Lozanovs Suggestopedia Suggestology and Language Teaching Experience Observations

Lozanov’s Suggestopedia Suggestology and Language Teaching Experience: Observations, Principles, Techniques

Experience: Observations • The Classroom setup is unusual: armchairs, lighting, music, posters, hats, ball. • The teacher recognizes learners’ psycho barriers to learning; attempts to ‘desuggest’ these limitations ; increases students’ selfconfidence; integrate suggestions as much as possible into teaching process; leads class in various activities (drama, song, game); helps students ‘activate’ the language they learn; and suggests: • The students: trust/respect teacher’s authority, ‘Sit back, close eyes/imagine/feel, choose, listen/just enjoy concerto, dramatize, sing, play’–learn and use new language immediately and creatively.

Experience: Principles (learning) Principles/conditions under which learning is most effective • • Language is the conscious plane in the process of communication (linguistic message). Learning is facilitated in a relaxing/comfortable environment--“Peripheral Learning”. Assuming new identity enhances students’ feeling of security—be more open to learning. Students will learn best when their conscious attention is on process of communicating their intended meanings rather than on linguistic form; Suggestive/subconscious factors (music, art, drama) help students overcome psycho barriers to learning; Activating learner’s imagination/mental powers/whole-brain reinforce new linguistic form; If student trusts/respects teacher’s authority, he will accept and retain inform better. ; Errors are to be tolerated, the emphasis being on meaning rather than on forms.

Suggestopedia: Principles (a Method) • • • Goal of instruction: accelerates learning to use a FL by desuggesting limits/psycho barriers in learning situation. Students trust/respect teacher’ authority, respond to de/suggestion, infantalize, and retain information better. The teaching/learning process: classroom set-up, posters, new identity, handouts, listening concerts, and whole-brain activation (sing/play/drama) use new language immediately. Teacher initiates/directs interaction with groups/individuals, students respond/interact with each other. Students’ feeling: relaxed by desuggesting barriers, self-confident by positive suggestions, secure by assuming new identity. View language as communication: linguistic message encoded and suggestive factors/music, art, drama enhance reception/activation of message. Areas of language/skills emphasized: vocab size acquisition, minimal grammar, reading and writing. Students’ native language translations of target language dialogs are used to make meaning clear. Student errors are tolerated/not corrected, but later teacher uses form correctly. Evaluation of students’ in-class performance not through formal tests/-ing.

Suggestopedia: Techniques • Classroom set-up as relaxed/comfortable environment as possible using lights, music, armchairs, and posters. • Students perceive/absorb more necessary info/facts effortlessly (Peripherally learn) than to which they attend in the environment. • Teacher’s Positive suggestions help students break down barriers to learning—in/directly, sub/consciously, music/comfort environment. • Visualization activates students’ imagination and/or relax. • Students Choose a new identity enhances students’ feeling of security • Students pretend someone else’(role play)use-ing new sentences. • Concerts (first/second): teacher reads dialog dramatically matching voice to music, reads again, students close eyes and listen to diff music • Activation (primary/secondary): students playfully re/read dialog loudly in particular manner, and sing, dramatize, gaming using new language.