Sunday, April 1, 2012

It's experiential, Stupid! ("Getting" haptic methodology)

Clip art: Clker
At the conclusion of our recent demonstration at the TESOL convention, Getting optimal pronunciation from the dictionary and beyond, a participant walked up and related his personal experience of the session. What he said will probably be one of my opening stories for some time to come. It went something like this: "After you and your colleagues demonstrated and explained the method, I turned to my friend and told him that I did not have a clue as to what you were talking about. After you lead the audience through an example, using the 10 steps-- still nothing! Then, as we were doing the pair work with the haptic anchors and gestures . . . I got it! This is really EXPERIENTIAL learning! What an "Aha! moment!"  I went from clueless to believer in 5 minutes."

I have seen that happen probably hundreds of times over the years. Until some have had that felt sense of kinaesthetic or haptic integration, it can just not make much sense. What a great story. What an experience. 

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