The Silent Way: A Minimalist ESL Teaching Approach | Methods in Language Teaching

The silent way is an interesting ESL teaching method that isn’t that common but it does have some solid footing. After all, the goal in most language classes is to make them as student-centred as possible. In the Silent Way, the teacher talks as little as possible, with the idea that students learn best when discovering things on their own. Learners are encouraged to be independent and to discover and figure out language on their own. Continue watching for a brief explination of what The Silent Way method is. ------- • Check out this blog post for more in-depth information about ESL Speaking Rubrics: https://eslspeaking.org/esl-speaking-... • Read my book: ESL/EFL Teaching Practice and Methodology here: https://www.amazon.com/ESL-EFL-Teachi... • Join Jackie's email list: https://eslspeaking.org/subscribe/ • Want another video on teaching certificates? Watch ‪@ESLTeacher365‬ video here:    • BEST TEFL ONLINE CERTIFICATION: How to Cho...   ------   / eslspeaking   https://www.pinterest.ca/eslspeaking/   / jackie.bolen   https://www.tiktok.com/@englishwithja... #teachingenglishwithjackie #teachenglish #assessmentworksheet -------------------------------------------------------- Transcript: In this video, I'll talk about the silent way. It's an ESL or language teaching methodology. It was developed by Caleb Gattegno in 1963. In the silent way, the teacher rarely models language. Instead, they use silence and gestures to elicit answers from their students. It encourages learner autonomy and active student participation in the class. These kinds of classes are very student- centered with the teacher really taking kind of a backseat in the lesson. It uses a structural syllabus and it teaches functional vocabulary. In the silent way, translation and wrote repetition are actively avoided and discouraged. In the silent way, language is presented in context and this is very important that students know when and how to use the language in a certain situation. One of the hallmarks of the silent way is they use these quezinire rods especially for beginners and they are used for um commands and helping with pronunciation. Okay, so that is a very brief overview of the silent way. You won't often really find it used today. However, some of the kind of hallmarks of it, for example, the student-centered classroom and focusing on language that students actually can use in real life, using the context in real-life situations, still can be found in many different language teaching approaches. If you like this video, please be sure to check out my book, ESL, EFL Teaching Practice and Methodology. And please hit like, subscribe, and I'll catch you next time. Timestamp for The Silent Way video: 0:06 What is the silent way? 0:14 What does the Silent Way involve? 0:58 What are the hallmarks of The Silent Way? 1:09 Is The Silent Way still used today? 1:32 Final thoughts