Introduction

We have seen several instances in this book of language teaching methods that have been developed by educators from outside mainstream language teaching, such as the Silent Way (Chapter 16), and Community Language Learning (Chapter 17). Methods such as these sometimes interest teachers who may be attracted by their novelty and the results they are said to deliver. Many of the “innovative” methods of the 1980s and 1990s are mainly of historical interest today, although they may still have some practitioners in different parts of the world. Suggestopedia is another method of this type and was developed by the Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov. Suggestopedia is a specific set of learning recommendations derived from Suggestology, which Lozanov describes as a “science … concerned with the systematic study of the nonrational and/or nonconscious influences” that human beings are constantly responding to (Stevick 1976: 42). Suggestopedia tries to harness these influences and redirect them so as to optimize learning. The most con-spicuous characteristics of Suggestopedia are the decoration, furniture, and arrangement of the classroom, the use of music, and the authoritative behavior of the teacher. Music is an especially important element of Suggestopedia, and both intonation and rhythm are coordinated with a musical background, which helps to induce a relaxed attitude. The method has a somewhat mystical air about it, partially because it has few direct links with established learning or educational theory in the West, and partially because of its arcane terminology and neologisms, which one critic has unkindly called a “package of pseudo-scientific gobbledygook” (Scovel 1979: 258).

Hansen (2011: 403), a current advocate of Suggestopedia, provides this commentary: