Method of Teaching - the silent way

The Silent Way

This summary was taken from a book ” A “Methodical” History of Language  Teaching”. Talking about educations and especially for teaching English have own method and characteristic in order students can get the point and easier to understanding what the teacher want to tell. The teacher realized that student have own strategies to learn language, and this method help teacher to develop it. Caleb Gattego was said to be interested in a “humanistic” approach (Chamot & McKeon, 1984, p.2) to education, much of the silent way was characterized by a problem-solving approach to learning. Richard and Rodgers (2001, p.81) summarized the theory of learning behind the Silent Way:

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 object.

3.      Learning is facilitated by problem solving involving the material to be learned.

The silent way capitalized on such discovery-learning procedures. Gatteno (1972) believed that learners should develop independence, autonomy, and responsibility. At the time, learners in a silent way classroom had to cooperate with each other in the process of solving language problems. The teacher-a simulator but not a hand-holder-was silent much of the time, thus the name of the method. Teacher had to resist their instinct to spell everything out in black and white, to come to the aid of students at the slightest downfall; they had to “get out of the way” while students worked out solutions.

In a language classroom, the Silent Way typically utilized as materials a set of Cuisenaire rods-small colored rods of varying lengths-and a series of colorful wall charts. The rods were used introduce vocabulary (colors, numbers, adjectives [long, short, and so on]), verbs (give, take, pick up, drop), and syntax (tense, comperatives, plurarization, word order, and the like). the teacher provided single-word stimuli or short phrases and sentences once or twice, and then the student refined their understanding and pronounciation among themselves with minimal coorective feedback from the teacher. The charts introduced pronounciation models, grammatical paradigms, and the like.

In conclusion, the teacher should give freedom to students to use their own strategies to understand English learning, students should be independent. And it was hoped that students would eventually be able to actively use the language for self-expression, relating their thoughts, feelings and perceptions.