Psychology-Based Activities for Supporting Anxious Language Learners: Creating Calm and Confident Foreign Language Speakers

✍ Scribed by Neil Curry; Kate Maher

• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
• Year: 2024
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 225
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

A quiet, anxious class can be an uncomfortable learning experience for all concerned, yet it can be a situation language educators regularly face. This volume offers a range of activities which teachers can use with both classes and individual students to reduce their anxiety and increase their confidence for speaking. Drawn from a variety of theoretical backgrounds and educational contexts, the activities are presented in a clear and easy-to-follow format, allowing educators to choose according to the needs of their students and style of instruction. By describing the theories, reasons and events which gave rise to the development of the activities, readers will be able to recognise their own experiences and easily realise how they might put the activities into practice in their own situations. Theories and practices explored include: mindfulness, flow practices, self-esteem theory, Stoic philosophy, attribution retraining, Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and positive evaluation.

✦ Table of Contents

Cover
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
Foreword
Acknowledgements
1 Introduction Kate Maher and Neil Curry
PART ONE Assessing FLA: Identifying FLA and Causes
in Your Context
2 How are you coping? A tool for identifying situations that cause FLA Neil Curry and Kate Maher
3 You are not alone: Shining light on FLA perspectives through classroom data collection Jonathan Shachter
PART TWO The Classroom Environment: Creating a
Positive Learning Space
4 ‘I am worthy and special; I am not afraid to speak.’: Creating a sense of belonging to increase students’ self-confidence Shatha Talib Al-Ahmadi
5 Creating enjoyable learning environments: Student-centred socially motivating classrooms Wendy Davis
6 Flowing classrooms: Incorporating principles of flow in classroom activities to reduce FLA Fernando D. Rubio-Alcalá
7 Making speaking tasks emotionally engaging: Incorporating flow principles in task design Haydab Almukhaild
PART THREE Cognitive Techniques: Thinking through
Anxiety
8 Stoic sayings for alleviating anxiety: Epictetus, Stoic philosophy and the art of cognitive distancing Ian Gibson
9 Boosting your students’ confidence in second language learning: The confidence-building diary Jo Mynard and Scott J. Shelton-Strong
10 Facing worries head on: Discussions for raising awareness and tackling communicative anxiety Amelia Yarwood
11 Positive attributions: Using attributional retraining tech David McLoughlin
12 Looking for evidence: Using CBT-based activities for FLA Neil Curry
13 What makes you nervous?: A cognitive behavioural theory-based approach to identifying FLA triggers Kate Maher
PART FOUR Visualization Techniques: Imagining
Confidence
14 Imagine how I will face up to speaking anxiety: An imagery-focused mindfulness approach to preparing for speaking situations Sarah Ng
15 Rewrite your inner script: Make friends with oral presentation Zsuzsa Tóth
16 Focusing attention outwardly: A coping strategy for speaking tasks based on task concentration training Jonathan Rickard
PART FIVE Well-Being Techniques: Creating Mindful
Foreign Language Speakers
17 ‘I see you, I hear you, I cheer for you!’: How to overcome speaking-related anxiety through dialogue skits with positive communication in mind Dorota Záborská
18 Three good things about their English: A positive psychology-inspired evaluation, building confidence and encouraging learners to speak Katarzyna Budzińska
19 Being positive in the present moment: Mindfulness meditation for reducing anxiety in foreign language classes Nihan Erdemir and Sabahattin Yeşilçinar
Index