DESUGGESTOPEDIA

The methods present in this and the next chapters are illustrative of that which Celce-Murcia (1991) calls an affective-humanistic approach, an approach in which there is respect for students’ feelings. The originator of this method, Georgi Lozanov, believes as does Silent Ways’ Caleb Gattegno, that language learning can occur at a much faster rate than ordinarily transpires. Desuggestopedia , the application of the study of suggestion 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.
The Principles
Teacher hope to accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication. In order to do this, more of the students’ mental powers must be tapped. This is accomplished by desuggesting the psychological barriers learners bring with them to the learning situaton and using techniques to activate the ‘paraconscious’ part of the mind, just below the fully-conscious mind.
The teacher is the authority in the claaroom. In order for the method to be succesful, the students must trust and respect her.
A Desuggestopedic course is conducted in a classroom whch is bright and cheerful. Posters displaying grammatical information about the target language are hung arround the room in order to take advantage of students’ peripheral learning. The posters are changed every few weeks to create a sense of novelty in the environment.
Vocabulary is emphasized. Claims about the success of the method often focus on the large number of words that can be acquired. 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. Speaking communicatively is emphasized. Students also read in the target language (for example, dialogs) and write (for example, imaginative compositions).
The Techniques And The Classroom Set-Up
Classroom set-up
The challenge for the teacher is to create a classroom environment which is bright and cheerful. This was accomplished in the classroom we visited where the walls were decorated with scenes from a country where the target language is spoken.
Peripheral learning
This technique is based upon the idea that we perceive much more in our environment than 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.
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.
Choose a new identity
The students choose a target language name and a new occupation. As the course continues, the students have an opportunity to develop a whole biography about their fictional selves.
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 themselves as that person.
First concert (active concert)
The two concert are components of the receptive phase of the lesson. After the teacher has introduced the story as related in the dialog and has called students’ attention to some particular grammatical points that arise in it, she reads the dialog in the target language.
Second concert (passive concert)
In the second phase, the students are asked to put their scripts aside. They simply listen as the teacher reads the dialog at a normal rate of speed.
Primary activation
This technique and the one that follows are components of the active phase of the lesson. The students playfully reread the target language dialog out loud, as individuals or in groups.
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, dramatizations, and games.