Humanising Language Teaching
Year 1; Issue 2; April 1999

NLP - IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK

Bonnie Tsai, Pilgrims

Page 2 of 2

There is a saying in N.L.P. that goes like this, "The map is not the territory." Some people find this rather puzzling, no doubt because they've never reflected on the fact that everyone doesn't share their own perception of reality. Reality is based on what the brain has experienced and translated into a complex pattern of meaning.

This idea of different realities opens up lots of possibilities for work in the classroom. One which, Jane Revell and Susan Norman use in their book, In Your Hands (Saffire Press) is the timeline. In N.L.P. terms , a timeline is a map of your past, present and future. To find your own timeline, you need to go inside yourself and find out where you preceive your past, your present and your future to be in spatial terms. A timeline can take any shape or form. Mine for example is crocked and winding with the past coming from my left side going through me and continuing into my present and future which is on my right side. To make a timeline you need to think about what are the important events in your life. You will no doubt discover that out of these events , you have gained positive qualities or in N.L.P. terms "resources" which will help you make your dreams come true, make changes in your life, and really build up a belief system which will allow you to accomplish anything you desire.

Timelines can be done on paper or in a more kinesthetic-spatial way by "walking through" your timeline. Besides gaining insight into your own life, comparing timelines can give you a peak into someone else's reality. It goes a long way towards making us all more tolerant of other people when they don't act or react as we do. It's just a different map of reality.

A lot of this course was about building self-esteem, about constructing a positive belief system, and about providing support for other people. The approach is totally non-threatening. We did lots of practice in small groups, which I, personally would not hesitate to take into the classroom. One was, The Sunny Side of the Street. In groups of 5, we took turns throwing out problems we felt we had. eg. problems learning a language or arriving for appointments on time. Others in the group would then re-frame the problem in a positive way. While participating in a activity like this, I guarantee you that you'll be too busy to feel sorry for yourself.

Another activity which goes along strongly with the idea of learning how to learn was thinking about something we had been able to learn successfully and how we did it. Then thinking about something we felt we hadn't been able to learn successfully. Working in small groups we shared with each other our successful or least successful learning processes. Then in a relaxed state we took turns taking each other through our successful processes. In my group we were first of all amazed at the variety of different learning strategies we had. Through being able to mentally "try them out" on something we felt unsuccessful at learning, there was a real feeling expressed by people in my group of, "Yes! I'll try that. That might just work for me." This was mind blowing for me. I feel that the biggest difficulty my English learners have in learning English is knowing how to learn. Here was something positive I could use with my students so that they could think about their own learning and thinking process.

We also did what Richard called a Quick Step Re-framing exercise. We were asked to find something we would like to change in our lives. Next we were asked to find three positive ways we could achieve this change. We were advised to concentrate on what we wanted to happen and not what we didn't want to happen. We were encouraged to do an "ecology" check on our work to make sure that we had come up with was morally, mentally, and physically acceptable to us. This gave a chance to see if there was any objection from any part of us.

We created metaphors in story form with an aim to generating change. This is a heathly and peaceful way of handling classroom management and discipline problems, because it avoids direct confrontation which usually only increases or acceterates the problem.

We were encouraged to create metaphoric, multi-sensory stories going through the sub-modalities. This is an exciting way to get students to create their own stories which are vibrant, living, and meaningful, while at the same time teaching some useful vocabulary.

We did some fascinating work on collecting resources. I call it, Someone I'd like to be. We worked in pairs using an induction which consisted of three presuppositions in a row to set the direction. Our partner then ask us to recall a person who we admired. We built up a multi-sensory image of the person that centered around their positive qualities. Next we went through them carefully one by one. It was like "trying each one on" to see if it fit us. We could choose the one's we wanted to keep for ourselves after doing an "ecology" check for each one to make sure it was alright.

There was, I think for me a sense of "wonderment" in being able to choose my own resources. To discover that I already had some I wasn't aware of and at the same time being able to collect some new ones.

On the last day of the course, Richard ask us to go through our experiences over the last eight days and write down what we had acquired we had acquired during the course and felt able to use. In a sense this became at least a big part of own personal N.L.P. kit.

Now, I feel that one of the primary aims of this course was to build up a positive attitude and belief system about oneself. When I realized how Richard was going to work, I thought, "oh, the people who know little or nothing about N.L.P. are going to be completely lost." But no. The reason they were able to "catch-on" so quickly was because the had acquired the belief early on in the course that they COULD do it. As I mentioned earlier they had an easier time doing the practical work, because they weren't bogged down by the "received wisdom" (Richard calls it dinosaur shit) of prervious N.L.P. training.

When I went on the course I had already done quite a bit of N.L.P. I wanted, however, to get the message from the "horse's mouth." I was also wildly curious about this man-Richard Bandler-I had heard so much about-mostly negative. I completely changed my opinion which afterall had been based on what other people had told me. For people who find themselves in the same position, I can only say check him out.

When I saw the manual that went with the course, "I thought, oh no." It was very "traditional" N.L.P. Things I had known about and used for years. However, we never used the manual. It was there for people who felt they needed to have something concrete to read. This was actually a very clever move, because it must have reasured people who weren't aware on a concious level of what they were learning.

At the end of the course, I felt extremely positive about myself, my capabilities, and was absolutely "fearless" to try anything. Almost two years have gone by since the end of the course. My initial exuberant feelings have mellowed with time. The experience has led me to reflect a lot on how I think and learn. Today, I like myself much better than two years ago and I have certainly acquired skills I didn't have two years ago. That's a pretty positive, I think.