Nadia,

I'm far from an expert on the Lozanov method, but I think Lozanov used
hypnosis in various studies he did on the brain.  His study led him to
suggest that the brain learns better and faster if certain conditions
can be created which he applied to an educational philosophy. There are
two or three "schools" of Lozanov.  

A key part of the Lozanov method I experienced was the use of suggestion
and creating "suggestable" conditions.  My experience of the suggestion
techniques was that it was not "hypnosis", but the use of ageless
practices for getting humans in a condition where they can "receive"
information: meditation, guided visualizations, yoga, cleansing rituals,
"change of state/place/condition" rituals,  etc.

Sometimes the suggestions were explicit.  Teachers tell students during
visualizations that they are healthy, happy, ready to learn, etc.  A
central element of the visualization is to relax students and to take
students to a more perceptive/receptive state.  While students have
their eyes closed, the teacher calms students with suggestions that
follow a suggestion pattern that students quickly learn to recognize.
The visualization is constructed to help students return to a time when
they were more playful, curious, trusting, open.  This was an example of
the implicit suggestion:  they are not told to be childlike, but they
reconnect to that time and state.   

Mostly, students were exposed to "clues" about how Spanish works.  We
learned all that the way children do.  I remember only two explicit
statements about Spanish verbs and agreement.  As I am reflecting on
this now, it occurs to me that explicit statements about grammar are
very un-Lozanov, because they create a "knowledge hierarchy" (some
things are more important to learn than others which "warps" they way we
learn) and the teacher is suggesting that this information is "too hard"
to understand by discovery and habituation. 

Thanks for your question.  It made me re-think  and re-live this
experience.

-----Original Message-----
From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov
[mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf Of Nadia and Kevin
Colby
Sent: Wednesday, May 07, 2008 11:17 PM
To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion List
Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2347] Re: Multiple language learning

About 20 years ago, I participated in a workshop
presented in the Language Center of the Independent
University of Mexico.  The presenter was a Mexican
woman who had lived in France for half of her life.  I
was her assistant for that workshop.  My role was
precisely to read in French the material she chose
(simple questions and answers if I am not mistaken)
for the students using Suggestopedia.  I did not feel
that much was accomplished with the students.

Frankly, nothing in the First and Second Language
Acquisition classes that I enrolled in as a not matric
in the Graduate Center of the City Univ. of New York,
suggested that hypnosis was (which is partly what
suggestopedia attempts to use, please correct me if I
am off the  mark) a reliable method.

Particularly with adults learning a second language I
tend much more to believe in contextualized
approaches.  

Perhaps when one already has latent knowledge of
grammar structures, vocabulary and the sound system of
a second language, suggestopedia becomes effective.  

I do remember that one of the most interesting
discussions in the Second Language Acquisition class
(for which I ended up with an incomplete,
unfortunately) dealt more with explicit vs implicit
grammar approaches.  In both cases context played a
very important role.

How did the class you took dealt with
contextualization and what did you like the most about
it?  Would you say that the morphemes that define
tense and pronoun in a null subject language, such as
Spanish can be learned through suggestopedia?

Thanks for your comments, Michael.

Nadia 
--- Michael Tate <mtate at sbctc.edu> wrote:


> I haven't followed the research on this, but I found

> that I learned

> quicker, easier and retained more when I was in a

> Suggestology  (also

> known as Suggestopedia or Super Learning or the

> Lozanov Method) Spanish

> class.  This approach emphasizes playfulness,

> relaxation, the use of

> calming music, visualization,  very rich,

> emotionally-upbeat stories,

> and of course, suggestion.  While suggestion is

> operating all through

> the course, it is most perceptible when students

> listen to dialogs with

> musical backgrounds while waiting to fall off to

> sleep.  I enjoyed

> transforming into a character that I imagined named

> Lorenzo, a Chilean

> poet who loved roses and fine wine who interacted

> with a lot of other

> lovely characters that my classmates had dreamed up.

>  Over the years, I

> have tried to use parts of the Suggestopedia

> approach in our

> no-nonsense, federally-funded ESL classes with some

> success, but the

> federal utilitarianism mandate and the lyrical 

> approach of

> Suggestopedia clash.  

> 

>  

> 

> From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov

> [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf

> Of Martin Senger

> Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 12:07 PM

> To: The Adult English Language Learners Discussion

> List

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2331] Multiple language

> learning

> 

>  

> 

> Pax all!

> 

>  

> 

> Praised be for the Internet! I did a quick google,

> and found the tem

> "hypnopedia." It refers explicitly to learning while

> sleeping. While

> pretty much debunked for general learning, I saw

> nothing which talks

> strictly about sound processing. Just from my own

> experience, there may

> be something to it. I know, from the aforementioned

> 4 & 2-year olds, if

> they make even the slightest "odd" sound while I am

> sleeping, I am

> instantly wide awake. I then listen intently (hence

> the "wide awake") to

> hear any follow-up sounds worth investigating. So,

> that must mean my

> brain is in some way processing some sounds.

> 

>  

> 

> Now I am not saying you could learn another

> "language" while sleeping,

> but is it possible that we could introduce, or maybe

> even "teach" new

> language sounds to the sleeping brain? What say you?

> 

>  

> 

> Martin E. Senger

> 

> Adult ESL Teacher

> 

> GECAC / The R. Benjamin Wiley Learning Center

> 

> Erie, Pa

> 

>  

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov

> [mailto:englishlanguage-bounces at nifl.gov] On Behalf

> Of Andrea Canter

> Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 1:04 PM

> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2328] Re: EnglishLanguage

> Digest, Vol 32,

> Issue 15

> 

>  

> 

> Robin,

> 

> Are their books pretty accessible to lay-people? 

> 

> Andrea

> 

> 

> 

> On Tue, May 6, 2008 at 8:23 AM,

> <englishlanguage-request at nifl.gov>

> wrote:

> 

> Send EnglishLanguage mailing list submissions to

>        englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> 

> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web,

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>       

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> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it

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> Today's Topics:

> 

>   1. [EnglishLanguage 2322] Re: EnglishLanguage

> Digest, Vol 32,

>      Issue 6 (robinschwarz1 at aol.com)

> 

> 

>

----------------------------------------------------------------------

> 

> Message: 1

> Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 22:38:24 -0400

> From: robinschwarz1 at aol.com

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2322] Re: EnglishLanguage

> Digest, Vol 32,

>        Issue 6

> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> Message-ID:

>

<8CA7D3963B24F38-A40-24F7 at webmail-me15.sysops.aol.com>

> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

> 

> 

>  Andrea--there is a whole field devoted to multiple

> language

> acquisition.? Two researchers who have written or

> edited books about

> this are De Angelis and Selinker--they published one

> in 2001 and another

> in 2007.?

> 

> Robin Schwarz

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> -----Original Message-----

> From: Andrea Canter <lucidpandora at gmail.com>

> To: englishlanguage at nifl.gov

> Sent: Sat, 3 May 2008 9:11 pm

> Subject: [EnglishLanguage 2315] Re: EnglishLanguage

> Digest, Vol 32,

> Issue 6

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> 

> I am curious how 3rd and 4th language learning

> differs from 2nd language

> learning. In my own experience, once I started

> learning beyond the

> second language I found myself getting all my

> languages confused. I

> would think and say words in French when I was

> trying to speak German

> and vice versa. This is good in respect to

> exercising the ability to

> think in another language, but obviously very

> cumbersome. Is this

> normally what happens? Is there ANY research on it

> at all?

> 

> 

> Andrea Canter

> 

> 

> 

> 

=== message truncated ===>
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