SUGGESTOPEDIA (Georgi Lazanov)
1. Learning Theory: People use 5-10% of their mental capacity. In order to make better use of our mental reserves, limitations need to be desuggested. Students should eliminate the feelings that they cannot be successful and thus, to help them overcome the barriers to learning. Psychological barriers should be removed.
There are six principle theoretical components through which desuggestion and suggestion
operate and that set up access to reserves.
1. Authority: People remember best when the new information comes from a reliable authoritative source.
2. Infantilization: Authority is also used to suggest a teacher-student relation like that of "parent-child" relationship. In the child's role the learner takes part in role playing, games, songs and gymnastic exercises that help the older student regain the self confidence, spontaneity and receptivity of the child.
3. Double-planedness: The learner learns not only from the instructions but also from the environment. Physical features of the classroom are important.
4. Intonation: Varying intonation of the presented material helps to avoid boredom. T should present the material with different intonation patterns. Correct intonation patterns should be emphasised.
5. Rhythm: Materials presented with varying rhythm and tones are more interesting.
6. Concert pseudo-passiveness: Materials presented with varying rhythm, intonation, and tone should be accompanied by music. Music should have sixty beats in a minute. Baroque concertos work very well for this purpose.
2. Language Theory: Lazanov does not articulate a theory of language. However according to this method communication is a two-plane process. Language is the first of the two planes. In the second plane, there are factors, which influence the linguistic message (e.g. the way one dresses, non-verbal behaviours that affect the linguistic message).
3. Culture: The culture, which students learn, concerns the everyday life of people who speak the target language. The use of fine arts is also common.
4. Teachers' Role: Teacher is the authority. Learners learn better if they get the information from a reliable authority. Students must trust and respect that authority.
5. Students' Role: Students play a child's role (infantilization). They adopt a new identity (new name, job, family...etc.) As they feel more secure, they can be less inhibited.
6. Interactions: “St-st” and “T-st” interactions occur. Students often do "pair work" and "group work".
7. Vocabulary Teaching: Vocabulary is emphasised. Claims about the success of the method often focus on the large number of words that can be acquired. Comments and explanations about the meanings can be provided in student's L1.
8. Grammar Teaching: Grammar is taught explicitly but minimally. Explicit grammar rules are provided in L1.
9. Materials: Dialogues are used with their translations in L1 on the opposite side. Texts with literary value are used. The textbook posters are used for peripheral learning.
10. Syllabus: A course lasts 30 days and ten units of study. Each unit has a long dialogue consisting of 1200 words. There is grammar review and commentary section with a list of vocabulary. The dialogues are graded by lexis and grammar.
11. Role of L1: L1 is used to make the meaning of dialogues clear. The teacher can use L1 when necessary but he uses L1 less and less as the course proceeds.
12. Evaluation: Evaluation is conducted on students' "in-class-performances" and not through formal tests, which would threaten the relaxed atmosphere, which is considered essential for accelerated learning.
13. Goals and Objectives: Teachers hope to accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication. For this, more of the students' mental power must be tapped. This can be achieved by removing psychological barriers.
14. Error Correction: At the beginning levels, errors are not corrected immediately because the emphasis is on communication. When errors of form occur, teachers uses the correct form later on during class, because immediate interference by the teacher may destroy the relaxed atmosphere in classes.
15. Student's Feelings: A great deal of attention is given to students' feelings. Students should feel relaxed and secure. Teacher's existence and classmates' existence should not threaten the individual. Individual's self-confidence is important. Choice of new identity makes students feel more comfortable and secure. The classroom conditions (temperature, lighting, armchairs) should supply students with the feeling of relaxation and comfort.
16. Techniques:
¨ Classroom set up: dim lights, soft music, cushioned armchairs, and posters on the walls.
¨ Positive Suggestion:
Þ Direct Suggestion: The teacher tells students they are going to be successful to create self-confidence.
Þ Indirect Suggestion: This is provided by music and comfortable physical conditions of the classroom.
¨ Peripheral Learning: Posters, lists, charts, texts, paintings, and graphs are hung on the walls of the classroom. Students learn from these although their attentions are not directly on these materials.
¨ Visualisation: Students are asked to close their eyes and concentrate on their breathing. Then the teacher describes a scene or an event in detail so that students think they are really there. When the scene is complete, the teacher asks students to slowly open their eyes and return to the present. This can be done just before students write a composition in order to activate their creativity.
¨ Choose a New Identity: Students can be asked to write about their fictional new identity, new home town, family, etc.
¨ First Concert: Music is played. The teacher begins a slow, dramatic reading, synchronised in intonation with the music. The music is classical. Teacher's voice is usually hushed, but rises and falls with the music.
¨ Second Concert: Students put their scripts aside. Students close their eyes and listen as the teacher reads with musical accompaniment. This time the content that is read by the teacher is emphasised by the way the teacher reads the text. Music is secondarily important. At the end of the concert, the class ends for the day.
¨ Primary Activation: Primary activation and secondary activation are the components of the active phase of the lesson. Students read the dialogue in the target language aloud as individuals or groups. They read it sadly, angrily, and amorously.
¨ Secondary Activation: Students engage in various activities such as singing, dancing, dramatising, and playing games. Linguistic forms are not important. Communication is important. In order to make students focus on communication, activities are varied.
17. Skills: Oral communication is emphasised. Speaking and listening are important. Writing and reading are also important. Students write imaginative compositions to improve their writing, and read dialogues or texts to practise reading.
COMMUNITY LANGUAGE LEARNING (CLL)
1. Learning Theory: CLL advocates a holistic approach to language learning. "True human learning" is both cognitive and affective. This is termed "whole person learning". A group of ideas concerning the psychological requirements for successful and "non-defensive” learning are collected under the acronym (SARD).
Security: Students should feel secure to enter into a successful learning experience. Classroom atmosphere, students' relations with each other, teacher's attitude to students all affect students' feelings of security.
Attention: Attention is the learner's involvement in learning.
Aggression: is to show what has been learnt for "self-assertion” like a child who tries to show what he/she has learnt. The child tries to prove the things he/she has learnt.
Retention: If the "whole person" is involved in the learning process, what is retained is internalised and becomes a part of the learner's "new persona" in the foreign language. The material should neither be too old nor be too new or conversely too familiar. Retention will best take place somewhere in between novelty and familiarity.
Reflection: Students need quiet reflection time in order to learn. The teacher reads the text for three times and the students relax and listen for reflection. Students also listen to their own voice from the tape for reflection.
Discrimination: Students should discriminate the similarities and the differences among target language forms by listening to themselves and the teacher carefully. They should also listen to discriminate if what they say is similar or different from what the teacher says.
E.g. Similarity:
Present Continuous: She is studying French
Past Continuous: Tom was cooking. (In Both tenses "-ing" is used)
Difference:
John visited his uncle (regular verb)
John bought a new car (irregular verb)
2. Language Theory: Language is for communication. Language is for developing creative thinking. Culture is integrated with language. The focus shifts from grammar and sentence formation to a "sharing and belonging between persons". Language is what you learn and share with others. Students should trust the learning process, the teacher and the others.
3. Culture: Knowing the target culture is important to be successful in communication. Culture is integrated with language. Social life style, art, literature, customs, habits should be learnt.
4. Teacher's Role: T's initial role is that of a counsellor. The teacher tries to remove the threatening factors in the classroom. Even the teacher stands behind the students to reduce because the teacher's superior knowledge and his existence are also threatening factors.
5. Students' Role: Initially the learner is dependent on the teacher. As s/he goes on studying the language he becomes more and more independent.
6. Interactions: st-st, T-st interactions occur in the classroom. In addition, group work, and pair
work tasks are carried out by students. Usually the teacher physically removes himself/herself from the circle in order to increase st-st interactions.
7. Vocabulary Teaching: Literal native language equivalents are given to the target language in order to teach their meanings. This makes meaning clear.
8. Grammar Teaching: Large chunks are analysed by means of equivalents in L1. It can be explicit when necessary.
9. Materials: A textbook is not considered necessary. Materials may be developed by the teacher as the course develops. Materials depend on students' needs. Conversations are generated by the students depending on what they want to say in the target language.
10. Syllabus: CLL does not use a conversational language syllabus, which sets out in advance the grammar, vocabulary, and other language items to be taught and the order in which they will be covered. Syllabus is developed in terms of students' communication needs.
11. Role of L1: Students' security is initially enhanced by using their native language. Where possible, literal native language equivalents are given to the target language words that have been transcribed. This makes their meaning clear and allows students to combine the target language words in different ways to create new sentences. Directions in class, students' expressions of feelings are in L1. In later steps, more and more L2 is used.
12. Evaluation: A teacher-made classroom test would be an integrative test rather than a discrete-
point test. Students are asked to write a paragraph or they can be given an oral interview.
13. Goals and Objectives: Students should learn how to use the target language communicatively. Students should learn about their own learning to take an increasing responsibility about it. Non-defensive learning is the result when the teacher and the students treat each other as a whole person.
14. Error Correction: The error is treated in a non-threatening way. The teacher repeats the correct form without calling further attention to the error and the owner of the error.
15. Sts' Feelings: Students' feelings are considered extremely important. One regular activity is getting feedback from students' about their feelings; how they feeling about learning a foreign language. Negative feelings may block students' learning. Security is basic. Clear instructions, enough time, should be given to the individual for the respond.
16. Techniques:
A) Transcription: The teacher writes the L1 equivalent of the text in the target language on the board or a poster-sized paper in order to be able to refer later. Students copy them in their notebooks.
B) Reflection on Experience: Students tell about their feelings about language learning
experience.
C) Reflective Listening: Students relax and listen to their own voices speaking the target language on the tape. The teacher may also read the transcript while students are listening.
D) Human Computer: The teacher repeats the correct form as many times as the students
need. The teacher never corrects the student's error. Only repeats the correct form.
E) Small Group Tasks: Students learn from each other. Also small groups can let students
know each other well.
17. Skills: In the early stages, students design the syllabus. They decide what they want to say in
THE TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE METHOD (TPR)
1. Learning Theory: There are three hypothesis:
A) Innate Bio-program: There exists a specific, innate bio-program for language learning,
which defines an optimal path for first and second language development. Children develop
listening competence before they develop the ability to speak. They make “a blue-print” of
the language first. They develop "a cognitive map" of the language during listening process.
B) Brain Lateralisation: The brain has two main parts: left hemisphere, and right hemisphere
, which have different learning functions. If both hemispheres are activated, learning is more
effective.
C) Stress (an affective filter): Stress intervenes between the act of learning and what is to be
learned. The lower the stress is, the greater the learning becomes.
2. Language Theory: Language is primarily oral. It is just like the acquisition of native language. Learners first listen (silent period), then oral production starts. Oral communication is crucial. Skilful use of imperatives by the instructor can be helpful for the acquisition of many vocabulary items and grammatical structures. Asher views the verb and particularly the verb in the imperative as the central linguistic motif around which language use and learning are organised.
3. Culture: Culture is the lifestyle of people who speak the language natively. Daily habits, social life traditions should be learned.
4. Teachers' Role: Initially the teacher is the director of all student behaviour. In the later stages, the teacher is being directed.
5. Students' Role: Initially students are the followers of the teacher. Usually after ten to twenty hours, of instruction some students will be ready to speak the language. At this point they start to direct the teacher.
6. Interactions: T with whole group, T- respond by students non-verbally; Sts - Sts; St - st
7. Vocabulary Teaching: Vocabulary is introduced through imperatives. Verb is the kernel. Other categories like adjective, adverb, and noun can be introduced around verb. Objects, especially the objects in the immediate environment are introduced.
8. Grammar Teaching: Imperatives play an important role. Multi-word chunks, single-word chunks are used with imperatives. The teacher uses his/her creativity to introduce various grammatical patterns with the accompaniment of imperatives.
E.g. For the introduction of “If " clause type 1
"Stand up if you are from
"Smile if you are wearing a blue T-shirt"
9. Materials: Objects around in the classroom, visuals, written texts, tasks for kinaesthetic learning can be used.
10. Syllabus: Sentence based syllabus with grammatical and lexical criteria is used. TPR
requires initial attention to meaning rather than to the forms of items.
11. Role of L1: The method is introduced in the students' L1. After the introduction, rarely would
the mother tongue be used. Meaning is made through body movements.
12. Evaluation: Teachers will know immediately whether or not students understand by observing heir students' actions. Formal evaluations can be conducted simply by commanding individual students to perform a series of actions. As students become more advanced, their Performance in the skits they have created can become the basis for evaluation.
13. Goals and Objectives: To make students enjoy learning the target language and communicate with it. Stress should be reduced.
14. Error Correction: Errors are inevitable. The teacher should be tolerant of students' errors; only major errors should be corrected. The teacher should be gentle when correcting students' errors. As students get more advanced, teachers can correct more minor errors.
15. Student's Feelings: The teacher should not force the students to speak. Silent period must be taken into consideration. When they begin to speak, perfection is not necessary. Stress should be reduced. The teacher should use "zany commands" and humorous skits of actions to make classes more enjoyable.
16.Techniques:
A) Commands: Use of commands is the major technique. Commands are given to students to
perform an action; actions make meaning clear.
B) Role reversal: Students command their teacher and classmates to perform actions.
Students speak after the silent period. Students should not be forced before they feel ready.
C) Action sequence: The teacher may give three connected commands (e.g. "Point to the door,
walk to the door, and touch the door")
17. Skills: Natural order of skills:
1. Listening (Very important during the silent period)
2. Speaking (teacher should not force sts to produce the language especially during the silent
period sts are expected to produce the target language voluntarily)
3.
4. Writing
THE COMMUNICATIVE APPROACH (CA)
1. Learning Theory: Little is known about the learning theory of “The Communicative Approach". Activities that involve real communication promote learning. Language that is meaningful to the learner supports the learning process.
2. Language Theory: Language is for communication. The goal of language teaching is to develop "communicative competence". Using the language appropriately in social contexts is important and communicative competence should be acquired.
What is language according to the Communicative Approach?
A) Language is a system for expression of meaning.
B) The primary function of language is for interaction and communication.
C) The structure of language reflects its functional and communicative uses.
D) The primary units of language are not merely its grammatical and structural features, but
categories of functional and communicative meaning as exemplified in discourse.
3. Culture: Culture is the everyday life of people. There are some important aspects of language which are important to communication; for instance, the use of non-verbal behaviour. Body language, which may differ from culture to culture.
4. Teacher's Role: The teacher is a facilitator of his/her students' learning. He/she is a manager of classroom activities. He/she acts as an advisor and monitors students' performance.
5. Students' Role: Students are communicators. They are engaged in negotiating meaning actively. Students are responsible are responsible managers of their own learning.
6. Interactions: St-st interactions take place very often. Students benefit from group work, pair work, group discussions, projects...etc.
7. Vocabulary Teaching: Meaning is paramount. Meaning should be conveyed through visual aids, real objects, models, and context. Vocabulary should be taught within the context.
8. Grammar Teaching: Each linguistic form has a function. One function may be expressed with different forms.
e.g. (Asking for permission "May I go out?" Or “Would you let me go out?” etc.)
In addition, different forms may have one function.
E.g. (The modal "can" has various functions)
"I can lift this chair" = ability
"It can rain today" = strong possibility
"Can I use your telephone?" = asking for permission
Functions are taught explicitly. Grammatical explanations can be given explicitly if it is believed to be useful for the acquisition of the form and function.
9. Materials: Authentic materials. Articles from magazines or newspapers, songs, short stories, advertisements...etc., which are used by native speakers in real life are used as class materials. Communicative activities (information gap, opinion gap activities) are used to promote students' communication in classes. Pictures, and other visual aids and realia are very important to support meaning. Task based activities are also used to promote students' involvement in classes.
10. Syllabus: Usually (but not always) functional-notional syllabus is used (e.g. frequency, motion, location).
11. Role of L1: Students' L1 has no particular role in the Communicative Approach. L2 should be used during not only activities, but also when the teacher is giving explanations, instructions, and homework. Students should see L2 as a tool for communication, not a subject to study.
12. Evaluation: The teacher evaluates students' accuracy and fluency. The teacher may give communicative tests, which are integrative tests and which have real communicative function. The teacher may tell students to write a letter to a friend to test their writing skill. Improvisation of a situation orally can also be a means of evaluation of the students' oral performance.
13. Goals and Objectives: To make students communicatively competent (i.e., being able to use the target language appropriately in a given context). For this reason, students need knowledge of linguistic forms, meanings, and functions. Students must know that many different forms can be used to perform a function, and one single form can serve a variety of functions. Students should be able to choose the most appropriate form for a specific function.
14. Error Correction: Errors of form can be tolerated since they are natural outcome of the development of communication skills. Students can have limited linguistic knowledge and still be successful communicators.
15. Sts' Feelings: Students' motivation is important. Students should feel that they are learning something useful for their lives. Students' security is enhanced by many opportunities for co-operative interactions with their fellow students and the teacher. The teacher gives students an opportunity to express ideas and opinions on a regular basis so that students integrate the target language with their own personality. Thus, they feel more secure about using the target language. Games, dramas and other enjoyable activities are used to make classroom atmosphere better, more friendly and relaxing.
16. Techniques:
a) Authentic Materials: Genuine materials from newspapers, magazines, videos from real English TV channels, menus, time tables, etc is used.
b) Scrambled Sentences: for cohesion and coherence.
c) Language Games: In order to provide valuable communicative practice of the target language.
d) Picture Strip Story: This activity provides opinion gaps. Students discuss which activity should come first.
e) Role Play: this technique provides the opportunity to practise the target language in
various social contexts. If the role plays is unprepared improvisation it also provides
genuine communication (i.e., information gap - natural unpredictability of what each
participant will say to each other).
17. Skills and Language Areas: Language functions are emphasised over forms. The target language is taught at supra sentential or discourse level, too. Students learn cohesion and coherence. Conversation structure in the target language is also reviewed. The four language skills are learnt from the very beginning. "Skimming, and "Scanning" in reading and listening are improved.
Bibliography
Celce-Murcia, M. (1991). Language Teaching Approaches. In M. Celce-Murcia (Ed.), Teaching English as a Second or Foreign Language. (pp.3-10).
Brown, D. H. (1987). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1993). Techniques and Principles in Language Teaching. Hong Kong:
Richards, J. C. & Rodgers, T. S. (1990). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: A description and analysis.
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