A Reflection on the Use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming while Teaching the English Language to Beginners

In all learning processes students are given time to consolidate or strengthen what they have already learned. Reinforcing learning is not simply revisiting language the next day, week or month; it means that the students should be able to activate what they have learned previously so that they can improve their skills. To reinforce and improve skills, many students need to revisit learning again and again by doing a variety of different tasks, and that is precisely what is carried out with the learning to do, know and the use of the many different techniques of the neuro-linguistic programing (NLP).

As a theoretical foundation of the present academic essay, it can be stated that the topic “Use of Neuro-Linguistic Programming while Teaching the English Language” selected especially to be identified, comprehended and interpreted by the students, has its support in the many years of study and the teamwork of many sciences such as psychology.

Neuro-linguistic programming is defined as “a practical skill that creates the results that we truly want in the world, while value is given to others in the process” (O’Connor and Seymour, 1992, p. 28) It means that NLP, if used in a proper way, would lead to an achievement of goals that a person could have set before.

It is very important to remember that teachers are also influenced by the learning styles (which can also be called representation systems) and that not only the students are. It could be reflected in the way a class is given. Most of the teachers tend to give more use to a learning style during the classes. To notice the tendencies of a class it is necessary to analyze it from the “learning styles’ point of view”, write a list of the activities done in the class and separate them according to the style. Are they balanced? Do we have a preference for a system? If our teaching style is the same that the students’ learning style, it will be easier for them to learn.

The main linguistic objectives are that the students are able to have a better learning of the English subject by using the different learning styles which illustrate and help the teacher differentiate the proper activities to be applied. Also, that the students can comprehend the use of it by associating the different characteristics of the animals, objects, people, etc. when presented to them e.g. doing a matching exercise on the board.

Nowadays it is important to form competent students not only at the school level, but also at a community level; it takes analysis, reflection, creativity and hard work in order to develop situations to take place in the teaching/learning process where the expected learning outcomes aim at producing students who are knowledgeable and competent at different specific abilities (reflects, resolves, creates, has a positive attitude towards the English language, etc.), skills (listening, speaking, reading, writing) and strategies (knows how to do things better and more efficiently). Therefore, in this class the students were aimed to develop these competences. In the video recorded class, a teacher is seen inviting the students to observe, analyze and interact with some images containing different characteristics, this signifies that the students are developing a competence of reflecting and having a positive attitude towards the English language when they get to understand it e.g. by doing the matching images with vocabulary exercise.

The teacher then ensures that the students are competent at knowing the name for the characteristics of the images which is the vocabulary. Finally, the students are guided into developing the competence of producing in oral and written forms this grammatical element of the language when they are asked to think about more examples of the vocabulary that was previously given by the teacher in the bond papers that were pasted in the blackboard.

The purpose of the session may be stated this way: every given class must follow a current objective based on the educational needs realized during the daily activities students work on and the syllabus itself. During this class students are to identify, comprehend, and interpret some adjectives, as well as using them in an easy and well structured way. In the very first point of this process students are going to work with the vocabulary they previously studied so that they know the meaning of the words to be used in the lesson. In order to create a balanced ambience of learning, the teacher is to carry out the class in a very friendly way attending students’ doubts and making any clarification if needed, as well as identifying and correcting students mistakes from the constructivist method in which the mistake is not seen something to be punished, but an instrument that measures the students’ accuracy and some of their areas to work on. It is important for the teacher to be placed in the front of the classroom, so that students can see the flashcards showed to them. In addition, all the didactic material is to be set on the board not all at once, but consecutively to the given explanation and the lesson pace. The objective of presenting the information this way is that students do not misplace the attention on something else which is not been explained yet. This practice can also lead the students to think about developing the skill of anticipating contents, as well as building and identifying organizational patterns.

The comprehension objective is probably the cornerstone in the teaching- learning procedure. Comprehending is to give significance to something; based on the new educational stream, significant learning is going to give the population the required skills to progress in life. Students are going to be challenged to comprehend an explanation given in a foreign language in which they are not widely familiarized with and that they might find quite difficult. Because of the elements mentioned previously, the teacher’s attitude must be featured with patience and understanding of the variety offered in the classroom. In order to comprehend, students must feel motivated during the class, that way they will feel the confidence of participating and working on the programmed activities. The reflection of the students’ comprehension may seem quite easy for some teachers to notice; however, evaluation tools have to be included, tools that show students’ progress to be registered in the formal evaluating method. A good way to realize students’ comprehension is through the exercise they are to answer in their notebooks, their oral participations, answering some questions which required factual information, and so forth. Making students conscious of what they are learning can be something really motivating for them, when they see themselves doing something new, they never thought they were going to do or to be able to do, will make them feel secure of what they know and what they can do no matter if it is in a very unexplored field.

Interpretation and use of the English language is what can be placed at the

top of the hill after working hardly in the preceding points already described. The objective of the interpretation and use of the English language is that students use it accurately in a very easy and well-known way. Students must feel confident with themselves to talk about animals, places, people, and a wide variety of objects e.g. starting the description of them with a word that expresses opinion, then the color of the item, then the shape they have, and finally the materials they are made of.

This is the sequence of activities: at the beginning of the class the teacher greets the students; in the warm up activity first the students are asked to write down the date in their activities and then they tell the parts of it one by one to the teacher who is writing it on the board. The students are given a pair of questions about their likes on TV that first they have to read and later copy and answer in their notebooks, oral participation takes place in this part of the class because the students are asked to tell their answers to the group and they have to do it for the whole group.

Then, to give the students an easier way to understand and comprehend the meaning of the vocabulary, the teacher, with the help of some of the students, pastes a set of the bond paper that was previously prepared with images and vocabulary. While the students are pasting the bond papers the teacher is having an approach of this time to take note of the participations made by the students. Then the students analyze the vocabulary and the images in the bond papers and realize what is the vocabulary about (TV shows) and write it down in their notebooks.

When speaking of didactic materials, it is known that teaching and learning are processes which have happened from ancient times. One of the disciplines in charge of the description of these processes and the relation of them to different elements in the classroom is didactics. Gutiérrez (2001) says that didactics is a discipline which studies the relationship between teaching and learning, then, it can be stated that didactics may be defined in two ways: as the art of teaching or as the discipline about teaching.

In the first sense, the art is expected that didactics explains the process as “The practical cognitive quality, the inner skill to produce specific tasks” (Gutiérrez, 2001, p.14). This is the ability that teachers show to communicate knowledge to others, to make easier for students to understand the content they are learning.

In the second sense, didactics as the science refers to “Clear, ordered and supported concept in theory” (Gutiérrez, 2001, p.15). It is also believed that to know about the methodology is not enough to acquire the art of teaching. But, it is a required step to reach that art if a teacher is not a born-gifted. From this perspective, it can be stated that this discipline has two objects of study:

1. The teaching – learning process.2. The teaching – learning techniques and methods. Therefore, according to Gutiérrez (2001, p.15), “didactics is the science

which studies the teaching – learning phenomena as prescriptive aspects of an efficient methodology”. That is to say, this discipline deals with the formal aspects of teaching, methodology and all elements that interact within the classroom.

In order to achieve the main goal of a teacher (build the students learn) NLP uses the three learning skills already known (visual, auditory and kinesthetic) to describe the way people behave, learn and even how they move or dress. The descriptions used for the learning styles are the following.

“Visual” people have a better perception of their environment through the sense of the sight. They can be recognized for their faster than average talking, high voice tone, rigid posture, and fast and superficial breathing, they like the visual activities such as going to the movies or the theater and they are always very well dressed

.“Auditory” people have a better perception of their environment through the

sense of hearing. They are characterized for a relaxed posture, telephone hearing position, wide breathing, good voice pitch, medium rhythm, auditory words (listen, hear). They like activities related with hearing such as listen to music, tell stories and have interaction with other people.

At last but not least, there are the people considered as “kinesthetic” these people perceive the world through the touch, smell and taste senses, they are characterized for a very relaxed posture, movements that mimic their words, deep breathing, low voice, slow rhythm with lots of pauses. They like physical activities such as contact with other people. Actually there are different tests that could help to find out in a clearer way the sense we are related to.

There are two ways that a people can use to learn something. One of them is the conscious learning, when we are aware of what we are learning, and unconscious learning, when we are not aware of what we are learning. O’Connor and Seymour (1992, p. 35) mention in their book that “most of the things that we do, and what we do best, are done unconsciously” NLP also tells us that there is a process of four steps in order to achieve the knowledge of something and not only that, but brace the knowledge so strong that it is considered a competence.

In the first stage we have the unconscious incompetence. It is defined as besides not knowing how to do something, it is also not knowing that we do not know. For example, if a man has never driven a car, he has no idea of what it is.

And so a person starts to learn. Soon this person discovers the existent limitations, takes some classes and consciously pays attention to all the instruments that are required to drive, the steering wheel, coordinating the clutch with the gas pedal and paying attention to the road. It requires all the attention and this person is not competent yet. This is the conscious incompetence, even this stage is very uncomfortable this is the stage in which a person learns the most. And it leads to the third stage, the conscious competence. In this stage the person can drive a car but it requires its full attention. This person has got the ability but does not have a full domain.

Finally, and this is the purpose of the effort, we have unconscious competence. All those little patterns that were learnt in a very conscious way are organized in a soft conduct pattern and now the learner is able to drive a car and listening to the radio, have a conversation or enjoy the landscape. It is only when a learner has reached this stage that he is able to use it as he considers is the best way, modify it according to the tools that are given. In the best of the cases the knowledge will be transmitted to someone else. Having in mind the four stages of learning is useful to identify what is the students’ situation and what is the best action that the teacher should perform in order to build the students’ learning and also give them a motivation to attend class and, in this case, use the target language.

The abilities that a teacher should have are intellectual abilities: it is to say that the teacher should be smart enough to be in front of a group, knowledge of the usage of the contents and purposes of the program, it means that the teacher should know how to use the information that they are teaching and when is necessary to use it. Didactic competences, the competences that a teacher should be able to manage, professional and ethical identity: a teacher should not be corrupted. It is a very important point that is totally worth to be emphasized or remarked because if the teacher is corrupted, the teacher is missing an ethical sense that will not be transmitted to the students. Capacity of perception of the social context of the school, it is because sometimes a teacher should pay attention to the environment or context and get an idea of what are the students capacities. All of these are the abilities that a teacher must count on and if one of these is missing It means that the teacher spent four years trying to get ready to something that was not made in the correct form. From the previous didactic competences it can be confirmed that “everything in our universe is moving toward the values, and therefore, to the excellence” (Dr. Gonzalez, 1999, p. 17)