Diane Larsen-Freeman

80 Desuggestopedia
Desuggestopedia 8 1
Observations
Principles
Observations
Principles
14 for homework , the students
are (0 read the dialog at night
and in the morning.
At these times, the distinction
betwee n the conscio us and the
subconscious is most blurred a nd,
the refore, learning ca n occur.
20 The student mak es a n error by
saying, ' How you do?' The
teacher co rrects the error in a
soft vo ice.
Errors are cor rected gently, nor in
a direct, confrontational manner.
15 Th e teacher gives the students
hats [0 wea r for the different
characters in the dialog. The
students take turns readin g
po rtio ns of the dialog.
16 The teacher tells the students
that they ar e a uditioning for a
play.
17 T he teacher leads the class in
vario us activities invol ving the
dialog, for ex ample, q uestio n­
and-a nswer, repetition, a nd
tr an slation.
18 She teaches the students a
children's so ng.
19 The reacher and students pla y
a question-and-a nswer game.
Dramatizati on is a particularly
val ua ble way of playfully
acti vating the ma teria l. Fa ntas y
red uces barriers to learning,
Th e fine arts (music, ar t, and
drama ) ena ble suggestio ns to
reach the subc ons cio us. Th e arts
shou ld, therefore, be integrat ed as
much as possible into the teaching
process,
T he teacher sho uld help the
stude nts 'acti vat e' the mater ia l to
which they ha ve been ex posed.
Th e means of doi ng this sho uld he
varied so as to avoid rep etition as
mu ch as pos sible. Novelty aid s
acquisition,
M usic and movement reinforce the
linguistic ma terial. It is desirable
that stu dents achieve a state of
'mfanrilizarion' so tha t they will be
more open to lea rning, If they trust
the reacher, they wi ll reach this
state more easily.
In a n atm os ph ere of play, the
co nscio us attention of the learner
does not focus on linguistic fo rms,
but rat her o n using the langua ge.
Learning can he fun.
REVIEWING THE PRINCIPLES
Let us now follow our usua l procedure of reviewing the principles of a
met hod by answering o ur ten q uest io ns.
1 What are the goals of teachers who use Desuggestopedia?
Teachers ho pe to accele ra te the process by which stu dents lear n to lise
a fo reign langua ge for everyda y conuuunication. In order to do this,
more of the st udents' mental power s mu st be ta pped. T his is accomplished
by dcsuggcsring th e psychological bar riers learners bring with
them to till' lea rning situation an d using techniques to activate the
'pa racouscio us' part of the mind, just below the fully-consciou s mind.
2 What is the role of the teacher? What is the role of the students?
Th e teacher is the a uthority in the classroom. In order fo r the met hod
to be successful, the students must tr ust and respect her. The st udents
will retain information better fro m so meo ne in whom the y have co nfidence
since they wi ll be mo re respo nsive to her 'desuggesting' their limitatio
ns a nd suggesting hocv, easy it will be for them to succeed.
O nce the stu dents tru st the teacher, they ca n feci more secure. If they
feel secure, they ca n be more spontaneo us and less inh ibited.
3 What are some characteristics of the teaching/t eaming process?
A Desuggesropcdic co urse is con ducted in a classroom which is brig ht
an d cheerful. Posters displaying grannnarical information about the
target lan guage a rc hung around the room in order to ta ke advantage
of students' peripheral learn ing. T he posters arc changed every few
weeks to create a sense of no velty in the enviro nment.
Students select target language na mes and choose new occupati on s.
During rhe co urse they create wh ole biographies to go along with their
new idcnrincs.
The texts students work from are han do uts containing lengthy
dialogs (as man y as 800 words) in the ta rget language. Next 10 the