Each area in the world, each country has its own way of hearing. The Germans do not hear like the French, who do not hear like the Italians.

Air impedance is the main cause of these differences. The specificity of the environment has shaped the various languages over the centuries. This has caused the human ear to get used to the specific features of each language.

To speak a language means for the ear to adapt to the acoustic frequencies of a particular language. This is not always spontaneous. The ear needs then to undergo some specific training.

1°) 'The voice only produces what the ear can hear'. This means: 'I speak a language poorly because I do not hear it correctly.'

2°) 'If the ear is given the opportunity to listen properly, the voice is spontaneously and unconsciously improved.’ I hear a language better; therefore I speak it better.

3°) 'It is possible to transform phonation by stimulating the listening for a certain length of time.' I listen to a language with the Electronic Ear and can integrate this language fully.

 

The surrounding envelopes

Elements of speech have been carefully studied with sophisticated devices, which show on a graph the various frequencies used in a language.  They determine the curve of a language.

 




These graphs show the fundamental differences that exist among the various groups of languages as far as listening is concerned. They make it possible to understand certain affinities, but also misunderstandings that exist between nations.

Latency time is only a neurological parameter. It is the necessary time for the ear to start the process of listening. The ear does not only decode sound elements. The vestibule, an organ in the ear, prompts the person to place his/her body in a determined position in order to respond. The hearing latency time is the time needed between the moment when the ear stretches and the moment when the sound is decoded.

 

The human ear

It can grasp a large spectrum of frequencies (16 to 16000Hz) and perceive an infinite number of rhythms. However, as years go by, our ear develops in the frequencies and the rhythms of our mother tongue. We adopt habits that we cannot get rid of.

The French use mainly the frequencies between 1000 and 2000 Hz, whereas the British use frequencies ranging from 2000 to 12000Hz. It is easy to understand why the French find it so difficult to learn English and why the British find it so difficult to learn French!

Each language uses a preferred range of sound frequencies as shown below:

 



 

The Electronic Ear


With the Tomatis Method, the ear is formed to hear what it does not hear naturally. This can be done only with specific devices using high technology. It uses a system of electronic bascules, filters and amplifiers, which respond to the functioning of the human ear.

The Electronic Ear allows the student to alter his/her listening from his/her own to the desired ethnic listening.

 

Concretely:

A listening test evaluates the abilities a student has to perceive and determines his/her potential in the learning of the chosen language.

A programme using the Electronic Ear is selected, following various stages.

Sensitization sessions are sessions during which filtered sounds of the foreign language are heard. They open the ear to these sounds.

Active sessions are sessions during which words and texts are repeated in the foreign language. These exercises train the ear to control the accent, the music, the rhythm and the intonation of the language.

 

Who for?

• Children

When should one start to learn a foreign language? It is a leading subject in schools. It is increasingly wished that sensitization starts in junior schools already. It is the ideal age ‘to open the ear.’ The young child has an ear which is capable of integrating all the sounds, from his/her mother tongue’s to those of a foreign language.

• Teenagers

A student who has difficulties in learning a foreign language is in the same situation as a child who finds it difficult to write, to read or to speak his/her mother tongue. S/he is ‘dyslexic’, that is has difficulties in listening.

Thanks to the Electronic Ear, we help teenagers learning a foreign language to open their ears to the specific sounds of the learned language. Their whole behaviour will consequently change.

We are facing an extraordinary development in means of communication. International exchanges are booming. We must therefore do everything to enable our children to communicate in several languages.

• Adults

Whether an adult comes for personal or professional reasons, it is necessary to take several precautions to lessen the prejudices adults have about new learning techniques dealing with listening and speaking.

Two ideas need to be put forward. First of all, the mother tongue is a barrier to overcome. Secondly, one listens before one speaks and then only one studies how the language is structured.

To speak a language means adopting another way of thinking and adjusting our body to the specific posture that the language requires. The gift for languages is in reality a listening gift.