It Is Not About Hypnosis, But About Learning Through Play and Music

The method that has been used worldwide for learning foreign languages and other knowledge since the 1960s has only recently arrived in our regions. Its essence is to bring students into a relaxed state while excluding all other stimuli, thus creating the most favorable conditions for receiving and permanently storing information.

writes Leonardo Blažević

At first glance, learning through suggestion associates with something as wonderful as the possibility of sleeping and learning. However, it is not that simple; it is a scientifically grounded method called suggestopedia, developed in the 1960s by the renowned Bulgarian psychologist, psychotherapist, and educator Dr. Georgi Lozanov. He focuses on developing various (non-manipulative and non-hypnotic) methods for teaching and learning foreign languages and other knowledge applicable to all age groups. The term suggestopedia has sparked many discussions and led to various misunderstandings, as some individuals have completely incorrectly associated suggestion with hypnosis, which Lozanov has firmly denied, stating that in his vision of learning, ‘suggestion’ corresponds to the verbs offer, propose, or present.
According to him, suggestopedia is a branch of suggestology that deals with the problems of suggestion in psychology, and suggestion is a form of mental reflex through which subconscious mechanisms create an atmosphere for activating hidden psychological reserves and unused capacities of the brain and consciousness. 

Lozanov believes that activating hidden reserves, which in optimal cases stimulate the emergence of super-memory (hypermnesia – when a person effortlessly remembers large amounts of teaching material), will facilitate the teaching process, make it more comfortable, interesting, shorten training time, and significantly impact the quantity of learned material. This means learning at least three to five times faster, easier, and more effectively by increasing motivation for enjoyable learning.

Breaking Down Barriers
Suggestion can be qualified according to various criteria, and based on the degree of activity of the one suggesting, it is divided into conscious and unconscious. Thus, according to the state in which the one being suggested exists, there is suggestion in a waking state and suggestion in sleep; according to the one suggesting, we distinguish between suggestion coming from another person and autosuggestion. The best results in learning through suggestion are achieved after removing anti-suggestive barriers. A personal barrier is created when a student does not fully trust the person suggesting something to them. An intuitive-affective barrier may arise when a student is not convinced of their abilities, that is, whether they can and want to accept what is suggested to them, while a barrier in understanding may occur if the student does not understand everything that is said to them in their native or foreign language. An important condition for the success of this method is to bring the student into a relaxed state by excluding all other stimuli that affect consciousness to create the most favorable conditions for receiving and permanently storing the suggested information.

Teaching Sessions
The teaching processes in which suggestopedia is applied have a firmly defined structure. They begin with ‘decoding’, during which students become acquainted with new materials through gestures, facial expressions, and translations. This is followed by an active session in which students develop habits of listening and articulation, while the teacher seeks to stimulate the students’ interest in the new text and convince them that they will learn it easily. During the reading of the text with different emotional coloring, fully concentrated students strive to learn individual intonations as comprehensively as possible, repeating them in pauses.  Then, a concert session is conducted during which the reading of new material takes place accompanied by specially selected music. During the concert session, students relax by passively listening to the text and music.  In the concluding session, teaching materials are elaborated and activated using suggestive etudes, problem situations, various types of dialogues, thought tasks, and games.

Suggestive Etudes
Suggestive etudes are a special type of exercises that significantly differ from other usual ones in teaching. They are based on expressing ‘situationality’ and motivation, having the character of practically oriented play, that is, a game that simulates typical life situations and satisfies practical speaking needs. The joy and ease created by the atmosphere of play are essential conditions for the realization of the suggestopedic method.  An important moment in creating a suggestive atmosphere is also the formation of groups selected based on various tests. Groups consist of a small number of students with approximately equal knowledge, mentality, and similar interests. Classes take place in special rooms with semicircular seating arrangements so that students can see each other, equipped with technical means that teachers can control from a distance. Special textbooks are developed for teaching, in which the learning of vocabulary, grammatical structures, and all other language and speech elements is programmed. Although suggestopedia has been successfully used worldwide for over forty years, the first attempt to teach according to this method in Croatia was in the late 1980s when the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Zagreb, together with colleagues from Slovenia, launched a summer school of foreign languages, but unfortunately, the project did not take off. However, the Center for Foreign Languages Leksis, which has been operating in Zagreb for five years, has expanded its offerings and for the last six months, in collaboration with Slovenian partners, the Candor – Dominko school from Ljubljana, has successfully combined suggestopedia with the method of learning in a state of complete physical and mental relaxation, that is, in the ‘alpha state’.