Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia

Suggestopedia (USA English) or Suggestopaedia (UK English) is a teaching method developed by the Bulgarian psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov. It is used in different fields, but mostly in the field of foreign language learning. Lozanov has claimed that by using this method a teacher's students can learn a language approximately three to five times as quickly as through conventional teaching methods.

Suggestopedia has been called a "pseudo-science". It strongly depends on the trust that students develop towards the method by simply believing that it works.

The theory applied positive suggestion in teaching when it was developed in the 1970s. However, as the method improved, it has focused more on “suggestive learning” and now is often called “desuggestopedia” Suggestopedia is a portmanteau of the words “suggestion” and “pedagogy". A common misconception is to link "suggestion" to "hypnosis". However, Lozanov intended it in the sense of offering or proposing, emphasising student choice.

  

suggestopedia has a positive effect on language learning. This teaching approach can help students in the lower grade point average ranges more than those with higher grade point averages. Besides, the scholars had investigated the influence of a suggestive atmosphere and synchronized music; they found that” at a practical level, these variables when present resulted in learning 2.5 times better than these same variables were absent”. So, this teaching strategy indeed give a new page on English teaching, this strategy really can help students to open English learning gate. It can broad students’ horizon and accomplish the true meaning of effective learning.

 

The role of teacher in suggestopedia :
The teacher is the motor of this machine called Suggestopedia, depending on his behavior the suggestive effect in the students will be right or wrong. Verbal and non verbal elements in the classroom, the voice intonation, corporal movements, the guidance and the creation of dinamic games play an important role in this learning process creating possitive encouragement between the students. 

What are the goals of teachers who use suggestopedia?

1.          Teachers hope to accelerate the process by which students learn to use a foreign language for everyday communication.

2.          More of the students' mental powers must be tapped.

3.          This is accomplished by desuggesting the psychological barriers learners bring with them to the learning situation.

4.          This is accomplished using techniques to activate the ‘paraconscious’ part of the mind, just below the fully-conscious mind.