Improve Your English by Using Movements

Improve Your English by Using Movements

In the Education Tips series, education experts offer suggestions about how you can improve your English skills. This week, Tamara Jones, a program coordinator¹ at the English Language Center at Howard Community College, talks about how movements can help English learners remember words.

If you are like most students, you probably sit still while learning a new language.

However, sitting still may not always be the best way to learn.

English learners can improve their language skills through movement, says Tamara Jones. She works at the English Language Center at Howard Community College in Maryland.

Jones notes that English learners can improve their pronunciation by studying with something really simple: a rubber band.

The relationship between movements and your brain

So, what is the relationship between physical movement and the brain?

The idea is that the brain and the body are joined together. This means that one affects the other.

Many people are familiar with the idea that the brain tells the body to move. And many people are familiar with the idea that repetition -- repeating an action over and over again -- helps your brain to remember.

However, some research, such as a study by Morsella and Krauss, suggests that your body might help your brain to find memories. Specifically, movements we make with our body, such as hand gestures, may help us to remember and use the correct words.

This idea is part of the reason why experts on learning strategies, which are ways to improve the learning process, suggest using movements.

One learning strategy approach, the Cognitive² Academic Language Learning Approach, or CALLA, calls the use of movements 'Using Your Kinesthetic Sense.'

Beyond helping³ the brain to find memories, movements also aid in learning, says Tamara Jones of Howard Community College.

“There's a lot of research that suggests what you do with your body, you remember with your brain. And also, a lot of these physical movements will encourage us in class or in life, when we are practicing on our own, to repeat and repeat and repeat the word as we are doing the physical movement, and this also helps us remember the words.”

Pronunciation and Word Stress

One of the biggest problems for English learners, Jones says, is learning and remembering the correct word stress. Word stress means saying some syllables⁴ in a word louder than other syllables.

Jones notes that word stress mistakes can happen in many ways:

“Sometimes they [students] can add an extra syllable⁵, like instead of saying chocolate, they could say chocolate-uh. Sometimes students cut syllables. So, for example, instead of saying tofu, they might say tof. And sometimes students stress the wrong syllable. So, for example, instead of saying coffee, students might say caffee.”

The problem, Jones says, is that English speakers remember words according to the stress pattern. If an English learner uses a different stress pattern, then a native English speaker may have a hard time understanding. This is because the stress pattern that the English learner uses is different from the pattern that the native speaker remembers.

One way English learners can solve this problem, Jones adds, is to learn the correct stress pattern when they first learn a word.

English learners can find many free online dictionaries that give pronunciation guidance. When you search for words, you will see the phonetic⁶ spelling next to the main word.

So, if you wanted to learn the word 'telephone', you would go to the dictionary and look at the pronunciation guide that is next to the word.

It looks like this:

telephone /?t?l??fo?n/ noun

The phonetic spelling is listed between the word and the part of speech. The apostrophe (') sign at the front of the phonetic spelling shows that it is the part of the word that should be stressed.

Jones says English learners should pronounce the stressed syllable longer and with higher tone⁷ or pitch. This action will make the vowel⁸ sounds clearer in the stress syllable.

Using Movements to Improve Your Pronunciation

At this point, movement comes in.

One fun way, Jones says, to make sure that you are pronouncing the stressed syllable clearly, and holding it longer, is by using a rubber band:

“When students are learning new words, they can practice repeating these words and pulling on the rubber band on the stressed syllable. So, for example, a word like "telephone", telephone, the first syllable is the stressed syllable. So as I'm saying telephone, I will pull on the rubber band for 'tel', and then reduce the other syllables of 'ephone' so I'm not saying them as clearly”

Doing this exercise, Jones says, will not only help you remember how the word sounds, but also influence you to practice more.

What can you do?

You should be careful about how you use physical movements when learning a new language. Choosing movements at random⁹ will probably not help you!

However, if you use a specific movement, such as pulling a rubber band, for a specific purpose, such as improving your understanding of stressed syllables, you may have success.

Remember: Pulling a rubber band will not give you superhuman memory or enable you to pronounce every word perfectly¹⁰. However, it can be a useful, fun supplement for language study.

If you want to improve your pronunciation, try Jones' rubber band idea by following these three steps:

- Choose a dictionary that has pronunciation guidance.

- Look up a new word in the dictionary to learn the stress pattern.

- Practice saying the word many times while pulling a rubber band.

Try using movements – such as pulling a rubber band -- in your language studies, and let us know how they work for you!

Words in This Story

pronunciation – n. the way in which a person makes the sound of (a word or letter) with their voice

rubber band – n. a thin, flexible loop that is made of rubber and used to hold things together

repetition – n. the act of saying or doing something again

gestures – n. a movement of your body (especially of your hands and arms) that shows or emphasizes an idea or a feeling

strategy – n. the skill of making or carrying out plans to achieve a goal

stress – n. greater loudness or force given to a syllable of a word in speech or to a beat in music

syllable – n. any one of the parts into which a word is naturally divided when it is pronounced

pattern – n. something that happens in a regular and repeated way

phonetic – adj. representing each speech sound with a single symbol

pitch – n. the highness or lowness of a sound

1 coordinator   

n.协调人

参考例句：

• The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, headed by the Emergency Relief Coordinator, coordinates all UN emergency relief. 联合国人道主义事务协调厅在紧急救济协调员领导下，负责协调联合国的所有紧急救济工作。
• How am I supposed to find the client-relations coordinator? 我怎么才能找到客户关系协调员的办公室？

2 cognitive   

adj.认知的，认识的，有感知的

参考例句：

• As children grow older,their cognitive processes become sharper.孩子们越长越大，他们的认知过程变得更为敏锐。
• The cognitive psychologist is like the tinker who wants to know how a clock works.认知心理学者倒很像一个需要通晓钟表如何运转的钟表修理匠。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 syllables   

n.音节( syllable的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a word with two syllables 双音节单词
• 'No. But I'll swear it was a name of two syllables.' “想不起。不过我可以发誓，它有两个音节。” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

5 syllable   

n.音节；vt.分音节

参考例句：

• You put too much emphasis on the last syllable.你把最后一个音节读得太重。
• The stress on the last syllable is light.最后一个音节是轻音节。

6 phonetic   

adj.语言的，语言上的，表示语音的

参考例句：

• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。
• English phonetic teaching is an important teaching step in elementary stages.语音教学是英语基础阶段重要的教学环节。

7 tone   

n.语气，音调，气度，色调；vt.（up）增强

参考例句：

• There was a tone of mockery in his voice.他说话的语气含有嘲笑的意味。
• Holmes used an informal,chatty tone in his essays.霍姆斯在文章中语气轻松随便。

8 vowel   

n.元音；元音字母

参考例句：

• A long vowel is a long sound as in the word"shoe ".长元音即如“shoe” 一词中的长音。
• The vowel in words like 'my' and 'thigh' is not very difficult.单词my和thigh中的元音并不难发。

9 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

10 perfectly   

adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The witnesses were each perfectly certain of what they said.证人们个个对自己所说的话十分肯定。
• Everything that we're doing is all perfectly above board.我们做的每件事情都是光明正大的。