SUGGESTOPEDIA

SUGGESTOPEDIA

INTRODUCTION

For this paper I have chosen Suggestopedia, a method that was totally unknown for me and I thought it would be a great opportunity for me to do something ‘outside the box’. This is a class of 23 children, ages vary between 9 and 11, their level is basic and it takes a long time to achieve the objectives of certain activities. The topic of the class is Job-related actions, as we have seen for the past month the simple present and for the past week Occupations; they have some knowledge about the topic and the grammar to use.

I have planned a 50 minute class and recorded the audio to review and evaluate my own performance using Suggestopedia, a method I have never used before. (Video recording is penalized at the school, so I couldn’t do it).

DISCUSSION

According to my previous paper, Suggestopedia is all about creating a relaxed environment for students’ learning. Comfortable chairs, relaxing music, safe setting, positive situations and no error correction make learning a non-threatening experience.

My intention for the class was, as Lozanov describes: “free, without a mildest pressure, liberation of previously suggested programs to restrict intelligence and spontaneous acquisition of knowledge, skills and habits.” I tried to push aside my usual class and take students into a new and more relaxed context.

As students were coming in, I could see the excitement all over their faces. They were so eager to start the class that actually took their places without the need of me asking them to do so, quiet and in complete order; that was new for me! I played relaxing music the entire lesson, which is an important characteristic in Suggestopedia. The students were peaceful and following instructions.

My role as a teacher was participative, like I was one of them to make them feel more comfortable to take part in the activities. As a characteristic of this method, error correction must be subtle so they don’t become afraid of making them and that’s what I did. When correcting errors, I made it in a casual way trying not to point fingers.

Students were taking all their previous knowledge in order to successfully achieve the objectives of the activities, which was exactly what they were suppose to do according to Suggestopedia. They were actively engaged in exploring the language instead of just passively learning it from the teacher.

I could see huge differences between this class and my previous classes. To start, students were way more active, they were moving a lot and freely participating. There was less use of their mother tongue as usual and they were more organized, even though they had more freedom. They picked up the grammatical rules without the need to use any formulas or written structures. And most important, they were excited and having

...