Suggestopedia and Language

First published in 1999. Language-acquisition methods are based on the way in which children learn their native tongue, a “successful” approach in which listening comprehension precedes speaking which, in turn, precedes reading and writing. Elements based on unconscious assimilation or indirect attention—among them, Soviet hypnopedia, the Tomatis Method and Sophrology. Methods for unconscious assimilation—and, in particular, Suggestopedia, its variants, its adaptations and its background elements—are the subject of this book. Part I of Suggestopedia and Language Acquisition deals with the theories behind Suggestology and Suggestopedia, in addition to the original suggestopedic language class which was developed in Bulgaria in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Part II discusses the various background and complementary elements to the original version of Suggestopedia: suggestion, yoga, baroque music and music therapy, the teacher as Pygmalion, nonverbal communication and brain research. The third section examines related methods based on unconscious assimilation: Soviet sleep-learning, Sophrology, the Tomatis Approach and the Suzuki Method for music learning. In the fourth and final section, versions and variants are discussed.