Draft:International Centre for Desuggestology and Suggestopedia

The International Centre for Desuggestology and Suggestopedia, was a center for Super Learning of Foreign Languages that operated from 1990 until 2012, closing its doors at the death of its founder Prof. Dr. Georgi Lozanov. The Center's main administrative and registration office was located in Vienna, Austria, and its learning facilities and Centre for Teacher Training settled at a former monastery in Viktorsberg, in the Alps region of Vorarlberg.

Background

In 1990, upon participating in the Salzburg Conference on Education and Mental Health, Dr. Lozanov and his wife Dr. Gateva, both professors at the University of Sofia in Bulgaria, decided to settle in Austria by dedicating their careers and extensive experience in Mental Health and Education to their new initiative the creation of an educational center supported by research and development in the field of accelerated foreign languages learning to the service of Western governments and international cooperation. Dr. Lozanov registered the main office in Vienna, while Dr. Evelyna Gateva scouted potential buildings for classrooms, during those tours she discovered a full building available called the Stiftung Kloster a former monastery in Viktorsberg a beautiful small town in the Alps region of Vorarlberg. The magnificent monastery had been renovated and adapted for communal conferences, courses, seminars, and cultural events.

Training Methodology

The Training Methodology was based on Dr. Lozanov's creation of his Super-Learning of Foreign Languages recognized and certified by UNESCO in 1970, this method was supported by the great experiential and research contribution of Prof. Dr. Evelyna Gateva a psychologist by training dedicated to the study of hypermnesia, applied to learning while sleeping, and analysis of previous related research of Dr. Alexander Luria.

The Center delivered the Suggestopedia Learning Method, commonly known as the Lozanov Method, based on proven psychological and neurolinguistic techniques that speed up pupils learning through the implementation of memory triggers and the stimulation sounds, music, songs, colors, and specific images, combined with acting and folkloric dances related to the target language being taught. The Lozanov Method introduced techniques that included elements such as breathing, visualization, and biofeedback.

Legacy

The 'International Centre for Desuggestology and Suggestopedia formed instructors, at Level 1, Level 2, and Master certifications, mainly participants from applied language studies and liberal arts educators from a broad range of universities from all over the world. Those graduates work as learning specialists and foreign language instructors at main organizations worldwide. This Teaching and Learning Method certified by UNESCO as "the most culturally integral and effective learning method" in Second Language Acquisition, became the root of the better known in North America as the Accelerated Learning Method. The main legacy of Dr. Lozanov and Dr. Gateva efforts in the initiative on languages and cultural integration in Europe through the creation of the International Centre for Super-Learning of Foreign Languages was the eventual government materialization in the European Centre for Modern Languages (ECML) was established in 1994 in Graz, Austria.