Emotional Intelligence and English Teaching
Candy Fresacher, Austria
Candy Fresacher has been teaching at various vocational colleges in Vienna for the past 18 years as well as giving seminars as a visiting professor at the University of Pannonia in Hungary. She also edits their ELT News, a journal designed to disseminate information about new teaching trends and ideas to teachers of English in Austria and abroad. She received her B.A. and M.A. from California State University of Long Beach, and in 2006 her Ph.D. from the University of Vienna. She has presented various topics at ECIS and EARCOS conferences, as well as at other venues throughout Europe, Asia and America during the past twelve years. www.fresachersigle.at , e-mail: c.fresacher@kabsi.at
Menu
Introduction
Self-awareness
Managing emotions
Motivation
Empathy
Managing interpersonal relationships
Conclusion
In June this year the results of a 70-year-long study of 286 Harvard men were revealed in an article in The Atlantic (see The Atlantic Online, June 2009, article by Joshua Wolf Shenk) entitled “What Makes Us Happy?” Dr. George Vaillant, head of the study, when asked “What have you learned from the Grant Study men?” answered: “That the only thing that really matters in life are your relationships to other people.”
Emotional Intelligence is a way to look at intra and inter personal skills. Since 1995 when Daniel Goleman wrote Emotional Intelligence, Why it can matter more than IQ, a continuing emphasis is being put on learning to better deal with the five areas that are important for a higher level of EQ: self awareness, managing emotions, motivation, empathy and managing interpersonal relationships. These skills are especially important in any service industry. Teaching others requires a high level of understanding of those in the classroom and how you, as a teacher, react to those students. Increasing your own emotional intelligence as a teacher can make your job easier. Helping students to become more emotionally intelligent can help them learn better, be more socially integrated in the classroom and can be good for their English as well.
When a person becomes more self aware – through exercises as diverse as keeping a “feelings” diary or an acknowledgement of how appraisals are made – this person becomes better aware of how they react and what it is that leads to upsetting or disturbing emotions. Other methods of increasing awareness are an increased observation of one’s own senses, an examination of one’s actions and knowing one’s own intentions in any particular situation. Identifying emotions one is feeling and knowing how we physically react to these feelings helps to increase our self-awareness.
This awareness is the first step in learning to be more emotionally intelligent and an important one for both student and teacher. Feelings journals can be used by both student and teacher to increase awareness of emotional life. And this can be done as an additional method for students to learn to express themselves in written English. This, however, is not the place to correct grammar and spelling mistakes. It is the place for the teacher to make some insightful comments about the types of emotional content that are being expressed. The journal will help students to understand what they are feeling at any particular time while increasing their expertise at using the written language. Not every piece of English homework needs to be corrected, no matter how the hand of the teacher wants to add those corrections. However, the assignment needs to be explained carefully. Very often the most typical comment I find in such journals is: “I’m tired.”
Students can also learn to express their feelings through role play and drama. They can use body language to help express a vocabulary that is still new to them and discover what physical reactions they have when they experience anger or sadness.
Once a person becomes aware of his/her true emotions, management of emotions can start. However, one needs to be aware that it could be the fear of a bad grade or loss of self esteem which is behind the emotion of anger. People often mask one emotion with another. Our primary emotions consist of: anger, sadness, fear, disgust, shame, enjoyment, love, and surprise. Although we seem to regret our actions when we are angry, disgust and contempt are two of the most hurtful and thus dangerous exhibitions of emotions. Should a person experience a contemptuous comment, it will take at least five positive comments to negate the effect of the one negative point. In fact, John M. Gottman says that when one partner in a marriage shows contempt for the other it is the most important sign that a marriage is in trouble. Contempt is hierarchical, meaning one person is looking down on another so equality is gone.
Therefore it is good to look deeply at the emotions one is experiencing before work on controlling or managing the emotions can start. This does not mean that emotions are unacceptable and the rational brain is superior. Too much recent research has shown just how important emotions are to an individual. It also does not mean that the person becomes very “touchy/feely” and overly dependent on emotions. It means that the person is aware of what emotion is leading him/her and in what ways an emotional response can be balanced or changed. Some strategies include: reframing, impulse control, practicing role play of difficult emotional encounters, visualisation skills, laughter, action, relaxation or just time-outs.
Examples of how students can practice any one of these strategies in the English language classroom can be as different as making up and writing stories about people who are causing a queue to form. When we have to wait needlessly for something, we are often impatient with the person who causes the delay. Reframing the story of this person is a way to control our own emotions since it is ourselves who get upset and angry and suffer the consequences of the other’s delaying tactics. If we make up a story that is sad or funny about the person we can regain a sense of balance.
Students can also come up with their own visualisation descriptions. Once a teacher has practiced the idea of visualisation – creating a place in your head which is calming – then the students can write and rewrite their concept of their special place. They can add details using all the senses: not only the visual, but what they hear, smell, taste and touch when they are in this comforting place. Not only are they using more vocabulary, but they are making this place of calm more vivid and long-lasting as they write a description of it.
They can also look up jokes on the internet and learn to tell them, using expressive voices and body language. This will make the other students laugh, but at the same time the students are working on their pronunciation. Laughter increases the level of serotonin in our bodies and so improves our immune system and reduces stress. Being able to laugh at ourselves is a good way to offset the embarrassment of a mistake from which we could learn.
While it is said that self motivation is a skill that cannot come from outside the self, there are certainly helpful ways to increase your motivation (as well as that of your students). Hope is very important when discussing motivation, and optimism and positive thinking play important roles as well. So, be sure to find out about the moods of your students. Should they all be “down” because of some school project, first address this mood before trying to continue a lesson. Just showing you care and are interested in student problems is helpful towards motivating them to pay attention in your class.
When we want to improve our own motivation, or that of our students, remember that we can find friends to help motivate us to do better. Peer pressure is the cause of lots of student behaviour, much of which a student would not do on his/her own. Turn that around by reminding students that they can help each other to complete assignments on time. Also, through an internet search, students can look for and find an emotional mentor. They should write down why they admire this person in a short essay. Maybe the internet is not even necessary for the assignment. When I recently asked a class about emotional mentors, the majority of the students said that it was “my grandmother” or “my grandfather” or my “mother” or “father” who was the most respected person the students could think of.
By surrounding ourselves with a positive environment in the classroom we can also contribute to motivation. If possible, decorate the classroom with objects students have brought in or with their work. Check for cheerful colours and photographs or pictures of places that closely represent visualized calming locations.
Being aware and discussing “de-motivators” which may negatively affect yourself or a student can be illuminating. Typical de-motivators might be feelings on the part of the students concerning victimization or favouritism. The physical environment of the room could play a part in making students unhappy. The room could be too small, too hot, or not light enough. Discussion of these de-motivators can make students aware that they are excuses that need not affect self motivation. Rewards and a review of previous successful completion of tasks can also be of help.
Empathy is a person’s ability to understand what another person is feeling. Once you are more aware of your own feelings and emotions, recognising those emotions in others should be easier. While the art of effective listening is never taught in schools, it is a necessary aid when trying to understand another. And that means really listening. A game such as “telephone” when a message is passed around from one person to another in whispers can show how messages get turned around because we have not listened carefully. Practice can be done by one student telling another a story with a third student as observer. How has the listening student shown his/her interest? Can the listening student repeat the story? How much have they retained? Typical dynamic listening methods include body language (leaning forward into the conversation and nodding head appropriately), verbal cues like “hum,” “aha,” and “yeah,” as well as questioning for clarity: “Did I understand correctly that you meant...?”
Assertiveness, or the ability to express yourself in a positive way while accepting the rights of your partner to also express themselves, is also helpful in becoming more empathetic.
Also the amount of self-disclosure can help empathy. How much of yourself do you tell your students? I find students are quite curious about my private life and since I can pick and choose what I tell them, it sometimes helps to bring their attention back to what I want to discuss if I tell them a story about my private life, something that happened to me in the past, or to my family. In return students may well be more understanding and be more willing to talk about themselves within this relaxed environment.
Interpersonal relationships require the ability to realise the importance of working in a group. The social dimension of our lives is one of the most vivid aspects of our existence. Political awareness, networking, cooperating are integral to any position in education. It is important to know the boundaries of each relationship and its past and future references. Realising that emotions are contagious, just as a yawn is contagious, can mean we can control the mood of the classroom or other groups.
There are many ways to practice relationship building. Any kind of team work or group work will be useful. But it would also be good for students to have them then reflect on what went on in the group. Did everyone participate? If not, why not? What role did each member of the group play? There are a number of important roles in a team. It will depend on the personality of each member, how they contribute. What did each member do well or not so well? Who was chosen to be the leader? Who did the detail work? Who came up with good ideas? It is possible to have the students look at personality tests like the Myers-Briggs or Big Five Personality traits on the internet and find out more about their own personalities. Looking for ways that an extrovert and an introvert can work together well may help students to realize that they approach problems in different ways because of their different personalities, but that neither one way nor the other is wrong.
Improvement in all these EQ skills means a more successful and harmonious existence with ourselves and others. While it is important that each of us try to improve these skills as teachers, it is easy to see that helping students to become more emotionally intelligent will also be useful in all areas of their lives. And motivated, socially integrated, and positive students are also great people to teach. There are many more methods of improving emotional intelligence and these can and should be practiced. How you integrate them into your classroom schedule is up to you. But if you do decide to use some of these exercises in your English classroom, you may very well find that your teaching is more effective than ever before. Should you like to share your results, please contact me at the e-mail above.
Please check the Building Positive Group Dynamics course at Pilgrims website.
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