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The siknt Way

The sileni way is a metliod of foreign language teacliing developed by Caleb Gattegno which makes iise of gestures, mime, visual aid, wali charts, and in particular Cuisiniere rods (wooden sticks of different lengths and colours) tliat the teacher nses to help the students to talk and to introduce vocabnlary and syntax. The method takes its name from tlie relative silence of the teacher nsing these techniques. The leaming hypothesis underlying Gateggno’s work conld be stated as follows:

leaming is facilitated if the learner discovers or creates rather tłian remembers and repeats what is to be learned

leaming is facilitated by accompanying (mediating) physical objectives leaming is facilitated by problem solving involving the materiał to be learned

General characteristics:

teacher is silent most of the time and students are silent too

tliis forces students to work out language problems - discoveiy leaming procedures (rather than remembering and repeating)

students develop also independence, autonomy and responsibility it also makes use of gestures, visual aids, mimie, etc.

Criticism: the teacher is toodistant, he doesn’t create communicative atmosphere; languages need morę guidance and correction.