Suggestopedia,CLT,

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Suggestopedia
Georgi Lozanov : Learning is a matter of attitude, not aptitude.
Georgi Lozanov

Suggestopedia is a teaching method which is based on a modern
understanding of how the human brain works and how we learn most
effectively. It was developed by the Bulgarian doctor and
psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov (see right). The term 'Suggestopedia',
derived from suggestion and pedagogy, is often used loosely to refer to
similar accelerated learning approaches. However, Lozanov reserves the
title strictly for his own method, and he has his own training and
certification facilities. Suggestopedia was originally applied mainly
in foreign language teaching, and it is often claimed that it can teach
languages approximately three times as quickly as conventional methods.
It is now applied in several other fields, and its central ideas
inspired the development of my own Brainware workshops. Another
revolutionary language teacher who developed his own distinctive
methods was the late Michel Thomas, his numerous famous clients
including: Woody Allen, Bob Dylan and Eddie Izzard.

Key Elements of Suggestopedia

Some of the key elements of Suggestopedia include a rich sensory
learning environment (pictures, colour, music, etc.), a positive
expectation of success and the use of a varied range of methods:
dramatised texts, music, active participation in songs and games, etc.

Suggestopedia adopts a carefully structured approach, using four main
stages as follows:

* Presentation
A preparatory stage in which students are helped to relax and
move into a positive frame of mind, with the feeling that the learning
is going to be easy and fun.
* First Concert - "Active Concert"
This involves the active presentation of the material to be
learnt. For example, in a foreign language course there might be the
dramatic reading of a piece of text, accompanied by classical music.
* Second Concert - "Passive Review"
The students are now invited to relax and listen to some Baroque
music, with the text being read very quietly in the background. The
music is specially selected to bring the students into the optimum
mental state for the effortless acquisition of the material.
* Practice
The use of a range of games, puzzles, etc. to review and
consolidate the learning.

HOW TO USE SUGGESTOPEDIA
If you are a language teacher interested in Suggestopedia, you may wish
to try this approach but at the same time you may be wondering whether
and how you can use it. What are the essential elements of
Suggestopedia? What do suggestopedic teachers really do? What are the
requirements to become a suggestopedic teacher? Drawing on my
experiences as a teacher trainee in Bulgaria and my work in applying
this approach to my Japanese course in Australia. I will give you some
ideas on how to get started with Suggestopedia. Before discussing some
of the important theoretical concepts of Suggestopedia. I invite you to
observe four scenes from an ideal intensive Japanese course taught with
Suggestopedia.

Scene 1: First Day Introduction

In the morning, twelve students were waiting in the classroom for their
teacher. They had never studied Japanese before and this first lesson
was also the first time for them to meet each other. They felt a little
excited and tense as they waited for the lesson to begin. They had some
expectations about what would happen because they had already received
information on how the method would work. The best possible environment
that the teacher could prepare had been created in the classroom --a
quiet room of an appropriate size full of light and fresh air with
Japanese art and tourism posters on the wall, plants in the corners,
and chairs arranged in a semi-circle."Ohayo gozaimasu !" The teacher
came in with a big bag. He started saying something in Japanese as if
he naturally believed that the students would understand him. As he
talked, he started to show the students the things he had in his big
bag. First, he pulled out a puppet which he introduced as "Kintaro,"
one of his good friends. The teacher kept talking as one thing after
another came out of his big travel bag, things he called, kamera, pen,
pasupooto, booru, wain, biiru, and so on. The students began to relax
as they found they could understand what the teacher was saying.
Besides, he looked so cheerful and happy that the students began to
feel the same way. He seemed to be saying "What's this? This is a
camera. Oh, it's an Olympus. It's a nice one'. I'll take your picture.
Smile! Um...excuse me, sir, would you take a picture of my friend and
me, please? Thank you." "Hey, look, this is my passport. Who is this?
It's me. Oh, how strange I look in this picture. It's embarrassing!"
"What's this? Oh. it's a bottle of wine. It's a nice wine. I like it
but I don't drink too much. It's awful having a hangover."

ﾒhe students could clearly guess what the teacher was trying to say
from the gestures and facial expressions he was making and from the
real things with familiar names he was showing them. Some unusual
things also came out of his bag -- a real telephone receiver set with
which he called home and reported that he had finally arrived in
Australia; a real stone and a rubber sponge that looked like a real
stone, but he said. "lie, chigaimasu," (No, it isn't); a miniature
dinosaur which he introduced as another one of his friends; and so on.
The students were getting an initial idea of Japanese grammatical
structures as well as of the names of things. The teacher sometimes
asked the students what the things were but he didn't seem to expect
that they would reply. When he asked questions, he looked vaguely
around the classroom, never pointing to a particular student. However,
some students spontaneously began to guess the names of things, saying
"Telephone desu." Then the teacher took that word and said in Japanese.
"Close! You've just missed. DENWA desu. Yes, kore wa denwa desu. But
wait. Oh, you speak Japanese! How nice! That's excellent Ii desu ne! By
the way, everyone, do you know what ii desu ne is? Guess, guess. What
is it? 'Good' in English? Yes, that's right! Iidesune. Let me hear you
say iidesune, OK? Now, all together, one, two, three, IIDESUNE!"

While talking to his students, the teacher frequently encouraged them
with short phrases such as Daijobu desu yo (that's all right, don't
worry). Wakarimasu ne (now you understand), Dekimasu yo (yes, you can).
Hora, dekimashita, ne (see, you did it). and Kantan desho (easy, isn't
it?). Phrases with a negative meeting were carefully omitted from his
speech. For example, he seemed to avoid adjectives such as muzukashii
(difficult) or taihen (fatiguing) to describe his course or its
content. English was not strictly prohibited in the classroom, and
students could ask the teacher or their classmates questions in
English. The teacher, on the other hand, tried to answer in Japanese or
with gestures as much as possible, although he, too, did not seem to
prohibit himself from using English when it was necessary. He used
English to correct misunderstandings or to briefly explain important
grammar points. However, when he explained in English, he spoke softly
to imply that it was a special service to the students. Although the
students were free to use English, they began to try to speak Japanese
because the world of Japanese language that the teacher was involving
them in seemed very interesting and enjoyable.

Finally, the teacher took a set of cards out of his big bag and said in
Japanese, "I have some important documents here. Look. What are these?
They are hiragana." The Japanese phonetic characters were written
separately on each card. The teacher turned his back to the students
and started reading the cards one after another as if he were reading a
secret report. However, the students could see the cards over his
shoulders. After he read the five cards of a, i, u, e, o three times,
he silently showed them to the students. When the students started
reading them, he turned to them with a look of surprise and said in
Japanese. "What? You can read hiragana already! What a surprise! You
can do everything. OK, let's read them together." He showed ka and then
ki. Some students guessed that the next one was ku and that it was
followed by ke and ko. The teacher joined them and invited the others
to read together. After the teacher finished introducing all the
hiragana, the telephone suddenly rang. Someone in Japan was calling
him. "Moshi, moshi." (hello); the teacher started to talk to someone on
the phone. He seemed to be talking about making a film and he sounded
very happy to report that he had found a group of good actors who could
speak and read Japanese.

After the teacher hung up, he had his students choose Japanese namae
(names) and shigoto (jobs). He showed them a large poster on which were
written Japanese names and occupations both in hiragana and the
alphabet with their English translations. He read all of the names and
jobs, inviting the students to follow him. Students could choose any
name and occupation they liked from the poster or select others by
asking their teacher in English. Some students used Japanese
interrogative structures, asking "Fire fighter wa nan desu ka?" (what
is fire fighter?). The teacher cheerfully replied, "Shoboshi desu." and
added it to the list. During the class, the teacher always seemed to be
very careful not to scare anyone or to insult anyone. Without expecting
anyone to speak or read Japanese correctly at this stage, he just tried
to wait for the right answer to come out somewhere in the class as if
he considered the whole class as one brain. When the answer appeared,
the teacher's face was full of happiness, and he praised all the
students. Because students were free to take what they were given, some
sort of specialities emerged in the class, which meant that each
student could work from his or her strong points. Indeed, each student
seemed to have a different vocabulary, depending on his or her
interest. One student would surprise the others with a vocabulary item,
and then another would do the same the next moment, and this process
seemed to be a good stimulation for the group. The teacher used a great
deal of energy to create good human relations in the class so that
students would help and praise one another.

Scene 2: The Concert Sessions

After a short break, the students returned to their seats and then, the
teacher entered the classroom calmly and quietly. This time, his manner
seemed quite different than when he had come in to do the introduction.
It was somehow more prestigious and solemn. He gave each student a copy
of the textbook, a long play consisting of several acts. He told the
students in Japanese that he was going to read the first act in the
textbook twice with classical music in the background. During the first
reading; students would hear and follow the text in Japanese while
referring to the English translation on the right side of the page. The
first chapter was written both in Japanese and romanized characters so
that beginners could read it.

The first reading started with the cheerful sounds of the Mozart's
Fifth Violin Concerto. Before beginning to read, the teacher stood
quietly, allowing the students to listen to the music until the opening
musical passage ended. The teacher read slower than normal speed, but
the reading itself was dynamic. His voice was very different from the
one he used in normal speech. It sounded more like the voice of a poet
at his recital or that of an Italian opera singer. He mobilized all the
variations his voice could produce, although his voice could be clearly
heard even when he spoke in a whisper. He seemed to use his voice in
harmony with the music rather than with the intonation and meaning of
the language. However, he emphasized certain underlined words or
phrases with pauses and stress to mark their importance. Reading 15
pages of the text took approximately 20 minutes.
Many different types of reminders of class activities occupied various
spaces in the classroom. A verb conjugation list on an easel was next
to a large plant. A colorful noun list was on the back wall between two
art posters. A 3D map of a town with miniature shops and their goods
lay on the right back corner table. Items from the teacher's big bag
were placed on the rug in the center of the floor. A Japanese
restaurant menu with some plastic replicas of Japanese food were on the
left side table. Portraits of a Japanese family with their names were
hung on the left side wall. Every item reminded students of something
important they had done or learned in the previous class activities.

Students' roles were naturally decided in the class. One student was
always respectfully invited to conduct the other students in singing as
he had chosen conductor as his occupation. Another student was asked
for advice when anyone felt sick or tired because he had chosen to be a
doctor. In the group, there were a haiku poet, a sushi master, a bank
clerk, a sumo wrestler, a judoka, a retired merchant, and so on. Some
had clear roles to play in class activities and others did not.
However, the teacher provided all of the students with tasks in which
they were respected or praised by others in some way.

As part of the elaboration, the students read the textbook play
together with the teacher. The students would volunteer for the various
roles, and the teacher encouraged them to read dramatically. Each role
in the text had its own props such as black eye glass frames for the
"father" and a pink scarf for the "mother." The teacher made sure that
all students had an opportunity to read part of the story. When the
students mispronounced words, the teacher corrected them in a soft
whisper, allowing them to correct themselves or not as they wished.
Sometimes the textbook reading was followed by a role play in which
students were provided with costumes and wigs to make the drama more
realistic.

Scene 4: Summary

At the end of each chapter, the students read and translated a story
which reviewed all the major grammar and vocabulary items in the
lesson. Before having the students read this story, the teacher would
introduce it with illustrations and props. Then students would be
invited to create their own stories around a theme or a prop, and class
the next day would begin with these stories.

The Role of the Teacher in Suggestopedia

As can be seen from the scenes above, the role of the teacher, the
"motor of the suggestopedic machine," is crucial (Gateva, 1990b. p. 91)
because a large part of a suggestopedic course depends on the
suggestive effect of the teacher's behavior, both verbal and
non-verbal. A teacher in a suggestopedic course not only radiates
effective suggestive stimuli, but also coordinates environmental
suggestive stimuli in a positive way for students to learn.
One of Suggestopedia's unique goals is to release learners' minds from
the existing framework of the "social-suggestive norms" (Lozanov, 1978.
p. 252). Learners have commonly set a limit on their abilities by
following the guidelines of the suggestive norms which are often
considered common sense in a given society. For instance, students may
say, "Oh, it's too late for me, I am too old," or "How can I remember
that amount? Nobody can!" Suggestopedia sees these negative suggestions
from the social-suggestive norms as inhibiting human potential and
believes you can free your students' natural potential by replacing
existing negative suggestions with positive suggestions. This is called
the "desuggestive-suggestive process" (Lozanov, 1978, pp. 252-258).
Teachers have quite a few "common sense" beliefs to remove such
negative beliefs as "Study is hard," "You can only remember little by
little," "Grammar is boring," and so on. Then, 'Yes, you can,"
"Everything is possible," and "Study is fun" will be the new common
sense in your classes.

Creating a State of Concentrative Psychorelaxation

One important task for a suggestopedic teacher is to put students in
the state of mind called "concentrative psychorelaxation" (Lozanov,
1978, p. 2S8). Lozanov describes concentrative psychorelaxation as the
optimal state of brain activity for learning in which the level of
relaxation is neither too deep nor too shallow. The teacher needs to
create and arrange different styles of activities to stimulate the
students' minds in various ways so that each student has a chance to
achieve this state of concentrative psychorelaxation.

Teachers can use all the interactive communicative activities in
Suggestopedia, especially in the elaboration part of the lesson.
Techniques such as role plays, games, and quizzes are all effective.
Work on grammar such as verb conjugations is introduced with some
physical movement and change of voice and through colorful posters of
conjugation tables which are placed around the classroom so that you
can use learners' subconscious area of memory called "peripheral
perceptions" (Lozanov, 1982, pp.149-150). All these activities are
connected and harmonized in the course structure just as music that has
several movements and motifs is performed with many different
instruments orchestrated into one large symphony.

The Suggestopedic Lesson
The suggestopedic lesson is divided into four parts: introduction,
concert sessions (active and passive), elaboration (development of the
syllabus introduced in the concert sessions), and summary (Gateva,
1990b, pp. 94-95). Each part requires different skills on the part of
the teacher, but, throughout the course, you as a suggestopedic teacher
appear to be the director of a group of actors rather than a lecturer
(Fujiwara, 1992, p. 283). Students choose new names and personal
backgrounds in the course so that they can be released from their real
life problems or status that, Lozanov believes, often work as factors
against learning (Hagiwara, 1989). After your learners have chosen
their new personalities, you will need to pay attention to group
dynamics to create and retain good human relationships, as demonstrated
in the above description of the Japanese course.

Art in Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia introduces rich artistic elements into its teaching
methodology and materials to stimulate learners' creativity (Gateva
1990a, pp. 54-55). Almost all the categories of art are included such
as music, visual arts, and stage art. You use music as songs in the
elaborations and as classical background music in the concert sessions.
You hang colorfully made grammar posters among other art posters in
your classroom, and sometimes you give the group drawing tasks. You
move like an actor in the theater, use puppets like a show person, and
read the textbook like a poet at his recital.

The suggestopedic lesson is divided into four parts: introduction,
concert sessions (active and passive), elaboration (development of the
syllabus introduced in the concert sessions), and summary (Gateva,
1990b, pp. 94-95). Each part requires different skills on the part of
the teacher, but, throughout the course, you as a suggestopedic teacher
appear to be the director of a group of actors rather than a lecturer
(Fujiwara, 1992, p. 283). Students choose new names and personal
backgrounds in the course so that they can be released from their real
life problems or status that, Lozanov believes, often work as factors
against learning (Hagiwara, 1989). After your learners have chosen
their new personalities, you will need to pay attention to group
dynamics to create and retain good human relationships, as demonstrated
in the above description of the Japanese course.

Art in Suggestopedia

Concert Sessions

Another unique and essential feature of Suggestopedia is the concert
sessions which helps students absorb the large amounts of information.
You read the textbook solemnly and dramatically with specially selected
classical background music. The list of specially selected classical
music for suggestopedic concert readings is in Lozanov and Gateva
(1987, pp, 73-77). In the concert sessions, the learners (listeners)
are in a "pseudopassive state" (Lozanov, 1978, pp. 197-200); that is,
they are physically relaxed and mentally activated. Listening to your
voice in this state, as they follow the text and translation, learners
absorb both the linguistic rhythm and meaning of vocabulary at once to
create an accumulation of information in their minds.

Theory of Suggestopedia

When you apply your own ideas to your classroom, you must base them on
the theory of Suggestology, which studies how the stimuli around us
work as means of suggestion. Since there is no Suggestopedia without
Suggestology, you should read at least the fundamental works of Lozanov
and Gateva. I suggest you start with Lozanov (1982), a good summary of
Suggestology and Suggestopedia, and Lozanov & Gateva (1988), a
suggestopedic teachers' manual. If you have further interest,
introductory books (Springer & Deutsch, 1985; Genesee, 1988) about
brain physiology and cognitive science will give a better understanding
of the utilization of whole brain learning in Suggestopedia.

Learning More about Suggestopedia

Finally, if you have time (and money), I recommend that you try to
learn a language in a suggestopedic course, not only to observe a class
session or two, but to take a whole course. In Japan. Sanno Junior
College offers language and art courses taught suggestopedically and
short teacher training seminars given in Japanese. Those who want to
study Suggestopedia in depth can take training courses with Dr. Lozanov
and Dr. Gateva at their center in Austria.

Interested readers can contact:
The International Association for Desuggestology and Suggestopedagogy,
Austria-1101 Vienna, P.O. Box 132 Tel/Fax: +43 1 615 5069

a href="http://www.big.or.jp/~jas/" target="new">Japanese Association
of Suggestopedia,
Sanno Junior College, 6-39-15, Todoroki, Setagaya-ku, Tokyo 158
*********************************************************************************************************

Communicative language teaching

Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is an approach to the teaching of
second and foreign languages that emphasizes interaction as both the
means and the ultimate goal of learning a language.
Relationship with other methods and approaches

Historically, CLT has been seen as a response to the Audio-Lingual
Method (ALM), and as an extension or development of the
Notional-Functional Syllabus.
[edit]

The Audio-Lingual Method

The Audio-Lingual Method (ALM) arose as a direct result of the need for
foreign language proficiency in listening and speaking skills during
and after World War II. It is closely tied to behaviorism, and thus
made drilling, repetition, and habit-formation central elements of
instruction. Proponents of ALM felt that this emphasis on repetition
necessitated a corollary emphasis on accuracy, claiming that continual
repetition of errors would lead to the fixed acquisition of incorrect
structures and non-standard pronunciation.

In the classroom, lessons were often organized by grammatical structure
and presented through short dialogs. Often, students listened
repeatedly to recordings of conversations and focused on accurately
mimicking the pronunciation and grammatical structures in these
dialogs.

Critics of ALM asserted that this over-emphasis on repetition and
accuracy ultimately did not help students achieve communicative
competence in the target language. They looked for new ways to present
and organize language instruction, and advocated the notional
functional syllabus, and eventually CLT as the most effective way to
teach second and foreign languages.
[edit]

The Notional Functional Syllabus

A notional-functional syllabus is more a way of organizing a language
learning curriculum than a method or an approach to teaching. In a
notional-functional syllabus, instruction is organized not in terms of
grammatical structure as had often been done with the ALM, but in terms
of “notions” and “functions.” In this model, a “notion” is
a particular context in which people communicate, and a “function”
is a specific purpose for a speaker in a given context. As an example,
the “notion” or context shopping requires numerous language
functions including asking about prices or features of a product and
bargaining. Similarly, the notion party would require numerous
functions like introductions and greetings and discussing interests and
hobbies. Proponents of the notional-functional syllabus claimed that it
addressed the deficiencies they found in the ALM by helping students
develop their ability to effectively communicate in a variety of
real-life contexts.
[edit]

Overview of CLT
As an extension of the notional-functional syllabus, CLT also places
great emphasis on helping students use the target language in a variety
of contexts and places great emphasis on learning language functions.
Unlike the ALM, its primary focus is on helping learners create meaning
rather than helping them develop perfectly grammatical structures or
acquire native-like pronunciation. This means that successfully
learning a foreign language is assessed in terms of how well learners
have developed their communicative competence, which can loosely be
defined as their ability to apply knowledge of both formal and
sociolinguistic aspects of a language with adequate proficiency to
communicate.

CLT is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching, rather
than as a teaching method with a clearly defined set of classroom
practices. As such, it is most often defined as a list of general
principles or features. One of the most recognized of these lists is
David Nunan’s (1991) five features of CLT:

1. An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the
target language.
2. The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation.
3. The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on
language but also on the learning process itself.
4. An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as
important contributing elements to classroom learning.
5. An attempt to link classroom language learning with language
activities outside the classroom.
These five features are claimed by practitioners of CLT to show that
they are very interested in the needs and desires of their learners as
well as the connection between the language as it is taught in their
class and as it used outside the classroom. Under this broad umbrella
definition, any teaching practice that helps students develop their
communicative competence in an authentic context is deemed an
acceptable and beneficial form of instruction. Thus, in the classroom
CLT often takes the form of pair and group work requiring negotiation
and cooperation between learners, fluency-based activities that
encourage learners to develop their confidence, role-plays in which
students practice and develop language functions, as well as judicious
use of grammar and pronunciation focused activities.

[edit]

Classroom activities used in CLT

Example Activities

* Role Play
* Interviews
* Information Gap
* Games
* Language Exchanges
* Surveys
* Pair Work
However, not all courses that utilize the Communicative Language
approach will restrict their activities solely to these. Some courses
will have the students take occasional grammar quizzes, or prepare at
home using non-communicative drills, for instance.
[edit]

Critiques of CLT

COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE
However, not all courses that utilize the Communicative Language
approach will restrict their activities solely to these. Some courses
will have the students take occasional grammar quizzes, or prepare at
home using non-communicative drills, for instance.

Critiques of CLT

Dr. Stephen Bax of Canterbury Christ Church University argues that the
dominance of CLT has led to the neglect of context in language
pedagogy. Bax argues for an alternative to CLT as the central paradigm
in language teaching via a context approach which places context at the
heart of the profession.
communicative competence should be the goal of language education. This
is in contrast to previous views in which grammatical competence was
commonly given top priority. The understanding of communicative
competence has been influenced by the field of pragmatics and the
philosophy of language concerning speech acts as described in large
part by John Searle and J.L. Austin.

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