HOW AFFECTIVE FACTORS CAN CONDITION THE L2/LE LEARNING PROCESS. THE 35TH SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH FORUM (SLRF 2016). NEW YORK, 22-25, SEPTEMBER, 2016

1. LEARNING BY FEELING: HOW
AFFECTIVE FACTORS CAN
CONDITION THE L2/LE LEARNING
PROCESS
THE 35TH SECOND LANGUAGE RESEARCH FORUM (SLRF 2016)
NEW YORK, 22-25, SEPTEMBER, 2016
María del Carmen Méndez Santos
Aichi Prefectural University (Japan)
mendez@for.aichi-pu.ac.jp
@mariaparrula

2. Index
•Introduction to neuroeducation
•Neurodidactical basics
•A new approach: learning by feeling
•Some guidelines of practical use
•Preliminary results
•Conclusions and limitations of the study
•Future aims

3. WHAT IS “NEUROEDUCATION”?
· Also known as NEURODIDACTICS (Sabitzer, 2011)
· Or Mind, Brain and Education (MBE) (Tokuhama & Espinosa, 2011)
· Transdisciplinary field
· Neuroscience + Didactics + Psychology
“As this term implies, neurodidactics concentrates on integrating findings of
neuroscience and brain research in didactics. It tries to work out principles and
proposals for effective teaching and learning, called brain-based learning” (Sabitzer,
2011: 167)

4. CAN WE USE THE NEUROEDUCATION
TO CHANGE THE WAY WE TEACH?
• There are numerous books to
divulge the technical knowledge
• General purposes NOT for SL/FL

5. CAN WE USE THE NEUROEDUCATION TO
CHANGE OUR WAY TO TEACH?
• NLA: Neurolinguistic Approach (NLA) to second/foreign language
by Netten & Germain, 2012
• School System
• FSL: French as a second language
• Canada
• It is a new pedagogical approach in the context of influence of
neuroscience on education

6. NEURODIDACTICAL BASICS
• The learning process is very complex (Ortiz, 2009:37)
• Learning is change, because it is change in the brain (Jensen, 2010:29)
• The brain records data by neuronal connections, or pathways, therefore, more synaptic activity
is an indication of learning (Jensen, 2010:30-31)
• The brain connects new information to old (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2011:34)
• The brain is changed by experience (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2011:32)
• We can create conditions to lead the change in a learner’s brain (Zull, 2002:5)
• The same concept should be taught in several different ways, depending on the type of
information and why different methods of teaching for different types of information produce
storage in different memory neural pathways (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2011:162)

7. NEURODIDACTICAL BASICS
• Cognition and emotion are inseparable: there is no rationality without emotion (Mora, 2013: 42)
• The challenge of education is to trigger emotions that predispose the learning (Bisquerra, 2013: 6)
• While the brain searches for patterns, it is alerted by novelty (Tokuhama & Espinosa, 2011:212) (Sousa,
2011:29)
• Feedback and meaningful assessment is important to human learning (Tokuhama & Espinosa, 2011:79)
• Emotional memory, shown to be more permanent and influential than other types of memory (Tokuhama
& Espinosa, 2011:148)
• There is no learning without attention (Mora, 2013: 81)
• Learning environment is one of the most important determinants of high quality teaching-learning
experiences exchanges (Tokuhama & Espinosa, 2011:219)
• Active learning is more pleasurable than passive one and this one needs more effort (Zull, 2002:62)

8. LEARNING BY
FEELING
New approach to teaching second and foreign languages considering what we know
about cognition and emotion that focuses on the affective factors involved in the
learning process, in order to: a) achieve the best conditions possible, b) enhance
better and longer results, and c) trigger a positive experience of the instructed
second language learning.

9. Why focus on feelings?
• Inhibition (Arnold, 1999: 27)
• Anxiety (Oxford, 1999: 79, DeWaele, 2014)
• Low self-esteem (De Andres, 1999: 106)
• Tolerance to ambiguity (Ehrman, 1999: 93)
• Stress (Jensen, 2010: 80)
• Motivation (Dörnyei & Ryan, 2015: 84)
• Control (Zull, 2015: 52)
WHAT WE KNOW: How students feel about a subject influences how they learn
(Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2011:145)
• Optimism (Goleman, 2014: 107)
• Happiness (Goleman, 2014: 125)
• Capability (Ibarrola, 2013: 76-77)
• Sense of achievement (Ibarrola, 2013: 77)
• Curiosity (Williams & Burden, 1999: 134)

10. HOW TO IMPLEMENT LEARNING BY FEELING?
ATTENTION NEEDS TO BE PAID TO ALL PREVIOUS IDEAS, BUT ALSO TO...
· Individual differences (learning styles, multiples intelligences, …)
· Group dynamics
· Activities
· Didactics
· Timing
· Attention
· Memory

11. Does it work?
A PRELIMINARY STUDY

12. THESE RESULTS ARE PRELIMINARY
• PRE-EXPERIMENTAL
• A POSTERIORI
• Only some objectives were tested
• ATTEMPT AT UNDERSTANDING THE RECEPTION AND PERCEPTIONS OF THE STUDY BY
STUDENTS
• IT NEEDS TO BE replicated by A INTERDISCIPLINARY GROUP OF RESEARCH
• University students, multilingual classes and multicultural, all levels, immersion

13. SURVEY
• 100 STUDENTS
• ON LINE: SURVEY MONKEY
• 30/1/2016 – 1/2/2016
• 8 QUESTIONS:
• 4 personal information: gender, age, how long we studied together, how long ago did we study
Spanish together?
• 4 questions about the learning experience

14. SURVEY
· Gender: 38 men / 61 women
· Age:
- 25 years old: 52 informants
between 26 y 31 yo: 38
informants
More than 32 yo: 10 informants
· How long ago did we study together:
- 6 months: 23
between 7 months and one year: 10
more than one year: 65 persons
· How long we studied together:
1 month or less: 13
between 1 and 4 months: 61
more than 5 months: 26

15. QUESTION Nº5: DESCRIBE YOUR CLASSROOM EXPERIENCES IN
ONE WORD
agradable (1), alegre (1), amazing (3), amigos (1), aventura (1), beneficioso (1), cautivador (1), cautivante (1),
completo (1), conocimiento (1), dinámico (1), divertido (7), divino (1), entretenido (4),
entusiasmante (1), especial (1), espléndido (1), estupendo (3), excelente (3), exitoso (2),
fantástico (7), felicidad (1), fenomenal (2), friendly (1), fun (2), funmotivational (1),
genial (9), good (1), ilusionado (1), increíble (5), informativo (1), inolvidable (2),
inspiración (1), interactivo (2), magnífico (2), maravilloso (5), moderno (1), motivación (1), motivador
(1), multinacional (1), perfecto (6), placer (1), pleasant (1), refrescante (1), significante (1), super (1),
útil (3)

16. • What do they remember from our classes?
• Why do they think that they remember those things and not
others?
• Have they realized in some way the didactical strategy that I
was implementing?
QUESTION 6: WHAT DO YOU REMEMBER most FROM
THESE CLASSES? WHY DO YOU REMEMBER THOSE
THINGS, AND NOT OTHERS?

18. THE POINT OF THIS QUESTION
• What kind of activities had a better reception?
• Was it the multisensorial ones, or the games, or those
designed to boost their ego and self-esteem, or to promote
good relations between the group?
QUESTION 7: DO YOU PARTICULARLY REMEMBER ANY
CLASSROOM ACTIVITY? WHY?

19. • La lección del cuerpo humano (post-its)
• Role play
• Presentaciones
• Historia
• Versión española del Cluedo
• Visitas y excursiones
• Explicación de las esdrújulas
• Nubes de palabras
• Mapas mentales
• Dulces
• Deseos en papelitos
• Quién se llevará un millón
• Trabajar en grupos, trabajo cooperativo
• Competición de los imperativos
• Juegos
• Clase sobre miss y superlativo
• Ser y estar
• Vídeos
• Canciones
• Cocinar – imperativo
• Verbo gustar
• La pareja perfecta
• Actividad de anuncios
• Tarjetas de navidad
• Muchas actividades de hablar

21. THE POINT OF THIS QUESTION
• Did they feel the result of this approach to teaching?
• Do they feel that the learning process was successful?
QUESTION 8: DO YOU CONSIDER YOU LEARNED
DURING THE LESSONS?

22. • Mucho, muchísimo, un montón: 30 informants
• Seguro: 5 informants
• Sí, sí claro, claro que sí: 27 informants
• Por supuesto: 6 informants
• OTHERS: obviamente; definitivamente; fue un placer; aprendí un idioma en menos
de 9 meses; no solo el idioma, sino también la cultura; especialmente el
subjuntivo…

24. WHAT CAN WE CONCLUDE AT THIS POINT?
• The explicit and implicit work, following the basics of what we know of
cognition and emotion and what neuroeducation has taught us,
implemented as a new approach to teach has positive results on:
• The feelings about the experience of learning a 2L/FL
• The feelings about the proficiency that they got
• The degree of retrieval of the learning experience

25. WHAT WE INTUIT THAT NEEDS TO BE STUDIED
IN SUBSEQUENT STUDIES?
• DO the explicit and implicit work, following the basics of what we know of
cognition and emotion and what neuroeducation has taught us, implemented
as a new approach to teaching have positive results on?:
• On the real proficiency degree that the students get
• On the speed of the learning
• On the fluency of the output
• Are these outcomes result of this new approach or are there other factors
involved in the learning process?

26. AIMS
• Create a trandisciplinary research group (neurologists, educators, and psychologists)
• Focus on MBE to 2L/FL
• Extract and systematize successful classroom experiences, practice teaching
elements, and curriculum lesson planning
• Reconfirm their success with other studies and delineate the theory of Learning by
feeling
• Compilate practical recommendations and guidelines to use it
• Train teachers to implement it
• Develop educational materials according to this approach
• Publish it on line/open access journals to make it available for teachers everywhere
• Design syllabus templates with guidelines for the best possible

27. References
• Arnold, Jane y Brown, Douglas (2000), “Mapa del terreno” en Arnold, Jane (coord.): La dimensión afectiva en el aprendizaje
de idiomas, Madrid: Cambridge, págs. 19-41.
• Bamford, Anne (2012), “Eslabones de una cadena: aspectos que influyen en la enseñanza creativa” en Clouder, Christopher
(dir.): ¡Buenos días, creatividad! Informe Fundación Botín. Hacia una educación que despierte la capacidad de crear.
Fundación Botín.
• De Andrés, Verónica (2000), “La autoestima en el aula o la metamorfosis de las mariposas” en Arnold, Jane (coord.): La
dimensión afectiva en el aprendizaje de idiomas, Madrid: Cambridge, pp. 105-126.
• Dörnyei, Zoltán (2008), Estrategias de motivación en el aula de lenguas, Barcelona: UOC.
• Dörnyei, Zoltán y Malderez, Angi (2000), “El papel de la dinámica de grupos en el aprendizaje y la enseñanza de lenguas
extranjeras” en Arnold, Jane (coord.): La dimensión afectiva en el aprendizaje de idiomas, Madrid: Cambridge, pp. 173-196.
• Dörnyei, Zoltán y Ryan, Stephen (2015), The psychology of the language learner revisited, Nueva York: Routledge.
• Ehrman, Madeline (2000), “Los límites del ego y la tolerancia a la ambigüedad en el aprendizaje de segundas lenguas” en
Arnold, Jane (coord.): La dimensión afectiva en el aprendizaje de idiomas, Madrid: Cambridge, pp. 87-104.
• Gardner, Howard (1995), Inteligencias múltiples. La teoría en la práctica, Barcelona: Paidos.
• Goleman, Daniel (2014), Liderazgo. El poder de la inteligencia emocional, Barcelona: De Bolsillo.
• Ibarrola, Begoña (2013), Aprendizaje emocionante, Madrid: SM.

28. References
• Jensen, Eric (2010), Cerebro y aprendizaje, Madrid: Narcea.
• Marina, José Antonio (2011), “Memoria y aprendizaje”, Pediatra Integral. XV (10), pp. 978-980.
• Méndez Santos, María del Carmen (2016), “Gerora gogoratuko diren jardueren diseinu eraginkorra AH eskolan: zergatik,
nola eta zertarako”, E-Hizpide, nº 89, (en prensa).
• Mora, Francisco (2013), Neuroeducación. Solo se puede aprender aquello que se ama, Madrid: Alianza editorial.
• Netten, Joan y Germain, Claude (2012), “A new paradigm for the learning of a second or foreign language: the
neurolinguistic approach”, Neuroeducation, nº1, pp. 85-114.
• Ortiz, Tomás (2009), Neurociencia y educación, Madrid: Alianza editorial.
• Oxford, Rebecca (2000), “La ansiedad y el alumno de idiomas: nuevas ideas” en Arnold, Jane (coord.): La dimensión
afectiva en el aprendizaje de idiomas, Madrid: Cambridge, pp. 77-86.
• Rogers, Carl (1969), Freedom to learn: a view of What Education Might Become, Ohio: Charles F. Merrill.
• Sabitzer, Barbara (2011), “Neurodidactics: Brain-based Ideas for ICT and Computer Science Education”, The International
Journal of Learning, vol.18, nº2, pp. 167-177.
• Sousa, David (2011), How the brain learns?, California: Corwin
• Tokuhama-Espinosa, Tracey (2010), Mind, Brain and Education Science, NY: Norton.
• Williams, Marion y Burden, Robert (1999), Psicología para profesores de idiomas, Madrid: Edinumen.
• Zull, James (2002), The art of Changing the Brain, Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning,
Virginia: Stylus.