A CRITICAL REVIEW ON SUGGESTOPEDIA

Suggestopedia is a teaching method, which focuses on how to deal with the relationship between mental potential and learning efficacy. Since it arose, the arguments on its advantages and disadvantages have never stopped. However, the particular features and special theories implicated in this method do influence the practice in language teaching area deeply. Although Suggestopedia is far from a perfect method, it is fair to say that Suggestopedia could be a favourable teaching method as long as it is used properly. 

Background 
“Suggestopedia, also known as Desuggestopedia, was originally developed in the 1970s by the Bulgarian psychiatrist-educator Georgi Lozanov ”(Richards and Rogers 1998: 100). At that time, the idea of considering the student as a “whole person” arose as a result of the reflections of humanistic approaches to the field of language teaching. In other words, language teaching is not only upon teaching language but also helping students to develop themselves as people. This belief has led to a number of teaching methodologies and techniques which have stressed the humanistic aspects of learning. In such methodologies the experience of the student is what counts and the development of their personality and the encouragement of positive feelings are seen to be as important as their learning of a language. (Harmer 1991: 35) Some of these methods have been called “alternative methods”, but this suggests there is a common conventional method to which they provide an alternative and that they are themselves united in their approach (Cook 1991:148). 



Principles and Theories 
Being one of the humanistic approaches, Suggestopedia is a specific learning method derived from Suggestology, which Lozanov describes as a “...science...concerned with the systematic study of the non-rational and/or nonconscious influences” that human beings are constantly responding to (Stevick 1976: 42). Concerning the effect of Suggestopedia, Lozanov declares that memorisation in learning through Suggestopedia would be accelerated by up to 25 times over that in conventional learning methods. In Lozanov’s view, the reason why we are inefficient is that we set up some psychological barriers to learning such as the fear of being unable to perform or the fear that we will be limited or we will fail. One of the results of such case is the fact that we do not use the full mental power that we have, and the amount of capacity that we use is not more than five to ten percent of its full capacity. In order to make better use of our mental reserves, the limitations we think we have need to be “desuggested”. (Larsen Freeman 1986:72)
According to Krashen, in second language acquisition, the only way to acquire is to provide comprehensible input. However, “language acquirers may have a mental block that prevents input from reaching the Language Acquisition Device. An important part of language teaching involves lowering or weakening this block, termed the Affective Filter” (Krashen, 1989: 28-29). In this sense, Suggestopedia is just such a teaching method that intends to lower Affective Filter to help learners obtain comprehensible input.
Psychologically speaking, Suggestopedia relates a range of theories that intend to describe how attentiveness is manipulated to optimise learning and recall. Within different mental states from sleeping state to anxious state of mind, Lozanov believes that most learning takes place in a relaxed but focused state. This state might be called aware-alert state, and it is claimed that this will lead to “superlearning” (Brown 1994:97). Lozanov acknowledges ties in tradition to yoga and Soviet psychology. From raja-yoga, Lozanov has borrowed and modified techniques for altering stages of consciousness and concentration, and the use of rhythmic breathing. From Soviet psychology, he has taken the notion that all students can be taught a given subject matter at the same level of skill (Richards and Rogers 1998: 100).

Interpretation of Suggestopedia
In the interpretation of this paper, Suggestopedia is an effective comprehensible input based method with a combination of “desuggestion” and “suggestion” to achieve “superlearning”. Suggestion is the core of Suggestopedia. The most important objective of Suggestopedia is to motivate more of students’ mental potential to learn and which can be obtained by “suggestion”. Lozanov distinguishes his theory of suggestion from the “narrow clinical concept of hypnosis as a kind of static, sleeplike, altered stae of consciousness” (Lozanov 1978:3). Desuggestion means unloading the memory banks, or reserves, of unwanted or blocking memories. Suggestion then means loading the memory banks with desired and facilitating memories. The combination of “desuggestion” and “suggestion” is to lower the “Affective Filter” and motivate students’ mental potential to learn, aiming to accelerate the process by which they learn to understand and use the target language for communication to achieve “superlearning”--- the final goal of Suggestopedia. 
It is claimed that there are some theoretical components through which desuggestion and suggestion operate. These are: (Richards and Rogers 1998: 101-102)
(1) Authority: people remember best and are influenced when information comes from an authority.
(2) Infantilisation: learners may regain self-confidence in a relation of teacher-student like that of parent to child.
(3) Double-Planedness: learning does not only come by means of direct instruction but also comes from the environment in which instruction takes place.
(4) Intonation, rhythm, and concert pseudo-passiveness: varying tone and rhythm of presentation frees the instruction from boredom, and presenting linguistic material with music gets the benefit of the effect produced on body.
Key Features of Suggestopedia
In order to make the term Suggestopedia much clear, eight key features are summed up as follows:
(1) Comfortable environment: learning is facilitated in an environment that is as relaxed and comfortable as possible. Besides a spacious classroom where activities can be held, dim lights, soft music, comfortable chairs, various posters relating to the target language are necessary.
(2) Peripheral Learning: it is based on the idea that people perceive much more from environment than that to which they consciously attend. Students may acquire with posters, pictures and decorations containing grammatical patterns, placed on the walls of classroom. And the posters, pictures and decorations need to be changed from time to time. 
(3) Authoritative Teacher: the teacher takes a role of complete authority and whole control in the classroom during the teaching. Therefore, the teacher must be well-trained. To some extent, the teacher is not only a teacher but also a psychologist. 
(4) Suggestible students: students are encouraged to follow the teacher’s suggestions without doubts and assume new roles and names---new identities in the target language in order to become more "suggestible". Furthermore, students could be asked to close their eyes and to concentrate on their breathing to relax accompanying the soft music when listening to the dialogues.
(5) Music: soft music, especially Baroque music, is played softly in the background to make the students have mental relaxation and increase their mental potential to take in and retain new material during the lesson.
(6) Dialogue: a Suggestopedia course lasts 30 days and consists of ten units of study. The central focus of each unit is a dialogue consisting of 1,200 words or so, with an accompanying vocabulary list and grammatical commentary (Richards and Rogers 1998: 102). However, when listening to the dialogues, students could be asked to close their eyes and to concentrate on their breathing to relax accompanying the soft music that is chosen carefully according to Lozanov’s theory. 
(7) Positive Suggestion: it can be achieved in two ways, direct and indirect means. Direct suggestion might be teacher’s encouragement which states that learners are going to be successful. Indirect suggestion might be achieved by suitable classroom setting mentioned above. Errors are tolerated and the emphasis focuses on content but not structure. Grammar and vocabulary are presented and given treatment from the teacher, but not emphasised in details.
(8) Variety of Activities: various activities such as music, drama, role play and the like are integrated into the learning process as frequent as possible. 
In all the features of Suggestopedia, the most conspicuous one is the centrality of music and musical rhythm to learning. Suggestopedia has some relationship with other functional uses of music, particularly therapy. Gaston defines three functions of music in therapy: (Richards and Rogers 1986: 143)
(1) To facilitate the establishment and maintenance of personal relations.
(2) To bring about increased self-esteem through increased self-satisfaction in musical performance.
(3) To use the unique potential of rhythm to energize and bring order.
This last function seems to be the one that Lozanov calls upon in his use of music to relax learners as well as to structure, pace, and punctuate the presentation of linguistic material. The type of music is critical to learning success. The most important point here is to find the right kind of music for just the right kind of effect. According to Lozanov, the Baroque music, with its 60 beats per minute and its specific rhythm creates the kind of “relaxed concentration” that leads to “superlearning”. During the soft playing of Baroque music, one can take in tremendous quantities of material due to an increase in alpha brain waves and a decrease in blood pressure and pulse rate. Former East German researchers of Suggestopedia at Karl Marx University in Leipzig observed that slow movements from Baroque instrumental music featuring string instruments gave the very best results (Richards and Rogers 1986: 146).

Main Stages of a Suggestopedia Class
In order to conduct a Suggestopedia class successfully, four main stages are as follows:
1.Presentation
Presentation is the basis of conducting Suggestopedia in class successfully. In this stage, a discussion of previously learned material could be conducted first, involving micro-studies or macro-studies in the real practice to make an integrated teaching procedure. However, the main aim in this stage is to help students relax and move into a positive frame of mind, with the feeling that the learning is going to be easy and funny. Desuggestion and suggestion happen at this stage at the same time.
2. First Concert 
This involves the active presentation of the material to be learnt. The original form of Suggestopedia presented by Lozanov consisted of the use of extended dialogues, often several pages in length, accompanied by vocabulary lists and observations on grammatical points. Typically these dialogues would be read aloud to the students to the accompaniment of music. The most formal of these readings, known as the "concert reading", would typically employ a memorable piece of classical music such as a Beethoven symphony. This would not be in the form of background music but would be the main focus of the reading, with the teacher’s voice acting as a counterpoint to the music. Thus the "concert reading" could be seen as a kind of pleasurable event, with the learners free to focus on the music, the text or a combination of the two. The rhythm and intonation of the reading would be exaggerated in order to fit in with the rhythm of the music. Pay attention that the most conspicuous feature “music” appears in this stage. 
3. Second Concert 
The students are now guided to relax and listen to some Baroque music---the best choice of music according to Lozanov, with the text being read very quietly in the background. During both types of reading, the learners would sit in comfortable seats, armchairs rather than classroom chairs, in a comfortable environment. After the readings of these long dialogues to the accompaniment of music, the teacher would then make use of the dialogues for more conventional language work. The music brings the students into the optimum mental state for the effortless acquisition of the material. 
4. Practice
The use of a range of role-plays, games, puzzles, etc. to review and consolidate the learning. Homework is limited to students: re-reading the dialogue they are studying - once before going to bed and again before getting up in the morning. (Lozanov 1978: 272).

Advantages of Suggestopedia
As a particular teaching method, Suggestopedia provides some valuable insights in teaching practice, which are also the advantages of it:
1.Comprehensible Input Based “Desuggestion” and “Suggestion” Principle
Although Lozanov does not state a theory of language explicitly, the comprehensible input based “desuggestion” and “suggestion” principle, which aims to lower Affective Filter and motivates the mental potential, can give us a great deal of enlightenment.
When stating the effective methods that can lower Affective Filter, Krashen mentioned: “One can interpret the use of music and relaxation exercises in Suggestopedia as having this goal, and the reported success of this method is at least consistent with this interpretation. Suggestopedia classes, in addition, are not held in classrooms but in ordinary rooms with comfortable chairs, a practice that may also help students relax. Teacher can do numerous other things to lower the Affective Filter. Activities that allow students to get better acquainted with each other may help lower anxieties and make students to adopt new names for the duration of the language course may have a similar effect”( Krashen, 1989:29). 
In today’s teaching, the opinion of providing an as relaxed and comfortable environment as possible to lower the Affective Filter, such as the reluctance to learn, the inefficient communication of students, etc., still helps in our teaching.
2. “Authority” Concept
People remember best and are most influenced by information coming from an authoritative source. Lozanov appears to believe that scientific-sounding language, highly positive experimental data, and true-believer teachers constitute a ritual placebo system that is authoritatively appealing to most learners (Richards and Rogers 1998: 101). 
Undoubtedly, the “authority” of Suggestopedia needs a lot of hard work from both the school and the teacher, which does help teaching and learning. If a teacher does a lot in self-improvement and self-confidence, the students will get a lot in self-improvement and self-confidence as well. In this sense, the writer highly agrees with Lozanov’s idea of being the “authority” in teaching because it means that both the teacher and the learners should work hard in order to achieve success in learning.
3. “Double-planedness” Theory 
The learner learns not only from the effect of direct instruction but from the environment in which the instruction takes place. The bright decor of the classroom, the musical background, the shape of the chairs, and the personality of the teacher are considered as important in instruction as the form of the instructional material itself (Richards and Rogers 1998: 102). 
Double-planedness Theory refers to the learning from two aspects---the conscious aspect and the subconscious one. Suggestopedia suggests that on the conscious plane, learners attend to learn the linguistic forms directly. On the subconscious plane, factors influence the linguistic forms, such as the physical environment and various background ways which help the students relax and feel that the learning process is as easy, natural and stress-free as possible.
4. “Peripheral Learning” Method
“Peripheral Learning” Method is a rather effective method in encouraging students to apply language more independently, thereby taking more personal responsibility for their own learning and getting more confidence. Peripheral information can also help encourage students to be more experimental, and look to sources other than the teacher for language input. 
For example, the posters containing vocabulary and grammatical inflections can encourage students to try and start building sentences on their own rather than imitating a model from the teacher. If the students get the correct answer by themselves, they will get confidence and be more interested in the target language. If they get the incorrect answer, it doesn’t matter because they are provided with stress-free learning. 
5. “Choosing a New Identity” Technique
One of the major obstacles learners have to overcome in learning is the anxiety of speaking things out that are wrong, stupid, or incomprehensible. Choosing a new identity and behaving as a fictional person in the target language can help students solve the problem because they have become “other people” of the target language community. Therefore, any of the mistakes or errors are made by others but not themselves, however, any improvement and progress will give students more confidence and encouragement to expect success in learning.

Disadvantages of Suggestopedia
The main disadvantages of Suggestopedia are as follows: 
1. Environmental Limitations
Suggestopedia requires too much from the environment of teaching and learning. It does not provide for the majority of language teaching environments teachers typically encounter. The size of class---normally twelve students, the dim lighting, large comfortable chairs and music selections are not readily available to the majority of schools, and these environmental factors are almost impossible to be obtained in large classes. For example, in China, a normal class of primary school or secondary school usually covers 40-50 students. As for universities and colleges, there are normally 20-30 students in one class. 
2. Infantilization Theory 
The writer believes that Suggestopedia is suitable for beginners and young learners, especially young learners because they are more likely to be suggestible and they are more likely to accept the comparing speaking child-like ways of learning. In contrast, Suggestopedia is not very suitable for adults because they are too mature to follow the teacher’s authoritative instruction. Moreover, behaving like a child without reluctance to an adult is hard to imagine, not to mention the parent-child like relation between a teacher and an adult student who are of the similar age. 
3.” Suggestible Students”
It does not take account of the fact that many learners in many countries do not necessarily have an intrinsic desire to learn a foreign language. For instance, in the writer's college, many students choose to study English just because that can help them in job-seeking. Moreover, to a learner who does not want to learn the target language from the bottom of heart, listening to the soft music could probably make him or her too relaxed to concentrate on the learning materials. It may cause a student of that kind to sleep or talk with others about the composer of the music. That did happen in the writer's class. 
4. Teacher’s Role
Lozanov lists several expected teacher behaviors that contribute to these presentations (Richards and Rogers 1998: 102).
(1) Show absolute confidence in the method.
(2) Display fastidious conduct in manners and dress.
(3) Organize properly and strictly observe the initial stages of the teaching process---this includes choice and play of music, as well as punctuality.
(4) Maintain a solemn attitude toward the session.
(5) Give tests and respond tactfully to poor papers (if any).
(6) Stress global rather than analytical attitudes towards material.
(7) Maintain a modest enthusiasm.
It can be stated that such a teacher that can meet all the requirements mentioned by Lozanov, is very difficult to be found, especially in the countries where the level of education is still low. Moreover, in order to meet the requirements, it is very important for the teacher to get enough training besides his/her teaching talents. However, if such a well-trained talented teacher could only teach the beginners and the young learners because of the factors that have been mentioned above, it would be embarrassing to say that it is a big waste of time and money.

Conclusion
Generally speaking, this paper suggests that Suggestopedia should not be used solely. It is because teaching in a foreign language is very easy to get students confused and too much or repetitive using of the same method will easily make students bored and inattentive in learning. However, the combination of Suggestopedia and other methods, such as the Grammar-Translation Method or Content-Based Instruction will be more effective and helpful. In real teaching, using only one method or approach to teach is rare, even impossible. Although Suggestopedia does not contribute a lot to the approaches and methods in language teaching theoretically and researchers have been questioning the feasibility and effect of it from the day of its existence, its positive impact and enlightenment in teaching practice cannot be denied. 
Moreover, the key factors of effective teaching are not the approaches and methods in language teaching themselves but the teacher’s deliberate selection of different approaches and methods and the devoted practice of putting theories into real teaching activities in a corresponding social-cultural context. “Serious theory is not armchair speculation but is based on real events in the world” ( Krashen, 1989:45).It is a fact that no approach or method is perfect. However, there is no end for us to seek the perfection of the approaches and methods in language teaching.