The Case For The BBR Method
Converging evidence from neurology, cognitive psychology, and functional neuroimaging argue for a reconceptualization of phonological short-term memory as emerging from the integrated action of the neural processes that underlie the perception and production of speech.
Background
While pronunciation is often regarded as one important element of speaking classes in ESL/EFL, it has never officially been taught as a method that optimizes the performance of the students’ working memory including short-term memory improving the focus of attention, increasing the effectiveness of the phonological loop, and thus facilitating the retention of lexicon and enhancing comprehension and communicative abilities. Patrick Hayeck’s BBR method uses a technique that highly engages the working memory system, involving the intensive use of the articulatory rehearsal process to expand the phonological store. The BBR method seeks to achieve three aims: (1) Block the student’s L1 phonetic and phonological impact on English affecting their reception as well as ability to ‘silently’ rearticulate the received input, (2) Build new muscle memory to facilitate and accelerate the production of larger chunks of language and as a result (3) Rewire the ‘inner voice-inner ear’ interface of the phonological loop.
The case for the BBR method
The BBR method addresses ESL/EFL students’ desperate need for fluency in English to gain access to a wider range of social, academic, and professional opportunities. Interviews with many of our students have revealed that students lose interest in learning and using English too quickly and sometimes shortly after arriving to English-speaking countries like US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand due to inability to communicate with people at school or work. Desperate and frustrated, they often start to hang out with students of similar backgrounds, work for employers and with colleagues that speak their language and live with roommates that come from the same country. All the students we interviewed seemed to have had higher expectations from their English learning experience in Australia; they had expected to express themselves more freely and confidently in English. While their expectations of how soon that could be realized may have been somewhat unrealistic, they still have a point. Our mainstream English courses may not be effective for everyone, and therefore, a different approach may be necessary.
The Academic Underpinnings of the BBR method
As stated, rarely has any other mainstream English course such as General English, Cambridge, IELTS, TOEFL or PTE exam preparation courses or English for Academic Purposes or Business English used phonetics and phonology (broadly referred to as pronunciation) as a teaching method grounded in Cognitive neuroscience and psychology and more narrowly in the phonological loop model advanced by British psychologist Alan Baddeley ( (Baddeley, 1986). Baddeley suggests that the phonological loop is created by a ping-pong like interaction between two phenomena: the phonological store labelled as ‘inner ear’ and the articulatory rehearsal process labelled as ‘inner voice’ which is a form of subvocal rehearsal of speech we hear (Buchsbaum, 2024). The basic premise of the BBR method is that if English learners are not intensively trained in the reception and production of speech, their ability to use their inner voice is impaired, and so is their ability to retain new vocabulary. Findings from several studies indicate that the phonological loop plays a key role in vocabulary acquisition (Baddeley et al., 1998; Gathercole, 2006).
In contrast, pronunciation is often taught as an area of knowledge in language learning as are grammar and vocabulary, mostly integrated into a mainstream English course such as General English, English exam preparation courses like IELTS or Cambridge and English for Academic Purposes courses. Seldom is it applied as a physical training method to achieve what the BBR method is outlined to achieve in Paragraph 1. Furthermore, The BBR method teachers require a very different set of skills that range from standard language teaching with high expertise in phonetics and phonology to acting, performance and motivational speaking.
The Impact On Student’s Experience
Most students who have undertaken a course that deploys the BBR method have shown and reported significant progress in speaking and understanding native English.
Perhaps one of the most frustrating realities of English learners in Australia and other English-speaking countries, especially in the first 6 months, is their inability to understand native English speakers. That naturally affects their social life as well as career. Not being able to understand what you are being told even though you may know the meaning of the words being uttered to you could sometimes be profoundly humiliating, disappointing and distressful. What the BBR method does is dramatically increase the students’ ability to decode the native spoken English that they’re likely to hear in everyday life thus improving the quality of their social and professional life.
As vital as understanding native English is, the freedom of verbal self-expression is equally important, even more so for adult international students who often already have established careers back home. Being deprived of the (linguistic) freedom to express their thoughts, ideas, opinions, feelings, and emotions could be quite infuriating. Thanks to the BBR method and the intensive ear and mouth training the students undergo, the students are clearly able to produce more fluent and clear speech after a relatively short period of time. For adult English learners generally with limited time and funds in, say, Australia, acquiring such skills early in the journey is paramount to that journey’s success; acquiring proficiency in two of the four macro-skills, speaking, and listening, will position them closer to their target.
The Potential Impact on the ESL/EFL Sector
If the overall success of the ESL/EFL sector hinges on the student’s experience and the performance of ESL/EFL providers, then the BBR method could have a tremendous impact on the sector by encouraging providers and teachers to rethink their approach in teaching English. ESL/EFL providers may want to invest more in the development of introductory courses (beginner to pre-intermediate) with greater focus on a sound-based approach. Most colleges deliver the same courses to students at a low level of proficiency such General English (beginner to advanced) and English for academic purposes courses (sometimes from pre-intermediate to advanced) ignoring arguably two of the most critical obstacles to foreign language acquisition; on one hand the L1 impact and on the other the student’s inability to perform the subvocal rehearsal or to use their inner voice to refresh the content of the phonological store that is subject to rapid decay.
References
Baddeley, A. D. (1986). Working memory. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
Buchsbaum, B. R. (2024, April 5). The role of consciousness in the phonological loop: hidden in plain sight. Retrieved from National Library of Medicine: National Center for biotechnology Information: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3737516/