Translator: Paulo Gomes Reviewer: David DeRuwe
Have you heard this?
“I tried to learn English many times;
I just couldn’t do it - I gave up.”
or: “I need so much to learn English, but I don’t have time.”
Well, attitudes like these are very common.
For Brazilians, as a foreign language English is a basic necessity,
especially for business.
It has become synonymous with survival and global integration.
Can you imagine the stress?
It’s not just in Brazil; it’s global.
The growing internationalization of markets has led nations
to adopt the use of second languages.
Mastery of another language means growth, development
and, above all, better ability to keep up with the rapid changes
that have been happening in this new and technological century.
Learning a foreign language can be a very risky task.
Mistakes are made -
lack of understanding or vocabulary, especially in oral communication.
In addition, competition between partners
or the fear of making mistakes in front of other students in a classroom
can be stressful.
All this stress can cause FLA, foreign language anxiety,
as described by Elaine and Michael Horwitz
and Joann Cope in the book “Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety.”
Anxiety is the result of the abnormal regulation of the emotion of fear,
and it manifests itself in response to specific stimuli
from the environment, body, and mind.
In more focused contexts in second language learning,
it can be said that the fear of failure,
risking an error, for example,
may be enough to trigger physiological responses,
such as an accelerating heart rate
and even what neuroscientists call “emotional kidnapping,”
which corresponds to the temporary loss
of the ability to make a conscious decision
under high psychological pressure.
Teachers and students realize that anxiety is a big hurdle to be overcome
when learning to speak another language.
We know that individual reactions can vary greatly.
Students with greater anxiety intensity
may postpone learning another language until the last possible moment.
Students with moderate anxiety intensity
may simply procrastinate a homework task or avoid talking in the classroom.
It’s anxiety.
According to Daniel Goleman and Richard Davidson,
a possible way to pursue the self-control of emotions
and significantly reduce the state of anxiety
while improving attention focus when learning a second language
is “mindfulness” meditation.
Meditation practices can be oriented towards the concentration of attention,
encouraging improvement in cognitive and emotional processes.
It turns out that meditation improves working memory and useful processes,
as well as perception skills.
It also promotes prosocial behavior and emotional regulation.
There are many studies that show the power of meditation in our brain.
One of them is from students at the University of Rome, Italy
who, in 2015, performed a meta-analysis and resonanace of brain images study
about the practice of meditation.
The result revealed
a network of occipital lobe areas in the frontal lobes was highly activated.
Meditation was associated with an increase of gray matter volume in the frontal lobe.
Mindfulness meditation proved to be a trend in public schools
in many countries, particularly Australia and Canada.
It’s accessible to all
as it only requires practicing meditation to control anxiety.
We know that anxiety is one of the main difficulty factors
of learning a foreign language.
We know how the brain acts on this problem,
and that the practice of mindfulness meditation
is a great ally for anxiety control.
So why not use this powerful tool
as a learning tool for learning a foreign language?
At a state university in Turkey,
a study was performed to find out whether meditation can be effective
in terms of anxiety and vocabulary learning
in the context of learning foreign languages.
The results showed that meditation led to a huge difference
in the levels of anxiety and learning,
leading to better learning.
Another study was Qinghong Ann Cai’s 2017 doctoral thesis in the United States
for the Northeastern University School of Education in New England.
It was a specific program
about the benefits of guided meditation and training with relaxing music
for learning Chinese as a foreign language.
The reduction in anxiety was significant.
Student results included greater relaxation and tranquility;
reduced stress and anxiety;
greater confidence in performance in Chinese,
better learning, pronunciation, speech, and hearing;
and greater concentration skills during class.
Well, as a teacher for almost 30 years,
I am very curious to find methods that help students
finish their foreign language studies with a sense of satisfaction.
After all these discoveries, I started using meditation in my classes.
I guarantee the results were incredible:
Students don’t miss classes,
they come to class with a smile on their faces,
and they’ve gotten rid of the thought that English is very difficult to learn.
Yes, many still work hard,
but they have started to believe
that learning a new language can be more pleasurable than you think.
Thank you.