Diane Larsen-Freeman

72 The Silent Way
REFERENCES AND ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Blair, Robert. (ed.). 1982. Innovative Approaches to Language Teaching.
Rowley, M A: New bury Ho use.
Cclcc-M urcia, Marianne. 1991. ' Language teaching approaches: An
overview' in Colee-M urcia, M. (cd.). Teaching English as a Second or
Foreign Language. (2nd edn.) Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
Gattcgno, Caleb. 1972. Teaching Foreign Languages in Schoo ls: The
Silent Way. (2nd edn.) New York: Educat iona l Solutions.
Gattegno, Caleb. 1976. The Common Sense of Teaching Foreign
Languages. New York: Educational Solutions.
Stevick, Earl W. 1990. Humanism in Language Teaching, Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Stevick, Earl W. 1998. Working with Teaching Methods: What's at Stake?
Boston, MA: Heinle & Heinle.
6 Desuggestopedia
INTRODUCTION
The methods present in this and the next chapters arc illustrative of tha t
which Celce-Murcia (1991) cal ls an affective-humanistic approach, an
approach in which there is respect for stud ents' feelings. The originator of
this method, Georg i Lozanov, believes as does Silent Way's Caleb Gattegno,
that language learning can occur at a much faster rate than ordinarily transpires.
The reason for our inefficiency, Lozanov asserts, is that we set up
psychological barriers to learning: We fear that we will be unable to perform
, that we will be limited in our ability to learn , that we will fail. One
result is chat we do not use the full mental powers that we have. According
CO Lozanov and ochers, we may be using only fi veto ten percent of our mental
capaci ty. In order to make better usc of our reserved capacity, the limitation
s we thin k we have need to be 'desuggesred. ' Desuggesrop edia; ' 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 neg
M
ative association they may have toward studying and, thus, to help them
overcome the barriers to learning. One of the ways th e students' mental
reserves are stimulated is thro ugh integ ration of the fine arts, an important
contribution to the method made by Lozanov's colleague Evclyna Carcva.
Let us now see for ourselves how the principles of Dcsuggestopedia are
applied to language teaching. We will visit a university class in Egypt,
where students on a beginning-level course are tau ght English using thi s
method. Th e class meets for tw o hours, thr ee mornings a week.
EXPERIENCE'
Th e fi rst thing we notice when we enter the classroom is how different
th is room is compared with all the ot her classrooms we have been in so
I Suggcsropcdia is now called Dcsuggcstopcdia 10 reflect the impurt,lnce pt1~ ed un dcsuggesting
limitatiun, on learning (l ozanov and Miller, personal communication}.
l The lesson descrihed here is in part based 011 " ne, the authur ohserved taught by D"n Dugas
and Lynn Dhority, respectively, It has heen ,,,mewh,,t mod ified in light of recent comments by
Alison Miller and Georgi l07,anov,