SHARE
An Electronic Magazine by Omar Villarreal and
Marina Kirac ©
Year
7
Number 156 December
14th 2005
9450
SHARERS
are reading this issue of SHARE this week
__________________________________________________________
Thousands
of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will
not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being
SHARED
__________________________________________________________
Dear
SHARERS,
We wanted to open
this issue of SHARE with a message from a very dear friend, a doyen of ELT in
Argentina and a founding SHARER. For both Marina and I Elida Messina will always
be our fairy godmother. She was there when SHARE was born (one of the original
48 recipients of the first issue of SHARE) and she encouraged us to carry on
with our “madness” in the most difficult early stages of our e-magazine that
turned 7 years old last November. Thank you dear Elida. Thank you all dear
SHARERS!
Querido
Omar.
...Lo que vos y Marina
hacen sigue siendo para mí algo tan valioso y generoso que agradezco a
Dios cada vez que recibo SHARE. Thank You Dear Lord that they've managed to
put all that together once more! Sé bien el esfuerzo
que hay detrás de cada número y uno tras otro me maravillan, me hacen sentir
agradecida como receptora de todo eso que alguien más se ocupó de buscar, de
crear, de recrear para que me llegue a través de este maravilloso medio de
comunicación silenciosa, pero enriquecedora, nutriente, estimulante,
revivificante.
Mis queridos Omar y
Marina: Que el Ser Superior continúe iluminando sus mentes y multiplicando
infinitamente lo que con tanto esfuerzo y cariño hacen por todos nosotros.
Gracias de corazón. Los quiero mucho aunque nos veamos every blue moon, if
at all.
Elida
Love
Omar
and Marina
______________________________________________________________________
In
SHARE
156
1.-
Teaching English to Young Learners: The Last Decade.
2.- Using Video with
Teenagers.
3.-
Music,
Relaxation and Suggestion in the Classroom.
4.- El
Origen de la Violencia en el Aula.
5.-
Tools For Teachers December Programme.
6.- Curso
Sobre Violencia Escolar y Stress Docente.
7.- News
from APIBA,
8.-
Tercera
Escuela de Verano de Lingüística Formal de América del Sur.
9.-
Talleres de Brain Gym.
10.- Curso
de Ingreso a la Docencia para Escuelas
Plurilingües.
11.- Español
para Extranjeros: Curso a Distancia.
12.-
Beca de
Perfeccionamiento Docente del Gobierno Japonés.
13.- Wacky-Wacky, a $Radio
Show!
14.- Curso Virtual sobre Vida Cotidiana
y Conflictos en las Escuelas.
15.- Becas del Programa
Alban.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
1.- TEACHING
ENGLISH TO YOUNG LEARNERS: THE LAST DECADE
Our
dear SHARER Bridget O´Farrell has sent us this article to SHARE with all of
you:
Teaching
English to Young Learners: Reflections on a decade (1990-2000)
By
Gail Ellis,The British Council
Introduction
I
recently gave a talk entitled A story-based methodology - 10 years on at a
conference in Paris for teachers and trainers of English working in the primary
sector. The purpose of this short paper is not to discuss the merits of a
story-based methodology, but to reflect on some of the developments that have
taken place over the last decade in English language teaching for young learners
(5 - 11 year-olds).
It
has indeed been an active and evolving decade with the primary ELT market
expanding worldwide and more and more children and teachers involved. The latest
volume of the English Language Teaching Journal (No 54) alone reports on two
ambitious projects to train primary teachers, the Primary English Teaching in
Rural Areas (PETRA) in rural areas in South Africa and the Sri Lanka Primary
English Language project (PELP). Other countries like Taiwan and Vietnam are
expanding rapidly while in some countries in Europe and Latin America the
teaching of English to children has been established for many years.
From
a European perspective I have observed the following developments over the last
decade.
Experience,
expertise and confidence
The
last 10 years have brought accumulated experience, expertise and confidence.
This sounds an obvious point but it represents a bank of knowledge that did not
exist 10 years ago when, for many, the introduction of foreign languages into
the primary curriculum was a new venture. What shall I do? How do I teach
children? How do children learn foreign languages? What materials shall I use?
There was a general feeling of excitement in the air but also one of
apprehension, bringing together primary and secondary school inspectors for the
fusion of ideas and resources. Training courses were organised when and where
possible and the pedagogy and practicalities of teaching children were
discussed. Ten years on we witness teachers and trainers whose current practice
has been informed through experimentation, reflection and modification. They are
now experienced and in a position to pass on their knowledge to new teachers and
learners of English.
Materials
Ten
years ago there was a dearth of materials for teaching children, both course
materials and teacher support material. Over the decade there has been an
explosion of materials. Today there are now over 20 handbook titles from major
British ELT publishing houses on the primary market ranging from more academic
to practical titles. The Keltic Guide to ELT Materials 2000 lists over 40
coursebooks for children and this does not include those that have come and gone
in between or those which have been written for specific markets. These
publications represent a wealth and variety of resources for the teacher to
choose from which did not exist 10 years ago, and with the possibility of
on-line purchasing they are easily available.
Mixed
ability
For
any teacher of any subject differentiation is a day-to-day reality due to a
variety of factors: attitudes, motivation, learning styles, ability for academic
study, different world or cultural knowledge, etc. For the foreign language
teacher, we have also observed a sometimes marked difference in the level of
English amongst children in any one class. This is due to a greater provision of
private structures for learning English (for example, the British Council's
worldwide network of teaching centres), where parents send their children for
additional and complementary English classes; to greater global mobility where
families may move to an English-speaking country for professional reasons and
their children are educated in English; to new families arriving in a host
country for political reasons from countries where English already had an
established role in their curriculum. Consequently, classes consist of very
mixed levels, possibly ranging from beginner to bilingual. Teachers have
therefore had to develop a range of skills and the flexibility to accommodate
the needs of all these children in one class.
The
globalisation of English
English
has become the world's global language and classroom practice reflects a greater
emphasis on 'world Englishes' and other cultures. Class materials now provide
images of different countries where English is spoken, and models of English as
spoken throughout the world rather than just one selected model. Stories, for
example, from other English-speaking cultures provide a rich resource for the
teacher to develop their pupil's awareness of 'world Englishes'.
The
technological explosion
The
explosion in technology offers radical changes for the child learning English.
CD-Roms and Internet offer interesting and fun sources for children to practise
their English at school or at home. The British Council's Learn English site
includes a section for children.
Variety
of 'intelligences'
There
has been a greater awareness of and emphasis on the different types of
'intelligences' that contribute to language learning, including the development
of emotional intelligence. Ten years ago the teaching of English was often still
done in a formal, conventional way which may have suited the learning style of
the more academic learner where learning was assessed only in terms of
linguistic outcomes with little or no attention to social, cognitive or
psychological gains. Today each child is recognised as an individual and as
having the potential to learn a foreign language, as many different types of
intelligences come into play. Consequently methodologies and materials are
designed to develop all 'intelligences' in order to create an all-round,
holistic language learner.
Intercultural
awareness and citizenship
In
the increasingly global world and linked to the above is a greater awareness of
and emphasis of the importance of developing intercultural awareness, where the
development of tolerance and empathy are high priorities in our struggle to
create a more just and peaceful world. Also related to this area is the
development of citizenship skills, which include an understanding of
environmental and ecological issues, gender issues, human rights issues, and
health and safety issues.
Learning
to learn
Also
linked to the above two points is the greater awareness of and emphasis on
helping children learn how to learn and become more responsible for their own
learning so they develop their potential as autonomous learners. This will
involve helping children become aware of what they are doing in the classroom
and why, in other words understanding the methodology of language teaching and
learning which may differ radically to the way other subjects are taught in the
curriculum. This will allow children to express themselves meaningfully about
what goes on in the language learning classroom. This is especially important in
terms of accountability to parents who may be paying for their children to learn
a language. It is meaningless if a child describes their language learning
experience as follows, Today we played/we watched a video, we coloured. Learning
to learn will help children to go beyond this phase and say why they played,
watched a video or coloured. For example, Today we played a game to practice
saying where things are. Today we watched a video to learn the names of, and
find out about, animals in the Kalahari desert. Today we coloured a picture to
learn the words for clothes. This aspect of learning is linked to the point
below. Learning to learn also involves helping children become aware of the
range of learning strategies at their disposal so they can select the ones they
prefer and, finally, it involves helping children reflect actively on their
learning so they can perceive their progress and maintain their motivation.
Parental
perceptions
Ten
years ago many parents perceived language learning at school as an additional
subject which was 'fun' for their children. Parents now recognise the important
role a foreign language can play in their child's global development as well as
the instrumental role it can play in their future at school, at university and
in the work place. Consequently, more and more parents are keen to support their
child's learning and involve themselves in this process. A need has therefore
arisen for parent courses which not only help them form realistic expectations
about their child's language learning, but also to provide them with an
understanding of what goes on in the classroom and why. Such a course should
also provide them with practical tips on how they can help their children and
therefore maximise their learning.
Conclusion
It
has been an evolving and exciting decade. The teacher of English to children has
become a highly skilled teacher who can incorporate the above developments into
classroom practice. In short, the teacher's role has greatly expanded. With the
development of the website of the worldwide survey on practice and policy in
Young Learners Teaching, and its regular updating, we will be able to keep
abreast of future developments in a systematic way. I look forward to the
website and the next decade.
Gail
Ellis The British Council, France, and Centre for Research into Second and
Foreign Language Pedagogy, University of Nottingham, UK
Produced
in United Kingdom by The British Council (c) 2000. The British Council is the
United Kingdom's international organisation for educational and cultural
relations. Registered in England as a Charity.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
2.- USING VIDEO WITH
TEENAGERS
A lot
has been said about the use of the Internet and new technologies in the
classroom, but in the rush to modernise our classrooms and update our teaching
styles it's easy to overlook video. It seems that video is suddenly out of
fashion and not innovative any more. Ben Goldstein disagrees, and here he shares
with us some tried and tested adaptable video activities which appeal to
teenagers.
Video
With Teenagers
By
Ben Goldstein
The
idea that video is old-fashioned is still largely due to a very conservative use
of video in the classroom, espe-cially with teenage classes. If a class is
yawning, grumbling, or playing up then it's very tempting to throw a video of
Friends on which they won't understand but will make them shut up. But it's
important that we do not fall into this trap.
Some
of the following activities are often focused on particular films, but these can
be modified for others and they can be adapted according to the level you're
teaching. They all, however, have a direct appeal to teenagers, and I have found
them a good way to motivate students. They can also make students see that video
can play an integral role in the classroom and not be just an extra.
One
aspect which links all the activities is that students are encouraged to read
between the lines, to think, and to analyse what they see, not just to answer
comprehension questions on tedious news bulletins.
We
begin with advertising. As we all know, advertisements are an excellent resource
in the teenage classroom. Students are experts in them and are exposed to
hundreds a day. They will certainly know a lot more about them than you do! But
one of the snags is to how to make the use of ads genuinely interactive in the
classroom.
Advertising
Aim
To
enable students to analyse television advertisements and identify the techniques
that are used.
Procedure
Step
1: Ask students to discuss current ads which they particularly like or dislike
and why. Encourage them to explain the ad to the rest of the
class.
Step
2: Show the class an ad from a magazine which uses a simple advertising
technique, such as 'before and after', for example-you could show the class the
photo of a man with grey hair and ask them what product is needed and how it
will be shown in the ad. Other good before-and-after ads include those for
clean-ing products, medicines, hair gel, and so on.
Step
3: Ask students to explain the 'before and after' technique; for instance, we
see a rapid transformation and the sudden change is always
positive.
Step
4: Introduce other techniques with some sample products or specific ads that
adopt this technique (this can also be done as a matching activity). Encourage
the students to complete gaps (sample answers given).
a
Before and after: cleaning products
b
Association of ideas: Marlboro (US cowboys)
c
Expert/celebrity: Coca-Cola (Figo)
d Key
words (slogans): Nokia - Connecting People
e
Story line - Yellow Pages
f
Science and technology: ads that include all kinds of technical data that you
can't understand
g The
camera never lies: McDonald's (the hamburger you see in the photo will be twice
as big as the one you'll get in your hand)
h
Testimonials ('the man in the street'): deodorant, cleaning
products
Step
5: Show a series of ads which incorporate these techniques. Ask students to
identify which techniques have been used and if they like/dislike the ad. The
ads can be in any language.
Step
6: Give students various products or photos of products and ask them which
technique they would use to sell it (you could use aspirin, takeaway pizza,
trainers, and so on). Ask them to create their own ads.
Other
alternatives with TV ads
1
Guess the ad: Show the first part of an ad and freeze it before the product is
revealed. Students have to guess the product. (Yellow Pages ads are often good
for this.)
2
Political ads: find ads which do not sell a product but promote an idea
(anti-drinking and driving, water conservation, and the like), and ask students
what the message is, who the target audience is, and to rate how successful /
effective it is on a scale of 1 to 10.
Tip:
Very often award-winning ads are shown in special programmes on television.
These are some of the best to use and are easier to record and store. Keep a
file of magazine / newspaper ads related to similar products. You can ask
students to write a comparison of two perfume ads or two car ads, for
example.
Films
Using
whole feature films in class can be problematic from a number of points of view:
it can be boring, demotivating, or something which can be done out of class. We
know that using extracts from films is a great way to engage teenagers, but how
can we do this in a way which will be both accessible and which will motivate
them? And more importantly, how do we choose the sequences
themselves?
One
way to make the best use of original films is to link sequences thematically.
Here are some suggestions for finding scenes with a common link: suspense,
dating, openings, and humour.
Suspense
(all levels)
For
lower-level students it's good to show sequences which feature suspense.
Particularly good are chase sequences which are very visual and do not depend on
comprehension. Such high-action adventure scenes are naturally very popular with
teenagers. You can choose any kind of suspense thriller, but here are two
examples, and as we are using them without sound, they do not need to be in the
original English version.
1
Sequences from Hitchcock's Vertigo
a Kim
Novak throwing herself into the San Francisco Bay
b Kim
Novak throwing herself off the church tower
You
should show approximately five minutes before these climactic
moments.
Procedure
Step
1: Show the sequence without sound. Student A sits with his back to the screen,
while student B narrates what she sees on the screen.
Step
2: After watching, all the students A-who didn't watch the screen-are asked to
piece together what they can remember. Students B will corroborate or not. This
is quite fun because obviously how accurate their accounts are depends on the
narrators in question.
Step
3: The whole class watches the sequence through without sound. The teacher
pauses
to highlight key vocabulary, mistakes that students had made in their
descriptions, and so on.
2
Sequences from Seven
Show
the chase sequence (about seven minutes), which is about halfway through the
film. Or you could choose any other chase sequence that is full of
action.
Procedure
Ask
students to watch whole sequence and note down any aspects which add to the
suspense of the film. They have to imagine this from both the director's and the
audience's point of view (for example, long corridors, shouting, close-ups,
intense music). Some of this vocabulary can be pre-taught. Get feedback from
students and then run through the sequence, pausing at key
moments.
Humour
(High Levels)
It's
always good to introduce a bit of a laugh into the classroom. In a similar way
to the activity on advertising, this task encourages teenagers to read between
the lines and analyse why something is funny. This is a great way to introduce
different senses of humour as well.
Procedure
Step
1: Ask students to discuss programmes or comedians they consider funny/unfunny.
Encourage them to think why they believe this.
Step
2: Introduce different types of humour (this for older students), such as
satire, English, feminist, absurd, black humour.
Step
3: Show clips from different films which encapsulate this type of
humour.
Suggestions:
Four
Weddings and a Funeral (English)
Thelma
and Louise (feminist)
The
Life of Brian (satire)
Trainspotting
(black humour/sick)
Mr
Bean (slapstick)
Ask
students to rate how funny the sequences are on a scale of 1 to 10 and why they
are funny/unfunny. This forces them to pay attention to the purely visual
aspect, it is often not important how much they actually
understand.
Consider
these factors when discussing why a scene is funny or not: element of surprise,
play on words, misunderstanding, embarrassment, facial expression. What type of
humour is represented in this scene?
Even
if you don't have access to these materials or you consider that some might not
work with your particular teenage class, I hope these ideas will at least
stimulate you to doing more experimental things with video in the classroom. And
with DVD just around the corner, the possibilities that could open up are
endless.
Ben
Goldstein teaches English at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona. He is
the author of the celebrated series “Framework” published by Richmond/
Santillana.
He is
also researching his doctoral thesis on video at the UPF.
His
recent tour of our country included a visit and teleconference at Universidad
Tecnológica Nacional where is well liked and remembered by faculty and students alike.
©
Richmond Publishing 2005
------------------------------------------------------------------------
3.- MUSIC, RELAXATION AND
SUGGESTION IN THE CLASSROOM
Dr. Uschi Felix has generously offered to SHARE this article with all of us:
The
aim of this article 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 article
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 article.
La musique est la langue
du cœur
[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)
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 Dvoràk'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
context-dependent 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:
[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 long-term 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
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 short-term 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 article 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, 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 ego-involvement 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
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 article 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
non-related 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 naïve to claim that
Suggestopedia has nothing in common with hypnosis, and it would be
equally naïve 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 Uneståhl'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
counter-productive 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):
[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, 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.
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.
© by Uschi Felix (PhD)
------------------------------------------------------------------------
4.- EL
ORIGEN DE LA VIOLENCIA EN EL AULA
Our dear SHARER
Bethina
Viale has sent us this article she wrote:
Para aquéllos a los
que les toca, les tocó, y para aquellos que creen que se
salvaron....
“Pilatos está en
todas partes. Lavarse las manos es lo usual. El compromiso es cosa de tontos:
éste es el mensaje que los jóvenes constantemente reciben de la gran sociedad y
de la pequeña también, es decir la familia.
La pregunta del por
qué de tanta violencia es no sólo legítima sino imprescindible. ¿Acaso el "yo
soy libre y hago lo que quiero", practicado por chicos y grandes, no tiene el
sello de una invitación a la violencia?
La verdadera libertad
es una elección entre deberes y no la espontaneidad de lo que se nos
antoja. Y anteponer la igualdad de derechos como un argumento que sirva
para todo pone en evidencia que sólo se es igual en derechos si se es
igual en deberes, en normas a compartir. En las normas hay
jerarquías.
Los chicos que
maltratan física y síquicamente a sus maestros- y sólo algunos privilegiados
trascienden en los noticieros- parten de la premisa de la igualdad; sin embargo,
ella debería garantizar que maestros y maestras estuvieran autorizados
igualmente a azotarlos cuando se les antoje.
La reacción de las
autoridades a la violencia es la impunidad. Hoy se debate el tema de para qué
sirven las amonestaciones y cualquier otro castigo a las dulces criaturas cuando
en realidad no debería haber necesidad de castigar si los padres hicieran "los
deberes".
Ésta es la revolución
que ahora hace falta, urgentemente.
No sé muy bien para
qué sirven los hijos. Pero sí sé, y con bastante precisión, para qué estamos
nosotros los padres: para educar en las normas, en los límites, en el respeto,
en la responsabilidad.”
Del libro "¿Para
qué sirven los hijos?" , capítulo "La liberación bien entendida", de Jaime
Barylko (2ª edición 1998):
...hasta aquí las
palabras de Barylko.
Que un alumno se pare
a la par del docente en el frente de un salón y después de recorrerlo a su
alrededor en medio de una clase diga mirando a los compañeritos de 10 años "Qué
olor ...( ¿a caca , era?...gracias que acá viene en auxilio la amnesia
emocional)", eso es violencia.
Que un padre lo
"puentee" a un docente cuando antes éste lo recibió personalmente o por teléfono
o por e-mail (o nunca se enteró el docente de que el padre
quería hablarle) para decirle a su superior lo que nunca dialogó con el
maestro/profesor, eso es violencia. Y si encima lo hace por teléfono, eso es
además cobardía sustentada por dudosos argumentos.
Que un padre le diga
a un docente " Yo acá pago" cuando de lo se le está hablando es de la pésima
conducta del hijo, eso es violencia. O "El año que viene no sé si lo voy a
seguir mandando acá" o "el año que viene mi hijo no viene más acá" , cuando de
lo que se le está hablando es de la falta de estudio del hijo, eso es
violencia.
Que un alumno le diga
a un maestro/profesor: "A ver si todavía yo a vos te hago echar ...", eso es
violencia.
Si además todo esto-
y tanto más- sucede porque el hijo/alumno no se exime ( o no tiene la
nota que él y/o sus padres creen merece) o, dicho de otro modo, cuando
esto sucede porque el docente quiere que aprenda lo que todavía no sabe, eso es
violencia.
...y no es la
historia de uno.
Existe el acoso, el
acoso sexual.¿Existirá también el acoso "académico" ?
Alguien una vez me
contó o en algún lado leí la siguiente anécdota:
Antes, cuando un
alumno iba a su casa y le decía a la mamá: "¡Mamá, la señorita me retó!", la
mamá le contestaba:"Algo habrás hecho...".
Hoy, cuando un alumno
llega a la casa y le dice a la mamá:"¡Ma, la seño me retó!", la mamá le
contesta: " ¡No le hagas caso a esa vieja loca!".
Viene a mi mente la
película "Luna de Avellaneda" y ese estribillo que le sirve de fondo musical :
"¡Siga el baile, siga el baile....!"
-----------------------------------------------------------
5.- TOOLS FOR TEACHERS DECEMBER PROGRAMME
Tools For Teachers announces its end of the year program made up of
while you enjoy any or all of the following
workshops
1. Simple Techniques for Well
Being
We will engage in gentle stretches
and twists which can be used as part of our daily routine to release stress and
revitalize our body. We will introduce five extremely simple and effective
exercises as well as self-massage
to raise our energy level
whatever the circumstances.
December 21 or December 28, 10:30 to
13:00.
2. Experiencing Meditation
You have most likely read or heard about
meditation, but have you ever meditated? Do you know how to meditate? In this
session we will explore some ways to quiet the mind, bring inner peace, relax,
center and renew ourselves. Meditation is one of the best ways to prevent stress
from wreaking havoc on our health.
December 21 or December 28, 14:30 to
17:00
3.
A Delight in Words
This light hearted session will feature
comparisons, metaphors, homophones and proverbs. This workshop for word lovers
will give participants an opportunity to test their knowledge of areas of the
English language not usually included even at the advanced
level.
December 22, or December 26, 10:30 to 13:00
4.
Love Songs: Music for Yourself and your Students
We will focus on a number of songs, review the
uses to which they can be put in the classroom, and basically and fundamentally we will just
enjoy them, as we react to the lyrics and to the music. Participants will
have an opportunity to voice their feelings, and memories as well as share their favourite love songs and how
they could exploit them in the classroom.
December 22, or December 26, 14:30 to 17:00
All sessions at SBS Palermo, Coronel Díaz 1747,
Ciudad de Buenos Aires
Fees: $20 per session
Any two sessions: $35
Any three sessions $ 45
All four sessions: $55
Pre-register by emailing your full name, address,
and phone number to palermo@sbs.com.ar if you are sure you will be attending
the workshop and pay the day of the seminar.
Conducted by Oriel E. Villagarcía (details of
his CV are given below under B)
A one day workshop to unwind after a hard
year’s work.
December 27, 2005 - 10:00 to
17:30
Tools
For Teachers is proud to
present once again a workshop for those who are looking for ways to look after
their well being, through simple yet effective ways which are beneficial to our
health. If you have attended this workshop before, you know this session is
unique in many respects. If you have never joined us, be prepared to enjoy an
exceptional blend of
Please note that
although the format of every MINDING…is roughly the same, the activities are
different.
This time we will use Love Songs as a
spring board for reflection, communication and bonding.
This workshop, conducted entirely in English,
is both for teachers and advanced
students of English. It thus offers the English language lover the advantage
of practicing English and doing
something useful for his/her health.
If throughout the year you have not minded your
body because of the pressure of time, this is your opportunity to learn simple
things that make the difference and which you can put into practice during your
holidays. What we are offering at this workshop are true Tools for Well
Being.
Fee: $ 35
Pre-register by emailing your full name,
address and phone number to newtoolsforteachers@yahoo.com.ar
if you are sure that you are coming and pay the day of the
workshop.
Coordinated by Oriel
E. Villagarcia
Profesor en Inglés, Universidad Nacional de
Tucumán, British Council and Fulbright Scholar, post graduate work, University
of Texas, Master of Arts, University of Lancaster, Former Head of English
Department, Universidad Católica de Salta, Former Lecturer in Linguistics,
Universidad Nacional de Rio Cuarto, Former Lecturer for the Licenciatura level,
Universidad Nacional de Santiago del Estero, Master Practitioner, Certificate of
Completion, NLP University, Santa Cruz, California, Certified Administrator of
the MBTI, Florida, Certified Instructor in Body Work on Balance Balls
(Esferodinamia Terapeútica), Certified reflexologist, Certified Practitioner of
Jin Shin Jyutsu, with vast experience in Esalen Type Massage (Masaje
Californiano Oasis), Shiatsu and Thai Massage.
------------------------------------------------------------
6.- CURSO
SOBRE VIOLENCIA ESCOLAR Y STRESS DOCENTE
Our
dear SHARER Cristina de la Vega has sent us this announcement:
Taller
De Planificacion Estrategica Para La Prevencion Y Abordaje De La Violencia En El
Aula-
Lic. Graciela Polti (Psicologa UBA)
Horario:
10 a 15hs Dirigido a: Docentes, directivos, profesionales que trabajan en áreas
educativas -
Modalidad:
teórico vivencial - requiere inscripción previa - cupos limitados.
Todo
accionar debe ser organizado, planificado y con resultados "escritos",
anticipados y verificables para que no sea sólo un intento más de buenas
intenciones y promesas.
Esto
significa que si procuramos llevar adelante algún resultado debemos empezar por
organizarnos para realizarlo eficientemente.
El
plan estratégico es un proceso que entraña un cambio. Todo cambio entraña
algunos escollos. La mayoría de éstos son propios de cierta resistencia que
oponemos a la concreción de aquellos mismos cambios que deseamos realizar. Otros
devienen de posiciones erróneas o prejuiciosas, en relación a lo que se
"planifica modificar" que, una vez detectadas y trabajadas no obstaculizan más
el esperado proceso de cambio.
Las
dificultades de convivencia en las aulas generan inconvenientes en la relación
alumno/a-docente, alumno/a-institución
escolar,alumno/a-pares,alumno/a-contenidos pedagógicos.
Abordaje
del Estres Docente
- Lic. Alberto Montenegro (Psicologo UBA)
Horario
15 a 19hs - Se requiere inscripción
anticipada -
Dirigido
a: Directivos de instituciones educativas , docente, profesores, profesionales
de educación. Muchos profesores y
profesoras realizan su labor con fatiga, cansancio, irritación o depresión,
algunos se sienten desvinculados del centro en el que prestan servicio y otros,
superados por el trabajo, se muestran incapaces de hacer frente a la diversidad
de tareas y de necesidades educativas. El estrés docente está relacionada con
una excesiva activación física y psicológica vinculada con el esfuerzo para
abordar las demandas de las instituciones educativas y que cuando se torna
crónico; perjudica la salud de los profesores; acciona directamente en el
rendimiento intelectual del docente, genera una modificación en el clima del
aula, y es factor de respuestas negativas en el aspecto relacional.
La
presente propuesta ha sido segmentada en dos módulos interrrelacionados entre
si. Otorga puntaje docente y se entregará una constancia de asistencia laboral.
Hemos
abierto dos fechas para el desarrollo del curso, Ud. podrá elegir que fecha es
adecuada para asistir:
Viernes
16 de Diciembre (Inicia 10hs. y termina 19hs) o bien Sábado 17 de Diciembre (Inicia 10hs y termina
19hs.)
Inscripción:
$30 - en: Florida 141 piso 2º - Ciudad de Buenos Aires - o bien con deposito
bancario en la cuenta Caja de Ahorro de Banco Nacion Nº 0180846713 - Sucursal 74
Plaza Italia Titular: Maria Cristina de la Vega.
Informes:
ACUARELL Capacitación -
Teléfono:
4827-5235 - congreso@acyf.com.ar
Website:
www.acyf.com.ar
------------------------------------------------------------
7.- NEWS
FROM APIBA
After
their institutional crisis that shocked the porteño teachers of English,
APIBA
members
have fortunately managed to put together a new Committee. The new President of
APIBA writes:
Como
fuera anunciada, se realizó la Asamblea General de APIBA luego del cuarto
intermedio, el día 11 de noviembre.
Resultó
elegida como Presidente de la Asociación la Profesora Stella M. Schulte y
también se cubrieron vacantes en la Comisión Directiva con la elección de los
siguientes profesores: Virginia Lopez Grisolía, Gustavo Gonzalez, Albina García
y Mary Godward.
Ya
pronto nos comunicaremos con todos para informarles sobre la conformación de la
nueva CD asi como de las actividades para el año entrante.
Creo
que lo ocurrido en la Asamblea nos ha servido a todos para
valorar lo que hemos logrado y darnos cuenta que APIBA necesita del
apoyo y la participación de todos sus miembros para funcionar y
crecer.
Gracias
por su apoyo, y permanecemos en contacto,
Saludos
a todos,
Stella
Schulte
Presidente
de APIBA
------------------------------------------------------------------------
8.- TERCERA
ESCUELA DE VERANO DE LINGÜÍSTICA FORMAL DE AMÉRICA DEL SUR
Our dear SHARER Laura Kornfeld has
got an invitation for all of us:
Estimados
colegas:
Les reenviamos el
anuncio de la Tercera Escuela de Verano de Lingüística Formal de América del Sur
(Evelin), que tendrá lugar entre el 16 y el 21 de enero del 2006 en el
Instituto de Estudios del Lenguaje de la Universidad de Campinas, Brasil.
Esperamos que el anuncio sea de su interés o que puedan retransmitirlo a
posibles interesados.
Cordiales
saludos,
Laura
Kornfeld
La Tercera Escuela de
Verano de Lingüística Formal de América del Sur (Evelin) tendrá lugar entre el
16 y el 21 de enero del 2006, en el Instituto de Estudios del Lenguaje de la
Universidad de Campinas, Brasil. La escuela de verano es un encuentro de
estudiosos del lenguaje que pretende proporcionar a los alumnos de grado la
oportunidad de explorar informalmente los desarrollos de la lingüística
formal, y a los graduados y alumnos de posgrado la oportunidad de participar en
cursos donde se abordan discusiones teóricas actuales.
En esta edición de
Evelin, habrá cursos en portugués de nivel introductorio (esto es, sobre temas
específicos, pero que presuponen relativamente poco conocimiento previo) en
las siguientes áreas: fonología, morfología, sintaxis, semántica,
neurolingüística, adquisición del lenguaje, lingüística histórica, mente y
lengua, y métodos de campo. Se dictaran, además, cursos avanzados en
portugués, inglés o castellano sobre temas diversos, que incluyen la
sintaxis de los sintagmas nominales, la estructura de las oraciones
relativas, la sintaxis y semántica de la coordinación, la relación entre
sintaxis y prosodia, y otros. Todos los docentes invitados tienen un compromiso
activo con la investigación actual en lingüística formal.
Las inscripciones
deben hacerse hasta el 15 de diciembre del 2005 en la página de Evelin
(http://mit.edu/kaitire/www/evelin2006). El arancel de
inscripción es de 50R$ (aproximadamente 60$Arg), y puede ser abonado al llegar
por los alumnos que no vivan en Brasil. Oportunamente, la comisión organizadora
local proporcionará a los inscriptos información sobre alojamiento y comidas a
precios económicos.
Para mayor
información, pueden visitar la página de la Escuela de Verano, en
http://mit.edu/kaitire/www/evelin2006.
Se agradecerá
enormemente la difusión de esta información en tre los posibles
interesados.
Evelin es una
iniciativa de un grupo de alumnos de posgrado en lingüística de la Universidad
de Campinas y del MIT, y cuenta con el apoyo del IEL/Unicamp, del
Departamento de Lingüística y Filosofía del MIT, y del decano de Artes, Ciencias
Sociales y Humanas del MIT.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
9.-
TALLERES DE BRAIN GYM
Our
dear SHARER Gabriela Lombardo has
sent us this invitation:
Joyful
Learning Center
Centro
Integral de Aprendizaje
Año
2006
Próximos
talleres de Brain Gym
Sábado
18 de febrero: Taller introductorio: Descubrí Brain Gym!! de 10 a 14 hs.
Arancel: $ 40
BRAIN
GYM 101- Las tres dimensiones de la inteligencia: lateralidad, centrado y foco.
Total de 28hs de entrenamiento.
Este
taller se dicta los sábados 4,11,18 y 25 de marzo y sábados 1 y 8 de abril de
9.30 a 14.30 hs .
Material
de trabajo y certificado de la Fundación de Kinesiología Educativa, Ventura ,
California.
Arancel:
$ 380 para aquellos que se inscriban durante este año hasta el 15 de enero, el
arancel es de $ 360. Cierre de
inscripción: 24 de febrero.
Página
Web: http://www.centrojoyful.com.ar
Informes
e Inscripción: Gabriela Lombardo, instructora / consultora de Brain
Gym
gabrielalombardo@citec.com.ar - 4523-5261
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
10.-
CURSO
DE INGRESO A LA DOCENCIA PARA ESCUELAS
PLURILINGÜES
Destinatarios:
profesores
de inglés, francés, italiano y portugués con título docente o alumnos a punto de
recibirse
Inglés: del 20
al 24 de febrero de 2006 de 8.30 a 13 en la sede central del CePA, Av. Santa Fe
4360.
Francés,
Italiano y Portugués: del 20 al 24 de
febrero de 2006 de 8.30 a 13 en el IES en Lenguas Vivas "Juan Ramón Fernández",
Carlos Pellegrini 1515.
La
participación en el curso implica además de la cursada intensiva, dos
observaciones en escuelas de modalidad plurilingües que se realizarán en el mes
de marzo.
Inscripción: hasta
el comienzo de los cursos en la sede central del CePA, Av. Santa Fe 4360 5°
piso, de lunes a viernes de 10 a 20 y los sábados de 9 a 12.
Por correo
electrónico: cursos@buenosaires.edu.ar
-----------------------------------------------------------
11.-
ESPAÑOL PARA EXTRANJEROS: CURSO A DISTANCIA
Cierre
De Inscripción
Les
informamos que el próximo curso a distancia EnELE Iniciación comenzará en febrero de
2006.
Alpha
Virtual ofrece el curso EnELE Iniciación (Curso de Iniciación para la enseñanza
de español para extranjeros). Se trata de un curso de tres meses de duración
diseñado y coordinado por profesionales especializados en el área, con el aval y
la experiencia de Centro Alpha. Alpha Virtual recoge años de sólida experiencia
en la capacitación en la enseñanza de español para extranjeros y pone al
servicio de este proyecto innovador y de alta calidad sus recursos humanos en
combinación con los avances tecnológicos que permiten llegar a interesados de
todo el mundo. Con el curso EnELE Iniciación, Alpha Virtual viene a cubrir la
necesidad de capacitación inicial para la enseñanza de español para extranjeros
de muchos profesionales que tienen escasa o ninguna experiencia de aula en
español.
Duración
El curso consta de 11 encuentros virtuales
semanales. Cada participante podrá administrar su tiempo de la manera que le
resulte más conveniente. Es indispensable, sin embargo, que todos participen
activamente de los foros y que envíen en tiempo y forma las actividades que se
pedirán.
Destinatarios
El curso EnELE Iniciación está dirigido a
quienes dominen el español como lengua materna o extranjera, y quieran comenzar
su formación en la enseñanza del español a extranjeros y quieran dedicarse a
esta tarea en cualquier lugar del mundo. Dado que se trata de un curso de
iniciación, no se requiere formación específica en el área del español como
lengua materna o extranjera. (Ver condiciones de admisión).
Objetivos y
actividades
Durante el curso EnELE Iniciación,
usted:
Modalidad
de cursada
El curso se dicta en la modalidad virtual. Cada alumno, una
vez que se inscriba, recibirá una clave personal con la que podrá acceder al
campus virtual. Para acceder al campus se necesita disponer de una computadora
con conexión a Internet. Se calcula que cada alumno necesita aproximadamente 3
(tres) horas semanales para seguir el curso y completar las actividades
solicitadas. Una vez por semana se publicará en el campus virtual una clase
(llamada “encuentro”), que los alumnos podrán leer en cualquier momento de la
semana a partir de cuando se publica. Cada participante elige el momento que le
queda más cómodo para conectarse y estudiar. Los alumnos formarán parte de un
grupo y serán asistidos por un tutor. El campus virtual cuenta a su vez con una
biblioteca de textos y recursos, y con espacios para foros de
debate.
Para realizar el curso no se requieren conocimientos especiales
de informática.
Condiciones de admisión
Para poder presentarse a
la instancia de admisión, los aspirantes deben cumplir con alguno de los
siguientes requisitos básicos:
Pasos
para la Inscripción:
Paso 1: Registrarse en el campus virtual (puede
hacerlo desde aquí). Usted recibirá un nombre de usuario y una contraseña para
ingresar al campus virtual de Centro Alpha.
Paso 2: Inscribirse en el
curso correspondiente desde el campus virtual.
Paso 3: Enviar por correo
electrónico a capacitacion@centroalpha.com.ar
:
El
curriculum vitae deberá contener información detallada sobre los siguientes
temas:
La
carta de pedido de admisión deberá tener una extensión mínima de 40 líneas y una
extensión máxima de 45 líneas a simple espacio en tamaño de letra 12. Deberá ir
dirigida a la Esp. María José Bravo, coordinadora académica general del curso
EnELE Iniciación, y deberá incluir los siguientes temas:
El
Comité de Admisión de Alpha Virtual estudiará la solicitud de inscripción y
enviará a cada postulante su confirmación (por correo electrónico).
Una vez
recibida la confirmación y abonado el arancel, se lo habilitará como integrante
del curso virtual.
Dirección Académica
La coordinación general del
curso EnELE Iniciación está a cargo de la Esp. María José
Bravo.
Evaluación
y acreditación del curso EnELE Iniciación
Al finalizar el curso, los
participantes recibirán una constancia de Centro Alpha. Para la obtención de la
constancia de haber cursado EnELE Iniciación, los participantes deberán tomar
parte activa del curso y presentar los trabajos que se les pidan a lo largo del
mismo.
Quienes quieran solicitar el Certificado EnELE Iniciación, deberán
realizar una evaluación final, que consistirá en la presentación de la
planificación de una clase, a partir de un caso. Esta evaluación se entregará
por correo electrónico un mes después de terminado el curso, y será evaluada y
devuelta para su corrección, en caso de ser necesario. Los textos presentados
para la evaluación serán seleccionados para ser publicados en nuestra página,
previa autorización de los autores. Además, para la obtención del certificado,
los interesados deberán abonar el arancel del certificado (ver
Arancel).
Arancel del curso
Argentina y otros países
Latinoamericanos: $700 (pesos argentinos) o su equivalente en dólares.
Países
Unión Europea: Euros 240
Otros países: US$ 300 (dólares)
Formas de
Pago en Argentina
Todos
los gastos que surgieran del envío de dinero o de la transferencia, correrán a
cargo de los inscriptos.
Formas de pago para los residentes en el
exterior
Envío de dinero a través de Western Union a nombre de María José
Gassó.
Enviar
por mail a capacitacion@centroalpha.com.ar el número de envio, el monto enviado. El
envio debe hacerse exclusivamente dolares, euros o pesos.
Ante cualquier
consulta escríbanos a: capacitacion@centroalpha.com.ar
Centro
Alpha - Español para extranjeros
Capacitación en enseñanza de
español
Sarmiento
1419, 1er piso oficina "A"
(C1042ABA) Ciudad de Buenos Aires,
Argentina
Tel: (54 11) 4373- 0767
E-mail: capacitacion@centroalpha.com.ar
Web: www.centroalpha.com.ar
------------------------------------------------------------
12.- BECA DE PERFECCIONAMIENTO DOCENTE
DEL GOBIERNO JAPONÉS
------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.-
WACKY-WACKY,
A $RADIO
SHOW!
Our dear SHARER Alfred Hopkins has
got an invitation to make:
The Hopkins Creative Language Lab has not
gone bananas. No, not yet. But we have decided to put on a radio show in which
Mariana Goldman has a bit of a fit with the news and her commercials are really
out of this world. Well, to tell the truth it is the professor, Alfred Hopkins,
who is out of this world. In fact, so out that he dashes out of the studio
and comes back as God. Yes indeed! And God doesn't like what he finds down here
on earth. Well, if you'd like to try to bring Mariana and Alfred back to their
senses, you are welcome to hop down to San Telmo on Friday December the 16th or,
better yet, on Saturday for.....
Wacky-Wacky, a
$Radio
Show!
&December 16th at
8 p.m., December 17th at 9 p.m.
News
and views and a very special guest!
Featuring:
Alfred
Hopkins,
as the professor and
God
Mariana
Goldman,
as the radio
broadcaster
“You’ll crack up at the gags this
duo have put into their bags!”
Henry Von Hiddleberg,
“End of the Road
Theatre Review”
Café
del Tiempo, E.E.U.U. 523
Booking:)
15 62521028/ 4334-1561
hopkins@speedy.com.ar/
www.a-hopkins.com
-------------------------------------------------------------
14- CURSO
VIRTUAL SOBRE VIDA COTIDIANA Y CONFLICTOS EN LAS
ESCUELAS
Curso:
Vida Cotidiana y Conflictos en las escuelas.
Estrategias,
Intervenciones y Programas
Inicio: 24 enero de
2006
Duración: Desde 24 de enero al 10
de marzo de 2006
Modalidad: virtual
Cantidad de clases: 14 (catorce) publicadas
con una frecuencia de 2 clases por semana
Coordinación académica y
docentes: Daniel Korinfeld, Daniel
Levy, Sergio Rascovan
Docentes
invitados: Carina Kaplan, Sergio
Meresman, Norberto Ianni, Sandra Borakiewicz, Gabriel
Brener
Dirigido a: docentes,psicólogos, pedagogos,
cientistas sociales, psicopedagogos, trabajadores sociales, psicoanalistas y
otros profesionales y trabajadores interesados en las problemáticas de salud y
educación
Principales
Contenidos
Las transformaciones
de la vida cotidiana escolar
La escuela y la metamorfosis de la infancia,
adolescencia y adultez
Los conflictos en las escuelas
La construcción de
un sistema de convivencia escolar
Los conflictos en los grupos
escolares
Problemáticas psicosociales en las escuelas.
Becas:
la
entidad convocante conjuntamente con la DGESup otorgarán 4 (cuatro) medias-becas
a docentes y/o alumnos de las instituciones dependientes de la DGESup que deseen
participar de estas jornadas (en caso de no cubrirse con docentes y/o alumnos de
instituciones dependientes de la DGESup, se extenderán a otros suscritos al
boletín). Los solicitantes deben enviar sus datos a palomakipersain@yahoo.com :
nombre y apellido; teléfono; dirección de mail; institución dependiente de la
DGESup en la que trabaja o estudia
Fecha límite para la recepción de
solicitudes de beca: 16 de diciembre de 2005
Informes
e inscripción:
www.puntoseguido.com/cursos.asp vidacotidiana@puntoseguido.com Cierre de inscripción: 17 de enero de
2006
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15.-
BECAS DEL PROGRAMA ALBAN
Organismo:
Unión Europea para América Latina (Programa Alban).
Requisitos:
Ser ciudadano de uno de los 18 países elegibles de América Latina y haber
residido físicamente en uno de ellos desde al menos el 1 de septiembre de 2004;
Cumplir
los parámetros de edad fijados en la convocatoria (la edad máxima límite para
solicitar una beca AlBan de postgrado es de 45 años, mientras que para las becas
de especialización se han fijado edades límite mínima y máxima de 30 y 50 años);
Haber
culminado satisfactoriamente sus estudios universitarios de pregrado;
Proponer
un proyecto de postgrado (master o doctorado) o especialización a tiempo
completo;
Tener
el apoyo de una IES elegible u organización legalmente constituida en el país de
origen;
Haber
sido aceptado por una IES elegible u organización de formación avanzada
reconocida en el país de acogida para desarrollar el proyecto de
educación/formación.
Cierre
de inscripción:
El plazo para el envío de los formularios de candidatura online cierra el 22 de
diciembre de 2005 a las 24h00 CET (hora de Europa Central). Para garantizar la
adecuada recepción y registro de su candidatura y evitar posibles problemas de
saturación del servidor, le aconsejamos que no deje para el último momento el
envío del formulario online.
Las candidaturas en soporte papel podrán
enviarse hasta el 9 de diciembre de 2005 (dará fe el matasellos) y deberán
recibirse en el AlBan Office antes del 1 de febrero de
2006.
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Today we would like to finish this issue of
SHARE with a message that our dear SHARER
Lidia Schliesinger sent us:
Dear Marina and Omar,
Thank you, thank you, thank you for having reached a very "Sharing" eventh anniversary!
It's nice to be able to express our gratitude for the professional, lovely, interesting, friendly and brotherly job you have been doing...
Thanks also to all the beautiful people that have contributed unselfishly with their ideas, news and friendly thoughts through these fruitful 7 years.
Dear Marina and Omar, please SHARE with us our compliments for a job well done!
Love
Lidia
HAVE A WONDERFUL WEEK
Omar and Marina.
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SHARE is distributed free of charge. All
announcements in this electronic magazine are also absolutely free of charge. We
do not endorse any of the services announced or the views expressed by the
contributors. For more information about the characteristics and
readership of SHARE visit: http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/ShareMagazine
VISIT
OUR WEBSITE : http://www.ShareEducation.com.ar
There you can read all past issues of SHARE in the section SHARE ARCHIVES.
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