Suggestopedia & CLL Techniques

Larsen-Freeman, D. and Anderson, M. (2011). Technique and principles in language teaching.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Suggestopedia (Georgi Lozanov): Techniques (pp. 113-114)
If you find Desuggestopedia’s principles meaningful, you may want to try some of the following
techniques, or to alter your classroom environment. Even if not all of them appeal to you, there
may be some elements you could usefully adapt to your own teaching style.
• Classroom Set-up
The challenge for the teacher is to create a classroom environment that is bright and cheerful.
This was accomplished in the classroom we visited where the walls were decorated with scenes
from a country where the target language is spoken. These conditions are not always possible.
However, the teacher should try to provide as positive an environment as possible.
• Peripheral Learning
This technique is based upon the idea that we perceive much more in our environment than we
consciously notice. It is claimed that, by putting posters containing grammatical information
about the target language on the classroom walls, students will absorb the necessary facts
effortlessly. The teacher may or may not call attention to the posters. They are changed from
time to time to provide grammatical information that is appropriate to what the students are
studying.
• Positive Suggestion
It is the teacher’s responsibility to orchestrate the suggestive factors in a learning situation,

thereby helping students break down the barriers to learning that they bring with them. Teachers
can do this through direct and indirect means. Direct suggestion appeals to the students’
consciousness: A teacher tells students they are going to be successful. But indirect suggestion,
which appeals to the students’ subconscious, is actually the more powerful of the two. For
example, indirect suggestion was accomplished in the class we visited through the choice of a
dialogue entitled, ‘To want to is to be able to.’
• Choose a New Identity
The students choose a target language name and a new occupation. As the course continues, the
students have an opportunity to develop a whole biography about their fictional selves. For
instance, later on they may be asked to talk or write about their fictional hometown, childhood,
and family.
• Role-play
Students are asked to pretend temporarily that they are someone else and to perform in the target
language as if they were that person. They are often asked to create their own lines relevant to
the situation. In the lesson we observed, the students were asked to pretend that they were
someone else and to introduce themselves as that person.
• First Concert
The two concerts are components of the receptive phase of the lesson. After the teacher has
introduced the story as related in the dialogue and has called her students’ attention to some
particular grammatical points that arise in it, she reads the dialogue in the target language. The
students have copies of the dialogue in the target language and their native language and refer to
it as the teacher is reading.
Music is played. After a few minutes, the teacher begins a slow, dramatic reading, synchronized
in intonation with the music. The music is classical; the early Romantic period is suggested. The
teacher’s voice rises and falls with the music.
• Second Concert
In the second phase, the students are asked to put their scripts aside. They simply listen as the
teacher reads the dialogue at normal speed. The teacher is seated and reads with the musical
accompaniment. Thus, the content governs the way the teacher reads the script, not the music,
which is pre-Classical or Baroque. At the conclusion of this concert, the class ends for the day.
• Primary Activation
This technique and the one that follows are components of the active phase of the lesson. The
students playfully reread the target language dialogue out loud, individually or in groups. In the
lesson we observed, three groups of students read parts of the dialogue in a particular manner:
the first group, sadly; the next, angrily; the last, cheerfully.
• Creative Adaptation
The students engage in various activities designed to help them learn the new material and use it
spontaneously. Activities particularly recommended for this phase include singing, dancing,
dramatizations, and games. The important thing is that the activities are varied and do not allow
the students to focus on the form of the linguistic message, just the communicative intent.
Community language learning (CLL) (Charles A. Curran): Techniques (pp. 130-133)
• Recording Student Conversation

This is a technique used to record student-generated language as well as to give the opportunity
for community learning to come about. By giving students the choice about what to say and
when to say it, students are in a good position to take responsibility for their own learning.
Students are asked to have a conversation using their native language or a language common to
the group. In multilingual groups with no common language, other means will have to be
employed. For instance, students can use gestures to get their meaning across. After each native
language utterance or use of a gesture, the teacher translates what the student says or acts out into
the target language. The teacher gives the students the target language translation in appropriate-
sized chunks. Each chunk is recorded, giving students a final recording with only the target
language on it. In the lesson we observed, a tape recorder was used; however, these days, other
teachers might use a digital voice-recording device, such as an MP3 player, a cell phone, or a
computer. Such recording technology allows for instant ‘repeats’ without rewinding. Also, a
teacher can burn a CD or send an MP3 (or other) file to students electronically, which allows
students to listen to the recording in their own time.
After a conversation has been recorded, it can be replayed. Since the students have a choice in
what they want to say in the original conversation, it is easier for them to associate meaning with
a particular target language utterance. Being able to recall the meaning of almost everything said
in a first conversation is motivating for learners. The recording can also be used to simply listen
to their voices in the target language.
Recording student conversation works best with 12 or fewer students. In a larger class, students
can take turns being the ones to have the conversation.
• Transcription
The teacher transcribes the students’ recorded target language conversation. Each student is
given the opportunity to translate his or her utterances and the teacher writes the native language
equivalent beneath the target language words. Students can copy the transcript after it has been
completely written up on the board or on
large, poster-sized paper, or the teacher may provide them with a copy. The transcript provides a
basis for future activities. If poster-sized paper is used, the transcript can be put up in the
classroom for later reference and for the purpose of increasing student security.
Thinking about the Experience
The teacher takes time during and/or after the various activities to give the students the
opportunity to reflect on how they feel about the language learning experience, themselves as
learners, and their relationship with one another. As students give their reactions, the teacher
understands them—shows that he has listened carefully by giving an appropriate understanding
response to what the student has said. He does not repeat what the learner says, but rather shows
that he understands its essence. You may wish to return to the lesson we observed where the
teacher understood the students’ reactions to their conversation. Such responses can encourage
students to think about their unique engagement with the language, the activities, the teacher, and
the other students, thus strengthening their independent learning.
• Reflective Listening
The students relax and listen to their own voices speaking the target language on the recording.
Another possible technique is for the teacher to read the transcript while the students simply
listen, with their eyes open or shut. A third possibility is for the students to mouth the words as
the teacher reads the transcript.
• Human ComputerTM
A student chooses some part of the transcript to practice pronouncing. She is ‘in control’ of the
teacher when she tries to say the word or phrase. The teacher, following the student’s lead,
repeats the phrase as often as the student wants to practice it. The teacher does not correct the
student’s mispronunciation in any way. It is through the teacher’s consistent manner of repeating
the word or phrase clearly that the student self-corrects as she tries to imitate the teacher’s
model.
• Small Group Tasks

The small groups in the class we observed were asked to make new sentences with the words on
the transcript. Afterward, the groups shared the sentences they made with the rest of the class.
Later in the week, students working in pairs made sentences with the different verb conjugations.
There are a lot of different activities that could take place with students working in small groups.
Teachers who use small group activities believe students can learn from each other and get more
practice with the target language by working in small groups. Also, small groups allow students
to get to know each other better. This can lead to the development of a community among class
members.

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Larsen-Freeman, D. and Anderson, M. (2011). Technique and principles in language teaching.

Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Suggestopedia (Georgi Lozanov): Techniques (pp. 113-114)

It is the teacher’s responsibility to orchestrate the suggestive factors in a learning situation,

• Choose a New Identity

• Recording Student Conversation

• Small Group Tasks

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