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THOUGHT LEADERS .

Emotional Intelligence in

the language classroom...

Ron Ragsdale in conversation with Borja Uruñuela

magine a classroom where students are So, what about the interpersonal
disruptive, talking to each other across the competencies you referred to?
room, unmotivated, calling each other names
Iand ignoring the teacher. Now imagine these There are three interpersonal competencies,
same students paying attention to the lesson, regarding ‘me’ and ‘the people around me’:
working together and engaged in the activities. The first is active listening. One of the main
This is the change that Emotional problems in the classroom is that students are
Intelligence (EI) can make in people. St. James, not focused and don’t listen. One minute of
a language school in Seville, implemented an meditation can change the attention span of
EI programme 4 years ago and the difference in students much more effectively than enforcing
their classrooms is very noticeable. rules or telling them off.
Empathy is the second interpersonal
Can you tell us more about the programme? competency. Understanding how the teacher
and the other students feel makes students more
Through this programme, we help our students, responsible for their behavior.
as well as teachers and administrative staff, We ask the students during the lesson: ‘How
to develop their emotional competences on 2 do you think I am feeling? Why?’
levels: intrapersonal and interpersonal. We ask this when the lesson is not going well
There are four intrapersonal competencies, and when the lesson is going well. This helps
regarding oneself, that we work on: them to be more aware of their responsibility for
First, self-awareness helps our students affecting other people’s emotional state.
to identify their strong areas and their Finally, social skills. Developing all the above
opportunities for development. They become competences, our students are more socially
more aware of their behavior and performance. competent, which is essential to creating a safe,
It helps them to identify their emotions at one positive learning atmosphere in the classroom.
point in time. For example: ‘What is making me At St. James, we firmly believe that by
feel disappointed, angry, or jealous?’. If students introducing EI in the school formally we help
can answer this, they will start to manage their everyone involved to identify their emotional
emotions. state and manage it effectively, so that they can
At St. James, we believe that students need understand how other people are feeling and use
to have an active role in their evaluation. One all this information to guide their thinking and
of our routines is ‘I give myself…’. At the end of behaviour.
the class we encourage the students to evaluate
their performance and give themselves a grade. I had six students who were
For instance, ‘I give myself 6 points out of ten
today because I didn’t pay full attention and I previously going nowhere. good marks and one failed by one point! It
didn’t work well with Juan.’ was very clear that all the activities, mainly
The second competency is self-motivation: At the end of the year, five on self-awareness and self-motivation, helped
we help them shift from ‘I have to’ to ‘I want passed their exams with them get their act together.
to’. To move in this direction, our students We will have more data in a couple of
set themselves goals, become aware of their good marks and one failed years, because a school-wide programme
responsibility in their learning and see the gains by one point! like this takes a bit of time to show their
and losses in their performance. measurable results. But we can see the
Thirdly, self-efficacy helps students to believe improved outcomes in class every day.
they can do a particular task, and students are Have you seen any demonstrable
given tasks all the time! If they believe they are improvement in learning outcomes? n Borja Uruñuela is Head of Education at St.
not good enough, the result will probably be Are students achieving better results, or James in Seville, where he has developed the language
disappointing and they will feel…. disappointed. progressing faster in their language skills? and content programme.
We provide encouraging messages for them so He is also the President
that they try harder. That’s a very interesting question. We need a bit and Head of Training for
Finally, self-regulation happens when more time to evaluate the outcomes, but what ACEIA (Association of
students are aware of their emotions, the we have noticed is that it’s helping a lot with Language Teaching Centres
circumstances that produce them and can classroom management and teachers are finding of Andalucia), has written
then do something about them to change the it very effective in terms of improving behaviour CLIL and social awareness
way they are feeling. Self-regulation helps with and performance. materials and is also an
discipline in the classroom a lot when students In my own B1 class of teenagers I had six oral examiner for the YLs
realise that they will feel upset or disappointed students who were previously going nowhere. At Cambridge exams.
when they get their report. the end of the year, five passed their exams with
26 November/December 2018

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