8. The Evidence
When we started to probe, we found that Accelerated Learning is a well researched form of learning. Conventional teaching has been in use for so long that no one thinks to measure it! Accelerated Learning is so fundamentally different that it simply had to be measured and validated to the statistical satisfaction of its originators, its users, and its sceptics.
The evidence falls in two main groups. That conducted by Lozanov in Sophia and the tests and measurements conducted in Europe and the U.S.A. We outline below just a few of the dozens of projects that we surveyed. Before presenting this information, it is important to remember the distinction between learning defined as recognition and learning defined as unprompted recall. The word "learned", is unfortunately not a very precise one. There are standard linguistic tests and where they were used in the tests, we have said so. We are however more impressed with comparative tests i.e. those that directly measured the effectiveness of Accelerated Learning against conventional learning. Results that show that an Accelerated Learning course worked 3 times better than a conventional course, are likely to be more valid than tests which show that (say) 900 words were learned in a day due to the difficulty of evaluating learning on a scale that is universally accepted.
Sophia
In 1967 at Sophia University 416 students were set to learn 1,600 words of French in 31 school days (spending 45 minutes per day). Correct recall means they correctly remembered the meaning of each word when it was given and could use it correctly in a sentence.
12% learnt with between 50% and 85% correct recall 88% achieved over 86% correct recall
The average correct recall of memorised words was 93%
The achievement is equivalent to acquiring a useable vocabulary of over 1,400 words in one month. To put that in context, it has been calculated that the average reader of a popular tabloid can comprehend a week's issue on a vocabulary of under 1,200 words.
Another way of expressing the results, is that the average student learnt 61 words per 45 minute lesson, within a normal school curriculum. Berlitz, the world's largest teacher of foreign languages, have quoted an average of 200 words after 30 hours - 7 per hour average.
Importantly, the survey revealed that sex, age and education were not relevant to results. There was a minor trend for women to out-perform men and for the under 40's to learn slightly faster, but it should be emphasised that the speed of progress of the over 40's was only 3% less than the under 40's.
Significantly educational background played no part in the effectiveness of the Accelerated Learning techniques. Of the 416 students under study, 120 had a secondary school as opposed to a higher education background. Their percentage of correctly memorised words was 92.6% as opposed to 93.3% for the University students. The difference of course is statistically insignificant.
But Does It Last?
One of the basic principles of our Calvinistic society is that effort = excellence. Nothing easy is supposed to be worthwhile. "Easy come" is supposed to lead to "easy go". Surely anything easily learnt, will be quickly forgotten?
Lozanov, however, showed that, far from students forgetting the material they learnt using the Accelerated Learning technique, their super memory, medically known as hypermnesia, proved to have super staying power (hyper durability!).
Short term checks showed a decline from the mid 90% accuracy to 88% average.
When a proportion of the same students were given follow up tests, these were the results:
Original correct recall - 93%
After 6 months - 88%
After 9 months - 85%
After 12 months - 67% (79%)
The figure in brackets shows the correct recall percentage for a sub-group who were allowed to make just one revision of the material.
Using the Ebbinghaus curve of forgetting, we could expect that the percentage of correctly remembered material using conventional learning would have declined to about 20% after a year - and this checks very well with later tests where a control was used, i.e. a group of students who were taught this same syllabus but with conventional teaching techniques.
In contrast the Lozanov taught language registered a 67% correct recall after a year - 3 times as effective. Source: "Outlines of Suggestopaedia". Published by: Gordon & Breach N.Y.
The 'Hindi Test' - Hypermnesia proves to have a cumulative effect.
A frequent comment from students using Lozanov's Accelerated Learning was "my general memory seems to have improved".
This led Dr. Lozanov to the Hindi test. 141 students, who were about to embark on a Accelerated Learning course, were given 100 words of Hindi to learn. They leant the words using their normal methods, before embarking on their Accelerated Learning French Language course. They scored an average 33.9% correct. They then were put through their French course for a month.
At the end of the month they were given 100 more words of Hindi to learn, in the same time and again under normal, non-Accelerated Learning conditions. This time their correct recall was 50.2%. The effect of one Accelerated Learning Course appeared to show a near 50% improvement in their general ability to memorise.
This type of experiment was repeated with mathematical problems, and again there was a significant improvement in overall learning ability.
These tests have real significance. We believe, supported by a wealth of practical and
qualitative experience, that we can look to
a time when a significant positive shift in overall learning ability and I.Q. is possible, because the methods used in Accelerated Learning result in general mental training.
What happens to the brain during an Accelerated Learning Concert?
Lozanov measured the effectiveness of each part of the Accelerated Learning course and pinpointed the 'concert' stage - where the language session has a background of classical music - as the single most effective part of the course.
He set up measurements of the student's brain waves while they experienced Accelerated Learning, using a E.E.G. (electroencephlograph) machine, which records brain wave patterns.
The most noticeable conclusion was that during the concert sessions, the proportion of the students Alpha brain wave output increased - from 30% to 40% and Beta waves dropped from 55% to 47%.
A rise in Alpha brain waves is associated with relaxation and meditation. So the part which is designed to produce maximum memory coincided exactly with the point of maximum relaxation. This would also explain why the students almost unanimously expressed pleasure that they felt so refreshed after the Accelerated Learning sessions.
Accelerated Learning and Sleep Patterns
It is well established that our night's sleep is characterised by several stages. The stage called paradoxical sleep or 'Rapid Eye Movement' sleep, normally accounts for 20-25% of a night's sleep in adults. This type of sleep occurs about four times a night and is the time when we dream and in which Rapid Eye Movement (REM) occur. It is also known, therefore, as REM sleep. As we have seen, many psychologists believe that we review and process the information of the day during REM sleep.
Lozanov theorised that students should experience an increase in REM sleep after an Accelerated Learning session, because they had vastly more information to process than usual.
Accordingly, a group of students were connected to E.E.G. machines to measure their brain wave patterns during REM sleep and its duration. It was found that the duration of Rapid or Paradoxical sleep increased by 50%.
Moscow
The V.I. Lenin Institute in Moscow is perhaps Russia's most prestigious foreign language academy. It has embraced the Lozanov system after a series of carefully controlled tests conducted and reported by N.L. Smirnova in 1973.
The test was a four way design.
There were 25 students in each group. The results were:
1. The highlights of the test, reported in a very understated tone by Dr. Smirnova, were
1. Students using Accelerated Learning learnt the basis of a new language in a month.
2. The students did not show signs of fatigue in spite of the large amount of material. They reported a 'Sense of satisfaction' and most of them felt that 'the barrier of shyness had been removed'. Many also reported better sleeping and a disappearance of headaches and depression.
3. The basis of the evaluation was words accurately remembered according to standard language test procedures.
4. The grammar vocabulary and colloquial fluency of the Accelerated Learning group was very substantially better - the length of their sentences was greater and their syntax was more complicated. Indeed their overall performance was three times better at least - but their spelling was only equal to the control groups - an inevitable result of the concentration on the oral side of language learning.
The report went on to say that the Accelerated Learning groups had a 'considerable advantage in understanding an unfamiliar text'.
These conclusions are not unexpected, because they are exactly true of the way we naturally learn our own language as children.
Budapest
A test on 20 students was carried out by M. Rabcsak in 1979 in Budapest. 12 students were assigned to learn German and 8 English. It is worth quoting verbatim the first paragraph of the conclusions from the official report:
"When they compared the conventional teaching of a foreign language with Accelerated Learning, the committee noticed a surprising fact. After four years of instruction, the best secondary school students would assimilate from 2,000 to 3,000 words. They would typically make active use of about 1, 000 words, with a rather tardy readiness to engage in conversation. The remaining two thirds of what has been learnt forms a passive stock of words, a large part of which are quickly forgotten. In the first Accelerated Learning course the students mastered nearly 2,000 words in 23 days. Of these words they actively employ between 1,200-1,500 words using them readily in conversation.
"Forty five days after the completion of the course, a delayed check was carried out. In the case of a few people, the results obtained from the check showed a one or two percent drop. The majority of students, however, showed an increase of two or three and a half percent. This is entirely different from the effect of conventional teaching.
"One of the students attended the German language course in the morning and the English language course in the afternoon. This
parallel teaching yielded excellent results - better than the other students! Though one cannot of course be definitive on the basis of a sample of one, the examiners concluded that the 'state of enhanced receptiveness increased the effectiveness of the next lesson'."
The Western Evidence
As information on Accelerated Learning began to disseminate during the late 1970's and early 1980's, educationists in the U.S.A., excited at the claim of a 3, 5 even 7 times speed up in learning rates, decided to put the Accelerated Learning techniques to the test. Centres of study began to spring up almost organically.
Iowa State University
An influential early area was Iowa State University, home of Clinical Psychologist Dr. Don Schuster, Professor of Psychology at the University. At the beginning his research inevitably involved trial and error. He had no idea whether any one element was the key or, as we now know, whether it was a subtle and harmonious combination of many elements that produces Accelerated Learning.
The first experiments, therefore, were focused on relaxation. Students were taught yoga-like relaxation, and then lessons were simply accompanied by classical background music using a normal textbook. The subject was Spanish. The test worked and Schuster founded the previously noted SALT - Society for Accelerated Learning and Teaching.
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Footnote:
SALT is the Acronym for "Society for Accelerative Learning and Teaching". It was founded by Professor Dr. Schuster of IOWA State University. It is an association of University personnel engaged in psychological and educational research, together with professional teachers. Members are actively involved in introducing Accelerated Learning into school and college systems. SALT has members in 20 countries and the organisation holds an annual conference each year. The 1984 and 9th Annual Conference was held in Houston U.S.A., and attended by hundreds of professionals. The 10th Conference was held in Washington in May 1985.
In May 1984 a European SALT conference was held in Stockholm, to review European progress. Another European conference was held in London in May 1985, under the auspices of SEAL.
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Schuster recorded a three-fold increase in learning speed during this first test and this prompted a State grant for further development. He then began to integrate all the elements of the Accelerated Learning techniques to produce a successful University language teaching course.
The Iowa State results encouraged Des Moines teacher, Charles Gritton, to experiment with teaching maths using the same technique. Two Georgia teachers Allyn Pritchard and Jean Taylor further applied Accelerated Learning to elementary school children with retarded reading problems. Pupils were able to catch up a one year gap in reading ability in 14 weeks.
As word spread, many more projects were commenced.
U.S. Navy Tests
Dr. E. Peterson of Iowa State University used Accelerated Learning methods to instruct U.S. Navy recruits, and was able to divide the year's intake up into two groups. One half was taught with Accelerated Learning techniques, one half conventionally. As with all such experiments, he found that the Accelerated Learning group learnt at least 2-3 times faster. What makes his experiment worth special note, however, was the fact that he also administered a questionnaire to the Accelerated Learning students to uncover some of their attitudes towards the technique after the course was completed.
He noted in a preamble that 'the Lozanov class were full of sparkle and desire to learn. That made teaching rewarding and enjoyable. Absenteeism was very, very low. 1 shall use the technique full-time from now on'.
Results of the questionnaire were:
Liked the Lozanov method:
- yes 92% no 4% no opinion 4% Were you interested in the subject:- very 70% quite 30%
The Paradise Unified School Project
In 1982 School Psychologist Roy Applegate, of the quaintly named town of Paradise, (California)* applied for a U.S. Government Research Grant to apply Accelerated Learning techniques to the teaching of school children of grades 2-6, ages 6 to 10.
The full report is reprinted as Appendix A at the end of the book. It is especially significant, however, because it is an objective report from an independent Government financed investigation unit. The test involved 850 students and 33 teachers over a two year period.
The results showed:
* a dramatic increase in student learning rates in reading, maths, spelling and writing'.
* a significant improvement in classroom behaviour'.
* students gained nearly twice as much in Accelerated Learning classes as in control classes (ie. taught conventionally)'
* Project teachers continued (after two years of using the method) to demonstrate high levels of confidence and class room control'
The fact that this large scale study showed a two times speed up in learning rates, whereas the tests on adults averagely show at least a three times speed up, is to be expected. In the Paradise School study the ages were 6-10 which is anyway a period of fast learning.
Press Comment
There have now been hundreds of articles in the American Press giving details of the effectiveness of Accelerated Learning in the class room.
Harpers Bazaar in its September 1980 edition ran a complete article on Accelerated Learning under the headline "High Speed Learning - Speak another Language in Days".
The article perceptively identified a key aspect to Accelerated Learning - the fact that the human mind really is capable of undreamed feats when learning blocks have been removed. The Accelerated Learning programme, they reported 'are geared to help dissolve fear, self blame and negative suggestions about limited abilities. In its place they create positive expectations of high rates of success'.
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Footnote:
Paradise, whilst actually a very attractive town on the Nevada Border is named after the casino rather than the topography. The towns name is actually a corruption of the phrase "pair of dice"!
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The most spectacular case they reported was of a class who were introduced to French one morning. After a day's continuous instruction using Accelerated Learning they were given a test. The class average correct recall was 97%. They had apparently learned 970 words of French in a day!
Now whilst the basis measurement (not quoted in the article) must have been recognition of the English meaning of each given French word, there was one point of significance in the test. The students were never told the scope of the experiment at the outset. The researchers were sure (no doubt with justification!) that the instinctive reaction of the class would have been that to learn a 900 words in a day 'was impossible'. The experiment quite clearly showed that 'impossible' is only in the mind.
Lozanov Learning Institute
The Lozanov Learning Institute in Silver Springs, Maryland, which was the organisation specifically licensed by Dr. Lozanov himself, has taught students from many of Americas top corporations.
They include UNESCO officials, ARAMCO, A.T. & T., Bell Telephones, Touche Ross, Saudi Arabian Airlines, Delta Airlines, General Motors, Hilton Hotels, The Department of Commerce, the Defence Department and State Department of the U.S. Government, Shell Oil and literally hundreds of major organisations.
Public funds have now been granted to install Accelerated Learning techniques in locations of both higher learning and primary learning and the Institute now has contracts to install the Lozanov method in the public school system in Chicago, in Bristol, Virginia and in Detroit.
Within the last two years (1983) the U.S. Foreign Service Institute has begun using the Accelerated Learning techniques to teach certain foreign languages and we were told that its direct Russian equivalent in Moscow has done likewise.
Learning to Learn
At least five organisations in North America now teach "Learn to Learn" courses based on principles of the Accelerated Learning.
Charles Schmid of the LIND Institute, San Francisco, the Paradise School Project (already mentioned and originally trained by Charles Schmid,) the Barzakov Institute, and independent consultants Win Wenger of Project Renaissance, Gaithersburg and Paul Hollander, an Educational Planning Consultant of Willowdale, Ontario, Canada. The first three are successful exponents of the basic Lozanov methods, the last two have been working on learning methods that are compatible with Lozanov's principles and which indeed provide important improvements on them.
Charles Schmid now travels extensively to conduct teacher training courses in many countries. In the last year he has conducted training courses at Stellenbosch University, Cape Town, Houston University, Louisiana State University and has now trained scores of Finnish teachers in Accelerated Learning.
Charles Schmid is a true Polymath. He has University degrees in Music, Psychology, French and German. He taught languages for many years at New York University and at the University in Austin, Texas. In 1975 he trained directly with Dr. Lozanov in Sophia and set up his Institute in San Francisco shortly afterwards.
Schmid has refined and extended Lozanov's original methods, and his teacher training courses are now so successful, that we have outlined some of his thinking in a later chapter.
At the Barzakov Educational Institute, in San Francisco, directors Ivan Barzakov and Pamela Rand run a continuous series of workshop courses. According to Barzakov - originally a leading instructor with Lozanov in Sophia - the workshop 'engages participants with art, classical music, theatre, dance and games together with traditional instructional materials, to achieve whole brain learning'.
Everything in the environment, colours, sounds, textures, rhythms, shapes, even the appearance of the text, are significant in the learning process.
'We orchestrate all these stimulating elements' says Bazarkov, 'and emotional, physical and mental energies are blended to elicit the brain's full capabilities.
'The mind does not perceive just detailed bits and pieces, but is constantly weaving a large pattern from our experiences. If you
feed it with multi-impressions, that are harmonised and orchestrated to achieve a specific objective, there's practically nothing it cannot learn'.
Ivan Barzakov is unquestionably a sensitive teacher (he wanted to be a musical conductor) and he is clear from his students' reactions that the Lozanov-derived techniques he uses are not just effective in accelerating learning, but in liberating more creative potential than most ever imagine is inside them.
In his classes he invokes his students to be open minded. 'Often you will not, cannot, sense how much you are learning' he says. 'Trust your intrinsic ability and you'll be amazed at how fast your memory and creativity develops. But do give it time'. He quotes Epictetus - 'No great thing is created suddenly, anymore than is a bunch of grapes ora fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first bloom, then become a fruit, then ripen'.
Having seen Ivan orchestrating a class and teaching in a captivating melodious tone of voice, I can confirm he does indeed make his students 'bloom'. He emphasises self instruction and self development because, as he says, 'No one can teach you but yourself'.
European Experience
In the last two to three years Accelerated Learning projects have begun in many European locations.
Teachers in the Finnish primary school system have adopted the technique on a countrywide basis.
In Denmark, Vibeka Cristofoli is working with Amnesty International to teach Danish to Polish, Vietnamese and South American refugees and runs teachers training courses at the Institute of Educational Development in Copenhagen. She also finds the Accelerated Learning relaxation technique beneficial in rehabilitating stroke victims.
Uppsala University, Sweden, is applying Accelerated Learning techniques to many of their degree courses.
A Lozanov Institue has opened up in Germany and Lichtenstein headed by professional teacher Tony Stockwell.
In Paris there is the Lycee Voltaire School run by Jean Curreau,
and at Ecole Francaise de Suggestopedie, Rue Henri Barbusse, ex-Sorbonne lecturer Fanny Safaris is offering an Accelerated Learning Course teaching English.
Several articles have appeared in the French newspapers on Fanny Safaris' courses. Journalist Judith Monthie writes.
'Students settled back in their lounge chairs, with pillows under their heads and blankets over their knees, listening to a concert by Bach or Mozart while their teacher reads the text to be used for the next two to three days. Her voice is controlled just like another musical instrument to fit the rhythm, pauses and moods of the music. It's an almost sublime moment in language learning: everyday French read as a beautiful work of art! The effect is stunning. All the sessions have this mark of pleasure, of warm ambiance, of gaiety, of ease of communications. Mistakes don't seem important, what counts is the desire to understand and to be understood. Everything possible is done to enhance the student's self-image.
'Looking back on the intellectually cold, mechanically bound 60's and 70's when the teacher was a one-man show with audio visual equipment, tape recorder, slide projector and language laboratory, the giver of all knowledge, the centre of attention in a classroom, the caster of pearls, we've come full circle to the idea that the student is the raison d'etre of a classroom and not the teacher. The student had graduated to a full human being status. Bravo!'
When we talked to Fanny Safaris she told us that her Accelerated Learning classes were showing a three times speed up in learning and that this had been confirmed, using recognised linguistic tests by Shell Oil and the Nationalized Thompson Electronics Company.
She identified the key elements in the method as being:
(a) A direct channel to both the subconscious and logical mind simultaneously.
(b) A relaxed and pleasant atmosphere. The joy of learning in a practical form.
(c) The presentation of a large amount of material quite quickly thereby implying an expectation of success.
(d) The realisation that you do not have to learn every word
exactly to progress to the next lesson. To learn 300 words a day in a relaxed mood and with 80% recall (240 correct) is undeniably a superior achievement to learning 50 words a day at 100% accuracy with grim determination.
(e) The regaining of a child-like capacity to play 'Laughter' quotes Fanny' 'Lubricates learning'.
England
In Britain the two principal exponents of Accelerated Learning are the School of English Studies (S.E.S. at Folkestone' Kent) and the Western Language Centre at Kemble, Gloucestershire. Both are approved by the Department of Education. The Principal of the School of English Studies (S.E.S.) is Peter O'Connell. We asked him to comment not so much on the technique of Accelerated Learning but its effects on his students. His answer was revealing.
'Healthy children learn their native tongues with joy and efficiency. As soon as they go to school the shades of the prison house descend. Some pupils are lucky and enjoy some years in Kindergarten and Primary school. Secondary school' however' with its obsessive concern with examination and grades and reports' associates learning in most pupils' minds with pain and boredom and anxiety.
'A thirty-five year old Swiss Banker was celebrating the completion of a six week intensive English Course. He said to me' "I really enjoyed the past six weeks here - and yet I'm sure I've learnt a lot of English".'
'Surely the two go together' I replied' 'If you have enjoyed yourself' you are more likely to have learnt well'. Yet the proposition was difficult for the Swiss Banker to accept. This professionally successful man sadly confessed that he hadn't derived any pleasure from his school studies and even his University years had been boring. How many successful business and professional people have a similarly sombre memory of their formal education?
In the process of achieving a state of relaxation that makes learning a new language a pleasure, the identity issue is very important. One cannot learn someone else's language unless one
can to some extent identify with the native speaker. This means relinquishing' or at least loosening one's grip on one's own national identity. This is a delicate issue' for all of us cling to our identities as to a life-raft. In Folkestone' as I suspect in most language schools' we have partially solved this problem - by use of Christian names.
One day an Italian lady' wife of a banker who had recently completed a four-week course, visited the school. As she came through the door she exclaimed 'What have you done to my husband? Since he came back from Folkestone he's a different man. He was getting so boring. Now he's the life and soul of the party'
Conclusion
We have completed a four-year investigative tour that has spanned 3 continents and twelve countries. A list of some of the 40 major University Centres involved is given in Appendix C.
We talked to numerous East European Education Officials' to UNESCO' the U.S. Government funded Centre for Applied Linguistics at Arlington' Virginia. We interviewed Don Schuster of Iowa State University; current SALT President Robert Prall from University of Texas at Houston; IBM Consultant Paul Hollander in Canada; Fanny Safaris from Paris; Ivan Bazarkov of the Optima Learning Institute' San Francisco. Jane Bancroft of Toronto' University of Canada; Luiz Machado of the University of Rio de Janeiro' Brazil; Wil Knibbler of the Katholieke University' Nijmegen, Holland; Christer Landahl of Uppsala University, Sweden; the lozanov Institutes in Washington, Virginia and Vaduz' Lichtenstein, and in England with Peter O'Connell from S.E.S., Folkestone' and Michael Lawlor of the Western Language Centre' Kemble, in Gloucestershire.
They were all of one accord. Accelerated Learning is a teaching method of enormous potential.
Says Peter O'Connell, a normally conservatively spoken man and a leading figure in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language' 'it has the potential to make it possible for the generality of learners to achieve the results reached in our present society only by the small minority of people we call geniuses'.
Everyone we spoke to acknowledged the seminal role of Dr. Lozanov, but they were equally sure that Accelerated Learning had progressed far beyond the methods of one man. Accelerated Learning is now a movement. A movement to which thousands of professional teachers and educational psychologists are contributing. It is a style of teaching, a style of presentation, that is still evolving and we have been privileged in this book to bring you not only the 'state of the art' but the way to incorporate it into your own life.
