THE SILENT WAY

THE SILENT WAY
Background
The Silent Way is the name of a method of language teaching devised by
Caleb Gattegno. Gattegno's name is well known for his revival of interest
in the use of coloured wooden sticks called cuisenaire rods and for his
series Words in Colour, an approach to the teaching of initial reading in
which sounds are coded by specific colours. His materials are copyrighted
and marketed through an organization he operates called Educational
Solutions Inc., in New York. The Silent Way represents Gattegno's venture
into the field of foreign language teaching. It is based on the premise
that the teacher should be silent as much as possible in the classroom and
the learner should be encouraged to produce as much language as possible.
Elements of the Silent Way, particularly the use of colour charts and the
coloured cuisenaire rods, grew out of Gattegno's previous experience as an
educational designer of reading and mathematics programs. (Cuisenaire rods
were first developed by Georges Cuisenaire, a European educator who used
them for the teaching of math. Gattegno had observed Cuisenaire and this
gave him the idea for their use in language teaching.)
The Silent Way shares a great deal with other learning theories and
educational philosophies. Very broadly put, the learning hypotheses
underlying Gattegno's work could be stated as follows:
1) Learning is facilitated if the learner discovers or creates rather than
remembers and repeats what is to be learned.
2) Learning is facilitated by accompanying (mediating) physical
objects.
3) Learning is facilitated by problem solving involving the material to
be learned.
Let us consider each of these issues in turn.
1. The educational psychologist and philosopher Jerome Bruner distinguishes
two traditions of teaching - that which takes place in the expository mode
and that which takes place in the hypothetical mode. In the expository mode
"decisions covering the mode and pace and style of exposition are
principally determined by the teacher as expositor; the student is the
listener." In the hypothetical mode "the teacher and the student are in a
more cooperative position. The student is not a bench-bound listener, but
is taking part in the "play the principal role in it" (Bruner 1966: 83),
The Silent Way belongs to the latter tradition, which views learning as a
problem-solving, creative, discovering activity, in which the learner is a
principal actor rather than a bench-bound listener. Bruner discusses the
benefits derived from "discovery learning" under four headings: (a) the
increase in intellectual potency, (b) the shift from extrinsic to intrinsic
rewards, (c) the learning of heuristics by discovering, and (d) the aid to
conserving memory (Bruner 1966: 83). As we shall see, Gattegno claims
similar benefits from learners taught via the Silent Way.
2. The rods and the coded-coded pronunciation charts (called Fidel charts)
provide physical foci for student learning and also create memorable images
to facilitate student recall. In psychological terms, these visual devices
serve as associative mediators for student learning and recall. The
psychological literature on mediation in learning and recall is voluminous
but, for our purposes, can be briefly summarized in a quote from Earl
Stevick:
If the use of associative mediators produces better retention than
repetition does, it seems to be the case that the quality of the mediators
and the student's personal investment in them may also have a powerful
effect on memory. (Stevick 1976: 25)
3. The Silent Way is also related to a set of premises that we have called
"problem-solving approaches to learning." These premises are succinctly
represented in the words of Benjamin Franklin:

Tell me and I forget,
teach me and I remember,
involve me and I learn.

In the language of experimental psychology, the kind of subject involvement
that promotes greatest learning and recall involves processing of material
to be learned at the "greatest cognitive depth" (Craik 1973) or, for our
purposes, involving the greatest amount of problem-solving activity. Memory
research has demonstrated that the learner's "memory benefits from
creatively searching out, discovering and depicting" (Bower and Winzenz
1970). In the Silent Way, "the teacher's strict avoidance of repetition
forces alertness and concentration on the part of the learners" (Gattegno
1972: 80). Similarly, the learner's grappling with the problem of forming
an appropriate and meaningful utterance in a new language leads the learner
to realization of the language "through his own perceptual and analytical
powers" (Selman 1977). The Silent Way student is expected to become
"independent, autonomous and responsible" (Gattegno 1976) - in other words,
a good problem solver in language.
Approach
Theory of language
Gattegno takes an openly sceptical view of the role of linguistic theory in
language teaching methodology. He feels that linguistic studies "may be a
specialization, [that] carry with them a narrow opening of one's
sensitivity and perhaps serve very little towards the broad end in mind"
(Gattegno 1972: 84). Gattegno views language itself "as a substitute for
experience, so experience is what gives meaning to language" (Gattegno
1972: 8). We are not surprised then to see simulated experiences using
tokens and picture charts as central elements in Silent Way teaching.
Considerable discussion is devoted to the importance of grasping the
"spirit" of the language and not just its component forms. By the "spirit"
of the language Gattegno is referring to the way each language is composed
of phonological and suprasegmental elements that combine to give the
language its unique sound system and melody. The learner must gain a "feel"
for this aspect of the target language as soon as possible, though how the
learner is to do this is not altogether clear.
By looking at the material chosen and the sequence in which it is presented
in a Silent Way classroom, it is clear that the Silent Way takes a
structural approach to the organization of language to be taught. Language
is seen as groups of sounds arbitrarily associated with specific meanings
and organized into sentences or strings of meaningful units by grammar
rules. Language is separated from its social context and taught through
artificial situations, usually represented by rods. Lessons follow a
sequence based on grammatical complexity, and new lexical and structural
material is meticulously broken down into its elements, with one element
presented at a time. The sentence is the basic unit of teaching, and the
teacher focuses on prepositional meaning, rather than communicative value.
Students are presented with the structural patterns of the target language
and learn the grammar rules of the language through largely inductive
processes.
Gattegno sees vocabulary as a central dimension of language learning and
the choice of vocabulary as crucial. He distinguishes between several
classes of vocabulary items. The "semi-luxury vocabulary" consists of
expressions common in the daily life of the target language culture; this
refers to food, clothing, travel, family life, and so on. "Luxury
vocabulary" is used in communicating more specialized ideas, such as
political or philosophical opinions. The most important vocabulary for the
learner deals with the most functional and versatile words of the language,
many of which may not have direct equivalents in the learner's native
tongue. This "functional vocabulary" provides a key, says Gattegno, to
comprehending the "spirit" of the language.
Theory of learning
Like many other method proponents, Gattegno makes extensive use of his
understanding of first language learning processes as a basis for deriving
principles for teaching foreign languages to adults. Gattegno recommends,
for example, that the learner needs to "return to the state of mind that
characterizes a baby's learning surrender" (Scott and Page 1982: 273).
Having referred to these processes, however, Gattegno states that the
processes of learning a second language are "radically different" from
those involved in learning a first language. The second language learner is
unlike the first language learner and "cannot learn another language in the
same way because of what he now knows" (Gattegno 1972: 11). The "natural"
or "direct" approaches to acquiring a second language are thus misguided,
says Gattegno, and a successful second language approach will "replace a
'natural' approach by one that is very 'artificial' and, for some purposes,
strictly controlled" (1972: 12).
The "artificial approach" that Gattegno proposes is based on the principle
that successful learning involves commitment of the self to language
acquisition through the use of silent awareness and then active trial.
Gattegno's repeated emphasis on the primacy of learning over teaching
places a focus on the self of the learner, on the learner's priorities and
commitments.
To speak... requires the descent of the will into the voluntary speech
organs and a clear grasp by one's linguistic self of what one is to do to
produce definite sounds in definite ways. Only the self of the utterer can
intervene to make objective what it holds in itself. Every student must be
seen as a will capable of that work. (Gattegno 1976: 7)
The self, we are told, consists of two systems - a learning system and a
retaining system. The learning system is activated only by way of
intelligent awareness. "The learner must constantly test his powers to
abstract, analyse, synthesize and integrate" (Scott and Page 1982: 273).
Silence is considered the best vehicle for learning, because in silence
students concentrate on the task to be accomplished and the potential means
to its accomplishment. Repetition (as opposed to silence) "consumes time
and encourages the scattered mind to remain scattered" (Gattegno 1976: 80).
Silence, as avoidance of repetition, is thus an aid to alertnes