Accelerated Learning Thesis

Accelerative Learning Abstract INTRODUCTION Chapter 1 Introduction PART 1 BACKGROUND Chapter 2 The evolution of Accelerative Learning from Lozanov to the present 2.1 Introduction 2.2 Suggestopedia 2.3 Adaptations of the Lozanov model 2.4 Superlearning 2.5 Suggestive Accelerative Learning and Teaching (SALT) 2.6 Psychopädie 2.7 Summary PART II LITERATURE REVIEW Chapter 3 The effects of music, relaxation and suggestion in the learning environment. 3.1 Introduction 3.2 Music 3.3 Relaxation 3.4 Suggestion 3.5 General conclusions Chapter 4 A critical analysis of the claims made for Accelerative Learning 4.1 Introduction 4.2 Lozanov's research 4.3 Western research 4.3.1 Non-experimental studies 4.3.2 Experimental and quasi-experimental studies 4.3.2.1 Time saving 4.3.2.2 Improvement in affective variables 4.3.2.3 Improved achievement 4.3.2.3.1 Non-language studies 4.3.2.3.2 Language studies 4.3.2.3.2.1 Comparison with intensive conditions 4.3.2.3.2.2 Comparison with conventional methods 4.3.2.3.2.3 Comparison with non-conventional methods 4.4 General conclusions: research claims

PART III EMPIRICAL INVESTIGATIONS Chapter 5 A quasi-experimental investigation of the effects of Accelerative Learning on behaviour, self-concept, attitude and achievement in the natural secondary school language class. 5.1 Introduction 5.2 Method 5.3 Results 5.4 Discussion Chapter 6 An experimental investigation of the effects of Accelerative Learning on language learning, language self-concept and attitude in the primary school. 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Method 6.3 Results 6.4 Discussion Chapter 7 The effects of Accelerative Learning on the functional use of language in a year 10 German class. 7.1 Introduction 7.2 Method 7.3 Results 7.4 Discussion Chapter 8 Conclusions and recommendations for research

Bibliography Appendices

ABSTRACT The purpose of this thesis was to review and investigate the effectiveness of Accelerative Learning, a teaching method which claims to affect positively both the psychological state of the student and the cognitive learning process. In order to throw some light on the confusion and controversy associated with Accelerative Learning, it was necessary to begin by examining the evolution of the method over the past two decades. This showed that several different versions had emerged since Lozanov's original Suggestopedia, and that important changes had been made to the content and structure of the method. The contribution of three versions - Superlearning, Suggestive Accelerative Learning and Teaching (SALT) and Psychopädie - were examined in the light of relevant research findings, and it transpired that although distinct differences exist between these versions and Suggestopedia, all four have three major elements in common. These are music, relaxation and suggestion. The literature review, therefore, examined the effectiveness of these three elements as individual variables in the learning process as well as the effectiveness of Accelerative Learning as a complete teaching method. Analysis of studies showed consistent findings for the effectiveness of music and relaxation in a variety of learning tasks. Findings for the effectiveness of suggestion as a single variable were less extensive and less consistent. Studies which investigated Accelerative Learning as a complete teaching method in the classroom consistently reported findings for the time saving and for improved achievement (albeit not as dramatic as those promulgated by the popular press), with some indication of improved affective variables being associated with use of Accelerative Learning procedures. The most important gap in the literature was of studies carried out in the natural school environment investigating the effect of Accelerative Learning on affective variables and achievement in the context of language learning. This problem was addressed in the empirical part of the thesis which consisted of three studies. Of major importance in these investigations was that Accelerative Learning was compared to a teaching method with similar objectives and strategies. The first study was a quasi-experiemental investigation of the effect of Accelerative Learning on behaviour, attitude, self-concept and achievement in five secondary school language classes. The findings strongly supported claims for improved behaviour and attitude, with limited support given to claims for improved achievement. Claims for improved self-concept were not supported in this environment.

The second study was an experimental investigation of the effect of Accelerative Learning on attitude, language self-concept and achievement in one primary school language class. Findings strongly supported claims for improvement in all three variables and for high long-term retention rates of materials. The third study was a time-series analysis of the effect of Accelerative Learning on the functional use of language in one secondary school class. Significantly better performance during the experimental phase was found on tests of recall, written word production, writing quality, fluency and transfer skills of structures. No support for high long-term retention rates of vocabulary was found.

Chapter 1 Introduction

Kopf, Herz und Hand. [Head, heart and hand] Pestalozzi

Language teaching in Australian schools is often difficult, despite the fact that Australia is one of the truly multicultural societies in the world. Once the students realise that learning a second language adequately is not as easy or as much fun as they imagined, many lose interest. In particular, those who are only learning a language because the subject is compulsory can become very unenthusiastic � even disruptive � in the classroom. A survey completed as part of the pilot work for this research (Felix 1986) has shown that even good language classes may have students who openly resist learning a language for a variety of reasons. They may believe themselves incapable, find the activity boring or a waste of time, or even react to a xenophobic attitude at home. It would appear that one obvious solution to the problem is to present the language and the learning activity in a more interesting way. The introduction of Communicative Teaching, as exemplified by Widdowson (1978), Brumfit (1979) and many others, to South Australian schools has already improved conditions considerably. In order to develop real communication in the classroom there has been a shift away from the mechanics of language learning which are highlighted by a segregation of specific language areas such as phonology, grammar and lexis, to active language use. Emphasis has moved from teaching 'about' the language to making the learning activity intrinsically worthwhile in order to stimulate and retain students' interest. Materials are presented in a context which is meaningful to the students' lives and practised by means of communicative activities. It seems that Communicative Teaching has indeed made the learning process a more satisfying and interesting one. It has, however, slowed down the process considerably. Practising meaningful materials in pseudo-authentic conditions might be a lot of fun, but it can be an extravagant use of teaching time which is already very limited in schools. There is also a real danger of interpreting a communicative approach as teaching for oral production only, which will act to limit students' overall proficiency.

Yet the positive qualities of Communicative Teaching cannot be denied. We therefore need a strategy which provides the conditions for good communicative teaching in a more economical fashion. A teaching method, developed in the early 1960s in Bulgaria, and referred to as Accelerative Learning in Australia, appears to have the potential to do just that and even more. Not strictly a language teaching method, but a technique applicable to any learning and teaching situation, Accelerative Learning is claimed to improve both the quantity and the quality of teaching as well as classroom conditions. Used for language teaching today, the method can be described as creative communicative teaching with the addition of an intricate combination of music, relaxation and suggestion. It can be seen as a holistic approach to teaching which endeavours to affect positively the psychological state of the student and through this process to facilitate effective learning. While the strategies involved during the elaboration periods in Accelerative Learning, are most like those proposed for Communicative Teaching (Savignon 1972, Rivers 1972,1978, Littlewood 1974,1981, Johnson 1979, Krashen 1976, 1982, Widdowson 1978, Allwright 1979, Brumfit 1979, Krashen & Terrell 1983), Accelerative Learning also includes strategies not explicitly present in other teaching methods. These are best illustrated by taking a brief look at the origins and principles of Accelerative Learning. The original version of the method was devised by Georgi Lozanov, a Bulgarian medical doctor, psychotherapist, Yogi and educator. In the 1950s and 1960s Lozanov was researching suggestion largely in the area of medicine, psychotherapy and parapsychology in Sofia. This field of research became known as Suggestology. Lozanov used suggestion in a waking state (in contrast to hypnosis) in the treatment of skin diseases, ulcers and allergies, in a limited number of organic diseases, and for psychological disorders. He also experimented with reducing sensitivity to pain under extreme conditions such as surgical operations. In a controversial example, Lozanov successfully sustained anaesthetization during a hernia operation lasting fifty minutes which was filmed and subsequently reported at the International Psychosomatic Congress in Rome in 1967 (Lozanov 1978). Lozanov became interested in applying the principles of Suggestology to the learning process. Together with a team of experts he created a unique teaching approach which he called Suggestopedia. The term simply meant what it represented linguistically, namely learning through suggestion. Following his experiences with suggestology and psychotherapy, Lozanov (1978) formulated the following principles of Suggestopedia. 1. Learning is characterised by joy and the absence of tension. 2. Learning takes place on both a conscious and an unconscious level. 3. The learner's reserve potential can be tapped through suggestion. Joy and absence of tension. Suggestopedic classes were designed to take place in a physically pleasant environment, away from conventional academic surroundings.

Classrooms look more like sitting rooms with comfortable easy chairs, plants and colourful posters. Ideally, class size is restricted to a maximum of 15 students. Overall, enjoyment and relaxation are provided in Suggestopedia through the creation of what may be called a positive suggestive atmosphere. The tone is exclusively positive and non-threatening, emphasis is given to co-operation and support rather than to competition, and students are encouraged to function at the highest level of their academic potential. While all this is equally emphasised in good Communicative Teaching and in Humanistic Language Teaching as exemplified by Moskovitz (1978), Suggestopedia has at its disposal more powerful means to realise these conditions. The unique combination of suggestion and music has the potential to create a state of relaxed alertness in the students which Lozanov (1978) calls concentrative psychorelaxation, a state which is not only generally perceived as pleasant, but which is also claimed to enhance learning (Lozanov 1978). Unity of conscious and unconscious processes. Lozanov (1977:3) believes that the "inhibition of unconscious functions during the consciously directed learning process does not correspond to the natural, dialectic, inseparable link between conscious and unconscious processes". This is not meant to imply that unconscious functions remain completely unutilised in conventional teaching approaches (Lozanov 1978:259). Lozanov's system simply draws more attention to the importance of these functions and to ways in which they can effectively be integrated into the instruction process. In practical terms this principle is observed in suggestopedic teaching at all times. It is best demonstrated by looking at the behaviour of the teacher and at the presentation of the materials. The role of the teacher is paramount in Suggestopedia. Lozanov expects a great deal from his teachers. While most of the positive characteristics he outlines (Lozanov 1978:187) are equally required in other successful teaching methods, Lozanov gives special attention to dual plane behaviour. This means that the teachers' verbal behaviour has to be completely congruous with their unconscious non-verbal behaviour. Paralinguistic phenomena such as gestures, mimicry, eye contact and posture are very important in communication and especially in persuasion. Teachers will not succeed in convincing students that learning will be easy and successful while shuffling about nervously and avoiding eye contact with the students. Lozanov (1978:194) suggests that mastery of dual plane behaviour is not achieved through practice which would render the technique artificial, but through sincerity. Paralinguistic elements are also included in the presentation of the materials in Suggestopedia, in particular during the introduction of materials and during the active concert session when verbal language is accompanied by appropriate body language. In this way students perceive the language material simultaneously on a conscious and on an unconscious level. A study by Baur and Grzybek (1984) indicated that learning may be most effective if the non-verbal elements used by the teacher are mimicked by the students. This was not originally suggested by Lozanov.

While the inclusion of paralinguistic elements is not unique to Suggestopedia � it is quite explicit in Asher's (1986) Total Physical Response approach and in Gattegno's (1972) The Silent Way method � one of the major contrasts to other teaching approaches that can be identified in Suggestopedia is the presentation of materials during two distinct modes of students' consciousness. Since students never find themselves in a truly unconscious state, it is perhaps more useful to illustrate the dichotomy by means of Deikman's (1971) model of bi-modal consciousness which consists of an action and a receptive mode. Each mode is characterised by distinct physiological and psychological properties described by Renigers (1981:1): The action mode is basically what could be termed our 'every-day' waking consciousness. It is organised in order to manipulate the environment by selectively attending to certain inputs which are pertinent to a course of action. Physiologically the action mode is characterised by increased muscle tension and beta-wave E.E.G. Psychologically the action mode is distinguishable by object based logic, focal attention, heightened boundary perception and the dominance of formal over sensory characteristics. The receptive mode by contrast is organised to perceive the environment. Physiologically it is characterised by decreased muscle tension and by alpha-wave E.E.G. Psychologically the receptive mode is manifested by para-logical thought, diffuse attending, decreased boundary perception and the dominance of the sensory over the formal.

While it can be said that the largest part of the learning in Suggestopedia takes place in the action mode, namely during the introduction of materials, during the activation and elaboration periods and during the active concert session, an important part also takes place in the receptive mode which is particularly demonstrated in the passive concert session. In this mode students can be described as being in a reverie-like state, completely relaxed, not specifically attending to the music or to the language which are presented simultaneously. Although students are not consciously attending to the learning task, Lozanov (1978:198) claims that "such passiveness facilitates hypermnesia and liberates the intellectual activity to operate without any disturbing strain." While Lozanov himself has not provided empirical support for this claim, research in subliminal learning (Budzynski 1976) indicates that a reverie-like state may indeed be conducive to memorisation. Benefits relating to the psychological and physiological state of the subject resulting from experience of a reverie-like state have further been demonstrated in hypnosis (Erickson 1980), in autogenic training (Schultz 1959) and in biofeedback (Green & Green 1977). Suggestive intervention. Lozanov is interested in expanding the learner's potential on both a psychological level and an intellectual level. His goal is to improve students' selfconcept, their attitude towards learning and the effectiveness of their learning. While all three principles of Suggestopedia are intricately involved in achieving this goal, suggestion is especially useful in overcoming students' barriers to learning. Language students in particular often hold a negative and misguided view about their learning potential which may be negatively reflected in their performance. This is especially the case in the students' oral performance where personality characteristics play an important role. Suggestion is intended to have a direct influence on the students' belief and set (Russel 1979) regarding the nature and difficulty of the task.

Lozanov's idea, however, was not to superimpose a set of suggestions - direct verbal, indirect verbal, direct non-verbal and indirect non-verbal (Schuster & Gritton 1985 define all these in detail) - on the teachers' normal way of teaching, but to integrate these naturally, yet consciously, not only into the instruction process but into their behaviour. In other words, the teaching environment as a whole is perceived as positive, supportive and inspiring. For teachers this means a closer look at their own personality and communication strategies. Generally negative and cynical teachers could never hope to create a lastingly positive and inspiring classroom atmosphere, even if they managed to match their behaviour to the words that were transmitted. As Benoist-Hanappier (in Baudouin 1923:130) put it: We do not act only by our words and by our example. Our personality exercises per se an influence which is as real as it is mysterious. Directly two human beings encounter one another, there ensues a phenomenon analogous to that which physicists describe under the name of osmosis. The intimate and powerful tie between a master and his disciple is sometimes created, not so much by formal instruction as by the instructive personality of the master. Make yourself stronger, make yourself continually better, and then leave your personality to its spontaneous radiation� Unconscious action is often more effective than willed or ostentatious action.

Good teachers are intuitively aware of this fact. Lozanov has simply gone one step further by labelling these expressions of personality, behaviour and communication as direct and indirect suggestion, just as he sees one role of the music as a form of nonverbal suggestion which acts as a stimulus for relaxation. Lozanov is a psychotherapist and therefore uses the terminology of a therapist. This does not mean that he proposes to hypnotise his students � on the contrary, he goes to some length to provide distinguishing factors between suggestion used in hypnosis and suggestion used in Suggestopedia (Lozanov 1978:118). Accelerative Learning sounds like an attractive teaching method which merits investigation since it appears to have the potential not only to provide a stress-free environment but also to accelerate learning and improve psychological measures. Although the approach has already been widely used all over the world, reports of research results have been rather inconsistent, ranging from no significant effects on achievement (Knibbler 1982) to claims of learning being improved by fifty times (Ostrander & Schroeder 1979) and more. The emergence of several versions of Lozanov's original Suggestopedia over the past two decades, including commercial courses which tend to promulgate the exaggerated claims made for the method, have led to a state of confusion and controversy associated with Accelerative Learning. Purpose of present study. In the broadest sense the present study set out to clarify the confusion, to review and investigate in detail the claims made for Suggestopedia and its adaptations, and to find out whether these are still supported when the method is compared to a teaching approach with similar objectives and strategies in the natural school environment.

The thesis is presented in three parts. Part I deals with the evolution of Suggestopedia over the past two decades and the development and contribution of three important adaptations. Part II deals with the claims which are made for individual elements involved in the approach and with the claims made for the method as a whole. Part III deals with empirical investigations of these claims in areas which have not previously been explored. Chapter 2. Since some new versions of Suggestopedia have included elements which were not originally part of Suggestopedia, but which may well have an important effect on learning or affective measures, it was necessary to explore the development of the structure and content of the approach over the past two decades. One important flaw in the research on this subject is that names for the different versions are often used interchangeably, and that little attention is given to the exact content of the treatment administered when interpreting research results. This chapter will provide for the first time a detailed description of the evolution of the structure and content of Suggestopedia and its three major adaptations, identify changes and contributions made to the original version and, in the light of relevant research findings, discuss the merit of additions to Lozanov's Suggestopedia. The term Accelerative Learning will be used to refer to all versions collectively, while individual versions will be referred to by their specific names. Chapter 3. The three major elements common to most versions of Accelerative Learning, and which distinguish the approach from other methods with similar objectives and strategies, are music, relaxation and suggestion. While Lozanov (1978) claims that the combination of these elements is effective in the learning process, he has not provided detailed empirical evidence for this claim. Subsequent research in Accelerative Learning has, however, placed some emphasis on isolating individual elements for investigation in order to determine the relative effectiveness and importance of each of these elements. This chapter provides a detailed review of the relevant literature within the field of Accelerative Learning and in related and independent fields. Chapter 4. Literature reviews on research findings in Accelerative Learning when used as a complete teaching method, have so far been rather skimpy. Even major theses such as Fassiyian (1981) and Botha (1986) are largely restricted to an uncritical report of a small number of research studies. Furthermore, literature reviews tend not to distinguish between different versions of Accelerative Learning being used and, most importantly, with the exception of Schuster (1984) and Schuster & Gritton (1985), little or no distinction tends to be made between controlled experimental studies and nonexperimental studies in terms of the significance of findings. As a result of this it is impossible to arrive at definite conclusions about the exact effects of Accelerative Learning. In this chapter an attempt was made to address these problems. A comprehensive critical review of the literature beginning with the Lozanov studies is presented. This includes non-language studies as well as language studies in order to determine whether the approach is particularly suited to language teaching as has often been claimed. The major aim of the chapter is to identify the claims made for the effectiveness of Accelerative Learning, to examine these in the light of controlled empirical support, and to highlight important gaps in the research.

Chapter 5. Although Accelerative Learning has been extensively used and tested in language classes, the most important gap in the research is of controlled studies in the natural school environment. While the claim for improved achievement appears to be reasonably well supported, claims for improved affective variables such as attitude, selfconcept and behaviour, have not been well supported overall, and particularly not in this environment. Comparative studies have also generally not given much attention to the teaching method used in the control groups. The quasi-experimental study carried out in the natural secondary school environment reported in this chapter addresses these problems. Eight classes and five teachers at three different schools took part in the study. Emphasis was given to the testing of affective variables with language achievement being tested by means of broad measures only. Chapter 6. Following the findings of the secondary school study which showed that use of the Accelerative Learning approach does have the potential to improve affective variables in this environment without compromising language achievement, it was decided to carry out an experimental study on a smaller scale in the primary school environment. The reason for this was threefold. Firstly, a study on a smaller scale allowed for more detailed language tests to be administered. Secondly, a study of this nature could more easily address a possible teacher-treatment confound. Thirdly, a study in the primary school environment could check the responsiveness of younger children to Accelerative Learning. In this study primary school children were assigned at random to either the experimental or control condition and teaching was carried out by the same teacher with teacher behaviour being monitored by independent observers. All four language skills as well as affective variables were tested. Chapter 7. Following the findings of the primary school study which largely supported those of the secondary school study regarding affective measures, and which showed significant allround improvement in language achievement favouring the experimental students, the question arose whether this improved performance in achievement was solely due to improved memory skills, as has been claimed by some critics (Scovel 1979), or whether more sophisticated language skills were also affected by Accelerative Learning. In order to administer detailed language tests, a final study was again carried out on a small scale with one year 10 class providing the subjects. A simple time series analysis was employed which meant that the same group of students took part in both the experimental and the control condition. Teaching was provided by the same teacher for both conditions. Language tests were designed to test both quantitative and qualitative aspects of the students' language use. Chapter 8. Conclusions. The implications of the review and the research findings for Accelerative Learning and for language teaching are considered in this chapter.

Chapter 2

The Evolution of Accelerative Learning from Lozanov to the present

INTRODUCTION So many different versions of Suggestopedia exist that it is difficult to arrive at a description of its structure which would cover all possible variations. A number of adaptations are known around the world today such as Superlearning, SALT (Suggestive Accelerative Learning and Teaching), Psychopädie, LIND (Learning in New Dimensions), Optimalearning and Holistic Learning. Elements have been included or omitted over the years, some according to sound research findings, some simply at a personal whim or more often for better commercial viability. This has resulted in confusion about the exact structure and content of a suggestopedic course. When interpreting research results, it is important to know precisely what form of experimental treatment was used, since the inclusion of visualisation techniques (SALT) or synchronised breathing (Superlearning), for example, may have an effect not otherwise associated with Suggestopedia. Unfortunately not all studies give a detailed description of the treatment used. Furthermore, terms, especially Superlearning and Suggestopedia, tend to be used as synonyms even though there exist clear distinctions between the two approaches. One important element missing in the research is a precise description of the evolution of Suggestopedia since its inception by Lozanov in the 1960s to the present day. Bancroft (1978a,b), Gassner-Roberts (1986a,1986b) and Strudel (1986) point out different versions of Suggestopedia and Bayuk (1983) discusses the possible dangers involved in the confusion of one method with another. Although both Baur (1980) and Philipov (1981) refer to early and later versions of Suggestopedia, neither elaborates further. The aim of this chapter is to present an analysis of the changes that have been made, as well as to provide a detailed description of three versions of Suggestopedia referred to in the literature. These are the two major versions Superlearning and SALT, both North American adaptations, and Psychopädie, a European version. We will endeavour to isolate distinguishing elements between these versions and Lozanov's Suggestopedia, highlight individual contributions in terms of innovation, discuss these in the light of the relevant research and finally, determine whether or not these constitute a beneficial contribution to Suggestopedia.

SUGGESTOPEDIA Suggestopedia has undergone a number of changes since it was first experimentally used by Lozanov in the early 1960s. Why some changes were made is not entirely clear. Lozanov (1978) claims, for example, that research was carried out on the suitability of

certain types of music without giving any further details. Although he elaborates a little in a paper given to American researchers in 1977 (in Hinkelmann 1986), no data is available on this research in the West. Until recently Lozanov himself never gave a clear description of a suggestopedic class. His main publication in English Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy (1978), based on his Ph.D. thesis published in Bulgaria seven years earlier, is poorly organised and somewhat vague when it comes to a description of what actually happens in a suggestopedic classroom. This resulted in harsh criticism by linguists such as Scovel (1979) who based their review of suggestopedic language teaching solely on this publication. Bancroft (1976) suggests that there may have been a deliberate attempt to make the method inaccessible to the West and that certain items, especially those referring to Yoga, may have been removed for political reasons prior to publication. Barzakov (in Ostrander & Schroeder 1979) confirms the notion of secrecy surrounding Suggestopedia in Bulgaria. Confusion about the method became even more acute with the publication of Superlearning (Ostrander & Schroeder 1979). This book gave an account of Lozanov's method that consisted partly of an early version which Lozanov stopped using in the 1970s, and partly of elements that were allegedly observed in classes in Bulgaria, but never officially acknowledged by Lozanov. Furthermore, the book elaborated on Lozanov's method by advocating self-study courses using audio cassettes for instruction. The result of this was that teachers went out to practice what they thought was Suggestopedia, often using Superlearning and Suggestopedia interchangeably as a label for their method. This was particularly true for commercial courses which will be further discussed below. In the 1980s numerous articles appeared, particularly in Western Europe, claiming to describe Suggestopedia. However, no two articles can be found that give an identical account of the structure and content of the method. If we compare Suggestopädie alias Superlearning - Lernen wie ein Kind (Nuber 1986), and Superlearning und Suggestopädie als Superlernmethoden im Fremdsprachenunterricht (Brenn 1986), for example, it becomes obvious that Nuber is describing the American adaptation called LIND while Brenn is clearly describing Superlearning. In order to throw some light on the confusion, which still exists today, we will make an attempt to trace the development of Lozanov's Suggestopedia from its first official model to the latest model first described by Lozanov and Gateva in 1984. Since the changes were made largely within the phase referred to as the suggestopedic session, we will concentrate on this phase here, and give a description of the entire suggestopedic cycle with the final model below. First Model. The first description in English of what is involved in a suggestopedic session can be found in the report of the research committee working on a project in 1965 (Lozanov 1978:25):

The suggestopedic session consists of an active and a passive part. During the active part the teacher reads the unfamiliar words and phrases three times (with their Bulgarian translation), using a special kind of intonation. The students listen intently following the words and phrases on a printed program. During the passive part the students relax in a 'passive' state of distraction without concentrating their attention on anything in particular. The words and phrases are read again with special intonation by the teacher.

The special intonation referred to means that a word or short phrase was presented three times, first in a normal speaking voice, second in a soft voice and third in a loud voice. At what stage the translation was given is not clear from this account, nor is it mentioned at any other stage in the book. Ostrander and Schroeder (1979) report that it was given first, before the intoned target language material. When exactly music was introduced to the programme is also not entirely clear. Lozanov (1978:268) speaking of the "numerous experimental variants" of the suggestopedic session, mentions that "In the beginning the passive part was accompanied by preclassical or classical music playing in the background." The passive part was therefore termed the concert session. The active part was not accompanied by music at this stage, but emphasis was given to a dramatic performance of the materials by the teacher using gestures, mimicry, body language, voice intonation � in short, all possible artistic means available. During this part, students were completely alert, following either their text or the teacher's performance or both. Before the passive part students were given relaxation exercises. Which form the relaxation took is also vague in Lozanov's (1978) own account. The only concrete reference to be found is: "With this variant (the concert session) students used to be trained in muscle relaxation." (p.268) Presumably this relaxation took the form of Yoga exercises and breathing which would explain why later versions such as Superlearning put such a heavy emphasis on rhythmical breathing. Ostrander and Schroeder (1979) report that at this stage students were trained in relaxation techniques for four days before beginning a suggestopedic course. Second Model. In the early 1970s specific relaxation was no longer regarded as necessary since, according to Lozanov (1978:268), the state of pseudo-passivity achieved in the concert part of the session was "sufficient for attaining concentrative psychorelaxation even without resorting to exercises in muscle relaxation and rhythmical breathing." We do not know the reasons for this change. Music gained more prominence in the mid 1970s. The concert session now included two parts, an active concert in which materials were presented with music of the classical period, such as Mozart's Concerto no 7 in D Major for Violin and Orchestra, and a passive concert with pieces from the baroque period such as Corelli's Concerto Grosso, op.6. During the active concert, materials were still presented in the lively fashion described above; during the passive concert materials were read more quietly. Although Lozanov (1978) includes a music list, he gives no specific instructions as to how the pieces are to be used. Ostrander and Schroeder (1979:83) report that, for the passive concerts, only slow movements of the baroque period were used. They were strung

together to create an half hour concert and usually finished with a faster movement to allow students to come out of the reverie state in a pleasant way. Three level intonation was still used for presenting materials in the passive concert, but the voice level was changed with each new word or phrase and repetition disappeared. For example, instead of presenting Guten Tag three times, it was now only presented once in a soft speaking voice, then the next phrase Wie geht's was presented in a normal voice and Danke gut in a loud voice (see Baur 1980 and Jänicke 1982). While Jänicke's account suggests that translations were no longer given, Baur reports that translations were given "softly and neutrally" before the special intonation of each phrase which supports Ostrander and Schroeder's claim (Baur may, however, be referring to the Russian model). Third Model. By the late 1970s the three level intonation as practised above had been dropped (Schmid 1978). The reason for this remains unclear. Lozanov's (1978:269) explanation leads one to believe that he may have wanted to avoid a comparison with hypnosis. Baur (1980) points out that the only criterion for breaking up the text into segments for presentation was that a certain number of syllables was not to be exceeded and therefore little consideration to the natural syntax and semantics was given in the unnatural intonation of language segments. He speculates that the change towards a more natural reading of the materials may have been the result of trying to rectify this problem. During the active concert the music now guides the reading in terms of rhythm and volume. During the passive concert the material is presented in its natural structure of intonation. Lozanov and Gateva (1984,1988) also specify that entire musical pieces should be used now, which supports Ostrander and Schroeder's claim that pieces were used only in parts before. Again no specific reasons for the change are given by Lozanov. Gassner-Roberts (1988a) speculates that the inclusion of all movements of a classical or baroque piece with its distinctly different tempi substitutes for the three level intonation, by raising and lowering the students' activation level in a more natural way. The full suggestopedic cycle, in its latest Lozanov version, has the following structure: 1. P R E P A R A T I O N. No specific relaxation exercises are given to prepare students for the class. Preparation is related to the setup of the room and to giving students information about what to expect in the course of the teaching. The behaviour of the teacher suggests at this stage, as well as throughout the course, that learning will be enjoyable and easier than students may have thought. Emphasis is given to making students comfortable and confident in their abilities. The room is well lit and airy, equipped with comfortable chairs and decorated with posters containing elaborations of the material to be taught. This material is not referred to at the beginning of the course, serving simply as a peripheral stimulus. In language teaching the posters might contain conjugation tables or pronouns, or other explanations of grammar. The posters are richly illustrated using many colours and designs. Before teaching starts, students choose new identities from the target culture.

2. P R E S E N T A T I O N. During this session the materials for the first cycle are handed out to the students. (In the early version students did not have materials at this time � Schmid 1978, Baur 1982). For language teaching they are usually organised in dialogue form, with some explanations of vocabulary and grammar. However, other materials, such as prose texts, songs, poems or grammar, are also presented from time to time. The target language text is given on the left hand side with the translation given on the right hand side. Materials are clearly laid out with wide margins so that texts can be followed easily by the students. If a textbook is used then the translations are given on loose sheets attached to the right hand pages of the book. Lozanov and Gateva's (1984,1988) Italian course, for example, gives the Bulgarian translations on loose strips of paper corresponding line by line with the text in the target language. The first part of this session is called the introduction or decoding. Here the teacher introduces the text to the students using gestures, mimicry and body language, describing characters and settings in the story. Students may repeat the text aloud if they wish but they are not encouraged to read as a group. The text is treated globally; at this stage little detailed information about separate items is given. Students are able to understand the text immediately by glancing at the translations which reduces anxiety about handling rather large chunks of materials. These may consist of 300 to 700 lexical items in one sitting in the first session of an intensive course of 3.5 hours duration and up to 300 in the sessions that follow the completion of the first cycle. The teacher's gestures further reinforce understanding, and help with memorisation. After the entire text has been introduced, the concert session follows. The method book which accompanies Lozanov and Gateva's (1984, 1988) Italian course contains detailed instructions of how materials should be presented during the active and passive concert. The Active Concert. The room is well lit. The students sit calmly in their chairs. They have their texts in front of them. The teacher who is standing reads the text in the target language while an entire piece of classical music is playing in the background. The music is taken from the Vienna Classical period (e.g. works by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven), and from the standard romantic repertoire (e.g. Tchaikovsky's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra, in D major, op. 35). This music is rich in harmony and melody. The teacher calmly waits until the introductory part of the musical piece is finished and then begins the reading, adapting voice modulation and volume according to the rhythms and phrasing of the music. The voice virtually acts as an additional instrument of the orchestra, underlining the musical phrase. Especially important lexical items may be marked by a distinct change in intonation. The teacher looks at the students frequently and uses gestures to illustrate the text. The teacher's diction is clear and each word distinctly shaped phonetically. The students follow the text, glancing at the translations during breaks in the music, at which time the teacher does not read. At the end of the active concert there is a short break when students may get up and stretch, but not talk. The Passive Concert. The room remains well lit. The students are again calmly seated in their chairs. The teacher, too, is now seated. The students have no texts to refer to. The music is taken from the pre-classical (baroque) period, such as works by Bach, Handel

and Vivaldi (e.g. Vivaldi's Concerti for Flute and Orchestra). The character of the music is such that it creates an atmosphere of contemplation and introspection and a removal from everyday problems and conflicts. Only the materials which have been decoded and presented in the active concert are read here; no new materials may be introduced. The teacher waits until the music has begun to captivate the audience before the reading begins. The speed now is that of everyday speech with clear diction. There are no unnatural pauses during the reading. When reading a dialogue the voice is slightly changed to indicate a change in character. The students may choose whether they want to direct their attention towards the music or the reading. When the text is finished, the teacher waits for the musical piece to end, then quietly gets up and immediately leaves the room. The quiet atmosphere at the end of this session prevails. The passive concert always ends the lesson for the day. 3. R E V I E W A N D E L A B O R AT I O N. The first revision of the materials takes place on the next day. However, students are encouraged to read the text again before going to bed and on waking. It is emphasised that they should not learn the text but simply glance through it. Lozanov stresses that the material must be read on the next day or at least within 48 hours after the passive concert. He also stresses that materials must not be practised between the two concerts or immediately after the passive concert. Practice takes place during the review and elaboration sessions in the form of creative communicative exercises. These may include sketches, songs and games. Emphasis is put on meaningful communication. First, however, materials are simply re-read without elaborations. The text is then gradually expanded in terms of vocabulary and/or grammar. The review and elaboration session is usually about twice as long as the previous sessions, and may be extended until the material is believed to have been assimilated. (This may take an entire week if 700 lexical items have been presented). When this stage is reached, the cycle starts anew. According to Lozanov (1978) a first suggestopedic language course is taught over 24 days with four 45 minute sessions daily. It can also be taught in 10 days with the equivalent hours of daily teaching. Approximately 2000 lexical items are presented during such a course. Lozanov does not specifically recommend any distribution for teaching and claims that the suggestopedic cycle can be tailored to normal school or university time tables if block teaching is not possible, without any loss in effectiveness. (Lozanov:321) For school children Lozanov recommends a slightly different procedure during the concert session. While the active concert is almost as above with concessions made to the children's reading ability in terms of speed and understanding, the passive, or in this case pseudo-passive, concert is quite different from that for adults. The same music as for the active concert is used for the reading while the children draw on a subject of their choice. The drawings are displayed and used in the elaboration sessions. Again, Lozanov gives no specific reasons for these recommendations. The music selections for children are different from the ones for adults, however, although works are largely taken from the same composers (e.g. Handel's Watermusic, Vivaldi's Four Seasons).

ADAPTATIONS OF THE LOZANOV MODEL While the above represents Lozanov's latest version of Suggestopedia, several adaptations retaining the same name exist throughout Western and Eastern Europe, most notably the Russian model (see Baur 1980) and the version practised in the German Democratic Republic (GDR). The GDR model is particularly interesting since changes that were made to Lozanov's model were the result of published research findings. Research was carried out at the Institute for Mnemology at the Karl Marx University in Leipzig. The music research, to some of which we have access, led to a different selection of musical pieces for the concert session. The choice of music was arrived at by measuring psycho-physiological responses to certain types of music with the use of polarity profiles completed by the students (Lehmann 1982). The music recommended as a result of this research consists mainly of slow movements of orchestral works by Mozart and Haydn which are strung together to form one piece. Baroque pieces are no longer part of the repertoire. The concert session may start with an introductory adagio by Boildieu, for example, and it always ends with an allegro, e.g. by Haydn. The same collection of music (Lehmann & Gassner-Roberts 1988) may be used in every concert session. According to Gassner-Roberts (1988a:3) in the GDR model the active and passive concerts have been combined into one musical s�ance. Three level intonation (normal, whisper, loud) is still used. Students have their text in front of them, accompanied by a full translation at the beginning and a partial translation later in the course. The teacher waits until the end of the first adagio in order to give students time to 'tune in' to the music before beginning to read a page or a specific section of the text with the next adagio. The students follow their text with their eyes. At the end of that section the teacher says "Eyes closed" and re-reads the same text while the music continues. At the end of this the teacher says "Eyes open" and reads the next section which is then repeated with the students' eyes closed as before. This cycle continues until all the material has been presented. The teacher then says " You have learned � lexical items in the s�ances so far". After waiting for the end of the last adagio, the teacher turns on the allegro and the students open their eyes. They leave the room at the end of the music. Gassner-Roberts (1988a) further reports that while she has experimented with several versions of the concert session over a number of years in the teaching of German to university students, the GDR version was most readily accepted by the students. Although everyone had liked the passive concerts before, the active concerts were sometimes rejected by the students as being artificial and strange. Furthermore, some students, particularly those interested in music, found themselves analysing the different musical pieces presented during the concert session. In the GDR version the students hear

the same music throughout the course which means that they become familiar with it and therefore no longer focus special attention on it.

SUPERLEARNING To describe Superlearning accurately as a method is not easy. There are problems in organising the material since Superlearning is often used simply as a synonym for either Suggestopedia or SALT or for a combination of both. Hinkelmann (1986) deplores the fact that the only attempt made at a distinction between the two is the labelling of Superlearning as the commercial product of the more scientifically valid and serious Suggestopedia. While this distinction may hold true when comparing Superlearning courses which boldly advertise their product with the help of unsubstantiated claims (such as those pointed out by Gassner-Roberts 1987 and Schiffler 1987), this is not always the case with well researched Suggestopedia courses. Undoubtedly there are good and bad examples of all versions of Accelerative Learning. The concern in this chapter is not to compare the different versions in terms of their efficacy, but to identify distinguishing features between each version in order to clarify what has so far been a confused situation for users and researchers alike. The term Superlearning was introduced by two American researchers (Ostrander & Schroeder 1979). They define it thus: Superlearning � refers to an eclectic system for accelerated learning of factual data resulting from westernized, modernized techniques for developing supermemory. Superlearning is also used generally to refer to all the learning systems that work holistically to develop reserves of mind and body. (p.24) We've used the same background sources Lozanov drew from (such as Raja Yoga) and also others he does not mention. We've drawn from Lozanov's own highly creative work. Finally, we've tried to draw from the experience of those who've gotten rapid-learning results in North America. (p.69) This definition suggests that Superlearning was designed using some elements of Suggestopedia and some elements of the American version which became SALT. Superlearning differs from Lozanov's Suggestopedia in several ways. Relaxation. Although Ostrander and Schroeder were aware of the fact that Lozanov had dropped specific relaxation from his programme, they were in agreement with the Western rationale for retaining relaxation and for using special visualisation techniques,

and therefore included both in Superlearning. Since these elements were introduced by the American researchers responsible for SALT, they will be discussed in the relevant section below. Synchronisation. Following Bancroft's (1976) observations, Ostrander and Schroeder (1979) interpreted Lozanov's method as including synchronisation of the students' breathing and the presentation of materials. There is no evidence of this in any of Lozanov's publications, yet Bancroft (1976) felt that this was the vital element withheld from explanations about the method when visiting Bulgaria. It is possible that Bancroft observed classes during the period when Lozanov was experimenting with presenting materials at different intervals. Jänicke (1982) and Baur (1980) report such experiments, although no exact data is given. Apparently Lozanov experimented with presenting words via tape recordings in one second, five second and ten second intervals and found significant differences in retention rate. Reports of the magnitude of these differences vary, however. Ostrander and Schroeder (1979) report that in the one second condition students learnt about 20% of the words, in the five second condition 30%, and in the ten second condition 40%, while Baur (1980) writes that the ten second condition increased retention rate by 10% when compared to the other two. Jänicke (1982) reports that twice as many words were retained in the five second condition and three times as many in the ten second condition when compared to the control groups. Ostrander and Schroeder and Baur do not mention control groups; it is therefore possible that either different experiments were quoted or that the one second condition functioned as the control. Only Baur gives an exact source for the study, Lozanov's Suggestologija, 1971:244, which is not officially available in English. This is just a small example of the inconsistency of reports about research on Suggestopedia. More will be discussed in chapter 4. On the basis of Bancroft's observations in Bulgaria, Ostrander and Schroeder (1979:115) placed a great deal of importance on correct rhythmical presentation of materials in Superlearning. They suggest the following cycle for the presentation of materials and the students' breathing: "All the materials spoken are precisely timed on an 8-second cycle so breathing will naturally fall into a rhythmic pattern of: hold 4; out 2; in 2." This means that the material to be learnt is presented in small chunks during the four seconds in which the students hold their breath. Students are extensively coached in the correct breathing procedure and encouraged to practise several cadences of this breathing before a concert session. Ostrander and Schroeder point out that some students, especially children, have difficulties learning or sustaining the rhythmical breathing; they suggest therefore that taped material could contain a metronome 'tick' to aid with timing. It is not clear why materials are presented in an eight second cycle. Ostrander and Schroeder claim that this was the precise cycle observed by Bancroft in Bulgaria. However, if Lozanov had found the best results with presenting words every ten seconds, why would he have used a rhythm in which words are presented every four seconds? Bancroft (1978a) speculates that he may have switched

to this presentation because of the rhythms of the baroque music but does not give any further explanation. Research on synchronisation is minimal and does not consistently show that it is beneficial to the students' learning. Bordon and Schuster (1976) found a significantly positive effect on retention of vocabulary, while Renigers (1981) speculates in his conclusions that the students' efforts to concentrate on synchronisation may have hampered their relaxation and consequently their performance. For similar reasons almost all practitioners have now dropped synchronisation from their programmes. Renigers' (1981) speculations are supported by Fassihiyan (1981) who reports unfavourable results in Iranian experiments based on Yoga exercises and rhythmic breathing when comparing these to experiments based on music in Canada (Racle 1975). Ostrander and Schroeder (1979) give Shaffer (1979) as one of their sources for the efficacy of breathing techniques in Superlearning. Shaffer claims that the Yoga breathing techniques are the most responsible for rapid learning. He asserts that Lozanov himself was "totally unaware of the key mechanisms responsible for accelerated learning in his method" (p.180) and offers the following scientific explanation of the 'Lozanov Effect': It is asserted that the Lozanov effect achieves memory and learning enhancement by lowering the carbon dioxide concentration of the blood through voluntary hyperventilation, thereby raising the pH level of the body fluids and thus increasing the excitability of the nerve cells. In this way, it is maintained, learning and memory consolidation occur faster than by ordinary means. (p.180) No empirical evidence of how this effect is achieved in Suggestopedia or Superlearning is given. The assertion that breathing is the single most important element in improved learning is strongly refuted by the fact that the majority of studies which report such improvement (see chapter 4) do not use synchronised breathing. Schiffler (1986b) indicates his intentions to investigate the effectiveness of synchronisation following his findings of a positive effect of music as a variable in the intensive language learning environment. Self-instruction. Superlearning is presented as a self-study procedure where materials can be prepared on audio tapes. This is the greatest element of distinction between Lozanov's Suggestopedia and Superlearning. Three very important aspects of Suggestopedia are ignored: the vital role of the teacher, the extensive review and elaboration periods and group dynamics. In Superlearning students are being told that all they need is a tape-recording and a set of instructions in order to accelerate their learning by astounding rates. (Claims made are discussed in chapter 4). The focal part of the method is the supermemory session, which corresponds to the first model of the suggestopedic session described above. The decoding and activation of the materials are left to the students themselves. The passive state of the student is promoted while the active state is largely ignored. Emphasis is given to lowering body rhythms through relaxation and breathing, yet little consideration is given to the fact that, especially in language learning, students need to engage in meaningful communication in order to assimilate the materials given in the concert sessions in terms of functional use.

The structure of a Superlearning programme, as described by Ostrander and Schroeder (1979) is as follows:

SUPERLEARNING

STRUCTURE

1. P R E P A R A T I O N. In order to prepare for the supermemory session, students are encouraged to practise relaxation, either in the form of Jacobson's (1938) progressive relaxation exercises or through visualisation. Many examples are given. They are further instructed to practise the correct breathing procedure and to give themselves affirmations such as Learning and remembering are easy for me. 2. P R E S E N T A T I O N. Before beginning the supermemory session students are instructed to 'review' the materials they wish to learn as vividly as possible. It is suggested that they try to do this in the form of a game, a play or a dialogue. It is difficult to work out how this is done when the materials are completely unknown to the students but no further suggestions are given. Then follows the supermemory session. In the first part, students are instructed to read silently through the materials while the materials are recited either by a person present or on tape. (Extensive instructions for the preparation of tapes are given). In the second part, students are asked to close their eyes and listen to the materials again, this time with the slow baroque movements playing in the background. In contrast to Lozanov's instructions above, students are told to pay attention to what is being said, to breathe in synchronisation with the presentation of the materials, and to visualise the materials. The combination of attention on three complex processes is far removed from Lozanov's original intentions of 'concert pseudo-passivity'. How effective imagery would be in this context, when students are already concentrating on their breathing, is also questionable. Schuster and Wardel (1978) found that imagery as a variable of instruction for vocabulary learning was very effective on its own, but less effective when coupled with other variables. 3. R E V I E W A N D E L A B O R A T I O N. This is the part that is conspicuously missing from Superlearning. Students are simply instructed to give themselves a quiz after the supermemory session and to 'use' the materials they have studied within the next few days. From the point of view of language learning Superlearning in this form has more in common with audio-lingual courses than with Suggestopedia. The addition of music, relaxation and imagery may produce a more efficient and enjoyable audio-lingual course, although no comparative studies are known to this author. The addition of synchronised breathing, however, may hamper students' learning. Superlearning in this form cannot be compared to Suggestopedia which can in essence be described as creative communicative teaching with the addition of music and suggestion. Linguists, notably Baur (1984:292) have criticised Superlearning for the following:

1. Sprachenlernen wird mit dem Lernen von Vokabeln und/oder idiomatischen Redewendungen gleichgesetzt; die produktiv-kreativen und pragmatischen Aspekte von Sprache und Sprechen bleiben unberücksichtigt. 2. Die Sprachbeherrschung wird durch die �bersetzung (meist Herübersetzung von einzelnen Wörtern überprüft; über welche sprachlichen Fertigkeiten die Lerner tatsächlich verfügen, bleibt völlig unklar. 3. Den Lernenden wird suggeriert, sie bräuchten sich nur zu entspannen und könnten den produktiven Gebrauch der Fremdsprache rein passiv erlernen. Es wird ignoriert, daß Sprechenlernen an Kommunikation gebunden ist und ein aktiver Prozeß sein muß; andernfalls werden nur rezeptive Fähigkeiten trainiert (falls das Sprachmaterial dazu geeignet ist).

[1. Language learning is characterised by the learning of vocabulary and/or idiomatic phrases; the productive-creative and practical aspects of language and speaking are not considered. 2. Language competence is tested through translation (mostly from foreign to mother tongue) of single words; which language skills the learners have actually mastered, remains completely unclear. 3. It is suggested to the learners that all they have to do is relax and that they will be able to acquire the productive use of the foreign language by simply remaining passive. It is completely ignored that language learning is coupled with communication and has to be an active process; otherwise only receptive skills are trained (provided that the language materials are suitable).] While Baur's criticism is perfectly valid when referring to Superlearning as described above, it does not hold true when referring to Suggestopedia, although some linguists (Scovel 1979, Brown 1987) appear not to distinguish between the two. Scovel (1979), reviewing Lozanov's Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy, believes that "suggestopedy ...is an attempt to teach memorisation techniques and is not devoted to the far more comprehensive enterprise of language acquisition". (p.260) Given the nature of Lozanov's presentation of Suggestopedia in this book, it is not surprising that Scovel came to this conclusion. Lozanov does speak predominantly of hypermnesia, and he does not describe in detail the entire suggestopedic cycle which includes the extensive review and elaboration session described above. Lozanov is not a linguist, and in this publication he was concerned with the effect of suggestion as related to hypermnesia. To make a valid criticism of Suggestopedia used for language teaching, it is more appropriate to look at courses designed by linguists. The Lozanov cycle described above was designed in collaboration with Novakov and Gateva, both notable linguists, and it includes elements that specifically address the complexity of language learning, long before the advent of Communicative Teaching and the Natural Approach which are generally well received by linguists and with which Suggestopedia has much in common. Following the publication of Superlearning, two things happened. Teachers began using Superlearning in the classroom, and commercial courses, largely following the structure above, were offered. For the former, the model had to be expanded and tended to include Lozanov's review and elaboration sessions. In this form, the method became a

combination of Suggestopedia, Superlearning and SALT. A typical example of this is Dröbner (1986). From now on labels were used almost at random, and if the treatment in experimental studies was not described in detail, it was impossible to know which elements had been included. It followed from this that Suggestopedia was sometimes judged by courses which had little in common with Lozanov's model. The appearance of high profile commercial Superlearning courses contributed to the confusion. Furthermore, many courses of this nature use sensationalist research reports for advertising � such as the claim that language learning can be increased 50 times and more (a claim that Lozanov himself never made but that is attributed to him as a consequence of the confusion) � even though sound scientific data on Accelerative Learning which disputes such claims has become available. This practice did not enhance the credibility of Suggestopedia in the eyes of applied linguists. These courses are generally self-study courses produced on cassettes accompanied by a textbook. They enjoy varying degrees of success depending on how well they are designed and produced. While some courses are very poor in terms of content and structure, there are also some good ones. An example of the latter is a course produced by a psychologist and a linguist in West Germany (Kelly & Hinkelmann 1986). An attempt has been made to include the entire suggestopedic cycle, synchronisation has been dropped and students' arousal level is monitored by alternating active and passive states guided by the appropriate musical backing. Materials are organised in dialogue form, with vocabulary lists and exercises following every chapter. A brief grammatical overview and a small dictionary for travelling purposes are also provided in the textbook. Students are informed about the nature of Superlearning in the introduction. It is suggested that students will learn in a relaxed atmosphere in which learning blocks are impossible. Research in which Superlearning students learnt three times as much as students in traditional courses (Dröbner 1986) is referred to. The term Superlearning is used as a synonym for both Suggestopedia and SALT. The course follows this structure:

COMMERCIAL SUPERLEARNING

STRUCTURE

1. P R E P A R A T I O N. An audio cassette with relaxation exercises is provided. These range from systematic muscle relaxation to visualisation exercises such as mind-calming described below in the SALT section. They are accompanied by music such as the second movement from Beethoven's Emperor Concerto and Pachelbel's Canon finishing with a short piece of the faster third movement from the Emperor Concerto accompanied by wake-up suggestions. 2. P R E S E N T A T I O N. Materials are presented in two concert sessions. For the first concert the students are instructed to remain relaxed but to follow the text in their book. No translations are given during the reading and the target language is read rather slowly. This session is accompanied by the slow movement of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony. Before the next session begins the visualisation exercise given on the preparation tape is repeated.

For the second concert students are instructed to remain completely passive and to enjoy the simultaneous presentation of music and language as if they were at a concert or at the opera. This session is accompanied by Bach's Air and the reading this time includes the translation of the materials which are now presented in short phrases and at normal speed. This session finishes with the same piece of music and wake-up suggestions that were given at the end of the preparation tape. In an accompanying brochure the suggestion is given that during these learning concerts a passive knowledge of the materials is acquired (Hinkelmann 1988:6). 3. R E V I E W A N D E L A B O R A T I O N. The students are now encouraged to practise these materials in a communicative fashion, presumably with a partner. A variety of language games are provided for this purpose. The designers of this course have attempted to include a more substantial activation period of the materials than was suggested by Ostrander and Schroeder (1979). How effective these practice sessions are, however, when students are left to their own devices, cannot be ascertained. Although this course may well be more effective and more interesting than a traditional audio-lingual course, it is far removed from Lozanov's Suggestopedia. The main difference between the two is still the physical presence of the teacher in Suggestopedia. It is the teacher who provides the suggestive atmosphere, creates positive group dynamics, guides the direction of the elaboration exercises and provides constant positive feedback. And even if students were able to conduct their own review and elaboration periods adequately, the cassette course still lacks the coherence of the Lozanov cycle and the positive reinforcement that is gained by the students witnessing each other's progress. The main difference between Suggestopedia and Superlearning when used in the classroom is the latter's use of relaxation and visualisation exercises and the inclusion of synchronisation of students' breathing with the presentation of materials. It does not appear from the research that synchronisation is a beneficial addition to Suggestopedia, which is reflected in the fact that most practitioners of Superlearning and SALT have excluded this element from their teaching. The supposed benefits of visualisation will be discussed in the SALT section below. Since all Western versions of Suggestopedia include some form of relaxation, the effect of relaxation will be explored in chapter 3.

SUGGESTIVE ACCELERATIVE LEARNING AND TEACHING (SALT)

This version of Suggestopedia was developed by a group of American teachers and college professors (Schuster, Benitez-Bordon & Gritton 1976, Schuster & Gritton 1985). Their first version in the mid 1970s followed essentially Lozanov's second model but retained Yoga breathing and exercises and, following Bancroft's (1976) suggestions,

included synchronised breathing during the concert sessions. The Americans believed that specific relaxation was beneficial to students in the Western world, especially in the school environment where students can be hyperactive, badly disciplined and lacking in concentration. While Lozanov (1978) claimed that in Suggestopedia relaxation is naturally produced in the concert sessions and therefore does not need special attention, the Americans reintroduced relaxation, both physical and mental. They believed that the cultural differences between Bulgaria and America (pointed out at length by Barzakov 1982 and Bayuk 1983) were such that Lozanov's model needed to be adapted for American conditions. This adaptation was mainly reflected in the introduction of relaxation and visualisation techniques. In their second version, therefore, the Americans favoured a technique called mindcalming over Yoga breathing and exercises, although some practitioners (Held 1978) used both. Synchronisation was eventually dropped by most practitioners but not by all. The reasons for dropping synchronisation were largely the same as those mentioned above. Prichard and Taylor (1976), for example, report that some learning disabled children had difficulties relaxing while concentrating on the synchronised breathing. Mind-calming consists essentially of visualisation exercises related or unrelated to the subject taught. Its purpose is to focus the students' concentration and attention on the task, to create a positive learning environment and to clear students' minds of all irrelevant information to do with their personal lives (Schuster 1976a). Stricherz (1979) who compared the effectiveness of several physical and mental relaxation techniques, reports that the technique similar to mind-calming as described here "affected blood pressure the least, but provided the greatest self-reported sense of relaxation and wellbeing". (p.189) This suggests that although physical relaxation may be more effective on a physiological basis, mind-calming may produce greater psychological effects. How visualisation can be used to affect the psychological state of the students is extensively outlined in Schuster and Gritton (1985). Nervous or hyperactive students might be calmed through a "walk in the forest", tired students given new energy through "soaking up the sun on the beach" and negative students made more cheerful and positive through recalling a positive learning experience from their past. Schuster (1976a) describes this last technique of restimulation as a Gestalt procedure which involves not only visualisation but also the students' emotions. He claims that this element alone may be effective in increased learning in SALT but gives no further details. He may be referring to early experiments such as Gritton and Benitez-Bordon (1976) who taught mathematics, science and spelling to school children in large classes using restimulation and other forms of mind-calming only. Since there was no control group, Gritton and Benitez-Bordon (1976) report the results on a naturalistic basis: students worked better, were more interested in the subject, were more confident and had fewer discipline problems. Gritton as the teacher felt more relaxed which renewed his interest in teaching. Achievement was not tested experimentally but he reports that "the children went from saying that they could not spell five words a day to fifty" (p.333).

Mind-calming can also be used for subject specific activities. Herr (1981) suggests an interesting visualisation technique related to language learning. Here the students are encouraged to imagine themselves in the environment of the language they are studying, hearing the sounds, seeing the language written on signs, literally experiencing the language. With some imagination this could be transferred to other subjects. Similar techniques have been successfully demonstrated by Swart (1987) in the teaching of a Shakespeare text. Visualisation during mind-calming can also be used for goal oriented purposes, such as students seeing themselves as having successfully completed the course, or at various successful stages along the course. It can further be used to reduce anxiety before tests by students calmly completing the test in their imagination. These techniques are extensively used in Sports psychology. Setterlind, Unest�hl and Kaill (1986) developed a systematic relaxation training for youth, based on visualisation of this kind which was introduced to all Swedish schools and is now in the process of evaluation. Some results are reported in chapter 3. Experimental research on the effects of mind-calming in education is not extensive but suggests a positive effect on learning and behaviour. Stricherz and Stein (1980) investigated the effect of four different relaxation techniques on students' ability to recognise words which had been presented audio-visually after induction to the different conditions. 112 adult students were the subjects in this well controlled experiment. The results showed a significant difference in the number of words recognised favouring the cognitive mind expansion procedure (similar to mind-calming) over the control group. No significant differences were found between any of the other conditions. Galyean (1980) investigated the effect of guided imagery activity on various behaviours of low achieving students at a minority school in Los Angeles. Three independent observers recorded various positive and negative behaviours of students in two Spanish classes taught by the same teacher. Treatment in the experimental class consisted of visualisation sessions lasting five to seven minutes at the beginning of each class. Students were encouraged to a) focus on their inner strength, b) view themselves as potentially successful learners, and c) view the teacher and the others as helpers in their quest for success. Results after three months and 12 observations showed significantly fewer occurrences of negative and disruptive behaviour in the experimental class. It must be pointed out, however, that subjects were not assigned at random, and that the behavioral compatibility of the two classes was not checked before the introduction of the treatment. While Galyean herself realises these limitations, she was satisfied with the classes' compatibility on the basis of teacher reports prior to the experiment. The positive effect of visualisation in the learning environment has further been shown by Kosslyn (1980,1983) and its powerful use in verbal learning by Paivio (1971). Although in SALT visualisation is rarely used for mnemonic purposes as in Paivio and Desrochers (1979), the range of uses is enormous and only limited by the expertise, enthusiasm and imagination of the teacher and the students.

The SALT version described by Schuster and Gritton (1985) is structured as follows:

SALT STRUCTURE 1. P R E P A R A T I O N. This session starts with simple physical relaxation and stretching exercises followed by mind-calming exercises. The visualisation during the latter often takes the form of recalling a pleasant learning experience in the past. The session may include positive learning suggestions related to the ease of learning or to goal setting. 2. P R E S E N T A T I O N. This session is almost the same as that in Lozanov's third model. It begins with a review of previously learnt material, followed by a preview of the material to be studied. The two concert sessions, using Lozanov's early music suggestions, namely classical pieces for the active concert and slow baroque movements for the passive concert, conclude this session. 3. R E V I E W A N D E L A B O R A T I O N. This session follows to a large extent the format suggested by Lozanov's cycle above, but it may include self-corrected quizzes and a mind-calming session at the end of the class. While this is the predominant version of SALT there are slightly altered versions within SALT. Some practitioners insert a mind-calming session immediately before the concert sessions and others practise the material between concert sessions. SALT appears to be a sensible adaptation of Suggestopedia in the Western world. The chief difference between the two approaches is the retention of physical relaxation in the former and the inclusion of mind-calming for mental relaxation during the preparation session. Although research on the effects of mind-calming is limited, there is some indication of its benefits in terms of positively affecting the psychological state of the students as well as improving students' performance in recognition tasks. Mind-calming may therefore well be a valuable contribution to Suggestopedia which is reflected in the fact that it has been adopted by many practitioners of other versions of Accelerative Learning around the world.

PSYCHOP�DIE This version of Suggestopedia was developed in West Germany by Baur (1984) who looked at the method as an applied linguist. While previous versions had been used for teaching various subjects, Psychopädie was specifically designed for language teaching. Baur rejects the long periods of purely receptive states in which students taught with Superlearning, SALT and Suggestopedia find themselves. He believes, in sharp contrast to Krashen (1982), that language learning has to be an active process right from the start. With suggestopedic teaching students may remain passive for the entire first day of an

intensive language course, which would correspond to Krashen's (1982) 'silent period'. Baur has his students reproducing materials after the first twenty minutes of the course. He argues that if active periods are included in the presentation sessions, students will find the transition to the activation periods more natural. He further points out that during the long passive periods, rational-analytical learning strategies may be activated which could hinder communication considerably (Baur 1984:295). While these observations may be justified from a linguistic point of view, the following criticism of Suggestopedia by Baur (1984:294) seems surprising: Der sprachliche Input erfolgt nur über hören, lesen und musikalisch-emotionale Anreicherung. - Da Sprachwahrnehmung in der Kommunikation sehr stark mit nonverbalen Elementen wie Blickkontakt, Mimik, Gestik, Proxemik sowie weiteren Faktoren der Situationswahrnehmung und propriozeptiven Prozessen verknüpft ist, läßt die Suggestopädie (wie auch andere Methoden der Fremdsprachenvermittlung) wichtige Faktoren des Erwerbs unberücksichtigt. [The language input is exclusively conducted via listening, reading and musical-emotional backing. Because language perception in communication is very strongly related to non-verbal elements such as eye contact, mimicry, gestures, proximity, as well as other factors of situational perception and proprioceptive processes, Suggestopedia (as well as other methods of language teaching) does not take into account important factors of acquisition.]

Baur speaks of the students' Wahrnehmung [perception] rather than of the production of language items. Even though the students in Suggestopedia remain physically passive during the presentation stages, they do not exclusively perceive and receive the language via reading and listening. Lozanov (1978) makes it abundantly clear that communication takes place on more than one level, namely verbal and non-verbal and that the teacher needs to use every possible device, such as mimicry and gestures, in order to make materials more accessible to the students. Baur's criticism, therefore, is more appropriate regarding the Superlearning courses produced on cassettes where such elements cannot be included. Baur is, however, justified in claiming that the students are not physically involved in what he terms Gestik during the long receptive periods in intensive suggestopedic courses. He not only believes that the students need to practise the materials earlier than Lozanov suggests, but that they also need to reproduce the non-verbal elements included in the presentation of the materials. He emphasises (Baur & Grzybek 1984:70) that the term Gestik has to be broad since gestures are inevitably linked with other non-verbal and/or paraverbal communication. In order to investigate the efficacy of Gestik in the suggestopedic presentation phases, Baur and Grzybek (1984) carried out a study in which 60 lexical items of Russian were presented to 203 volunteer adult students who knew no Russian. The presentation phases were largely based on Lozanov's first model: 1. First decoding � (bilingual text) with the help of mimicry, gestures and movements. 2. Second decoding � as above, but students imitate words and non-verbal elements.

3. Intoned reading of the material (neutral, loud,whispering) � without music. 4. Musical s�ance � materials read to the playing of baroque music. Presentation of materials took place in three different conditions as follows: 1. Teacher presents materials with Gestik during the first phase. Students reproduce materials with Gestik during the second phase. 2. Teacher presents materials with Gestik during the first phase. Students repeat materials verbally without Gestik during the second phase. 3. Teacher presents materials audio-visually. Students repeat materials verbally. Phases three and four of the presentation cycle remained as above and were identical for all groups. Subjects were given a 20 item multiple choice test immediately after the sessions and one week later. Students did not know that they were going to be re-tested. Baur and Grzybek were particularly interested in the results after one week since items had to be recalled from long-term memory. The results showed the following: 1. An increase in retention rate after one week in the first condition. 2. An unchanged retention rate after one week in the second condition. 3. A decrease in retention rate after one week in the third condition. These trends were highly significant for all within-group tests. Between groups the difference between the first and second condition, as well as between the second and third condition was significant. The difference between the first and third condition was highly significant. In order to integrate these findings and to provide a more balanced model in terms of the alternation of active and passive states in Suggestopedia, Baur (1984) developed the following structure for his Psychopädie cycle (information is included to give some idea about the distribution of time for the individual phases in an intensive language course):

PSYCHOP�DIE

STRUCTURE

1. P R E P A R A T I O N. Before the course begins students are informed about the nature of the course and introduced to the relaxation techniques used. Baur does not specify the time involved. 2. P R E S E N T A T I O N (a) Introduction Phase. The first 20 minutes of the course are spent decoding the new materials in a lively manner integrating non-verbal elements to bring the text alive. This part is identical to the beginning of Lozanov's presentation session, although the short

duration suggests that fewer lexical items are introduced here. Baur (1984:309) stresses that the role of the teacher's use of Kinesik, Gestik and Mimik is not to convey the meaning of the text, since its translation is given, but to activate the interest of the learner and to superimpose on the text characteristics which are perceived via a multitude of channels and are stored as secondary associations which aids in the retention of the materials. (b) Reproduction Phase. The next 90 minutes are spent with active reproduction of the text by the students through interactive exercises. This phase does not exist in this position in any other model of Accelerative Learning; the exercises described here, such as role play and introductions, are part of the review and elaboration sessions in all the above models. In a sense Baur distributes the activities for review and elaboration over two sessions. In this session the learners are to be made familiar with the text so that items used in the activation session are easily recognised. They are given the opportunity to develop their playful-creative fantasy, to lose their fear of speaking, to realise that it can be fun to operate in the target language, and with the integration of physical activities overcome their passive involvement in the learning process. (c) Analytical Phase. This 40 minute session is largely based on the second model of Lozanov's active concert session. Baur (1984:313) points out that here the cognitiveanalytical abilities of the learners are activated through the reading of the text, the recognition of word and syllable divisions, the comparison of mother tongue and target language structures, and the comparison of phonetics and spelling. (d) Associative Phase. This session of 30 minutes is largely based on the first model of Lozanov's passive concert session. Before this session the students have a relaxation period with physical exercises and visualisation exercises. The placement of a relaxation session here, although different from the models discussed above (except Lozanov's first model), is supported by some other practitioners of Accelerative Learning. Stockwell (1985), for instance, feels that students, especially in intensive courses, do not need relaxation at the beginning of the course but at this stage. Baur (1984:315) points out that here the logical-analytical processes of the left hemisphere, which were predominant in the phase before, give way to right hemisphere dominated processes. Now the materials are again perceived globally with the superimposition of the musical structures. 3. A C T I V A T I O N. Baur stresses that before this session at least one night of rest should be given to consolidate the materials. The next four to six hours are spent with the activation of materials in playful communicative situations. Emphasis is put on the development of spontaneous speaking, although writing skills and grammar are also included. Baur (1984:319) believes that because materials were already presented in a playful fashion during the reproduction phase, the transfer from input to activation and functional use is more natural than in Suggestopedia. Psychopädie appears to be a well designed adaptation of Suggestopedia for intensive language teaching. Baur, too, points out that his model can be adapted for different learning environments, provided that the relationship of time and phases is held constant.

The main difference between this model and Lozanov's model is the inclusion of a reproduction phase before the concert sessions. In the Lozanov model as in Superlearning and SALT the students remain in a receptive state right up to the review and elaboration sessions. Baur's model by contrast provides a more even alternation between receptive and active states which may well be more attractive to the students. However, the receptive phases in Suggestopedia are generally not seen as unpleasant, especially by adult students. Baur's model may also be attractive from the teachers' point of view. Intensive courses, in particular, tend to be very demanding on teachers in these prolonged "performance" sessions. In terms of structure all Baur does is reshuffle Lozanov's model by taking some time devoted in Suggestopedia to elaboration and practice and using it for similar purposes in the presentation stages. Although Baur and Grzybek (1984) have given some empirical evidence for the efficacy of students reproducing non-verbal elements in the presentation phase, this study on its own does not give sufficient support to the rationale of including a reproductive phase in the presentation sessions. Lozanov's and more recent researchers' use of non-verbal elements in the review and elaboration sessions, and indeed throughout the suggestopedic cycle, may well prove equally as efficient. In order to prove the superiority of a reproductive phase it would be more appropriate to compare the results after teaching with the entire cycles of both models.

SUMMARY Suggestopedia has undergone a variety of changes over the two decades of its existence. Some changes, mainly those to the concert session, were made by Lozanov himself, others were made by exponents adapting the method for their own environment. The latest version of the suggestopedic cycle includes a preparation session, decoding of the materials to be learnt, an active and a passive concert session in which materials are read with the backing of entire classical or baroque pieces respectively, and extensive review and elaboration sessions.

In Eastern Europe the method differs the least fom this model and it is still referred to as Suggestopedia. Researchers in the German Democratic Republic, however, have reduced the two concert sessions to one and made changes to Lozanov's music selection. Music from the baroque period which is still predominant in Lozanov's selection is no longer used in the GDR as a result of research which showed more favourable student responses for the Vienna classical period. The two major versions of Suggestopedia in the West are Superlearning and SALT, both originating in North America. Another version developed by a linguist in West Germany is called Psychopädie. The originators of these versions have also made changes to Lozanov's Suggestopedia. The chief contribution of Superlearning is the inclusion of synchronisation of breathing and presentation of words during the passive concert session. The limited research does not consistently show this element to have a positive effect on the retention of materials. However, the literature suggests consistently that this element may be cumbersome for the students to handle which is reflected in the fact that synchronisation has been dropped by most practitioners. Superlearning also advocated self-study courses produced on audio-tapes, a system which was adopted by commercial enterprises around the world. Although good examples of such courses exist, vital elements such as the teacher's presence, group dynamics and the communicative interaction between students cannot be included in such courses. The most important contribution of SALT is the inclusion of mind-calming during the presentation phase. Although research, here too, is not extensive, the literature shows a positive trend towards improved learning and improved behaviour as well as other positive psychological effects being associated with mind-calming. This may therefore well be a positive addition to Suggestopedia which is reflected in the fact that most Western practitioners have adopted mind-calming in their programme. The contribution of Psychopädie to Suggestopedia is the insertion of a reproductive phase before the concert sessions. The rationale for this was to break up the long passive states in which suggestopedic students in intensive courses find themselves. Although there is no empirical evidence as yet which supports the efficacy of such a phase, it may well be attractive to students and teachers alike to have a more balanced programme in terms of students' arousal level. Some practitioners already use this phase in their programme, most notably the GDR researchers. Although there are distinct differences between the four versions of Accelerative Learning discussed in this chapter, caution must be exercised when interpreting research results if the treatment is not described in detail. Labels are sometimes used interchangeably, and elements generally associated with a particular version may no longer be used. This has led to some confusion about the exact content of an Accelerative Learning course. However, all four versions consistently use the same three elements. These are music, relaxation and suggestion. While in the West special attention is given to relaxation in the form of progressive relaxation or mind-calming either during the preparation phase or before the concert session, practitioners in the East no longer practice relaxation explicitly. According to Lozanov (1978), however, relaxation is still

produced through other suggestive means, such as music, teacher behaviour and classroom atmosphere. Since music, relaxation and suggestion are also used in most other adaptations of Suggestopedia not discussed here, we can assume that these elements are generally seen as the most important in the approach. The presumed effects of these elements will therefore be discussed in detail in the next chapter.

Chapter 3

The Effects of Music, Relaxation and Suggestion in the learning environment.

INTRODUCTION The aim of this chapter is to investigate whether music, relaxation and suggestion, the three major elements present in most versions of Accelerative Learning, have indeed been shown to be effective in the learning process. For this purpose studies have been reviewed not only within the field of Accelerative Learning, but also outside it. One of the interests in Accelerative Learning research has been to isolate individual elements involved in the method in order to determine their effect on a number of dependent variables. This has been particularly true for the element of music. Some studies have investigated the effect of background music on vocabulary learning, both in laboratory settings (Schuster & Mouzon 1982, Stein et al 1982, Schuster 1985) and in the normal teaching environment (Schiffler 1986b). Other studies, some independent of Accelerative Learning, have looked at the effect of background music on reading performance (Mullikin & Henk 1985), on students' on-task behaviour (Davidson & Powell 1986) and on context-dependent memory (Smith 1985). While the majority of studies explored the effect of music on achievement, Lehmann (1982) investigated psycho-physiological responses to different types of music in order to determine which music may be most readily accepted by students in Accelerative Learning classes. His findings, together with those of Smith (1985), who included white noise as a background to learning, and those of Mullikin and Henk (1985), who investigated the effectiveness of easy-listening background music, are particularly interesting since they indicate that music selections other than those recommended by Lozanov (1978) and Lozanov and Gateva (1988) may be effective in the learning environment. Generally, the role of music in Accelerative Learning has been given more attention by researchers than either relaxation or suggestion. Since Lozanov himself no longer recommends specific relaxation exercises, the question arises whether this element ought to be retained in Accelerative Learning on the basis of the Western research. There have been a number of studies investigating the effect of various forms of relaxation training on achievement (Biggers & Stricherz 1976, Stricherz 1980, Johnson 1982, Baur 1982), on creativity (Gamble et al 1982), and on physiological and psychological variables (Matthews 1983, Setterlind 1983). The most extensive research on the effect of relaxation on achievement independent of Accelerative Learning has been carried out in the field of anxiety research. Since one of the principles of Accelerative Learning is that learning ought to be free from stress and

tension, elements closely related to anxiety, the findings of this research were found to be relevant to this chapter and have therefore been included. The least researched of the three major elements in Accelerative Learning is suggestion. One reason for this may be that this element is particularly difficult to isolate in any teaching environment. Results of studies in which the effect of suggestion in Accelerative Learning was investigated (Bordon & Schuster 1976, Biggers & Stricherz 1976, Schuster & Martin 1980, Renigers 1981) are conflicting. Another reason for the lack of research on suggestion may be its close association with hypnosis. The possible relationship or distinction between Accelerative Learning and hypnosis will therefore also be explored in this chapter.

MUSIC

La musique est la langue du c�ur

[Music is the language of the heart] Rousseau

While most elements of Accelerative Learning can be found in education in some form or other, the genuinely innovative element which Accelerative Learning brings to today's classrooms is the systematic use of music in the instruction process. While the coupling of music and messages is extensively used in advertising and in entertainment, music in education, outside official music classes, tends to be restricted to use with young children in kindergarten and primary school. Although we know from experience that words synchronised with music or rhythm are easier to learn than words alone, preparation of materials in this form with older children or adults are usually only found in music or drama classes, and perhaps in some language classes. The idea of a mathematics class relaxing to the sounds of Handel's Watermusic while the teacher recites a list of formulae, or an English class listening to Pachelbel's Canon while the teacher reads excerpts from a novel, tends to elicit a variety of responses from today's educators, ranging from amusement to disbelief. This form of learning, however, is not new, and has been shown to be effective. As Rose (1985) points out, the coupling of music and recital of words was already used by the ancient Greeks. .....audiences would attend a festival in the Panathenes [of the Panatheneia] once every four years. A presenter would chant the entire Iliad to the heartbeat rhythm of a softly playing lyre. From memory. Records show that many of the audience could remember large passages afterwards. (p.97)

Although the music used has changed, the technique of presenting words and music simultaneously in order to enhance retention of materials has been reintroduced in Accelerative Learning. Two major rationales for this can be identified in Lozanov's (1978) original work. The first was Lozanov's belief that music has the potential to create a state of relaxed alertness in the students which he calls psychorelaxation. Lozanov (1978) found that the body rhythms of students adjusted to the rhythms of the baroque music he used. He recorded a significant increase in alpha brain waves during the passive concert sessions with a corresponding decrease in beta waves. He also recorded a drop in blood pressure and a slowing of the pulse. According to the relaxation and anxiety research discussed below, this state may be conducive to better performance. The second rationale for the use of music in the instruction process was the idea of whole brain learning. Lozanov (1978) believed that the interaction of both hemispheres together with the neo-cortex had a positive effect on retention rates of learned materials. Research by Claycomb (1978) supports this claim. Other models on brain functioning, such as the Triune Brain system (McLean 1973), the Taxon and Locale Memory system (O'Keefe & Nadel 1978) and the Holographic Memory system (Pribram & Coleman 1979) also suggest, according to Stein et al. (1982), that multiple channels of input will increase information retention. In Accelerative Learning language and music are presented simultaneously resulting in a complex interaction between both hemispheres and the neo-cortex. Strict lateralisation of music and language processing, as has been shown by Duffy et al (1981), can no longer

generally be supported since it has been demonstrated that different and extended areas of both hemispheres undergo changes during musical tasks (Petsche et al 1985). While Duffy et al (1981) suggested that language is processed by the left hemisphere while music is processed by the right hemisphere, Petsche et al (1985) found that subjects listening to a Mozart symphony generated totally different topographic patterns of changes of the E.E.G. parameters studied. The latter's findings support the proposition of Bever and Chiarello (1974) who suggested that the holistic appreciation of music of naive listeners is usually processed by the right hemisphere, whereas musically trained listeners tend to use their "analytical" left hemisphere. The most detailed research on the role of music in Accelerative Learning has been carried out by Lehmann (1982,1983,1984) in the G.D.R. whose major findings are reported in translation in Lehmann and Gassner-Roberts (1988). In this publication Lehmann and Gassner-Roberts (1988:47) offer an even more detailed description of the relative roles of the two cerebral hemispheres in the processing of music and language: In righthanded people and at least 60% of lefthanders the rhythm of music appears to be processed by the left (speech) hemisphere, while melody, tonality, timbre (in speech: intonation, pitch, gestures, mimicry), etc. seem to be processed by the right hemisphere. Although both hemispheres interact closely, each has specific tasks to fulfill.

Lehmann's work draws on the findings of music therapy which have shown that "the use of music for therapeutic purposes and for rehabilitation of the learning-disabled children can lead to a behaviour modification which contributes to mental and physiological recovery" (Lehmann & Gassner-Roberts 1988:3). He states, however, that: Contrary to the use of music in music therapy and pedagogy for the learning- disabled, music in the normal learning process has to be seen as a medium of communication additional to language. In this process the experience gained from the use of music therapy has to be utilized, but always keeping in mind the specifics of the learning behaviour of the average student. However, music has an ideal combination of cognitive, affective and psychomotor elements which stimulate and activate the psychic reserves of the learner so that these reserves can be utilized in the learner's learning behaviour, thus improving his/her mental capacity. (p.3)

Lehmann believes that the function of the music in Accelerative Learning is twofold. On the one hand it relaxes the students, on the other it broadens and changes the potential perceptions of the students. He claims that "the change of perception through music can influence the attitude to learning" and "effect an expansion of attention" (Lehmann & Gassner-Roberts 1988:29). Assuming that there are sound physiological and psychological reasons for using music in the instruction process, can the research back up the claims for the consequent improved performance? We will now look in detail at studies which have investigated the effect of background music either during learning or during testing or both. We will also look at different music styles in order to find out which type of music may be the most effective.

Bordon and Schuster (1976) found that baroque music by Vivaldi and Bach resulted in a significant improvement in scores in a Spanish paired-associates task as compared to when this music was not played during the learning period in a laboratory setting. This study is further discussed in the suggestion section below. The findings for significantly improved performance as a result of baroque background music in a laboratory setting are supported by Renigers (1981), Baur (1982), and by Stein et al. (1982). In the natural teaching environment they are supported by Schiffler (1986b) This study is discussed in detail in chapter 4. While all the laboratory studies investigated the effect of baroque music on learning, Schuster and Mouzon (1982) also included classical music for investigation. The effects of three treatment conditions - no music, baroque music as background to presenting rare English words and their definitions, and classical music in the same context - on the recall score immediately after the learning task and on retention scores 7 days later, were investigated in this study. It must be pointed out that the format for the immediate and the delayed tests was not identical. In the immediate test students were required to provide the appropriate definition of the words presented. This can be described as testing the students' recall ability. In the delayed tests students were required to match words to the correct definition. This can be described as testing the students' recognition ability. Subjects were 228 volunteer college students divided into 18 treatment groups. They were sequentially given four vocabulary lists to learn, two of which were classified as easy and two as hard. Subjects' recall scores on a preliminary test were used as a covariate. Music was presented for three minutes before the presentation session and during the three minute presentation when the words and their definitions were read out aloud by the experimenter. Subjects in the baroque music condition received excerpts from Handel's Watermusic, while subjects in the classical music condition received excerpts from Rimsky-Korsakoff's Scheherazade Suite, The Young Princess and the Young Prince. Subjects in the control condition had the same amount of time devoted to the learning task with the same oral presentation, but no music was played. The same conditions were reinstated during the testing. Affective ratings were also taken at various times during the experiment. Results showed that when music was played during the learning session, the control group performed lowest, with the classical condition next and the baroque condition performing best. All differences between groups were statistically significant for both immediate recall and retention. Music played during testing resulted in significantly improved performance for immediate recall but not for retention. The best results were achieved when subjects had learned with baroque music and had been tested with baroque music. The authors concluded that this condition was best because it also had the highest affective ratings for pleasantness and alertness. The results of Schuster and Mouzon (1982) suggest two possible explanations for the positive effect of music on learning. Firstly, they indicate that students experience the learning environment with a music background as more pleasant than no music conditions which may lead to improved performance. This view is also held by Lozanov

(1978) who refers to it as a "placebo effect" and Lehmann (Lehmann & Gassner-Roberts 1988:23) who refers to the work of Metzger (1961) which discusses the close relationship between mood and achievement. Secondly, the findings show for the first time in this context that recall is positively affected by the reinstatement of the learning conditions during testing. Therefore another effect, such as context-cueing, as suggested by Smith (1985), may be produced by the use of music in the learning environment. Smith (1985:591) states that a number of dimensions of background context, such as general physical environment (Godden & Baddeley 1975), drug states (Eich 1980), mood states (Bartlett & Santrock 1979), or background colours (Dulsky 1935) have shown to be effective for inducing context-dependent memory. Smith (1985), independent of Accelerative Learning, investigated whether memory is likewise affected by acoustic background stimuli. Subjects in this study were 54 volunteer adult students. No music/noise conditions were compared with Mozart, Jazz and white noise. For the Jazz condition two instrumental pieces entitled People Make the World Go Around and Destiny's Children were used. For the Mozart condition the Piano Concerto No. 24 in C Minor was used, and for the white noise condition noise recorded at subjectively similar sound levels from a white noise generator was used. Smith's study consisted of two experiments. The first compared Mozart, Jazz and quiet conditions, the second Jazz, white noise and quiet conditions. Smith found that if music or white noise was used during learning then the reinstatement of the same condition improved recall performance. When learning took place in quiet conditions, performance was unaffected by the testing condition. Both experiments showed no significant differences between conditions on initial recall, but the first experiment showed that significantly less forgetting occured in the condition which had Mozart for both learning and testing. The noise/noise condition was next, followed by the Jazz/Jazz condition with the quiet/quiet condition being last. It is interesting to note that in Smith's (1985) study the white noise condition performed better in terms of retention of materials than both the Jazz and the quiet conditions. These findings are difficult to interpret in the light of the conclusions of Schuster and Mouzon (1982) who felt that the music played may have produced a more favourable environment in affective terms. While subjects in the Mozart/Mozart condition in Smith's (1985) study may have performed best because they felt best, it is difficult to imagine that subjects in the white noise condition would have felt better than either the Jazz or the quiet condition since this type of background stimulus is usually either not consciously perceived or perceived as an irritant. A study by Jellison (1977), reported in Brislan (1986), for example, showed that subjects who received white noise as a background when placed in a stress situation reported significantly more stress than subjects who had received background music. While both Bach's Air on a G-String and Dvor�k's New World Symphony had been effective in significantly decreasing anxiety scores on the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), white noise resulted in significantly increased anxiety scores.

Smith (1985:600) explains the fact that music or noise can serve as a memory cue while quiet does not in the following way: One idea is that white noise and unpopular music selections are far less likely than quiet conditions to be encountered frequently during the 48-hr retention interval, and therefore should serve as more distinctive cues than the more common experience of relative quiet. Another idea is that subjects encode an experimentally presented music or noise selection, but they do not encode the absence of experimentally presented sounds any more than they might encode the absence of any type of stimulus, such as pain or food. This assumes, of course, that subjects are not expecting to hear experimentally presented background music or sound. At the time of testing, a replayed background sound could act as a memory cue if its encoded representation is associated with learned material, but the reinstatement of quiet conditions would not cue memory if there were no encoded representation of quiet.

While this is a plausible conclusion to arrive at in the light of other studies on contextdependent memory, it does not explore the reasons for the superiority of the Mozart/Mozart condition in this study or the superiority of the baroque music in Schuster and Mouzon (1982). Perhaps there is indeed an added effect of the subjects' liking of the background environment as suggested by Schuster and Mouzon (1982). Judging from polarity profiles collected by Lehmann (1982), it is quite possible that the Mozart condition was experienced as the most pleasant by the adult students in this study. Would this mean that teenagers who generally prefer rock music to classical or baroque music (Felix 1986) would perform better with such music as a background to learning? A study by Mullikin and Henk (1985) investigating the effectiveness of background music on comprehension performance in reading with 45 4th-8th grade children at a private school does not support this notion. No music conditions were compared to classical and rock music conditions. For the classical condition Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, described as "a soft composition with a slow, methodical cadence" (p.355) was used. For the rock condition music from an album by a popular rock group (not further described) was used. The two music selections were administered at the same volume. Nine children were randomly selected from each grade level. The sample was approximately half male and half female, and approximately one third was black. Each grade was tested separately in intact groups. The study was carried out over three consecutive days. Each day the children read one of 15 social studies passages of equal difficulty and answered 10 comprehension questions. During this time either no music or classical or rock music was played. For each level the order of treatments and reading passages was randomised. Each child read a total of three passages and answered 30 questions. Results were consistent across all grade levels. The rock condition performed the least well, with the no music condition next and the classical condition performing best. All differences between conditions were statistically significant. It is interesting to note that while the trend for the two music selections was clear, there were 3 subjects for whom the rock condition yielded better results than the classical condition. Although the results of

this study show that classical music is more effective in a reading comprehension task with teenage children, they show that not all children are affected in the same way. While the results of Schuster and Mouzon (1982), Smith (1985) and Mullikin and Henk (1985) suggest that certain styles of music are more effective in learning than others, caution has to be taken with drawing definite conclusions about which type of music may be most effective. There are not only distinctions between styles, such as baroque or rock music, in terms of tempo, melody, rhythm and timbre, but also between pieces within the same period such as baroque and between movements within the same piece. It is therefore important to know excactly which part of a musical piece was used in the investigation. All too often, however, studies do not report this information in detail. In Schuster and Mouzon (1982), for example, music was played for three minutes during the learning task, yet the music used was described as Handel's Watermusic which is a piece of 20 minutes duration with distinct variations in tempo, rhythm and melody. In the light of Lehmann's (1982) findings, it is quite possible that students may react differently to the different sections of this work which range in mood from a very solemn overture to cheerful dancing music and in tempo from adagio to allegro. Similar variations can be found in rock and pop music. It is therefore important to know exactly which piece was used, since differences in rhythm and instrumentation may have an effect on the outcome. The differential effect on learning of musical pieces within the same period or style has been shown by Schuster (1985) who investigated the effect of various styles of background music on vocabulary learning with 256 volunteer adult subjects. The different styles of music investigated were baroque, classical, dissonant, Japanese, march, meditative and rock. The study used a mixed analysis of variance (ANOVA) design with between subject factors of type of music, music selection replication, suggestion, order of lists learned and subject gender. Dependent variables were as in Schuster and Mouzon (1982), the immediate recall and recognition after 7 days of 25 vocabulary items per list and affective ratings. One of the baroque pieces was identical to the one used in Schuster and Mouzon (1982). Schuster reports that neither recall immediately after learning nor retention scores were significantly affected by any of the background music when compared to the no music control groups. However, there were significant differences between the individual music pieces for recall scores. Two selections of each style were used, and the one topping the list for recall performance, after scores had been adjusted according to the pre-test performance, was one of the dissonant selections, way ahead of the baroque and classical pieces. The inconsistency of the findings is highlighted by the fact, however, that the other dissonant selection was in 14th place out of 16 on the same list! In the light of Schuster and Mouzon's (1982) speculations about a positive correlation between affective ratings of the condition in which learning took place and consequent performance, it is interesting to note that the dissonant music was rated the least liked of all music conditions in Schuster (1985). Unfortunately no information is given as to the relative affective ratings of the individual pieces within each style.

Why Schuster's (1985) study showed radically different results in terms of the influence of music on learning in general from the studies reviewed above is difficult to ascertain. The study was well designed and controlled. Schuster's main speculation was that background music is probably most effective in the SALT or suggestopedic setting, and would therefore be better investigated in the natural classroom environment. However, of the above studies only Schiffler (1986b) investigated the effectiveness of music in this environment. All other studies took place in laboratory settings. And Schiffler's findings were the most conservative of all. Although he found a better performance with adults in intensive teaching settings as a result of using music in the instruction process, he reported a reduction of this effect when teaching took place for only four lessons a week, as is normal in the natural teaching environment. Another type of music was investigated in a study by Davidson and Powell (1986) who looked at the effect of "Easy-listening" background music on fifth-grade science students' on-task performance. Twenty-six students were observed over 42 class sessions over a period of four months. Observations were recorded every three minutes. A significant increase in on-task behaviour was found for the total class and the male subjects. Although the female subjects also showed increased on-task performance, the effect was inhibited by a ceiling effect since the mean pre-treatment score had already been 99%. Unfortunately no titles of the music used were given in this study. "Easy-listening" background music was defined as: "the type of music which has a melodic melody line over non-dissonant chordal structures and is non-percussive in beat. The orchestration is traditional in that there is a rich use of strings and winds. Easy-listening music is more lushly orchestrated than pop music." (p.30) Although the authors appear to refer to contemporary music this definition is not too far removed from Lehmann's (1982) recommendations for music selections for the concert sessions in the G.D.R. While Lozanov (1978) recommended a variety of pieces from the baroque and the classical periods, Lehmann (1982:15), after extensive research with polarity profiles, narrowed these selections down to an even more precise period: Im Sinne einer psychologisch harmonisierenden Wirkung auf die Rezipienten haben sich melodisch geprägte langsame Sätze der Instrumentalmusik der Frühklassik und der Wiener Klassik in der suggestopädischen Praxis besonders bewährt, d.h. eine Musik, die sich aus einer Folge von langsamen Sätzen mit jeweils charakteristischer Melodik zusammensetzt, einer Melodik, die so strukturiert ist, daß sich zwar unterschiedliche musikalische Themen ablösen, eine einheitlich-ruhige, gelöste Affektlage aber ständig beibehalten bleibt. Die besondere Eignung von Streichermusik der Frühklassik und Wiener Klassik für suggestopädische Zwecke führen die Mitarbeiter der Forschungsstelle für Mnemologie unter Berücksichtigung von Erkenntnissen der Musiktherapie vor allem darauf zurück, daß es dem Durchschnittshörer möglich ist, sich mit dieser Musik rascher und stärker zu identifizieren als mit der häufig als distanziert und kühl erlebten, in ihrer Struktur nicht selten komplizierten und überdies gedanklich stark befrachteten Musik der Gegenwart. Mit dieser Feststellung soll indes keineswegs der Eindruck erweckt werden, daß andere Musik als die der Frühklassik und der Wiener Klassik für suggestopädische Zwecke ungeeignet sei. [In the sense of a psychologically harmonising effect on the recipients, melodic slow movements of the early classical period and the Vienna classical period have been shown to be most successful in the

practice of suggestopdia, i.e. music which comprises a succession of slow movements, each with a characteristic melody, a melody so structured that although different musical themes follow each other, an evenly calm and relaxed affective quality is constantly retained. The members of the Research Institute for Mnemology, in the light of findings in music therapy, attribute the suitability for suggestopedic purposes of the string music of the early classical period and the Vienna classical period especially to the fact that it is easier for the average listener to identify more quickly and profoundly with this music than with contemporary music which is often experienced as cool and distant and not seldom as complicated and intellectually charged. This statement should not, however, give the impression that other music than that of the early classical period and the Vienna classical period, would be unsuitable for suggestopedic purposes.]

As Lehmann himself suggests, it may not be necessary to adhere strictly to prescribed music selections since other types of music may share characteristics with the above. He suggests that "better" pop music shows basically the same liguistic symbols as the music of the pre-classical period, the Vienna classical period and the early 19th century" (Lehmann & Gassner-Roberts 1988:30). There may also be a difference in affective reactions to different types of music between adult students and children. Lozanov (1978) claims that it is unimportant whether or not students like the music used. However, this view is not shared by the researchers in the G.D.R. (Lehmann & Gassner-Roberts 1988) who do not only believe that liking the music is important, but that students' attitudes towards the music can be transformed from negative to positive as a result of taking part in a suggestopedic course. Lozanov's claim is further refuted by a study on children's attitude towards music in their learning environment (Felix 1986) which showed that teenage students would be more receptive to Accelerative Learning in their classroom if the music was more to their liking. While the majority of studies looked at the effects of music during the learning task, some studies have also investigated the effect of music during testing only. Results here, however, are not as consistent as they are with music during learning. Of the two studies already discussed above, Schuster and Mouzon (1982) reported that baroque and classical music during testing had a significant effect on immediate recall but not on retention of vocabulary, while Smith (1985) reported no significant effect of classical music, jazz or white noise as a background during testing. Render, Hull and Moon (1984), too, found no significant effect on vocabulary recall when baroque music was played during testing only. In this study four groups of volunteer undergraduate students (N=62) were given four multiple choice tests under four different conditions each: (a) guided relaxation before testing, (b) baroque music during testing, (c) a combination of both (a) and (b), and (d) neither relaxation nor music. Overall, findings did not show a significant effect for any of the three treatment conditions, although the general pattern was for the relaxation condition to perform high and the control condition low. The findings of Render, Hull & Moon (1984) and Smith (1985), however, are not supported by Blanchard (1979) who reported significantly increased exam performance by students when classical or rock and roll music had been played during testing. Unfortunately the author does not give further details about the music used. In this study 254 volunteer university students, taking a traditional final examination, were divided

into three groups, equated as to students' age, weight and educational background. While the control group sat the 2.5 hours exam under standard exam conditions, the two remaining groups had either classical or rock and roll music playing in the background. All subjects' blood-pressure and pulse-rate was taken before, during and after the exam. Findings were that the blood-pressure of the control group rose to a much higher level than that of either music group. The control group also showed much poorer recuperative activity of the heart after the exam while both music groups displayed excellent recuperation. Exam scores were 215.9 out of 300 for the control group, 250.9 for the rock and roll condition and 253.2 for the classical condition. The difference between the control group's performance and that of both experimental groups was statistically significant. Blanchard's (1979) results strongly support the use of music during testing, both for increasing academic performance and for the physiological benefits associated with background music. However, looking at the findings of all studies discussed, it appears that music during testing only may not be as effective as music either during learning or especially both during learning and testing. The findings of Schuster and Mouzon (1982) and Smith (1985) indicate that the reinstatement during testing of the musical background used during learning may yield the best results in terms of retention of materials. Conclusions - Music. Judging from the findings of these studies it can be said that background music appears to have a positive effect in the learning environment. While most studies found a positive effect on the recall of vocabulary, one reported better reading performance and another better on-task behaviour asssociated with the use of background music. Of the ten studies which investigated the effectiveness of music during learning, nine reported significant positive effects either on short-term or on longterm memory. Of the eight studies which looked at the effects of music immediately after the learning task, six reported significant positive results. Of the seven studies which looked at the effects of music after 48 hours or even later, six again reported significant positive results. The effect of music during testing has not been as extensively investigated, and findings are not as consistent as the above. While one study found a significant positive effect on performance when either classical or rock and roll music was played during testing, two studies found no significant effect when classical, baroque or jazz music was played during testing. Another study reported a significant positive effect of classical and baroque music played during testing on vocabulary recall when students were tested immediately after learning but not when testing took place after one week. There is an indication, however, that best results are achieved when the same music is played both during learning and during testing. The two studies which investigated the effect of the reinstatement of the learning conditions during testing found this. In terms of the effectiveness of different types of music, the findings of the majority of studies discussed here lend strong support to the special effectiveness of baroque and classical pieces, as originally suggested by Lozanov (1978). However, it must be pointed out that this type of music has also been most extensively used and tested. Other types of

music have only been sporadically tested in the same context. Yet the three studies which investigated jazz or rock music did not find these types of music to be effective in learning. One study, however, found rock music effective during testing. A study which investigated the effect of easy-listening music, which shared characteristics with the classical music found most effective for suggestopedic teaching in the GDR, also found this type of music effective in improving on-task behaviour. When making statements about the relative effectiveness of music in learning, it is important to give either exact titles or an accurate description of the musical piece used. It is not possible to state categorically that classical music is more effective in learning than pop music, since it appears that the individual properties of the pieces are important factors in the outcome. Although there is strong support for the effectiveness of music in learning, we still know little about how the reported effects of music on learning are actually achieved. In the context of the studies reviewed here the effectiveness of music can be explained in several ways. Music appears to create a more pleasant learning environment in terms of affective criteria (Schuster & Mouzon 1982) which may improve performance. It further appears to have the potential to affect concentration and attention rate and in turn improve on-task behaviour (Davidson & Powell 1986). Music also appears to be associated with physiological effects such as a lowered heartrate (Blanchard 1979) and increased alpha brain waves (Lozanov 1978) which may be instrumental in improved performance. Finally, studies which included the reinstatement of music during testing (Schuster & Mouzon 1982, Smith 1985) indicate that context-cuing may be involved.

RELAXATION

Take rest; A field that rested gives a beautiful crop.

                  Ovid While Lozanov (1978:269) argues that the suggestive environment itself is enough to produce concentrative psychorelaxation without special emphasis on physical or mental exercises, Western users of all versions of Accelerative Learning tend to include some form of relaxation exercise in almost every class. Is there any evidence in the research that students actually benefit from this rather unorthodox addition to their learning environment? Positive effects of relaxation on psychological, physiological and academic measures have not only been shown within the field of Accelerative Learning (Gamble et al 1982, Barber 1982, Johnson 1982, Baur 1982, Moon 1985), but also independent of Accelerative Learning (Matthews 1983, Setterlind 1983). There are also some studies which show relaxation as having no effect (Stricherz & Stein 1980) or even a negative effect (Biggers & Stricherz 1976) on simple recognition tasks. Studies in the field of anxiety research (Sinclair 1971) suggest that the effectiveness of relaxation training may be related to the difficulty of the task and to the level of ego involvement. Other studies indicate that not all students are equally affected by relaxation training. While Straughan and Duford (1969) report a positive effect on high anxiety subjects, Wilson and Wilson (1970), Martin and Schuster (1977) and Schuster and Martin (1980) found relaxation to be most effective with low anxiety subjects. We will now look at the research in detail. Within the field of Accelerative Learning research suggests that relaxation may improve performance. Barber (1982) reported that modified (relaxation only) suggestopedic sessions in a college management class led to some academic acceleration, improved morale and application to other areas of the students' lives. Johnson (1982) found that short term relaxation training (9 sessions) had a beneficial effect on 6th grade children's spelling scores. Gamble et al (1982) studied the effect of relaxation and music upon creativity in adults. They found that music plus relaxation showed the greatest positive effect favouring the experimental group over the control group, with the music only group being next.

A study (Matthews 1983), outside the Accelerative Learning research, which looked at relaxation training alone, found positive changes in elementary children's self-concept, discipline and achievement. In this study 532 grade seven students in 10 elementary schools received 15 minutes of relaxation training every day for a period of nine months. Setterlind (1983) investigated the physiological and psychological benefits of relaxation training independent of Accelerative Learning in Swedish middle and high schools over a period of three years. 581 children between the ages of 12 and 17 took part in the main study. The 294 experimental children received relaxation training, consisting of progressive relaxation, autogenic exercises and simple meditation techniques, two or three times a week over a six week period. The relaxation exercises, tape recorded, were administered at the end of physical education lessons. The main findings of the study were that "over half of the experimental children said that they managed their school work better, one third slept better, 60% felt less stressed, 44% less irritated and 46% more rested and alert than earlier." (p.15) The experimental children also showed a significantly better recovery rate from strenuous activity in a second study. Moon (1985) conducted a meta-analysis of 20 studies on the effects of relaxation training. Ten studies had college students as their subjects, the other ten involved elementary students. The main finding of the meta-analysis was that relaxation training, especially progressive relaxation, had a small positive effect on cognitive academic variables. Moon points out, however, that more care needs to be taken in the design and implementation of such studies. This latter observation, supported by Setterlind (1983), is an important consideration in evaluating studies on the effect of relaxation. Especially in short term studies it is sometimes difficult to know how well relaxation was administered and controlled as a variable for investigation. Since relaxation tends to be most effective after a period of practice, caution must therefore be taken with interpreting or generalising results of shortterm studies in which relaxation was tested as an independent variable but no information has been given on how relaxation was taught, administered and practised. Studies reviewed in this chapter have given most of this information. Baur (1982) provides a good example of controlling that relaxation did in fact occur and could be measured as a variable to be tested. Eleven volunteer adult students who had been learning Russian for one semester were the subjects in this experiment. Texts consisted of 450 lexical items in Russian of which 40-50 items were new to the learners. Items were presented to the students as a coherent whole using the presentation sessions of Lozanov's first model of Suggestopedia. They consisted of a first and second decoding of the materials, followed by intonated reading and a concert session. During the concert session the following treatment conditions were instated: (a) The students remained in the normal waking condition concentrating on the text being read.

(b) The text was read after students had been systematically relaxed using the Jacobson (1938) progressive relaxation technique. Students had been given five introductory sessions to this technique prior to the experiment. Relaxation levels before and during the experiment were checked via psycho-galvanic reflex (PGR) monitors. If students did not reach the desired level of relaxation, their data was excluded from the statistical analysis. c) The text was read while students listened to the music playing. About 42 lexical items per text were tested by means of translations both from the mother tongue to Russian and vice versa. The most interesting findings were the production ability of lexical items after one week. The mean rate of production in the neutral condition was 29.5%. With relaxation it rose to 39.7% and with music it rose to 43.8%. A chi-square analysis showed the differences between conditions to be statistically significant. If these figures sound low, it must be remembered that only the presentation phases had been used. In the complete Psychopädie cycle students would then spend 8-12 hours with activation exercises of these materials. While there appears to be a positive trend towards improvement of academic, psychological or physiological variables when relaxation is used, there are also studies showing that relaxation has no effect or even a negative effect on similar variables which must be considered. Stricherz and Stein (1980), for example, investigated the effect of relaxation, relaxation and musical background, a body awareness technique (open focus) and a guided fantasy technique (hyperempiria) on a recognition task. They found that none of these conditions was more effective than the control condition when students were tested after a period of 48 hours. The hyperempiria condition, however, produced significantly better results than the control condition when students were tested immediately after the presentation of the two-syllable rare English words. Subjects in this study were 112 volunteer graduate and undergraduate students who remained in intact classes which were assigned at random to one of the four treatment conditions and to the control condition. Standardised introductory instructions were given to all groups. In the control class students were then asked to attend to the learning task. In the hyperempiria condition students were given an hyperempiric induction based on Gibbons (1974) which is described by the authors as a "guided fantasy induction based on suggestions of increased alertness, mind expansion and enhanced awareness and sensitivity." (p.101) The open focus condition combined "imagination and awareness of the body for deep relaxation (Fehmi 1975). The subject is asked to imagine the spaces between points in the body or within specified body regions." (p.101) In the relaxation conditions students received suggestions for deep breathing and direct suggestions for relaxation. They were also given visualisation exercises changing colours from yellow to black. The relaxation and music condition used the same exercises as in the relaxation condition with the addition of a musical background.

It is interesting to note that the relaxation plus music condition in this study was not shown to be effective when both Gamble et al (1982) and Baur (1982) found significantly positive effects when music and relaxation were combined. One possible explanation for the difference in outcomes may be the type of the relaxation and music used. While both Baur (1982) and Gamble et al (1982) used progressive relaxation (Jacobson 1938) techniques and baroque music, Sticherz and Stein (1980) used deep breathing and imagery techniques and unspecified background music. Since Stricherz and Stein (1980) shows differences in effectiveness between relaxation techniques, at least on short-term memory, it is perhaps possible that progressive relaxation is more effective than other techniques. This is supported by Moon's (1985) meta-analysis discussed above. An earlier study by Stricherz (1979) showed that progressive relaxation was more effective in lowering body rhythms for relaxation than mind expansion techniques which may explain its possible superiority. Mohr (1977:15), however, points out that "progressive relaxation may be most efficient with people who are more inclined to attend to physiological cues, where other techniques may be more effective for those who are not inclined to focus on physiological cues". Another explanation for the difference in outcomes could be the difficulty or complexity of the task involved. While Baur (1982) looked at the production of Russian words and Gamble et al (1982) at creativity, both fairly complex tasks, Stricherz and Stein (1980) looked at a simple recognition task. It may be that relaxation and music are more effective in more difficult tasks. The findings of another study in which the task under investigation was simple recognition (Biggers & Stricherz 1976) support this notion. Findings of this study further suggest that relaxation in this context may be detrimental to learning. This experiment investigated the effect of suggestion and different types of relaxation, physical, mental, and a combination of both on the recognition of rare English words as in Stricherz and Stein (1980). The suggestion condition received a five minute exercise "which concentrated on the suggestion that the procedure resulted in higher level mental functioning." (p.102) The physical relaxation condition received 12 minutes of progressive relaxation exercises. The mental relaxation condition received visualisation exercises. The combination condition received both muscle relaxation and visualisation exercises in a 1:1 ratio. Time used for the exercises in all relaxation conditions was identical. In the control group "students were asked to attend to the words when they were presented and to remember as many as possible." (p.102) The study which included 216 volunteer adult students assigned at random in a factorial design, showed that the control group performed significantly better on the recognition test for long-term memory (after 48 hours) than all relaxation conditions. The relationship between the difficulty or complexity of the task and the possible effectiveness of relaxation has best been demonstrated by the research on anxiety. The effects of anxiety on achievement in controlled laboratory conditions have been summarised by Sinclair (1971:96): Anxiety appears to facilitate performance on simple, straightforward tasks where there is little response competition and to interfere with performance on more complex tasks where response

competition is likely. This has been shown by Taylor (1951), Spence & Taylor (1951), Montague (1953), Standish & Champion (1960) and Spielberger et al. (1971). In conditions where ego-involvement is low, a number of studies (Lucas 1952, Deese et al. 1953, Sarason 1957, Kalish et al. 1958, Nicholson 1958, Feshbach & Loeb 1959) have found anxiety to be unrelated to performance, although some studies have found that anxiety facilitates performance (Sarason 1956, 1957, Longnecker 1962). In conditions of high ego-involvement, anxiety has typically been found to interfere with performance (Sarason 1956, 1957, Nicholson 1958, Harleston 1962).

Does it follow from this that in language learning which can be decribed as a complex task with a high content of ego-invovement, all students would benefit from relaxation? A few studies which have investigated the relationship between anxiety level and relaxation in a learning task do not support this notion but show that relaxation may be beneficial only to some students. Straughan and Dufort (1969), for example, found that relaxation was associated with significantly faster reaction time on a paired associates task for high anxiety subjects but with poorer reaction time for low anxiety subjects. The 112 college students taking part in this study were divided into low and high anxiety subjects on the basis of their responses on the Anxiety Scale of the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). Subjects were presented either 10 easy or 10 difficult paired associates in 4 different conditions: a) relaxation before learning, b) relaxation before delayed recall (after 48 hours), c) relaxation before both learning and delayed recall, and d) no relaxation. The five minute relaxation instructions required the subjects "to concentrate on major muscle groups and to coordinate relaxation with exhalation". (p.623) Dependent variables were reaction time and number of correct responses measured immediately after learning and 48 hours later. The findings concerning reaction time were that the effect of relaxation was greater for the hard task than for the easy task (when tested immediately after learning only), that relaxation before learning was more effective than before recall, and that relaxation made the low anxiety subjects slower in their reaction time while making the high anxiety subjects faster. Concerning the number of correct responses all subjects performed so well on the easy task that no effects of the relaxation training could be seen. On the hard task the effects of the relaxation instructions were in the same direction as for the reaction time, with the high anxiety subjects performing better and the low anxiety subjects worse. However, these results were not statistically significant. These findings are not supported by Wilson and Wilson (1970) who found that subjects with high anxiety performed better on a paired-associates task in a state of induced muscle tension while low anxiety students performed better in a relaxed state. Subjects in this study were 63 male convalescent hospital patients. They were pre-tested for general verbal intelligence and for anxiety level (low, medium and high). Treatment conditions were (a) muscle relaxation, (b) muscle tension, and (c) normal tension. Results were that regardless of anxiety level, subjects in the muscle tension condition performed significantly better than those in the relaxation condition. Subjects in the relaxation condition, in turn, performed significantly better than the subjects in the normal tension condition. Regarding anxiety level, subjects with high anxiety performed

better in a state of induced muscle tension, while subjects with low anxiety performed better in a state of induced muscle relaxation. The latter findings are supported by Martin and Schuster (1977) who in a similar design investigated the interaction of anxiety and muscle tension in learning a list of rare English words with 56 volunteer psychology students. Responding to Wilson and Wilson's (1970:64) concern that in studies of this nature subjects may have too little time to get relaxed or tense, Martin and Schuster (1977) used an analog electromyogram (EMG) feedback mechanism by which subjects were given feedback during both the learning and the testing periods in order to check whether relaxation or tension levels had been adequately maintained. Subjects also had 3 training periods of 10 minutes each prior to the experiment in which desired levels of relaxation and tension were reached. The findings of this study also showed that high anxiety subjects performed better when tensed in the learning situation while low anxiety subjects performed better when relaxed. These findings are further supported by Schuster and Martin (1980), again using a similar design, but putting even more emphasis on longer training periods (60 minutes) for relaxation and tension conditions and including subjects with medium anxiety levels. Subjects were 48 volunteer undergraduate psychology students, selected from a pool of 108 students on the basis of their responses on the State-Trait Anxiety Index (STAI). The findings were that medium anxiety subjects did not perform differently whether relaxed or tensed, but that high anxiety students did significantly better when tensed in the learning situation with the converse being true for low anxiety subjects. For higher order interactions the results significantly favoured relaxation overall. Even high anxiety subjects performed better when given suggestion with an easy test and when relaxed prior to learning, during learning and during testing. Each of the four studies above shows in its particular environment that while relaxation may be effective in learning, it appears not to affect all students in the same way, and may even hinder some students' performance. Straughan and Dufort's findings (1969) suggest that relaxation may be more effective with high anxiety students, especially in terms of reaction time. Although a trend in the same direction was observed in this study concerning the number of correct responses, the findings of the majority of studies (Wilson & Wilson 1970, Martin & Schuster 1977 and Schuster & Martin 1980) which investigated the number of correct responses only, suggest that relaxation may be more effective with low anxiety students. Does this mean that Accelerative Learning does some students a disservice by relaxing them? Would high anxiety students perform better in a state of tension? Here we must not forget two important aspects of anxiety and learning. The first is the difficulty of the task - the bulk of the research suggests that with increased difficulty anxiety interferes with performance. The second is the nature of the testing. Gaudry and Spielberger (1971:32) point out that the majority of studies on the subject support that the "reduction of the test-like characteristics of examination situations will facilitate the performance of high-anxious students."

In Accelerative Learning the learning task, although in conventional terms very demanding because of the large chunks of materials presented in one session, is seen as relatively easy by the students. For example, in a primary school study, reported in chapter 7, where on the first day of teaching the experimental children had to deal with the materials in about half the time than the control children because much time had been spent on explaining the method, the children were overheard to say after the class: "We didn't do anything today!" Whether this is the result of the relaxation, the suggestion, a combination of both, the music or the entire suggestive environment, is impossible to say. What seems to be evident, though, from the research, at least on a naturalistic basis (Schuster & Gritton 1985) is that students are less stressed, anxious or fatigued than in conventional learning situations. Further, testing in Accelerative Learning tends to be handled on a progressive basis in a non-threatening environment. This does not mean that tests are especially easy. On the contrary, tests need to be as demanding as the material that was presented. Even in environments, where for research purposes, students sit the normal exam at the end of the year, students taught with Accelerative Learning have reported fewer feelings of anxiety than their counterparts in traditional courses. Although there is not yet any systematic evidence for this, anecdotal reports from studies support this (Felix 1987). Conclusions - Relaxation. Although we cannot say at this stage how great an effect relaxation alone has in Accelerative Learning, the findings of the majority of studies conducted within, as well as outside, this field give support to the retention of relaxation as an important element in the approach. Most studies report positive effects being associated with the use of relaxation. This is true for short term studies conducted in laboratory settings and for long term studies carried out in the natural learning environment. Findings include positive effects on achievement as well as on students' psychological and physiological states and creativity. However, one study reports no effect and another reports a negative effect of various forms of relaxation on long-term memory. In contrast to the bulk of studies reviewed here, both these studies investigated the effect of relaxation on a fairly simple task, namely recognition of vocabulary items. Research into the relationship between anxiety and performance suggests that relaxation training may be most beneficial when the learning task is difficult or complex and egoinvolvement is high. Easy tasks appear to be facilitated by anxiety while tasks with low ego-involvement appear to be either uninfluenced by anxiety or facilitated. Although the learning task in Accelerative Learning is not necessarily perceived as being difficult, it is nevertheless a complex task with a high content of ego-involvement, especially in language learning, and it appears therefore, that students are likely to benefit from relaxation in this context. There is some evidence that progressive muscle relaxation may be more effective than other types of relaxation. There is also some evidence that the effect of relaxation may be related to the level of measured anxiety. Although results are not entirely consistent, a strong trend can be obvserved towards low anxiety students being more positively affected by relaxation during learning than high anxiety subjects. Since in Accelerative Learning, at least after a

period of time, students appear to display more low anxiety characteristics towards learning and testing than high anxiety characteristics, this research further supports the retention of relaxation training in Accelerative Learning.

SUGGESTION

They can because they think they can. Virgil

Suggestion has existed in one form or another as long as human communication itself. Its effectiveness has best been demonstrated in hypnosis from the classical approach of Bernheim (1880) to the recent naturalistic work of Erickson (1980). It has further been demonstrated in Autogenic Training (Schultz 1959), in Progressive Relaxation (Jacobson 1938), in Psychosynthesis (Assagioli 1965), in Biofeedback (Green & Green 1977) and in Subliminal Learning (Budzynski 1976). Detailed reports on the effects of suggestion on learning as a result of experimental investigations are scarce, however, and the findings of different studies (Biggers & Stricherz 1976, Bordon & Schuster 1976, Schuster & Martin 1980 and Renigers 1981) are conflicting. Equally as important as establishing the effects of suggestion on learning is deciding whether or not is is ethical to use suggestion in the learning environment. One of the problems in Accelerative Learning is that the term suggestion may be seen as synonymous with hypnosis and the approach therefore dismissed by educators and administrators as unsuitable or dangerous in the learning environment. What is the evidence in the literature for such reasoning? Harrison and Musial (1978), who reviewed the literature on hypnosis in education, report inconclusive and confusing results, yet a trend towards positive outcomes. Some examples given (p.72) are that Harley and Harley (1958) claim that hypnosis actually inhibits learning while Krippner (1966), Mutke (1967) and McCord (1962) all report success in using hypnosis to increase reading speed and comprehension. Hilgard (in Harrison and Musial 1978:73) points to the benefits of hypnosis in education:

The hundreds of students who have improved their learning and academic achievement do not need convincing. And those who may be helped in the future should not be denied the benefit of hypnosis simply because we do not understand precisely what it is or why it works. For now, it is enough to know that, for many, it does work.

The effectiveness of suggestion in hypnosis cannot be disputed on the basis of a large body of studies. However, very few studies exist on the effectiveness of suggestion as a single variable and unrelated to hypnosis. Three studies, apart fom Biggers and Stricherz (1976), discussed in the relaxation section above, could be located in the field of Accelerative Learning which investigated the effects of elements including suggestion on recall or recognition of vocabulary in laboratory settings. During the early years when synchronisation was still used, Bordon and Schuster (1976) conducted a study using a factorial design in which they isolated suggestion, words synchronised with students' breathing and words synchronised with background music. Thirty-two volunteer adult subjects, 4 per treatment cell, took part in the experiment. Findings were that all three elements separately had been effective in significantly improved recall, and that the variables interacted cumulatively such that learning was best when all three variables were present. These findings concerning suggestion are supported by Renigers (1981) who in a similar design examined the effects of music, and suggestion coupled with relaxation. The rationale for coupling suggestion with relaxation was the belief that suggestion would be more effective when the subjects were in a relaxed state. Synchronised breathing was also used but not isolated as a separate variable for investigation. Ninety volunteer adult subjects, 15 per treatment cell, took part in this experiment. Renigers (1981) found that suggestion coupled with relaxation was effective in significantly improving vocabulary recall when compared to the control group. These findings, however, are not supported by Biggers and Stricherz (1976), who did not find a significant difference in performance between the control and the suggestion condition in a recognition task. They are also not supported by Schuster and Martin (1980), discussed above, who included suggestion in a study on the effects of relaxation training on vocabulary recall. Although a positive influence of relaxation on recall was reported in this study, suggestion was not found to have a significant influence in the same context. The conflicting findings of these studies in terms of suggestion highlight the difficulty of accurately investigating variables of this kind. All four studies were well designed and controlled. However, there is considerable variation in the manner in which suggestion is administered in different studies. As a consequence, findings are not readily comparable. In Renigers' (1981) study, for example, the subjects in the suggestion condition received one verbal suggestion relating to the ease with which subjects would learn the material, coupled with muscle relaxation (no time given) and four minutes of Zen breathing. In Biggers and Stricherz (1976) the suggestion condition involved a five minute concentration exercise focussing on the suggestion that this exercise would result in higher level mental functioning. In Bordon and Schuster (1976) the suggestion treatment consisted of a one hour preparation including a lecture on Suggestopedia, verbal

suggestions and instructions in the use of imagery, and meditation procedures in order to establish an expectation that learning would take place. In Schuster and Martin (1980) the suggestion treatment consisted of an "early pleasant learning restimulation" (no time given) described as a technique which "focuses on the bodily feelings, sensations, emotions and thoughts associated with an early pleasant learning situation" (p.277). Although it can be said that in all four studies subjects in the suggestion condition also received some form of relaxation, the type of relaxation differed considerably between studies, and the time involved in administering this variable varied substantially. Several other studies already discussed in previous sections of this chapter included suggestion (e.g. Wilson and Wilson 1970, Schuster and Mouzon 1982 and Schuster 1985). However, this variable was either not separately analysed as in Wilson and Wilson (1970), or the suggestion treatment was restricted to written suggestions relating to either the ease or the difficulty of learning the materials as in Schuster and Mouzon (1982) and Schuster (1985). Since we cannot be certain whether subjects in these studies actually read the suggestions, their findings were not included in the discussion here. Studies which involve verbal suggestion might be described as having contained some form of hypnosis. Since the possible relationship to hypnosis is an important issue in the acceptance of Accelerative Learning in educational institutions, we will now look at the relevant literature in order to present distinguishing factors between Accelerative Learning and hypnosis, or between suggestion in the waking state and suggestion in hypnosis. Lozanov's early work in suggestology led him to claim that hypnosis is not involved in suggestopedia because suggestions are exclusively administered in the waking state. Yet little information is available on the differences or similarities between suggestion in the waking state and suggestion under hypnosis, chiefly because of the difficulty of finding a widely accepted definition of suggestion or hypnosis. As Marcuse (1966:19) put it: "That hypnosis exists has become generally accepted; what it is, however, is generally disputed." He offered a tentative definition of hypnosis as an "altered state of the organism originally and usually produced by a repetition of stimuli in which suggestion (no matter how defined) is more effective than usual." (p.21) In the literature on hypnosis this altered state is often referred to as a form of sleep, which is in accordance with the etymological origin of the word hypnosis. In the latest versions of Accelerative Learning there is no deliberate repetition of stimuli and at no stage do the students find themselves in a state of induced sleep. It is generally conceded, instead, that the students experience a state of alert relaxation which is at all times defined as wakefulness. However, Tart (1969:167) defines light hypnosis as "a state of relaxed wakefulness, accompanied by receptivity to suggestion, with alpha brain waves as the dominant pattern." Bayuk (1983) believes that his study establishes a direct relationship between the light hypnotic state and the intellective alertness which characterises Suggestopedia. Bayuk claims that descriptions of the suggestopedic state found throughout Lozanov's work (she has had access to the original Bulgarian texts) closely parallel Tart's observations in his studies of light hypnosis.

Marcuse (1966), too, speaks of waking hypnosis as a modification of hypnosis for patients who are overly anxious about the loss of conscious awareness as a consequence of being in a sleep-like state. Here, the verbal patterns of hypnosis are employed, but without any mention of sleep or drowsiness. Instead, the term relaxation is used. Bernheim (in Baudouin 1923:15) also points out the presence of suggestion in the waking state: "To define hypnosis as induced sleep, is to give a too narrow meaning to the word to overlook the many phenomena which suggestion can bring about independently of sleep." The bulk of Erickson's (1980) work reflects this statement. Stanton (1978) claims that the only difference between Suggestopedia and hypnosis is in the name. This view is supported by Harrison and Musial (1978). Stanton compares hypnotherapy procedures with the three phases of the suggestopedic cycle: 1. The preparation phase. The student/patient is being prepared for positive expectancy with mental and physical relaxation, rhythmic breathing and visualisation of pleasant experiences. 2. The presentation phase. This is characterised by concentration of the student/patient on nonrelated objects such as music in suggestopedia and backward counting in hypnotherapy. 3. The practice phase. Lozanov's sociodramas are similar in their effect to that produced by group therapy encounters. (p.250)

While this comparison is perhaps a little ambiguous and oversimplified, Lozanov (1978) himself is highly conscious of the similarities between suggestion in the waking state and hypnosis, and he has made some effort to isolate distinguishing factors. He maintains that a person in a truly hypnotic state is no longer critical and able to describe what is experienced, while the same person under the influence of suggestion in a waking state remains perfectly aware and critical. While claiming that "suggestion in a waking state in a surgical operation is equal in power to suggestion under hypnosis" (p.120), he believes that "this kind of control has considerable advantage over hypnosis; it permits not only a safer operation, but creates conditions under which the dynamics of suggestive anaesthetization can be observed in the various stages of the operation" (p.118). In contrast, Marcuse (1966) quotes the findings of a surgeon who used hypnotic anaesthesia in more than 300 patients before the discovery of chemical anaesthesia. The patients who underwent the hypnosis were described as either "lying like a corpse throughout or as having disturbed trances" (p.143). In Lozanov's (1978) suggestopedic teaching several changes were made, not least because of the unsatisfactory link with hypnosis: The active session was dropped because it didn't produce the same satisfactory results as the concert session. At the same time it constituted a danger of insufficiently trained teachers intoning unsuitable material and creating external conditions similar to those for inducing a light form of hypnosis, something which has to be altogether avoided in suggestopedy. For the same reasons, all monotonous sounds and utterances were eliminated from the sessions, as well as the shading of light in the rooms with curtains. (p.269)

Schuster and Gritton (1985) maintain that suggestion used in suggestopedia is closer to suggestion used in commercial advertising than it is to hypnosis: The difference is that suggestion in advertising attempts to persuade you to do something that you might ordinarily do anyhow; suggestion in hypnosis attempts to compel you to do something that you ordinarily couldn't do. Carrying this to the extreme, if suggestopedia is "hypnosis", then so is commercial advertising. (p.54)

While Schuster's definition might be seen as an oversimplification in the opposite direction from Stanton (1978) above, he nevertheless points out the fact that suggestion is widely and powerfully present in the waking state of our everyday life. Schuster further claims that hypnosis in the classroom does not generally work, and that suggestopedia lacks the formal trance induction to hypnosis, and the usual subjective experiences observed in hypnotic subjects. From the evidence presented so far it would be na�ve to claim that Suggestopedia has nothing in common with hypnosis, and it would be equally na�ve to claim that Suggestopedia is hypnosis. To define the altered states of consciousness attained by subjects of either approach is as difficult as defining any transition state accurately. How do we define twilight, for example? And how it is related to dawn, daylight and night? The only scientific means we have for measuring the profoundness of states of altered consciousness are E.E.G. machines which measure brain wave patterns. Research in Accelerative Learning (Lozanov 1978) has shown that during the passive states, alpha waves are dominant, which suggests a state of consciousness that can at best be compared to very light hypnosis. On the other hand, this state can be attained by anyone, by simply closing their eyes and relaxing. When we look at the relaxation or mind-calming sessions as they are used in the West, we can indeed find similarities to hypnosis as it is used by contemporary therapists. The following induction scenario given to children in an experiment on the use of hypnosis in a summer reading clinic by Krippner (1966) is not all that different from the relaxation scenarios that may be given at the beginning of an Accelerative Learning class: For the next few moments, let us pause and relax our bodies. We can do this at any time of the day no matter where we are. All we need to do is stop and tell our bodies what to do. First let's close our eyes and take a deep breath� Now concentrate on your eyelids. They are controlled by the smallest muscles in your body. Concentrate on these tiny eyelid muscles. Tell them to relax. Let your eyelid muscles become so soft, so relaxed that they seem to melt like a dish of ice cream in the sun� In fact they are now so relaxed that they refuse to work. Your eyes want to stay so relaxed that they refuse to open. Now relax the rest of your body. Tell your face to relax� Tell your neck to relax. Tell your chest and shoulders to relax. Tell your stomach to relax. Tell your arms and hands to relax. Tell your feet and toes to relax. Now let your mind relax. Let it become quiet and silent. Do not let any thought distract you.

This scenario is as reminiscent of Jacobson's (1938) Progressive Relaxation as it is of Unest�hl's (1986) Systematic Approach to Relaxation for Youths and Schultz's (1959) Autogenic Training. None of these approaches is immediately associated with hypnosis. Maybe the difference really is only in the name. And maybe it is hypnosis which is incongruous. According to Harrison and Musial (1978) even Braid who coined the term

hypnosis realised that the equation with sleep was probably erroneous, since a state of heightened awareness is not really synonymous with sleep. Suggestion as used in the approaches above, as in medicine and dentistry, is usually seen as beneficial. Why then should we assume that suggestion used in education is not beneficial or even dangerous? It could be argued that teachers, in contrast to therapists and dentists, are not qualified to use suggestion. However, is suggestion not a constant part of their interaction with students? As Ginott ( in Schuster & Gritton 1985) put it: I have come to a frightening conclusion. I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child's life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humor, hurt or heal. In all situations it is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, and a child humanised or dehumanised. (p.80)

Ginott speaks neither of hypnosis nor of suggestion but of the teacher's everyday behaviour in the classroom. He is pointing out that a mood-setting is part of any teaching, that the teacher sets up some mood context for any lesson, and that this can be negative as well as positive. What Lozanov has done is make teachers aware of the power of the suggestions transmitted through everyday behaviour. These suggestions are not exclusively verbal, but more often found in gestures, mimicry, posture and tone of voice. Lozanov (1978:201) defines suggestion as "a constant communicative factor" and does not advocate bombarding students with obvious direct verbal suggestions such as Learning German will be fun. While this may be effective with volunteer adult students, a statement like this given to less motivated students in a secondary school, some of whom do the language only because it is a compulsory subject, may produce a counterproductive reaction such as Oh, no it won't. If teachers believe that learning should be fun, easy and without stress and fatigue, then they have to demonstrate this to the students and let them experience it so that students in fact believe it as a result of their personal success, not as a result of a verbal suggestion which could not possibly have the same effect. Maybe Lozanov's decision to call his method Suggestopedia was unwise in the light of the fact that suggestion may be regarded with suspicion in the education process. However, if educators are able to see suggestion with the same clinical neutrality demonstrated by Lozanov, they may agree with Galisson (1983:104): �je ne vois pas comment la p�dagogie (en g�n�ral) pourrait se passer de la suggestion, quand il est av�r� que celle-ci constitue un ferment d'interaction essentiel entre les �tres, et qu'elle est � ce titre omnipr�sente � l'�cole, lieu de socialit�, donc d'interaction par excellence. En bref: la suggestion en p�dagogie: oui n�cessairement; rien que la suggestion en p�dagogie: s�rement pas! [I do not see how pedagogy (in general) could do without suggestion, when it is obvious that it constitutes an essential mode of interaction between human beings, and when it is in this capacity everywhere present in the school, which is par excellence a centre of socialising, and therefore of interaction. In short, suggestion in pedagogy is necessary; but surely not nothing but suggestion in pedagogy.]

Conclusions - Suggestion. We do not know from the research available exactly how effective suggestion is in Accelerative Learning. When efforts were made to isolate this element for investigation, studies showed conflicting results. Research in this area may be hampered by the fact that suggestion is difficult to isolate and administer in an environment which involves human communicaton. Other approaches in which suggestion is used, most noteably hypnosis, indicate that suggestion may indeed be effective in the learning process. Although findings concerning the effect of hypnosis on learning tasks are mixed, there appears to be a trend towards a positive effect of hypnosis in the learning environment. However, hypnosis is still largely regarded with apprehension and suspicion by educators and administrators in schools. Since Accelerative Learning is often associated with hypnosis, it is frequently dismissed as a viable teaching method for the same reasons. While it cannot categorically be stated that Accelerative Learning has nothing in common with hypnosis, especially not when compared to recent naturalistic techniques, it can also not be claimed that Accelerative Learning is hypnosis. The difficulty with finding a clear distinction between the two is the fact that no widely accepted definition of hypnosis exists. Hypnosis may range from extremely light states, which are similar to the relaxed states reached in Accelerative Learning, to deep somnambulism, a state which cannot even remotely be associated with the state of relaxed alertness in which students in Accelerative Learning courses find themselves. While suggestion in hypnosis may be used for many forms of treatments, ranging from attitude changes to painless tooth extractions, suggestions in Accelerative Learning are confined to addressing the facilitation of the learning task. This is done using suggestive means such as music and positive teacher behaviour, rather than by means of direct verbal suggestions. If students' attitudes towards learning are changed for the better in the process (see chapters 5 and 6), then this is most likely the result of a combination of variables present in Accelerative Learning, one of which is suggestion. Suggestion per se is already constantly present in any learning environment, and teachers make use of it both consciously and unconsciously. Lozanov has simply drawn attention to this fact and developed a method into which suggestion is integrated as an exclusively positive means. There is therefore no reason to exclude its systematic and positive application in Accelerative Learning.

General Conclusions Although findings are not completely consistent, it can be said that the bulk of the research on music and relaxation suggests that these elements are effective in learning. In music this applies especially to pieces from the baroque and classical period, although background music which shares characteristics with these has also been found to be effective. In relaxation there is some evidence that progressive relaxation may be more effective than other forms of physical and mental relaxation. Suggestion, as a variable, has not been extensively researched, and the limited results are not consistent. However, results from research in related fields indicate that suggestion may have a beneficial effect in learning. What are the benefits, though, of isolating one element for investigation? Although we will know something about the effectiveness of that particular variable, we do not know anything about its relationship with the other variables used in Accelerative Learning. The most obvious question, of course, would be to ask which is the most important of all the common variables. No study has yet answered this question, although some have thrown light on the relationship between some variables, suggesting a cumulative effect. Stein et al. (1982) showed that music together with visualisation appeared more effective than music alone for long-term retention. Gamble et al (1982) found relaxation together with music more effective than music alone. Baur (1982) reports that relaxation plus music was more effective than relaxation alone, and Bordon and Schuster (1976) showed that the elements suggestion, synchronisation and music interacted cumulatively with each other so that learning was best when all elements were part of the treatment. Although there are some conflicting findings in these studies, especially regarding the variables suggestion and relaxation, it appears that the findings for the variable music are consistent throughout, suggesting that music may well be the most important when more than one element is investigated. This conclusion must be treated with caution, however, bearing in mind the difficulties involved in isolating and measuring variables such as suggestion and relaxation. Furthermore, the bulk of these studies were short-term and conducted in a laboratory setting, their findings can therefore not be generalised to the natural learning environment. Although it is interesting to know about the contribution of individual elements in Accelerative Learning, the most important interest, however, is how effective the method may be in the natural learning environment. Chapter 4 will therefore investigate the claims made for Accelerative Learning as a complete teaching method in this context.

Chapter 4 A Critical Analysis of the Claims Made for Accelerative Learning

INTRODUCTION Researchers have gathered much naturalistic and experimental data on the effects of the use of Accelerative Learning through empirical, case and laboratory studies. Subjects under investigation have been predominantly language students, yet many other fields as far ranging as physical science (Gritton & Benitez-Bordon 1976), naval science (Peterson 1977) and vocational agriculture (Walters 1977) have been studied using Suggestopedia and SALT. Findings have varied greatly, depending on the particular aspect under investigation, the particular setting and the soundness of the research design. None of the controlled Western studies was ever able to replicate the dramatic findings of the original Bulgarian studies, on the basis of which Ostrander and Schroeder (1979) claim that results can be improved by fifty times. There are some Western studies (Schuster 1976b, Peterson 1977, Walters 1977) which claim that learning can be speeded up by two to three times without loss in achievement. A large body of studies carried out in non-experimental conditions in the university, secondary and primary school environment (Herr 1978, Beer 1978, Gassner-Roberts 1982, Stockwell 1985, Wagner 1985) report larger amounts of material taught, higher achievement, better classroom atmosphere and more confident students. These studies were not conducted only in the favourable conditions for which the method was developed � that is, with small classes (12-15 students), pleasant surroundings and block teaching (Herr 1978,1979, Gassner-Roberts 1982, Stockwell 1985) � but also in natural conditions (Beer 1978, Wagner 1985). Controlled experimental and quasi-experimental studies in natural conditions, such as normal university or school classes (Robinett 1975, Prichard, Schuster & Gensch 1980, Botha 1986), also report significant gains in achievement. Their findings are supported by Moon et al. (1986) who conducted a meta-analysis of 14 of the most controlled studies chosen from an overall 40 published in the Journal for the Society of Accelerative Learning and Teaching (Journal of SALT). Treatments were not identical in all 14 studies, but each had a viable control group with which to compare results. Findings were that "the distribution of effect sizes over all categories and outcomes was leptokurtic and positively skewed" in favour of the experimental groups. Moon et al. concluded that the

treatments were effective "relative to foreign language acquisition, foreign language retention, affective attributes, and cognitive achievement and creativity." (p. 8) A number of studies mention other benefits being associated with Accelerative Learning, such as improved self-concept (Edwards & Thomas 1982, Portes & Foster 1986), attitude (Schuster & Ginn 1978, Gassner-Roberts & Brislan 1984), behaviour (Brown 1986), health (Lozanov & Balevski 1975), reduced stress (Lozanov 1978, Gassner-Roberts & Brislan 1984, Schuster & Gritton 1985), and improved motivation for continuing language study (Knibbler 1982). The purpose of this chapter is to take a critical look at the claims made for the effectiveness of Accelerative Learning in the literature from the early Lozanov studies to the present day. We will attempt to give a view of the general trends in the results and draw some conclusions about their general magnitude in the West. We will finally draw attention to important areas which have not been covered by the research so far.

LOZANOV'S RESEARCH Lozanov's research in the 1960s and 1970s was conducted predominantly at the Institute of Suggestology at Sofia, Bulgaria. Most of his studies were carried out within Suggestopedia, that is to say that he looked for effects that the method may have on memory and on physiological and psychological measures. He also conducted a small number of comparative studies in order to determine the effectiveness of Suggestopedia when compared to other teaching methods. Although Lozanov is not a linguist, the majority of studies were conducted with language students, since Lozanov (1978) believed that results in language learning were more easily measurable than in other fields of learning. Language teachers were extensively trained in the use of the method, and teaching was carried out in the favourable environment described above. Some experimentation, however, was carried out in natural teaching environments, most notably a two-year experiment in primary schools. Findings of Lozanov's research are reported in Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy (1978), the only major publication on Lozanov's empirical work which is available in English in the West. (He also published a scientific magazine entitled Suggestologija which is not readily available in the West and has not officially been translated). On the basis of his findings, Lozanov made a series of claims for the effectiveness of Suggestopedia. These, however, need to be examined critically since Lozanov's research procedures and the style in which experiments are reported have been the subject of severe criticism by a number of notable linguists (Scovel 1979, Mans 1981, Schiffler 1986a). The credibility of Lozanov's research is further threatened by the fact that claims of a highly dramatic nature have been falsely attributed to Lozanov or to Suggestopedia, and have been generalised and promulgated by the popular press and by some commercial language teaching enterprises. The objective of this section is to present the claims that Lozanov himself makes for Suggestopedia, to examine their validity in the light of the evidence that he provides, to examine the soundness of his research procedures, and to point out distortions of his claims by other sources. Five broad categories of claims for Suggestopedia can be identified in Lozanov (1978): 1. Exceptionally large amounts of materials are assimilated by the students. 2. Functional use of these materials is exceptionally high. 3. Retention of these materials is exceptionally high over long periods of time. 4. Students' physiological and psychological state is influenced positively. 5. Higher achievement can be produced in suggestopedic courses as compared to traditionally taught courses. We will now look at each of these claims in detail.

1. Volume of material. One of the most dramatic claims which can be attributed to Lozanov (1978:322) is that an average of four times more new words can be given and assimilated in suggestopedic instruction than in instruction by other methods of language teaching such as audio-visual, audio-lingual and conventional (presumably grammartranslation) methods. In a basic suggestopedic course approximately 2000 items of vocabulary are taught in 96 lessons of instruction. This means that an average of 20.8 words are given per lesson. According to Lozanov (1978:322) the corresponding figures for traditionally taught courses are 7.0 words per lesson for audio-lingual courses, 5.55 for audio-visual courses, and 5.35 for conventional courses. This data is simply given in a table (p.322) without further explanation, except that the figures were obtained from "official data". It appears therefore that this claim is not based on sound experimental research, but on observational data from an unknown source. There is also no further description of the nature of the courses used in the comparison. Lozanov's teaching was conducted under such favourable conditions that a comparison with traditionally taught courses can hardly be valid. Not only did the teaching take place in small groups, in pleasant surroundings and for several hours at a time, but students were also exceptionally motivated. According to Schiffler (1986a) suggestopedically taught students were selected from extensive waiting lists. Lozanov's own (1988) description of selection procedures suggests that students were also chosen according to psychological characteristics, in order to make groups as homogeneous as possible. Lozanov provides no basis on which a valid comparison can be made about the volume of material assimilated by students taught at the Institute of Suggestology and that of students taught elsewhere. The term "assimilate", used by Lozanov to describe the learning process and possibly the learning outcome, is also difficult to interpret. Does this mean that students are able to use these materials in a meaningful way, or do they simply recognise or recall them? From the way that Lozanov describes the various tests given either the day after a suggestopedic session or at the end of the course (p.166, 203, 210), it is clear that these were translation tests, predominantly from the foreign language into the mother tongue. This form of testing gives information on students' recall only. Both Mans (1981) and Baur (1982) interpret this as a serious limitation of Lozanov's research. Lozanov refers to hundreds of suggestopedic sessions in which between 100 and 1000 lexical items were presented to the students, and after which students were able to recall an average of 90% and more (p.166). However, we are only given sporadic information about the nature of the courses, the number and background of students involved or the length of the individual sessions. During the decade of experimentation at the Institute, Lozanov clearly had access to a vast pool of data regarding all aspects of the suggestopedic teaching, and it is unfortunate that he reports this in such as haphazard and unsatisfactory manner. Scovel (1979:261) is quite justified when he points out Lozanov's inability to substantiate his speculations with empirical proof. On the basis of the evidence which Lozanov provides in his 1978 publication, therefore, the above claim would be more soundly based were it rephrased in these terms: Highly motivated students, taught suggestopedically in small classes and in a pleasant environment, are able to recall exceptionally large amounts of materials.

2. Functional use of materials. Although language tests as described by Lozanov (1978:166, 203, 210) appear to be chiefly related to memory skills and passive knowledge of the language, he makes the following claims concerning the students' ability to handle the lexical items with which they have been presented in a suggestopedic course (1978:321-322): (a) Students assimilate on average 90% of the 2000 lexical units presented. (b) More than 60% of the vocabulary can be used actively and fluently in everyday conversation; the rest of the vocabulary is known at translation level. (c) Students speak within the framework of the whole essential grammar. (d) Any text can be read. (e) Students can write with some mistakes. (f) Students make some mistakes in speaking but this does not hinder communication. (g) Pronunciation is satisfactory. (h) Students are not afraid to talk to native speakers. (i) Students are eager to continue studying the same language, if possible in the same way. As discussed above, only the first and the second half of the second claim have been supported, at least on a limited basis, by Lozanov's experimental research. The other claims can only have been arrived at by means of the assessment of naturalistic data. With the exception of the third and fourth claim, these claims are not really dramatic or sensational from an applied linguist's point of view, considering again that highly motivated students in small groups had almost 100 hours of intensive teaching with the addition of music and suggestion, which have been shown to be instrumental in improved learning. However, Lozanov provides insufficient background detail to allow a satisfactory evaluation of these claims. It may be that such claims are indeed valid, but on the basis of Lozanov's (1978) reports, they must be treated with caution. They can at best be considered as items of anecdotal evidence. 3. Retention of materials. One of Lozanov's major interests was to test the retention rate of materials "assimilated" by the students over various periods of time. As a results of extensive tests, he claims that forgetting is minimal in Suggestopedia, and that retention is still exceptionally high after as long as 2 years after the original learning. Again, however, most results are simply listed in tables with no precise information on how tests were conducted. The initial assessment appears to have been based on the results of

written translations of lexical items presented at random the day after the suggestopedic sessions (p. 203), while the delayed assessment was taken at various intervals after an entire course had finished (p.213).There is no precise information, however, on which basis students were selected for the delayed tests or on the nature and conditions of this testing. Results are provided in two formats. Either individual students are referred to, or the results of a group of students are given. Lozanov usually states the students' initial recall rate, their delayed recall rate, the time elapsed between the two tests and whether or not the students had reviewed the materials in the meantime. The tables do not give information about how many words had been taught or tested in each instance. Lozanov lists results, which tend to be inconsistent, at random, and, without providing sufficient evidence of standard statistical analyses, makes claims regarding the statistical reliability of results. An example of this can be found on pages 213-215. Table 21 (p.213) shows the "Percentage of Forgetting in Suggestopedic Memorization". The results of 21 subjects are referred to. The data for 12 students, however, is incomplete. Of the rest, five students recalled 76.3% initially, 67.2% after 12 months without reading the materials and 79.6% after having read it again. The other four students recalled 93.5% initially, 57.0% after 22 months without reading and 81.0% with reading. The selection of data in this table is surprising, considering that Lozanov had access to the initial recall of 416 subjects (p.205) whose average recall was given as 93.2% (p.204). A more interesting selection would have been to re-test as many subjects as possible from that sample at random after several intervals of time each. Lozanov, however, refers to individual results instead, such as that of B.A. who took part in an experiment in which students were presented 1000 words in a single session (p.213). B.A. recalled 98% initially, 53.3% after 20 months without reading and 73% with reading. Without providing any evidence of relevant statistical analyses, Lozanov then goes on to say: "The large number of words on which the experiment with B.A. was based, as well as the great differences between the percentages in the comparisons we made, ensures quite high statistical reliability" (p.214). How this claim is to be interpreted cannot be ascertained from the data provided. Lozanov then gives a graphic representation of the "Reproduction of suggestopedically memorised material" (p.214), which shows that initial recall is around 90% and delayed recall after 24 months around 57%. The source for this data, however, is not discussed. Lozanov also provides examples of 44 subjects who obtained an average of 85% on delayed tests up to 16 months after the initial learning (p.215), and goes on to say that "the tendency was always towards a delayed deterioration in the retention of material" (p.215). Immediately following this statement, however, he provides a table with the results of 10 students whose average initial recall was 99.4% and whose delayed recall after 3 years with either little or no review of materials was 99.2%. This last figure appears to be substantially inflated when compared to all the other figures Lozanov reports for the delayed recall tests.

As a result of his experimentation, Lozanov observed a radical deviation from the classical curve of forgetting provided by Ebbinghaus (p.214), in which one hour after the memorisation only 48% of material is recalled which deteriorates to 28% after 48 hours. Since Ebbinghaus experimented with nonsense syllables, Lozanov carried out an experiment with 133 subjects learning nonsense syllables in order to provide a more valid comparison. The experiment was conducted in three conditions, each varying according to lists learnt, testing procedures and subject numbers. The study is again poorly described (pp.216-217) and results are given in Figure 30 (p.217). The average recall of the first condition (15 subjects) is given as 90% immediately after memorisation, 80% after 4 hours, 85% after 24 hours and 85% after 48 hours. The corresponding figures for the second condition (40 subjects) were 55%, 45%, 45% and 45%, and for the third (3 groups of 26 subjects, not tested after 48 hours), 58%, 42% and 58%. It is interesting to note that the difference in results between conditions 1 and 2 is more dramatic than the difference between condition 2 and the Ebbinghaus results. Lozanov does not refer to these differences but concludes rather obscurely: In the three variants of this experiment, a tendency to form a reminiscent type reproductiveness curve was noticeable, i.e., in subsequent checks students tended to reproduce more and more of the material presented, and delayed reproduction approached reproduction in the immediate check. (p.218)

Although it is impossible to ascertain the validity of Lozanov's results on the basis of the data provided here, the radical deviation from the Ebbinghaus curve is often referred to in advertising for commercial language courses. Again, it is unfortunate that Lozanov made such poor use of large amounts of data regarding delayed recall. Although there is some indication in his reports that recall may be exceptionally high, both 24 hours after presentation of materials and in some cases even after 2 to 3 years, it is impossible to make definite claims about the extent of students' recall ability over time on the basis of the data provided. The most consistently supported finding appears to be that the mean recall rate of suggestopedically taught students after 24 hours is indeed around 90% which may decline to around 57% after a period of two years. Again, this finding is not as dramatic as it may appear at first when we consider that highly motivated adult students were required to translate language items predominantly from the foreign language into their mother tongue. There is also no precise information about what use students made of the language in the period between testing. 4. Physiological and psychological benefits. In order to test whether the high results reported in Suggestopedia were obtained at the expense of students' health, Lozanov carried out some investigations on the physiological and psychological effects of the method. These led to the following claims: It can be claimed with certainty that suggestopedic instruction has no unfavourable effect on the health of students. In a comparatively small percentage of students (17.4%), suggestopedic instruction had a favourable effect on some functional disorders.

A number of complaints of a neurotic nature disappeared during instruction, giving grounds for the elaboration of methods for group psychotherapy for neurotic patients, by means of suggestopedic instruction. (p.223) It was established that in the suggestopedic schools neurotic disorders in children have decreased by half compared with those of the control schools. (p.226)

These claims are based on the data of 396 questionnaires in the case of the adults and on the reports of 12 psychotherapists and 4 university professors in the case of the children. We are not given any precise information on how questionnaires were evaluated, and no further descriptions of the nature of the two-year examinations and reports in the schools are provided. Lozanov goes on to say that "the psychotherapeutic, psychohygienic and psychoprophylactic sides of suggestopedy were experimentally studied and corroborated by I.Z. Velovski (1971,1975) and by other authors too" (p.226). These authors, however, are not identified, and Velovski does not appear in the English bibliography. Instead, Lozanov provides excerpts of letters received from students (p.224) which support his claims on a naturalistic basis. The only claims which appear reasonably well supported by the data from the questionnaires (p.223) are that suggestopedic teaching has no negative effects on the health of adult students, and that in some cases positive effects on functional disorders are observed by the students. In the absence of experimental data, the other claims can be considered on a naturalistic basis only. 5. Achievement as compared to other methods. Lozanov (1978) reports two large comparative studies in which the results of experimental classes receiving suggestopedic teaching were compared to those of control classes receiving conventional teaching. The first experiment was a three-week study with 75 adults, assigned to 3 experimental and 3 control classes, being taught English and French. The second was a two-year experiment in two primary schools. One school was assigned to the experimental condition while the other served as a control condition. In both studies achievement was found to be around 20% higher in the experimental classes. In the primary school experiment, however, Lozanov makes further more dramatic claims regarding achievement, which need to be discussed since they may have been the basis for exaggerated claims about the effectiveness of Suggestopedia by other sources. A misinterpreted result of the adult experiment by the research committee working on the project also needs to be discussed, since it resulted in a highly exaggerated claim being falsely attributed to Lozanov. Since the serious flaws of the experimental procedures of the adult study have already been discussed at length by Scovel (1979), we will refer to them only briefly. Lozanov's experimental procedures are poorly described, especially with regard to the assignments of groups, to the method used in the control groups, and to the tests given. Experimental data is poorly presented and sometimes even inaccurately calculated: the result of the 20.5% higher achievement of the experimental groups, for instance, is given as 21.5% (p.17). A more serious misinterpretation appears in the claim (p.27) that results in the experimental groups were 25 times higher than in the controls (Lozanov's book, however, is so poorly organised, and with such large gaps in information, that it may be possible

that a different experiment is being referred to). Scovel (1979:256) attributes this claim to Lozanov: The strong claims made about the potential benefits of suggestopedy do not come solely from his publishers or disciples, however, they emanate, in fact, from Lozanov himself. In Chapter 2 of the book under review, the claim is made that "As seen from the results obtained in experimental groups, memorisation in learning by the suggestopedic method is accelerated 25 times over that in learning by conventional methods."

This attribution is surprising, not merely because this highly dramatic claim is so far removed from all the others that Lozanov makes, but because it is clear from the text that it is not Lozanov himself who makes the claim but the research committee working on the project. Naturally the author of a book must be responsible for its contents; in Lozanov's case, however, it is possible that he did not have a chance to proofread the book before its publication in the United States. If Bancroft's (1976) observations are accurate, then it is possible that sections of the book were cut and rearranged without Lozanov's knowledge or approval. This would explain the poor organisation of the book and the missing information. An error such as the above may also have been produced in the translation. We are here not trying to make excuses for the unscientific nature of Lozanov's presentation which cannot be denied, we are simply trying to establish which claims have been made about the effects of Suggestopedia and to attribute these to the proper sources. Further dramatic claims in the literature may be based on another quite uncharacteristic finding which Lozanov himself reports in relation to the primary school experiment. Two schools in two different villages were chosen for this experiment. Some information about the children's reading abilities was given, but no information about the teaching method used in the control school. One school was designated as the experimental school while the other became the control school. One serious flaw in the research design was that the experimental children were taught in homogeneous groups while the control children remained in heterogeneous groups. The experiment was conducted over two years. For the first year achievement was generally around 20% better (p.325) in the experimental school. The most dramatic finding was reported at the beginning of the second year when children in the experimental group solved 77.39% of problems presented while the control children solved only 5.28% (p.328). This means that results in the experimental group were 14 times higher than those of the control group. However, this result related to the testing of the second year material in mathematics which had already been covered in the experimental school in the first year, but which could only just have begun to be taught in the control school. This constitutes an unfair comparison, and it would have been more valid to conclude that materials were covered in half the time and compare results at the end of the second year.

Instead Lozanov reports the results of two other schools, not hitherto mentioned, which appear to refer to similar tests under similar conditions. Here results are 63 times higher for the experimental students. Table 47 (p.330) shows 65.83% for the experimental group and 1.04% for the control group. These findings are so far removed from all others in the book, that the research procedures, especially the basis on which the testing was conducted, must be seriously questioned. Lozanov (p.327) claims that the above results were corroborated by a large scale experiment which followed, including a total of 1500 pupils and 146 researchers. No further information on the design, procedure or subject matter for testing is provided for this experiment. The results were that the experimental children who had been taught in a five day week with no homework, assimilated 80.3% of the materials for the first grade and 81% of the materials for the second grade. The control children who had been taught in normal teaching time (presumably one day more per week with the addition of homework) assimilated 63.3% and 66.4% respectively. We do not know at what stage the second year materials were tested, but it seems more likely this time that tests were given to the control group at the end of the second year. These results hardly support the dramatic result quoted above. Instead they appear to corroborate the consistent findings of the experimental group performing about 20% better than the control group throughout the comparative experiments reported in Lozanov (1978). Yet the report of the dramatic results together with the sensational claim made by the research committee above, may have been the basis of Ostrander and Schroeder's (1979:22) claim that "learning can be speeded up by five to fifty times" as an example of what can be achieved by Suggestopedia. Another experiment may have contributed to this claim. This was an experiment (Lozanov 1978:30) in which 1000 unknown words were presented to a group of highly educated professionals and academics in a one day suggestopedic session. Sources quoting this experiment fail to mention that it included 10 days of elaboration on the words and was a one-off experiment, even though Schuster (1978) points this out in his review of Lozanov's 1978 publication. The claim that can therefore be made for this experiment is that 1000 words were learnt in 11 days of intensive teaching. The American publicity release (Scovel 1979:256) for Lozanov's book, however, claimed that 1000 words could be learnt "daily", and according to (Ostrander & Schroeder 1979:43) this achievement could even be improved: With the Bulgarian approach, 500 words a day was just 'Mach1'. By 1966, a group learned 1000 words in a day, and by 1974, a rate of 1800 words was charted. In 1977, Lozanov reported, some tests showed people capable of absorbing even 3000 words per day.

No experiments with more than 1000 words are known to this author and at no stage does Lozanov claim that even 500 words were being learnt 'per day' which implies that 3500 words could be learnt in a week. Gross distortions of this nature did not enhance the credibility of Suggestopedia as a viable teaching method. Since the book Superlearning was more readily available to the general public than Lozanov's (1978) publication, this claim became falsely associated with Lozanov and with suggestopedic language teaching. Both Gassner-Roberts (1987) and Schiffler (1987) quote commercial language enterprises which still advertise their courses on the basis of this and similarly exaggerated claims.

This practice has become so widely spread that some language teaching enterprises believe that they have to dissociate themselves from such claims. Hinkelmann (1988:1) writes: Leider werden über die Superlearning-Methode immer wieder unsinnige Behauptungen aufgestellt und damit Vorurteile geweckt. So wird manchmal behauptet, man könne damit 50 mal schneller oder 1000 Vokabeln pro Tag lernen. Für derartige Behauptungen gibt es jedoch keine wirklichen Beweise. [Unfortunately there are always nonsensical claims being made about the Superlearning method which evoke prejudices. Sometimes it is claimed that one can learn 50 times faster or 1000 words per day. However, there is no real proof to support such claims.]

Conclusions - Lozanov's research. Lozanov carried out a great deal of research over a long period of time with a large number of subjects looking at many aspects of suggestopedic instruction. Unfortunately his data is so poorly reported that it is difficult to check the validity of many findings. In general, Lozanov's own claims about the effects of Suggestopedia are not highly dramatic, especially if we take into consideration the favourable conditions in which his experimentation took place. He does, however report isolated and highly uncharacteristic findings in a school experiment which can be interpreted as achievement having been 63 times higher in the experimental group. The only other dramatic claim, that results were 25 times higher in the experimental groups, appears to have been falsely attributed to Lozanov. Neither finding is corroborated anywhere else in Lozanov's research or by other sources. Yet claims of a similarly dramatic nature have appeared in the popular press and in the advertising of some commercial language courses (see Gassner-Roberts 1987, Schiffler 1987). Having examined Lozanov's research in detail, it can be said with certainty that there is no support whatsoever for claims that learning can be improved by 5 to 50 times or that 1000 words can be learnt daily. There is some indication that achievement may be improved by about 20%, that large amounts of materials may be given, that retention rates and functional use of materials are high, that materials may be learnt in half the normal time in primary schools and that there may be positive effects on the students' psychological and physiological state. These indications are interesting enough to merit further investigation. Extensive research has already been carried out in the West following Lozanov's (1978) and Ostrander and Schroeder's (1979) publications. We will now examine these studies in detail. In the light of the limitations of Lozanov's research resulting from unsatisfactory research procedures and poorly reported data, an effort will be made to describe studies in as much detail as possible.

WESTERN RESEARCH

When Accelerative Learning was introduced in the West in the 1970s, researchers began to test the claims that had been made for the method. Two broad categories of studies can be identified: those that used controlled experimental and quasi-experimental designs, and those that were carried out in a non-experimental environment. The latter will be discussed first.

NON - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES The first courses reported in the literature were language courses, but other subjects were also taught with either Suggestopedia, Superlearning or SALT on a non-experimental basis. Results were not compared with a control group, but reported naturalistically as they had been observed. Teaching was generally carried out in favourable conditions. Examples of such studies are Herr (1978, 1979) who taught German to college students in the U.S.A., Gassner-Roberts (1982) who taught German to a mixed group including teenagers, students and working adults in Australia, Landhal (1982) who reports on Russian being taught to teachers in Sweden, and Haines (1982) who taught mathematics to gifted fourth grade children in the U.S.A. All these studies used the SALT model, and the observations reported support Herr's (1978:197) conclusions: SALT offers the teaching profession in total � not just language teachers � the opportunity of accelerating student learning, of increasing the quantity and quality of learning, and leading to greater student satisfaction and self-esteem.

A further study which supports Herr's (1978) findings was reported by Klockner (1984). In this study Indochinese refugees in the U.S.A. were taught English suggestopedically. It is interesting to note that the students liked the baroque music used, "and that it contributed to a relaxed atmosphere in the class, even though it did not carry the peaceful connotations which Westerners associate with it." (p.74) Haines (1982) and Gassner-Roberts (1982) also report that students displayed a more positive attitude towards the subject than is usually observed. These findings are supported by Cooter (1986) who reports on a five-year study using various forms of SALT adaptations in the teaching of English grammar and punctuation rules at a community college in the U.S.A.. Not only does he report consistently higher achievement than can normally be expected in these classes, with scores being within the range 80% to 91%, but he also mentions consistently better attitudes towards the subject than usual. It is interesting to note that student numbers in the 13 classes taught over five years ranged from 19 to 69 without significant differences in achievement. This suggests that classes do not need to be small for the method to be effective. There were also large differences in drop-out rates over the years in the SALT classes ranging from 0% to 49% and not related to achievement, which suggests that Accelerative Learning does not effect drop-out rates in this environment.

There are also a small number of studies which support Herr's (1978) findings in the secondary school environment. Stockwell (1985) taught English in Liechtenstein using Suggestopedia, Wagner (1985) English in West Germany using Superlearning and Cureau (1983) English in France using his own adaptation of Suggestopedia. No control groups were available in any of these experiments. Stockwell taught in favourable conditions with small classes, pleasant surroundings and intensive teaching, while the other two studies were carried out in the natural school environment. The ages of subjects ranged from 12 to 18. It is interesting to note that although these studies were conducted in three different countries with three different versions of Accelerative Learning and in different environments, the observations made by the researchers here, too, focussed on the same elements mentioned by Herr (1978) above. These observations again suggest that favourable conditions are not necessary for the method to be effective. This is partly supported by Schiffler (1986b) who found that the physical environment in suggestopedic teaching has little effect compared to the facilitative effect of music. Intensive conditions, however, were found to be important. Schiffler (1986b:128) concluded that the "positive influence of baroque music is essentially reduced in extensive teaching of 4 lessons a week as is usual in schools". The effect of Accelerative Learning has also been investigated in the primary school environment. The longest continuous study carried out in a primary school in Europe was conducted in Austria over two and one half years (Beer 1982). Two first grades and two trained teachers, originally under the supervision of Lozanov, took part in the experiment. The major advantages of Suggestopedia reported by Beer (1978:37) were that "a considerably larger amount of materials was covered, that achievement was quantitatively and qualitatively better, that children became increasingly more creative and that aggressiveness occurred less frequently and in a reduced form". Beer goes on to report some disadvantages of the method. These are that "the approach is still at an experimental stage, which means uncertainty and extra work for teachers. They are required to produce their own materials and mobilise all their resources in order to do justice to the programme". The most important question which Beer (1978:37) raises is "whether this quickly acquired material will be retained over long periods of time or will soon be forgotten". Another long-term study in the primary school environment was carried out in the U.S.A. by Prichard and Taylor (1980) over five years. Subjects participating were at least one year behind grade level on the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Comprehension Subtest and had Intelligence Quotient (I.Q.) scores of at least 70. They were chosen from 40 elementary schools in Georgia and grade levels ranged from grade 2 to grade 7. Treatment consisted of an adapted Superlearning model. Prichard and Taylor (1980:78) report that the treatment was "most effective with students who were near average in I.Q., had already acquired considerable vocabulary and were old enough to consider relaxation, imagery and drama a pleasant diversion from 'regular' instruction". They report the treatment as least effective "with young (2nd grade) lower I.Q. students, some of whom never quite seemed to catch on to what was expected of them in the relaxation sessions or to participate fully in the drama". The average gain in reading comprehension

per month was reported as 4:1 for the younger children which suggests that the gain in reading comprehension score for the experimental children was four times higher than that of the children taught in normal classes. For the older children a ratio of 16:1 was reported. Although the authors were encouraged by the large gain scores recorded, they claim that the gains achieved by the low I.Q. students were still not enough to bring them up to grade level and to maintain them there. It is interesting to note that other teachers at the school commented that three quarters of the children did not read as well in other classes as they did in "the concentrated positive-suggestive atmosphere" in which they were taught. (p.79) Although the above studies lend some support to some of the claims made by Lozanov, real comparisons with traditionally taught courses cannot be made because of the absence of a viable control group in all these studies. There are some studies, however, in which such comparisons are made. Dröbner (1986), for example taught French to a group of 15 volunteer students at a Fachhochschule [Institute of Technology] in West Germany. Superlearning was used as the method of instruction and the study was carried out over four weekends and 40 hours. Results were compared with a group with the same number of students which had been taught over the same amount of time but in the normal two hours per week. No other information is given about this 'control group' except that a different text was used. Dröbner reports that the experimental group learnt three times as many lexical items (1200) as the 'control group' and on the basis of these results further calculations are performed which show that up to 12 times as much material could be taught per semester if Superlearning were used as a method of instruction. The way in which such a claim is to be interpreted is unclear. No information about the functional use of those items by the students is given. It is quite possible that while the 'control group' learnt only one third of the amount of lexical items, students in this group functioned more adequately across the four language skills: speaking, reading, writing and listening. Dröbner's study gives information only about recall ability which, although important in language learning, can be considered as the least difficult task. An even more surprising comparison was made by Philipov (1978). In this study the achievement of a group of six volunteer students taught Bulgarian suggestopedically for 120 hours was compared with a group of ten students selected at random from a group which had been taught Russian traditionally and in the normal university programme for 360 hours. Although it can be argued that at a beginning level language courses tend to have similar objectives, and that proficiency in closely related languages may be comparable through standardised tests, this study still has the flavour of comparing apples to oranges since we have no information about the 'control group'. Proficiency was rated independently by two native speakers of the respective languages on a 1-8 scale especially designed for the purpose. While the Bulgarian judges gave identical ratings, resulting in a median of 5.75, the Russian judges did not give a single identical rating, resulting in medians of 4.5 and 4. The consistent discrepancy in the Russian ratings poses a question about the reliability of the rating instrument. Conclusions - Non-experimental studies. Studies conducted on a non-experimental basis appear to support Lozanov's major claims. The majority of studies here claim that large

volumes of materials were being taught, higher achievement than usual was attained and affective variables were being positively influenced as a result of the use of Accelerative Learning. However, just as in Lozanov's case, comparisons with traditionally taught courses cannot be made since viable control groups were not established in these studies. Although the studies of both Philipov (1978) and Dröbner (1986) are interesting in terms of the data which is reported on a naturalistic basis, caution has to be taken about interpreting claims made in such studies related to achievement and time saving, since the control groups used in both cases were convenient samples rather than viable groups of comparison. We do not know how the control group would have performed had it been set up as part of the experiment. In both cases it may have been more conservative to conclude that large amounts of materials (1200 and1800 lexical items respectively) may be taught in a relatively short time in intensive conditions. In the light of Schiffler's (1986b) observations, an important variable in these studies may have been the condensed intensive teaching conditions. It would be interesting, therefore, to replicate these studies and compare students' performance in all four language skills with a control group which had been taught in identical conditions using a different method. A study which does almost all of this (Mignault 1979) will be reported below. Naturally it is difficult to control the environment outside a laboratory and in studies involving interaction between human beings. Using comparable control groups in a comparable environment, however, is the first step to more controlled research in an educational setting. It is most important that the experimental group is not made up of specially selected, highly motivated volunteer students whose achievement is then compared to a group of students taken out of the normal teaching environment where different aims and objectives are set, different materials are used and teaching time is not intensive. We will therefore now look at experimental and quasi-experimental studies in which viable control groups were used as a means of comparison.

EXPERIMENTAL AND QUASI - EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES In experimental studies subjects have been assigned at random to experimental (treatment) or control conditions. In this design pre-tests are sometimes given as an extra means for checking initial group equivalence. Subjects may also have been matched according to various characteristics relevant to the research prior to random assignment. This last procedure is considered to be the most reliable by Campbell and Stanley (1967). In natural social settings, such as schools and other educational institutions, random assignment is often impossible. In this environment a quasi-experimental design is often employed. Comparisons of results in studies of this nature depend on non-equivalent groups which differ in ways other than the presence of the treatment. In this design it is most important to establish whether the claimed effects are indeed attributable to the treatment and not to the non-equivalence of the groups. For such studies it is important to consider carefully the possible threats to internal validity of the study, and to examine the influence of factors other than the treatment that may have contributed to the obtained outcome.

In reviewing the literature, as much information as possible will be given about each study in order to ascertain its significance and reliability. A summary of this information is given in Table 4.1 (Schuster 1976b is listed in Table 4.2 since this was the only study in this section which dealt with language learning). Studies are presented in three categories � firstly, those that report a significant time saving; secondly, those which report significant effects in affective variables; and thirdly, those which report a significant improvement in achievement.

TIME

SAVING

In a study by Schuster (1976b), one of twelve beginning college Spanish classes, selected at random, was taught using SALT procedures for one semester in one third of the usual class time. Results were compared with two control classes, which were taught by different teachers using the same textbook. While the experimental class was taught in a single two-hour class per week, the controls were taught in the usual six contact hours per week. The final tests were devised by the control group teachers only. There were no significant differences in achievement between the experimental and the control groups although the experimental group had been taught the same materials in one third of the time. It must be noted that since no pre-tests were given, the experimental group, although assigned at random as a whole, may have had higher language learning ability or more previous knowledge of the language. This study is really only marginally better controlled than Döbner's (1986) study above. However, in Schuster's study, experimental students were not volunteers, teaching did not take place in intensive conditions, and both written and oral proficiency were tested.

Table 4.1

Summary of Non-Language Studies.

Author

Model Design Students Time

Peterson 1977

SALT

Walters 1977

SALT

Schuster & Prichard 1977

SALT

30

A

1 quarter Naval Science

N

material taught in half the time

44

S

1 term

Vocat. Agriculture

N

sign. *higher attitude materials taught in one half time

?

P S

1 year

Various

N

sign. *higher achievement in 7 out of 10 classes other 3 ns

quasi-exp. pre-post 1 exp 1 cntrl.

quasi-exp. pre-post 1 exp 1 cntrl.

quasi-exp. pre-post 10 exp 10 cntrl.

Subject Con. Results

Schuster & Ginn 1978

SALT

Prichard Schuster & Walters 1979

SALT

Prichard Schuster & Gensch 1980

SALT

Edwards 1980

SALT

Edwards &Thomas 1982

SUP

Applegate 1983

SUP

Shrum 1985

Sugg rel.

Portes 1986

SALT

64

S

1 year

Earth Science

N

sign. *better attitude sign. *higher achievement _ x = +3.15

?

S

?

Agribusiness

N

sign. *higher achievement

31

P

1year

Reading

N

sign.**higher achievement _ x = +4.38

175

P

1/2year

Creativity N

30

A

1quarter SelfConcept

F

sign.*higher overall self-concept

1052

P

2years

Prim. Syllabus

N

sign.**higher achievement overall after one year, _ x = +13.46 similar results after second year, no details available better student behaviour improved student time on task teachers less stressed, more confident.

72

A

6weeks

Arithmetic

N

sign. *higher achievement

120

P

1sem

Prim. Syllabus

N

sign.*higher self-concept for first grade, ns for fourth grade

quasi-exp. pre-post 1 exp 1 cntrl.

quasi-exp. pre-post 2 exp 2 cntrl.

quasi-exp. pre-post 1 exp 1 cntrl.

2x2x2x2 non-equ. controls

exp. pre-post 1 exp 2 cntrl.

quasi-exp. pre-post 20 exp 12 cntrl.

exp. pre-post 3 exp 3 cntrl.

exp. pre-post 2 exp

sign.*increased creativity on 5 of 11 variables

2 cntrl.

Legend for Table 4.1 and 4.2 Students.

A=Adults

S=secondary students

P=primary students

Con. =

Conditions in which experiemntals were taught. N=Normal teaching environment F=favourable conditions (small classes, specially equipped room, block teaching)

Statistical significance. *=significant at p