A basic component of language learning is making the most of opportunities to use the language. In assessing the usefulness of any language program, the student (or student’s caregiver) must ask, “How does this program allow its participants to meaningfully use the language?”

The first tendency seems to be listen and repeat:

1.  (teacher) Yia sou!
2.  (student) Yia sou!
1.  Yia sou!
2.  Yia sou!
1.  Hello!
2.  Yia sou!
1.  Hello!
2.  Yia sou!

(You said 'hello' in Greek! That means that you are using the language!)

Another default approach experience (slightly better than the listen and repeat) is a series of memorized dialogues (students would memorize this dialogue and role-play with the teacher or other students):

1.  How can I help you?
2.  I would like a round-trip ticket to Paris.  Is it necessary to get a reservation?
1.  No sir/madame.
2.  How much is it?
1.  50 francs sir/madame.
2.  Thank you.

(You just engaged in a fairly involved conversation that could actually take place--that means you are using the language!)

A limited set of questions with a relatively fixed set of appropriate answers is another commonly used approach:
1. What is your name?
2. My name is _______

1. How are you?
2. Fine/OK/Very well, thank you

(You can ask and appropriately respond to several frequent exchanges, that means you are using the language!)

The common flaw for each of these is that once you have learned what is there, you're done, you passed it off, and the encouragement and motivation to continue usually resides in the teacher rather than the student. In general, the methods suffer because they treat language learning as so many words and phrases to master.  Compare this to one of the twenty-five methods used at SmartNoise – The Silent Way.

Ben participated in a Silent Way workshop with Shakti Gattegno, wife of the late Caleb Gattegno who developed The Silent Way, and was impressed with the amount of Hindi that he could generate after a short time. Ms. Gattegno defined The Silent Way by saying, "The 'silent' in Silent Way is this, that you don't tell learners what they already know, and you don't tell learners what they can figure out on their own." This is a pretty good mantra.

The Silent Way is famous for using cuisinaire rods, but teachers simply refer to them as 'rods'. A Silent Way module might work like this:

(The students have learned the colors: red, yellow, and blue. The teacher places a few rods of each color on the table in front of the students.)
1.  teacher - motioning to a student: take a blue rod.
2.  student points to a blue rod
1.  motioning to a student: take a blue rod. (Teacher takes hand of student and grasps it over a blue rod.)
1.  motioning to a student: take a red rod.
2.  student takes a red rod
1.  motioning to a student: take a yellow rod.
2.  student takes a yellow rod
1.  motions to student to call out commands
2.  (student) Take a red rod.
1.  teacher takes a red rod.  (motions to student to call out commands to another student)
2.  Take a yellow rod.
1.  another student takes a yellow rod.

And on it goes. After 20-30 minutes--having had no prior exposure to the language--a group of 6-10 students can each give and respond appropriately to an exchange like the following:
Take a yellow rod. (appropriate response)
Take two blue rods, and a red rod. (appropriate response)
Take a yellow rod, and give me a red rod. (appropriate response)
Take two red rods and two yellow rods. (appropriate response)
Give me two yellow rods and one blue rod. (appropriate response)
Take a blue rod and give me a yellow rod. (appropriate response)

Some highlights: There is no listen and repeat here. The language is first figured out, then generated by the students. The students also have a sense that this is like a puzzle, they are 'playing around' in the language. The natural inclination for the students is to further explore the situation, to learn other colors, and in other ways to express novel language. The situation is inherently expandable, and a good teacher sees to it that it is expanded. This is in contrast to the more "traditional" approaches mentioned earlier where the situation is narrow and more or less fixed.

Other activities share in the basic thrust of "much communication with limited means" An example is to take a set of icons representing: a, the, king, man, servant, is, and, is not. From this limited set, students can and do generate in a very short time phrases like:
1. A king is a man.
2. The man is the king and the king is the man.
3. The king is a servant and a man.
4. The servant is not a man.
5. A king is not a servant.
etc.

And like the activity with the rods, the set is easily expandable, some terms usually introduced at the same time are or shortly after include: this, that, queen, woman. Again, the students can 'play around' in the language, and get comfortable with things like language structure, syntax and grammar as they playfully manipulate phrases generated on their own.

These and other methods used as part of the SmartNoise Methodology change the focus of language acquisition.  Many teachers ask, "What are some good words and phrases to know that I can tell the students?” SmartNoise instructors are trained to ask "How can I help students get the most mileage out of the limited language they know?" and "How can I most efficiently help students genuinely cope in and with the language?"