Methodology Madness #1 - Suggestopedia!

(the 70s were silly)

Language learning has never been straightforward.

For a few years, everyone’s go-to was Rosetta Stone. Maybe you know people who swear by the Pimsleur method. And some believe that full immersion is the only way to really learn a language.

Now, it’s safe to say that many of us are in the “individual-driven app-based learning” phase, with users speeding through bite-sized, scaffolded lessons that help them maintain their goals.

If we zoom out, we can see massive shifts in how language has been taught and learned over time. The “method of the week” often swings back and forth — from memorization-based learning, to implicit learning, back to memorization in a different form.

So is there any consistency to be found? How are we to know which language learning methods are legit, and which ones aren’t?

Unfortunately, it isn’t always black and white. But by analyzing these methods — even ones that have largely been abandoned — we can catch a glimpse of the complexities of language learning, and how people have attempted to tackle them over the years.

On this newsletter, we’ll be exploring language learning methods that have emerged over time in a series called “Methodology Madness.” If you are a language learner, teacher, or just someone who’s interested in language, this series is for you!

With that, let’s start with the language learning method that has the most exciting name: suggestopedia!

(Confusingly, suggestopedia is sometimes referred to as de-suggestopedia. I’ll be referring to it as simply suggestopedia.)

Who Invented Suggestopedia?

In the 1970s, Soviet psychologists were especially intrigued by the subconscious mind and the hypnotic state. Suggestion, a way of triggering that subconscious mind, was employed to do make people do pretty crazy things - even (purportedly) participating in a “painless” surgery without the use of anesthetics.¹

Involved in this surgical experiment was a Dr. Georgi Lozanov, a Bulgarian scientist and founder of the field of “suggestology.”

Georgi Lozanov (1926-2012)

While Lozanov was greatly inspired by the Soviet psychologists of his time, he drew from a variety of experiences to arrive at his theory of suggestology. For example, he was fascinated by the strong link between the physical body and mental fortitude that yogis displayed (Lozanov was a practicing yogi himself).

Lozanov claimed that his theory of suggestion had the potential to unlock human potential in basically every aspect of human life, including art, music, science, literature, and more. Second language learning just happened to be one of the applications of suggestology.

What Is Suggestopedia?

Proposed by Lozanov in 1979², suggestopedia is a method for language learning that is strongly rooted in the power of suggestion, which he defines as “a constant communication factor which chiefly through unconscious mental activity can create conditions for tapping the functional reserve capacities of personality” (p. 120).

If you’re thinking, “is this guy trying to say that he can use hypnosis to make people learn better?” then you might be a little bit right. (Later iterations of suggestopedia got a little less hypnotic, to be fair.)

The key goal of suggestion was to get the learner to an optimal mental state for learning — one of relaxed alertness. Lozanov believed that in this state, students can subconsciously retain the words that are being taught in the class. So how do learners arrive there?

Here’s what you could expect in a suggestopedia-based classroom:

• You are greeted by a teacher who is friendly and encouraging, but also somewhat authoritative.

• You and your classmates are seated in individual, comfy armchairs. You are struck by the colorful posters on the walls and the artwork around you.

• The teacher puts on baroque music (around 60bpm, to enhance concentration, lower your heart rate, and increase your alpha brain waves, or so you’re told).

• The teacher reads aloud at a specific intonation, while you sit and listen.

This is the “concert session,” one of the key features of the suggestopedia method.

There are other components too. For example, you and your classmates may participate in an active version of the concert session, which involves reading the words aloud at the same time. You might act in a role-play activity, where everyone takes on an alternate identity.

Overall, you’ll notice a lot of repetition of the vocabulary words and phrases, and even the incorporation of other artistic forms (such as instructional songs). If you’re interested in a demonstration of the concert session, the video below is an excellent example!

How was Suggestopedia Received?

In his TESOL Quarterly review of Lozanov’s 1979 publication, Thomas Scovel has a lot to say³.

For one, he documents the public’s enthusiastic response to suggestopedia, which was disseminated through magazine articles in Parade and Psychology Today. And he is understandably a little peeved by how suggestopedia is portrayed in those articles.

Suggestopedia is breathlessly described as being a “hyper-rapid” way to learn a language, with the potential to teach you 1,000 new words a day. Lozanov also claims in a press release that this subconscious-driven method is 25 times more effective than traditional memorization methods.

Scovel was not very impressed by these way-out-there claims (as a general rule, if someone claims to have unlocked the secret to language learning… they probably haven’t).

Some of Scovel’s criticisms of suggestopedia revolved around impracticality (for example: are we really supposed to fill classrooms with comfy armchairs??). But his main problem was the scientific validity of Lozanov’s experimental claims — including unclear methodology, poor controls, and more.

Scovel ultimately concluded that suggestopedia was supported by an "appalling lack of scientific rigor,” and he declared suggestopedia to be “pseudoscientific gobbledygook.” Ouch! While there are still some suggestopedia advocates out there, it’s generally not regarded as a leading theory in second language acquisition.

Does Suggestopedia Work?

Interestingly, Scovel points out some merits in Lozanov’s work — for example, it attempts to draw students’ focus away from the pure act of memorization and into a slightly different state of mind. Bancroft (1999) also highlights the integration of the arts into language learning as one of the strengths of suggestopedia.

From my perspective, the main downside is how passive and inauthentic suggestopedia is. As a language teacher, I see much more benefit in getting my students talking and involved in a task that reflects real language use. I would probably never just ask them to sit and listen to me read aloud.

One merit of suggestopedia, though, is that it really forces one to reckon with students’ emotional and mental states during language learning (which I write about more here). It is certainly very reminiscent of the affective filter hypothesis, except that it really aggressively attempts to lower it (probably more than what is necessary).

And just personally — as a musician, I am SO DISTRACTED by music. This is especially the case when the music has words, but even just instrumentals can be super distracting for me. So I think my heart rate would probably rise rather than lower during a “concert session.” Anyone else with me?

Is Suggestopedia Still Used Today?

Interestingly, Colliander and Fejes (2021) note that there’s been somewhat of a suggestopedia resurgence in Sweden, specifically for the teaching of new immigrants.⁴ Their article was more descriptive rather than experimental, but it seems like teachers actually are using concert sessions, role-play, and more to make language learning more comfortable for their students. Something worth keeping an eye on in the future!

Thanks for reading!

I hope you found this article useful and intriguing!

If you’re a language teacher, do you think suggestopedia has merit? What similar techniques do you use in your classroom (or what techniques do you now want to try out)?

If you’re a language learner, what role do you think your subconscious mind plays in your language learning? Are you inspired to do anything differently in your approach?

If you’re just a language enthusiast, do you think there is any merit to drawing from hypnosis to learn a language? Let’s talk!

Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next week.

1. Bancroft (1999) - Suggestopedia and Language: Variations on a theme

2. Lozanov (1979) - Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy

3. Scovel (1979) - Review of Georgi Lozanov’s Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy

4. Colliander and Fejes (2021) - The Re-Emergence of Suggestopedia: Teaching a second language to adult migrants in Sweden