Multi-million sums are spent on experimental methods at SFI in Sörmland

The method was first developed by the Bulgarian brain researcher Georgi Lozanov in the 1960s.

By involving more senses in the teaching, it would lead to faster learning.

Lessons can include singing, dancing and role-playing and a central part of learning is that the student should be safe in the group.

The method had some impact but also met with criticism

Georgi Lozanov has been criticized for drawing conclusions in his research that he did not have coverage for and the results have been questioned.

Recent studies in the field have also met with similar criticism, write researchers Helena Colliander and Andreas Fejes in a study from 2021.

But in the last ten years, suggestion therapy has gained momentum and the method has begun to be used in Swedish for immigrants, SFI, in several municipalities.

Several attempts to prove the method

Sörmland municipalities have become a center for the method after the Coordination Association RAR, which is financed by the municipalities, Region Sörmland and the state, actively worked to establish suggestion therapy in the county.

The projects have been supported with multi-million sums, but at the same time there has been no knowledge of whether the method has given better results than other SFI teaching.

In 2017–2019, RAR, with the help of researchers, tried to establish that this was the case, but they found that based on the project, they could not determine whether the method was successful or not.

"Happy amateurs"

- We are probably a bit happy amateurs, so we did not really know how difficult it was to measure evidence, says project strategist Kenny Sjöberg at RAR Sörmland.

According to him, it has not been a waste of money.

- Even though we could not prove that this is a better language learning method, the project still benefited in the meantime.

And despite the fact that it is not known what the effect of the suggestion therapy is, RAR Sörmland continues to invest in the method, most recently in the Klara project.

There, they turn to women who are far from the labor market and who are weak in language.

- The students themselves say that they learn Swedish much faster now compared to before when they went to regular SFI, so we go for it.

The students also say that they feel good about it and that they are happier with it.

So we think we see so many positive effects.

"Positive response"

According to the coordination association RAR's own guidelines, the efforts must follow well-proven methods where there is evidence.

- We have so much positive response to this method anyway, so we are content with that.