The Rassias Method®
History
John Rassias developed the Rassias Method while working as a consultant for Peace Corps
language programs. He served as Director of Language Programs at Dartmouth from 1964 to
1968, in French and various other African languages. He directed the first pilot operation for incountry training for the Peace Corps in the Ivory Coast in 1966, as well as the first total
immersion program in the United States in 1967 at Dartmouth.
His inspiration for the Method came when he was faced with the decision to take to the stage
or to enter the classroom. He decided to do both. “So I just took the essence of acting—the
ability to touch an audience—and the essence of teaching—communication and fused them.”
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rassias/foundation/method.html
The aim of the method is to provide a non-competitive
atmosphere where the second or third language student is
highly motivated and feels comfortable with the language in
as short a time as possible. This goal is achieved through a
series of specific teaching procedures, techniques, and tools
that:
* Create and maintain a dynamic classroom pace and atmosphere, thus
capturing and holding student attention.
* Foster spontaneity and creative expression, eliciting an extremely high rate of
student response from the earliest to the advanced stages of language
training.
* Eliminate the learner's natural self-consciousness and fear of mistakes.
* Emphasize the relevance of the language to the student's own life experience.
* Engage the student on an emotional level.
Rationale:
Through drills, we work on pronunciation, grammar structures and vocabulary all at once.
* Many students need intentional, focused help to develop maximum oral
proficiency.
Involves both choral and individual repetition.
* Reduces inhibition
Involves breath groups.
* Can remember ideas in chunks (7, plus or minus two bits)
* Breath groups chunk
Uses backward build-up
* Is based on primacy/recency research, i.e., we remember best what is heard first and
what is heard last or most recently.
Method – Ask students to stand:
1. Say entire line (snap & point to self):
“Twain employs both Juvenalian and Horatian satire in his novels.”
2. Repeat last breath group for 2 choral reps (ARMS):
Horatian satire in his novels.
Horatian satire in his novels.
3. Test 7 individual times SNAP, POINT, LOOK
4. Add the next breath group (point to self):
Twain employs both Juvenalian and Horatian satire in his
novels.
5. 2 choral reps, I model (ARMS)
6. 7 individual reps (SNAP, POINT, LOOK) – Act out! Have fun! 