Educating Psyche by Bernie Neville is a book which looks at new approaches to learning. One theory discussed in the book is developed by Georgi Lozanov, which stressed the power of suggestion. His technique is based on evidence that the connections made in the brain through unconscious processing last longer than those made through conscious processing. Our experience provides evidence for it. If we think of a book we studied months or years ago, we will find it easier to remember peripheral details—the color, the book cover, the table at the library we sat while studying it—than the content on which we were concentrating. If we think of a lecture we listened to attentively, we will remember the lecturer’s appearance and behaviors, or the computer breakdown, much more easily than the ideas we went to learn. The details of the content of the lecture, however, seem to have gone forever.
Lozanov therefore made indirect instruction central to his teaching system. In suggestopedia, as he called his method, consciousness is moved away from the curriculum to stress something peripheral.
The suggestopedic approach to foreign language learning provides a good example. In one of his experiments, the students are listening to classical, jazz and other music when the teacher reads the text slowly or in a normal speaking voice. During the whole experiment, the students have their books closed and their attention is negative; they listen to the music but make no attempt to learn the material.
Some hours later, there is a follow-up class at which the students are asked to recall the material presented. The students do not fix their attention on trying to remember the vocabulary, but on using the language to communicate (e.g. through games).
The results of the experiment show that compared with conventional teaching, students can regularly learn 1,000 words of foreign language during a suggestopedic class, as well as grammar and idiom.
While suggestopedia has proven its advantage, fewer teachers use it. For one thing, the students have not developed the appropriate mindset. They are often not motivated to learn through the method. They do not have enough “faith”. They do not see it as “real teaching”, especially as it does not seem to involve the “work” that they believe is essential to learning.
32. What does the underlined word “peripheral” mean in the passage?
A. Less important. B. Less controversial.
C. Less active. D. Less harmonious.
33. The author mentions reading a book and listening to a lecture in order to ________.
A. share his life experience B. introduce the text’s topic
C. explain Lozanov’s theory D. attract readers’ interest
34. According to suggestopedia, teachers should help students to ________.
A. control their consciousness B. appreciate different kinds of music
C. memorize the details of materials D. become motivated learners
35. What’s the similarity between the two classes mentioned in the third and fourth paragraphs?
A. They both involve games. B. The teachers teach indirectly.
C. They both need no textbooks. D. The students enjoy them greatly.
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