SILENT WAY

SILENT WAY

1. DESIGN

   • Objectives
     • Students should be able to use the language for self-expression to express their thoughts, perceptions, and feelings.
     • Developing independence from the teacher, to develop their own inner criteria for correctness.
     • Students become independent by relying on themselves.
     • The general goal set for language learning is near-native fluency in the target language, and correct pronunciation and mastery of the prosodic elements of the target language are emphasized.
   • Activities
     • Teacher models a word, phrase or sentence and elicits learner responses
     • Learners then create their own utterance by putting together old and new information
   • Learners roles
     • Making use about what they know.
     • Free themselves of any obstacles that would interfere with giving their utmost attention to the learning task, and to actively engage in exploring the language.
     • Learners are expected to develop independence, autonomy, and responsibility.
     • The autonomous learner chooses proper expressions in a given set of circumstances and situations.
     • Learners have only themselves as individuals and the group to rely on, and so must learn to work cooperatively rather than competitively.
     • A learner also must be a teacher, a student, part of support system, a problem solver and a self-evaluator. (Najmi, 2012)
   • Teachers roles
     • The teacher should start with something the students already know and build from that to the unknown
     • The teacher should give only what help is necessary
     • Students' actions can tell the teacher whether or not they have learned
     • The teacher works with gestures, and sometimes instructions in the students' native language
     • The teacher works with the students while the students work on language
     • The more the teacher does for the students what they can do themselves, the less the will do for themselves
     • The teacher's silence encourages group cooperation
     • The teacher needs to look for progess, not perfection
     • The teacheris a technician or engineer. "Only the learner can do the learning
   • Materials
     • Pointer
     • Sound color chart
     • Silence
     • Blocks of color
     • Autonomy
     • Responsability
     • Rods
     • Color-code Fidel chart

2. The silent way is a method of teaching languages created by Caleb Gattegno in 1972

3. PROCEDURE

   • Techniques
     • SOUND-COLOR CHART
       • The chart contains blocks of color, each one representing a sound in the target language. The teacher, later the students, points to blocks of color on the chart to form syllables, words, and even sentences.
     • TEACHER’S SILENCE
       • The teacher gives just as much help as is necessary and then is silent. Or the teacher sets up a situation, puts a language structure into circulation, and then is silent.
     • PEER CORRCTION
       • Students are encouraged to help another student when he or she is experiencing difficulty. It is important that any help be offered in a cooperative manner, not a competitive one.
     • RODS
       • Rods can be used to provide visible actions or situations for any language structure, to introduce it, or to enable students to practice using it. The rods trigger meaning: situations with the rods can be created in such way that the meaning is made clear; then the language is connected to the meaning.
     • SELF-CORRECTION GESTURES
       • For example, in the class observed the teacher puts his palms together and then moved them outwards to signal to students the need to lengthen the particular vowel they were working on.
     • FIDEL CHARTS
       • The teacher, and later the students, points to the color-colored Fidel Charts in order that students associate the sounds of the language with their spelling.
     • STRUCTURED FEEDBACK
       • Students are invited to make observations about the day’s lesson and what they have learned. The teacher accepts the student’s comments in a no-defensive manner, hearing things that will help give him direction for where he should work when the class meets again.

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