The Silent Way is a Language Teaching Method

The Silent Way The Silent Way is a language teaching method. It was created by Caleb Gattegno which uses silence as a teaching technique. This method emphasizes the autonomy of the students, the teacher’s role is to monitor  students, and the students are encouraged to have an active role through the language learning process. Pronunciation is fundamental, and the students begin their study with pronunciation, and much time is used in practicing pronunciation in each lesson. The Silent Way uses a structural syllabus which is constantly reviewed and recycled. Vocabulary is important, translation and rote repetition are avoided and the language is usual practiced in meaningful contexts. Observation is the way of evaluating students, and formal tests might never be used by teachers for evaluation. Teacher uses silence to encourage students produce and keep them focused. It also encourages students to help each other and correct their own error. The teacher may use hand gestures, techniques such us mouthing words to help with the correct pronunciation. Teachers use some specialized teaching materials: Cuisenaire rods, to represent abstract objects. Sound-colored charts that help students with pronunciation and colored Fidel charts which are used to teach spelling.

Background Gatt Gatteg egno no’s ’s idea idea of the the usag usage e of Cuis Cuisen enai aire re rods rods and and colo colore red d char charts ts came came from from his his previous experience as a designer of mathematics and reading programs. He was not totally convinced about the role of linguistics theories of his time, and he felt that linguistic stud studie ies s "may "may be a spec specia ializ lizat atio ion, n, [tha [that] t] carry carry with with them them a narr narrow ow open openin ing g of one' one's s sensitivity and perhaps serve very little towards the broad end in mind". The Silent Way is considered as one of Gattegno’s educational principles, rather rather than a method for teaching teaching languages. These principles are: i)

Teachers have to concentrate on how students learn and not on how to teach.

ii)

Imita Imitatio tion n and and drill drill are are not not the the prim primar ary y mea means ns by whic which h stu stude dent nts s lea learn rn..

iii) iii)

Lear Learni ning ng cons consis ists ts of tria triall and and erro error, r, deli delibe bera rate te expe experi rime ment ntat atio ion, n, susp suspen endi ding ng  judgment, and revising conclusions

iv) iv)

In lear learni ning ng,, learn learner ers s draw draw on ever everyt ythi hing ng that that they they alre alread ady y know, know, espe especi cial ally ly thei their  r  native language.

v)

The The tea teach cher er must must not not int inter erfe fere re with with the the lea learn rnin ing g pro proce cess ss..

Silent Way Didactics Didactics has three essential elements which are: the teacher, the learner (student), and the knowledge. The didactics triangle shows us how these three elements interact between each other. Jerome Bruner distinguishes two traditions of teaching: 1) Expositor mode

2) Hypothetical mode

Teacher

Student

Expositor

Listener 

Teacher

Student Interaction

The first mode is traditional, where the teacher is the one responsible for making decisions about how he/she has to expose knowledge while the student acts as a “bench-bound listener.” The second mode is closer to the Silent Way method where the teacher acts as a promoter, and the student has the opportunity to be part in his/her own learning process. Teacher and students work cooperatively while learning takes place. Gattegno believed that teachers had to focus on what and how students learn, and not just to give a lesson and put knowledge inside a box, as Paulo Freire said. The students ought to realize they are actually learning, and they can make mistakes like everybody else. One of the main issues in Silent Way is that in order to express their feelings and thoughts the students need to be self-confident and independent from the teacher so they are able to correct themselves. The imperative is the initial structure introduced because of the ease with which action verbs may be demonstrated using Silent Way materials, numeration and prepositions are early taught in a course because of their importance in every day life and the ease with which they can be demonstrated. The following is a section of a Peace Corps Silent Way Syllabus for the first ten hour of  instructions in Thai.

Lesson 1. Wood color red. 2. Using the numbers 1—10 3. Wood color red two pieces. 4. Take (pick up) wood color red two pieces 5. Take wood color red two pieces hive him

Vocabulary wood, red, green, yellow, brown, pink, white, orange, black, color  one, two,... ten take (pick up) give, object pronouns where, on, under, near, far, over, next to, here, there

6. Wood red where? Wood red on table. Question-forming rules. Yes. No. 7. Wood color red on table, is it? Yes, on. Not adjectives of comparison on. 8. Wood color red long. Wood color green longer. Wood color orange longest. 9. Wood color green taller. Wood color red is it? 10. Review. Students use structures taught in new situations, such as comparing the heights of students in the class. (Joel Wiskin, personal communication) The materials mentioned before are designed for manipulation by the students as well as by the teacher, cooperatively, in promotion language learning by direct association.

Conclusion

We believe that the Silent Way Method is a useful tool in order to help students learn but as a group we have found some discrepancies among us. One of us supports the idea of  that a student ought to have previous grammar knowledge to start using this method. On the other hand one believes that having previous knowledge of grammar structures is not important, students will be able to deduct the language structure by themselves in the same way as they learned their mother language. We both feel that student-teacher  interaction plays an important role in any teaching-learning experience and the Silent Way can be used as a device but not as a unique method for teaching. The student will be able to interact in the learning process in order to develop self-confidence using the new language.-