The silent way is a language teaching method created by Caleb Gattegno in 1963 in which the teacher is allowed to let the students make the work by themselves, developing their own criteria. It does not matter is the student make mistakes, from mistakes is how the student will learn. There are some steps for students:
- Students have to be more observant
- Students must be willing to let go and wiling to discover the language
- Students have to have a positive attitude
- Students can develop independence from the teacher
The teacher can just give them a topic and stay quiet while students work on it, using the different resources that exist. It does not matter if the student already had or not knowledge about the topic, if the student already had it, then he can use the old information with the new information he got from his searching. For example, the silent way is being applied in this project. You may ask, “how so?”. Easy, the teacher has given to his students different topics which they have to research and explain by their own word using different resources that the student can find and consider that are good enough to use them.
Just as in the entire world, there are some advantages and disadvantages by using the silent way.
Advantages:
- Students learn by themselves.
- Students are allowed to fix their own mistakes based on the guidance of the professor.
- Learning by themselves increase their intelligence, their creativity, discovery and improves their long term memory.
Disadvantages:
- No all the students know how to do their assignments.
- No all the students have developed their creativity.
- There is a lack of support from the teacher in some cases that are required.
Teaching Methods 