Silent Way
The Silent
Way is a language-teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno that makes extensive use of silence
as a teaching technique. It is not usually considered a mainstream method in language
education.[1] It was first introduced in
Gattegno's book Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way in
1963.[2] Gattegno was skeptical of the
mainstream language education of the time, and conceived of the method as a
special case of his general theories of education.
The method emphasises the autonomy
of the learner; the teacher's role is to monitor the students' efforts, and the
students are encouraged to have an active role in learning the language.
Pronunciation is seen as fundamental; beginning students start their study with
pronunciation, and much time is spent practising it each lesson. The Silent Way
uses a structural syllabus, and structures are constantly
reviewed and recycled. The choice of vocabulary is important, with functional and
versatile words seen as the best. Translation and rote repetition are avoided
and the language is usually practiced in meaningful contexts. Evaluation is carried out by
observation, and the teacher may never set a formal test.
The teacher uses silence for
multiple purposes in the Silent Way. It is used to focus students' attention,
to elicit student responses, and to encourage them to correct their own errors.
Even though teachers are often silent, they are still active; they will
commonly use techniques such as mouthing words and using hand gestures to help
the students with their pronunciation. Teachers will also encourage students to
help their peers.
Silent Way teachers use specialized
teaching materials. One of the hallmarks of the method is the use of Cuisenaire rods, which can be used for anything
from introducing simple commands to representing abstract objects such as
clocks and floor plans. The method also makes use of color association to help
teach pronunciation; there is a sound-color chart which is used to teach the language sounds, colored word charts which are used to teach sentences, and colored Fidel charts which are
used to teach spelling.
Background and principles
Caleb
Gattegno, the creator of the Silent Way
Gattegno was a rank outsider to language education
when Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools was first published in 1963.
The book was conspicuously lacking the names of most prominent language
educators and linguists of the time, and Gattegno's works were only cited
rarely in language education books and journals.[3] He was previously a designer of
mathematics and reading programmes, and the use of color charts and colored
Cuisenaire rods in the Silent Way grew directly out of this experience.[4]
Gattegno was openly sceptical of the role linguistic
theory of the time had in language teaching. He felt that linguistic studies
"may be a specialization, [that] carry with them a narrow opening of one's
sensitivity and perhaps serve very little towards the broad end in mind".[5] The Silent Way was conceived as a
special case of Gattegno's broader educational principles, rather than a method
specifically aimed at teaching languages. Gattegno developed these ideas to
solve general problems in learning, and he also applied them to his work in the
teaching of mathematics and the mother tongue. Broadly, these principles are:[6]
- Teachers should concentrate on how students learn, not on how to teach
- Imitation and drill are not the primary means by which students learn
- Learning consists of trial and error, deliberate experimentation, suspending judgement, and revising conclusions
- In learning, learners draw on everything that they already know, especially their native language
- The teacher must not interfere with the learning process
These principles situate the Silent Way in the
tradition of discovery
learning, that sees
learning as a creative problem-solving activity.[4]
Design and goals
The general goal of the Silent Way
is to help beginning-level students gain basic fluency in the target language, with the ultimate aim being
near-native language
proficiency and good pronunciation.[7] An important part of this ability
is being able to use the language for self-expression; students should be able
to express their thoughts, feelings, and needs in the target language. In order
to help them achieve this, teachers emphasize self-reliance.[8] Students are encouraged to actively
explore the language,[9] and to develop their own 'inner
criteria' as to what is linguistically acceptable. [10]
The role of the teacher is that of
technician or engineer. The teacher's task is to focus the students' attention,
and provide exercises to help them develop language facility; however, to
ensure their self-reliance, the teacher should only help the students as much
as is strictly necessary.[11] As Gattegno says, "The teacher
works with the student; the student works on the language."[12] For example, teachers will often
give students time to correct their own mistakes before giving them the answer
to a question.[13] Teachers also avoid praise or
criticism, as it can discourage students from developing self-reliance.[13]
A sound-color chart for English; these charts are used
right from the beginning stages to teach pronunciation and word stress.
In the Silent Way students are seen
as bringing a vast amount of experience and knowledge with them to the
classroom; namely, their first language. The teacher capitalizes on this
knowledge when introducing new material, always building from the known to the
unknown.[14] The students begin their study of
the language by studying its sound system. The sounds are associated to
different colors using a sound-color chart that is specific to the language
being learned. The teacher first introduces sounds that are already present in
the students' native language, and then progresses to sounds that are new to
them. These sound-color associations are later used to help the students with
spelling, reading, and pronunciation.[12]
The Silent Way uses a structural
syllabus. The teacher will typically introduce one new language
structure at a time,
and old structures are continuously reviewed and recycled.[8] These structures are chosen for
their propositional meaning, not for their communicative
value.[15] The teacher will set up learning
situations for the students which focus their attention on each new structure.[12] For example, the teacher might ask
students to label a floor plan of a house in order to introduce the concepts of
inside and outside.[16] Once the language structures have
been presented in this way, learners learn the grammar rules through a process of induction.[15]
Gattegno saw the choice of which vocabulary to teach
as vital to the language learning process. He advised teachers to concentrate
on the most functional and versatile words, to help students build a functional
vocabulary.[15]
Translation and rote repetition are
avoided, and instead emphasis is placed on conveying meaning through students'
perceptions, and through practicing the language in meaningful contexts.[17] In the floor plan example, the plan
itself negates the need for translation, and the teacher is able to give the
students meaningful practice simply by pointing to different parts of the
house.[16] The four skills of active listening, speaking, reading, and writing are
worked on from the beginning stages, although students only learn to read
something after they have learned to say it.[18]
Evaluation in the Silent Way is
carried out primarily by observation. Teachers may never give a formal test,
but they constantly assess students by observing their actions. This allows
them to respond straight away to any problems the students might have.[19] Teachers also gain feedback through
observing students' errors; errors are seen as natural and necessary for
learning, and can be a useful guide as to what structures need more practice.[13] Furthermore, teachers may gain
feedback by asking the students at the end of the lesson.[9] When evaluating the students,
teachers expect them to learn at different rates, and students are not
penalized for learning more slowly than their classmates. Teachers look for
steady progress in the language, not perfection.[13]
Process
Teaching techniques
Just as the name implies, silence is
a key tool of the teacher in the Silent Way. From the beginning levels,
students do 90 percent or more of the talking.[20] Being silent moves the focus of the
classroom from the teacher to the students,[21] and can encourage cooperation among
them.[13] It also frees the teacher to
observe the class.[9] Silence can be used to help
students correct their own errors. Teachers can remain silent when a student
makes a mistake to give them time to self-correct;[13] they can also help students with their
pronunciation by mouthing words without vocalizing, and by using certain hand
gestures.[22] When teachers do speak, they tend
to say things only once so that students learn to focus their attention on
them.[9]
A Silent Way classroom also makes
extensive use of peer correction. Students are encouraged to help
their classmates when they have trouble with any particular feature of the
language. This help should be made in a cooperative fashion, not a competitive
one. One of the teacher's tasks is to monitor these interactions, so that they
are helpful and do not interfere with students' learning.[23]
Teaching materials
A set of
Cuisenaire rods
The silent way makes use of
specialized teaching materials: colored Cuisenaire rods, the sound-color chart, word
charts, and Fidel charts. The Cuisenaire rods are wooden, and come in ten
different lengths, but identical cross-section; each length has its own
assigned color.[20] The rods are used in a wide variety
of situations in the classroom. At the beginning stages they can be used to
practice colors and numbers, and later they can be used in more complex
grammar. For example, to teach prepositions the teacher could use the statement
"The blue rod is between the green one and the yellow one". They can
also be used more abstractly, perhaps to represent a clock or the floor plan of
a house.[24]
The sound-color chart consists of
blocks of color, with one color representing one sound in the language being
learned. The teacher uses this chart to help teach pronunciation; as well as
pointing to colors to help students with the different sounds, she can also tap
particular colors very hard to help students learn word stress. Later in the learning process,
students can point to the chart themselves. The chart can help students
perceive sounds that may not occur in their first language, and it also allows students
to practice making these sounds without relying on mechanical repetition. It
also provides an easily verifiable record of which sounds the students and
which they have not, which can help their autonomy.[23]
The word charts contain the
functional vocabulary of the target language, and use the same color scheme as
the sound-color chart. Each letter is colored in a way that indicates its
pronunciation. The teacher can point to the chart to highlight the
pronunciation of different words in sentences that the students are learning.
There are twelve word charts in English, containing a total of around five
hundred words.[25] The Fidel charts also use the same
color-coding, and list the various ways that sounds can be spelled. For
example, in English, the entry for the sound /ey/ contains the spellings ay,
ea, ei, eigh, etc., all written in the same color. These
can be used to help students associate sounds with their spelling.[26]
Teaching approaches:
what is the silent way?
Level: Starter/beginner, Elementary, Pre-intermediate,
Intermediate, Upper intermediate, Advanced Type: Reference material
An article
discussing the Silent Way approach to language learning.
Tell me and I forget
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn
Benjamin Franklin
Teach me and I remember
Involve me and I learn
Benjamin Franklin
Silent Way originated in the early 1970s and
was the brainchild of the late Caleb Gattegno. The last line of Benjamin
Franklin’s famous quote about teaching and learning can be said to lie at the
heart of Silent Way. The three basic tenets of the approach are that learning
is facilitated if the learner discovers rather than remembers or repeats, that
learning is aided by physical objects, and that problem-solving is central to
learning. The use of the word "silent" is also significant, as Silent
Way is based on the premise that the teacher should be as silent as possible in
the classroom in order to encourage the learner to produce as much language as
possible.As far as the presentation of language is concerned, Silent Way adopts
a highly structural approach, with language taught through sentences in a
sequence based on grammatical complexity, described by some as a
"building-block" approach.
The structural patterns of the
target language are presented by the teacher and the grammar "rules"
of the language are learnt inductively by the learners. Cuisenaire rods (small
coloured blocks of varying sizes originally intended for the teaching of
mathematics) are often used to illustrate meaning (the physical objects
mentioned above). New items are added sparingly by the teacher and learners
take these as far as they can in their communication until the need for the
next new item becomes apparent. The teacher then provides this new item by
modelling it very clearly just once. The learners are then left to use the new
item and to incorporate it into their existing stock of language, again taking
it as far as they can until the next item is needed and so on.
This is perhaps best illustrated by
an example. Let us say that the teacher has introduced the idea of pronouns as
in "Give me a green rod". The class will then use this structure
until it is clearly assimilated, using, in addition, all the other colours. One
member of the class would now like to ask another to pass a rod to a third
student but she does not know the word "her", only that it cannot be
"me". At this point the teacher would intervene and supply the new
item: "Give her the green rod" and the learners will continue until
the next new item is needed (probably "him").
This minimalist role of the teacher
has led some critics to describe Silent Way teachers as "aloof" and,
indeed, this apparently excessive degree of self-restraint can be seen as
such.The prominent writer on language teaching, Earl W. Stevick, has described
the role of the teacher in Silent Way as "Teach, test, get out of the
way". The apparent lack of real communication in the approach has also
been criticized, with some arguing that it is difficult to take the approach
beyond the very basics of the language, with only highly motivated learners
being able to generate real communication from the rigid structures illustrated
by the rods. The fact that, for logistical reasons, it is limited to relatively
small groups of learners is also seen as a weakness.
As with other methods and
approaches, however, aspects of Silent Way can be observed in many lessons in
the modern classroom. In the 1980s and early 90s, for example, it became
fashionable in some quarters to argue that excessive "teacher talking
time" was something to be discouraged. Cuisenaire rods are also popular
with some teachers and can be used extremely creatively for various purposes
from teaching pronunciation to story-telling. The idea of modelling a new
structure or item of vocabulary just once may also have some justification as
it encourages learners both to listen more carefully and then to experiment
with their own production of the utterance. Lastly, the problem-solving feature
of Silent Way may well prove to be its most enduring legacy as it has led
indirectly both to the idea of Task-based Learning and to the widespread use of
problem-solving activities in language classrooms.
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar