The principles of the method are derived from observations based on control experiments (Stevick, 1976: 42). The first principle is that people are able to learn at rates many times greater that what we commonly assume to be the limits of human performance. The second principle is that learning is global; it involves the entrie person. The third principles is that people learn either consciously or unconsciously or both, either rationally or irrationally or both. Lozanov method is thought to be more concerned with irrational and unconscious processes. The concept of unconsciousness (paracinsciousness) comprises numerous unconscious froms such as associating and coding. Lozsnov (1982: 148) gives an example of the process with the process of reading. When we read something, we are not aware of the many unconscious components which constitute the activity, for example, the ideas which build up notions, the letters and the words which we happen to be reading. The last principle is the one that many people do not always agree with.

In Lozanov method it is believed that people posses considerable mental reserves which they rarely if ever tap under normal circumstances; it is also believed that human being uses 5-20% of his/her brain capacity at the most (Dorothy, 1981: 25). Among the examples of human capacities that may be tapped to be optimally used are the ability to learn rapodly and recall with ease large number of materials, solve problems with great rapidity and spontaneity, respond to complex stimuli with creativity. In order to reach the optimal use of brain capacity, the method suggests language learners to activate the reserve capacities of language learners. This can be done by “suggestion”. By suggestion, language teachers can create learning situation in which the optimal use of brain capacities can be achieved. Lozanov believes that people are able to learn at rates many times greater than what we commonly assume to be the limits of human performance.

Suggestion can work well when the learners remove the prior automatic patterns and open the access to great potential of mental reserve. Without de-suggesting (removing) the patterns, it is hard for suggestion to function. The learners must be assured that they have anti-suggestive barriers and they have to remove them in order to open the access of the suggestion. The three anti-suggestive barriers are critical logical, intuitive-affective, and ethical (Lozanov 1982: 148). The first anti-suggestive barriers is critical anti-suggestive barrier. This barrier rejects suggestion through reasoning. If the learners think that it is impossible to learn a foreign language as Lozanov believes, the possibility to be successful learnerss is very slim. This barrier is the conscious critical thinking. The second anti-suggestive barrier is intuituve-affective barrier. This seems to be emotional barrier. This barrier is believed to come from anything that many produce a feeling of lack confidence or insecurity. If the learners feel that they will loose their confidence of self-esteem, they are likely not to reach the success in learning. The third anti-suggestive barrier is ethical barrier. The learners will reject everything that is not in harmony with the ethical sense they have. The ethical sense may have been established from family or society.

In Lozanov method it is also believed that learning involvels the entrie person. The response of man to every stimulus is very complex. It also involves many unconscious processes which have become automatic responses. For example, when we begin to fall,  we respond in many ways, physically, emotionally, and mentally. These responses are unconscious (Dorothy, 1981: 25). Such responses are largely patterned in many ways and individuals have peculiar ways. Their responses would tend to be automatic and typical for individuals. The differences in responding to learning, stimuli are also unique and different people would respond similar stimuli in different ways.

There are two basic kinds of suggestion in Lozanov method direct and indirect. Direct suggestion is meant to deal with conscious processes and indirect suggestion to deal with unconscious processes. The example of conscious processes are all activities that occur in direct learning-teaching interaction. The example of indirect suggestion are communication factors outside our conscious awareness such as voice, tone, facial expression, body posture and movement, speech tempo, rhythms, accent, etc. another factor in language learning that can function as indirect suggestion is classroom arrangement, such as décor, lighting, noise level, etc. the two types of suggestion are often called two planes of learning process; they are the conscious and nonrational (Stevick, 1976: 43). All kinds of suggestion can reinforce or hinder the processes of language learning. The inputs on these two planes should support each other, rather canceling each other. In other words, everything in the communication and learning environment is a stimulus that will be processed at some level of mental activity. It is said that the more language teachers can do to orchestrate purposefully the conscious as well as the unconscious factors in the learning environment, the greater the chance to open the acces to the great potential of the mental reseves.

Means of suggestions

To create effective learning environment there are several means of suggestion which are the most powerful and essential for language teachers. This suggestion may overcome the anti-suggestive barriers the learners have (Dorothy, 1981: 82).

1. A careful orchestrated physical environment: an uncrowded room, aesthetically pleasing, well lighted, furnished with comfortable chairs to facilitate a relaxed state.
2. The teacher is thoroughly trained in the art of suggestive communication –with a) a well developed sense of authorithy. b) the ability to envoke a receptive, playful, child-like state in the students, c) a mastery of double-plane behaviour, especially the ability to use appropriately and purposefully suggestive language, voice, intonation, facial and body expression.
3. Music: certain selected music is used for special “concert” presentations of material to be learned. Music is also used to evoke a mentally relaxed state.
4. Carefully integrates suggestive written materials.
5. Visual stimuli: posters, pictures, charts, and illustrations. The arts offer us the greatest examples of unified suggestive expression, and we should make effort to integrate them into the learining environment.

It is clear that language teachers should be well trained in the suggestopedia in order to present language materials through this method. Or, they just consider some of the basic principles of the method and implement them in foreign language teaching. The teacher is the most essential factor in the method. The personality of the teacher should have certain characteristics (Dorothy, 1981: 29). The following are some of the characteristics expected from language teacher teacher.

1. The teacher should love and master the subject.
2. The teacher should have energeric, joyful, playful spirit.
3. The teacher should have a well-integrated personality.
4. The teacher should have well-developed sense of authority.
5. The teacher should have balanced self-esteem and esteem for others.
6. The teacher should have well-developed feeling for music, especially classical.
7. The teacher should have flexible communication: ability to respond and incorporate.

To teach a foreign language through the Suggestopedia, language teacher is also expected to have sense of drama and the theatrical and knowledge of visual arts. This sense is needed to create the learning environment conducive to learning success since through this knowledge the teacher may provide the language learners with suggestion.

1. 1.      BACKGROUND

Suggestopedia is the name of a method develop by a Bulgarian scientist, Georgi Lozanov, who was aphysician and psychotherapist, developed his method in Bulgarian and the method was then introduced in the Soviet Union, Hungary and East German. Suggestopedia has been used in a number of Bulgarian schools for the teaching a variety of subjects even though the principle area of concerns is teaching foreign languages. The proponents of  the method claim that their method work equally well whether or not language learners spend time on outside study, and gifted and ungifted language learners study the target language succesfully. Lozanov (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 142 and 2001) claims that memorization in learning by the suggestopedic method will be accelerated 25 time over that in learning by conventional method. His method can be used to teach both adults and childern. His experiment with adults and childern shows that in five weeks they achieved a basic conversational ease in either French, English, German, Spanish or Rusian, had a working vocabulary of 2000 words with 90% accuracy in recognition recall (Dorothy, 1981: 24). His original method cannot be separated from the use of yoga, role-play, hypnotizing, and music. The method consisders the function of analytical, linear left hemisphere of the brain and that of the intuitive, spatially responsive right hemisphere in a relaxed way which result in accelerated and highly motivated learning.

Lezanov Method was first given attention in the West in 1977. Lozanov himself came to the USA and trained a small number of teacher in theaching foreign language through his method. Since that time Lozanov method has been adapted to the American scene but the method is still in accordance with the environment where it was originally developed: pleasant, cheerful and decorated. Many American researchers have centered on the elements of the method tather than the Lozanov method as a whole. Some modification has been made in order that the method could be used for American student and the researchers have been obliged to abandon some elements of the Lozanov Method (Oller and Amato, 1983: 108). The element of the method that are worth considering are an attractive classroom, teachers with a dynamic personality and a state of relaxed alertness in their students. Foreign language teachers need to be trained in acting and psychology in order for them to be able to present foreign language class through gesture and intonation. The adapted method is finally called Acquisition through Creative Teaching (ACT). Recently, in the USA the Lozanov Method has also been modified for general education (De Porter and Hernacki, 1992; De Porter, Reardon and Singer-Nourie, 1999). The modification of the method suggest some ideas worth considering in students’ learning and teachers’ teaching.

ACT is not merely a method in foreign language teaching. It is an approach to education. Whose primary objective is to tap the extraordinary reserve capacity human beings posses but rarely if ever use. ACT considers the function of analytical, linear left hemisphere of the brain and that of the intuitive, spatially res

Curran does not profide explicitly the procedure of teaching a foreign language through CLL. Some practitioners in teaching foreign languages suggest different procedures (stevick, 1980, Stroingg, 1980, and Dutra, 1980, Larsen-freeman, 1986 and 2000). This part tells about the writer’s experience of being a student that took place at the school for international training, brattleboro, vermont, USA in 1987. Stevick taught Swahili, which is a foreign language to the writer. The teaching was meant to show how language learners learned a foreign language through CLL. The procedure introduced here was also adapted from Stevick work (1980: 149).

Preliminary contact

Stevick was  the knower of Swihili language. He introduced and talked with the whole class in the evening afther his arrival from Hawaii. Some studens of maste of art in teaching at school for international training were chosen to be language learners in his Swahili class. In the following morning the knower began the class by reminding the students the first step in the procedure. This was considered important as the class would begin by recording the learners’ voices and this was not common in a language class. Like the student, the knower wore informal clothing without a tie, which is unusual for a guest speaker in united states. The unusual (but warm) informal opening of the class was later identified asestablishing security among the language learners.

Investment: making the recording

The 12 learners were seated on simple metal folding chairs arranged in a tight circle. The other students of the program were standing outside the circle, watching the class. On the floor in the center of the circle was a cassete tape recorder with a start-stop switch on microphone. The knower was outside the circle. The knower said that the class would continue for about 1 minutes. The knower said that the learners who had something to say signaled that fac by raising his/her hand and taking the microphone in his/her hand. The learners talked one another and said something in english. Then, the knower wen and stood behind his/her, placing his hands lightly on his/her arms just below the shoulder, and his face about four inches from his/her left ear. When a learner said something in english. The knower spoke loudly equivalent expressions in swahili language. The knower spoked loudly enough for the other language learners. The learner repeated the knower’s expressions. Some learners could not repeat the whole expressions and the knower spoke the expressions into chunks. After a learner was sure that he/she could speak the expressions, the learners turned on the tape recorder when he/she spoke. Some learners recorded the expressions by chunks as they could not remember the whole expressions. The knower spoke a part of the expressions and they spoke the part and recorded it. By doing this way, the recording was entirely the voices of the learners and entirely in the target language.

Reflection: listening to the tape and writing the conversation down.

The knower and learners then listened to the tape, once without interruption, and once stopping after each sentence for the learners to recall the general meaning of the sentence. Then, the knower and learner played the tape again and the knower wrote down on blackboard. The knower put english literal translation under the swahili expression. The knower did not want the learners to make a copy of the written expressions.

Descrimination: passive listening and writing sentences

The knower then read the sentences and asked the learners not to read the written expressions on the blackboard. The knower read each sentence three times. First, he read every word and literally translated the word into english. The second reading was animated and read as in actual conversation. The third reading was read in positive and optimistic tone of voice. The learners were divided into groups of three and they were asked to make their own sentences in swahili based on the sentences they have learned.

Reflection

After a break, the knower told the learners that he was going to talk to them in swahili for a few minutes. It was a monologue and there would be no questions and answers between the knower and learners. Following the monologue, there was a long silence and the learners began telling what the knower said and the knower confirmed or discofirmed what the learners guessed.

The process of language teaching above may be summarized in a simple procedure as presented in a firs day of CLL class by Dieter Stroinigg (in Stevick 1980: 185-6)

1. The class begins with an informal meeting and everyone introduces himself or herself.
2. The knower makes a statement of the goal and guidelines for the course.
3. They form a circle so that everyone has visual contact with one another and everyone is within easy reach of the microphone of a tape recorder.
4. A volunteer student initiates conversation with other students by giving a message in their mother tongue.
5. The knower goes and stand behind the student, whispes an equivalent translation of the message in the target language.
6. The student repeats the message that has been translated into the target  language and record his expressions in a tape recorder.
7. Each student in the group has a chance to express his/her message and record them.
8. The knower always stands behind the students who are saying their statements and translate their message in the target language.
9. The  tape recorder is rewound and replayed at intervals.
10. Each student repeats his message in the target language.
11. The knower choose sentences to write on the blackboard that highlight some elements of language, such as grammar, vocabulary (traslation) or pronunciation.
12. The students may ask questions about any of the elements discussed.
13. The knower encourages the students to copy sentences from the  blackboard including the translation in their mother tongue. The copy becomes their textbook for home study.

 

Assumption 1

In CLL language learners are seated in circle and they only face onther language learners, and the knower, who is relatively a stranger to them, remains outside the group. The knower is the only one around that the language learners are defending themselves from. By sitting together among other learners in a circle and the knower outside the language learners are not worried about defending themselves. In doing this procedure there is underlying principle about learning. This principle can be stated that the human person learns new behavior rapidly in the learner is not busy defending himself from someone else (stevik, 1976).

Assumption 2

Reffering to the whole person learning, CLL advocates language learning is both cognitive and affective (richards and rodgers, 1986: 17 and 2001). The assumption suggests that interaction between learners and knower is central. In CLL the role of a language teacher is not only to teach a foreign language but also the knower of the target language that has to maintain learners security. This assumption can be traced back to whole-person learning (curran, 1977).

Assumption 3

Referring to the whole-person learning, CLL advocates belive that language learning will take place if language learners maintain their feeling of security. This assumption can be seen from how knower behaves in the classroom as discussed in the procedure section. The knower always maintains learners’ security during the learning process. This calls for creativity of language teaching since different culture sometimes expect different behaviors from teachers in order to keep learners’ security.

Assumption 1

In CLL the class begins with conversation in the language of the learners. Language learners really express what is in their mind and responses from another learners are also logical and communicative expressions. Language learners do not learn what is in teacher’s head or what has been developed in syllabus. This  strategy seems to maintain learners’ security since the learners feel more secure when they know what they are going to study. The procedure above has been developed from the assumption that language is purposeful behavior between people, intertwined with other kinds of purposive behavior between the same people (stevick, 1976)

Assumption 2

La Forge (cited in Richards and Rodgers, 1986: 115-116 and 2002) states that CLL method sees language as social process, meaning that language is person in contact and in response. The assumption of CLL about language can be seen from the process of language teaching. In CLL language is not only used to communicate but also to deepen intimacy between learners and between learners and knower. CLL also sees language as a set of sound systems that have special meanings and grammatical pattern. Since language is considered as social process, the syllabus of CLL method is not prepared. The “syllabus” may be a spontaneous syllabus that happen to be the topic of the discussion proposed by language learners. Language teachers cannot prepare a teaching material as expected by other traditional methods.

 

The basic principles of CLL can be described in processes by which language learners acquire a foreign language. The processes can be considered as stages in language learning.

Stages in language counselor-client relationship from counselor dependency to independence

Stage 1

The client is completely dependent on the language counselor:

1. First, he expresses o nly to the counselor and in his mother tongue what he/she wishes to say to the group. Each group member overhears this english exchange, but is not involved in it.
2. The counselor then reflects these ideas back to the client in the foreign language in a warm, accepting tone, in simple language in phrases of five or siz words.
3. The client turns to the group and presents his ideas in the foreign language. He has the counselor’s aid if he mispronounces r hesitates on a word or phrase.

This is the client’s maximum security stage.

Satge 2

1. Same as above
2. The client turns and begins to speak the foreign language directly to the group
3. The counselor aids only as the client hesitates or turns for help. Therse small independent steps are signs of positive confidence and hope.

Stage 3

1. The client speaks directly to the group in the foreign language. This resumes that the group has now acquired the ability to understand his simple phrases.
2. Same as (3) above.

This presrmes the client’s greater confidence, independence and proportionate insight into the relationship of phrases, grammar and ideas. Translation is given only when a group member desires it.

Stage 4

1. The client is now speaking freely and complexly in the foreign language. Presumes group’s understanding.
2. The counselor directly intervenes in grammatical error, mispronouciation or where aid in complex expression is needed. The client is sufficiently secure to take correction

Stage 5

1. Same as IV
2. The counselor intervenes not only to offer correction but to add idioms and more elegant construction
3. At this stage, the client can become counselor to group in stage I, II ,and III.

The five stages represent how language learners leave their dependency and come to their independence. The stages are the processed in which the knower and the learners interrelate. The relationship may involve either the teacher-knower as the understanding, sensitive counselor and the learners or with the other learners as cognitive counselor. The teacher as the knower may provide the conditions for the learners to acquire a foreign language and at the same time to be involved in learning to communicate with other people. These processes seem to be the response to a problem that language learners may get a high grade in learning a foreign language but are inadequate in communication (curran, 1977).

In stage I total dependency on language counselor (teacher). Ideas that are said in their mother tongue are translated in to a foreign language by the counselor. The counselor speak in the foreign language slowly and sensitively to the client. Even, the counselor speaks a word gy a word in order for the client to repeat the expressions in a comfortable way. This stage is considered as an embryonic involvement between knower and learner as “mother” and “child”. It is argued that in this stage the initial anxiety of language learners is ovecome by the security of the warm relationship between language teacher and language learners. Language learners begin to have a separate identiti by having their voices in the target language tape-recorded.

In stage II the client begins courage to make some attempts to speak in the foreign language as words or phrases from the counselor are picked up and retained. The counselor still helps the client when the client hesitates to speak and need help. This stage is also called self-assertion stage. In this stage language learners start to use simple phrases on their own with great personal stisfaction. The language learners pick up expressions that they have heard and use them as the beginning of their independence.

In stage III the client grows independence with mistakes that are corrected by the counselor. The counselor corrects the mistakes as long as the client needs to be corrected. The counselor does not have to correct the whole mistakes. Correcting the whole mistakes is not always wise for the client’s learning process. In this stage language learners are expected to communicate on his own unless they need help. They undergo a transformation into independence in the foreign language.

In stage IV the client begins to be independent to make their new expressions based on the available words and grammar. The client needs the counselor only for more difficult expressions and grammar. In this stage language learners feel independent in communication and find themselves insulted when they are corrected by the language teacher. When language learner have arrived at this stage, it is dfficult and even envrarrassing for the knower to offer any further knowledge by way of interruption, correction, addition, or better construction.

The last stage, stage V, is the stage of independence. The client makes free communication in the foreign language. The presence of the counselor only reinforces correctness and pronounciation. Even though language learners are independent, they still receive subtle improvements from language expert. Language learners of this stage can then become counselor to other less advanced language learners.

The whole stages how language learners acquire a foreign language may be simplifed into two main steps: investment and reflection (stevick, 1976: 126). In the investment phase, the learner comits himself/herself, as much as he is able and willing, as he/she engages in a conversation with other members of the learning community. Stage I, stage II and stage III seem to belong to the first step: investment, and stage IV and V to the second step: investment. In the reflection phase, the learner stands back and look at what he, as apart of the communith, has done in the investment phase. As he/she remains a member of the community.

In learning a foreign language learners need psychological requirements. In CLL the requirements for successful learning are collected under acronym SARD (Curran, 1976: 6), which can be explained as follows. S stands for scurity. Feeling security is essential in learning-teaching process. Unless knower and learners feel secure, they will find it difficult to enter into a successful learning-teaching process. A stand for attetion and aggression. Without attention language learners will not learn alanguage optimally. Inattetion is considered natural in CLL. Loss of attention is an indication that language learners lack involvement in learning a foreign language. The knower has to consider this condition positively; he/she has to provide variety in learning tasks in order to increase attention and promote learning. R stands for retention and felection. Retention is the final process of absorbing what is studied into oneself and being able to retrieve and use it later with ease. The process of absorbing is then followed by the second R, reflection. Language learners need to take a periode of selence to reflect what has been learned. D denotes discrimination. Language learners need to identify the sounds they are hearing, the meanings of the words they have learned and the grammatical usage. Withour conscious processes of discrimination language learners may think they know what they have learned when in fact they still do not.

Assumption about language and language learning

Different method have different assumptions about language and language learning or teaching. Some methods state the assumptions explicity and some others do not. In some methods the assumptions are implicitly stated. The assumptions of CLL are not purely assumptions about language and language learning as the method was not originally developed for language teaching. The assumptions of CLL are as more psychologically oriented statements about learning in general. The basic principle of counseling-learning have implicarions on language learning and language teaching. The following are the assumptions of CLL method from different sources.

BACKGROUND

Community language learning (CLL) is the name of a method introduced and developed by Charles A. Curran and his associates. Curran was a specialist in counseling and a professor of psychology at Loyola university in chicago. It is no doubt that this method has been ispired by the application of psychological counseling techniques to learning, which is called counseling-learning. Community language learning represents the use of counseling-learning theory to teach foreign language.

If the term “counseling” is traced back, it refers to the idea that there is a relationship between a counselor and a client (s). the counselor give advice, assistance and support to his/her clients, who have a problem(s). In community language learning this kind of relationship is considered basic to learning a foreign language. The teacher functions as the counselor and the learners as his/her clients. Since CLL sees a language learner as tha whole person, including his/her psychological aspects such as emotions and feeling, CLL techniques are also described as humanistic techniques.

The concept of “community” has been used in this method because when such relationship mentioned above is applied specifically to groups with the task of learning a second language a very special kind of community-involvement result. Language learners and their language teacher build an intense atmosphere of warmth. This kind of security and support from one another in the group is really typical in this method and almost the exact opposite of the atmosphere in the schooling setting. The language learners never feel isolated and alone because everybody belongs to the group and everybody sits in a “community” and senses positive regard of everyone else (currant, 1976: 1). CLL represents an attempt to put the insights from psychology to work in the teaching and learning of foreign language. The method emphasizes on “community” learning, as opposed to individual learning as some other traditional teaching does.

If the concept of counseling and its application in community language learning are compared, the language teaching tradition of CLL represent the underlying concepts of the client-counselor relationship in psychological counseling (richards and rodgers, 1986: 114 and 2001).

Psychological counseling

1. Client and counselor agree to counseling
2. Client articulates his/her problems in language of affect
3. Counselor listens carefully
4. Counselor restates client message in language of cognition
5. Client evaluates the accuracy of counselor’s message restatement
6. Client reflects on the interaction of counseling session

Community language learning

1. Learner and knower (teacher) agree to language learning
2. Learner presents to the knower (in L1) a message he/she wishes to deliver to another
3. Knower listens and other learners overhear
4. Knower restates learner’s message in L2
5. Learner repeats the L2 message from to its addressee
6. Learner raplays (from tape or memory) and reflects upon the message exchanged during the language class.

The procedure of CLL above, which has been developed from the concepts of counseling psychology,is not eady to understand and implement in language classes. Language teacher have to develop the principles of CLL by considering conditions and situations where language learners are learning a foreign language. The procedure may be developed in defferent ways, depending on the culture, the proficiency level, and the classroom setting. Language learners from different cultures seem to have different ways of acquiring a foreign language. A language teacher’s behavior also adapt to the culture of the language learners. Some behaviour of a language teacher in learning-teaching process is welcome in a certain culture but may not be proper in another culture. Ways of teaching are also different among students of different levels due to different ways of learning. The suggested procedure may be easily implemented in language classes in western countries, which consist of fewer students than those in asian countries, particularly in indonesia. Even though different procedures of language teaching may exist, CLL has basic principles as proposed by curran (1976: 28-30). The basic principles represent the steps of learning a foreign language.

In language teaching there are different ways of correcting learners’errors in terms of who corrects the errors (walz, 1982): first, the learners who made the error; second,  other leaners in the class; and last the teacher. Walz claim that language learners could locate their errors and then correct them; this way of correcting errors could reduce teacher talk by one-half. This is also believed to reduce the intimidation factor introduced by excessive criticism. The second way is peer correction. Other leaners can involve actively in the process of correcting. This must be done very carefully because it can invite unfavorable comparison between language learners (Stevick, 1980). This way also increases the amount of time that learners talk in foreign language class. The third way is teacher correction. Even though this way has been avoided in language teaching, many language teachers still use it. It is understood if many teachers use this way of correcting errors since sometimes the teacher must tell the class what the errors are and what the proper form are. This is also done because this way can save time and reduce confusion of multiple errors. However, this way has been critized as not demonstrating that language learners are not really learning the target language. Fanselow (cited in Walz, 1982: 18) warns that simply giving the correct answers does not establish a pattern for long-term memory.

Unlike the proponents of the audio-lingual method, who rely on the correction by the teacher by drilling, those of the silent way prefer to use self-correction first, and then peer correction. Teacher should correct errors as a last resort. Cattegno (1976) believe that learners are capable of correcting their own errors, therefore, silence for language teacher is necessary because language learners have work to do to learn a foreign language. The language teacher signals the learners that they have something  to work on without saying  that they have errors. He/she does not judge the utterance that language learners produce and suggests their utterance to compare the  proper utterance produced by other learners. This way represents the principle that language learners need to develop their own “inner criteria” for correctness (larsen-freeman, 1986: 58). Language  teacher not always model new sounds of a target language but rather uses gestures or other signals to show language learners how to modify or correct their sounds. Inner criteria of language learners will monitor and self correct their own production.

The following is the example of correcting errors in the silent way. The example comes from the procedure introduced earlier, except the presense of errors.

T : put two blue rods on the table, pause, and say “two blue rods” (pronounce the sound /s/ very distictively).

T : put three blue rods, pause and say “three blue rods” then point to the two blue rods and give a signal to the language learners to speak.

S1: say “a blue rod” instead of “two blue rods” (error!)

T : signal all learners (not only S1) that there is an error without mentioning it and give an opportunity to S1 to correct if he/she knows.

S1 : (no correction)

T : signal any student to respond to the utterance produced by S1.

S2 : say “two blue rod” (error!) instead of “two blue rods”

T : ask a student who has produced the proper utterance

S3 : say “two blue rods”

T : ask S1 to repeat in non-judgemental manner

S1 : say “two blue rods”

T : ask S2 to repeat with the same manner

S2 : say “two blue rods”

If no learner can correct the error, the teacher should model the utterance to all language learners, again in non-judgmental manner. The whole of process of correcting errors is that learners are first given the opportunity to figure out the error, peer correction and then teacher correction. The teacher is relatively silent and he/she does not criticize or praise so that the learners learn to rely on themselves. Through this process of correction errors, the teacher encourages multi-chanel communication among the learners, among whom there is no leader. In the silent way the teacher sees error sorrection as an opportunity for language learners to learn. Richards and rodgers (1986, 103 and 2001) state that it is this capacity of self-correction through self-awareness that the silent way claims differ most notably from other menthods.

Proponents of the silent way claim that the principles of the method are far-reaching. The principles do not apply in language teaching only. Even, the principles not only affect education but also the way people perceive the living of life itself (larsen-freeman, 1986: 68 and 2000). Language teachers or prospective language teachers have to ask themselves which principles can be implemented in english teaching in their condition and situation. They may develop some techniques deriving from the principles of the silent way and try out the tecniques in teaching english in indonesia.

The silent way procedures begin by introducing the sounds of the target language before attaching them to meanings to prepare learners to learn the target language. This is important for language learners to be familiar with the sounds since the sounds of a foreign language sound strange and funny for beginners. The technique can be done by the language teacher and the sounds of recording of native speakers. The contents of recordings of the listening materials may comprise of lecturing, greeting, informal conversation or discussion. “the capacity of surrendering, to the sounds will bring the learners’ unconsciousness of all of the spirit of a language that has been stored in the language” (cattegno, 1978: 22). This way can introduce the melody of the language to language learners in order for language learners able to be expressive in that language (sakti datta, 1979).

The teaching of the sounds of the target language is typically presented as follows.

At the beginning of the stage, the teacher will model theappropriate sound after pointing to a symbol on the chart. Later, the teacher will silently point ro individual symbols and combinations of symbols, and monitor student utterances. The teacher may say a word and have a student to guess what sequence of symbols comprised the word. The pointer is used to indicate stress, phrasing, and intonation. Stress can be shown by touching out a word. Intonation and phrasing can be demonstrated by tapping on the cart to the rhythm of the utterance (richards and rodgers, 1986: 109-110 and 2001).

After language learners able to produce the sounds of the target language, language teacher continues teaching the language by using rods and word charts. Or, language teacher may use other physical objects, whose purpose is to make meaning perceptible though concrete objects or by representation of experience. Since the method uses “buble” syllabus, the learning objectives are flexible. By using rods, language teacher deals more with speaking and listening for beginning learners and by word charts and pictures he/she can deal with reading and writing.

The purposed procedures in using rods

To some extent, the procedure below is based on the writer’s experience of being a student of a foreign language that took place at the school for international training, brattleboro, vermont, USA in 1987 (also see setiyadi, 1988). Cattegno taught frenc class as a practice of the implementation of the silent way in language teaching.

In the following, “T” is used to indicate teacher, “S” student, and “SS”, student.

The language to teach : a rod

T : take as manya as rods as there are learners or more

T : show rods in different colors and sizes one after another pause, and after each say “a rod”

T : take all language learners to take one rod for everyone and say “a rod”

SS : take a rod and say “a rod”

T : ask each student to take one rod and signal him/her to say “a rod”

The language to teach: colors

T : silently show a blue rod, pause, and then say “a blue rod”

T : show a rod, pause and say “a red rod”

T : show a blue rod to learners and signal them to say “a blue rod”

SS : say “a blue rod”

T : show the red rod and give a signal to learners to say “a red rod”

SS : say “a red rod”

T : show a black rod and say “black”, expecting the learners to say “a black rod”

SS : say “a black rod”

T : show another blue rod

SS : say  “a blue rod”

T : show another red rod

SS : say “a red rod”

T : show another black rod

SS : say “a black rod”

T : show a yellow rod, pause, and say “yellow”

SS : say “a yellow rod”

Teacher and language learners do the same procedures for the rest of the colors. In this procedure, language learners can be introduced with the use of the article “an”. It can be done by introducing as orange rod after they have enough practice with color. It will be presented together with the articles “a” and “the”.

When the teacher silently shows a black rod, and then say “black” instead of “a black rod”, he/she lets the language learners hazard a guess and use their previous knowledge to test their conclusions. Language learners have a creative understanding of the function of the language. They use their independence and they are able to produce sentences that they have never heard before. Teacher’s being silent before he/she says something is meant to give the language learners enough time to make associations. The procedure above continues by having language learners to work in groups of three of four.

The language to teach: numbers and plural form “s”

T : put two blue rods on the table, pause, and say “two blue rods” (pronounce the sound /s/ very distinctvely).

T : put three blue rods, pause, and say “three blue rods”, then point to the two blue rods and give a signal to the language learners to speak.

SS : say “two blue rods” (if the language learners say “a blue rod” instead of “two blue rod”, see the procedure of error correction)

T : point to the three blue rods and again give a signal to the learners to say “there blue rods”

SS : say “tree blue rods” (if the learners make an errors, see the procedure of error correction)

T : show three blue rods, then two blue rods, to the learners and one blue rod.

SS : say “three blue rods, two blue rods and … (they guess “one blue rod: since it has noet been taught)

T : show one blue rod and say “one” instead of “one blue rod”

SS : say “one blue rod”

T : show two red rods and ask the learners to speak

SS : guess and use their knowledge to say “two red rods”

When the teacher pronounces the sound /s/ very distinctively, he is applying the principle that language is learned through largely inductive process (the teacher does not explain the use of grammar rules) and the principle that language learners may experiment with the language in order to test their conclusion. This principle can also be seen from the process when the teacher shows two red rods and they say nothing so that the learner test their conclusion based on the knowledge of two and three blue rods. Teacher and language learners do the same the procedure with the other numbers with rods of different colors.

The number “one” is not first taught and is delayed after the language learners have learners number “two and three”. It is on purpose in order to avois misunderstanding with “a blue rod” which they have learned.

The language to teach : pronouns “this” and “that”

T : take a red rod, locate it at a distance from the learners, point to the red rod and say “that is a red rod”, then take a pink rod, put it close to the learners, point to the pink rod and say “this is a pink rod”

T : signal the learners to speak

SS : say “that is a red rod and this is a pink rod”

T : replace the red rod with a blue rod and the pink rod with a white rod, signal the learners to speak

SS : say “that is a blue rod and this is a white rod”

Following the introduction of practice of “this and that”, the teacher replace the red rod with the blue rod, and the pink rod with the white rod. This is based on the principle that teaching starts from what the learners already know in order to have an association process. The procedure can be continues with other subjects, such as table, chair, blackboard, etc. the sequence of language materials can be presented by using the bubble diagram (see an example of bubble diagram in this chapter). Bubble diagram can vary from one another. It can be arranged based on the creativity and experience in teaching or learning a foreign language. A bubble diagram also guides the teacher to build upon the learning process by adding one new segment of language to the previous one; he/she starts from what the language learners already know in order to encourage association processes. Using a bubble diagram, the structure of the syllabus are not arranged in a linear fashion, but other are constantly being recycled; the recycling is based on linguistic structure.

Besides the assumption about language, it is believed that learning take place more effectively under certain condition. Therefore, the silent way also has some assumptions about language learning. The folloeing are the assumption about language learning.

1. The grammar of the target language is learned througn  largely inductive processes (richard and rodgers, 1986: 101 and 2001). Language learners have to fingd out how the patterns of the target language work. Language teacher just provides the clues that lead them to come to a conclusion and he/she does not explain the usage of grammar rules. The clueing is done are being used. In order to facilitate the inductive processes for language learners, language teacher deals with one rule at a time.
2. Language is learned logically, expanding upon what language learners already know. It is clear that the idea is that language learners know what they are doing. Language learners are not only saying something without being aware of what they are sayng. In order for them to be aware, the new materials have to have a relationship with the previous one so that they can easily make associations since the association process is a necessary part of learning. Thus, language teacher should build upon the learning process by adding one new segment of language to the previous one, he/she starts from what the language learners already know in order to encourange association processes. This is why the advocates of the silent way prefer to use a bubble diagram as a language syllabus (see the example of bubble diagram). To facilitate inductive processes, language teacher is suggested to deal with rule at a time and he/she may use elements in their mother tongue in order for language learners to discriminate and compare the element in the target language, particulary in making sounds.
3. Learning is facilitated if language learners discover or create tather than remember and repeat what is to be learned (richards and rodgers, 1986: 99 and 2001). It implies that language learners should feel to produce their own version of the target language. Errors are used as feedback for the teacher so that he/she can start from the errors to improvee their target language. Language teacher lets his/her students try out the knowledge of the target language in the form of utteance. Memorization and repetition are avoided since it is believed that a human being uses the language by his/her own working, through trial and error and deliberate exprimentation. This process has been used since he/she was a baby. Thus, it is against a natural law to force language learners to memorize and repeat what is to be learned.
4. Learning is a continuing and living process. It occurs on a continuum and leads towards mastery. Advocates of this method believe that learning does not occur abruptly and thus cannot be evaluated immediately. This also means that errors are tolerated since learning a target language takes time and language learners need to try out their understanding of the language. Thus, the learning process and error go hand in hand. Language teacher emphasizes the process, not the product and let the language learners progress at their own rate. The silent way believe that some learning process takes place naturally as we sleep (larsen-freeman, 1986: 61 and 2000).

In order to implement the assumptions above, a certain set of operating principles must be derived from the assumptions in order for language teacher to know what to do and what not to do. The principle of language teaching and language learning represent certain assumption of a method. One assumption may result in several principles that represent it, it may also be possible that an assumption has just one principle as its representation. Language teacher must be able to develop his/her own techniques or activities that are suitable with the situation and condition of the language learners based on assumptions of the method. Some principles of the silent way mentioned above are practical and some are philosophical, and some others seem almost metaphysical and need metaphysical understanding.