Blind Spot consists of things you know abollt me but that I t.

'
The Facade or Hidden Area isjust the those: things about Ille Il lttl I hel '
to myself, that I do not wallt you to know. Perhaps I need to trusr Y"U more III
reveal these things, or I may feel that you will think less of me if I let you kn OI .'
these parts of myself. The Unknpwn Area has data about me that neither you noli
I am' aware of. Some may be at the unconscious level.
Now how does the nlodel work? Ideally, the largest area should he the Open
Area in which you and I know a good nlany things about me, while tht! oilier
should be 'Illite small. The way this can corne about is through sharing and feed '
back. That is, the rn<lre I let you know about me, the smaller my Ilidden
will be: and the largN the Open Area will grow. My Blind
give me feedback related 10 things Imay not yet realize about.
As I things about myself with you and you '
develop sorne insights into that are in rhe Unknown'
I I :1
I " i .4. ..
\
All Ahoul Hum.niscic [du, ,Ii
"" 11-.' ;
'"
rI Motiel l{)r Sharillg
I
Humanistic te chniques hclp create a warmer, more accepting climate, iliid
ofgr,eater closeness "mO il!! But how does this corne aboutl'l 0
'. underst:lnd the prol'.!. it is helpful to refer to a model called the JuhJri Ili ll .l ,
Its n\ysterious naille lI'a, coined from the first names of the PS},Chlllllgj , ,, '.',1 1"
developed it, JoseI'll I.lllt and !larry Ingham,
Things I
Things I Know Dorl't 1\:1l 0'.':
The Johari Window Model'
Things
They
Know
Things
They
Don't
Know
"Reprinted from John E. Jon .. 3nd J. William
I
Arena
'-/.
I
Blind SP" 1
"'t'

t'
Facade
""
(lii,I,len Area) UnklH1wll
Uncollsr io ,,,
..
J II 11:> 1''' : "
'1
,
i
Pfeiffer, eds., The 1973 Anrillal " r-
Group Facilirators. b Jolla, Cllif.: Univcllily A"oei3te, (1973). Used wilh I'<rm i;,i ,no
The model is viewed as a cOllimunit:ation window through whkh 111/1111 11 J'
tion is given an.1 rece ived ahout oneself and others, It works this war, I li t re
four areas in the window. The Open or Public Area contains information wlii , Ii J
know about myself ;lJld YOII also know; it is therefore public knowledge , 'I he
I Ii ' '-"ring Sharing ill t1" Fureign L.ll1f;""gr el.ls,
insights wilh you, they revcn to the Opell Arca.lhcrcrore, sharing
and fcedback the Opcn or Public Area increascs, while thc other
ueclcasc. HUllIanistic techniqucs, then, aim at increasillg the Open Area for
, everyone and, through the process of giving and recciving information ablout
I
l.lursclves and each other, warmth and closeness develop as we tluly get to know
ene another. I I
Dut just how essential is the plocess of sharing" Sidney M. ]ourard. .
and teacher, spent llIany years in the scientific investigation of
selfdisclosure, or sharing oneself, because he vicwed it as the most important
thing in the world that can be studied. lie regardcd this area as vital bccause
"authentic selfdisclosure is a way of le1ting othels krll\w of one's self and wOlld,
to sec if thcy approvc or disapprove-and to sec if OIiC likes or dislikes this self
and world one's self." 18 lie saw selrdisclosure as "Ihat cmbodiment 'the
(uuragc to be.' "19 Building trusting relationships anu sharing oneself WIth others
go handlnhand as necessities for sound I
ASSUMPTIONS OF l/UMANISTIC ElJUCA nON : I
Silll'Ply stated, these are some of thc key premises underlying hUnlaniSlil educa
lion which were drawn upon in preparing the matcrials plcsented in book ror
the fmeigh language class:
I. A principal purpose of edllcaliOlI is to provide learnings and an environ
IlIeIIl that facilitate the achicvement of thc full potential of students. I . ,;:'.:'
2. Personal growth as well as cugnitivc growth is a responsibility of the ' ." ", .
school. Therefore educalion shwld deal with both dimensions ofhumahs-the"
I .
cognitive or Intellectual and the affective or emotional. . ::' 'I .1 ' ;
J . For learning to be significant, feelings IIIIlSt he recognized a.ndput to use.! '
4. Significant lealning is discovcled for oneself. I .: .
5, Human beings want 10 actualize their potcntbl. . ' .' 'r; ' !
c..
learning.
'] .
8.
Having healthy relationships with olhcr is rrfore conducive'to' ij .
. : I '. ).
Learning more abollt oneself is a motivaling factor in learning: .f , I 1';
Increasing one's selfestecm enhances Icaming . .' ' I . .' "1:'..,,(.
1 ' " '1
". ' " </ Y. j<'
I J I
II
"II AI" ,"t 11,1\" "1;",, ' tl)
activities themselves. wh ble notillll is tll llI()st f'j"t;[.I I
teachers. And so they mly Idve fe:lls ,111U be teluclant ;liwul this
even though it can be a JeepJr, nlllrc !\lI all. l ..
. Some of the feals bxprt ssed by tcachers the fnllll \ r tltat
.:1:.',
.foreign language teacherl willtake on the role of psychnillgist. It\ c rfcet, ,teachers
"t ... :
may already be ill that r , Ie whether they allinit to il or not. ' yc ;til Itavc \the puwer
.
to make others feel bellcr orworse about thelllselvcs, hut tcachels, ill pallicular,
t ::
L have this power with e,very sentence they \lIter. In usillg sdf;twalcnesstccillliqucs,
teachers try to cnhance fire srudcllt's personal gruwtlr alollg willt his grtJwth ill the
.\-! .
talget language, Uy doing so, they recogllill' tltat afkcJivc !;OJJs ale a legitilllate
;
; .. part of the curricululll. And thele arC certaill I'roccdulcs tn folio", whclI (ullduet
ing humanistic exercises lwhich hell' sltHlcnts fcel betlcr and aVllillthe calISe fllr
'concern that teacilers Illay have. will be cbboratcd ill tit" dlill'tcr tll
help eliminate the basis for those CllllccrllS.
Arthur Jersild regalds all tearilels as I,sydltlltlgisls,whdhn lli
not they know it Or acccpt it:
Every IClChcl i, in his own way a EverYlhil1J.! Ill' dUl'''. (lr lL'al'lH!'i
has .. , a p,ychologiral impact. Whal he On,,!! hcll'lchiIJIt,,, I" ,Iilllller Iheir
and thrir limilalions. lie is the ce"l"t in ,illialion, wldch ra il help
the tearncr to realize and ac""pl him,e1f or whith ma)" hll",iIiJli"".
rejection, or
<I
I
;I i Anothcr rear some teachers ha\'e is 11i;lt thcy IIlay till SUllie ullintclltiollal
damage to students, since emotiolls arc 1I0t :trellS custolllarily delved
Into. TIlelr concern is gencrally unwarrantcd. Sellsitive teachers wililleal
sensitively ill most classroom situatiulIS, just as irlSclisitive lcacllels will be n'nsist
' I
'': .j
ent with their own behavior patterns. George IS;lJ.c illOWII, a wcllkn\lwlI
',.!!I in the humanistic education movclllent, expresses his filldings Ic\:Jteu tll this
:;1
: 1
worry very beautifully:
, I
I .
I
'Ve know or"o who ha'-e Ill:cnlufll1e(\ 1,), (lUI wtHk . It lu'i bl' CH tllIr
; I
" I
(.\
experiencc, wurking wHh Iarrc of ;tt :111 k\cl!'; (If Ihat
""ho arc going 10 Iheir lOll' will ttl) :\0 wlle-tlier Of tlil'), 11 ;1'''
1'1
affeclive lechniques Jvail3lJlc. If a I(a(hn rdJtl" ill J lO\k or "',.)' 10
i
" I
l
his conlcnr . .. will (lUi. 1111 IIIa1ler wll :11 the vd\il-k.ll
I
i
i Being innovative does illdced involve sOllie risktaking, but the nl'l'd fllr inilovatiotl
.'I in the schools is quite pronounced. Gellerally, schools h;lve not
Thc point of view takrn herc Is that building language programs along these lines . ! ".;" combining affe.:tive ex I'e riences wi th the rnin g of suhlct: t IlI;illl' I. This is nu
. I ' ; , . \
is essential ill truly motivating lear nels justice .t? them as human, :,i, 1; doubt one reasoll why fIIany y<,ungsters don'l lind the r\;I\\ftll'lli ;1 \VhCII'
beings and as Individuals , I j I. . ,! things that arc important to theil happell.
(:
. ,
I i
" , I
,
Ii
" t ,I ;'11!'
FEARS ABOUT JlUMANISTlC EDUCA nON " ,i: ' ,! J'
ACQUIRING EXI'EIu/:"NU' IN lIUMANlSnC 1LClINI<jU/:S
.:. !, . ! I J ! I
. I . j' .:! il . I . . } 1' : lit.
,
I
A problem in humanistic activities in ,f0,eign language
i
humanistic technique.1 ale r.ol,d lo r Ihc "'adlcI ."s:well.3l th,c ltlldeot.s
foreign language teachers are largely untrained and blexperienccd In hum, j ,;
expandmg growth and getllllg Irltotlch With feehngl, ..
!
r
! I 1 i ;I., I ,11' I'll! ':"r !lli'
! I ' . .. h
.;! .
'. ! I ..
I:
,
i
12
humanistic
I '
Rinvolucri
I
Ii ' ] Ii
' , I I'I
are, a!' Lliniliar wirh rhe . ..II.-fill of, ,. " this is a
I
" l:ml)' ryplcal exalllple. As you , read .. . .. lines, all over the
I srudenls. arc working rhdir " , .. rhrough kilometres. of
' ?ap: ..... exerCises, wlll'rher rhey. first-year ..... ar 1\,1ala),slan
vniversiries or c<lndidares sirrinkl the Cambridge exams
,vhere ..... rhe world. II :.' .
'rh "I fl ' I' I I t I' h .
e, 11):1Pose 0 r lIS exrrellle y Wil activIty, W lIC gives many
and reachers a sense of <llltllOritarivc: securiry, is srrictly
! ,
in irs narure: ir resrs knowledge of vocabulary, collocation,
gramm,\{ and spelling. II sits comfortahly wirhin what Carl Rogers
,
(19
8
3h
1
)describes as rhe tradirional parttligm of education:
has rradirionally of learning as an orderly
I f' ype of cognirive, lefr-brain acriviry. The left hemisphere of rhe
lrain rends ro, fUllcrion in .ways. !t,har are IO?i.cal and linear. It
'oes. srep-by-step, In :I srralght Itpe, e1l1phaslz1l1g r,he parts, the
I. petalls rhal m<1 .ke .up rife whole. Iq acceprs. only w!l:lr IS and
dear. It deals III Ideas and conCeprs. It IS assoclared With rhe
inasculine aspects of life. This is l rhe only kind of funcrioning
that is acceprable to our schools and colleges.
I
'Strings-nt-words' exercises
The gap-fill exercise calls on till' srudenr to work logically and linearly
and emphasises rhe pans thar go to make lip rht whole. Tr is a clear
exemplificarion, ar ,lcriviry kvl'i, of whar Rogers is saying about the
whole milldser of tradirional educarion.
Vari'llis forllls of rr:lllsiarion acriviry belong ro rhe same, no-nonsense,
llla Ie pedagogy of rhe type:
J'lease tr,jllslale the followillg sel//ellce /irst literally al/d then
194
12 The JJlwulIIistic exercise
adell/iii/ely (rulll La/ill illto f.1/t;lish: illS HEBOS FACTIS,
Ol'l'IIJU,\\ CAESAR Ol'l'UCNAVIT.
Grammar rranslarion exercises of rhis rype arc an imporrant elemenr
in language classes round rhe globe, both ill places where reachers have
heard of 'COnlll1Uflicarive ,1I1d in places where rhey have
nor, for example, among rhe more elderly of China's 400,000 secondary
reachers of English.
Anorher. wide-spread rype of rhar focuses enrirely on formal
aspecrs of bnguage as irs objeer is choral reading. In several classes in
Sourh. Korea I heard swdenrs reciring rhe lesson in slow unison wirh
rheir'reacher: Choral reading can lead to memorising rhe rexr as a
whole, especially if rhe rexr is repeared ofren enOUgh. This is certainly
one WilY to rake a bnguage 011 board; ir is rhe wa), rhar Muslims round
the world come into possession of Ihe Koran, which mllsr always be in
Arabie. It was also the way Roman Carholics llsed to learn rhe Larin
lirurgy unril ir was replaced b)' modem langllage versions in the mid
sixries. I was broughr up in this audirory learning rradirion, and radar
can effortlessly produce acres of church Latin. The problem is rhar if I
wanr to retrieve a senrence from rhe middle of a prayer I have ro sran
reciring ir from the You 111ay need to do rhe same if you
know the alphJber by hean as a sound sequence: which comes firsr, 'j'or
'h'?
Choral reperirion is of course very different from gap-fill or rhe
typical rranslarion exercise in rhar it is nor ar all analyrical or logical.
The aim is ro memorise rhe rexr as ir sunds and s0111erimes wirhour rhe
meaniilg being clear ro rhe learners. What the three exercises have in
,' common is rhar nobody is speaking or wriring ro anybody; no inter
personal c01l1mliniCaiion is raking place and so ir is arguable rhar rhe
learners are dealing with srrings of words and !lor wirh language ar all.
The semi-communicative exercise
When you fill in gaps in a rexr, whell )'ou translare a piece of texr to
which you have no speL-ial relarionship, when you read aloudlrecirel
chant a rexrbook passage, YOIl are nOI involved in one-to-one inrer
action wirh anorher person and so the social aspecr of language is
missing. Some would say thar rhis is as odd as rhinking of music
withour reference to sound. The simple hallmark of rhe communicarive
exercise is rhar YOll are saying something to anorher person in rhe rarget
language. The mosr successful version of the communicarive exercise is
when students arc given a [;lsk Jnd have to inreracr verbally to carry ir
1
95
iIiii'i*tIPIi....;.-.. =... ,. -. "" . ,.
12 The humanistic exercise
out. One example would be: Imagine two students sitting back to back.
Each of them has a picture that the other stlldent cannot sec. The '
pictures are identical except that the second one has tell details missing.
The students' task is to discover what the differences between the two
pictures are. This sort of information gap exercise is somewhat inter
esting and has enough ludic appeal to create a mild level of energy in
most students, but such exercises wear thin when over-used.
A less linguistically and psychologically successful communicative
::tctivity is one where students arc asked to talk one-to-one about
personal matters but ill the context of artificial language work, often in
the context of a coursebook unit. Let us t<1ke a typical unit on the family
in a 10,\1cr level coursebook. The ullit starts with <1 gelle<1logical tree of a '
fictitious family. Often no attell1pt has been made to characterise a,ny of
the people whose names appear on the tree. The students listen to a
cassette about the names on the tree and then the teacher asks qllcstions
like: 'How many sisters does John have?' 'Is Mary John's auut?' All of
the above is psychologically COlltentiess information and is clearly only
there to somehow 'carry' the language ('xponents the unit is designed to
teach. After half an hOllr of this humanly empty sort of activity, students
are typically asked to work in pairs and ask each other aboLlt their real
families. This should mean that they arc now ming the target language
to speak about affectivcly important things but the shadow of the first
half hour's psychological vacuity hangs over them. Often they will
exchange what is potentially powerful informatioll, like the number of
sisters they have, but in a mood of relative communicational apathy.
When the teacher comes round listeni ng to the pair work, they have a
shrewd idea she is not too interested in their families but is listening out
for correct use of English personal adjectives. Though the information
belng exchanged at this 'transfer' st,lge in the lesson could be powerful
and important in itself, it is emptied of meaning because the Whole
lesson is narrowly form-focused.
We have looked at task-orientated coml1lunicative exercises and ones
- that occur in the behaviollristically imrired coursebook following on
from presentation and controlled practice in which the cOIllIl}unicative
stage is sometimes referred to as to the student's own life'. We
,have seen how students may lind it hard to change gear from vacuous
language-like behaviour to energetic, motivated exchange of real,
personal information.
A third type of cOllllllunicative is the rehearsal activity in
which students tryout the langual-;e the)' might need in future situations
that may take place in the target Iangll,lge, such as ordering food in a
restaurant, booking into a hotel or gettin!; information in a railway
station.
T9 6
12. n)(' (JlllI/ollis/it exercise
These exercises have high face valuc, espccially.if the student is
shortly to go to a target language cOlllltry ;lnd is likely to be in
situations. Extroverted students will sOllletimes fill such role-pL1ys with
energy and give the teacher the impressiol] of a buuing c1ass(Q,om. And
yet such role-plays have a lot missinl-;: thcy nre dUlllmy runs, ;the)' arc
the apprentice pilot on the sil11l1lator, not at the controls of a seven four
seven; in fatt they afford their players l11uch less virtn,1I reality thall a
simulator does. Linclstromberg (lyyo:xi) S;IYS of rehearsal activiti,es:
... people learn a Ial\gn;]ge better if their experience i\l it is as
full of meaning and ak rich in imal-;es as possible. Meahing ;llld
mental images cOllle ionly when connection is made lvith the
learners' own world of experience. The greater the cO, I'fction,
the better the learnin;g ... Most classroom bngllage Idaming
activities arc seriously! lacking in this area. Take, for eX;lI \lplc, ;\
role-play in which Iea'rners expected to imagine arc in
no particular train stAtion speaking about departure tlllles for
' imagi.nary trains to arbitrary destinations. This !s Ireal and
mealllllgful language l:,se only III the sense that the picture of a
flower is a flower. I . , I
While the entirely formal lal guage-focused exercises liko t1;e! gap-fill
constitute staple diet of tH9 111ajority of the world's I,!nguagi learners
ftom Hokkaldo to Jakarta hnd from Alma At-a to LlIlla, the Anglo
North American of cOl11l11unicative language tdaching is
to be .in secondary text books across Europ.e, lis illlplc
mentedm private sector schools I'Ight round the world and IS set before
apprentice teachers in unive1rsity training departments. Rivds of ink
have flown in discussions df c(JlIlIllllnicative language teacl"ing, but
meanwhile the tC;1Chers just quietly do tlle!r work
and do not feci the need to c(lter into debates. They do the j04 way
it has been done, is done and he done. I
I
The humanistic exercise
I
So what is the difference cell a semi-coll1l11unicative and a
I one?
' The humanistic exercise is ikely to be lIsed in a classroom wl jere the
I ' ,
teacher has a strong awareness of group process and how th/s affects
l
I I
learning. This teacher will hLe stnrted the course with activ tics that
allow the-students to get to know ench other. This tcacher wi,li re;llise
that the mood of the class to be taken into account when ilhagining
lesson plans and that the sllCcess of a ccrt,lin set (If actiVities can

..
crnciapj' Oil, a group fOllrteen -year-olds have just
come trplll vaulting 111 the g)' 1lI or worklllg 111 Illaths III self-study mode
or scri\)hlilrg d6wn with a dictator.
The.! will he the sort of persojl who is aware she is teaching
forty not a great Illass. She IS likely to be a good observer
and ;11;tfood, empathetic li stener. If hlllll<llli5ric exercise is t,o be
and ac\ eqll3te to t3sk ot Oft1l111lg a new expcnence
of th;'In'se!vc:s, then tht! te,lcher's attitllt must be Dositive, her person
I ; I
ski lls 'lpod 3nd her training
Prcipc:rly hUlllani slic exercises arc; :not fillers for Friday afternoon
(Thur1tby 3tCernoon III Arab world)"IOf course they do get lIsed as
{illers nI liven up cOlllnlllnic.ltive work, this lise is trivial and, in the
long d10, uninteresting. \X!hm teachers lise humanistic activities in this
way, out of cOlltext alld as Polyf!I!'I, (ind them upsetting and
i rrelev;11lc '
In let liS now have a look lat the reaction ' .a class ,of
Anstna,A to a fully pregrated exercise
alllled at offennglea rners tlllency alld li clf-expresslOn practice (taken
frolll Pllchra alld Schratz .
The laid a circle of rope (scven Illetres long) down on the floor
in the centre of Ihe classrooill. He asked ,ill 27 students to step inside it.
As the teacher plIlIed rope in tighter,lil cOllple of students, without
being askl"d, Iwlped the tt'acher raise the rope so that it encircled the
whole group ,It waist level. Thl"Se were the instructions he gave: \Voliid
YOII close your eyes now, /Jicilse? \Vhalever YOIl feel or lIotice, don't
o/)ell YOllr eyes. ) list (Il ncell/rilte Oil YOllr feelings. Gradually the teacher
drew rope in so that all were tightly pressed together.
During the ne xt stage of the activity the students filled the board with
words that described their fcdings. This dialogue then enSiled:
TEAC II F n What "bow louely? Wlh" wrote thlll?
STUDENT r I ... I h,d (/ IO/fe/y lee/illg whe/lwc were all so ...
''' EACH Ell ;., togetha, yOIlIllCclll ? ,
STUDENT J Yes.
TEA CIiEll Illt erestill g, So YOII diellUlI lIIillll that. Did )1011 all have
p()siti/fe reelillgs?
Sl'UIHNTS (SOllie, hesiraling) Yes. ,
T F A C II E It CO llld YUU desail)c your /ee/illgs (' bit marc. Tell me what
1I',1S {! (ls itit'e ,,/lO/lt thelll ?
STUll EN'!' :!. !thillk /I' e were all (lilt! hig !,ersoll, I think. 'Ve all were
i" the .-ir':!!! ,11/,1 Ih e <'irde 11','5 S(l thall a . .. thall II, IIot a line, a
11
1
,,11 rOIll/(III SIIlId, I thill.1.!, we .dllike to be ill the class a/ld so we
are iJ I)ig groll/).
TE A C II E H ElIItastic! rllld who wrote light ?
..
198
12 '['i) e Imllla/listic exercise
STUDlNT 3 I ,
TEA e ll E It What do you lII eall by t/)Llt ?
STU DENT 3 f;r", //fhell ! closed Ill y eyes, I had 11 0 feelillg of small. I
was out, IIlMS /l ot ill, ! lII ea li I was I/Ot ill the middle of the circle.
TEAC II Ell So you didll '/ fer/the preSSllres() 1II1le/)?
STUDENT.3 No,

The conversation then wellt off into reflection on other ti ghtly packed
si tua tions,
PLIchta and Schratz COlnlllellt: -rhe students thoroughly involved '
- noO just cognitive\y but tll1ot ionally as well - and they had the
oppqrtunit), to air both positive and negative feelings' . This activity'
provided ' a Illcaningiul introduction to the next st3ge of the lesson, in
which the students read a ahout the kid" crushed during a pop
concert in tv'lt::lbollfll e,
The above extrJct illustcltes :It cxt rci se level, at micro level, what
Carl Rogers says in hi s overview of or humanistic
teaching (Rogers 1'9H3:w):
To involve the whol e person in learning mea ns to set free and
utilise the ri ght brJin, The right hemis phere functions in a quite
different wa), from the left. It is It grasps the essence
before it understands the details. It takes in a whole gestalt, the
total configllf:llion. It opcrares ill Illetaphors. It is aestheti c
rarher thall logical. It Illakes creative leaps. It is the way of the
artist, of the creat ive scientist. It is associated with the feminine
qualiti es of li fe,
The Austrian rcacher gave hi s fOllrtccn-ycar-olds an experience which
they will IlJve processed in the ways that Rogers describes above ancl
I which then fed illro and cnriclll:d the reading of the target language text.
He put them in a position to m:lke the exte rnal text their own and to
' experience it in lh e light of their own experience of being squashed
together. The differences hetween the rope-tn- rcading exercise"and the
three semi-comlllunicativc exercises outlined ahove are striking:
The heart of the Ilulll;lI1isric is a personal experience and a
group experience in Ihe here alld now, whi ch is where the language
flows from. The students spea k to the teacher because they have
something to express, something tha t has welled up from their
emotions. This is cOlllpletely different frolll rehearsing
language for a fllture situation ()f producing personal information
only because they are ill slructed to personali se previ ously practised
language.
In the humani stic <: xcrcise the quality of the students' language is

199
12 . The humanistic exercise
quite sophisticated. The)' arc trying to S;l), things they cannot yet
express clearly in English and several of the teacher's interventions
arc genuinely to clarify meaning mther than to correct mistakes. In
semi - communicative exercises it is rare for students to feel an internal
emotional pressure sllch that they have to over-stretch themselves and
grasp for language they do not yet have. 1n communicative exercises
most of what is said is easily predictahle and at or below their level of
linguistic competence.
In the rope exercise the fourteen-year-olds may well have learnt new
things about each other in terms of physical reactiom while being
'crushed', in terms of things said to the teacher in the target language,
and In terms of after-class conversations in German with classmates
and their families. Finding out interesting about yourself and
about others is a natural part of hUl11anistic bnguage work.
In the humanistic exercise it is easy for the teacher to be genuinely
interested in the students' replies to his questions. He has no way of
knowing what they may come l1p with in reaction to the rope activity.
How can he get bored with his job if he is bringing forth the
unexpected, the spol1taneous, the new?
In the humanistic exercise there is acknowledgement that the stndents
bring bodies to class. During the activity they leave their chairs, they
stand and move, they crowd together and jostle, they go and write on
the board. \XTith teenagers and with sOl11e adults the need to get up
and move comes near the bottoll1 on a Maslowian pyramid of needs,
which means it is very basic for them and so has higb priority.
The way a good humanistic language exercise works is the same way
many good primary school exercises work, and I have noticed that
primary school teachers arc often natural h1lmanistic thinkers. You
don't have to persuade them that children !lccd to live through genuine
experiences and that the best learning cOll1es out of experience. You
don't have to persuade them that children have hrought their bodies to
. class and need movemcnt. You don't h<lve to persuade them that fun
and novelty are central to fast, effective learning. _
This might seem to suggest th;1t hlfl11<lnistic terlching is just common
sense, which sadly, is not the C<lse. The rlttituties and expectations of
future teachers are moulded by the way the professi o n trains them, and
once trained they can be very conservrltive. I rccently received a letter
from a Japanese teacher who, after tr'lining in the UK,
wants to introduce cOl11lllll11icative cxercises into his secondrlry c1ass
rool11 in Japan. He writes sadly that his students go through the motions
of communicative exercises but that the)' arc still entrenched in the
carlier paradigm of language as a pure object o f intellectual study. There
200 . 1
I J. Th(' !mlll<lI1;stid exercise
. . h'
IS mill
d . ' I' I . . I k'
llig
I.
Ulto
:
liS IS, 111
. t I '
, no questIOn 0, IIltrm UCIllj: 1l1111alllSllc t lin
classroom, and yet he has mhrvel\ous, deeply 11I1mali f<1pport
i
witl. his
students when they meet in the school c1uhs rll]d Oil the weekelld trips
which Japanese secondary teathers rlre expected to particip<lte in ;
Unfortunately, training in L111guage teaching is still quite
limited. In the UK it can be found mainly at International H(J1ise and
Pilgrims, and perhaps the only 1\'11\ program111c where students)actually
have space and time to study; seriously the work of Gattegno, Curran,
Rogers <lnd other humanistic educators is that of the School for
Intem";on,1 T,,;n;ng;n ""Thon>, Ve"",,,,'. I
Criticisms of the humanistic exercise
Let us divide the criticism of the humanistic cxercise into two jlarts:
criticism from within the hUlilanistic belief system and criticism from
outside, ;
A powerful internal critic is Bernard Dufcu who has worked unceas
ingly over the last twenty-five years to move humanistic thinking
forward and whose book, Tct/ching Myself (J 994) stands with Stevick's
work at the centre of the hUIll<1I1istic movement in language teaching. In
a of alternative approaches Dufeu warns of what he sees
as lacking in current humanistic language work (which he calls the
'relational approach'): I '
the relational approach has created some excellent bJ t isolated
techniques. It lacks an o\' erall vision that would offer hprogrcs
. sion for the Ibased 011 relat!onal and lin.guisdc critcria
and accompanied by <1 nch selectlQn of exercises. r urrently
teachers only have Iisolated exercises that make l\P a very
incomplete mosaic "nd very few of them are Jor II complete
beginners. There .is 1'0 progression in the activities t) allow a
real entry into the language and the first fifty hc.mrs are
really problematic. (author's translation from Dufeu r JG:I7j)
I agree that the last years have seen ;111 explosion Qf jcrcative
exercises (for example, Malty ami Duff J and that less l a,ttention
Jlas been given to hO\v to bring them into coherent sequences)that help
learners rather than confuse The problcm here is th;lt, outside the
concrete reality of a givcn gdHlp of le<lrners, it is hard lo define .1hat the
'relational and linguistic criteria' would be. If we arc thil,king of
multinational classes, \+e wOllld have to add 'c1\tural cr';tbria'. So
there is work yet to be done:. ; I I
As for criticisms of huma'nistic exercises from olltside, of the
I
I
.. 201
1 z The IJ/I I/I(l II isJic exercise
criticism is simply inaccurate alld illappropriatl: and does not need to
detain us. More interesling olltside criticisill cOllies from Legutke and
Thomas. These t\y'O authors descrihl-' all exercise from Rinvolucri
(19 Hz) lISCJ with cnh, 12th alld I3th grades ill.l German high school.
In the ext'rcise leamers are each asked to half a dozen groupings
the)' belollg tq or have belonged to. Each person thell draws a shape for
each of the c(ii!rctives and nurks with a cross their own relationship to"
and within the grollp. Srudcllls lhen explain their drawings to each
other.
Here are some of the le:Hllcr reactiolls that Leglltke and Thomas
(1991: 57-8) report:
Panicipanrs agreed with Rinvolucri th3t the exercise opened up
an inreresting and lInllsual perspective on their own personality
and as a resliit could be quite motivating ... However, , .. some
parricip<lllls emphasized the point that , when they
drew their shapes they experienced in parr strong emotions, and
time and again quite surprising olltlines emerged on the paper.
SLlbconscious or semi -consciolls contexts were uncovered in this
way. In many cases, panicularly wilh non-adult learners, this
procedure has heen 'lccompanied variously by painful emotions
becallse it exposed desires of grpllp belonging or of
being placed on the oLltside of the group. The inner dynamic of
the exercise forced kMIIers into momentary undesired puhlic
exposure.
The matters raised hy these tWO authors are serious and well worth
dealing with. However, for me they hring up the following questions
abolIt the groups where they had been lIsed: ,
Was this the students' first exposure to thili kind of exercise?
What did the teachers of the groups feel about using such exercises?
What kind of relationship did each teacher have with his/her group?
What had been done previously to an atmosphere of open
ness and truSt? I
- Were rile classes aware that they wer9 taking part in a sort , of
eXI)crimenral situation? I
Though 1 don't have answers to these questions, i,t is clear. that since
the activity cansed clistress to some of the it was not a good
choice for ; this point in their group process. That learners should not
leave the hum'lllistic c1assroolll in an state of upset goes
without saying. This does 1I0t necessarilYi invalidate the use of an
exercise, bpt it doc;,s point to the need to it properly and take
severqJ fa'dors into consideration.
202
',.I
12 The humanistic exercise
The poillts brought lip by Lcgntke Thomas liuk back to Dufeu's
worry about there being no 'relational' framework that
individual exercises can be litted into. Dufeu (1996) suggests that the
creation of a harmonious progression over days and weeks at the
moment depends on the knowledge and skill of the teacher. Quite
possibly it always will, and we not likely to come up with a magic
formula to obviate [his reliance on teachers knowing their job.
II
i , _
Three areas of humanistic exercises
Whew' te'achers ' work with a class in a humanistic frame of mind they
often find they ha ve three main areas of focus:
- the task (in our case this is language learning);
- the mood of the group in the here ami now;
- individual stuff that suriaces from the srudenrs' pasts.
1
Humanistic exercises can generally be placed in one or more of these
three categories,
Exercises for language learning (the task)
A ' humanistic exercise can have a very detailed and precise linguistic
focus. For example:
I
Pa$sing ,a word or phrase round the circle (pronunciation)
Ask the srudenrs to stand in a circle and tell tlIem they are going to pass
an object round the circle and this object will be a word or phrase. Cup
your hands and lllentally concentrate on the word you are going to pass
to your neighbour in the circle. Get a feel of the word in your mind.
Pass the word and say the word so that everybody can hear. Make. sure
you co-ordinate the passing with your hands and the saying so that they
form one act of careful giving. In turn each stLIdenr passes the word to
their neighbour both verbally and manually. The linguistic focus of this
exercise is on difficult sounds in the target langllage and on specific
intonation patterns you feel the stude1lts need to get their minds round.
If a student gets the sounds wrong, you quietly cross the circle and
'take' the word from the next perSOll round the circle. You give the
word back to a person in the circle upstream from where the mistake
was made so that the person with the problem can hear the word a
I This framework was suggested in a workshop by Mike Eales.
20
3
L 2 The humanistic exercise
couple of more and then can have another go at it. This gentle,
indirect form of correction is less likely to block the person with the
pronunciation problem than direct correction would.
Comparing sub-routines (present simple first and third persons)
Ask each student to think of the last seven things they typically do
before leaving their house or flat. Ask them to write these down, helping
them with vocabulary when necessary. Now ask them to bring to mind
a person they know well, a family member or a close friend. Ask them
to write down the last seven things that they think this person docs
before leaving their house or flat.
The students now work in groups of three comparing the sub
'routines. Sometimes they are struck by differences in sub-routine
between themselves and the other person the)' have chosen. As they read
out their sentences to each other they arc practising very precise
grammar points (first and third persons singular, present simple).
\XThat I am stressing here is that a skilled teacher can usc humanistic
exercises to work on nitty-gritty aspects of the language. This teacher
can be just as strictly 'on task' as her colleagues working with gap-fills
or with communicative exercises. The difference lies in the human
dimension. In the two exercises above, the students arc relating to each
other in a whole person way, in the first one very physically and in the
second one more verbally. In the first exercise the symbolic aspect is
very powerful, as the students arc carefully giving ant! receiving nuggets
of the target language.
Exercises that work on the here and now of the group
Sioce teachers working will have warmed-up students in
their care, it makes sense to keep a close eye on the weather in the
group. The teacher needs to know where they arc and something of
how they feel. Is this a honeymoon period in which everyhody is getting
on well with other people or arc some people moving towards storm? Is
the group in a post-storm period when of the anger and frustration
participants have experienced has blown itself alit? J want to lCJok at
one exercise that helps the teacher gauge the mood people arc in and
another that modifies the war the group members are feeling.

Weather forecasting
Ask students to think of themselves as <1 weather system and to prepare
to express their 'here-and-now' mood in a meteorological metaphor.
. ';:: .....
12 The /JII1110lI;stici exercise
Also ask them to give a weather forecast for the rcst of the Jay. One
student might say: 'There a mist everywhere this mom:pg \ith
patches of fog. It is cold and there is 110 wind. Later in the day there will
be a breeze and the sun wi II cdme out'.
This short exercise gives teacher a fair idea of how people feel at
the moment and participants offer information about
themselves in this type of metaphorical activity that takes on consider
able significance later in a course. [t goes without saying that the
teacher's focus is on taking in the plethora of illformation the exercise
throws up and on retaining at least some of it for possible usc later in
the course.
Breathing in rhythm
Everybody is seated in a circle so ther can sec each other. Ask one
person to notice their breathing but not to change it. Ask this person to
follow their own breathing by raising and lowering a hand. Ask every
body in the circle to raise and lower their own hand in rhythm with the
first person. This person then looks at the person 011 their left who takes
over the breathing leadership, raising and lowering their hand in
rhythm with their own breathing. Everybody follows the second leader
and so on round the group. (If ,you have more than 15-16 students, it is
good to have two or more circles working simultaneously as it is hard
work following the breathing of even ten other people.) I
This exercise from Bernard Dufell is a J1larvellous one to help create
or to celebrate harmony in a group. If the group mood is not for
harmony, the exercise is a usdful catalyst for the start of a period of
storming. If people are feeling angry, then a 'togetherness' activity of
this depth brings them to a poi,'1t where they need to interrupt 'task' and
really speak about at least some or what is on their mind. (Since 'task' is
language learning, tbe of their frustrations vii' the target
language will be one of the mbst valuable language exerciJes ()n their
course. There is no question of trehearsal' here.)
Exercises that work on things ifrom people's pasts
\Vhenever a teacher walks into Lclass with )0 participants, she f[lues 30
'here-and-nows' and also )0 t omplex, walking histories.
those histories will be conditiobing what is really happening wIlen the
student and the teacher think tlley arc 011 usk. Let me offer a cbncrete
and technical example. Sergei was <1 Baltic shipping ngent I
taught one-to-one. He told 11e that we had ten afternoons lover :l
fortnight) to try to solve hi, .vriting problem. As a speaker Ill. tvas an
I .' I _
20
5
20
4
L! TIJe IJlllIJallistic exercise
able upper imermcdiate; as a writer he W,IS a hesitant, foot-tapping,
lower intermediate mess. As we worked, it became apparent to Sergei
that he had a silllilar problem in his native Itllssian and that he could
now link db with a mother tollgue teadlCr he had had in middle
school. She disliked him, put him dOWII, . punished him and gave him
unfair marks. (He ched:ed this out by cop)'ing a classmate's composi
tion verbatim: she gave him a D and the classmate an A!) It wa's
clear that Sergei's linguistic past was obstrLlctillg his present like a blood
clot blocking ail artery. The hurrful teachr had broken the linle boy's
confidence in himself in this area. She had efficiently created a problem
where there had been Ilone, and the prilblem had stayed with him.
(Fortunately, Sergei left after tha t fortnight writing fluent faxes in
E"gli,".)1 .1
Dealing with projections
This is a"l exercise that is usdul near the of a group's life to
bfing things from the participants' pasr which can get in the way of
their mbeting each other effectively. I
.\ large soft ball to class and put [in the middle of the circle.
Tell peOI)\p. to look around the group and see if anybody here reminds
, I I .
them 0r' lallybod)' they have kllown pre\ lOusly. When a person sees
someolle iIi the group who is like someone they already know, they pick
up . the jll!lil,' throw it to. the person say: 'yon ,remind me of ...
because :! .' and yon are lhfferenr from ... \ .
l
In a of 20 people usually betwt'ell SIX and tell people WIll have
they feci able [0 share and rI ese will tend to be positive
ones. exercise, if it is IIsed early in t\1 life of a group, will nor be
imponal1f in itself. Irs importance lies iry giving people permission to
think :Ml\ talk ahout projectioll. Often snhlellts become aware of much
more and serious projections d'\>'IS this little exercise has
been dpny In class. In one case, we (lid exercIse on the first Tuesday
of a t\vo-\veek cOllfse. On the Friday of tll1t , week Charlie told me that
he halL II,\'V finally disentangled me in hi;;, 111ind from a theatre director
I him of. This 111,1 n was a he both respected and
loathed, ,and I looked like him, moved him and spoke like him!
Charlie fclt a lot more comfortable in b1Y class once he had really
prised 111'); image away from the other mah's in his head. Sorting LIS Ollt
melltallY\j tumed a conceivably painful c9!1l'se into a good course for
Charlie. II
After experiences like this, when I meet a new group, I am
acutely ,lware that l <1m meeting X nllmbcr of 'here-and-nows' but also
X of walking histories. I ignore these latter at my peril.
., 1
206 i'
12 TIJe /il/manistic exercise
Where do humanistic activities come from?
Opponents of the humanistic trend in Llnguage teaching will tell you
that a teacher goes on <1 couple of rherapy weekends and brings some
dangerous techniques b:lck to her class which she then uses recklessly
and fecklessly with her stllden. To support this poillt of view they will
tell you that son]e of the techniques by humanistic writers are taken
straight from therapy and could very dangerous in the hands of an
unskilled person. (So, incidentally, could a breadknife.)
Actually, the sources of the humanistic exercise are many and varied.
Some activities come from a te<1cher looking with fresh eyes at an age-old
area, like, sa y, dictatioll. Some exercises come from identifiable feeder
fields, ' like drama trailling. Some are devised in response to a student
need that the teacher does not yet have a tool for in her kithag. She forges
a new instrument to cope with the stlldent need. Some activities arise
from ordinary life experiences ill which the teacher suddenly sees the
beginning of a useful exen:ise. Lel ll1e start with this last category.
I
Exercises that come from life experience
Imagine a train going Ollt of LOIlJOIl: four twO and two, facing
each mher. Seth and I rook Ihe tWO aisle scats. A young man with his
head shaveJ, smelly socks and a kitbag lay sprawled over the two seats
next to the window. It took hinl five minutes to l110ve his dirty boot
over, away frol11 my elbow. As the lrain swayed through the suburbs I
built up a truly ferocious mental caricature of this clearly undesirable
individu:ll. All my stereotyping alld raci:dist mental machinery was
working overtime. After about twellty minutes he straightened himself
up and very skilfully picked up on something I had said to Seth ten
minutes before. I liked his voice immediately, and very soon Seth and I
were in full conversation with him. My absurd, negative first impression
down the plug hol e like barhwater. From this experience and
from discussion with colleagues comes this exercise that could be used
in the first five hours of a group coming togerher.
For this exercise the teacher tells the studenrs of a time when she had
a very wrong first impression of someone, which could he positive or
negatiye. The students then think of ,I time when either the)' got a
wrong first impression of someOne or someone got a wrong first
impression of them. They work on this in threes. The teacher then
rounds off the exercise by giving om a text on wrong first impressions.
I
Though apparentl)' abollt the past of people in the learning group,
this activity is really foclised on thc here-and-now of the group, as
people try to sort out their first impressions of each other.
,i
I
j
20
7
12 The humanistic exercise
Exercises devised in response to student nec(}
A good example of a whole set of exercises that wa s motivated by
student need is Letters (Uurbidge, Gray, Levy ;1I1d Rinvolucri 1996).
The authors of this book worked intensively with Japanese second and
fourth year university students and found that these young women
could express themselves Illuch better on the page than they could
orally. Writing letters to them, receiving letters from them and getting
them to write letters to each other was a perfect way of getting them to
usc the English that they knew in the channel that felt IllOSt comfortable
to them. Once their confidence had been built up this way, it was
possible to help them to make the transition to meaningful oral
communication. \'V'ith these students it was certainly a case of their
written fluency leading them later to oral fluency. Without the initial
. oral silence and relative written el oquence of those Gifu students, the
useful exercises in Letters might never have been devised.
Exercises that come from feeder fields
Andrew Wright, Don Byrne, Ahn Maley and !llan Duff were probably
among the first EFL teachers to over ideas from other fields to
enrich their language teaching. These pioneers, working in the 60S and
70S, launched the resource hook genre in EFL., a category of book
which has been the vehicle for the transmission of humanistic ideas and
exercises for the last thirty years. There arc many streams that feed the
language teaching lake. Here arc a few of them:
Drama
Alan Maley and Alan Duff, drawing heavily on Viola Spolin's work,
brought a whole range of drama and ;lctor training techniques into EFt.
their book, Drama Tecfmiqlfes ;'1 La17glfage Teachil7X (.1982), js -an
. excellent source of humanistic activities.
Psychodrama
to
Bernard Dufeu has dra \Vn on the work of Jacob Moreno and Willy
Urbain to create a completely new approach to teaching beginners:
Linguistic Psychodramaturgy. This is the most complex and
complete approach to teaching adult beginners yet conceived. It is
packed with frames and activities that can be used in language tcaching
without necessarily buying the whole approach. Among the main
techniques brought across from psychodrama and Gestalt are the ideas
208
......
J J. The humanistic exercise
of role-reversal and doubling. In role-revcrsal, Person A takes all the
, .
role of Person B when playing Ollt :I scene, :lnd, reciprocally Persall 13
acts out the part of Person A. In doubling, Person A gocs behind Person
B and tries to speak on Irs behalf, expressing things she thinks B mi ght
want to say but can't. Thcke have now been lIsed by many writers of
humanistic language teaching exercises. I
, I
In the same way that voice icarries the primary expression of language,
its oral form, h:lndwriting tarries its secondary expression, the written
form. Some ideas culled !from graphology have appeardd in EFL
magazines, but there is much to be learnt and from this
largely French-dominated fibld.
I
I'
,
,
,
Maths
I
I
The Silent Way and the wl\ dle of Gattesno's thinking about [bngu;'Ige
springs directly fromma t hFl1latical thinking. All the
semantically free sentencei naniPulation exercises, which dr' ;so dif
ferent from gap-fills, cOllle ft olll the area of mathematical rqativity.
(See Rinvolucri 19
8
4, sectio 1[2.) I'. l
Neuro-Linguistic Program ing I I
: \ I
i A gmw;og body of Efl ,Ihm h", "k", ;0;,;,1 ",;oin, , . "'"" h.
I
NLP and have turned bf its rich range of exercises to language
!' teaching usc. NLP is still a jdpidly developing field and we so far
only seen the beginnings of IIsiadaptation to langu:lge ends.
I
,
t
j
The above listing of feeder Leas is by no Illeans bU it shows
some of the pastures in adventurous language teachers , have
grazed. My hunch is that borrowings <lnd adapt:ltions of the past
tWenty-five years have been[so fruitful that Illany more feeder fields not
yet approached will be pressed into EFL service over the first twenty
years of the twenty-first century. .
,- ' I
Exercises that come from anew look at an old area
I I
In the 80S John Morgan ;1I1d I stumbled on the f<lct that when we told
stories to language students, SOllie of them responded with d depth of
feeling we did not at first understand. I remcmber an Italian business
\
man who stopped me telling Little Red Riclinghood at the point where
209
,: .
t
1
'/ I .. I .
12 Je )/(I11Gmstlc exerr se
the little girl says 'wh1a r big teeth YOll've got!' 'Basta!' He shouted. He
later explained that Ij i1 three-year-old lLlllghtcr stoppe:cl him at this
point in wide-eyed anticIP.ator)' terror. For ;In instant he seemed to have
become a cop)' of tljc j little girl in a 5;11e and linguilstically useful
regression. \'(/e were comers to the <1ge-old tradition
l
of oral story

telling and the book did (Ollce lJ/)()/1 G Tillie, Morgan and
Rinvolucri 19H3) h<1S been lIscful to nwny language teachers who
wanted to look at the ol!d with new eyes, first ours ;lIld t1,en theirs. The
great thing about a new look at sOIllcthillg vcry ol'd and familiar
i, ,n"l" '" g' i"'indY""p,.",,," ",.I exdt'''g. I
i
The future of humanistic language teaching
I have happity poured Ill)' professi (lIIal life so far into <1ctive participa
tion in the humanistic language teaching 1lI0Velllent, a movement
parallel to work in other fields StIch as cnl11l1lullity architecture and to
the thinking of divorce lawyers who push their clients towards reconci
liation rather than litigation. All these human-sensitive ventures partici
pate in a new outlook that is evident in a growing number of areas. My
own belief in the righrness of the hUIll,l1listic approach to language
It:amers grows flrmer fmm year to year. And yet I know that the
rt:sollrce book genre, the nuin print carrier of these ideas, still only
reaches a tiny minority of tllc language teaching professionals.
For me the big question is how to reach the great Illajority of language
teachers (Jut there beyond the relatively limited realm of the commu
nicative approach. How do we also reach the choral readers, the gap
fillers and the grammar-translators in the huge countries of the East and
the SOllth?
Perhaps one way is to accept the llletlHldlllogy that is so normal in
their societies that they do n()t relllotely see it as a methodology, as a
matter of choice, hut rather as a given, a part of nature. If this
hypothesis is correct, then a good way for humanistic methodologists to
move at this point would be to set themselves the task of humanising
whatever tcaching is being done - for' example
so that it becomes more of a whole person acti vity. The humanistic
frame of mind can inform ,1I1y technology of language teaching, for it is, /
above all, a question of attitude, which can he embodied in mallY types
of exercises that show concern for the whol'e learner. This might be an
effective way to usher ill a much greater predominance in the future of
humanistic language tcaching.
210
EXERCISE 45. NAMES PEOPLE PLAy6
Purposes:
Affective-
To enable students to develop greater sensitivity into how classmates
feel about their names and what they arc called "
Linguistic-
To practice the vocabulary of feelings and structures related to giving
one's name, for example, "My name is ... " and "1 used to be
called ... "
Levels: Intermediate to advanced
Size of groups: Three to six, depending on the amoun t of time available
Procedures: Inform the students that they are going to discuss a topic about which
they probably have many feelings. You could introduce the topic in this way:
___"All of us were gi'Jena first name when we were born. We had no chQicej"L-__ ______
this name. Yet this name represents us, stands for us, identities us. When people
say this name, we respond to it.
"T!l!nk your nam>! and any nicknames YCll ever have been caned.
in your ?rour h'ow you fed about YL1ur first name and any nicknames you
have been given during your life."
Stal't Ollt by sharing your feelings about your own first name and any
-that you given at any time. Arter the small groups have discussed " .
tlte topic, ask Cor a few volunteers to share their feelings about their given names
and llicknaml!s before the total class.
in the phase of this tell the students to imagine that they
can select ,111\' tii';t name they want for themselves, but they cannot keep their
rrcscnt n:.;rllL' t\"k them io decide: what they would [hemselves and why. Let
the cbss knov,' what nallie you would select and why, to start off the activity.
Ha ve a !e\v slurd before the total class once the small groups finish t e i-r - -----------
exchange. COIlLidue by \Vllat they learned t themselves or others
regarding
CoInIII ell [s: Sl t s finJ lhi a personally in teres t ing topic to discuss. I f they are
suft1cicntly Jllle [el express themselves in 'the target language, they may wish to
spend more tl!l1e discussing this topic than you project it will take. If you wish to e
shorrer: the lime spent on the activity, keep tile groups smaller. You can ask
students to write about this topic before it is uiscussed to help prepare them for
their As a i'ollow-up activity, stuuents can be asked to write what
they learned lhou
t
, thermel'les and rfla'.:d to :he _________
EXERCISE 43. SAY IT WITH YOUR HANDS4
i
I
Purposes:
Affective
.,
i
To explore how fcdings can be communicated non verbally
For fun
I
Linguistic-
i
To practice the vocabulary of feelings
Levels: All levels
Size ofgroups: Dyads
Pwcedures: This ac ti vity can be lIsed at any time, but it is good as a warm-up when
the class is just getting acquainted. It also can be useful as a light exercise dealing
wi th feelings.
Tell the students that we show our feelings in diffe rent ways. Our eyes, the
expressions on our faces, our posture, Ollr gestures all rev eal how feel.
Ask the students to close their eyes as they are goi ng to try to express so me
feelings by means ot" their hands. Each stude nt should have a you
mention a particular feeling, thc students will take the hands of their partner in a
way that communicaks that feeling. Request that there be no talking and that
they keep their eyes closed .
Then one at a time tell the students to express a number of con tr asting
feelings to each other by means of their hands. are some sllggestions:
timidit y anger
domi nance playfulness
friendliness tenderness
Then have the student s open tlteir eyes and disc:uss with their partners:
103 Carir:::; and Sharing in the FOleign Language Cbss
1. Whic:h fcclill W'.lS tl,e II} communicate and why?
2. Which fee lin g was the hardest to communicate Jnd why?
], [low did it feci to COI!l!llu ni cate thi s way?
4. Think of tw o other t"eelings and close your eyes again to communicate
the m.
5. Think of two more feelings and communi ca te these with your eyes
Were there any difl"ciences between expressing YO,Uf feelings with your open
and closed?
. ,.
If you wish te continll e til e ask the students to suggest same
feelings to do. YOli als,) can ask which of the feelings the cla ss as a whole found
tile easiest and the !wrdcst to cl(prcss and why.
1
I
J
;/
......"..
:E Cl>

Cl>
!'! 3
... 0
to,} co n'
..... ::r
"0 ::I .,. ....
"0 n
" '< 0

'" " VI '"
c ..,
=+.
- ::r
':}.
('J;
n
'0 ...
o
::r '-. ';"" C
E.g

c:
f:.:
no
Q.. =. !J.
..,
g 5' n
VI '< Cb
I.r. !:!.. '"
t.:
-'l
r n:
v.
::. c

r. ::I '"
g v; <:
n
J.;.: t.J
v.
v;-::I
Q :E
<t
::;: ..,
:-.:.
5
n :.r.
0.
G C)
,..., ::;
o
c

!:!..
0..'<

..
::T
;;! ,,'
iii'
g

c


::I
0..
."" ::r
VI no
C
""
co

I
!
EXERCISE 4(1 . SENSE APPEAL I ,
Purposes: I I
AfCl ctive- '
I To become mo re of uppealing in the environment ,
To lake nOle of what is pleasing (U ont!'s renses and to share that
ple,asllfc 1 I I
I 1"1111,1 i'
Tll practice lhiar, Sill"" kcl, and touch, which
relate to Ihe t1ve sch's es
'I'll raclin: II,e v()cail\I!,IJY 'rl' kelill!:> iiJl( r lllllS
Levels: Alllc'Iels, with vocabulary help (or the begilll ing level
, ' I
Size ofgroups: I balt :' five I
lIee'/tf: Comple\ion of Ihe ass gnment by who will bring in a
ariety ,)f
I
IJ "
I'ro/'elitlle,\': B"III" "i' 10) II,c :1",II(III1ICIII III":
I 'There i\rQmallY I"iugs ill the cnVirUJlIll<:lIt Ihal re very pleasing us,
! ometimes we rle not wllsdously ilwarC of what theSn e\ements are. In some way
I'I
l
I
,All Abuut (he Exercises III
they appeal to at least one of our swses. cau ,ask the studcnts what ,the five
senses arL',) ,
"We are going to explore our and think ablll!t (he many things that
,plcus\! each of thell!. AI h,illlC Illllig!rl wrik a lisl Ill' Ihillgs that pkil'" Y,Hlf S,'IlScS,
Make a colullln for each of (hc sellses below iI,wlile,as llIany Ihillgs as yuu
"an l!rink Ill' w!rirh VOlIIl'SI'l'l:ialll' wilh 11,,11' ,.'II',l.', (III 111\' Ulltil'!'
'stllcll'l wnldd have sud. Ill: ;')11 \'Ld pglH', Ei ' :l ,dIIH:. ,1111
lists as lung as possible. ' ,
"Then for each or tile senses, select Ihat ynu especially like thai
yOq can ildJlally Illillg III ,lass, llring lire fil'e! itt'IIIS ,;, .:bss in iI lug s,' tlr:1l no llilC
C,1Il see them, For the item 10 be laSled ,. yolI Iliay h:ive tu supply sUllie eating or
drinking utensils., ' , ,
"You will be put into groups of five to share, of the favorile eIullents
, that appeal 10 your senses, Except for thc one which you like tll sec. you will
close your eyes when Ihe items are presenled to your groUp in order to try to
' guess what they arc. It' eating utensils are nceded for your '(astc' ilem, prepare' 10
HCHvr fllill !,"" " it , \Vr will I", lilll\' "lIl'li ,111,1,111' ill'III';'\'''" hi ill/< In
you '!:eI. Ub"," ' , '
When the assignlllcnt is dllC, h<Jl'c thc ill the glOlil'S lake (urns With
' one sense at a lime. If "s.;lcll" is the IIrst sense tll lJe worked 'with, one at a, time
the students give those in their group the opportunit:y, 'to smcllthe item each"
brought in. After the studcnts have smelled olle itCH) with their eyes clOSed, they
will glless wllat it was by saying, "I slIl.:!1 ' , '; (OJ tlte past present
progressive tenses can be used). After ead,1 a guess, the one wh'o
brought it in will tell wln!t it is and what mood ode,eling s/he 'gets from it. '
For example: "That smell is a peony." The giollp \vill then ask, "How
does the smell of a peony l)1ake you feel'!" The person \V1i\l in the iiem
, will reply, "\Vben I smell a 'peony, I feel heavenly'; or feel aliyc and exstalic
when I smell a peony," , .
When everyone has had a (11m in tlrc groups 10 sample all of Ihe items
hroughl ill, hllve thelll talk ,ahollt tll c other 'Ih..!ir t'I1;1I not'
IoIUlllllil Ill, All! Iii",,, thul ll' 10\' t,li", Iii"", lilOI IJr,,1 ,
didn ' t think of'! Did sOllie people hav.! ilJllls'l-ln Iheir list s'!
III thc lotal group ask: '"
"Was it difficult to fOCLlS on your senses?"
"How can wedcvelll{J and appreciatc,our senses I'norc')" ,
"Which sense did you enjoy using the most.'I"
As u r1osinv, lIl'tivily. rOllllll dYlldi',. 110'11. TIr,;,,' lin Ih,. II;sld,' "i1l'l"
hlll<l lit" Ihey hl'<)lIglll In 10 hll '1IIeile" 1I11"
circle are 10 keep their eyes closed. The illll.!!' circle gJ(IIIP rotates around Ihe -
circle and presents the obJecls brought ill smcilingalllllou'l!/ling to each
EXERCISE 71. WHAT MAKES YOU ANGRY?
Purposes:
Affcctive-
To help unlier.'itand the basis for much of one's anger
To help crystallize one's values through a process of reasoning
To hecome more introspective abou t anger
To nok commonali ties in wlla t makes people angry
Linguistic-
To write and speak on a topic abou t which people have strong feelings
Levels: Advanced
Size ofgroups: Four to five
Procedures: :\s homewlHk, request that students make a li:;t of the things which
rC311y make them ::lngry and bring it to class. In groups, have them go over their
lists.
Tell them that our beliefs and COI1victiorb ,lflU values arc often at the heart
I
of what makes us angry. Often when we get angry, we feel guilty about it. Yet
something we have strong convictions abou t h:ls been violated.
Instruct tile students to study their own lists ( nd to write out what values
they find benea th e:.lLh of the things that makes :lngry. Have them write
down a list of these values. This can be done ill clas ! or as a homev,Iork assignment.
When compkh;J, the students should discuss what values they discovered they
have with the ?ame ...group in which they discussed J hat makes them angry.
Cornments: This call be an enlightening experience. It is easy to think of things
which make us angry, bu t if We are asked what are l ome of our most important
values , that is :.1 much difficult question to rcsf ond to. This exercise gives a
means for getting at some of our important and helps to better understand
: I _-L
the 1Juilt.inducing feelin g of anger. Students enjoy sharing makes
b "I1d otll"r" an 2. ry. They find drawing out their values trom tlm It.)t at' 1 .
them u. . 1:..) . 1 1. n(1' aware 0 t len
fascinating appfIJ]ch to under standing thea anu oecOllll :J
values.
I
EXERCISl: 5'2. HAJR! HAIRY
PlIrpos('s l
Af1'ectiVC
To aW,lfe of the cmoti()lis!students havc had through thc
. years about a part of their appearancc often considered very
important to thcm
To share intcresting, humorou s, ahd touching personal stories on a
:' somcwhat unusual topic
ic-
To practice writing and spcaking in the past tense(s)
To practice the voc abulary of colors and length of hair
Levels: All levels, with sample structures givcn for thc beginning level to complete
Size o!grollps: About four
Materials lIeeded: Each student will have to complctc the written assignment to
be given and bring it to class.
Procedllres: lIere is <J suggcsted way to introducc assignment (a the class:
"For our next ac\ivily, we'rc going to write and talk about a topic th.at most
of us have a lot of feclings about. There are probably many stories we each have
concerning topic, yet it is VCFY ullusual to think about and discuss in class.
The topic dcals with what feelings, emotions, anJ mcmories we related to
our hJir. .lust how illlportant is our hair to us')
"We've all hearJ thilt a woman's hair is her crowning glory. Throughout
history it has been a sacrifice for a woman to havc to cut and sc\l her hair.
All Abo.ut the Exercises * 119
"Samson lost his powe J whl!1l Dclilah Clit his hair. In the mi'i !ary service,
ncw recruits get their hcads shavcd for cleanliness but also to give them a f:eling
of being subservicnt - to give t'hem a poorer image of themselves. rccent years
somc parents and adults have !objectcd to long hair on males. I
"Oftcn our hair innllcnces how we feci or how we think we 1ook. It can
affect our pcrsonality. We cOI \lplain that our hair is a mess, or we can't do
anything with it. And how anIJ.y we are at the b;lrbcr or beallticia/l who cuts our
hair too short or not thq way hl'e wan ted it. \1
"So for all of us tllere al'e probably times whcll wc have had ldlffcrcllt
fcelings about our Itair alld solnc. sturics of what happellcd to liS. " I
You call thell (ell somc c(lllnl!ctcd with YOllr hair. H(!fC iF all example:
"Wilen I was growing up my I air IV;]S vcry fillc . My mothcr it so
she kept it very short. I W<Jlltc' instructions ld to havc IOllg hair vcry badly, but h
to the barbcr were: 'Cut it so t hc tips of hcr Cars arc showing.' 110 hated that
l
Whcn I became old enough tol takc care of nly own hair, I kept it 'Ie y long, and I
still do. Twice a year thc bcau,tician gets a treat andtakcs an inch q, f . And my
own daughters always had lon# hair and they still kcep it long." I
. TI.len continuc: "Tldllk labout all the melllOlics you have ol:)'dur hair and
wflte (give the length of the assignment) abuut J page on the stof!ds,l past and
prcsent, and the feclings you f.lad about yom hair. We will be r<!nlui!lg them to each
other in groups and diSCUSSin1) thcln. Start in (he past ancl go up to the prescnt in
your stories. Bring in any sna' .ShtllS you havc showing YO!'f at l the timcs you
are telling us abou I." .
The day the assignment is due, dividc the students into and have
them rcad thcir stories to the roup and show the picturcs of thelnkclvcs they
hrolJght in. As thc stu:"ics arc rend, the group mcmbers can ask questions or make
com mcn ts. I I .
Whcn cach person has had a turn, have the group discllss these questions
and then process the'nl before jthe total class:
What does your story S;IY abou: the meaning YOIH haiF has to you?
What did your group discover about how others feel about their hair?
Answer thcse qucstions yourse lf before thc total cl ass.
You ca n corrcct the compositiolls before thcy are read in the groups rather
than afterwards, if yOll prefer.
1" ' +1"g ,,,,,I st,", i"g i" ,I" Fm" ig" L, "" Lcb
Procetlllrh Br.jng up Ihc Illpic or "full" 10 the f lass by Illuking some related
r
COlllmenl S [lb uilt 'It: .
"EycryoJle like, 10 fUll ilnd to CIIjoy /lilll>eIL There are some things
that mallY fun , sudl as going tUl lhe circus. That's what makes
such evclI popular. There arc also Ihillg,; thai SIHIlt! uf us enjoy which do
lIol. Some l)wple lind a uf chess very exciting, II'hi:e others find it dull.
"Do ric 11<ll'e fun ill ,Hlr nl'cs'! Calli We have mure fun than Wt! do
null"} To lipd out, IV,' arc all lu conlplck *very simpl.: stakment with as
many elldings as lVe call Ihink or. The stateillent' is: 'hlll is __ _ ___ ___ '
I
i\hKe a list III I' alllhc ihings you 10 p:lrlicil'a;IC ill ur Ii:IVC happen ihat are fun
for you. longer YDUI lisl is, betic!. YouI1statelllcnts wili sound like this:
;
I
I

FUll i, , . ,
I, goillg ice sKaling,
1 2. ealing a hOI fudge Inarslillialinw sundae.
.1. rilling ill a cUlivellible wilh Ihe lap down.
..), Iyillg in Ihe sllnwhcli the willd hlows gelltly.
5. bt!illg willi illy best flicl"\.
(0, dancing 10 mli siL' or Illy favoritc grullp.
011 Friday bring in YOllr list or what fun is ror you. Nlllllber each item so we will
knoll' how many :Il'C on yom list. I'lit slilr in rnHlt of lliose you find llie mosl
fun,"
Wlien Ihe is dUe, SlliJelllS into groups of four 10 five, Have
Ihe s(udenls in each group take one lurn al a lillie slaling sometliing they consider
fun. COlltinue for a IIl1mbcr or WlIlllls unlil list is given. Ask the
sllHlents 10 slale tlie things Ihcy l'( lIl , i,kr the lIlust run at (he end of Iheir lists but
to mcnlion tliey reacli wlio mort! on their lists may end
up giving ,,',(ral by Ihcmselvcs i,f Ihe lUlillU! of items, Tell the students
thai Ihey can ,llId to their lists anylhillg ,I ci:t,i'llolall! mentions as fun tliat is not on
tlieir list s hUI Ihal they wanl to
When tlie groups t1l1ish this phase of the exercise, Ihey should check:
L Which aClil'ities have you engagcd in I't'cclIll)'} (f,lark Ihese with an "R"
or thc leller of Ihe equivalent word in thc largel language.)
Which aclivilies do yuu cng,igc ill Jieqllelllly' (Mark Ihese with an "F"
or Ihe letler Ill' the equivalenlwllld in the Lligcl language,)
3. \\Ihidl aclivities dl) YOll engage in only OCl'I/SiOlllll/y') (Mark Ihese with an
"0" or the lel'tero()I' Ihe word ill Ihe largd languag.:.) ,
. 4. Wilh frequellcy do you eng;lgc in Ihe aCli' l'ilies you have slarred as
the 1Il0st fun' for you'}
Ask studl nts tll disCllSS whal they discuvere,1 ,\boutthemselvesfrom this
exercise. Tellthern 10 make SlllllC resolutions fur Ihe futule regarding having fun.
-' I I
Ali Abou[ the Exercises 125
In the total group. have the stlldents the activily or situalion they
consider to 'be the 111051 fUll. A discussioll witli lhe whole class can also follow
on what studenls about tliemselves frol11 this exercise. Some of the
resolutions made can be shart!d.
As 3 follow-up activilY, the slll!tenls can submit lhdr extended lisls of what
they consider to be run with Ihe Ihal the aClivilies are engaged in.
They can write what lhey lliis exercise and what resolutions they
have madc for tlie future. As an alternative or in addilion to this assignment, have

the siudents wrile ab()ul UII!! or nllHC of llie activities whi ch they enjoy, describ
ing occasiuns and events in Iheir lives connected with Ihose in wliich they ha'd a
great deal of fun.
<l> ""
>

v
:0 0
::
O'ri
'2 Q)
.::
o u
"l
C
".
2
c
'"
v
.D
en

....
Z v
...
"" c
::J '" I]
'"
x
u..
c
CJj
'...l ;;! u
>
v
0
V

c
25
0
Of) o
OJ
.s:
"
V? - '-.
g
:5
I p.
.0

-.::; <t
OJ 0
V'l
a 0 <U
f--. f--. V> f--. >
L.:.l
'5
'" Oi)

v
n::
:J
t.lJ
C>
J:-i

I
<t
?
""
u; ,,::' '"
N
X
-. '" '"
...:)
'"
(;::j
f
1
----
EXERCISE 61. HIGHLIGHTS OF MY LIFE4
Purposes:
Affective-
To have student:; refled on their lives to determine what the best
experiences have been
To appreciate one's ttfe even more
To share with others experiences that have given much pleasure and/
or. pride
Linguistic- ' .
To practice the past tense(s)
To practice asking and answering questions
To practice the skill of wri ting
Levels: Intermediate to advanced
Size 0/ groups: Abou t three to four
Materials needed: Dittoed handouts with squares on them
Pracedures: I nt.roduce tIle assi gnment as fl ollows:
"During our lives we experience a number of events which give us great
happiness or pride. However, we rarely think about 'Ull of them at once. Sometimes
we may feel th;:t nothing good happens to us. At such times it helps to recall how
lucky we have been.
"I'm going to ask you to think about your life from your earliest memories
up to the present. Recall as many unusually good times in your life as you can.
Try to think of ones for all different ages.
"As you re call each highlight of your life, fill in a square on the dittos you
have by writing how old you were, giving the occasion a title, and drawing a sketch
to represent it. Yc,u will ea ch have two pages or eight squares to fill in. Number
, :r.
>-.
::l :::::: >,
0.<1.) c:: :-:I
<1)"0
.="Q)3 0

-
& 0


c:.
0..2
'- U)
o '::.0"";
tI) c:: '
' E
o <l.) ro 2
E
",.0-0
tI)
ro __

'
::s '-
o

.0
>< >,
<U <L1

c:; f""
C<l)
: :0
c: \,..J:;
0.>c-2c::
-0 .;.,; _ V :0
.; ;::; is ....;
g -g .:::
g. .
..- ?:""
;!::;_ :U
.2 ]
15 ': '"
;::

;>-'"
":l -

... CJ
0.>
C Q.
::s
-=
;::;
'" -=
g- 3 ::l '
c:: .
>, ' ,,; Q ..j '-' %= -= :=.
g :f g c;] .::: ;::!l
- 2.::: ,:; Q::,o
; -; '[ " "J
'" - "" :.J _ ::.'
-:::;
'J ';:'
'./1..::: ':;
'-' -.." '"

the squares and iIlI them in with your earliest happy-e-vents- first .cOllo.uL<;;.U. ---___
chronologically by the later ones. End with one that happened recently. The
sketches do not have to be work:; of art. Stick figures will do.
"We will use the drawings to help tell others in the class the story of each
of our happy events. Be prepared to talk about them."
When the assignment is due, Jivide the class into groups of three or four.
Since each person has a number of stories to be to'ld, keep the groups small. The
shar ing can be done with each person revealing one event from his/her earliest years
first In the next round an occasion which occurred a little later can be related,
etc.
Or the students can look at one sketches and ask about those. which
>., c
::.""
g::: -

E:!
7
0
::::3 -

-= <1)..J 0
strike their curil'.',ity for each round. The drawings' wiil _____
- .
::: >-.
q
-::: C (1)
. - -.
MEDITATION ON US
EXERCISE 48.
Purposes:
Affective- .
To help build close tics among studen ts in a conscious way
To encourage students to think positively about themselves and
others in the class
Linguistic-
To practice the vocabulary of feelings
Lellefs: All levels
Size ofgroups: Abou t six
Procedllres: This activity is intended to be used as a closure after students have
worked with these exercises quite a while and feel close to each other. It is
especially effective after a more serious activity in which students share personally
meaningful memories or feelings or in which students have expressed very positive
feelin1gs ther have" for one another. This exercise/iS appropriate as a closing acti,vity
before oot the end of the year.
. The Ttudents should alreauy be in groups In which they worked on one or .
two together: They should be seated a circle. Here are the instructions
to give 'this activity: 1..
"T;IJc .e hch other's Ilanus :lIId look at to make certain that
, I ,I

I
sit ting ill part of the cir de: Npw close you r eyes don't talk.
. With yor eyes closed, thmk of each person III Y,OIlr group, one at a time, and
experiellelsome warm thoughts and feelings each person. When you i!;jve
done Ihi'1k of some warm though ts abou t " oursei f. Keep your eyes closed
' I I ' te /1
1
' I" un tl ).I9l, to open t lelll,
, I3;, lc{rtain that no one tnlks. If anyone in a \vhisper quietly say, "No
tdkmg. , I 1 {
Tolallow enough time, verbalize to yours If this experience with the ' " r
member\ given group or, better yet,join a IOUp. When students have had
enough complete the activity, in a Cail11
'
voice, give this set of .
instructi6ds !
r
, . . ,
;;\Yi !your eyes closed, t l1ink of how fl!l t doing this exercise and
ypu are right now. (Allow a minute to Pflss.t Nuw open yonr eye,s Jfjd
share feelings." t. . , , i . 1
After about three or four minutes, ask to have a few students share th(!ir
feelings he1fore the !otal group. ,, '
II '
II.L
, . ':. .
EXERCISE 49. I ENJOYED, I ENJbYED
7
.
"'
,
P/lrposes:
Aifebive-
To give students the opportlillity to express warlll thoughts and
t r I I
. lee 'ings '
To bring out thollghts which might not otherwise get
exprcsseu "
Unguistic-
To practice the past tensc(s)
To practice the f!rsi and third persoll
Levels: All levels
'1
Size of groups: Tot al class
",
./1
1
.
..
Procedures' This exerciscis intcildeu as a closing :Ictivi'\' after the students know.
,.each other well and after they have experienced awareness activities for quite.a .,
is 'fitting before a huliuay vacation or uuring thelast week or thdaSl.day ,
is in session. ," Ii, .:.

If pos;;ible, have til e cl;1 5S scaled ;n a cilck :,1.) everyone can be seen by ull,
An alternative is to have the students stalld ill a circle anu hold "Je re is a
way to introduce the activity:
"There are lllany go" d ;II1U thoughl :: that have, but they uon ' t
necessarily get We arc nnw going 10 have the LllallCC to share
wilh the class,
"The question I'd like YOll.to an swe r is. 'Did all)'onc ill tl llr class say or do
som'tthing that you especially liked. enjoyed, or "ppreci:Jtcd Lluring OUf (name or
the target language) class') ' Take a 1ll0lllent to think ahout it "nd thell we'll e3ch
,have_a- tU,rn to tell the class wll.O the per son is and what it was thaI we enjoyeu or
nppreciated .'' . I
. Be certain to in this activity yourself. TlliS r! xercise is conducive
to bnngif:l; oui glOWing fee lIngs ,md even sonIc laughter.
,