Tomatis Method

Recently I have been reading about this method. I´m not sure if somebody has commented about it because i´m new in the forum. I have attached an extract from their official web refered to the foreign languages learning:

"The set of languages spoken by human beings is characterised by a great diversity in sound, given that around 600 consonant sounds and 200 vowel sounds exist in the world. However, every language only uses a limited number of basic sounds called ‘phonemes’
The phoneme is the smallest sound unit with which it is possible to create a difference of meaning between two words (for example between ‘rat’ and ‘mat’).

As it develops, the child will have to both select the sound elements which are compatible with the family linguistic environment, and dismiss those which are absent from the phonetic structures which it perceives in its habitual surroundings: thus a process of linguistic coding occurs through adjustment to the sound structures of the child’s own language.

But because this coding is specific to every language, it will quickly constitute an obstacle to learning foreign languages insofar as foreign languages do not match the sound patterns of the native language internalised since early childhood.
Consequently, the first goal of any language learning procedure should be to free people as much as possible from their internalised linguistic patterns, while at the same time helping them to appropriate to the maximum the linguistic sound patterns of the language to be learnt.

To our knowledge, at the present time there is only one technique founded entirely on this indispensable pre-requisite: the Tomatis method.

The notion of linguistic integration

For Tomatis, a language is first and foremost a form of music, that is to say a set of rhythms and sounds. Indeed, every language is defined by a frequential zone of concentration for linguistic analysis, called a ‘band pass’. This band pass can be described as a phenomenon whereby the ear is drawn towards specific sonic (frequential) zones when listening. For a given language, the band pass corresponds to the frequential zone which presents the greatest perceptive weight.

The aim of the Tomatis method is precisely to give every person who desires to learn a foreign language the possibility of fully appropriating the intonations and the sonorities of the language being studied, as contained in its band pass. This sonic parameter thus constitutes the fundamental phonological substrata which all other acquisitions (lexical, syntactical, semantic) will be built on. This first phase of language learning, which is proposed when doing a language course under the electronic ear, is what we call ‘linguistic integration’

Following this fundamental procedure, further language work can de done while under electronic ear by doing classes on vocabulary, grammar and conversation with a native language teacher.

In this way, optimal conditions are created both for receiving and producing the words and phrases of the language while perfectly complying with its rhythmical and acoustic characteristics".

If anybody is interested I have some articles more detailed but they are only in spanish.

Greetings

I used the Tomatis method while learning French, and had very good success. On many occasions I was asked “where in France are you from” by native French speakers. Apparently I had an accent, but it sounded more like a faint regional accent than a foreign accent. (I learned French as an adult).

Hi Isa. I´ve answered you through a private message. Check your mailbox.

Hi Lara. Thanks for your comments. I´m my opinion it seems a very good method to learn languages with a correct accent. If an adult can do it, imagine how can improve the children hearing.