Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 4; June 1999

Are we ready for Holism?

Grethe Hooper Hansen, former President of SEAL

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He minimises controlling in teachers first by removing instruments that might be used for that purpose, such as visualization, and other 'techniques'. There is, of course, nothing wrong with visualization per se, only the way it can be used; in non-controlling hands, it is a wonderful aid to learning and brightener of classrooms. But if a holistic teacher takes me on a guided imagined journey, I do expect to be left free to imagine what suits me, not to be told - unless I have been informed in advance that the exercise has a specific didactic purpose, which is perfectly acceptable. I am open to suggestions, which I can take or leave, but not to commands. The command that would most violate my private space is being told how to feel, because emotion is such an intimate and important part of the self. Neurologically, emotion has the capacity to override reason, and we are aware at some level of how powerfully directive it is in our lives.

Dr Lozanov constantly reminds teachers that they are not therapists. The visualizations that occur between therapist and client are very different from what might happen in classrooms because the client has requested treatment, and the professional therapist should know the full implications of the work that is done. But, in Lozanov's view, teachers have neither the right to impose on the freedom of others, nor the skills and knowledge to do so in a useful way.

Naturally, we believe that what we believe is right. At whatever stage of development we are, because we cannot yet envisage the next stage, the ideas, principles and behaviours we have formed seem to be close to the ultimate. It is tempting for any human to offer this enlightenment to others, particularly in HH classrooms where we are so much aware of the emotional dimension.

But in the interests of learner autonomy, this temptation needs to be resisted. Dr Lozanov confines influencing to environments, leaving persons free. His belief is that the human organism can best determine its own development, and will naturally grow and expand in its own way at its own speed, given an environment that is sufficiently secure and supportive and pleasant.

(Early interpretations of his work and the name Suggestopedia, which he has now dropped, sometimes give the opposite impression. This is due to the fact that his written ideas were interpreted in the West during a ten-year period in which he was under virtual house arrest, and there was no way of making contact to check for validity. He emerged, like Rip Van Winkle, to find ideas that he hardly recognised circulating in his name, and was reluctant to criticise the work of well intended followers.)

Performance

Performance is another issue in HH classrooms, given the scope there is for charismatic story telling, dancing and so on. It is such balm to the ego to become the cynosure of all eyes (and I have been as active on this front as anyone). Dr Lozanov is equally strict about this : "The teacher should not display his or her abilities - instead he or she should suggest to the students that they display theirs". He discourages any tendency towards the charismatic, which simply makes everybody else look smaller.

Once again, there is a precept which helps : the ideal ending of the Lozanov course is when the learners take over and no longer need the teacher. To bring this about, teachers are expected to watch carefully for the development of learner autonomy and begin to step out of the limelight as the learners show themselves ready to step in. This, of course, is nothing new and appears in all the best examples of HH practice.

Moving Forward

Just in case this article has appeared critical of Humanist/holist practice, which is not intended, I would like to finish by saying how much and why I value the movement, which in my view has made the world of EFL one of the pleasantest possible to work in.

I never cease to be chilled by the frost of classrooms that are focused entirely on the intellectual.

I shudder to see notices in university corridors inviting students to "bitebacks" and descriptions of courses full of metaphors invoking difficulty and pain. I wither in windowless lecture theatres filled with blinking fluorescent lights, and dingy classrooms with desks in rows, not to mention the fear and insecurity that often linger inside.

Music, posters and smiling teachers draw students into classrooms. Caring and sharing are not only a delight but a wonderful discipline that changes for the better the personalities of all involved. Focusing on the donut (American spelling for the ring-shaped doughnut) rather than the hole makes for a much happier and more effective world. Of course, the ideal is a combination of the best of both worlds, a serene complementarity.

For me, the most exciting thought is that HH is moving us forward into a new world by virtue of its paradoxical nature, the fact that it requires such rigour in practice. In order to use it at full efficiency, we have no choice but to do our emotional work and in the process develop our emotional intelligence. I am also convinced that until this is done, we cannot begin to develop the greatest strengths of the human mind, which lie in the direction of empathic communication and of tapping into and expanding morphic and other knowledge fields.

Dr Lozanov, in his discussion of non-verbal communication, says that ultimately the teacher's own mindset always shines through, and that the best thing to assist the expansion of other people's intelligence is to develop oneself to the point of return to where we all started from : the ancient principle of Love.