The Silent Way approach emerged in response to the decline of audiolingualism. It is based on cognitive theories of language learning and emphasizes learner independence, discovery learning, and minimal teacher intervention. Key aspects include using colored rods and charts to teach vocabulary and grammar structures visually, the teacher remaining mostly silent, and learners developing self-correction abilities through problem-solving activities with their peers.

2. Silent Way
Background
 Decline of Audio-lingualism (1960s)
 Theoretical Attack
 Rejection of structural linguistics
 Rejection of Behaviorism
 Emergence of Cognitive-code learning theory
 Practical Attack
 Inability to use L2 habits to communicative
situations
 Boring & unsatisfying teaching procedures
 Alternative Teaching proposals (1980s)
 Silent Way by Caleb Gattegno
 Total Physical Response by James Asher
 Community Language Learning by Charles A.
Curran

3. Approach
Language theory
 Structural approach
 sentence a basic unit of teaching
 teaching & learning grammar inductively
 teaching functional vocabulary
 Learning theory
 Cognitive-code view of learning
 L2 learning radically different from L1 learning
 Meaningful, discovery learning
 Focus on having an artificial teaching approach
 Primacy of learning to teaching
 Rejection of repetition
 Silence a powerful tool for mental organization
 Inner criteria, self-correction

4. Design
Teaching Objectives
 To attain near-native fluency in L2
 Objectives for low-level students
 To gain oral-aural facility in basic L2 elements
 To gain a basic practical knowledge of L2 grammar
 To Perform adequately in reading , and writing
Syllabus
 More lexico-grammatical units
 No precise selection & arrangement of content
 Grammatical complexity
 Ease of visual presentation

5. Types of Teaching / Learning Activities
 Problem-solving activities
Using charts, rods, other aids
 Helping Ss develop independence, autonomy,
responsibility
Developing inner criteria & correct themselves
Cooperating with other Ss to solve language
problems
Cooperative rather than competitive
procedures

6. Teacher Roles
 Stimulator / Not a hand holder
Being silent most of the time
Getting out of the way for Ss to develop inner
criteria
 Cooperative rather than competitive procedures

7. Role of Instructional Materials
 A Pointer
 Cuisenaire rods
 To teach Vocabulary (Colors/ numbers/adjectives / Verbs)
 To teach syntax ( prepositions, conditionals, word order…)
 12 Word Chart
 Containing about 500 functional English vocabulary
 Having identical color code with sound & Fidel charts
 8 Color-Coded Fidel Charts
 To associate sounds with spelling
 A Sound- color chart
 Representing vowels & consonants of L2
 To show how to form syllables, words, sentences
 To teach stress pattern of words


8. The Cuisenaire Rods
Are used to teach items such as
prepositions of place,
sentence and word stress
Used to represent a series of useful situations for a language
lesson
Are named after their inventor, Georges Cuisenaire (1891-1976),
a Belgian primary school teacher,
Are used for both mathematics and language teaching
Rods of equal length are assigned the same color.
Important:
Effective use of rods depends on efficient teacher training.

9. The Cuisenaire Rods
Different in color, & size
To teach Vocabulary & syntax
( Colors/ numbers /adjectives / Verbs prepositions, conditionals, word order…)

10. Word Chart
Functional words of the language are printed in color.
color code is the same as that of the rectangle chart and the
Fidel.
Only structural words (about 500 words) is included:
pronouns
Articles
Prepositions
common adjectives and adverbs
Conjunctions
auxiliary verbs
a few common verbs but very few nouns.
The use of colour enables students to read directly in languages
with a different alphabet or characters and to pronounce
correctly what they read.

11. Procedure
Teaching L2 sounds first
 Using sound-color chart
 Considering L1 background of Ss
 Modeling sounds at the beginning
 Using pointer to indicate stress/phrasing /intonation
Teaching sentence-patterns & vocabulary
 Using colored rods for visual realization
 Modeling utterances by the teacher first
 Having a S model & produce utterances
 No encouragement or correction by the teacher
 Regarding learning as personal responsibility
 Practice with L2 structure without repetition
 Self-correction gestures / peer correction
Structured feedback