Suggestopedia Method On TEFL

Background
Suggestopedia, also known as Desuggestopedia, is a method developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov. Suggestopedia is a specific set of learning recommendations derived from Suggestology, which Lozanov describes as a “science…concerned with the systematic study of the nonrational and/or nonconscious influences” that human beings are constantly responding to (Stevick 1976:42). Suggestopedia tries to harness these influences and redirect them so as to optimize learning. The most conspicuous characteristics of Suggestopedia are the decoration, furniture, and arrangement of classroom, the use of music, and the authoritative behavior of the teacher. The claims for suggestopedic learning are dramatic. “There is no sector of public life where suggestology would not be useful” (Lozanov 1978:2). ”Memorization in learning by the suggestopedic method seems to be accelerated 25 times over that in learning by conventional methods” (Lozanov 1978:27).

Approach: Theory of language and learning
Lozanov does not articulate theory of language, nor does it seem that he is much concerned with any particular assumptions regarding language elements and their organization. The emphasis on memorization of vocabulary pairs – a target-language item and its native language translation – suggest a view of language in which lexis is central and in which lexical translation rather than contextualization is stressed. However, Lozanov does occasionally refer to the importance of experiencing language material in “whole meaningful texts” (Lozanov 1978:268) and notes that the suggestopedic course directs “the student not to vocabulary memorization and acquiring habits of speech, but to acts of communication” (1978: 109).
In describing course work and text organization Lozanov refers most often to the language to be learned as “the material” (e.g., “The new material that is to be learned is read or recited by a well-trained teacher”) (Lozanov 1978: 270). The sample protocol given for an Italian lesson (LKozanov:1978) does not suggest a theory of language markedly different from that which holds a language to be its vocabulary and the grammar rules for organizing vocabulary.


Authority
People remember best and are most influenced by information coming from an authoritative source. Lozanov appears to believe that scientific sounding Language, highly positive experimental data, and true-believer teachers constitute a ritual placebo system that is authoritatively appealing to most learners. Well-publicized accounts of learning success lend the method and the institution authority, and commitment to the method, self-confidence, personal distance, acting ability, and a highly positive attitude given an authoritative air to the teacher.

Infantilization
Authority is also used to suggest s teacher-student relation like that of parent to child. In the child’s role the learner takes part in role playing, games, songs, and gymnastic exercise that help “the older student regain the self-confidence, spontaneity and receptivity of the child” (Bancroft 1972: 19).



Double-planedness
The learner learns not only from the effect of direct instruction but from the environment in which the instruction takes place. The bright décor of the classroom, the musical background, the shape of the chairs, and the personality of the teacher are considered as important in instruction as the form of the instructional material itself.

Intonation, rhythm, and concert pseudo-passiveness
Varying the tone and rhythm of presented material helps both to avoid boredom through monotony of repetition and to dramatize, emotionalize, and give meaning to linguistic material. In the first presentation of linguistic material, three phrases are read together, each with a different voice level and rhythm. In the second presentation, the linguistic material is given a proper dramatic reading, which helps learner visualize a context for the material and aids in the memorization (Bancroft 1972: 19).

Both intonation and rhythm are coordinated with a musical background. The musical background helps to induce a relaxed attitude, which Lozanov refers to as concert pseudo-passiveness. This state is felt to be optimal for learning, in that anxieties and tension are relieved and power of concentration for new material is raised.

Design: Objectives, syllabus, learning activities, roles of learners, teachers, and materials
The objectives of Suggestopedia are to deliver advanced conversational proficiency quickly. It bases its learning claims on student mastery of prodigious lists of vocabulary pairs and, indeed, suggest to the students that it is appropriate that they set such goals for themselves. Lozanov emphasizes, however, that increased memory power is not an isolated skill but is a result of “positive, comprehensive stimulation of personality” (Lozanov 1978: 253).

The suggestopedia course lasts 30 days and consists of ten units of study. Classes are held 4 hours ad day, 6 days a week. The central focus of each unit is a dialogue consisting of 1,200 words or so, with an accompanying vocabulary lists and grammatical commentary. The dialogues are graded by lexis and grammar.

Lozanov lists several expected teacher behaviors that contribute to these presentations.
1. Show absolute confidence in the method
2. Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress.
3. Organize properly and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching process – this includes choice and play of music, as well as punctuality.
4. Maintain a solemn attitude toward the session.
5. Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers (if any).
6. Stress global rather than analytical attitudes toward material.
7. Maintain a modest enthusiasm.

Materials consist of direct support materials, primarily text and tape, and indirect support materials, including classroom fixtures and music.

The text is organized around the ten unit described earlier. The textbook should have emotional force, literary quality, and interesting characters. Language problems should be introduced in a way that does not worry or distract students from the content. “Traumatic themes and distasteful lexical material should be avoided” (Lozanov 1978: 278). Each unit should be governed by a single idea featuring a variety of subthemes,”the way it is in life” (p. 278).



Procedure
As with other method we have examined, there are variants both historical and individual in the actual conduct of Suggestopedia classes. Adaptations such as those we witnessed in Toronto by Jane Bancroft and her colleagues at Scarborough College, University of Toronto, showed a wide and diversified range of techniques unattested to in Lozanov`s writings. We have tried here to characterize a class as described in the Suggestopedia literature while pointing out where the actual classes we have observed varied considerably from the description. Bancroft (1972) notes the 4-hour language class has three distinct parts. The first part we might call an oral review section. Previously learned material is used as the basis for discussion by the teacher and twelve students in the class. All participants sit in a circle in their specially designed chairs, and the discussion proceeds like a seminar. This session may involve what are called micro-studies and macro-studies. In micro-studies specific attention is given to grammar, vocabulary, and precise question s and answers. A questions from micro-studies might be, “What should one do in a hotel room if the tapes are not working?” In the macro-studies, emphasis is on role playing and wider-ranging, innovative language construction. “Describe to someone the Boyana church” (one of Bulgaria`s most well known medieval churches) would be can example of a request for information from the macro-studies).

In the second part of the class new material is presented and discussed. This consists of looking over a new dialogue and its native language translation and discussing any issues of grammar, vocabulary, or content that the teacher fells important or that student are curious about. Bancroft notes that this section is typically conducted un the target language, although student questions or comments will be in whatever language the student feels he or she can handle. Students are led to view the experience of dealing with the new material as interesting and undemanding of any special effort or anxiety. The teacher’s attitude and authority are considered critical to preparing students for success in the learning to come. The pattern of learning and use is noted (i.e., fixation, reproduction, and new creative production), so that students will know what is expected.

The third part - the séance or concert session – is the one by which Suggestopedia is best known. Since this constitutes the heart of the method, we will quote Lozanov as to how this session proceeds.

At the beginning of he session, all conversation stop for a minute or two, and the teacher listens to the music coming from a tape-recorder. He waits and listens to several passages in order to enter into the mood of the music then begins to read or recite the new text, his voice modulated in harmony with the musical phrases. The students follow the text in their text books where each lesson is translated into the mother tongue. Between the first and second part of the concert, there are several minutes of solemn silence. In some cases, even longer pauses can be given to permit the students to stir a little. Before the beginning of the second part of the concert, there are again several minutes of silence and some phrases of the music are heard again before the teacher begins to read the text. Now the students closes their text books and listen the teacher’s reading. At the end, the students silently leave the room. They are not told to do any homework on the lesson they have just had except for reading it cursorily once before going to bed and again before getting up in the morning. (Lozanov 1978: 272).





Conclusion
Suggestopedia received a rave review in Parade magazine of March 12, 1978. Suggestopedia also received a scathing review by a leading applied linguist (Scovel 1979). Having acknowledged that “there are techniques and procedures in Suggestopedy that may prove useful in a foreign language classroom,” Scovel notes that Lozanov is unequivocally opposed to any eclectic use of the techniques outside of he full panoply of suggestopedic science. Of suggestopedic science Scovel comments, “If we have learnt anything at all in the seventies, it is that art of language teaching will benefit very little from the pseudo-science of suggestology” (Scovel 1979: 265).

And yet, from Lozanov`s point of view, this air of science (rather than its substance) is what gives Suggesstopedia its authority in the eyes of students and prepares them to expect success. Lozanov makes no bones about the fact that Suggesstopedia is introduced to students in the context of a “suggestive-desuggesstive ritual placebo-system” (Lozanov 1978: 267), and that one of the tasks of the suggesstopedic leader is to determine Just as doctors tell patients that the placebo is a pill that will cure them, so teachers tell students that Suggesstology is a science that will teach them. And Lozanov maintains that placebos do both cure and teach when the patient or pupil credits them with the power to do so. Perhaps, then, it is not productive to futher belabor the science/nonscience, data/double-talk issues and instead, as Bancroft and Stevick have done, try to identify and validate those techniques from Suggesstopedia that appear effective and that harmonize with other successful techniques in the language teaching inventory.



LIST OF BOOK

Richards, Jack C., and Rodgers. Theodore S. 2001. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.