussi pour
l’enseignant qui sert de modèle langagier. Notre approche, transmise dans le cadre de formations
de formateur et par vidéos, vise à développer la conscience du rôle du corps et le travail de la
voix par des activités vocales et en mouvement. L’Expérience Silencieuse, qui comprend le travail
sur la posture, le souffle et les organes d’articulation sans production de son permet de se
concentrer sur les sensations et d’être conscient de ce qui se passe dans le corps. Il s’agit d’un
silence actif, qui sert à reconnecter le corps et l’esprit en situation langagière. Ce travail est suivi
de jeux avec les sons, par exemple avec langage “sans sens”, afin toujours de privilégier la forme
et les sens au lieu du sens. Nous amenons les enseignants à développer pour eux-mêmes la
confiance dans le lien entre corps et langage et à poursuivre dans cette démarche avec leurs
apprenants.
INDEX
Keywords: body, confidence, oral production, prosody, silence, voice
Mots-clés: confiance, corps, production orale, prosodie, silence, voix
AUTHORS
CHRISTOPHER MITCHELL
Christopher Mitchell trained as a voice coach and drama teacher at the Royal Centre School of
Speech and Drama in London before running the New Focus theatre-in-education company in the
Midlands UK, specialising in language work with immigrants. In France his work includes
individual voice work in the Grenoble Institute of Techology as well as in the private sector. Until
recently he ran theatre courses at the Université Grenoble-Alpes and Grenoble INP. He is the
director of the Grand Arbre theatre company directing plays and running workshops in French.
He has been a member of the THEMPPO team since the beginning of the Innovalangues research
project. christopher.mitchell@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
MARIEKE DE KONING
Marieke De Koning studied Langues Etrangères Appliquées (Applied Language Studies in English,
German) at Paris–Sorbonne and modern dance at the Theaterschool in Amsterdam. She
graduated from the French Ministry of Culture as a modern dance teacher. After a dance career,
she now teaches English with a special interest in the link between body in movement, oral
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expression and pedagogy in second language teaching. She has been a member of the THEMPPO
team since 2016. Marieke.De-Koning@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr
REBECCA GUY
Rebecca Guy studied music at the University of Manchester and the Royal Northern College of
Music, before gaining a PhD in musicology and semiotics from the University of Salford, and a
Postgraduate Certificate in Higher Education Practice and Research. She currently teaches
English as a Foreign Language at Grenoble Institute of Techology and the Université Grenoble-
Alpes, whilst pursuing research interests in prosody and pedagogy. She has been a member of the
THEMPPO team since the beginning of the Innovalangues research project. rebecca.guy@univ-
grenoble-alpes.fr
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