language at beginner level can make TPR activities entirely valid. Many learners respond well to
kinesthetic activities and they can genuinely serve as a memory aid. A lot of classroom warmers
and games are based, consciously or unconsciously, on TPR principles.
5.1.7 Suggestopedia (Georgi Lozanov)
Suggestopedia is a teaching method developed by the Bulgarian doctor and
psychotherapist Georgi Lozanov. It is based on a modern understanding of how the human brain
works and how we learn most effectively.
Learning takes place in a tension-free atmosphere, special attention being paid to
furniture and surroundings. Baroque instrumental music is played to enhance learning. Students
sit comfortably while the teacher reads a lengthy dialogue. Students are provided with the text
and the L1 translation. Slow movement music is played. After the interval (no smoking and no
drinking), the teacher re-reads the dialogue while students listen without reading the text this
time. Thus, learners are supposed to remember best from the teacher playing an authoritative
role.
Lozanov’s method seeks to help learners eliminate psychological barriers to learning.
The learning environment is relaxed and subdued, with low lighting and soft music in the
background. Students choose a name and character in the target language and culture, and
imagine that person. Dialogues are presented to the accompaniment of music. Students just relax
and listen to them being read and later playfully practice the language during an “activation”
phase.
Suggestopedia classes are small and intensive, and focus on providing a very low-stress,
attractive environment (with music and meditation) in which acquisition can occur. Some of the
students’ first language is used at the beginning, but most in the target language. The role of the
teacher is very important in creating the right atmosphere and in acting out the dialogues that
form the core of the content. Suggestopedia seems to provide close to optimal input while not
giving too much emphasis on grammar.
The contention is that the general ease of the situation, the adoption of a new identity
and the dependence of listening to the dialogues will help the students to acquire the language.
5.1.8 The Audio-Lingual Method / The Aural-Oral MethodBased on Skinner's Behaviorism theory, the Audio-lingual Method was widely used in
the 1950s and 1960s, and the emphasis was not on the understanding of words, but rather on the