Affirming The Language Learner

Thomas Kane examines the role teachers play in helping foreign students learn a new language.

This is my 40th anniversary as a language educator; I am convinced that our classrooms should not be a substitute for sensitivity sessions or group therapy. However, the language teacher is in a very influential position to enhance the learner’s self-esteem. It is possible to create an ambiance where affirmation of the learner is of significant value.

Affirmation
The word affirmation comes from the Latin affirmare, and it means to make strong, to build up, and to make firm. Affirmation implies assent, agreement and consent. The very foundation of affirmation is the relationship of the language educator with the learner. This approach to the learner testifies that kindness is more effective than coercion. However, the approach also proposes that firmness is more effective than permissiveness.

Communicative Approach
It is noteworthy to consider the thoughts of Earl W. Stevich in his book Humanism in Language Teaching (Oxford, 1990): "Perhaps the most characteristically human emphasis of the Communicative Approach is in the relationship, not only between sentences and meanings, but also - and more important - between discourse and life. Students are given reasons for communicating, not just instructions on how to communicate should they ever need to. This emphasis places a high premium on social and mental reality - on genuineness - so much so that even interpersonal elements in an activity, a role-play for example, are to be avoided if they are spurious."

The Communicative Approach, even in lesson planning, is involved with social events, (Ur, 1998). The learners are freed from wasted efforts; i.e. from studying a great deal that will be of no value to them once they leave the language classroom. In addition to freeing the learners from the demand for immediate correctness, this approach opens the way for language instruction that affirms the learners being adults intellectually while it recognizes them as linguistic infants.

Relationship Building
John Saphier and Robert Gower in their excellent tome, The Skillful Teacher (RBT, 1997), list teacher traits which are repeatedly mentioned as important by learners in interview studies when they are asked about their teachers. Let’s look at these traits with
reference to language educators:
Fairness__without this trait there can be no affirmation of the student. The learner needs to perceive the educator to be fair not only in grading or evaluating, but in making lesson assignments, oral expectations, arbitrating conflicts, giving assistance, and realistic goals.
Humor__Asher´s Total Physical Response assures educators that it is all right to have fun while learning. Humor strikes
responsive chords in all cultures.
Courtesy__a courteous gesture or word from the educator echoes loudly. Praise is valuable in motivating the language learner.
Respect__language educators who value courtesy are usually firmly rooted in respecting the learner. This respecting of the student is of the essence to affirmation. Errors can be corrected respectfully without using putdowns, or without making the learners feel dumb because they don’t have the educator’s level of fluency. Praise has to be genuine and individually creative.
Realness__I often tell my teaching interns that they must "own" the classroom. But, by ownership I do not mean power. It is obvious that the educator has been given the power to be in the classroom by the teaching institution. I’m talking about ownership that is authority, not a know-it-all attitude, but truly an author of the classroom.
Appearance__it is important to note that learners describe educators presenting a pleasant appearance with high regard. Clean clothes, good grooming, and neatness are signs of respect from the teacher. Reestablishing Contact__the educator who values affirming relationships conveys the message that there are no grudges being carried between educator and learner. Affirming interactions present the return to normalcy.
Active Listening__reflective listening feeds back to speakers the content of their remarks and thus affirms that they have been heard. Active listening is the feeling component to the feedback, and the listener restates the feeling of the speaker aloud. Educators who use active listening are communicating concern for the learner’s personal feelings. "She really listens to me" is a common verbalization that learners make about educators they
like and respect.
Motivation__I would like to offer you encouragement and appreciation. As a language educator, you have been enriched and your perspectives immeasurably broadened through the study of language, culture, and literature. It has made a difference in your life and you want to convey this to your students, where, hopefully, it may make a difference in theirs. But in today’s global economic village there is a compelling new and more pragmatic reason for all of us to learn languages.

Learning language is not only a humanistic pursuit in which we encounter the great ideas and enduring values of civilization - perhaps it is the ultimate humanistic pursuit - it is necessary for our global economic survival and well being. And you as language teachers have a critical role to play: teaching students to actually use the language, teaching them cultural awareness and sensitivity, expanding their minds to help them become better global citizens.