TEACHING LISTENING

REASONS FOR LISTENING

Most students want to be able to understand what people are saying to them in
English. Anything we can do to make that easier will be useful for them. The way
people speak is different from the way they write.

Listening is good for our students’ pronunciation. The more they hear and understand
English being spoken, the more they absorb appropriate pitch and intonation, stress
and the sounds of both individual words and those which blend together in connected
speech. Listening texts are good pronunciation models, the more students listen, the
better they get at understanding speech and at speaking themselves. Successful
spoken communication depends on our ability to speak and on the effectiveness of the
way we listen.

One of the main sources of listening for students is the voice of their teacher. It is
important for students to be exposed to more than just one voice, with all its
idiosyncrasies. There are significant regional variations in the way people speak
English in a country like Britain.

Students need to be exposed to different Englishes, but teachers need to exercise

judgement about the number of the varieties which they hear. A lot will depend on the
students’ level of competence and on what variety or varieties they have so far been
exposed to.

DIFFERENT KINDS OF LISTENING

Extensive listening refers to listening which the students often do away from the
classroom, for pleasure or some other reason. There is not at present body of material
developed for extensive listening. There is a growing number of podcast sites from
where students can download free materials. Another way of getting students involved
in a dorm of extensive listening is to encourage them to go to English language films
with subtitles; as they hear the English dialogue, the subtitles help them understand;
as they understand, they will, to some extent, absorb the language they hear.

In intensive listening, students listen specifically in order to work on listening skills, and
in order to study the way in which English is spoken.

LISTENING SOURCES

 Recorded extracts, but teachers can record their own listening materials. We
can download a huge amount of extremely useful listening material from the
Internet, too.
  The term live listening is used to refer to situations in which the teacher bring
visitors into the class, or, role plays different characters for the students to talk
and listen to. The main advantage of live listening is that students can interact
with the speaker on the basis of what they are saying, making the whole
listening experience far more dynamic and exciting.

LISTENING LEVELS

Authentic speech is language spoken for native or competent speakers of English, with
no concessions made for the learner. What we aim for instead is realistic language use
which approximates to real-life language. We will aim to get our students to listen to
(and understand) authentic English.

LISTENING SKILLS

They need to be able to recognize paralinguistic clues. They also need to be able to
listen for specific information, and sometimes for more general understanding. Our job
is to help them become adept at this kind of multiskilling when listening to English.

LISTENING PRINCIPLES

 Principle 1: encourage students to listen as often and as much as possible. The

more students listen, the better they get at listening, and the better they get at
understanding pronunciation and at using it appropriately.
 Principle 2: help students prepare to listen. They will need to look at pictures,
discuss the topic, or read the questions first in order to be in a position to
predict what is coming.
 Principle 3: once may not be enough. The first listening to a text is often used
just to give students an idea of what the speakers sound like, and what the
general topic is. For subsequent listening, we may stop the audio track at
various points, or only play extracts from it.
 Principle 4: encourage students to respond to the content of a listening, not
just to the language. An important part of a listening sequence is for teachers
to draw out the meaning of what is being said, discern what is intended and
find out what impression it makes on the students. It is also useful for studying
language use and a range of pronunciation issues.
 Principle 5: different listening stages demand different listening tasks. For a
first listening, the task may need to be fairly straightforward and general. That
way, the students’ general understanding and response can be successful- and
the stress associated with listening can be reduced. Later listenings may focus
in on detailed information, language use or pronunciation.
  Principle 6: goo teachers exploit listening texts to the full. The teacher can play
a track again for various kinds of study before the subject matter, situation or
audioscript for a new activity.

MORE LISTENING SUGGESTIONS

 Jigsaw listening: in three groups students listen to three different tapes, all of
which are about the same thing. Students have to assemble all the facts by
comparing notes. They may find out what actually happened, solve a mystery
or get a rounded account of a situation or topic. Jigsaw listening gives students
a purpose for listening, a goal to aim for.
 Message-taking: students listen to a phone message being given. They have to
write down the message on a message pad. They have to respond in some way.
They can match with pictures or respond to by saying what they are going to do
next.
 Music and sound effects: songs are very useful because they can be very
engaging. Students can fill in blanks in song lyrics, rearrange lines or verses, or
listen to songs and say what mood or message they convey.
 News and other radio genres: students listen to a news broadcast and have to
say which topics from a list occur in the bulletin and in which order. Then, they
have to listen for details about individual stories. If the news contains a lot of
facts and figures, students may be asked to convert them into chart or graph
form. The degree of authenticity will depend on the level of the radio extract
and the level of students.
 Poetry: students can listen to poems being read aloud and say what mood they
convey. They can hear a poem and then try to come up with an appropriate
title. One way of getting students to predict what they are going to hear is to
give them the titles of three poems and then ask them to guess what words the
poems will contain.
 Stories: they can put pictures in the order in which the story is told. Sometimes
we can let students listen to a story but not tell them the end. They have to
guess what it is.
 Monologues: we can ask students to listen to lectures and take notes. We can
ask the students to say how the speaker feels. We can have them listen to
speeches and get them to identify what the subject is and what the speaker
thinks about it.

AUDIO AND VIDEO

 Play the video without sound: students and teacher discuss what they see and
what clues it gives them, and then they guess what the characters are actually
 saying. Once they have predicted the conversation, the teacher rewinds the
video and plays it with sound.
 Play the audio without the picture: while the students listen, they try to judge
where the speakers are, what they look like, what’s going on. When they have
predicted this, they listen again, this time with the visual images as well.
 Freeze frame: the teacher pauses and asks the students what’s going to
happen next.
 Dividing the class in half: half the class faces the screen. The other half sits with
their backs to it. The “screen” half describes the visual images to the “wall” half.
INTRODUCTION

Dramatic activities are activities which give the students an opportunity to use his or
her personality in creating the material on which part of the language class is to be
based. They are dramatic because they arouse our interest.

ABOUT LANGUAGE

Most of us are familiar with the early stages of learning. If the sentences are
meaningful and correctly formed we must be learning something from them. Language
is not purely an intellectual matter. Our minds are attached to our bodies, and our
bodies to our minds. Many of the skills we most need when speaking a language are
adaptability (the ability to match one’s speech to the person one is talking to), speed
of reaction, sensitivity to tone, insight, anticipation; in short, appropriateness.

Drama attempts to put back some of his forgotten emotional content into language-
and to put the body back too. It does imply that we need to take more account of
meaning. Much language teaching is done through structures or so-called situations in
the belief that once a sentence has been correctly formulated a use can always be
found for it. First comes form, then meaning.

Meaning should not be confused with structure. Meaning slips from one structure to
another in a most elusive way.

Drama can help considerably by ensuring that language is used in an appropriate

context.

ABOUT SITUATION

Situations, as presented in text-books, tend to take account of only one aspect of

context, the physical setting. Once this has been established, the characters are lightly
sketched in and left to produce their monitored free dialogues. They use two kinds of
language: situational (words which are considered indispensable), structural phrases
(unlike the vocabulary items, they are not so much bound to the situation as enlivened
by it).

These books serve a specific (often useful) function: they give the rudiments of the
language necessary for operating in certain surroundings.

To encourage students to look at language from a different angle, to go behind the

words to the actions they are most likely to perform in the language, the patterns of
behavior that lie behind all languages. To do this, they need to be aware of the total
situation, which is considerably richer than the mere physical setting.

SETTING
This is the physical environment which may or may not directly influence the language
used. Physical surroundings are often incidental to what is said. There are occasions
when physical setting prescribes language.

ROLE AND STATUS

There is an overlap between setting and role. It is most important therefore to

encourage students from the start to become sensitive to the way in which our built-in
views of our own roles and those of others are defined and clarified through language.
Throughout the day our roles are constantly shifting.

If we deliberately ignore the roles, we end up teaching language in a vacuum. The very
fact we open our mouths to speak implies that someone will be listening. The listener
is a person.

MOOD, ATTITUDE AND FEELING

People’s feelings and attitudes colour their language.

Much of our feeling is conveyed through intonation, and it is important for students to
associate the intonation pattern with the feeling that gives rise to it. What we say will
be coloured by our feelings and by the mood and disposition of others. Drama
techniques have the singular merit of directly engaging students’ feelings and, as a
result, often making them aware of the need to be able to express them appropriately.

Mood and feeling also influence the grammatical form of what we say.

SHARED KNOWLEDGE

An important element in any real-life situation is shared knowledge. The students can
change partners and break away from exchanges. They are learning to rely on one
another for their ideas and therefore using a considerable amount of language for
discussion, argument, agreement and disagreement, organization and execution.

Students need the occasional chance to take risks in the language, to try out new ways
of combining words, and of course, to find out where the gaps are in their knowledge.
The drama activities give students an opportunity to strike a balance between fluency
and accuracy.

FORBIDDEN TERITORRY

In secondary schools, the foreign language becomes a subject on a timetable, and it is

taught as a subject rather than as a language.
Drama forces us to take as our starting-point life not language. And life means all
subjects, whether they are on the timetable or not.
SUGGESTOPEDIA

BACKGROUND

Suggestopedia is a method developed by Georgi Lozanov. The characteristics of

Suggestopedia are the decoration, furniture, and arrangement of the classroom, the
use of music, and the authoritative behavior of the teacher.

Memorization in learning by the suggestopedic method seems to be accelerated 25

times over that in learning by conventional methods. Suggestopedia teachers are
trained to read dialogues in a special way. The precise way of using voice wuality,
intonation, and timing are apparently both important and intricate.

Lozanov has borrowed and modified techniques for altering states of consciousness
and concentration, and the use of rhythmic breathing. All students can be taught a
given subject matter at the same level of skill.

Suggestopedia describes how attentiveness is manipulated to optimize learning and

recall. Most learning takes place in a relaxed but focused state.

A most conspicuous feature of Suggestopedia is the centrality of music and musical

rhythm to learning.

Music facilitates the establishment and maintenance of personal relations, brings

about increased self-esteem through increased self-satisfaction in musical
performance and used the unique potential of rhythm to energize and bring order. It
relaxes learners as well as structures, paces, and punctuates the presentation of
linguistic material.

APPROACH

THEORY OF LANGUAGE

The emphasis of memorization of vocabulary pairs- a target language item and its
native language translation- suggests a view of language in which lexis is central and in
which lexical translation rather than contextualization is stressed. Suggestopedic
course directs the student not to vocabulary memorization and acquiring habits of
speech, but to acts of communication.

The texts should be lighthearted stories with emotional content.

THEORY OF LEARNING

AUTHORITY

People remember best and are most influenced by information coming from an
authoritative source.
INFANTILIZATION

Authority is also used to suggest a teacher-student relation like that of parent to child.
In the child’s role the learner takes part in role playing, games, songs and gymnastic
exercises that help the older student regain the self-confidence, spontaneity and
receptivity of the child.

DOUBLE- PLANEDNESS

The learner learns from the environment in which the instruction takes place. The
bright décor of the classroom, the musical background, the shape of the chairs, and
the personality of the teacher are considered really important in instruction

INTONATION, RHYTHM, AND CONCERT PSEUDO-PASSIVENESS

Varying the tone and rhythm of presented materials helps both to avoid boredom
through monotony of reception and to dramatize, emotionalize and give meaning to
linguistic material.

Intonation and rhythm are coordinated with a musical background. The musical
background helps to induce a relaxed attitude which Lozanov refers to as concert
pseudo-passiveness. This state is felt to be optimal for learning, in that anxieties and
tension are relieved and power of concentration for new material is raised.

The type of music is critical to learning success. The music you use in superlearning
(Americar term for Suggestopedia) is extremely important.

DESIGN

OBJECTIVES

Suggestopedia aims to deliver advanced conversational proficiency quickly. It

apparently bases its learning claims on student mastery of prodigious lists of
vocabulary pairs and, indeed, suggests to the students that it is appropriate that they
set goals for themselves. Increased memory power is a result of positive,
comprehensive stimulation of personality. The main aim of teaching is the
understanding and creative solution of problems.

THE SYLLABUS

The central focus of each unit is a dialogue consisting of 1,200 words with an
accompanying vocabulary list and grammatical commentary. The dialogues are graded
by lexis and grammar.

On the first day of work on a new unit the teacher discusses the general content (not
structure) of the unit dialogue. The learners then receive the printed dialogue with a
native language translation in a parallel column. Primary elaboration consists of
imitation, question and answer, and reading. The second elaboration involves
encouraging students to make new combinations and productions based on the
dialogues.

On the first day a test is given to check the level of student knowledge and to provide a
basis for dividing students into two groups (beginners and false beginners). The
briefing is designed to put them in a positive, relaxed and confident mood for learning.
Students are given a new name in the second language and a new biography in the
second culture with which they are to operate for the duration of the course.

In the middle of the course, students are encouraged to practice the target language in
a setting where it might be used.

TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

The type of activities that are most original to Suggestopedia are the listening
activities, which concern the text and text vocabulary of each unit. These activities are
typical part of the pre—session phase which takes places on the first day on a new
unit. The students first look at and discuss a new text with the teacher. In the second
reading, students relax comfortably in reclining chairs and listen to the teacher read
the text in a certain way. The material is presented with varying intonations and a
coordination of sound and printed word or illustration. The material is acted out by the
instructor in a dramatic manner over a background of the special musical form
described previously. Students lean back in their chairs and breathe deeply and
regularly as instructed by the teacher.

LEARNER ROLES

The mental state of the learners is critical to success, which is why learners must forgo
mind-altering substances and other distractions and immerse themselves in the
procedures of the method. Learners must not try to figure out, manipulate, or study
the material presented but must maintain a pseudo-passive state, in which the
material rolls over and through them.

Activities to regain the self-confidence, spontaneity and receptivity of the child are
planned. Such activities include role playing, games, songs and gymnastic exercises. To
assist them in the role plays and to help them detach themselves from their past
learning experiences, students are given a new name and personal history within the
target culture.

Learners sit in a circle, which encourages face-to-face exchange and activity

participation.
TEACHER ROLES

The primary role of the teacher is to create situations in which the learner is most
suggestible and then to present linguistic material in a way most likely to encourage
positive reception and retention by the learner.

Teachers are expected to be skilled in acting, singing, and psychotherapeutic

techniques.

THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIALS

Materials consist of direct support materials, primarily text and tape, and indirect
support materials, including classroom fixtures and music. The textbook should have
emotional force, literary quality, and interesting characters. Language problems should
be introduced in a way that does not worry or distract students from the content.

The learning environment plays such a central role in Suggestopedia. The environment
comprises the appearance of the classroom, the furniture and the music.

PROCEDURE

The first part we might call an oral review section. All participants sit in a circle in their
specially designed chairs. This session may involve micro-studies and macro-studies. In
micro-studies specific attention is given to grammar, vocabulary and precise questions
and answers. In the macro-studies, emphasis is on role playing and wider ranging,
innovative language constructions.

In the second part of the class new material is presented and discussed. This consists
of looking over a new dialogue and its native language translation and discussing any
issues of grammar, vocabulary, or content that the teacher feels important or that
students are curious about. This section is typically conducted in the target language.

The third part is the seance or concert session.

All conversation stops for a minute or two, and the teacher listens to the music coming
from a tape-recorder. He waits and listens to several passages in order to enter into
the mood of the music and then begins to read or recite the new text, his voice
modulated in harmony with the musical phrases. The students follow the text in their
textbooks where each lesson is translated into the mother tongue. Some phrases of
the music are heard again before the teacher begins to read the text. The students
close their textbooks and listen to the teacher’s reading. The students silently leave
the room.
A CRITICAL PERIOD FOR SECOND LANGUAGE ACQUISITION?

The optimal time to learn a second language is between age three and five or as soon
thereafter as possible, and certainly before the onset of puberty. The origins of the
critical period hypothesis for second language acquisition are attributable to Penfield
and Roberts. Eric Lenneberg supported the view that first language acquisition is a
biologically constrained process, with a specific timetable ending at puberty. After
puberty, second languages are acquired consciously and with great effort, and often
not very successfully.

FIRST LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

The standard version of the critical period hypothesis is based on Chomsky’s account
of linguistic competence- an abstract set of rules and representations that is highly
specific to language and an innate component of the human mind. The standard
argument is that it is logically impossible for a child to acquire linguistic competence of
this complexity through the kinds of exposure to language that children receive in their
home environment. There must exist a specialized biological program for language
acquisition. As long as children are exposed to a threshold amount of linguistic
exposure during the critical period, they will all uniformly acquire linguistic
competence. If they are deprived of this exposure during the critical period, no amount
of exposure after it can compensate for it.

Most children are exposed to language early in life, and acquire language successfully.
Acquisition of a normal language is guaranteed for children up to the age of six, is
steadily compromised from then until shortly after puberty, and is rare thereafter.

ELEMENTS OF THE CRITICAL PERIOD HYPOTHESIS FOR SECOND LANGUAGE

ACQUISITION

Linguistic similarity between the L1 and L2 matters. With respect to error patterns and
the overall qualitative course of L2 acquisition, there is a remarkable similarity across
speakers of different languages learning a given L2. The cerebral organization for
language learning as such has taken place during childhood, and since natural
languages tend to resemble one another in many fundamental aspects, the matrix of
language skills is present.

 There should be clearly specified beginning and end points for the period:
age 15 is the end of the critical period. Pinker considered it to begin at 6 and
end at puberty. The critical period hypothesis is a hypothesis set by puberty,
and ends at age 15.
 There should be a well-defined decline in L2 acquisition at the end of the
period. The ability to learn many things decline with age. A general decline in
 learning is not strong evidence for a critical period for L2 acquisition. Its ability
to target specific learning mechanisms that get turned off at a given age.
 There should be evidence of qualitative differences in learning between
acquisition within and outside the critical period. A critical period is assumed
to be caused by the shutting down of a specific language learning mechanism.
Any learning that happens outside the critical period must result of alternative
learning mechanisms. If that were the case, there should be clear qualitative
differences in the patterns of acquisition between child and adult second
language learners.
 There should be robustness to environmental variation inside the critical
period. There is a threshold level of exposure such that even with considerable
environmental variation, the outcomes are uniform. Beyond that period, the
environment might play a larger role, and therefore the outcomes would
become more variable.

JOHNSON AND NEWPORT’S STUDY

 Condition 1 and 2: end point for the critical period and discontinuity at that
point.
 Condition 3: qualitative differences between child and adult learners. A
critical period hypothesis should demonstrate that a specific learning
mechanism is present during the period, but not outside the period. One way
to do so would be to show different patterns of acquisition in adults and
children. Do children differ from adults in the extent to which native language
influence can be found? The theoretical basis for this can be found in the late
1950s and 1960s, when the predominant view of second language acquisition
was that of language transfer, based on the principles of behaviorist
psychology. In this view, the points of contrast between the native language
and the target language determined the course of learning- positive transfer
happened where the two languages are similar, and negative transfer where
they are different. Child second language learners show evidence of transfer
errors similar to adults, and overall patterns of errors are not distinguishable
between children and adults.
Child and adult learners progress along similar paths of development.
The learning mechanism that allows for this sort of knowledge to be acquired
is no longer present in adults.
Adults are capable of learning even these highly abstract rules that theory
would say are accessible only with specialized language acquisition
mechanisms.
The adult learning a second language behaves just like a child learning a
second language.
 Condition 4: the effects of environmental variation. The learner is exposed to
a necessary and sufficient amount of stimulation
TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE

BACKGROUND

Total Physical Response (TPR) is a language teaching method built around the
coordination of speech and action; it attempts to teach language through physical
(motor) activity. Developed by James Asher it draws on developmental psychology,
learning theory and humanistic pedagogy as well as on language teaching procedures.

Total Physical Response is linked to trace theory of memory in psychology. Intensively

a memory connection is traced. The stronger the memory association will be and more
likely it will be recalled. Retracing can be done verbally and/or in association with
motor activity.

He claims that speech directed to young children consists primarily of commands,

which children respond to physically before they begin to produce verbal responses.

He shares with the humanistic psychology a concern for the role of affective
(emotional) factors in language learning. A method that is undemanding in terms of
linguistic production and that involves game like movements reduces learner stress, he
believes, and creates a positive mood in the learner, which facilitates learning.

Comprehension abilities precede productive skills in learning a language, the teaching

of speaking should be delayed until comprehension skills are established, skills
acquired through listening transfer to other skills, teaching should emphasize meaning
rather than form, and teaching should minimize learner stress.

APPROACH

THEORY OF LANGUAGE

TPR owe much to structuralist or grammar-based views of language. Asher states that
most of the grammatical structure of the target language and hundreds of vocabulary
items can be learned from the skillful use of the imperative by the instructor. He views
the verb as the central linguistic motif around which language use and learning are
organized.

THEORY OF LEARNING

Asher sees a stimulus-response view as providing the learning theory underlying

language teaching pedagogy.

 There exists a specific innate bio-program for language learning, which defines
an optimal path for first and second language development.
 Brain lateralization defines different learning functions in the left- and right-
brain hemispheres.
  Stress (an affective filter) intervenes between the act of learning and what is
to be learned; the lower the stress, the greater the learning.

The bio-program

Asher’s Total Physical Response is a Natural Method inasmuch as Asher sees first and
second language learning as parallel processes. Second language teaching and learning
should reflect the naturalistic processes of first language learning. Children develop
listening competence before they develop the ability to speak. Children’s ability in
listening comprehension is acquired because children are required to respond
physically to spoken language in the form of parental commands. Once a foundation in
listening comprehension has been established, speech evolves naturally and
effortlessly out of it.

Brain lateralization

Total Physical Response is seen as directed to right-brain learning. The brain is divided
into hemispheres according to function, with language activities centralized in the right
hemisphere. The child language learner acquires language through motor movement-
a right hemisphere activity.

Reduction of stress

An important condition for successful language learning is the absence of stress. The
key to stress-free learning is to tap into the natural bio-program for language
development.

DESIGN

OBJECTIVES

The general objectives of Total Physical Response are to teach oral proficiency at a
beginning level. Comprehension is a means to an end. The ultimate aim is to teach
basic speaking skills. A TPR course aims to produce learners who are capable of an
uninhibited communication that is intelligible to a native speaker. Whatever goals are
set must be attainable through the use of action-based drills in the imperative forms.

THE SYLLABUS

The use of a sentence-based syllabus, with grammatical and lexical criteria is primary
in selecting teaching items. Total Physical Response requires initial attention to
meaning rather than to the form of items. Grammar is thus taught inductively.
Grammatical features and vocabulary items are selected. According to the situations in
which they can be used in the classroom and the ease with which they can be learned.
TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Imperative drills are the major classroom activity in Total Physical Response. They are
typically used to elicit physical actions and activity on the part of learners. Other class
activities include role plays and slide presentations. Role plays center on everyday
situations. The slide presentations are used to provide a visual center for teach
narration, which is followed by commands, and for questions to students. Reading and
writing activities may also be employed to further consolidate structures and
vocabulary, and as follow ups to oral imperative drills.

LEARNER ROLES

Learners in Total Physical Response have the primary roles of listener and performer.
They listen attentively and respond physically to commands given by the teacher.

Learners monitor and evaluate their own progress. They are encouraged to speak
when they feel ready to speak- that is, when a sufficient basis in the language has been
internalized.

TEACHER ROLES

The teacher plays an active and direct role in Total Physical Response.

The teacher has the responsibility of providing the best kind of exposure to language
so that the learner can internalize the basic rules of the target language.

The role of instructional materials

The teacher’s voice, actions and gestures may be a sufficient basis for classroom
activities. As the course develops, the teacher will need to make or collect supporting
materials to support teaching points. These may include pictures, realia, slides and
word charts.
THE SILENT WAY

BACKGROUND

The Silent Way is a method of language teaching devised by Caleb Gattegno. He is well
known for his revival of interest in the use of colored wooden sticks called Cuisenaire
rods and for his series Words in Color, an approach to the teaching of initial reading in
which sounds are colored by specific colors. The Silent Way is based on the premise
that the teacher should be silent as much as possible in the classroom and the learner
should be encouraged to produce as much language as possible.

 Learning is facilitated if the learner discovers or creates rather than remembers

and repeats what is to be learned. The Silent Way views learning as a problem-
solving, creative, discovering activity, in which the learner is a principal actor
rather than a bench-bound listener.
 Learning is facilitated by accompanying physical objects. The rods and the
color-coded pronunciation charts provide physical foci for student learning and
also create memorable images to facilitate students recall. These visual devices
serve as associative mediators for student learning and recall.
If the use of associative mediators produces better retention than repetition
does, it seems to be the case that the quality of the mediators and the
student’s personal investment in them may also have a powerful effect on
memory.
 Learning is facilitated by problem solving involving the material to be learned.
The Silent way is also related to a set of premises that we have called
“problem-solving approaches to learning. These premises are: tell me and I
forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.

The learner’s memory benefits from creatively searching put, discovering and
depicting. In the Silent Way, the teacher’s strict avoidance of repetition forces
alertness and concentration on the part of the learners. The Silent Way student is
expected to become “independent, autonomous and responsible”; a good problem
solver in language.

APPROACH

THEORY OF LANGUAGE

Language is a substitute for experience, so experience is what gives meaning to

language. It refers to the way each language is composed of phonological and
suprasegmental elements to combine to give the language its unique sound system
and melody.
The Silent Way takes a structural approach to the organization of language to be
taught. Language is seen as groups of sounds arbitrarily associated with specific
meanings and organized into sentences or strings of meaningful units by grammar
rules. Language is separated from its social context and taught through artificial
situations, usually represented by rods. Students learn the grammar rules of the
language through largely inductive processes.

Gattegno distinguished between several classes of vocabulary items. The semi-luxury

vocabulary consists of expressions common in the daily life of target language culture.
Luxury vocabulary is used in communicating more specialized ideas. Functional
vocabulary provides a key to comprehending the spirit of the language.

THEORY OF LEARNING

The processes of learning a second language are “radically different” from those
involved in learning a first language. The second language learner is unlike the first
language learner and cannot learn another language in the same way because of what
he now knows. A successful second language approach will replace a natural approach
by one that is very artificial and strictly controlled.

Successful learning involves commitment of the self to language acquisition through

the use of silent awareness and then active trial. Learning over teaching places a focus
on the self of the learner, on the learner’s priorities and commitments.

The self consists of two systems: a learning system and a retaining system. The
learning system is activated only by way of intelligent awareness. The learner must
constantly test his powers to abstract, analyze, synthesize and integrate. The retaining
system allows us to remember and recall linguistic elements and their organizing
principles and makes linguistic communication possible.

The Silent Way claims to facilitate what psychologists call “learning to learn”. Silent
Way learners acquire inner criteria which play a central role in one’s education
throughout all of one’s life. These inner criteria allow learners to monitor and self-
correct their own production.

DESIGN

OBJECTIVES

The general objective of the Silent Way is to give beginning level and students oral and
aural facility in basic elements of the target language. The general goal set for
language learning is near-native fluency in the target language, and correct
pronunciation and mastery of the prosodic elements of the target language are
emphasized. An immediate objective is to provide the learner with a basic practical
knowledge of the grammar of the language. This forms the basis for independent
learning on the learner’s part.

The Silent Way teaches learners how to learn a language. The method can also be used
to teach reading and writing.

THE SYLLABUS

The Silent Way adopts a basically structural syllabus, with lessons planned around
grammatical items and related vocabulary. Language items are introduced according
to their grammatical complexity, their relationship to what has been taught previously,
and the ease with which items can be presented visually. The imperative is the initial
structure introduced, because of the ease with which action verbs may be
demonstrated using Silent Way materials. New elements are taught within a structure
already familiar.

Vocabulary is selected according to the degree to which it can be manipulated within a

given structure and according to its productivity within the classroom setting.
Prepositions, numbers, pronouns, quantifiers, words dealing with temporal relations
and words of comparison are introduced early in the course because they refer to
oneself and to others in numerous relations of everyday life. These kinds of words are
referred to as the functional vocabulary of a language because of their high utility.

TYPES OF LEARNING AND TEACHING ACTIVITIES

Learning tasks and activities in the Silent Way have the function of encouraging and
shaping student oral response without direct oral instruction from an unnecessary
modeling by the teacher. Basic to the method are simply linguistic tasks in which the
teacher models a word, phrase or sentence and then elicits learner responses.
Learners then go on to create their own utterances by putting together old and new
information. Charts, rods and other aids may be used to elicit learner responses.
Teacher modeling is minimal, although much of the activity may be teacher directed.
Responses to commands, questions and visual cues constitute the basis for classroom
activities.

LEARNER ROLES

Language learning is seen as a process of personal growth resulting from growing

student awareness and self-challenge. Learners are expected to develop
independence, autonomy and responsibility. The absence of correction and repeated
modeling from the teacher requires the students to develop inner criteria and to
correct themselves. The absence of explanations requires learners to make
generalizations, come to their own conclusions, and formulate whatever rules they
themselves feel they need.
Learners are expected to interact with each other and suggest alternatives to each
other. Learners must learn to work cooperatively. They need to feel comfortable both
correcting each other and being corrected by each other.

In order to be productive members of the learning group, learners have to play varying
roles. At times one is an independent individual, at other times a group member. A
learner also must be a teacher, a student, part of a support system, a problem solver
and a self-evaluator.

TEACHER ROLES

Teacher silence is the unique and most demanding aspect of the Silent Way. The Silent
Way teacher’s tasks are: to teach, to test and to get out of the way.

By teaching is meant the presentation of an item once, typically using nonverbal clues
to get across meanings. Testing follows immediately and might better be termed
elicitation and shaping of student production, which, again, is done as silent a way as
possible. Finally, the teacher silently monitors learners’ interactions with each other
and may even leave the room while learners struggle with their new linguistic tools.

The teacher is responsible for creating an environment that encourages student risk
taking and that facilitates learning. The teacher’s role is one of neutral observer.

The teacher uses gestures, charts, and manipulative in order to elicit and shape
student responses and so must be both facile and creative.

THE ROLE OF INSTRUCTIONAL MATERIAL

The materials consist mainly of a set of colored rods, color-coded pronunciation and
vocabulary wall charts, a pointer, and reading/writing exercises, all of which are used
to illustrate the relationships between sound and meaning in the target language.

The pronunciation charts, called “Fidels” contain symbols in the target language for all
vowels and consonant sounds of the language. The symbols are color coded according
to pronunciation. Classes often begin by using Fidel charts in the native language, color
coded in an analogous manner, so that the students learn to pair a sound with its
associated color. The teacher uses the pointer to indicate a sound symbol for the
students to produce. The charts are hung on the wall and serve to aid in remembering
pronunciation and in building new words by sounding out sequences of symbols as
they are pointed to by the teacher or student.

The colored Cuisenaire rods are used to directly link words and structures with their
meanings in the target language. Use of the rods is intended to promote inventiveness,
creativity, and interest in forming communicative utterances on the part of the
students, as they move from simple to more complex words.
PROCEDURE

The first part of the lesson focuses on pronunciation. The class might work on sounds,
phrases, or even sentences designated on the Fidel chart. At the beginning stage, the
teacher will model the appropriate sound after pointing to a symbol on the chart.
Later, the teacher will silently point to individual symbols and combinations of
symbols, and monitor student utterances. The teacher may say a word and have a
student guess what sequence of symbols comprised the word. The pointer is used to
indicate stress, phrasing, and intonation. Stress can be shown by touching certain
symbols more forcibly than others when pointing out a word.

The teacher models an utterance while creating a visual realization of it with the
colored rods. After modeling the utterance, the teacher will have a student attempt to
produce the utterance and will indicate its acceptability. If a response is incorrect, the
teacher will attempt to reshape the utterance or have another student present the
correct model. After a structure is introduced and understood, the teacher will create
a situation in which the students can practice the structure through the manipulation
of the rods. Variations on the structural theme will be elicited from the class using the
rods and charts.
COGNITIVE PRINCIPLES

Cognitive principles relate mainly to mental and intellectual functions.

AUTOMATICITY

 Subconscious absorption of language through meaningful use

 Efficient and rapid movement away from a focus on the forms of language to a
focus on the purposes to which language is put.
 Efficient and rapid movement away from a capacity-limited-control of a few
bits and pieces to a relatively unlimited automatic mode of processing language
forms.
 Resistance to the temptation to analyze language forms.

Efficient second language learning involves a timely movement of the control of a few
language forms into the automatic processing of a relatively unlimited number of
language forms. Overanalyzing language, thinking too much about its forms, and
consciously lingering on rules of language all tend to impede this graduation to
automaticity.

Because learning begins with controlled, focal processing, there is no mandate to

entirely avoid overt attention to language systems. The attentions should stop well
short of blocking students from achieving a more automatic, fluent grasp of the
language. Grammatical explanations or exercises dealing with what is sometimes
called usage have a place in the adult classroom but you could overwhelm your
students with grammar.

Make sure that a large proportion of your lessons are focused on the use of language
for purposes that are genuine as a classroom context will permit. Students will gain
more language competence if the functional purposes of language are the focal point.

You need to exercise patience with students as you slowly help them to achieve
fluency.

MEANINGFUL LEARNING

Meaningful learning subsumes new information into existing structures and memory
systems, and the resulting associative links create stronger retention. Children are
good meaningful acquirers of language because they associate sounds, words,
structures and discourse elements with that which is relevant and important in their
daily quest for knowledge and survival.

Meaningful learning will lead toward better long-term retention than rote learning.
The principle of meaningful learning tells us that some aural-oral drilling is appropriate;
selected phonological elements like phonemes, rhythm, stress and intonation can be
effectively taught through pattern repetition.

Appeal to student’s interest, academic goals, and career goals.

Whenever a new topic or concept is introduced, attempt to anchor it in students’

existing knowledge and background so that it gets associated with something they
already know.

Avoid too much grammar explanation, too many abstract principles and theories, too
much drilling and/or memorization, activities whose purposes are not clear, activities
that do not contribute to accomplishing the goals of the lesson or unit or course,
techniques that are so mechanical or tricky so that students get centered on the
mechanics instead of the language or meanings.

THE ANTICIPATION OF REWARD

The anticipation of reward is the most powerful factor in directing one’s behavior.

Human beings are universally driven to act, or behave by the anticipation of some sort
of reward that will ensue as a result of the behavior.

Help students to see clearly why they are doing something, what the relevance of it is
to their long-term goals in learning English.

Rewards can lead learners to become dependent on short-term rewards; coax them
into a habit of looking to teachers and others for their only rewards; forestall the
development of their own internally administered, intrinsic system of rewards.