Galya Mateva - Integrating content, language and art in creating course modules

Integrating content, language
and art for creating courses and
course modules
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Galya Mateva
OPTIMA, BULGARIA
©Eaquals Eaquals International Conference, Riga, 27 – 29 April 2017 www.eaquals.org 1

Aims of the presentation
©Eaquals www.eaquals.org 2Eaquals International Conference, Riga, 27 – 29 April 2017
• To revisit suggetsopedia and to explore
the unity of its global and artistic
approaches in materials and course
design
• To apply the two approaches in
integrating content, language and art in
creating a business English course
• To consider some wider applications in
contemporary ELT in creating bespoke
course modules

The humanistic approach
in contemporary ELT:
is it still on the agenda?

Humanistic techniques
They engage the whole person,
including the emotions
and feelings, as well as linguistic
knowledge and behavioural skills
Richards&Rogers, 2014

Suggestopedia: one of the
humanistic methods in language teaching
Suggestopedia is consistent with the
five emphases within humanism:
• On feelings
• On social relations
• On responsibility for one`s learning
• On intellect
• On self-actualisation
Stevick, 1992

Humanism: the added
value of suggestopedia (Lozanov)
• We can engage the whole brain, develop
the whole personality
• Psychological processes CAN BE A and
not-A, they occur in parallel (Hansen,
2014): left and right hemisphere, cortex
and sub-cortex, learning and acquisition
• We can increase input, enlarge the volume
of linguistic and content information (the
global approach)
• As a result we can change the direction of
presentation and processing of
information (global-particular-global)

Humanism: the added
value of suggestopedia (Lozanov)
• Utilizes positive suggestions (“I can
more”)
• Utilizes passive learning, the peripheral
perceptions (stimuli outside the centre
of attention)
• Integrates art, emotions at all stages of
learning (the artistic approach)
• Learning happens through group
interaction in a restful, stress-free
atmosphere

The global approach
(the forest walk approach)

Materials design:
the global lesson
• Enhanced volume of linguistic and content
information
• Quantitative aspect:
15-20 pages in a lesson with L2 text in a column;
200-240 sentences in a global lesson
6-8 global lessons (chapters) per course
• Qualitative aspect:
Text (discourse)-based presentation of language
Holistic grammar and lexical patterns
Active/passive grammar and vocabulary

See and experience the whole (right),
explore its core, its interrelated
elements(left)and go back to the whole (right)

Holistic input at the background
of classical music and art

The artistic approach impregnates
the entire process and global material

The artistic approach in materials design
activates the right hemisphere
• Each course is based on a book
(screen play) with a distinct plot
and set of characters
• Chapters are subdivided into
scenes (subtopics)
• They include songs, poems and
quotations in the main text
• Additional literary texts follow to
summarize essential features and
provide new contexts

The artistic approach is also
present in:
• Texts on culture of the target country (or
other content-related areas) are
incorporated in the story line
• Key grammar and lexical items are
interwoven in typical situations of the plot
• Artistically designed grammar and lexical
posters go with the texts
• Each chapter contains reproductions of
famous paintings
• Mini stories, anecdotes, proverbs and
sayings are included as part of the main
story

WORK AND LIFE BALANCE
Suggestopedic book for work, travel
and business communication

The artistic approach in
business English course design
• Main character:
Edna-Rose O`Brien, Irish, aged 34,
famous business consultant and coach.
Brainy, reliable, romantic. Small, pretty,
reddish-gold hair, pale, freckled face.
Always on high-heeled shoes.
Unmarried. Lives alone in a two
bedroom flat at 14 Dame Lane, Dublin,
close to the Stag`s Head Pub. Drives a
BMW company car.

Dramatis Personae
(presenting different parts of Europe)
• Gary Gamble, English, financial consultant
• David Greenwood, half-Spanish, half-English, expert
in environmental studies
• Manju Noble, Indian, school owner
• Laura Soriso, half-French, half-Italian and Leonardo
Soriso, Italian, owners of printing business
• Maria Micaleff, Maltese, HR expert
• Karl Kaufman, German, Industrial management
specialist
• Simeon Popov, Bulgarian, software engineer
• Sophia Liapis, Greek of American origin, with
experience in the tourism industry
• Petteri Niilo, Finnish, senior manager in IT company
• African students (following a degree course in BA)

THE BOOK AND THE STORY
• Consists of introduction, 5 chapters (global
lessons) and epilogue
• The action takes place in Europe and Africa
• The story is about a newly established
foundation “Live Communication”. Its members
are business people and academics who get
together to set up a mobile business university
(MBU) and travel to meet young people in remote
areas of Africa for the first degree course in BA.
• The book reveals different characters and
relationships, travel and personal stories, life
events, encounters with African nature, people
and traditions

The artistic approach involves
multiple stories, pictures,
quotations, metaphors, songs, etc.
Chapter three:
To be or not to be an entrepreneur
I can`t sit still and see another man slaving
and working. I want to get up and walk round
with my hands in my pockets, and tell him what
to do. It`s my energetic nature. I can`t help it.
(J. K.Jerome)
The difference between what we do and what we are
capable of
doing would suffice to solve most of the world`s
problems
Mahatma Gandhi

The global and artistic approach develop
through integrating European and
African cultures
WE ARE ALL PART OF NATURE (Chapter 2)
A gorgeous African dawn is breaking.

Eaquals International Conference, Riga, 27 – 29 April 2017
Chapter two (an excerpt)
The bright disc of the sun is slowly
emerging behind a huge baobab tree
colouring the sky in pink and orange.
Tutors and students are visiting the
wildlife reserve before the lecture.
African host:
You have heard about the “The Big
Five”, haven`t you?
The Big Five refers to the time when
safaris were not for enjoying the
wildlife but for shooting it for trophies.
…………………………………………………
Maria: We have just seen “The Big
Five” in the animal kingdom.
But who are the big five in a business
company?
• Bulgarian text
©Eaquals www.eaquals.org 21Eaquals International Conference, Riga, 27 – 29 April 2017

The king of beasts: the elephant or the lion?

The supreme monarch

Content-oriented global
lessons
BUSINESS TOPICS:
Chapter one: Founding members` meeting, setting
up the foundation, press conference, meeting
the characters, getting ready for the trip
Chapter two: Business travel, planning the trip to
Africa, socialising, travel stories
Chapter three: Entrepreneurship, describing types
of business, company structure, starting a
business, making a business plan
Chapter four: Applying for a job, interviewing for a
job, recruiting and training staff
Chapter five: Business communication skills:
presentations and negotiations

The global approach to
language
• Chapter one: Present tenses, Future
forms
• Chapter two: Narrative tenses, Passives
• Chapter three: Modal verbs,
Comparatives and superlatives
• Chapter four: Connecting clauses,
Direct and indirect questions
• Chapter five: Reported speech,
Conditionals

Grammar in context:
Negotiations
Examples from the story:
• If we increased the number of
tablets, would you agree to the
payment terms?
• If we offered a 10% discount, would
you pay upfront?
• If you hadn`t turned down my latest
offer, you would have benefited
more.

The grammar poster:
“If I were you, I would marry him”
“If you had married him, you would have
lived a happy life ever after “

Mixing it all up:
A course or a course module?
• Teachers are trained currently in all three
aspects: business, language and art
• These competences are added to the general
suggestopedic training
• Two different course types are experimented
with: intensive (20 days, 4 classes each day)
and extensive (two days a week x4 classes)
• We are considering the possibility of running
separate modules based on chapters in the
book, also of creating new global lessons to
match the specific needs of clients

Would you like to experiment
with something different?
To create a new balance?

Galya Mateva - Integrating content, language and art in creating course modules

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