Cognitive code

The age of audiolingualism, with is emphasis on surface forms and on the rote practice of
scientifically produced patterns, began to wane when the Chomskyan revolution in linguistics
turned linguistists and language teachers toward the deep structure of language. Increasing
interest in generative transformational grammar and focused attention on the rule-governed
nature of language and language acquisition led some language-teaching programs to promote a
deductive approach rather than the inductivity of the ALM. Arguing that children subconsciously
acquire a system of rules, proponents of a cognitive code learning into language (see Carroll
1966) began to inject more deductive rule learning into language classes. In an amalgamation of
Audiolingual and Grammar Translation techniques, class retained the drilling typical of ALM
added healthy doses of rule explanations and reliance on grammatical sequencing of material.
Cognitive code learning was not so much a method as it was an approach that emphasized a
conscious awareness of rules and their applications to second language learning. It was a reaction
to the strictly behavioristic practices of the ALM, and ironically, a return to some of the practices
of Grammar Translation. As teachers and materials developers saw that incessant parroting of
potentially rote material was not creating communicatively proficient learners, a new twist was
needed, and cognitive code learning appeared to provide just such a twist. Unfortunately, the
innovation to the rules, paradigms, intricacies, and exceptions of a language overtaxed the mental
reserves of language students.
The profession needed some spice and verve, and innovative minds in the spirited 1970s were up
to the challenge.
Cognitive-code learning refers to a theory of second language teaching and learning rooted in
cognitivist psychology and structural applied linguistics developed in the 1960s. The theory
emphasizes the central role of cognition in the conscious and explicit learning of the rules of a
language as a code. The cognitive-code approach to learning a second language sees it as a study
of language as a complex system with the goal of gaining conscious control of the grammatical,
lexical (vocabulary), and auditory patterns.
DESIGNER METHODS OF THE SPIRITED 1970s
The decade of the 1970s was historically significant on two counts. First, perhaps more than in
order decade in modern language-teaching history, research on second language learning and
teaching grew from an offshoot of linguistics to a discipline in its own right. As more and more
scholars specialized their efforts in second language acquisition studies, our knowledge of how
people learn languages inside and outside the classroom mushroomed. Second, in this spirited
atmosphere of pioneering research, a number of innovative if not revolutionary methods were
conceived. These designer methods (to borrow a term from Nunan 1989a:97) were soon
marketed by entrepreneurs as the latest and greatest applications of the multidisciplinary research
finding of the day.
Today, as we look back at these methods, we can applaud them for their innovative flair, for their
attempt to rouse the language-teaching world out of its audiolingual sleep, and for their

stimulation of even more research as we sought to discover why were not to godsend that their
inventors and marketers hoped they would be. The scrutiny that the designer method underwent
has enabled us today to incorporate certain elements thereof in our current communicative
approaches to language teaching. Lets look at five of these products of the spirited 1970s.
Community language learning
Community language learning (CLL) is a language-teaching method in which students work
together to develop what aspects of a language they would like to learn. It is based on the
Counselling-approach in which the teacher acts as a counsellor and a paraphraser, while the
learner is seen as a client and collaborator.
The CLL emphasizes the sense of community in the learning group, it encourages interaction as
a vehicle of learning, and it considers as a priority the students' feelings and the recognition of
struggles in language acquisition. There is no syllabus or textbook to follow and it is the students
themselves who determine the content of the lesson by means of meaningful conversations in
which they discuss real messages. Notably, it incorporates translation, transcription, and
recording techniques.
Background
The CLL approach was developed by Charles Arthur Curran, a Jesuit priest, professor of
psychology at Loyola University Chicago, and counseling specialist. This method refers to two
roles: that of the knower (teacher) and student (learner). Also the method draws on the
counseling metaphor and refers to these respective roles as a counselor and a client. According to
Curran, a counselor helps a client understand his or her own problems better by 'capturing the
essence of the clients concern ...[and] relating [the client's] affect to cognition...; in effect,
understanding the client and responding in a detached yet considerate manner.
To restate, the counselor blends what the client feels and what he is learning in order to make the
experience a meaningful one. Often, this supportive role requires greater energy expenditure than
an 'average' teacher.
Methods
Natural approach
The foreign language learner's tasks, according to CLL are
(1) To apprehend the sound system of the language
(2) Assign fundamental meanings to individual lexical units and
(3) Construct a basic grammar.
In these three steps, the CLL resembles the Natural Approach to language teaching in which a
learner is not expected to speak until he has achieved some basic level of comprehension.
There are 5 stages of development in this method.

Birth stage: feeling of security and belonging are established.

As the learners' ability improve, they achieve a measure of independence from the parent.
Learners can speak independently.
The learners are secure enough to take criticism and being corrected.
The child becomes an adult and becomes the know-er.
Online communities
These types of communities have recently arisen with the explosion of educational resources for
language learning on the Web. A new wave of Community Learning Languages have come into
place with the internet growth and the boom of social networking technologies. These online
CLLs are social network services such as English, baby! and Live Mocha that take advantage of
the Web 2.0 concept of information sharing and collaboration tools, for which users can help
other users to learn languages by direct communication or mutual correction of proposed
exercises.
Barriers
When learning a different language while in a multilingual community, there are certain barriers
that one definitely will encounter. The reason for these barriers is that in language learning while
in a multicultural community, native and nonnative groups will think, act, and write in different
ways based on each of their own cultural norms. Research shows that students in multicultural
environments communicate less with those not familiar with their culture. Long-term problems
include that the foreign speakers will have their own terms of expression combined into the
language native to the area, which often makes for awkward sentences to a native speaker.
Native students tend to develop an exclusive attitude toward the nonnative speaker because they
feel threatened when they do not understand the foreign language. Short-term problems include
the fact that native students will usually lack in-depth knowledge of the nonnative cultures,
which makes them more likely to be unwilling to communicate with the foreign speakers.
Because these foreign students grew up and were educated in a totally different cultural
environment, their ideologies, identities and logic that form in the early age cause different ways
of expressing ideas both in written and spoken form. They will have to modify and redefine their
original identities when they enter a multicultural environment (Shen, 459). This is no easy task.
Consequentially, a low level of social involvement and enculturation will occur for both native
and nonnative speakers in the community.
The Silent Way
The Silent Way is a language-teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno that makes extensive
use of silence as a teaching method. Gattegno introduced the method in 1963, in his book
Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools: The Silent Way. Gattegno was critical of mainstream
language education at the time, and he based the method on his general theories of education

rather than on existing language pedagogy. It is usually regarded as an "alternative" languageteaching method; Cook groups it under "other styles", Richards groups it under "alternative
approaches and methods" and Jin & Cortazzi group it under "Humanistic or Alternative
Approaches".
The method emphasizes learner autonomy and active student participation. Silence is used as a
tool to achieve this goal; the teacher uses a mixture of silence and gestures to focus students'
attention, to elicit responses from them, and to encourage them to correct their own errors.
Pronunciation is seen as fundamental to the method, with a great deal of time spent on it each
lesson. The Silent Way uses a structural syllabus and concentrates on teaching a small number of
functional and versatile words. 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.
One of the hallmarks of the Silent Way is the use of Cuisenaire rods, which can be used for
anything from introducing simple commands ("Take two red rods and give them to her.") to
representing objects such as clocks and floor plans. The method also draws on color associations
to help teach pronunciation; there is a sound-color chart which is used to teach the language
sounds, colored word charts which are used for work on sentences, and colored Fidel charts
which are used to teach spelling. While the Silent Way is not widely used in its original form, its
ideas have been influential, especially in the teaching of pronunciation.
Background and principles
Caleb Gattegno
Caleb Gattegno, creator of the Silent Way.
Gattegno was an outsider to language education when Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools
was first published in 1963. The book conspicuously lacked the names of most prominent
language educators and linguists of the time, and for the decade following its publication
Gattegno's works were only rarely cited in language education books and journals. 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.
Gattegno was openly sceptical of the role the linguistic theory of his 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". The
Silent Way was conceived as a special case of Gattegno's broader educational principles, which
he had developed to solve general problems in learning, and which he had previously applied to
the teaching of mathematics and of spelling in the mother tongue. Broadly, these principles are:
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.
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. An important part of this ability is being able to use the language for selfexpression; 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. Students are
encouraged to actively explore the language, and to develop their own 'inner criteria' as to what
is linguistically acceptable.
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. As Gattegno says, "The teacher works with the student; the student works on the
language." For example, teachers will often give students time to correct their own mistakes
before giving them the answer to a question. Teachers also avoid praise or criticism, as it can
discourage students from developing self-reliance.
A chart consisting of rectangles of various colors
Gattegno's original sound-color chart for English. This type of chart is 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. 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 elicits sounds that are
already present in the students' native language, and then progresses to the development of
sounds that are new to them. These sound-color associations are later used to help the students
with spelling, reading, and pronunciation.
A word chart. Its color-coding enables the teacher to remain silent while students work out
pronunciation by themselves.
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. These structures
are chosen for their propositional meaning, not for their communicative value. The teacher will

set up learning situations for the students which focus their attention on each new structure. 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. Once the language structures have been presented in this way,
learners learn the grammar rules through a process of induction.
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.
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. 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. 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.
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. 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. Furthermore, teachers may gain
feedback by asking the students at the end of the lesson. 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.
Process
Teaching techniques
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. Being silent moves the focus of the
classroom from the teacher to the students, and can encourage cooperation among them. It also
frees the teacher to observe the class. 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 selfcorrect; they can also help students with their pronunciation by mouthing words without
vocalizing, and by using certain hand gestures. When teachers do speak, they tend to say things
only once so that students learn to focus their attention on them.
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.
Teaching materials
Cuisenaire rods

A set of Cuisenaire rods

The silent way makes use of specialized teaching materials: colored Cuisenaire rods, the soundcolor 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. 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 when
students are learning about time.
A chart consisting of columns of text in various colors
A Fidel chart for English. These charts are used to teach spelling.
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
have and which they have not, which can help their autonomy.

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. 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.
Reception and influence
As of 2000, the Silent Way was only used by a small number of teachers. These teachers often
work in situations where accuracy or speed of learning is important. Their working conditions
may also be challenging, for example working with illiterate refugees. However, the ideas behind
the Silent Way continue to be influential, particularly in the area of teaching pronunciation.

Suggestopedia
Suggestopedia is a teaching method developed by the Bulgarian psychotherapist Georgi
Lozanov. It is used mostly to learn foreign languages.
The theory applied positive suggestion in teaching when it was developed in the 1970s.
However, as the method improved, it has focused more on "desuggestive learning" and now is
often called "desuggestopedia". Suggestopedia is a portmanteau of the words "suggestion" and
"pedagogy". A common misconception is to link "suggestion" to "hypnosis". However, Lozanov
intended it in the sense of offering or proposing, emphasising student choice.
In practice
Physical surroundings and atmosphere in classroom are the vital factors to make sure that "the
students feel comfortable and confident", and various techniques, including art and music, are
used by the trained teachers. The lesson of Suggestopedia consisted of three phases at first:
deciphering, concert session (memorization sance), and elaboration.
Deciphering: The teacher introduces the grammar and lexis of the content. In most materials the
foreign language text is on the left half of the page with a translation on the right half, i.e.
meanings are conveyed via the mother tongue not unlike the bilingual method.
Concert session (active and passive): In the active session, the teacher reads the text at a normal
speed, sometimes intoning some words, and the students follow. In the passive session, the
students relax and listen to the teacher reading the text calmly. Music (" baroque") is played in
the background.
Elaboration: The students finish off what they have learned with dramas, songs, and games.
Then it has developed into four phases as lots of experiments were done: introduction, concert
session, elaboration, and production.
Introduction: The teacher teaches the material in "a playful manner" instead of analyzing lexis
and grammar of the text in a directive manner.
Concert session (active and passive): In the active session, 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. The passive session is done
more calmly.
Elaboration: The students sing classical songs and play games while "the teacher acts more like a
consultant".
Production: The students spontaneously speak and interact in the target language without
interruption or correction.
Teachers
Teachers should not act in a directive way, although this method is teacher-controlled and not
student-controlled. For example, they should act as a real partner to the students, participating in

the activities such as games and songs "naturally" and "genuinely." In the concert session, they
should fully include classical art in their behaviors. Although there are many techniques that the
teachers use, factors such as "communication in the spirit of love, respect for man as a human
being, the specific humanitarian way of applying their 'techniques'" etc. are crucial. The teachers
not only need to know the techniques and to acquire the practical methodology completely, but
also to fully understand the theory, because, if they implement those techniques without
complete understanding, they will not be able lead their learners to successful results, or they
could even cause a negative impact on their learning. Therefore, the teacher has to be trained in a
course taught by certified trainers.
Here are the most important factors for teachers to acquire, described by Lozanov.
Covering a huge bulk of learning material.
Structuring the material in the suggestopaedic way: global-partial partial-global, and global
in the part part in the global, related to the golden proportion.
As a professional, on one hand, and a personality, on the other hand, the teacher should be a
highly-regarded professional, reliable and credible.
The teacher should have, not play, a hundred percent expectation of positive results (because
the teacher is already experienced even from the time of the teacher training course).
The teacher should love his/her students (of course, not sentimentally but as human beings)
and teach them with personal participation through games, songs, classical arts, and pleasure.
Method for children (preventive Suggestopedia)
The method for Adults includes long sessions without movement, and materials that are
appropriate for adults. Children, however, get impacts from "the social suggestive norms"
differently and their brains are more delicate than those of adults. Therefore, another method
with different materials should be applied to children, which better matches their characteristics.
Lessons for children are more incidental and short, preventing the children from the negative
pedagogical suggestions of Society. It is important to tell the parents about the method and their
roles because they could influence children both negatively and positively, depending on how
they support the kids.
Side effects
Lozanov claims that the effect of the method is not only in language learning, but also in
producing favorable side effects on health, the social and psychological relations, and the
subsequent success in other subjects.
Criticism
Suggestopedia has been called a "pseudo-science". It depends, in a sense, on the trust that
students develop towards the method. Lozanov never admitted that Suggestopedia can be
compared to a placebo. He argues, however, that placebos are indeed effective. Another point of
criticism is brought forward by Baur who claims that the students only receive input by listening,

reading and musical-emotional backing, while other important factors of language acquisition are
being neglected. Furthermore, several other features of the method, like the 'nonconscious'
acquisition of language, or bringing the learner into a childlike state are questioned by critics.

Lukesch claims that Suggestopedia lacks scientific backing and is criticized by psychologists as
being based on pseudoscience.
Later variations
Suggestopedia produced four main offshoots. The first was still called Suggestopedia but was
developed in Eastern Europe and used different techniques from Lozanov's original version. The
other three are named Superlearning, Suggestive Accelerated Learning and Teaching (SALT),
and Psychopdie. Superlearning and SALT originated in North America, while Psychopdie was
developed in West Germany. While all four are slightly different from the original
Suggestopedia and from each other, they still share the common traits of music, relaxation, and
suggestion. It is important to stand out that those variants of Suggestopedia mentioned above are
way too far from the original concept and are based on the early experiments, which were left
behind during the new improvements of the method.