★ Affect in language teaching

“Alongside linguistic meanings are personal meanings: how na activity relates to each learner’s immediate purposes, overall objectives, loyalties, self-image, emotions and the like”
Stevick 1996

Learning a foreign language entails cognitive, affective, social and procedural aspects. Stevick and Arnold (1996, 2011) strongly emphasize the importance of affect on the cognitive processes involved in memory for language learning. However, very few concepts in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) are met with as much disbelief as affective teaching. We have met countless teachers who erroneously believe that affect in education is only related to helping learners develop their inner-selves. Another common misconception is that it means teaching with no focus on language, but rather with a focus solely on the learner’s feelings. These remarks miss the point entirely. In this article, we will address some of these misconceptions, and explain why you should be concerned about affective issues that be present in your classroom.

Skeptics question whether it is the teacher’s job to teach students linguistic skills and literature or to develop their inner-selves? Others question why Mathematics or Science teachers rarely feel they have the duty to undertake any kind of operation on their students’ feelings, or to improve their souls, in the way that many English language teachers do. These teachers are misled; affective teaching is not related to developing learners’ inner-selves, but rather to help them develop a better awareness of how they learn. It is ultimately about listening carefully to and understanding our students’ motives and needs.

Affective teaching branches out of two broader EFL areas: holistic teaching and the humanistic approach. The importance of supporting a holistic education and active learning through learner involvement, has led to a reform in the EFL classroom, and a more holistic education goes hand in hand with the concern about the emotional aspect of learning. Recently we have seen in several publications the effect anxiety, motivation and self-esteem have on our learners (Gass & Mackey, 2014). Rastegar et al (2012) go on to maintain that one of the biggest factors that cause students to leave EFL courses is tests and foreign language learning anxiety

Affective teaching derives from the humanistic approach, which has been criticized by Gadd (1998), who presents a rather romanticized and old-fashioned view of it. According to Gadd (1998), humanistic language teachers frequently say that touching on leaners’ emotions and inner-selves helps the learning process to become more successful. Even though his publication dates to the 90’s, this is still a very current view in the EFL community. Gadd (1998) goes on to contrast the role of the English language teacher as the “nurturer of souls” to the kind of rhetorical teaching that takes place in regular schools, where learners are taught a variety of language skills and spoken or written genres, such as making a speech, debating, defending a point of view, among other things. He views language as something that cannot be separated from its production context or human activity and therefore, it is better taught by using a genre-approach. Genre-based teaching can be traced back to Hyland’s (2007) studies on writing, who understands textual genres as socially defined, dynamic and flexible; and according to Wang (2013) a better understanding of the characteristics of spoken and written genres can better empower teachers to help learners produce these different textual genres. But does affective teaching really oppose this view?

Gadd’s prejudiced view of a more holistic education belittles and simplifies humanism, which is a very old school of philosophy, whose origins can be traced back to the Renaissance. Humanism is a school of thought that emphasizes the values and agency of human beings, which links knowledge to critical thinking and evidence rather than superstition. During the Renaissance period, schools started having a new social role, due to humanistic ideas; instead of just forming specialized professionals, they started aiming at forming citizens. It is not the aim of this article to discuss this notion, which many may consider too ambitious and idealistic for schools to achieve.

When it comes to psychology and learning theories, humanism is an area that heavily influenced EFL, it is one of the schools of psychology that opposed behaviorism, as the latter wanted to reduce human beings to our most basic impulses and behaviors that could be conditioned. Back in the 50’s and 60’s, Watson and Pavlov, the precursors of behaviorism, considered the human brain nothing more than an epiphenomenon of behavior (Elkins, 2012). Rogers (1994) and Brown (1994) opposed to these ideas. Both authors believed that co-operation and empathy are a very powerful driving force to the learning environment.

On the other hand, Stevick (1990), was careful to point out the drawbacks of humanism if taken too far. Students come to class in search of a well-structured lesson and the knowledge of the teacher. However, in a desire to be democratic, or non-authoritarian, a teacher may abdicate responsibility for content or technique. In this case, the fault does not lie with humanism, it lies with the teacher who abdicates responsibility for the input and leaves it all to the initiative of the students. Stevick (1990) also purports that much focus on the students’ own experiences and inner selves is unhelpful. As a very influential advocate of humanism, he is also aware of its shortcomings. While he is concerned with his students’ feelings, this is not to the exclusion of everything else.

The crucial point is: can we really understand genrebased teaching and affective/humanistic teaching as two totally separate things? Is it possible to drain all affective aspects of teaching and still be a successful teacher? Most scholars will say no. Damasio, back in the 90’s, had already warned us that our emotional life is an integral component of the machinery of reason and that feelings, along with the emotions they come from, are not a luxury. In the brain, emotion and cognition are distinguishable but inseparable. Therefore, from a neural perspective, affect is an integral part of cognition, while genre-based teaching and affective teaching complement each other, rather than exclude each other.
Genre-based teaching does not take place only at the expense of affective teaching. In order to be successful teachers, we should abide to both: the first one, is related to what we will teach whereas the second, relates to how we will teach it.

Moreover, in the 21st Century, in a world in which many of the components that have traditionally held social groups together are disintegrating, giving way to a series of problems of great magnitude, one solution would be to consider education from a more holistic perspective, one that helps learners acquire a sense of belonging. Goleman (1995) talked about what schools can do to educate the whole student, bringing together the mind and heart in the classroom. He also incorporates values as part of the curriculum.
In a troubled world claiming for emotional intelligence, it should certainly not be seen as irresponsible on the part of educators, whatever their subject area, to dedicate attention to the development of emotionally intelligent people. These people will later be better equipped to deal with the problems of modern society. The increase of teenage suicide rate in the last ten years due to poor management of pressure, is an example of such lack of intelligence.

The future challenges we will face as educators are huge. According to the report on Education for the 21st century produced by the UNESCO commission headed by Jacques Delors, by 2030 teachers should ensure that all learners acquire the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development and sustainable lifestyles, human rights, gender equality, promotion of a culture of peace and non-violence, global citizenship and appreciation of cultural diversity and of culture’s contribution to sustainable development. To this end, learners should learn critical thinking skills: these include analysis and interpretation of recently acquired information and decision making. They should also learn how to speak tactfully, to negotiate meaning harmoniously, to read critically and to write persuasively. This aligns with the report on Education for the 21st. Century, which purports that education is teaching to understand, to do, to live together, to be and to transform yourself and society.

In this fast-changing scenario, the Faculdade Cultura Inglesa has also evolved to be able to propose a differentiated Programme in Licensure and Translation. The Course in Teacher Education and the BA in Translation, prepare pre-service teachers and translators to build a better, more humane world. We also offer the only bilingual undergraduate Programme in this field in the country and our curriculum is nationally known for its quality and differentiation. Our students learn by doing and can see theory reflected in their practice as well as they derive theory from practice.

The crossing-the-borders subjects such as citizenship, sustainability, environmental matters, Native Brazilians and African peoples and their cultures, amongst others, are integrated and cut across the curriculum, which enables the future professionals with more open minds, to better understand their role in the professional context and be better prepared to perform in a global society undergoing fast change.

The licensure as well as the BA in Translation, offer learners in the Tutorial sessions, meaningful and relevant experiences, with an emphasis on cognitive, affective, social and procedural dimensions, to develop skills and competencies with a view to leading to a more successful personal and professional performance and allowing for the academic life to better integrate with the practical world.

References

Arnold, J. (2011) Attention to Affect in Language Learning. Anglistik. International Journal of English Studies. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED532410.pdf

Brown, H. D. (1994). Teaching by Principles. Englewood, Cliffs. N. J.: Prentice Hall Regents.

Damasio, A. (1995). Descartes’ Error: Emotion, Reason and the Human Brain. London: Picador.

Delors, J. (2012). Educação: Um tesouro a descobrir. São Paulo: Cortez.

Elkins, D. N. (2012). The humanistic and behavioral traditions: Areas of agreement and disagreement. Psychotherapy, 49(4), 465-468. doi:10.1037/a0027798Gadd, N. 1998. Towards Less Humanistic English Language Teaching. ELT Journal, Vol 52/3, July, 1998.

Gass, S. M., & Mackey, A. (2014). The Routledge Handbook of Second Language Acquisition. London: Routledge.

Goleman, D. (1995). Emotional Intelligence. New York. Bantam.

Hyland, K. (2007). Genre and second language writing. The University of Michigan Press.

Rastegar, M., Akbarzadeh, M., & Heidari, N. (2012). The Darker Side of Motivation: Demotivation and Its Relation with Two Variables of Anxiety among Iranian EFL Learners. ISRN E ducation, 2012, 1-8. doi:10.5402/2012/215605

Rodgers, C. Freedom to Learn. (1994). London: Pearson.

Stevick, E. (1996). Memory, Meaning and Method. (2nd. Edn.). Boston, Heinle & Heinle

Stevick, E. (1990). Humanism in Language Teaching. Oxford: OUP.

Wang, C. (2013). A Study of Genre Approach in EFL Writing. Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 3, No. 11, pp. 2128-2135. doi:10.4304/tpls.3.11.2128-2135.