Gattegno Pedagogy Discussion Forum

Hi Miguel,

Well, I downloaded your Sound/Color charts at http://www.driveway.com/l7q4w0t4x3 and had a good look at them. You certainly have taken a lot of time to make your new charts. I was particularly interested in reading what you said at the beginning of your text about your English teacher's classes. My goodness "the Code War Chart"- that's pretty dramatic! And sounds to me like bad teaching was taking place. If the class becomes a war, there's a problem.

In actual fact, I wonder whether you teacher really knew much about about Silent Way at all. I have some doubts.

The first doubt concerns the fact that you say "I didn’t speak - write a sound - word in English". Do you mean you didn't talk?!! The Silent Way is called by this name because the TEACHER is silent, not the students. The students talk all the time! I can't believe you didn't talk in English! That's unthinkable!

The second reason concerns why we use a Sound/Color chart in the first place. The basic reason is not to learn the chart off by heart, to memorize the colors, and then be able to transfer this knowledge to the word charts. The basic reason is to do "mouth gymnastics" so that all students can actually sound the language correctly. This process takes time, and gives excellent pronunciation when done correctly. Memorizing the chart is of no importance. Usually students end up knowing the chart, but not because they have memorized it. They know it because they have been in contact with it for several hours, doing their gymnastics, just as you know your gymnasium when you spend several hours there doing exercises or playing basketball. You don't have to "learn" it, you just know it because you were there. You can find the changing rooms because you've been there before. The chart is the same, IF and only IF it's well taught.

I would think that if your teacher used the IPA phonetic alphabet, then he or she didn't know how to use the Sound/Color chart correctly. Once teachers know how to use it properly, they are not tempted by the IPA.

The third reason why I doubt is because you say it was used for British English. This Sound/Color chart is specifically American, with New York pronunciation.

The fourth reason is because you don't mention the fidel. You say people had problems spelling. The fidel is the Silent Way tool necessary for learning to spell, and it works very well. Why didn't you talk about it? I hope you teacher used it! The Sound/Color chart is only used for pronunciation.

And the fifth and last reason is because most of the words with difficult and unusual spellings are on the word charts. Why did you not learn to spell these words from these charts?

Here are my questions. Perhaps you could explain to us how your teacher worked. How did he or she use the different tools of the Silent Way?

Yours,

Roslyn