SUGGESTOPEDIA
METHOD
Definition
Suggestopedia
is a teaching method which is based on a modern understanding of how the human
brain works and how we learn most effectively.
Key Elements
Some
of the key elements of Suggestopedia include a rich sensory learning
environment (pictures, colour, music, etc.), a positive expectation of success
and the use of a varied range of methods: dramatic texts, music, active
participation in songs and games, etc.
Suggestopedia
adopts a carefully structured approach, using four main stages as follows:
a. Presentation.
b. First Concert - "Active
Concert".
c. Second Concert - "Passive Review.
d. Practice.
Purpose
The
intended purpose of Suggestopedia was to enhance learning by tapping into the
power of suggestion. Lozanov claims in that “suggestopedia is a system for
liberation”; liberation from the “preliminary negative concept regarding the
difficulties in the process of learning” that is established throughout their
life in the society.
Teacher’s Roles
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. Stress global rather than analytical
attitudes towards material.
7. Maintain a modest enthusiasm.
Advantages of Suggestopedia
There
are some benefits in utilizing suggestopedia:
1. A comprehensible input based on
dessugestion and suggestion principle
By
using this suggestopedia method, students can lower their affective filter.
Suggestopedia classes, in addition, are held in ordinary rooms with comfortable
chairs, a practice that may also help them relaxed. Teacher can do numerous
other things to lower the affective filter.
2. Authority concept
Students
remember best and are most influenced by information coming from an
authoritative source, teachers.
3. Double-planedness theory
It
refers to the learning from two aspects. They are the conscious aspect and the
subconscious one. Students can acquire the aim of teaching instruction from
both direct instruction and environment in which the teaching takes place.
4. Peripheral learning
Suggestopedia
encourages the students to apply language more independently, takes more
personal responsibility for their own learning and get more confidence.
Disadvantages of Suggestopedia
Suggestopedia
also has limitation since there is no single teaching method that is
categorized as the best based on some consideration such as: the curriculum,
students motivation, financial limitation, number of students, etc.
CONCLUSION
Teacher
will find different situation and different types of students in learning.
Therefore, teacher should be creative and smart in choosing and using different
types of methods in teaching different skill of language. Teacher can use
suggestopedia as teaching method in their teaching. Using suggestopedia is very
interesting but challenging to do. It can be seen from some considerations. In
one side it has some benefits, but on the other side it also has some
weaknesses.
LANGUAGE
IS A SYMBOL SYSTEM
A symbol is a
concrete event, object or mark that stands for something relatively abstract.
The cross (+), for example, is a symbol that stands for the great sacrifice of
Jesus Christ, i.e., his suffering and death on the cross; it is also a symbol
of a Christian. Similarly, words are symbols that stand for objects. The symbol
/teibl/ stands for an object consisting of a wooden-board supported by
four/three legs. A speaker or a writer wants to communicate with another fellow-being,
puts his message across in the form of symbols (in speech or writing). The
receiver of the message, who shares a common code with the sender of the
message, decodes this message sent in the form of symbols and interprets these
to arrive at a certain meaning. Thus language is a symbol system, though
different languages use different symbols.
WHAT
IS LINGUISTICS?
The word
‘Linguistics’ has been derived from Latin lingua (tongue) and istics (knowledge
or science). Etymologically therefore, linguistics is the scientific study of
language. The word ‘language’ here means language in general, not a particular
language. If we were concerned with studying an individual language, we would
say “I’m studying French... or English,” or whichever language we happen to be
studying. But linguistics does not study an individual language, it studies ‘language‘in
general. According to Robins (1985), “linguistics is concerned with human
language as a universal and recognizable part of the human behaviour and of the
human faculties perhaps one of the most essential to human life as we know it,
and one of the most far-reaching of human capabilities in relation to the whole
span of mankind’s achievements.”
SCOPE
OF LINGUISTICS
Linguistics today is
a subject of study, independent of other disciplines. Before the twentieth
century, the study of language was not regarded as a separate area of study in
its own right. It was considered to be a part of studying the history of
language or the Philosophy of language, and this was known not as linguistics
but as philosophy. So, ‘Linguistics’ is a modern name which defines a specific
discipline, in which we study language not in relation to some other area such
as history or philosophy, but language as itself, as a self-enclosed and autonomous
system, worthy of study in its own right.
The
famous Swiss linguist, Ferdinand de Saussure, in his book ‘The course in
General Linguistics’ published in 1916, gave a rough impression of the range
covered by Linguistics in the shape of a wheel. The description of the wheel is
as below.
Linguistics covers a wide range of
topics and its boundaries are difficult to be traced. In the centre as a
linguistic core there is phonetics. It is the study of human speech sounds. A
phonetician is concerned with the actual physical sounds, the raw material out
of which language is made. He studies the position of the tongue, teeth and
vocal cords during the production of sounds, and records and analyses sound
waves. Phonology (sound patterning), grammar and semantics, (meaning) are the
bread and butter of linguistics. They are the core of linguistics. Around the
central core are various branches of linguistics which are being rapidly
developed at the present time: such as psycholinguistics, sociolinguistics,
mathematical linguistics, philosophical linguistics, anthropological
linguistics, stylistics and language teaching.
BASIC
ASSUMPTIONS OF MODERN LINGUISTICS
The modern field of linguistics dates
from the beginning of the 19th century. While ancient India and Greece had a
remarkable grammatical tradition, throughout most of history linguistics had
been the province of philosophy, rhetoric, and literary analysis to try to
figure out how human language works. But in 1786, an amazing discovery was
made: There are regular sound correspondences among many of the languages
spoken in Europe, India, and Persia. For example, the English 'f' sound often
corresponds to a 'p' sound in, among others, Latin and Sanskrit, an important
ancient language of India:
ENGLISH LATIN
SANSKRIT
father
pater pitar
full plenus purnas
for per pari
Scholars realized that these
correspondences—found in thousands of words—could not be due to chance or to
mutual influence. The only reliable conclusion was that these languages are
related to one another because they come from a common ancestor. Much of 19th
century linguistics was devoted to working out the nature of this parent
language, spoken about 6,000 years ago, as well as the changes by which
'Proto-Indo-European', as we now call it, developed into English, Russian,
Hindi, and its other modern descendants.
This program of historical linguistics
continues today. Linguists have succeeded in grouping the 5,000 or so languages
of the world into a number of language families sharing a common ancestor.
Question: Describe theories of second language
acquisition
Or
Describe Krashen's ‘The Monitor Model’ theory of second
language acquisition.
Answer: Second
language acquisition theories were developed along the lines of first language
acquisition theories. Over the past three decades, a number of theories of
second language acquisition were formulated, either deductively or inductively.
Stephen Krashen's model is one of the most influential and well-known theories
of second language acquisition. In the late 1970s Krashen developed the Monitor
Model, an ‘overall’ theory of second language acquisition that had important
implications for language teaching. Here are the five central hypotheses
underlying the Monitor Model:
1. Acquisition vs. Learning hypothesisTwo different ways to ‘learn’ a language: a subconscious process, natural, identical to the one little children learning their mother tongue use, and effective (Acquisition). Second process, Learning which is conscious and consists of learning grammar rules.
2. Natural Order hypothesis
Second language rules are acquired in a fixed way, pre-established, determined by innate mechanisms and not by the linguistic complexity or explicit teaching.
3. Monitor Hypothesis
The monitor only controls learning, not acquisition. The monitor plans, edits and corrects the learner’s production when there is time. (It sometimes interferes the process of acquisition).
4. Input Hypothesis
It explains how language is acquired. The learner progresses along the 'natural order' as he/she receives second language 'input' that is one step beyond his/her current linguistic competence. If a learner already has acquired language competence (i),they will acquire more language through exposure to comprehensible input (i + 1). Krashen believes natural communicative input will provide all learners with (i + 1) language competence.
5. Affective filter Hypothesis
It considers the role for acquisition of several factors. Krashen claims that learners with low motivation and low self-esteem can 'raise' the affective filter and form a 'mental block’ to their progress. So, teachers will want to plan lessons that reduce these hindrances by providing interesting content and by not shaming learners for errors or over-using correction techniques that cause anxiety.
‘People acquire second languages only if they obtain comprehensible input and if their affective filters are low enough to allow the input ‘in’. When the filter is ‘down’ and appropriate comprehensible input is presented (and comprehended), acquisition is inevitable. It is, in fact, unavoidable and cannot be prevented – the language ‘mental organ’ will function just as automatically as any other organ.’ (Stephen Krashen)
Or,
"Language
acquisition does not require extensive use of conscious grammatical rules, and
does not require tedious drill." (Stephen Krashen)
Question:
Discuss briefly role of first language in second language acquisition.
Answer:
In
second language acquisition one must deal with the role of the first language. Second
language acquisition is the process by which people learn languages in addition
to their native language/L1. The term second language is used to describe any
language whose acquisition starts after early childhood. The language to be
learned is often referred to as the "target language" or
"L2", compared to the first language, "L1". Second language
acquisition may be abbreviated "SLA", or L2A, for "L2
acquisition". The role first language on Second language acquisition as
follows:
(1)
Create exposure to language so that learners have more opportunities for
communication.
(2)
Create informal atmosphere as against the formality of an L2 classroom.
(3)
Encourage learners to focus on the meaning or message, not on form.
(4)
Adopt a tolerant attitude to errors; if you strongly feel some correction is needed
do it incidentally.
(5)
Provide an atmosphere where learners are free from tension.
(6)
Building up pressure for genuine, real-life communication.
(7)
The final important role of learners’ L1 is that it gives L2 learners the
future career prospects in bilingual language profession.
As
bilingualism is nowadays a key factor in society and in education, it is found
that a second language is taught through first language. Bilingualism in
schools of India has become one of the most important aspects of education; in
fact, schools not only look for the cognitive and social development of their students
but also for developing second language (English) ability. There are many theories
about second language acquisition; some are opposed and some complement each
other. However, first language has great impact on second language acquisition.
Question : Describe Cognitive approach to linguistics.
Answer:
Question : Describe Cognitive approach to linguistics.
Answer:
As its name implies, the
cognitive approach deals with mental processes like memory and problem solving.
By emphasizing mental processes, it places itself in opposition to behaviorism,
which largely ignores mental processes. This approach is influenced by Neisser
and Chomskyan linguistics.
THEORY OF LEARNING AND LEARNING
ACTIVITY FOCUS
• Activities which can be described as
cognitive strategies include making mind maps, visualisation, association,
mnemonics, using clues in reading comprehension, underlining key words,
scanning and self-testing and monitoring;
• Instructions might be
individualized;
•Grammar must be taught;
• Pronunciation is not
emphasized because a perfect pronunciation is unreal;
• The four abilities are view
as equally important;
• Taught vocabulary is
important, mostly in the intermediate and advanced level;
• Errors are view as important
part of the process.
TEACHER AND STUDENT ROLES
It is expected that the teacher
has an advanced proficiency in the language taught and an ability to analyze
it, so it is possible to explore different needs of the students.
• The students are responsible
for their own learning.
No comments:
Post a Comment