While such elements of the original suggestopedic method as role-playing and group psychotherapy would be (and have been) of interest to the North American language teacher, the truly original part of the first version of Suggestopedia (and the part that generated all the excitement as a result of the publicity provided by the Ostrander-Schroeder Psychic Discoveries behind the Iron Curtain in 1970, as well as successive books by these authors such as Superlearning [1980]) was contained in the special session. One of the consequences of intensive courses—no matter how good the teacher and how intelligent the students—is fatigue and tension.
(This is especially true if the audiolingual method is used exclusively because of its emphasis on rapid-fire student response). To relieve the tired feeling at the end of the language class and to aid memorization in the classroom itself of a large number of vocabulary items (at least 80 to 100 words per day) and corresponding grammar, Aleko Novakov (under the inspiration of Lozanov) created a one-hour “session” which was largely based on two forms of yoga concentration: outer and inner. As can still be seen in comments in Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy (p.
25, p. 268), the session was originally divided into two distinct parts: “active” and “passive” (or “concert”), with active or
outward concentration on the text preceding the rest and relaxation of passive (or inward) concentration or meditation on the text. (This two-part session is used in the Sophrology memory-training system and, indeed, in various systems adapted from yoga such as the Tomatis Approach).
Teachers, who had to be experts in their field, were individually trained at the Institute of Suggestology in the late 1960s and early 1970s (as was mentioned above) in the theory and practice of the suggestopedic method, in psychology or psychotherapy, singing and acting. East European teachers from outside Bulgaria took a course in a language other than the one they would eventually teach in order to get the “feel” of being a suggestopedic student; they also took theoretical courses from Dr. Lozanov and did practice teaching under the close supervision of the program planner in the appropriate foreign language. Nowhere was the teacher training more in evidence than in the reading of the language dialogues during the two parts of the session. Although the students were specially trained to assimilate the language materials during the special session, it was really at this point of the language class, more than at any other, that the whole burden fell on the teacher. The teacher had to be able to visualize the material he or she was reading and to project it into the minds of the students who, like the teacher, were in the “alpha” state of relaxed alertness. After spending some two to three hours in animated classroom activity, the teacher had to read the language material for about 40 minutes while maintaining a precise rhythm, on the one hand, and an inspiring tone of voice, on the other. (The Institute of Suggestology believed that there should be one, and only one teacher per class. Hence the teacher had to be energetic and dedicated enough to maintain the proper atmosphere during the entire three to four hours of the class-period). The teacher had to know how to vary his or her intonation (or tone of voice) during the reading of the dialogues during the first part of the session; during the second or so-called “passive” part, he or she had to be able to harmonize the emotional content of the passage in question with the tone of the musical excerpts used as background. No wonder that a good deal of the “suggestopedic”
training at the Institute of Suggestology consisted of practice in the session. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the teachers were given exercises to develop their imagination and intuition; articulation and intonation were carefully worked on through listening to
“model” recordings of the best teachers and through performance in class. During the period of practice teaching, the trainee’s work
in class was closely supervised and carefully recorded; after class, the trainee and his/her “professor” listened to the recordings together and discussed how these could be improved.
If the teachers were specially trained to project the language information during the session, the students at the Institute of Suggestology were specially trained to receive it. According to the precepts of yoga, one cannot obtain concentration if the body is in a tiring and uncomfortable position or if the respiration is disorganized and unrhythmical (Eliade, 1969, p. 48). Since body and mind are closely connected, proper physical posture and correct breathing are essential to the fixing of attention (Chauchard, 1974, p. 159, p. 168). A state of physical relaxation realizes the development of intuition or the alerting of the unconscious mind to the receiving of information that normal perception cannot pick up (Ostrander and Schroeder, 1974, p. 166). In Dr. Donald Schuster’s Suggestive-Accelerative Learning Techniques (or SALT) Method, physical relaxation exercises precede mind-calming and early pleasant learning recall exercises.
The term in yoga for easy and comfortable posture is asana. In the original suggestopedic language class, the comfortable, stable position adapted by the students during the session was the alternate Savasana (or “corpse”) pose which reduces fatigue and tension to a minimum. While the students were shown reclining in their chairs in films produced at the Institute during the 1960s, by the 1970s, the students were sitting straight up, with their feet planted on the floor. The relaxation procedures remained the same, however, until the early or mid-1970s. Those Westerners who attended the 1971 Symposium on Suggestology witnessed the deep, rhythmic breathing and relaxed state of the students—especially during the
“passive” or “concert” session.
While no overt muscle relaxation was ever performed in a language classroom at the Institute of Suggestology, the visitor was told (and able to observe) that the muscles of the students were relaxed. During a period immediately preceding the first official day of language classes (this period may have coincided with the pre-course testing days), students were probably trained in relaxation in general and, more specifically, in how to relax, mentally as well as physically, the vital areas of the body (according to yoga, these are sixteen in number). (Some references to muscle relaxation and rhythmical breathing remain in the official English translation of the Lozanov thesis, Suggestology and Outlines of Suggestopedy [pp.
25–26, pp. 268–269]). Students in Hungarian suggestopedic classes
were trained in relaxation, one at a time, before the course began.
In the former Soviet Union, no mention, apparently, was ever made of yoga but deep, rhythmic breathing was used during the session and progressive relaxation was performed before it. Just before the special session began, class-members had to be able, automatically, to relax the body as a totality.
While the teacher read the dialogue during the special session, the students not only relaxed in their (reclining) chairs but also were encouraged to breathe deeply and rhythmically as a group.
(According to the precepts of yoga, proper breathing techniques enhance concentration. While coordination of breathing with physical activity is readily recognized in sports training, few language instructors, except those trained in yoga, recognize the importance of harmonizing breathing with mental activity). One must assume, because of comments by Bulgarian and Russian teachers in 1971 regarding the “correct” rhythm and the
“scientific” nature of the method, that respiration was disciplined during the special session. In 1977, during a Conference of the Society for Accelerative Learning and Teaching held at Iowa State University, Lozanov finally admitted that, originally, there was a coordination of breathing with the presentation of the language dialogue. Since, according to recordings made at the Institute of Suggestology in 1971, the language material was presented, both with and without music, according to a rhythm of 2/4/2 and deep, rhythmic breathing was most definitely observed in the classroom, one must assume that the students were trained in advance to breathe in a rhythm of two seconds’ inhalation, four seconds’ breath retention and two seconds’ exhalation. This is the rhythm that would accord with the teacher’s reading of the language material, on the one hand and, during the “concert” part of the session, both with the reading of the language material and with the slow-moving beat of the baroque music in the background. Although mental and physical stress was alleviated during a given relaxation session, the students’ powers of concentration were considerably increased and they were able to “absorb” large amounts of language material in the classroom without having to do conscious memorization at home.
Scientific experiments conducted by the Institute’s staff in the late 1960s showed that the EEG records of students manifested a distinct increase in “alpha activity” (and a decrease in beta activity) as a result of the relaxation and rest of the special session—
especially the “concert” part (Lozanov, 1978, pp. 236–237). This
“alpha state” is similar, but not necessarily equal to the prominent alpha activity registered by yogis during meditation. The alpha rhythm is generally linked with a relaxed state, on the one hand, and heightened concentration, on the other (Anand, Chhina and Singh, 1972).