The silent way

The objective of The Silent Way Method of language teaching is for students to work as independent language learners. The teacher speaks very little when using this method. The role of the teacher is to draw the learners' attention to the way that they are going about the act of learning. The teacher facilitates the students' discoveries and helps the students to gain insight into the functioning of the language. In order to use this method some specific materials are required.
• A Sound/Color Wall Chart: made up of different color rectangles in which each color represents a phoneme or sound of the English language.

• Word Wall Charts: words are written using the same color code as the sound/color wall chart suggests. These charts display the structural vocabulary of the language.

• Spelling Charts: These charts are referred to as the Fidel. They show the possible spellings for each phoneme and they also use the same color code as the sound/color wall chart.

• Rods: these are cards containing sounds which correspond to the sound/color wall chart. These rods allow students to create words using phonemes.
A pointer should be used by the teacher to help guide the class as they vocalize the sounds. A pointer can also help to teach which syllable has the stress on it by tapping that syllable harder than the others. This aids in the development of proper pronunciation of words in the target language.

1.1 STRATEGIES USING THE SILET WAY

1. Sound/Color Chart: This is a chart which color codes and groups all the phonemes present in the English language.
* In order to print and use this chart you will need a color printer.

2. Spelling Chart: This chart, also called the Fidel, shows the possible spellings for each phoneme. The colors correspond with the sound/color chart .
* A color printer will be necessary for the full effect in hard copy.

3. Self Correction Gestures: A teacher using this method of language instruction could devise a group of gestures signaling students to rethink their response. For example a teacher might hold his hands together and then bring them apart to signal that a vowel sound should be longer or that the word itself needs to be lengthened. A second signal might be having each finger on your hand representing a word in a sentence (first, second, third, etc.) to indicate the students need to attend to a trouble spot.