Achieve Unbelievable Goals through Experiential Learning: Monica Perna and AUGE

Article by ROSY ABRUZZO

The world found out about a new method for teaching English on October 25, 2021, and it is destined to change the way people approach studying the most spoken language in the world. The AUGE Method was developed by Monica Perna, originally from Brianza, Italy. While working as the manager of The English Academy, she was known for the online masterclass “Learn English with Monica,” which became a huge success in Italy in 2018, and a worldwide success in 2019.

With her futuristic vision for advanced graduate learning worldwide, Perna founded AUGE International Consulting. This move took her to Dubai where she expanded the

essence of “Globish,” or the type of English that is spoken worldwide. Globish is a variant of English, different from British and American English.

For the past three years, Perna capitalized on an inspiration she had regarding language learning. She felt that by activating certain mechanisms associated with experience and emotions, the human mind could be capable of memorizing and retaining new information efficiently. She tested her ideas using a tool known as Dale’s Cone of Experience.

Perna says, “Knowledge and experience are the two key elements in the concept of learning by doing. As explained in the Dale’s Cone of Experience theory, the human mind is capable of learning both by active and passive participation. However, it is only by active learning, i.e. by direct experience, that we are able to store up to 90 percent of the information received and retain it in time.”

However, experience alone is not the only tool for effective learning. Success also depends on the kind of experience lived and on the combination of other key elements, such as immersion and interaction. That is why the AUGE Method focuses on a combination of teaching strategies, such as method, immersion, interaction and experience.

In the AUGE Method, traditional learning is reversed. The student no longer must make an effort to acquire English. Instead, the English language becomes part of daily life and is absorbed as opposed to processed only by the brain. As a former interpreter and translator, Perna understands the fundamentally important role of translation across writing, reading, listening, and speaking. She considers language learning as a unique “art” that activates both hemispheres of the brain and triggers the “switch” that allows a person to move from one language to another—and back.

“I am proud of the AUGE Method,” she says, “and how my students are finally able to have a completely different awareness of what is essentially useful in effective language learning. My objective has always been to find the keystone that would enable every learner to leave their difficulties and failures behind them and finally succeed in mastering the English language. I have long searched for a perfect formula and with the AUGE Method, I have reached my goal. All my efforts and studies over the years have been worthwhile, leaving me with a huge sense of professional and personal achievement.”

The ultimate question for us to consider is our approach to problem solving from the simplicity of either adding to or taking away perspective. Might our project already be complete, and whole, and perfect in the mind’s eye as well, where our focus becomes to simply take away that which might not belong? This strategy is worth contemplating as a lesser road that few find strength and courage to travel.