“There’s nothing either good
or bad, but thinking makes it so” William Shakespeare
NLP in ELT
Neurolinguistic Programming
is a “training philosophy”. Here there are some of the exercises
based on NLP. You can do these with your students (SS).
SEE |
HEAR |
FEEL |
SMELL |
TASTE |
Ask your students:
How do you first represent the word in your mind: Do you SEE the
thing or do you SEE the word? Do you HEAR the sound the thing makes
or HEAR the word being spoken? Do you FEEL the thing either
physically or emotionally? Do you SMELL it? DO you TASTE it? Write
the word in the appropriate column.
Try to identify the very
first thing you do. If you smell it, for example, are you sure that
you don’t get a quick image first? Do not think too long – you can
probably represent almost anything in a variety of ways if you think
about it long enough.
RAIN
SILK
ONION
COMPUTER
TELEPHONE
GARLIC
STORY BOOK
MOON
RIVER
GRASS
BUSS
SAND
ROSE
CHURCH
LEATHER
COFFEE
FISH
CAT
TRAIN
BABY
FRIEND
YOURSELF
YOUR COUNTRY
LONDON
POLITICS
LEARNING ENGLISH
MATHS
LOVE
THE FUTURE
Did you have more words in
one or two columns more than others? What do you think it means?
Does it surprise you?
NLP SPELLING TECHNIQUE
- Hold a card up with the
word on it, or write it high on the board, so that SS have to
look up to see it.
- Tell the SS consciously
to blink their eyes to take a mental photograph of the word.
- They close their eyes
and picture the word clearly, looking up inside their heads to
see the “photograph” they have just taken.
- They write down the
word from memory
- Repeat 1-4 as often as
necessary until SS know the word. If necessary break long words
into shorter sections, or ask SS to imagine any problem parts
bigger. They can also try making the whole word bigger in
their heads.
- To prove their success,
ask them to visualize the word and then spell it “backwards” by
“reading” the letters from their heads. This is only possible if
they can “see” it.
FEEDBACK
Learners need constructive
feedback to know what they could do differently. Focus on the
solution rather than the problem. See mistakes as useful feedback
for your teaching. Concentrate less on the mistake itself than on
the reason of making it.
REFRAMING: CHANGING
WORDS, CHANGING MINDS
Mistake----lesson
Ending----new beginning
Terrorist----freedom fighter
Make a list of some negative
things you say to yourself and write a reframe next to each one.
Does that change how you feel about them?
“Whether you think you can,
or think you can’t….you’re right!” Henry Ford
Our teachers always told us
to underline the words we didn’t understand. Even when we
subsequently did understand them, we were forever reminded of our
previous limitations.
We encourage our
students to
underline or highlight the words they do understand. As they learn
more, they literally fill in the gaps and underline more. They are
working towards success.
KNOWING WHERE YOU ARE
GOING
·
If you want to reach your goals,
have some.
·
Have classroom outcomes for
yourself and your students. Share your outcomes with the SS: knowing
where they are going helps them to learn.
·
Help your SS to set their own
outcomes. ·
Dream –and encourage your
SS to
dream. ·
Break down big outcomes into
smaller, more easily achievable ones.
·
Remember: The longest journey
starts with a single step.
DO WE ALWAYS SAY WHAT WE
REALLY WANT TO SAY?
What can be the situation
for the following. Did people really want to say this? What exactly
did they mean?
“This is to let you know
that there’s a smell coming from the man next door.”
“My toilet is blocked and we
can’t bathe the children until it is cleaned.”
“Our kitchen floor is very
damp, we have two children and would like a third, so will you send
someone to do something about it?”
“Will you please send
someone to mend our broken path? Yesterday my wife tripped and fell
on it and is now pregnant.”
LIFELINE
Draw a line and mark against
it the key events in your life. Focus particularly on events which
illustrate an aspect of your character, where you learnt something
significant, or where you gained a skill or recourse (sense of
humour, courage, humility etc).
-
What were the turning points?
-
What patterns of experience, achievement or
lessons can you see?
-
Which things enhanced and enriched your life?
-
Which things would you avoid in the future?
-
What were the positive outcomes or intensions
of any negative events?
-
What does the purpose of your life seem to
have been so far?
-
What resources have you gained? Link specific
resources to specific moments or events.
-
What have you learnt….from life? …..from
doing this activity?
JOB APPLICATION
-
Make a list of all the
roles you play in your life, e.g. business partner, mother,
lover, neighbour, counselor (for friends’ problems), plumber,
cleaner, artist, mathematician (children’s homework, supermarket
checkout), cook etc. One role per line.
-
Imagine each of your
roles is a job you’re applying for. Alongside each one, write
down the personal qualities you bring to each job. Remember you
really, really need this job, so only write down the qualities
which will help you to get it. (You have to be honest, although
a little exaggeration is only to be expected).
-
Talented, aren’t you?
If you have any other qualities you don’t seem to be using at
the moment, write them down now.
-
When you’ve finished,
look at the “jobs “ for which you do not seem to have a lot of
qualities and see whether you could add any of the qualities
that you have in other areas.
ADJECTIVES TO MIME (IN
PAIR, AS A WHOLE CLASS)
happy
bored
embarrassed
doubtful
sad
tired
confident
proud
angry
impressed
patient
alert
frightened
unimpressed
amused
interested
WHAT YOU THINK YOU ARE
TEACHING AND WHAT THE LEARNERS ARE LEARNING ARE NOT NECESSARILY THE
SAME.
Adapted from “In your hands.
NLP in ELT” by Jane Revell and Susan Norman
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