An article discussing the Silent Way approach to language learning.

Tell me and I forget Teach me and I remember Involve me and I learn Benjamin Franklin Silent Way originated in the early 1970s and was the brainchild of the late Caleb Gattegno. The last line of Benjamin Franklins famous quote about teaching and learning can be said to lie at the heart of Silent Way. The three basic tenets of the approach are that learning is facilitated if the learner discovers rather than remembers or repeats, that learning is aided by physical objects, and that problem-solving is central to learning. The use of the word "silent" is also significant, as Silent Way is based on the premise that the teacher should be as silent as possible in the classroom in order to encourage the learner to produce as much language as possible.As far as the presentation of language is concerned, Silent Way adopts a highly structural approach, with language taught through sentences in a sequence based on grammatical complexity, described by some as a "building-block" approach. The structural patterns of the target language are presented by the teacher and the grammar "rules" of the language are learnt inductively by the learners. Cuisenaire rods (small coloured blocks of varying sizes originally intended for the teaching of mathematics) are often used to illustrate meaning (the physical objects mentioned above). New items are added sparingly by the teacher and learners take these as far as they can in their communication until the need for the next new item becomes apparent. The teacher then provides this new item by modelling it very clearly just once. The learners are then left to use the new item and to incorporate it into their existing stock of language, again taking it as far as they can until the next item is needed and so on. This is perhaps best illustrated by an example. Let us say that the teacher has introduced the idea of pronouns as in "Give me a green rod". The class will then use this structure until it is clearly assimilated, using, in addition, all the other colours. One member of the class would now like to ask another to pass a rod to a third student but she does not know the word "her", only that it cannot be "me". At this point the teacher would intervene and supply the new item: "Give her the green rod" and the learners will continue until the next new item is needed (probably "him"). This minimalist role of the teacher has led some critics to describe Silent Way teachers as "aloof" and, indeed, this apparently excessive degree of self-restraint can be seen as such.The prominent writer on language teaching, Earl W. Stevick, has described the role of the teacher in Silent Way as "Teach, test, get out of the way". The apparent lack of real communication in the approach has also been criticized, with some arguing that it is difficult to take the approach beyond the very basics of the language, with only highly motivated learners being able to generate real communication from the rigid structures illustrated by the rods. The fact that, for logistical reasons, it is limited to relatively small groups of learners is also seen as a weakness. As with other methods and approaches, however, aspects of Silent Way can be observed in many lessons in the modern classroom. In the 1980s and early 90s, for example, it became fashionable in some quarters to argue that excessive "teacher talking time" was something to be discouraged. Cuisenaire rods are also popular with some teachers and can be used extremely creatively for various purposes from teaching pronunciation to story-telling. The idea of modelling a new structure or item of vocabulary just once may also have some justification as it encourages learners both to listen more carefully and then to experiment with their own production of the utterance. Lastly, the problem-solving feature of Silent Way may well prove to be its most enduring legacy as it has led indirectly both to the idea of Task-based Learning and to the widespread use of problem-solving activities in language classrooms

SUGGESTOPEDIA
Suggestopedia is a teaching method which is based on a modern understanding of how thehuman brain works and how we learnmost effectively. It was developed by the Bulgarian doctor and psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov (see right). The term 'Suggestopedia', derived from suggestion and pedagogy, is often used loosely to refer to similar accelerated learningapproaches. However, Lozanov reserves the title strictly for his own method, and he has his own training and certification facilities. Suggestopedia was originally applied mainly in foreign language teaching, and it is often claimed that it can teach languages approximately three times as quickly as conventional methods. It is now applied in several other fields, and its central ideas inspired the development of my own Brainware workshops. Another revolutionary language teacher who developed his own

distinctive methods was the late Michel Thomas, his numerous famous clients including: Woody Allen, Bob Dylan and Eddie Izzard. Key Elements of Suggestopedia Some of the key elements of Suggestopedia include a rich sensory learning environment (pictures, colour, music, etc.), a positive expectation of success and the use of a varied range of methods: dramatised texts, music, active participation in songs and games, etc. Suggestopedia adopts a carefully structured approach, using four main stages as follows: Presentation A preparatory stage in which students are helped to relax and move into a positive frame of mind, with the feeling that the learning is going to be easy and fun. First Concert - "Active Concert" This involves the active presentation of the material to be learnt. For example, in a foreign language course there might be the dramatic reading of a piece of text, accompanied by classical music. Second Concert - "Passive Review" The students are now invited to relax and listen to some Baroque music, with the text being read very quietly in the background. The music is specially selected to bring the students into the optimum mental state for the effortless acquisition of the material. Practice The use of a range of games, puzzles, etc. to review and consolidate the learning. Community language learning Submitted by TE Editor on 28 June, 2004 - 12:00 Community language learning (CLL) was primarily designed for monolingual conversation classes where the teacher-counsellor would be able to speak the learners' L1. The intention was that it would integrate translation so that the students would disassociate language learning with risk taking. It's a method that is based on English for communication and is extremely learner-focused. Although each course is unique and student-dictated, there are certain criteria that should be applied to all CLL classrooms, namely a focus on fluency in the early stages, an undercurrent of accuracy throughout the course and learner empowerment as the main focus. How it works in the classroom Stage 1- Reflection Stage 2 - Recorded conversation Stage 3 - Discussion Stage 4 - Transcription Stage 5 - Language analysis Length of stages For and against CLL Working with monolingual or multilingual classes Working with large classes Conclusion How it works in the classroom In a typical CLL lesson I have five stages: Stage 1- Reflection I start with students sitting in a circle around a tape recorder to create a community atmosphere. The students think in silence about what they'd like to talk about, while I remain outside the circle. To avoid a lack of ideas students can brainstorm their ideas on the board before recording. Stage 2 - Recorded conversation Once they have chosen a subject the students tell me in their L1 what they'd like to say and I discreetly come up behind them and translate the language chunks into English. With higher levels if the students feel comfortable enough they can say some of it directly in English and I give the full English sentence. When they feel ready to speak the students take the microphone and record their sentence.

It's best if you can use a microphone as the sound quality is better and it's easier to pick up and put down. Here they're working on pace and fluency. They immediately stop recording and then wait until another student wants to respond. This continues until a whole conversation has been recorded. Stage 3 - Discussion Next the students discuss how they think the conversation went. They can discuss how they felt about talking to a microphone and whether they felt more comfortable speaking aloud than they might do normally. This part is not recorded. Stage 4 - Transcription Next they listen to the tape and transcribe their conversation. I only intervene when they ask for help. The first few times you try this with a class they might try and rely on you a lot but aim to distance yourself from the whole process in terms of leading and push them to do it themselves. Stage 5 - Language analysis I sometimes get students to analyse the language the same lesson or sometimes in the next lesson. This involves looking at the form of tenses and vocabulary used and why certain ones were chosen, but it will depend on the language produced by the students. In this way they are totally involved in the analysis process. The language is completely personalised and with higher levels they can themselves decide what parts of their conversation they would like to analyse, whether it be tenses, lexis or discourse. With lower levels you can guide the analysis by choosing the most common problems you noted in the recording stages or by using the final transcription. Length of stages The timing will depend entirely on the class, how quickly they respond to CLL, how long you or they decide to spend on the language analysis stage and how long their recorded conversation is. Be careful however that the conversation isn't too long as this will in turn make the transcription very long For and against CLL Pros Learners appreciate the autonomy CLL offers them and thrive on analysing their own conversations. CLL works especially well with lower levels who are struggling to produce spoken English. The class often becomes a real community, not just when using CLL but all of the time. Students become much more aware of their peers, their strengths and weaknesses and want to work as a team. Cons In the beginning some learners find it difficult to speak on tape while others might find that the conversation lacks spontaneity. We as teachers can find it strange to give our students so much freedom and tend to intervene too much. In your efforts to let your students become independent learners you can neglect their need for guidance.

Inductive approach and Deductive approach in TESOL

By International Teacher Training Organization In teaching, there are many theoretical approaches that have been developed to promote the students' success in learning new information. In TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Languages), there are two main theoretical approaches for the presentation of new English grammar structures or functions to ESL/EFL students: inductive approach and deductive

approach. The more traditional of the two theories, is the deductive approach, while the emerging and more modern theory, is the inductive approach. The deductive approach represents a more traditional style of teaching in that the grammatical structures or rules are dictated to the students first (Rivers and Temperley 110). Thus, the students learn the rule and apply it only after they have been introduced to the rule. For example, if the structure to be presented is present perfect, the teacher would begin the lesson by saying, "Today we are going to learn how to use the present perfect structure". Then, the rules of the present perfect structure would be outlined and the students would complete exercises, in a number of ways, to practice using the structure. (Goner, Phillips, and Walters 135) In this approach, the teacher is the center of the class and is responsible for all of the presentation and explanation of the new material. The inductive approach represents a more modern style of teaching where the new grammatical structures or rules are presented to the students in a real language context (Goner, Phillips, and Walters 135). The students learn the use of the structure through practice of the language in context, and later realize the rules from the practical examples. For example, if the structure to be presented is the comparative form, the teacher would begin the lesson by drawing a figure on the board and saying, "This is Jim. He is tall." Then, the teacher would draw another taller figure next to the first saying, "This is Bill. He is taller than Jim." The teacher would then provide many examples using students and items from the classroom, famous people, or anything within the normal daily life of the students, to create an understanding of the use of the structure. The students repeat after the teacher, after each of the different examples, and eventually practice the structures meaningfully in groups or pairs. (Goner, Phillips, and Walters 135-136) With this approach, the teacher's role is to provide meaningful contexts to encourage demonstration of the rule, while the students evolve the rules from the examples of its use and continued practice (Rivers and Temperley 110). In both approaches, the students practice and apply the use of the grammatical structure, yet, there are advantages and disadvantages to each in the EFL/ESL classroom (Rivers and Temperley 110). The deductive approach can be effective with students of a higher level, who already know the basic structures of the language, or with students who are accustomed to a very traditional syle of learning and expect grammatical presentations (Goner, Philips, and Walters 134). The deductive approach however, is less suitable for lower level language students, for presenting grammatical structures that are complex in both form and meaning, and for classrooms that contain younger learners (Goner, Philips, and Walters 134). The advantages of the inductive approach are that students can focus on the use of the language without being held back by grammatical terminology and rules that can inhibit fluency. The inductive approach also promotes increased student participation and practice of the target language in the classroom, in meaningful contexts. The use of the inductive approach has been noted for its success in EFL/ESL classrooms world-wide, but its disadvantage is that it is sometimes difficult for students who expect a more traditional style of teaching to induce the language rules from context.