What you will find on this website are, in som sense, the artifacts of a career-long journey that has centered on three issues: How do you
Teach pronunciation,
Engage the whole body when doing so, and
Create a method that is simple, easy to learn, affordable and accessible to teachers everywhere?”
The ongoing development, modules and courses featuring the KINETIK Method, center on those questions. (Hint: An important part of the answer is a combination of your best course content and haptic pronunciation teaching!)
What is Haptic Pronunciation Teaching (HaPT)?
HaPT has been developed beginning in 2008. It has been shown to be a very effective way to do pronunciation, making systematic use of movement and touch. (Literally, "haptic" means relating to touch or "grasp," the sense of touch, tactile, from the Greek "haptikos." ) It works for teachers and students of nearly all levels of experience, age and proficiency. Version 4.5 (no longer available) covered essential topics of English phonetics and pronunciation: vowels, stress, rhythm, intonation, fluency, expressiveness and selected consonants. A flexible combination of teaching and practice videos, such that the content of a module could be covered in 20 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the type of class and instructor background (beginning with a 10-minute in-class video and then students doing up to 3 additional 15-30-minute homework assignments. (See the model videos from v. 4.5)
Meet Dr. Bill Acton
Bill Acton is Director of the MATESOL program at Trinity Western University, Langley, British Columbia, Canada, President of AMPISys, Inc., a company that he and his wife, Suzanne, began in 2005, and founder of the Acton Haptic system for HaPT. His research and publications over the past 50 years are in the areas of pronunciation and the role of the body in language learning.
To talk KINETIK, run with Bill, or just connect, email him at wracton@gmail.com
Visit Dr. Acton’s blog for more in-depth research on the development of the field of HaPT.