Desuggestopedia/Suggestopedia

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Beyza Kayar 220306007
Zeynep Sude Yıldız 220306037
Hayat Demirağ 220306008
Ömer Esat Şimşek 220306002
Sema Kesen 220306027
Desuggestopedia/Suggestopedia
What is Desuggestopedia?

How was Desuggestopedia created?

What are the principles of Desuggestopedia?

Suggestopedic learning environment

What is the role of a teacher in using Suggestopedia?

What are the pros and cons of Desuggestopedia?

Criticism

References
What is Desuggestopedia?

Suggestopedia, also known as Desuggestopedia, is

a method developed by the Bulgarian
psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov from the
1960's to 1990's
 Lozanov was born in 1926 in Sofia.
For 6 years he studied medicine at Medical University
and immediately after that he specialized in psychiatry and neurology
for 3 years, focusing mainly on psychotherapy.
Lozanov, applier of suggestion method in his
medical studies, also applied it to the
education field and found a new methodology
in language education.
He called his new methodology Suggestopedia.
He developed the term by combining two
words: suggestion and pedagogy.
 What led to the creation of this
method?
In connection with the medical work,
Lozanov reached conclusions about
nonconsious influences having an impact on
education, health and communication.
Lozanov believed that when both
hemispheres of brain is working
simultaneously students learned more
compared to their conventional learners.

Lozanov also believed that certain

frequencies of sounds has a accelerating
effect on learning.
in 1978 this methodology was observed
by a commission of experts from
UNESCO and evaluated as a superior
teaching method and recommended for
application all over the world
 Principles of Desuggestopedia

1. In Desuggestopedia, learning should be characterized by the joy

and the absence of tension and it is facilitated in a cheerful
environment.

playing background music,

using soft lighting,
adopting a calming tone of
voice
 2. Humans operate on a conscious and paraconscious level. A
student can learn from what is present in the environment even if
his attention is not directed to it.

3. Suggestion is the means to use the normally unused mental

reserves for learning.

4. The teacher should recognize that learners bring certain

psychological barriers with them to the learning situation, and she
should attempt to desuggest them.

5. If students are relaxed and confident, they will not need to try
hard to learn the language. It will just come naturally and easily.
 Desuggestopedia...

Desuggestopedia is slightly different than

suggestopedia because it not only tries to give
something positive, but it also aims to heal the
negative thoughts of a student by reassuring
and encouraging them.
 Desuggestopedia...

The students could’ve been suggested that their mental capacity

is low and they might fear the class and the topic, they might be
afraid of making mistakes.

With Desuggestopedia, we try to desuggest that our mind has

limits, and encourage the students by showing them they are
capable of learning.
An affective-humanistic approach

Feelings of the students are very important, they

need to feel comfortable and confident, so
roleplaying and drama activities play an important
role in suggestopedia.
There are seven major concepts of Desuggestopedia
according to Lozanov and Gatave (1988).

1. Mental Reserve Capacities (MRC):

Human beings uses 5-10% of brain capacity at

the most. In order to make better use of this
reserve capacity, the limitations should be
desuggested. Desuggestopedia helps students to
eliminate the feeling that they cannot be
successful.
 2. Psychological Set-Up:

Only when a teacher is able to penetrate the set-

up, engaging it in a way which allows it to be
accepted and open to extensions and
transformation, will the real potential of a student
begin to open up.
 3. Suggestion:

There are two basic kinds of suggestion: direct and indirect. Direct
suggestions are directed to students’ consciousness. Indirect
suggestion appeals to the students’ subconscious and is actually the
more powerful of the two.
 4. Successful classroom atmosphere:

The challenge for a teacher is to create a classroom environment that is

bright and cheerful. A positive environment must be created. Classroom
atmosphere is focused on three aspects;

a) Psychological: A nurturing, supportive atmosphere in which the

student feels free to try out the new information, be inventive with it,
make mistakes without being put down, and, in general, enjoy the
learning experience.
b) Educational: The material should be presented in a structured
fashion, combining the big picture, analysis and synthesis. Every
moment should be a didactic experience even when the learning
process is not that apparent.

c) Artistic: The classroom should not be cluttered with too many

posters and unnecessary objects otherwise the students don’t
see them. Good quality pictures should be displayed and
changed every few days.
 5. Peripheral Learning:

This concept is based on the idea that we perceive much more in our
environment that 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.
 6. Anti-Suggestive Barriers:

These anti-suggestive barriers are a filter between the

environmental stimuli and the unconscious mental activity. The
suggestive process is always a combination of suggestion and
desuggestion and is always at an unconscious or slightly conscious
level.
 7. Music:

Music can be a powerful facilitator of holistic full-brain learning and it

is a suggestive, relaxing medium. Music is ideal for creating a mentally
relaxed state. Lozanov (1992) researched a wide variety of means for
presenting material to be learned with background music which
would facilitate the mentally relaxed, receptive state of mind that he
found to be optimal for learning. Lozanov concluded that music
stimulates, invites alertness, and its harmony and order evoke ease
and relaxation.
 “There is no sector of public life where
suggestology would not be useful” (Lozanov 1978:
2).

“Memorization in learning by the suggestopedic

method seems to be accelerated 25 times over
that in learning by conventional methods”
(Lozanov 1978: 27).
 The Teacher’s Role
The teacher’s main role is to desuggest psychological
barriers that learners bring with them to the learning
situation. She/he speaks confidently and gives the
students the impression that learning the target
language will be easy and enjoyable. Once the
students trust the teacher, they can feel more
secure.The major goal of the teacher is to help
students eliminate and overcome the barriers of
learning and to help the students to develop
communicative ability.
Teachers don’t act in a directive
way although this method is
teacher controlled. Teachers act
as a real partner with the
students,participating in the
activities such as games and
songs.
 The teacher uses various activities like dialog,
question and answer, repetition and translation.
The teacher integrates indirect and direct positive
suggestions. To bring a positive expectation of
success, he or she should use a varied range of
methods like dramatized texts, music, active
participation in songs and games, etc.
 The teacher uses various techniques in this method. She/he
makes the classroom environment bright and cheerful. The walls
are decorated with scenes related to their communicative
language. The classroom contains grammatical information
about the target language on classroom walls. The teacher
provides as positive environment as possible.
 Peripheral learning is another technique
used in this method. It is based on the
idea that we perceive much more in our
environment than we consciously notice.
It is claimed that students will absorb the
necessary facts effortlessly by seeing the
information in the classroom walls as
posters and hangings.
 In the Positive Suggestion technique, teacher tells
students that they are going to be successful. This type of
suggestion is called Direct Suggestion and it directly
appeals to the students’ consciousness. The Indirect
Suggestion appeals to the students’ subconscious which is
the more powerful of the two .
 Choosing a New Identity is a wonderful technique used in this method.
The students choose a target language name and occupation. As it
continues, the students have an opportunity to develop a whole
biography about their fictional selves. Role play can also be used as a
technique here. Students are asked to pretend temporarily that they are
someone else and to perform in the target language as if they were really
that person.
 In the technique of First Concert, the teacher
introduces a story as related in the dialogue and
calls her students’ attention to some particular
grammatical points.The students have copies of
the dialogue in the target language and their
native language and refer to it as the teacher is
reading.
 The teacher reads with intoning as selected
music is played. Occasionally the students read
the text together with the teacher, and listen
only to the music as the teacher pauses in
particular moments. This is called an Active
Concert. In the Passive Concert, the students
are asked to put their scripts aside.
 In the Passive Concert, the
students are asked to put their
scripts aside. They simply listen as
the teacher reads the dialogue at
normal speed. In the .
In the Primary Activation technique, the
students playfully reread the target
language dialog out loud, individually or
in groups. The teacher divides the students
into three groups and each group of
students reads the parts of the dialogue in
a particular manner, the first group sadly,
the second group angrily and the last
cheerfully.
 In Creative Adaptation
technique, students engage in
various activities. Activities
include singing, dancing,
dramatizations and games. This
technique is used to accelerate
the process of learning a foreign
language for every day
communication .
 In each technique, errors are
corrected gently and indirectly. The
teacher gives the students the
impression that learning is easy and
enjoyable. Teachers help the students
activate the material to which they
have been exposed and integrate
indirect positive suggestions into the
learning situation.
 Advantages
1. The first and biggest advantage is about the results. In fact,
Suggestopedia speeds the acquisition process up by at least 6 times
(up to 10 times, in many cases). This means people learn much faster
and the acquisition is deeper compared to the acquisition process
taking place with other methods.
2. The amount of input students absorb during a suggestopedic course
is much bigger compared to what they would acquire through other
methods. This means people acquire more, in less time. The
programme is dense. Suggestopedic teachers take beginner level
students to the intermediate level in 72 hours.
Advantages
3. From the learners’ point of view, the acquisition process is
a flow of enjoyable and playful activities, such as language
games, music-based activities, dances and drama. Although
the students are exposed to a huge amount of stimuli, they
never feel under pressure, stressed or frustrated by this. The
key point is that, in a suggestopedic lesson, students learn as
smoothly as they did when they were little kids.
4. No homework needed. This is another interesting feature.
The acquisition process takes place during the classes only.
The students don’t need to revise the lessons at home or to
do homework.
 Advantages
5.The suggestopedic language course, lasting 72 hours, aims to
help students absorb and creatively produce 2,500 lexical units,
enabling them to use 1,800 lexical units.
6. It’s a good boost of self-confidence for the students! The
whole learning experience is pleasant and enjoyable for the
students involved. They learn a lot without effort and with joy.
They link the learning of the target language with pleasant
emotions and a joyful experience.
 Disadvantages
The training room:

It should be a classroom specifically. Also, it should be always the same

during the whole course – no change of room whatsoever. Furthermore, it is
recommended to choose a welcoming room, looking more like a domestic
living room, rather than a school classroom. But these kinds of possibilities
are not available for every teacher or organizations.

The quantity of materials:

What teacher needs to prepare is seriously too much. It takes time to

prepare everything teacher needs: props, toys, exercises, activities, playlists,
posters and etc.
About learning grammar:
This is not a proper method to teach grammar thoroughly as you learn it only
for daily speak.

Changing names and life stories:

With this method teachers can teach the target language but actually they
prevent students from being themselves. It is easy to learn English when you
conceal your name or your life but it is not proper when it comes to be
confident about your life, about your occupation etc.

Absence of assignments test and quizzes:

Because of the need of relaxed environment teachers grade students by their
performance in class but not the traditional test mode. However, it may lead to
lose motivation in learning for some students because there is no pressure.
Music:
For students who cannot study in a noisy environment, using music in the
learning process would not be effective because it will irritate and disturb
them. It is too complicated to practice because it will be difficult to divide their
minds into two sides; one to the music the other to the lesson. These people
prefer to learn in a quiet class rather than in a class with a background sound.

About time:
It will take too long to be at a sufficient level in target language. And this can
be time consuming for teacher or for some students.

Property of method for everyone:

This is kind of method that children will love but it can be irritating for adults
who do not like to be treated in this manner because they think it’s immature.
 Criticism
This is the perfect framework for intensive language courses!
Lozanov used to recommend to try different course patterns and to
keep track of the achievements: if the results are comparable to
those coming from the classical framework, then go for it and
empower it.
If you are not willing to get certified, Suggestopedia can help you
anyway. I strongly believe that such rich and generative pedagogy
can really have a huge impact in all teachers’ practice. This is part of
programmes for language course creators, linguists and language
teachers. Although implementing some of the suggestopedic
teachings won’t make your lessons properly “suggestopedic”, I think
it can help you to get better results and to improve your teaching
practice.
Yes, the amount of materials is big, but once it’s done you can use it
for all your courses.
 This is a really effective method for children and younger learners.
Teacher can use this to make them concentrate more. So that, the
things they learned in the lesson will be on their mind for a long
time.

This method is really useful in the hands of an experimented teacher

who knows what they’re doing. Desuggestopedia should not be
mistaken with having no dicipline in class. It is a fun and engaging way
of learning and i think the information that the students learn would be
permanent in their minds.
 References
https://epale.ec.europa.eu/en/blog/suggestopedia-
method-pros-and-cons
https://acasearch.files.wordpress.com/2015/03/weaknes
ses-of-desuggestopedia.pdf
https://youtu.be/3rkrvRlty5M?si=iJCWX-DjGyT5fubP
https://youtu.be/xy89KQRpasg?si=AzU0Muu61VZHG4W2
https://youtu.be/TKUX9g2rOss?si=8443ruyY7kI-EjCX