Dr. Chiara Falangola, Lecturer of Italian, describes her ongoing project on mindfulness and contemplative pedagogy in second language acquisition.
“Modeling and teaching the importance of quiet attentiveness, body language, and empathy is fundamental, not only in creating a teacher-learner rapport that is rooted in respect, but in molding culturally competent human beings and setting the base for a successful foreign language learner.”
I am interested in ways of incorporating mindfulness into second language acquisition, as well as new ways of improving the language curriculum in the sense of inclusion, diversity, and the merging of language, culture and literature.
I have had a personal, very meaningful, and fulfilling yoga and mindfulness practice since 2008, but I hadn’t thought of incorporating it into my professional life until 2019, when I attended my first “Contemplative Practices in Higher Education” workshop. All of a sudden I realized that mindfulness-in-higher-education was actually a thing.
Empathy & Intercultural Competence
Why is it significant? Modeling and teaching the importance of quiet attentiveness, body language, and empathy is fundamental, not only in creating a teacher-learner rapport that is rooted in respect, but in molding culturally competent human beings and setting the base for a successful foreign language learner. Mindfulness is another way of cultivating empathy, compassion, emotional awareness and sensitivity—which are not only the foundation for any inclusive and positive space, but also the fundamentals on which intercultural competence and social justice are built.
Mindfulness & Language Acquisition
“Mindfulness can help students with unburdening the mind, feeling grounded and present, and consequently enhancing performance and communication skills.”
Higher education is well aware of how much stress, anxiety, and trauma-related issues negatively impact self-esteem and academic performance in many students. For a lot of our students, foreign languages are stress-creators, fostering false self-assumptions that make some of them say, “I suck at languages.” Mindfulness can help with unburdening the mind, feeling grounded and present, and consequently enhancing performance and communication skills.
Mindfulness meditation and guided mindful movements in the target language are also a practice of experiential learning: listening to instructions is a way to practice Italian in a real life and applied context. Right now, my high-intermediate students in Italian have just started coming to class five minutes in advance to do a short practice before class (the students are well aware that I am not certified yet)—so, yes, fun! We are experimenting, and I will be collecting some informal feedback before the more formal research process.
Through a mindful approach to the teaching of Italian language and culture, I want to create a positive and compassionate community in the classroom, help students overcome their fears, and encourage them to detach from non-course-related thoughts, concentrate better in class, and engage with course content and in-class discussions at a deeper and more resonant level.
Ongoing Research Project
Given the teaching and administrative load I used to have, I was not able to delve so much into research, but I was able to start being aware of all the ways I could be a more present teacher, advisor, and administrator for myself and the students. I started practicing conscious listening (following models of Ting and RASA, for example), and making more space for pausing, silence, and reflection in the learning process.
When the pandemic started and the emergency remote teaching followed, the question of how to willfully embody and model a calm, confident presence for my students—and offer ways to bring mindful practices into the classroom to ease performance and stress—became even more relevant. Since then, I have read a few more books to deepen and strengthen my personal practice and reflection, taken a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) course at the Center for Contemplative Studies at Brown University (Providence, RI), and enrolled in two trainings (one yoga teacher training and one mindfulness instructor training), which I hope to complete in the next year. (Hopefully, no more big moves and at-home schooling for my children!)
Along with these two certifications, I will review all the literature on mindfulness and contemplative practices in higher education that is out there, and start thinking about how to structure and include different practices online and in person. Once certified, I will implement my findings in courses and start collecting data.
Bibliography
- Daniel Barbezat and Mirabai Bush, Contemplative Practices in Higher Education, 2013.
- Beth Berila, Integrating Mindfulness Into Anti-Oppression Pedagogy: Social Justice in Higher Education, 2015.
- Stephen D. Brookfield, Teaching for Critical Thinking, 2011.
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Full Catastrophe Living (Revised Edition): Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, 2013.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness: An Introduction to the Practice of Meditation, 1999.
- Thich Nhat Hanh, You are here. Discovering the Magic of the Present Moment, 2009.
