Diane Larsen-Freeman

76 Desuggestopedia
return, they sec that the teacher has hung a painting of a calming scene in
natu re at the front of the room . The reacher then explains that she will
read the dialog aga in. This time she suggests that the students put do wn
their scripts and just listen. The second time she reads rhe dia log, she
appears to he speaking at a normal rare. She has changed rhc music to
Handel's Water Music. She makes no attempt rhis time to matc h her voice
to the music. With the end of the second reading, the class is over. There is
no homework assigned; howeve r the reacher suggests that if the student s
wan t to do something, they could read over the dialog once before they go
to bed and once when they get up in the morning.
We decide to attend the next class to see how the teach er will wor k with
the new material she has presented. After greeting the students and having
them int roduce themselves in their new ident ities once again , the
teacher asks the students to tak e our their dia log scripts.
Next, the reacher pulls out a hat from a bag. She puts it 0 11 her head,
points to herself, and names a character from the dialog. She indicates
that she wants someone else to wear the hat. A girl volunteers to do so.
Three more hats arc taken out of the teacher's hag and , with a great deal
of playfulness, they arc distributed. The teacher turns to the four students
wearin g the hats and asks them to read a portion of the dialog, imagining
tha t they arc the character whose hat they wear. When they finish their
por tion of dia log, four different students get to wear the hats and continue
reading the script, This group is asked to read it in a sad way. The
next group of (ou r read it in an angry way, and the last group of four in a
cheerfu l way.
The teacher then asks for fou r new volunteers. She tells them that they
are auditi oning for a role in a Broadway play. They want very much to
win the role. In order to impress the directo r of the play, they must read
their lines very dramatically. The first grou p read s several pages of thc
dialog in this manner, and following grou ps do this as welL
Next, the teacher asks questions in English about the dialog. She also
asks students to give her the English translation of an Arab ic sente nce and
vice versa. Sometimes she asks the stude nts to repeat an English line after
her; still ot her times, she addresses a questio n from the dialog to an indio
vidual srudenr.The classroom environment remains very livelyand piayful.
Next. she teaches the students a children's alphabet song containing
English names and occupations. 'A , my name is Alice; Illy husband's
name is Alex. We live in Australia. ;1I1d we sell apples. B, my name is
Barbara : my husband's name is bert. We live in Brazil. and we sell books.'
The stude nts arc laughing and clapping as they sing along.
Desuggestopedia 77
After the song, the teacher has the students sta nd up and get in a circle.
She takes out a medium -sized soft ball. She throws the ball to one student
and, while she is throwing it. she asks him what his name is in English. lI e
catches the ball as he says, 'My name is Richard.' She indicates that he is
to throw the ball to another student while posing a question to him.
Richard asks , 'What you do?' The teacher corrects in a very soft mice
saying 'W hat do you do?' The student replies, '1am a conductor.' The
game continues on in this mann er with the students posing questions to
one another as they throw the ball. The second class is no w over. Again ,
there is no homework assigned, other than to read over the dialog if a StUdent
so wishes.
During the third class of the week, the stud ents will continue to wor k
with this dialog. They will mo ve away from reading it, however, and
move towa rd using the new language in a creative way. They will play
some competitive games, do role plays (sec descr iption in the techniques
review) and skits. Next week, the class will be introduced to a new dialog
and the basic sequence of lessons we obse rved here will be repeated.
In the classroom next door, an intermediate class is studying. The students
arc seated aro und a rectangular table. O n the table the re are a few
to ys and instrument s. Again there arc posters around the room, this rime
of more complicated gramma r. As we listen in, the reacher is introducing
a story from a reader. She gives synonyms or description s for the new
words. She reads parts of the story and the stude nts do chora l and individual
reading of ot her sections. New words, families of wo rds, and
expressions arc listed at the end of the story for reference. The intcrmcdiate
students are encouraged to add their own new words and phra ses to
the lesson with their translations. The students usc more com plex tenses
and language structures.
The teacher presents the first story and lists of related words and strucrures
to a Beethoven piano concerto in much the same way as the beginners'
dialog is read, followed by a shorter second reading. this time to a
piece by Bach. The followi ng days include readi ng, singing, discussions,
story telling, gra mmar and pronunciation games, and writing, all orcbcsrrurcd
in a creative and playful fashion .
THINKING ABOUT THE EXPERIENCE
Let us now investigate Dcsuggcsropedia in our usual fashion. fi rst. we
will list our obse rvations. h om these. we will attempt to uncove r the
principles o f Desuggcsropcdin.