SUGGESTOPAEDIA DESUGGESTOPAEDIA EXPLOITING THE POWER OF SUGGESTION IN COMMUNICATION (TEACHING, COUNSELLING, THERAPY, ETC)
ORIGIN IN PSYCHOTHERAPY (1) • Suggestion without hypnosis • Psychotherapeutic effects of wakeful suggestion • Liberation of the personality from the inhibitions suggested by the social norm • SUGGESTOLOGY : the science and art of liberating the untapped reserve capacities of the human brain and psyche
ORIGIN IN PSYCHOTHERAPY (2)
• Influence from Carl Roger’s school of psychoanalysis (emphasis on the positive aspects of the personality) and Humanistic psychology (self-fulfilment)
We can only facilitate her /his learning. Human beings have a natural potential for learning.
EARLY EXPERIMENTS : 1964 DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY OF THE POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL INSTITUTE (1) • teaching foreign language vocabulary at a great volume • 1000 lexical units per day • aimed at provoking states of hypermnesia • used different techniques such as rhythmic reading at the background of classical music
Hypermnesia is the result mainly of a suggestive setup directed towards the memory potential
EARLY EXPERIMENTS : 1964 DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHIATRY OF THE POSTGRADUATE MEDICAL INSTITUTE (2) • Results indicated assimilation of at least 80% of the lexical units for a period of 3 months • longer lasting capacity for the retrieval of the memorised material, low fatigue levels and considerable psycho-hygienic and psycho-prophylactic effects Memorizing experiments
SUGGESTOLOGY • “ Suggestology is the comprehensive science of suggestion in all its aspects (psychological, physiological, socio psychological, psycho therapeutic, psycho hygienic, pedagogical, artistic, cybernetic, genetic and semiological.) • Consequently, it is the science of the accelerated harmonious development and self –control of man and his manifold talents.”
WHAT IS 'TENDER SUGGESTION'? (1)  “a universal communication factor active at any point of human interaction that allows the personality to make choices from among a wide range of complex stimuli based on both reason and intuition at various degrees depending on their disposition.
WHAT IS 'TENDER SUGGESTION'? (2) • The use of consciousunconscious stimuli, in such a way that they are well-organized, psychologically orchestrated and harmonized with the personality, may reveal the comprehensive potential of the personality, and also stimulate their creative power.” (Dr. G. Lozanov, Suggestology and Suggestopaedia – theory and practice)
FROM SUGGESTOLOGY TO SUGGESTOPEADIA • the application of the theory of suggestive communication to teaching • a Humanistic approach to education (conviction in the potential to learn) • a brain friendly approach to learning (whole-brain)) • a systemic approach to teaching aiming at the optimal orchestration of stimuli and functions (conscious and less conscious, logical and /affective /intuitive/artistic) • Effective-affective teaching and learning
DR LOZANOV AND DR GATEVA
SCHOOL SUGGESTOPAEDIA
Creating Wholeness through Art. Artistic songs in the process of teaching The songs have artistically 窶電idactic and psychotherapeutic tasks (not just entertaining)
100-HOUR FL COURSES FOR ADULTS (1) • in the course of the intensive foreign-language suggestopaedic training process, the trainees were in a normal awake state and learnt the material taught in a large volume without feeling tired and tense, in a state of mental and physical relaxation.
100-HOUR FL COURSES FOR ADULTS (2) • this fact was confirmed on the basis of the frequency allocation of the waves in the EEG (alpha, beta, theta and delta), as well as the data from a number of other indicators.
Adult courses in Viktorsberg 1991-1998
L.I.T.A. 2003-2009
AIMS SUGGESTOPAEDIA – RESERVOPAEDIA STIMULATES THE WHOLE HUMAN PERSONALITY AND HELPS FULFIL ITS POTENTIAL
THE FUNCTIONAL UNITY OF THE HUMAN BRAIN • The emotional and motivational complex, the capacity to think in images and logical abstraction should be simultaneously activated in an inseparable unity. • Education, however, being mostly related to the cortex structures and the brain’s left hemisphere, violates man’s natural aptitude to perceive and respond in both rational and emotional ways.
THE RESERVE CAPACITIES • Communicative competence at the level of B1 / B2 within a 100 hours and without any homework • No fatigue or stress • Hypermnesia • Hyperactivity • Creativity, motivation, new interests • Positive attitude towards learning • Appreciation of Art • Inner stability, spontaneous recovery from neuroses, allergies and psychosomatic disorders
PRINCIPLES • • • • •
1/ Joy and lack of tension (concentrative relaxation – infantilization) 2/ Integral brain activity (conscious – unconscious unity)
• 3/ Suggestive interrelation • (parts-global themes)
HOW IT WORKS
SUGGESTOPAEDIC LOVE AND ‘FADING SCAFFOLDING’ (LEO BRUNNER) • motherly love • full of faith and discreet support • decreasingly provided to the child/learner • aiming at its autonomy and selfsufficiency • infantilization of learners through play like activities • The bicycle metaphor’
SUGGESTOPAEDIC FREEDOM • Respect to the learner’s free will and choices; the learning material is never imposed – only suggested
•Suggestopeadia aims at liberating the personality from: • inhibitions and self-consciousness when it comes to communicating in a foreign language; the fear of being criticized when making mistakes and the fear of failure •social prejudices suggesting that learning is difficult, sometimes impossible, and always effortful and unpleasant. • ‘didactogenic diseases’-school neuroses, stress, fatigue, boredom •emancipation from teachers and school curricula
THE TEACHER’S EXPECTATIONS • The teacher truly expects all learners to achieve the most of their learning potential • the basic principle of suggestive/desuggestive pedagogy is that each individual has a wealth of untapped, reserve capacities (some of them related to learning) • Faith in their own capacity to facilitate learning • Faith in the methodology
INCREASED VOLUME OF MATERIAL IN LESS TIME • Faith in the reserve capacities • Organisation of material for easy decoding (use of L1) according to the principles of cognitive constructivism • Stress-free learning environment • Multi-sensory stimuli addressed to multiple intelligences
USE OF CLASSICAL ART AND AESTHETICS • • • • • •
Affectivity Creativity Suggestiveness Harmony Beauty Prestige Art as a communicative phenomenon not only influences but also provokes additional rich associations related to the specific meaningful content. Art might influence the whole personality – its intellectual development, mnemonic resources, emotional background and volitional tendencies
THE GOLDEN PROPORTION • Any two variables that are within a ratio of 0.6180339 are within the golden section • Lessons are structured according to the golden proportion (active vs. passive activities) • learning methodology which takes into account central and peripheral stimuli alike and in calculated proportions • a systemic approach to teaching aiming at the optimal orchestration of stimuli and functions (conscious vs. less conscious, logical vs. affective/ intuitive/artistic)
SOME EXAMPLES
GLOBAL-PARTIAL/PARTIAL-GLOBAL APPROACH • Focus on large language units first • Balanced combination of elements into meaningful wholes • Shift of attention from whole to parts and vice versa • Fatigue and boredom are nonexistent because of the constant interplay between active and passive activities that engage the whole personality and addressing each individual separately as well as the group as a whole
APPLICATIONS Communication – Pedagogy - Medicine
BACKGROUND THEORIES OF LEARNING AND COGNITION
CONSTRUCTIVISM • Learning is the result of mental construction • Constructing knowledge rather than acquiring it. • Students fit in new information together with the old one • • Knowledge is (re)constructed – not transmitted • • A theory that empasizes active learning
COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTIVISM PIAGET, CHOMSKY • the role of the mother tongue young emergent bilinguals transfer prior linguistic, metalinguistic and literacy knowledge and skills to the new language • Communicative competence is given priority over lexicosemantic competence • Shift from total to partial immersion courses with maintenance of the mother tongue • bilingual – multilingual education beyond CLIL
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (1) there can be no applicable linguistic knowledge without life knowledge and no language learning without cultural-pragmatic clues • Sapir, 1970: language is inextricably linked to experience • Vygotsky, 1962: underlying cognitive proficiency • Bruner, 1986: joint culture creation, chunks as scaffolds
EXPERIENTIAL LEARNING (2) • inside-out approach: reading based upon personal and group experiences
•
partial-global: from the learner’s own knowledge and experience to the world, from the smallest units of language to discourse
NATURAL APPROACH • Based on the idea that babies acquire language by using it, not through practizing sepatare parts. • Distinction between learning and acquisition • Focus is on communication
Stephan Krashen
DESUGGESTOPEDIA - ASSUMPTIONS • The process of suggestion influences the increasing use of the reserve capacities of the brain and psyche. • Learning is free from tension • Learning includes conscious and unconscious factors
CONTEXT SUGGESTOPAEDIA IN THE FRAMEWORK OF FL TEACHING
ACTIVE VS PASSIVE KNOWLEDGE
HOLISTIC APPROACHES TO LEARNING Passive knowledge is extremely useful •makes it possible to read appropriate texts quite early. •makes it possible to communicate quite early and in quite a broad range. (big reading and listening comprehension) •most often the path to active knowledge goes through passive knowledge. (psychophysiological fact)
OTHER FL LEARNING APPROACHES • natural learning • meaningful learning (adult literacy, Paolo Freire) • organic approach & collaborative books (emotive learning, Ashton – Warner) • breakthrough to reading English (skills integration, Mackay, Thompson and Schaub) • integrated curricula • interactive approaches (which the bottom-up and top-down approaches of the 20th century have evolved into) • collaborative learning • strategic interaction • scenario-based instruction • differentiated instruction
MEANS SUGGESTIVE- ARTISTIC- DIDACTIC
SUGGESTIVE • Prestige (of teacher, methodology, materials) • High expectations suggested by the great volume of material • Affective tone, intonation, rhythm, gestures and mimics, the skilful use of peripheral irritants, etc • Infantilization (attitude of trust, calmness and receptiveness similar to the child’s tension-free emotional perception and reaction to the world) • Peripheral perceptions • Concentrative psychorelaxation
ARTISTIC • “A visual representation of suggestion is art” • Didactic Art: • • • • • •
didactic and authentic songs classical and baroque music, rhymes and literature, artistic interpretation of texts/scripts, mimes role plays with particular communicative tasks, etc
• These art tools are not an end in themselves, but rather aim at establishing a tight link between perception and mastering the new language elements
DIDACTIC • Interconnections between themes and between parts of the same theme – connections between parts and the whole • No meaningless repetition – varied repetition in different textual and communicative contexts • All newly acquired knowledge is immediately utilized to solve problems • Suggestopaedic games – board games, card games etc • Carefully designed suggestopaedic materials
MATERIALS (1) Script (scenario to be acted out) • carefully designed to teach story grammar, chunks, graded lexical and morphological clues • respect to the artistic nature of the literary genre • inspiring learners to externalise their deeper feelings and internalise the feelings provoked by the story, making the experience strong and real lifelike
MATERIALS (2) creating double-planeness with regard to who has the control of the outcome of the story elaborating linguistic knowledge through playful repetition, games, songs, dance, drama etc. Card vocabulary (designed for playing board games) Repetitions in different contexts and levels of word meaning: emotional, peripheral meaning, contextual meaning, cognitive decoding, associations, affective moods, sound and music
PROPERTIES OF THE SUGGESTOPAEDIC TEXT (1) suggestopaedic translation • underlined syntactic, lexical or morphological units and their equivalents in the mother tongue • gapped translation as well as gapped texts give opportunity for syntactic transformations and practice, for chunking as well as for high level authentic communication without resorting to easily understandable lexis and structure only
PROPERTIES OF THE SUGGESTOPAEDIC TEXT (2) suggestopaedic elaboration reading • practice syntactic structures with changing intonations, different words, rephrasing and with personal meaning • link language with experience • exploit the transfer of the chunking strategy spontaneously employed during mother tongue acquisition
POSTERS – PERIPHERAL STIMULI morphosyntactic phenomena are modelled out for implicit teaching and learning • Lozanov (1977, 2006): both conscious and unconcious contextual features influence reading and learning, • involuntary attention and memorisation are as important as voluntary attention and intentional learning
METHODOLOGY
THE SUGGESTOPAEDIC CYCLE Presentation •Introduction •Active Concert •Passive Concert Activation (70%) Transfer
FOREIGN LANGUAGE LEARNING Young learners
Adults
are natural language acquirers; •they are self-motivated to pick up language without conscious learning, •They have the ability to imitate pronunciation and work out the rules for themselves.
• Can acquire and learn a language • think more consciously about language rather than it being intuitive • have a more difficult time adapting the pronunciation of a foreign language
TEACHING OTHER SUBJECTS • Integration of themes • The individual themes need not only follow each other coherently but also reflect each other in various ways. Aspects of each theme should be dealt with during the elaboration of the previous themes • Each teaching objective should not be dealt with in isolated themes but throughout the cycle
• Integration of subjects • During the teaching of each subject, elements from the other subjects should be introduced as well as examples from real life
CHILDREN’S OPERAS TO TEACH MATHS While watching these operas, the children were introduced to the maths curriculum of the first school year and the first half of the second (peripheral perception defocused learning). . On the top left hand of the screen there were sums such as 5 + 7 = 5 +5 + 2 = 12. One opera lasted between 30 and 40 minutes
HIGH SCHOOL MATHEMATICS A more emotional atmosphere is introduced in the teaching of those subjects which are logically directed, and more logical thinking without devoiding the subject of its specificity.
RESULTS THE HIGH LEARNING OUTCOMES AND THE EXCEPTIONAL PSYCHO-HYGIENIC EFFECT OF THE METHODOLOGY ON THE PERSONALITY OF BOTH TEACHERS AND LEARNERS
THE UNESCO REPORT • UNESCO Working Document for the Expert Working Group • (11-16 December 1978, Sofia) • presented by the Bulgarian National Commission for UNESCO and the Bulgarian Ministry of People Education • ED –78/WS/119
THE UNESCO REPORT (2) P. 1 “ The accelerated development of human potential capacities acquires great importance today because of the constant increase of information, mechanization and communication. This development should not only be accelerated but, in order to achieve a ‘humanitarian balance’ in present day technical civilization, it ought to be harmonious as well. Therefore, the process of instruction, education and psychotherapy should be unified in one process based on psycho physiological laws …”
THE VIENNA REPORT 1973 - 79 Dr. Beer (Head of the Pedagogical Academy) •Arithmetic: The teaching goal of the first grade was certainly reached, and second and third grade material was also taught successfully to first graders. •Reading: The teaching goal in reading for the first grade was already achieved by the end of the first semester.
THE COMMON EUROPEAN FRAMEWORK FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING, TEACHING, ASSESSMENT PRINCIPLES AND GOALS
PHILOSOPHY • Language as a means of communication • Emphasis on communicative competence • Holistic View of Communication • Linguistic • Sociolinguistic • Pragmatic • Holistic Approach to Learning Cognitive Emotional Volitional Resources
ACTION BASED APPROACH • Learners as social agents in action • Speech acts as communicative acts • Variety of text genres and modes • Variety of domains of language use • No specific methodology as long as communicative acts are successful • Communicative performance vs. declarative knowledge
SKILLS AND ACTIVITIES • Evaluation of communicative performance in different language activities Listening Reading Spoken production Spoken interaction Writing Oral and written mediation from L1 to L2
CORRESPONDENCES BETWEEN CEF AND LITA LEVELS
A2 Can understand sentences and frequently used expressions related to areas of most immediate relevance (e.g. very basic personal and family information, shopping, local geography, employment). Can communicate in simple and routine tasks requiring a simple and direct exchange of information on familiar and routine matters. Can describe in simple terms aspects of his/her background, immediate environment and matters in areas of immediate need.
B2 • Can understand the main ideas of complex text on both concrete and abstract topics, including technical discussions in his/her field of specialisation. • Can interact with a degree of fluency and spontaneity that makes regular interaction with native speakers quite possible without strain for either party. • Can produce clear, detailed text on a wide range of subjects and explain a viewpoint on a topical issue giving the advantages and disadvantages of various options.
OUR EXPERIENCE • Suggestopaedia stimulates the personality as a whole: interests, perceptions, memory, intellectual activity, creative development, attitudes to work and study...
BIBLIOGRAPHY • Lozanov, G. Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedia; Gordon and Breach, New York, • London, Paris, 1978 • Gateva, E. Creating Wholeness Through Art; Accelerated Learning Systems Ltd., England,1991 • Dr. Franz Beer, published in the USA (The Journal of SuggestiveAccelerative Learning and Teaching. Volume 3, Issue 1, 1978, p.21)