On September 1, 2026, the Global Network Seminar was held, and the seminar welcomed Dr. Donna Erickson from Haskins Laboratories as the guest speaker.

Dr. Erickson began by introducing the concept of Articulatory Prosody and explaining the relationship between jaw movement and prosody in speech. She described speech as a sequence of jaw opening and closing movements and showed that the amount of jaw lowering for each syllable is related not only to vowel height but also to prominence, such as stress and focus. In particular, prosodically prominent syllables tend to be produced with greater jaw lowering, in addition to acoustic characteristics such as changes in F0, intensity, and duration.

The lecture then focused on cross-linguistic patterns of jaw movement. Drawing on data from French, Japanese, Mandarin Chinese, and English, Dr. Erickson demonstrated that jaw lowering patterns vary across languages. She also discussed the transfer of first-language jaw movement patterns to second-language speech and explained how learning jaw movements appropriate to the target language may contribute to the acquisition of more natural prominence, rhythm, vowel reduction, and phrasing.

Another key theme of the lecture was the relationship between jaw movement, prominence, and Articulatory Boundaries. Using articulatory movement data of the jaw, tongue, and lips recorded with electromagnetic articulography (EMA), Dr. Erickson introduced an approach to examining the location and size of boundaries in speech. Data from native speakers of English showed a general tendency for larger articulatory boundaries to occur before focused words, while also revealing individual differences among speakers.

Dr. Erickson also introduced “Jaw Dancing,” a kinesthetic approach to second-language prosody learning in which learners become consciously aware of jaw movement to acquire target-language prominence, rhythm, and phrasing patterns. The MARRYS Helmet, a portable and non-invasive system for recording jaw movements, was also introduced, highlighting its potential applications in language teaching and future research.

The seminar provided participants with a valuable opportunity to deepen their understanding of L2 prosody from articulatory and kinesthetic perspectives, complementing traditional approaches that focus primarily on acoustic features. During the Q&A session, around six participants raised questions, leading to a lively discussion on the relationship between jaw and tongue movements, cross-linguistic differences, applications to second-language teaching, and possibilities for future research.