PTLC2005 Beth McGuire and Pamela Prather KinesPhonetics 1
KinesPhonetics®:
Experiential Anatomy of Phonemes for the Actor
Beth McGuire, Yale School of Drama
Pamela Prather, Yale School of Drama
Through action research we have discovered a holistic technique for teaching and
learning phonetics that we call KinesPhonetics®. We derived this name from the Greek
“kinein”: to move and “phōnē”: sound, voice. We find KinesPhonetics® to be a powerful
tool for teaching the IPA to actors. This paper details some of the exercises that we use
in bridging the intellectual understanding of the phoneme to a visceral understanding.
As a result, the actor can self-identify in relation to the sounds of the IPA and more
easily translate an understanding of phonemes into expressive behavior of dramatic text.
Dr. Robert Barton of the University of Oregon defines three modes of learning: auditory,
visual and kinesthetic. He notes, “For vocal coaches and teachers, mode adjustment can
be the key to freeing actors from vocal prisons and letting them fly.”(1) “Dr. Maria
Montessori observed that ‘children learn best in a multi-sensorial environment’.
Montessori utilized didactic materials to ‘educate the senses’, and because all learning
comes to us from our senses, this approach allows children to comprehend at a ‘deeper
level’.”(2) The “deeper” or instinctual level is the mode that allows the actor to immerse
himself/herself into the circumstances of character.
In the following KinesPhonetics® exercises, we have designed frameworks that allow
the actor to explore connections between these modes through improvisational play. We
find that these exercises develop a more precise understanding of and instinctual
connection to the IPA for the student actor.
Tasting Language: the Geography of the Tongue uses taste and touch to help actors
sense and feel the tip, blade, front, middle and back of the tongue. The actor uses
colored markers to draw an outline of his/her tongue on a piece of paper. After this, the
s/he is led through the experience of tasting sour (lemon juice), salty (salt water), bitter
(tonic water), umami (aged cheese), and sweet (sugar water), by having the actor dip a
toothpick in a cup with the particular flavor and then roll the toothpick over his/her
tongue. Each person draws and colors the areas of the tongue where tastes are
experienced. They are also encouraged to note other associations and memories while
drawing and coloring the representation of the tongue.
Enhanced experiential
awareness of the tongue connects the actor’s individual perceptions to the geography of
the tongue. One actor found that he was quite sensitive to “salty” in the middle of his
tongue, so when he was challenged in finding the voiceless palatal fricative (ç) he was
able to refer not only to raising the middle of his tongue, but also to sensing a
muscularity in the “salty” part of his tongue.
Phonetic Tribal Tattoos leads the actor to embody individual phonemes and connect the
sounds to language. Each participant is given 5-7 phonetic symbols which become
his/her individual “language”. These are the only sounds s/he is allowed to use for
communication. After drawing these on a piece of paper and sounding them, the actor
(1) Barton, Robert (1997).
(2) www.hmma.org/montessori/philosophy.asp
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begins to take a journey through the teaching space and meets with other individuals
who speak a different language. They teach one another their respective languages by
speaking the phoneme while “tattooing” the symbol with a water soluble marker on the
arms, legs, or any visible skin of the other participants. Actors literally feel the phoneme
sink into the skin while speaking it. By the end of the experience the actors, who are now
covered in colorful phonemes, join in a circle and engage in a call/response
improvisation of these sounds.
Air Body Self (ABS) is a high energy experience that helps participants connect the
consciousness of the sound as an expression of the shape in the mouth to the symbol
as a representation of that shape and sound. A sagittal view of the mouth is drawn on a
large whiteboard. The phonetic symbols are written in the sections of the mouth that
correspond with the phoneme. For example the lower-case (i) is shown high in the front
of the mouth. To the rhythms of upbeat music, the actors sound the phoneme as they
use their fingers to (1) draw the symbol in the AIR with their hands/legs/arms (2) draw
the symbol on some BODY (not their own) and (3) draw the symbol on their SELF,
(ABS). The instructor leads the actors through this process for all IPA sounds.
Consonant Twister riffs off of a popular American board game and provides a playful
way for actors to associate specific sounds with their respective phonetic symbols. IPA
symbols are painted on a 4’ by 6’ plastic mat that is placed on the floor. There is also a
deck of cards that corresponds with the phonemes on the plastic mat and a spinner that
indicates body parts: right foot, left foot, right hand, left hand. The class is divided into
two teams. Team A and Team B each select a player. An extra person (sometimes the
teacher) is designated as the referee. The game commences with the referee spinning
the spinner and drawing a card with a phoneme written on it. The referee shows the
phoneme card to the teams who must then say the phoneme to the two floor players.
The floor players put their appropriate body parts on the corresponding symbol. For
example, the referee draws the “schwa” card and spins “right hand”. The group shouts
out “right hand Ə” and the two floor players race to put their right hands on the schwa.
The game continues in this manner until one floor player falls. The remaining “standing”
floor player scores the point for his/her team. This game is very useful in the
fundamental association of sound to the written phoneme.
Personification of a Phoneme (POP) addresses the need to develop an emotional and
textual relationship to the four most extreme vowel phonemes in Detailed American
Speech. We define home-base American Vowels as those set forth by Professor Dudley
Knight, University of California, Irvine in his Detail Model of American English. In order
to accomplish this, the actors are instructed to phonate the “Lower-Case I”(i), the
“Ash”(æ), the “Lower-Case U”(u) and the “Script A”(ɑ). The actors are encouraged to
creatively move through the space while sounding the particular phoneme varying their
use of pitch, pace and volume. Music is added to the mix and after 3 minutes the
instructor abruptly asks them to pause and for 1 minute speed-write thoughts and
images that have arisen during the improvisational play. These steps are repeated for
the remaining three sounds. The result of this expressive phonemic dance is that the
actor has unearthed words and images that relate to the shape in the mouth and the
sound of the phoneme and has unconsciously created a sort of free-verse poem for
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each phoneme. This is foundation work for developing the actor’s personal relationship
to both sound and language.
Yoga Vowel Shaping explores the possibility of the tongue as an extension of the spine.
Actors develop a kinesthetic awareness of front, middle and back of tongue and the
vowel sounds that correspond to those places of articulation. This is accomplished by
relating the skull and cervical spine to the front of the tongue, the thoracic spine to the
middle of the tongue and the lumbar spine and sacrum to the back of the tongue. Next,
the actor engages in specific yoga poses that correspond to vowel sounds in Detailed
American Speech. For example downward dog corresponds to the “Lower-Case U” (u)
and the lumbar spine and sacrum. Actors give voice to the phoneme while assuming the
yoga position. This addresses the challenge of disembodied mimicry as the actor is
breathing, sounding and physicalizing the phoneme.
Vowel Arms increases a non-prescriptive awareness of how the tongue shifts as it glides
through phonation of American home-base vowels and diphthongs. A sagittal view of
the left side of the mouth is drawn on a large whiteboard. The phonetic symbols are
written in the sections of the mouth that correspond with the phonation of each vowel.
Each actor stands with his/her back to the board and looks over the right shoulder at the
board, while extending the arm, to represent the tongue, with the tips of the fingers as
blade of the tongue dipping towards the floor. The actor views, speaks and articulates
the rise and fall of the tongue for the front vowels with an undulation initiated in the fore
arm and the back vowels with an undulation from the shoulder. The actor faces front for
the central vowels and with the middle fingers touching, articulates the arms allowing the
elbows to move inwards and outwards to mindfully mimic the bunch/spread action and
undulates from the shoulders to mimic the rise/fall action of the tongue. This exercise is
quite useful in noticing which areas in the glides are particularly challenging to the
individual actor’s tongue.
Passing the Glide is a variation on Vowel Arms. Its purpose is to teach actors to identify
when they are articulating an IPA definable vowel of English rather than a diacritical
value of said vowel. The actors form a circle. Actor 1 begins by articulating an
identifiable vowel while mindfully mimicking the shape of the tongue with his/her arm.
Actor 1 glides the vowel upwards or downwards, backwards or forwards in the mouth,
with arms following as s/he explores diacritical values of said vowel until arriving at
another identifiable vowel. At the point that actor 2 notices the movement into the new
identifiable vowel s/he picks up the sound and arm shape and actor 1 relinquishes it.
This action travels around the circle as each actor identifies and initiates a shift to
another identifiable vowel.
Tongue & Palate Duet is designed to increase the awareness of the arching, cupping,
bunching and spreading functions of the tongue as it interacts with the hard palate in the
phonation of vowels and diphthongs. The actors choose partners. Actor A sits on the
floor with arms extended, middle fingers touching, to represent the tongue. The legs are
extended, feet flexed at the ankles to represent the bottom teeth. Actor B kneels behind
actor A and arches his/her arms over actor A to represent the hard palate. Actor A now
glides through the shapes of the tongue for front, middle and back vowels as both
participants simultaneously speak the sounds that they are embodying. The actors then
switch positions, actor B is the tongue and actor A is the hard palate.
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Chopstick Sensation is an exercise designed 1) to increase awareness in the hard
palate and tongue and 2) to discover and increase awareness of the vector of vibration
(sense of vibration) that occurs between the tongue and palate as the tongue shifts in
the phonation of American home-base vowels and diphthongs. In part 1 of the exercise,
the actor gently scratches the tip, blade, front, middle and back of his/her tongue with a
chopstick while looking at a diagram of the tongue or looking in a mirror in order to see if
his/her sensation orientation is accurate. The teacher can also take the chopstick and
scratch the areas while defining them. The same process is repeated to define the
areas of the palate: alveolar ridge, post alveolar ridge, central hard palate, back of hard
palate and soft palate. In part 2 of the exercise, the actor articulates the vowels as s/he
lightly taps at the place on the tongue that is engaged in the maximum use of arch, cup,
spread or bunch in phonation and then taps the place on the palate where the tongue is
focusing the action. The actor can “draw” the vectors of vibration with the chopstick as
the vowel is articulated. This combination exercise is a student favorite and has been
epiphanic for many in honing concise kinesthetic articulation of personally challenging
phonemes.
The Diacritic Quartet is an exercise that teaches the actor how to write, model, speak,
and aurally identify the diacritics of the IPA that define tongue action. The actors work in
pairs and use the arms to mimic the tongue adjustments made in diacritical shifts for the
vowels and consonants of the IPA. Each pair chooses a phoneme for exploration. In
part 1 of the exercise actor A shapes the arms of actor B into what s/he feels is an
accurate shape of the tongue for this particular phoneme. The two actors vocalize the
sound together and make adjustments. Actor A then makes a diacritical variation in
his/her vocal articulation of the sound and draws the diacritic symbol on the board as
actor B re-forms his/her arm shape to represent the tongue’s change as s/he is speaking
the sound. In part 2 of the exercise, actor B re-shapes his/her arms to represent another
change in the tongue’s articulation of this same phoneme, while actor A speaks the
adjustment and writes the diacritic symbol on the board. Finally, actor A and actor B
switch roles and repeat the two parts of the exercise using a different phoneme. In part
3 of the exercise, the actors decide on a phoneme, then actor A turns his/her back to
actor B. Actor B makes a diacritical change to the phoneme and speaks it as s/he
models it with his/her arms. Actor A writes the diacritic of the phoneme on the board as
s/he hears it. They then face each other, compare what they now see with what they
heard and adjust. They switch roles and repeat the exercise with a different phoneme.
In conclusion, we quote a participant’s evaluation of a KinesPhonetics® workshop that
we conducted in New York City in August, 2004: “While rote visual learning (i.e. reading
phonetic symbols) and ear training have a place in exploring language, the emphasis on
the kinesthetic feel of the sounds in the mouth provides the missing link. Your approach
gets to the heart of why we use language in the first place. Plus, it's a blast.”
Sources
American Heritage® Dictionary, 4th Ed. (2000) Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Barton, Robert (1997) A Neuro-Linguistic Programming Perspective on Vocal Training.
The Vocal Vision: Views on Voice by 24 Leading Teachers, Coaches and Directors
(pp.81-92) edited Marion Hampton & Barbara Acker. New York: Applause Books.
Pullum, Geoffrey K. and William A. Ladusaw (1996) Phonetic Symbol Guide. Chicago:
University of Chicago Press.
“Montessori’s Observations,” Highland Meadow Montessori Academy, Site Design by
Joshua Brown <http://www.hmma.org/montessori/philosophy.asp> (2001-2005).