Using emotional intelligence to help young learners understand themselves

Alan Hall presented on 'Using emotional intelligence to help young learners understand themselves' at the 5th annual Future of English Language Teaching Conference in 2020.

Teaching young learners can be one of the most rewarding yet challenging experiences in the profession, but at times, getting them into the correct mindset for learning can be difficult. This is especially true if they are unruly, full of energy or simply not interested. But what if, through better understanding of our students and of themselves on an emotional level, we could get them to improve their performance and grades in class?

The young learner students we have are not only improving their English with us, but also developing their own personalities, opinions, ideas and world views, it is of vital importance that empathy and EQ (emotional intelligence) comes with that.

Through the use of research in psychology and affective computing, we can introduce emotional intelligence into the classroom via Content Based Learning classes, to help our students become more empathetic to each other and understand the world around them better. Grading to the students’ level, research put forward by the likes of Thayer, Plutchik, Goleman and Wiseman to name a few can easily be turned into classroom routines or activities.

This presentation addressed some of the issues in the English Language classroom regarding emotional intelligence and offers ways to improve relationships and behaviour in the classroom along with some useful activities we can use regularly in the class, so no student is left behind, they might even surprise you at the end of the year.