We always thought conventional way of learning language–sitting in the classroom and memorizing grammar rules, etc–is mostly ineffective, but we didn’t know there are so many unconventional methods until we read the article at International Herald Tribune titled Unconventional methods find a niche among teachers of English.
One of those is called Interhemispheric (we don’t even try to fake that we know what it means). The article explains it this way:
For Schiffler, the most powerful variation on his method – which he calls Interhemispheric Language Learning – has all the students in the classroom act out and sing the text at the same time as the teacher.
“When the students say ‘jump,’ they should jump,” Schiffler said. “Speaking and acting are very much connected.”
You get the idea. But the most unconventional method, in our view at least, is called The Silent Way. Here is how the article describes it:
In contrast, teachers of The Silent Way prepare no lesson plan, discourage memorization, never use a book and – as the name implies – rarely speak.
“I have had really bad laryngitis and the pupils never even knew it,” said Roslyn Young, a longtime practitioner of the method who now heads an organization promoting its use. “Sometimes the only thing I say during an entire class is, ‘Shall we start?’ “
We are sure they don’t have “Talk is Golden” motto in their marketing materials. But how exactly do people learn to speak with this method if they rarely speak?
We keep silent. You need to read the whole article to find out.
