Teaching Foreign Languages in Schools - The Silent Way by C Gattegno This method begins by using a set of colored rods and verbal commands in order to achieve the following: To avoid the use of the vernacular. To provide the support of perception and action to the intellectual guess of what the noises mean, thus bring in the arsenal of the usual criteria of experience already developed and automatic in one's use of the mother tongue. The complete set of materials utilized as the language learning progresses include: A set of colored wooden rods A set of wall charts containing words of a "functional" vocabulary and some additional ones; a pointer for use with the charts in Visual Dictation A color coded phonic chart(s) Tapes or discs, as required; films Drawings and pictures, and a set of accompanying worksheets Transparencies, three texts, a Book of Stories, worksheets