Language Teaching Methods: Silent Way

Language Teaching Methods explores various methodologies of English language teaching. This was a joint project by Diane Larsen-Freeman and the U.S. Information Agency and was produced in 1990. This video demonstrates the Silent Way with Donald Freeman.
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[@YoshiMario69]

I'm a student learning about English teaching methods and approaches. While this is certainly NOT the way to teach at ALL times, it is an excellent method to use occasionally to ensure we do not only feed language to our students, but also help them "farm" their own understanding of it. There is no perfect method to teach language; instead, we must consider all the different methods and techniques, ways to combine them, and adding our own touch to accommodate our needs.

[@carlzammit6441]

@@TheAllomar what tangible progress have you achieved with your method, I'm trying to find a method that gets real results.

[@spanishwithtutors2940]

​@@TheAllomar Content-based instruction is not a method, it is an approach :)

[@tougenokaibutsu]

One advantage I do see is that you will develop a more efficient self-monitor. You're not focusing so much on the grammar and the translation into your own language, so therefor when students start to develop part fluency from this method, when it comes to self correcting they wont have to think of the language in their own language but rather their understanding of what the word means (less process time in the mind when figuring out how to say things).

[@lavagnino7]

I love to see all the effort SS put to learn...It is so beautiful to see them repeating, correcting, focusing on what T says. I love teaching adults!

[@gawni1612]

These videos are a great supplement to my online tefl course. Thank you.

[@ratihpratiwi6840]

Based on the films that I have watched, that the teaching method using the silent way is a teaching method in which the learning process between the teacher and students uses silence techniques. If in the school environment when learning English usually the teacher uses a method unknown to students by using fingers, colored writing, and drawing plans in making a correct sentence into English from one word to become many words that can form a good sentences and correct. This method is usually done by the teacher to students, especially in learning so that students can think critically and can also understand what the teacher is conveying through a gesture / gesture in making a sentence of a new word.

[@wilaustu]

This method is difficult to demonstrate with a class that doesn't regularly learn this way and was kind of thrown into it. It's a very tedious approach that requires that all the students learn how the flow of the lesson goes, and that they buy into the process. These students probably have very little context for this lesson, which makes it a bad fit for them.

[@JP503]

It would be interesting to see how this method would work with true beginners of English...

[@hannanehomran1020]

This videos about methods are amazing

[@narayan1916]

teaching and learning in tune with the objective analogy.... leaves questions over educating with non-concrete ideas and information

[@elibertomartinez7573]

To me, this method doesn't work much. I prefer the communicative method where people can interact from the very beginning and practice the language. By the way, mother tongue is not prohibited but it's use should be limited.

[@mounirab96]

I agree, the communicative approach is richer than the silent way, even though it's more about the quantity rather than the quality of the language it is still more efficient and giving promising results for the non-native speakers. The CLA allows the students to interact with each other with little to none intervenante of the the teacher

[@areruben10]

So good!!!

[@faisalhasan1300]

I think what i have learnt from behavior is that the Student here are ussualy more comfort or understand by doing this method the silent Way, when we want to teach someone we must know the character and how he or she doing to Take a Best approach and to let them understand what we want to share

[@reemyland]

As a teacher i don't think i can use this method , it seems more suitable to students who already have some idea about English. And what about conversations dialogues, grammar. May be not suited for intermediate teenage students.

[@YaziveFuentesBaeza]

totally agree with you

[@android_and]

The students seem to have already known English language very well. So, this lesson seems to be effective only to assure the sound, if I'm correct.

[@yourmom-vk6de]

They seem to be immigrants, probably that’s why they know some English already

[@helenxalil333]

Very useful way

[@stevexiengmieng]

An ESL adult education teacher taught the Silent Way to very beginning SEAsian students in the 1980's. There were so many complaints from the students that the teacher was reprimanded by the boss. The students were so frustrated with this.

[@boonchoochanvong5006]

very good

[@kayan3567]

عندي اختبار رخصة 8/7/1445 Thank you so much that helped me so much and got the idea of ( silent way) I really appreciat you ❤. Best regards from future teacher of English Language. Ameen :) 2/1/2024 .. 😅

[@brunocoriolano]

Dear tougenokaibutsu, If we're talking about thinking in our mother tongue, it won't (at least should) happen a any case students are monitored correctly. Needless to say, it doesn't depend on this silent method, but the way the teacher conducts his/her lessons.

[@spartan.falbion2761]

I was taught this way in Sweden, and I didn't like it at the time, it's not useful for people who can read the alphabet, they just feel slowed down; 'why am I being taught what I knew aged 5?!' Being able to pronounce simple words with correct stress is, in hindsight, most important, otherwise - and this happened - students are most comfortable with bad pronunciations that become standard in their circle. I got driven nuts. The students whose studies exceed the classroom will sound more like natives. However, focus on the names for objects should be peripheral. Why are the words for living room and front door rather than just 'door' or 'that room' (pointing) not sufficient in the beginning? Rote learning and outdated standards. By the way, foreign learners, it's 'inner' or 'interior' wall. Inside wall is baby language :)

[@Travagliod]

According to Kumaravadivelu this is not a method at all. "none of them, in my view, deserves the status of a method. They are all no more than classroom procedures that are consistent with the theoretical underpinnings of a learner-centered pedagogy. From a classroom procedural point of view, they are highly innovative and are certainly useful in certain cases. But, they are not full-fledged methods" (KUMARAVADIVELU 2009, p. 94)

[@brunocoriolano]

[2] I have watched all of your videos and loved them all. I left a comment (or maybe two) in each and every one of them. Thanks for sharing them with us. How come it is called silent way if students are all the time elicited to speaking the target language?

[@hakim6387]

The teacher who should be silent as much as possible to give space tp studens to be more indepenndent

[@jakel8627]

This video sounds like the introduction to a dark murder documentary. Very stern, no music, just cold information, but I like it...

[@c0rnf1ake]

parhaps suitable for a minority of learners who have good vocab, in very unlikely situations

[@jetmangler2612]

I taught English in Mexico with this method, there is much more than this sole video. If you as the teacher stayed with the system your students would learn to speak the language with hardly an accent from their native language.

[@nikolasrensing6528]

A not so desirable goal to have: I refute your theory that anyone can just learn to speak without an accent. Nor does it matter if you do have an accent as long as you're intelligible and comprehensible.

[@Korea4Me]

Can anyone tell me what is so silent about this method?

[@Druckles]

+Korea4Me The Wikipedia article has a better description of how silence plays a part in this teaching method: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_Way. Silence is only used in certain places where explanations would previously explicitly be used.

[@josuebonilla9806]

+Korea4Me well the silent way approach sometime may have some interventions by the teacher, whether spoken or written. The purpose is in fact to have students discover the language, rather than giving them the equipment.

[@hankigoe5389]

No destinado a literalmente - el profe tiene más "silencio" que normal.

[@nurullahyilmaz9844]

Bunları çok güzel aşacaksın ve başaracaksın.. Sadece hatırlatmak istedim 🌸

[@marielmendoza7171]

I think this is interesting but, I can see many of them are very uncomfortable and I think that is not supposed to happen in a class.

[@victorcastaneda479]

Silent way??? This guy's TTT is sky high. This was the eliciting way! I liked this method better than the original.

[@babackd.6485]

this is the silent way, silent doesn't mean not uttering any word you genious

[@tunahangocer9288]

Victor eagle was here

[@oxygen-zw7sx]

Hahahahhaha Victor Eagle's students are still here

[@selayklc3781]

We’re still here :’)

[@sofarsogood3936]

I can see why this method has faded away. The whole rod construction thing seems interesting, why not have the students do it directly?

[@liatheresiaperez]

In my opinion, Silent in way the teacher doesn't utter the answer, but he prompted.. give clue to the student so they can answer freely.@ Bruno Corionola to you question how come it is called silent way when all the time students are speaking? We need to focus on how the teacher does his teaching.. not with the student, they are the receiver of the silent way method of teaching.

[@dineshkankanala]

I like this video🙂🙂

[@dineshkankanala]

Nice video Mam

[@rodolfoaguilera9275]

I'd never use this method, it seems uncomfortable for learners.

[@agirllikem]

Imagine having to teach using this method in the class like I need to do next week. Mind blowing, definitely. I'm confused, because I've never met with this way of teaching before. I have to work out all the activities for 'my students' (the colleagues who will be listening and who are supposed to self correct, actually) by myself, God help me😃

[@user-fb8cr6om3z]

@@agirllikem actually, I’ll have the same task on this method veeeery soon… If you have any tips, I am all ears! 😃

[@aimisyazanasuriatno1748]

is there any theories of learning in this method?

For Gattegno learning involves silent awareness and then active trial. Silent is a key to triggering awareness. The process of awareness comes through attention, production, self-correction and absorption.

[@paolabiehl]

It's based on Cognitivism

[@hankigoe5389]

Parece efectivo, estudiante conducir. No pueden responder "sí" todos las preguntas, lol. Además, parece más divertido así. Por qué este no es más popular?

[@jemurillo0705]

Básicamente porque no sirve.

[@user-kc7rd8ys5i]

2:56 when ocd kicks in 😆

[@intoarut]

😅

[@PhilipSpencer74]

Very limited vocabulary. They spend a lot of time on repeating the same points--this guy makes a big deal of the two pronunciations of THE. Really? Is that an important point? Hardly. Another problem is that fewer than half the students are involved in the class at all. This is said to be helpful for illiterate immigrants, but I cannot help but sight the teacher's criticism of a student's placement of a bed in the living room. Actually, many poor people are forced to crowd into small apartments or houses, so it is not at all unusual to find a bed in a living room. My own parents--decidedly middle class--had a one-bedroom apartment for the first three years of their marriage. My sister and I slept in the bedroom, but my folks slept on a bed in the living room. Not convincing at all.

[@rokoloko27]

vocabulary is cognitively created by students

[@intoarut]

@@rokoloko27 And what about output?

[@brianid7893]

Creo que me estresé más que los estudiantes jajaja...

[@kirtland.nauvoo]

jajajajajajja yo tambien !!!

[@robertogarciazevallos3186]

Freeman's correction wasn't accurate. "in face of" (from French "en face de") should be corrected as "in front of". Using the word "facing" changes the original idea. (11:50-12:05)

[@danieltheteacher]

I can only bare 5 minutes of this method. This is the wrong way to teach because it is too slow to learn word for word. Laubach Literacy used to teach with full sentences: "This is a book." "This is a pencil." Laubach method was much better than this method in my opinion.

This is the fisrt video of the series that couldn't watch completely. What a waste of time,

[@iremsafak8944]

this method is for intermediate learner because without knowing something about english, it can be difficult to teach and learn.

[@brunocoriolano]

Jesus! This method is the most terrible and probably the least effective one. I do not see any good thing in it. One lesson like that would do nothing but create boredom. This demonstration was great. I guess the problem here was not the video but the lesson. I see no motivation to come back to a class like that. Do you think that any school uses this method nowadays?

[@leeielts4031]

It does work fairly well depending on how you use it. It is really good for elementary level students; especially visual, aural and tactile learners (if you get them to work in small groups after the presentation).

[@MRamosPerez79]

I know this comment is a little old, but looking at it, depending on the students learning style. I am little of a kinesthetic learner, which means if I touch stuff, it will be easier for me to remember it. For example: If I write something with a pen on a paper, it is more likely that I will remember it, than if I write it on my iphone notes. Same with reading school texts, most of the time, i find myself printing things that I need to study so I can touch the pages and remember what I read. If students have the chance to create with the rods, I think they can remember. I don't see it as a method to base all of our teaching, but part of an eclectic style of teaching.

[@brunocoriolano]

@@MRamosPerez79 You can take advantage of your learning style in other approaches.

[@Emperor_SNA]

Isn’t the teacher suppose to be as much silent as possible in this approach? He talked too much, I think.

[@brunocoriolano]

That would make it SILENT WAY.

[@nicescience520]

he is not silent . 🤔

[@cmmndrblu]

1:27 - that wasn't silent

[@erayaktas1832]

He looks like he’s teaching a bunch of kids in the 50s. You never leave out one single student doing nothing but watch other people. Besides, there is no critical thinking skills being promoted here.

[@rleoh87]

Painful.

[@andrewgrimes1]

Perhaps this method was born for introverts 😅😅

[@TexasSizzle]

Saying "THEE" as opposed to THEUH" is RIDICULOUS! No American talks like this!!!!! Horrible

[@ellenchacon5776]

TexasSizzle He pointed to two different ways of pronouncing "the"..."thuh" he used VERY often. We say "THEEE" only occasionally.

[@britty4755]

Honestly I would feel so frustrated learning a language this way. Not my learning style!

[@Grace-zh6vz]

This video makes me dizzy.

[@hakim6387]

Then stop watching it

[@ArulPalanisamy]

I like this video.... But it's a comedy method

[@duslerdunyas6257]

ne biçim br metod insan bildiğini unutur

[@wagnerjunior6524]

Awful method.