Desuggestopedia
The originator
of this method, Georgi Lozanov, believes as does Silent Way’s Caleb Gatterno,
that language learning can occur at a much faster rate than originally
transpires. Desuggestopedia is the application of the study of suggestions to
pedagogy, has been developed to help students eliminate the feeling that they
cannot be successful or the negative association they may have toward studying
and, thus to help them overcome the barriers to learning.
What are the goals of teachers who use Dessugestopedia?
The goals of teachers
that use desuggestopedia are that they hope to accelerate the process by which
students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication, in this
case is about learning English language. In order to do this, more of the
students’ mental powers must be rapped. This is accomplished by dessugesting
the psychological barriers learners bring with them to the learning situation
and using techniques to activate the “paraconscious” part of the mind, just below
the fully-conscious mind.
What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
The teacher is
the authority in the classroom, which is the teachers’ role, in order for the
method to be successful, and students must trust and respect the teacher. The
role of students is that they will retain information better for someone in
whom they have confidence since they will be more responsive to her
“desuggesting” their limitations and suggesting how easy it will be for them to
succeed; once the students trust the teacher, they can feel more secure. If
they feel secure, they can be more spontaneous and less inhibited.
What is the nature of student - teacher interaction? What is the nature
of student - student interaction?
The teacher
initiates interactions with the whole group of students and with individual’s
right from the beginning of a language course. Initially, the students can only
respond nonverbally or with a few target language words they have practiced
while the nature of student – student interaction is that later they have more
control of the target language and can respond more appropriately and even
initiate interaction themselves.
How are the feelings of the students dealt with?
A great deal
of attention is given to students’ feelings in this method. One of the
fundamental principles of the method is that if students are relaxed and
confident, they will not need to try hard to learn the language. It will just
come naturally and easily. It is considered important in this method that the
psychological barriers that students bring with them be desuggested. Indirect
positive suggestions are made to enhance students’ self – confidence and to
convince them that success is obtainable. Students also choose target language
names on the assumption that a new identity makes students feel more secure and
thus more open to learning.
How is language viewed? How is culture viewed?
Language is
the first of two planes in the two – plane process of communication. In the
second plane are the factors which influence the linguistic message. For example, the way one dresses or the
nonverbal behavior one uses affects how one’s linguistic message is
interpreted. The culture which students learn concerns the everyday life of
people who speak the language. The use of the fine arts is also important in
desuggestopedic classes.
What areas of language are emphasized? What language skills are
emphasized?
Vocabulary is
emphasized. Claims about the success of the method often focus on the large
number of words that can be accurated. Grammar is dealt with explicitly but
minimally. In fact, it is believed that students will learn best if their
conscious attention is focused not on the language forms, but on using the
language. The “paraconscious” mind will then absorb the linguistic rules. Speaking
communicatively is emphasized. Students also read in the target language (for
example, dialogs) and write (for example, imaginative compositions).
Peripheral learning
This technique
is based upon the idea that we perceive much more in our environment that that
to which we consciously attend. It is claimed that, by putting posters
containing grammatical information about the target language on the classroom
walls, students will absorb the necessary facts effortlessly. The teacher may
or may not call attention to the posters. They are changed from time to time to
provide grammatical information that is appropriate to what the students are
studying.
Positive suggestion
It is the
teacher’s responsibility to orchestrate the suggestive factors in a learning
situation, thereby helping students break down the barriers to learning that
they bring with them. Teachers can do this through direct and indirect means. Direct
suggestion appeals to the students’ consciousness: a teacher tells students
they are going to be successful. But indirect suggestion, which appeals
to the students’ subconscious, is actually the more powerful of the two. For
example, indirect suggestion was accomplished in the class we visited through
the choice of a dialog entitled, “To want to is to be able to”.
Role play
Students are
asked to pretend temporarily that they are someone else and to perform in the
target language as if they were that person. They are often asked to create
their own lines relevant to the situation. In the lesson we observed, the
students were asked to pretend that they were someone else and to introduce
themeselves as that person.
Creative adaptation
The students
engage in various activities designed to help them learn the new material and
use it spontaneously. Activities particularly recomended for this phase include
singing, dancing, dramatization, and games. The important thing is that the
activities are varied and do not allow the students to focus on the form of the
linguistic message, just the communicative intent.
