Sabtu, 03 April 2010

The Summary of The Desuggestopedia

INTRODUCTION

Celce-Murcia calls this method as an affective-humanistic approach => an approach in which there is respect for students' feelings.

The originator of this method : Dr. Georgi Lozanov in 70s, Bulgaria.

According to Lozanov : Language learning can occur at a much faster rate than ordinarily transpires.
The reason for our inefficiency, is that we set up psychological barriers to learning :
  • we fear that we will be unable to perform.
  • then, we will be limited in our ability to learn.
  • then, we will fail.
  • The result is we do not use the full mental powers that we have. We may be using only 5-10 % of our mental capacity.
In order to make better use of our reserved capacity, the limitations we think we have need to be 'desuggested'.

Desuggestopedia : desuggesting limitation on learning / 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 to help them overcome the barriers to learning.

One of the ways the students' mental reserves are stimulated is through integration of the fine arts, an important contribution to the method made by Lozanov's colleague Evelyna Gateva.

Suggestopedia : apply suggestology to teaching.
Tebal
Charateristics :

Stimulates the whole person.

Undoes blocks

Goes rapidly forward

Gives creative solution

Encourages relaxation

Strengthens self-image

Talks to all the senses

Optimizes learning

Propagates talent

Enhances learning

Dramatises material

Includes pictures, music and movement

Addresses the whole person

According to Lozanov :

  • Learning => the process of consciousness and unconsciousness.
  • Authority
  • Infantilisation
  • Double-planeness (direct/indirect influences)
  • Intonation and rhythm
  • Concert pseudo-passiveness
  • Relaxed attention

THINKING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE

1. Observation => The classroom is bright and colorful.
Principle => Learning is facilitated in a cheerful environment.

2. Observation => among the posters hanging around the room are several containing grammatical information.
Principle => Students can learn from what is present in the environment, even if their attention is not directed to it ('Peripheral learning').

3. Observation => The teacher speaks confidently. Principle => If students trust and respect the teacher's authority, they will accept and retain information better.

4. Observation => The teacher gives the students the impression that learning the target language will be easy and enjoyable.
Principle => The teacher should recognize that learners bring certain psychological barriers with them to the learning situation. She should attempt to'desuggest' these.

5. Observation => The students choose new names and identities. Principle => Assuming a new identity enhances students' feeling of security and allows them to be more open. They feel less inhibited since their performance is really that of a different person. 6. Observation => The students introduce themselves to the teacher. Principle => The dialog that the students learn contains language they can use immediately.
7. Observation => The play rhythmic instruments as they sing a song. Principles => Songs are useful for 'freeing the speech muscles' and evoking positive emotions.

8. Observation => The teacher distributes a lengthy handout to the class. The title of the dialog is 'To want to is to be able to.' Principle => The teacher should integrate indirect positive suggestions ('there is no limit to what you can do') into the learning situation.

9. Observation => The teacher briefly mentions a few points about English grammar and vocabulary. These are in bold print in the dialog.
Principle => the teacher should present and explain the grammar and vocabulary, but not dwell on them. The bold print allows the students' focus to shift from the whole text to the details before they return to the whole text again. The dynamic interplay between the whole and the parts is important.

10. Observation => There are reproductions of classical paintings throughout the text.
Principle => Fine art provides positive suggestions for students.

11. Observation => In the left column is the dialog in the target language. In the right column is the native language translation.
Principle => One way that meaning is made clear is through native language translation.

12. Observation => The teacher reads the dialog with a musical accompaniment. She matches her voice to the rhythm and intonation of the music.
Principle => Communication takes place on 'two planes': on one the linguistic message is encoded; and on the other are factors which influence the linguistic message. On the conscious plane, the learner attends to the language; on the subconscious plane, the music suggest that learning is easy and pleasant. When there is a unity between conscious and subconscious, learning is enhanced.

13. Observation => The teacher reads the script a second time as the students listen. This is done to different music.
Principle => A calm state, such as one experiences when listening to a concert, is ideal for overcoming psychological barriers and for taking advantage of learning potential.

14. Observation => For homework, the students are to read the dialog at night and in the morning.
Principle => At these times, the distinction between the conscious and the subconscious is most blurred and therefore, learning can occur.

15. Observation => The teacher gives the students hats to wear for the different characters in the dialog. The students take turns reading portions of the dialog.
Principle => Dramatization is a particularly valuable way of playfully activating the material. Fantasy reduces barriers to learning.

16. Observation => The teacher tells the students that they are auditioning for a play.
Principle => The fine arts (music, art,and drama) enable suggestions to reach the subconscious. The arts should, therefore, be integrated as much as possible into the teaching process.

17. Observation => The teacher leads the class in various activities involving the dialog, for example,question-and-answer, repetition, and translation.
Principle => The teacher should help the students 'activate' the material to which they have been exposed. The means of doing this should be varied so as to avoid repetition as much as possible. Novelty aids acquisition.

18. Observation => She teaches the students a children's song.
Principle => Music and movement reinforce the linguistic material. It is desirable that students achieve a state of 'infantilization' so that they will be more open to learning. If they trust the teacher, they will reach this state more easily.

19. Observation => The teacher and students play a question-and-answer game.
Principle => In an atmosphere of play, the conscious attention of the learner does not focus on linguistic forms, but rather on using the language. Learning can be fun.

20. Observation => The student makes an error by saying, ' How you do ?' The teacher corrects the error in a soft voice.
Principle => Errors are corrected gently, not in a direct, confrontational manner.

REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES

1. The goals of teachers who use Desuggestopedia :
To accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication. More of the students' mental powers must be tapped by desuggesting the psychological barriers learners bring with them to the learning situation and using techniques to activate the 'paraconscious' part of the mind, just below the fully-conscious mind.

2. The teacher is the authority in the classroom. For the method to be successful, the students must trust and respect her. The students will retain information better from someone in whom they have confidence since they will be more responsive to her 'desuggesting' their limitations and suggesting how easy it will be for them to succeed.
Once the students trust the teacher, they can feel more secure, so they can be more spontaneous and less inhibited.

3. Some characteristics of the teaching / learning process :
A Desuggestopedia course is conducted in a classroom which is bright and cheerful because posters displaying grammatical information about the target language are hung around the room to take advantage of students' peripheral learning. The posters are changed every few weeks to create a sense of novelty in the environment.
  • Students select target language names and choose new occupations.
  • During the course they create whole biographies to go along with their new identities.
  • The texts students work from are handouts containing lengthy dialogs (as many as 800 words) in the target language. Next to the dialog is a translation in the students' native language. There are also some notes on vocabulary and grammar which correspond to bold-faced items in the dialog.
The teacher presents the dialog during two concerts which comprise the first major phase (the receptive phase).
  • The first concert (the active concert) => the teacher reads the dialog, matching her voice to the ryhthm and pitch of the music, so the 'whole brain'(both the left and the right hemispheres) of the students become activated. The students follow the target language dialog as the teacher reads it out loud. They also check the translation.
  • During the second concert (the passive concert), the students listen calmly while the teacher reads the dialog at a normal rate of speed. For homework the students read over the dialog just before they go to sleep, and again when they get up the next morning.
What follows is the second major phase (the activation phase), in which students engage in various activities designed to help them gain facility with the new material. The activities include dramatizations, games, songs, and question-and-answer exercises.

4. The teacher initiates interactions with the whole group of students and with individuals right from the beginning of a language course. Initially, the students can only respond nonverbally or with a few target language words they have practiced. Later the students have more control of the target language and can respond more appropriately and even initiate interaction themselves.

5. The feeling of the students dealt with :
A great deal of attention is given to students' feelings. One of the fundamental principles is that if students are relaxed and confident, they will not need to try hard to learn the language. It will just come naturally and easily. It is considered important that the psychological barriers that students bring with them be desuggested. Indirect positive suggestions are made to enhance students' self-confidence and to convince them that success is obtainable. Students also choose target language names on the assumption that a new identity makes students feel more secure and thus more open to learning.

6. Language is the first of two planes in two-plane process of communication. In the second plane are the factors which influence the linguistic message. For example, the way one dresses or the nonverbal behavior one uses affectshow one's linguistic message is interpreted.
The culture which students learn concerns the everyday life of people who speak the language. The use of the fine arts is also important in Desuggestopedic class.

7. Vocabulary is emphasized. 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. The 'paraconscious' mind will then absorb the linguistic rules. Speaking communicatively is emphasized. Students also read in the target language (for example, dialogs) and write (for example, imaginative compositions).

8. The role of the students' native language :
Native-language translation is used to make the meaning of the dialog clear. The teacher also uses the native language in class when necessary. As the course proceeds, the teacher uses the native language less and less.

9 Evaluation accomplished :
Evaluation usually is conducted on students' normal in-class performance and not through formall tests.

10. The teacher respond to student errors :
Errors are corrected gently, with the teacher using a soft voice.

REVIEWING THE TECHNIQUES AND THE CLASSROOM SET-UP

Classroom set-up
The teacher is challenged to create a classroom environment which is bright and cheerful by decorated the classroom with scenes (holidays, festival) from a country where the target language is spoken. The teacher should try to provide as positive an environment as possible.

Peripheral learning
This technique is based upon the idea that we perceive much more in our environment than that to which we consciously attend. By putting posters containing grammatical information about the target language on the classroom walls, students will absorb the necessary facts effortlessly. They are changed from time to time to provide grammatical information that is appropriate to what the students are studying.

Positive suggestion
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 through direct suggestion appeals to the students' consciousness : A teacher tells students they are going to be successful. But indirect suggestion, which appeals to the students' subconscious, is actually the more powerful of the two. Indirect suggestion is accomplished through the choice of a dialog entitled, 'To want to is to be able to.'

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. For instance, later on they may be asked to talk or write about their fictional hometown, childhood, and family.

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 and often asked to create their own lines relevant to the situation.

First concert (active concert)
The two concerts are components of the receptive phase of the lesson. After the teacher has introduced the story as related in the dialog and called students' attention to some particular grammatical points that arise in it, she reads the dialog in the target language. The students have copies of the dialog in the target language and their native language and refer to it as the teacher is reading. Music is played accompanied with a dramatic reading (the teacher's voice rises and falls with the music) in target language, synchronized in intonation with the music. The music is classical; the early Romantic period is suggested.

Second concert (passive concert)
At here, the students are asked to put their scripts aside. They simply listen as the teacher reads the dialog at a normal rate of speed. The teacher is seated and reads with musical accompaniment. The content governs the way the teacher reads the script, not the music, which is pre-Classical or Baroque.

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. For example : singing, dancing, dramatizations, and games. The important thing is that the activities are varied and do not allow the students to focus on the form of the linguistic message, just the communicative intent.

Conclusion

Learning will be facilitated in relaxed and comfortable environment.

Learning should be as enjoyable as possible.







1 komentar:

  1. Firstly i would like to thanks for giving the great information.There are many methods of teaching which can be chosen by teachers. One of them is suggestopedia method. Suggestopedia method is a method which focuses on how to deal with the relationship between mental potential and learning efficacy.

    BalasHapus