Suggestopedia

Well aware that methods directly involving yoga and hypnosis were

not generally applicable or acceptable, he continued seeking universally acceptable means to

tap the vast mental reserve capacities of the human mind we

all have but which are rarely used. Suggestion proved to be the key.

Suggestopedia

Georgi Lozanov

Brain Friendly Learning

Superlearning

Accelerated Learning

Georgi Lozanov

Born: July 22, 1926; Died: May 6, 2012Sofia, Bulgaria

Medical doctor specialized in psychiatry and psychotherapy

Had a passion for understanding how human beings learn

Established the Suggestology Research Institute in Sofia to put his new system of teaching into practice

1

•What message do we give our learners? That learning is easy and fun? Or that what we are teaching is so difficult they will never master the subject?

Lozanov asked himself…

2•What beliefs do learners bring with them about what is possible for them to accomplish?


3

• How can teachers help learners move beyond their limiting beliefs and discover their full human potential?


Concepts and Features

Mental Reserve Capacities (MRC)

We all possess considerable mental reserves which we rarely if ever tap under normal circumstances.

• Examples: – the ability to learn rapidly and recall

with ease large quantities or material, – solve problems with great rapidity and

spontaneous ease, – respond to complex stimuli with facility

and creativity. The primary objective is to tap into the MRC.

5 ~ 10%

Psychological Set-up

Our response to every stimuli is complex, involving unconscious processes which become automatic responses.

The responses tend to be automatic and typical for them - the result of an inner, unconscious disposition or set-up, which is the product of automatized, conditioned responses.

Our inner set-up operates when we encounter any situation - entering a school, consulting a physician- as examples.

Our unconscious set-up is extremely basic and important to our behaviour and to our survival –

and it can be extremely limiting, for it can imprison us in unconscious, consistently patterned responses which prevent us from experiencing and exploring other alternatives

- which might be far more desirable and beneficial to us.

Prevailing social norms, instilled in us by all our social institutions, including family and schools, are the main carriers and enforcers of the beliefs and responses which contribute to the formation of our inner set-up.

Only when a teacher or a doctor is able to penetrate the set-up, engage it in a way which allows it to be accepting and open to extensions and transformation does the real potential of a student/patient begin to open up.

Suggestion

• Suggestion is the direct to the set-up.• Suggestion is the key which Lozanov

found to penetrate through the “set-up” and stimulate the mental reserve capacities.

• Even more, through suggestion we can facilitate the creation of new, richer patterns of conscious/unconscious responses or new (set-ups).

• It creates and utilises such types of set-ups which would free and activate the reserve capacities of the human being

Suggestion• DIRECT• Direct suggestions are directed to conscious

processes, i.e., what one says that can and will occur in the learning experience, suggestions which can be made in printed announcements, orally by the teacher, and/or by text materials.

Suggestion• INDIRECT• Indirect suggestion is largely unconsciously

perceived.• It is always present in any communication and

involves many levels and degrees of subtlety. • Lozanov speaks of it as the second plane of

communication and considers it to encompass all those communication factors outside our conscious awareness

• Examples: voice tone, facial expression, body posture and movement, speech tempo, rhythms, accent, etc.

• Other important indirect suggestive effects result from room arrangement, decor, lighting, noise level, institutional setting - for all these factors are communicative stimuli

Anti-Suggestive Barriers

• The first task of suggestology and suggestopedia is to remove people’s prior conditioning to de-suggest, to find the way to escape the social norm and open the way to development of the personality.

This is perhaps the greatest problem suggestology is confronted with, since the person must be ‘convinced’ that his potential capacity is far above what he thinks it is.

The individual protects himself with psychological barriers, according to Dr. Lozanov, just as the organism protects itself from physiological barriers

Why was i

t

developed?

Main Concern

physical

spiritualmental

Stages of Suggestopedia

1. Presentation

2. First Concert—“Active Concert”

3. Second Concert—“Passive Review”

4. Practice

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.

Learning is a pleasurable,

natural process

music

art

role playing

games

Learner Roles (Relaxer, True-Believer)

• Students volunteer for a suggestopedic course, but having volunteered, they are expected to be committed to the class and its activities.

• Students are expected to tolerate and in fact encourage their own “infantilization.”

Infantilization• In the child's role that 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.

Learner Roles (Relaxer, True-Believer)

• Groups of learners are ideally socially homogeneous, 12 in number, and divided equally between men and women.

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

Teacher Roles (Auto-hypnotist,Authority Figure)

• To create situations in which learners are most suggestible and then to present linguistic material in a way most likely to encourage positive reception and retention by learners.


Lozanov lists several expected teacher behaviors as follows:

1. Show absolute confidence in the method.

2. Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress.

3. Organize properly, and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching process—this includes choice and play of music, as well as punctuality.


4. Maintain a solemn attitude towards the session.

5. Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers (if any).

6. Maintain a modest enthusiasm.

The role of instructional materials

• Materials consist of direct support materials, primarily text and tape, and indirect support materials, including classroom fixtures and music.

Suggestopedia apprentices use the Learning Hypothesis

• I will learn because I was accepted• I am now a native speaker, I can speak and

understand the language • I learned the text during the concert session, I know

the language. • The material is getting easier, I must be learning.• I have successfully graduated from a language

course, I can use the language.

What are the benefits of this approach?

• You will address the learning needs and styles of every student in your class.

• You will guarantee a higher and faster success rate among learners.

• You will increase retention and recall of material and long-term memory.


• You will instill higher confidence and self-esteem in your learners.

• You will promote the creativity as well as the learning and social competence of your students.

• You will create a pleasant, cooperative and fun learning environment in your classroom.


• You will have motivated students coming to your classes -- students who have rediscovered the joy of learning.

And --

• … motivated students make motivated teachers!!

Education

Suggestopedia