Emotional Intelligence: Is it More Important Than any Other Assets?

By Flor de María Vila

                                                         

      Nowadays people contend that it is essential to be able to handle certain difficult situations at work. These situations usually are related to the ability of managing your emotions in a social context.

      What does this have to do with teaching English? We think that our job is safe if we have a good level of English, we know how to apply the different teaching methods needed to instruct different kinds of learners and sufficient teaching experience, don’t we? Shouldn’t that be enough?

        Thinking about this, a memory of a difficult situation came to my mind.

This is it:

            I used to train teachers who gave lessons in a five-day program institute and one of them came to  me and related the following case: As part of his duties, he had to give a grade for the homework done in the workbook. He needed two scores per week, so he didn´t need to check students´ workbooks every day. One day, he checked the students´ workbooks and after that there was a break. When he returned to class, a lady (one of his students) was waiting for him outside the classroom. She claimed that he chose the day she didn´t do her homework to ask for it to make sure that she would fail. Unbelievable, wouldn’t you think? Everything that came to his mind was: “What! What in the world is she talking about?” Instead of retorting to the absurdity, which was his first spontaneous reaction, he tried to calm down himself, and tried to understand why she was behaving that way. Eventually, he realized she was extremely worried about the possibility of failing the course, so he serenely explained to her that there was no way he could know beforehand when she had o hadn´t done her homework. He also offered to help if she had trouble doing the assignment if she didn´t understand. The woman quieted down, returned to class and later in the course she asked for help only once. After that, she became the sweetest person one could ever imagine. Even more, she recommended him to all her contacts.

       So, what had happened? Why didn´t this episode with the woman become a nightmare?Had the teacher used his emotional intelligence or Emotional Quotient-EQ, as David Goleman calls it? According to him there are five components. Let´s see if the teacher in the example used them.

1. When he calmed down himself and tried to understand his student, he definitely identified his emotion and worked on regulating it. This covered two abilities: self-awareness and self-regulation.

2. Offering his help he showed he was able not only to understand how she was feeling but also to manage his response at the light of this information. This is related to a third component: empathy.

3. Being able to interact well with others is another important aspect of emotional intelligence. This ability is known as social skill and he used it when he could manage the woman´s emotions by listening actively when she was explaining what she thought was happening. He got her to return to classes and, even better, later act as a reference for other students.

4. Even though the example given does not display a specific action that illustrates motivation, it is certain that the teacher mentioned encouraged himself to achieve his goals which were beyond mere external rewards. In fact, he used this experience as a driving force to use his emotional intelligence every time it was necessary and became a teacher whom everybody liked and wanted to work with. 

            Was he born with these qualities? Can we learn them? 

                            Do we need to learn them?

       Many employers find emotional intelligence extremely important since it is the one quality that allows people to productively work with peers in better conditions. Employers consider soft skills as important as hard skills since without them employees find employment challenges insuperable.

For us, teachers, the situations in which we may need to use our emotional intelligence are many. Probably the most common ones are the circumstances in which we interact with our students, our colleagues, our students’ parents or relatives and our supervisors, whether they are coordinators, trainers or directors.

  

       A tip that usually works for me is to think the following: Behave, react and respond in the way that person would if he or she were you. For example, be the teacher that student would need if he were you. In the example given lines above, did he need an interlocutor as a punching back? or one that tried to find out what was happening that made her behave that way? It´s certainly not an easy job, but if we work on this, we will definitely be on the right track. Putting myself in the other person’s shoes works for me. What about you?

       And if you do not want to love your neighbor as much as yourself, think about the possibility of losing your job because it is very demanding for others to work with you. If it is extremely difficult to manage your emotions with students, it is very likely that the same happens with the other people with whom you work. We need to educate ourselves or look for help.

        We would be “safe” and keep our jobs if we act proactively and update not only our language skills and our methodological foundation but also train to improve our emotional intelligence since this is precisely what technology would never dominate, in the words of laureate professor Vikas Pota, Chairman, of Varkey Foundation, a family organization seeking to improve global teacher capacity and promote universal access to quality education.

What do you think?

Is Emotional Intelligence really important?

Have you ever been in a situation in which you needed to use it?

Have you trained yourself or is it natural in you?

References:

Goleman,D. "Emotional Intelligence (Goleman)," in A Blog by Concordia University, November 17, 2017, https://education.cu-portland.edu/blog/classroom-resources/daniel-golemans-emotional-intelligence-theory-explained/

Pota, V. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/people/vikas-pota

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA

M.A. in Cognition, Learning and Development from PUCP, B.A. in Education with a major in English Teaching. Ms. Vila is currently Teacher trainer, Pedagogic Consultant and Member of the Research Team at Centro de Idiomas de la Universidad del Pacífico. She is Academic Director of International Contacts (test training & foreign applications advisory) and relationship manager for American universities´ MBA admissions officers with International Contacts. She is official Examiner for several University of Cambridge tests, freelance consultant with Universidad ESAN, experienced speaker on diverse English teaching issues for prestigious institutions, and senior international examinations trainer (GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS).

Humans Wanted: Soft Skills in the English Classroom

By Mayra Yaranga Hernández

Tolerance, social perception, empathy, emotional intelligence, cultural awareness, critical thinking and others are part of a set of crucial skills we all need to survive in a world filled with materialism and vanity. We all know these skills are essential to adapt to a rapidly changing world but, are we born with them? Can we learn to develop them? Can they be taught? And if so, can they be measured somehow?

         The World Economic Forum, through its Future of Jobs Report 2018, suggests that by 2022 the top skills people must have will be: analytical thinking and innovation; active learning and active strategies; creativity, originality and initiative; technology design and programming; critical thinking and analysis. As we can see, most of them are soft skills. If the aim of education were to develop them, would it be possible to insert them in the context of a classroom? To be more precise, do they have a place in an EFL lesson?

         Current knowledge on soft skills tells us that they are not really teachable –-that we are somehow born with them-– and that they are common to all human activity. It is also agreed that they are not easily measured because they are of a more qualitative and subjective nature. Therefore, it may seem that their application in an English classroom is not feasible. On the other hand, if asked, teachers would probably say they all develop these skills to a certain extent when they promote leadership, tolerance or empathy. I would argue that this is true, though the key word here is “promote”, which is different from “teach” and sounds a lot less overwhelming! This could be done on a daily basis and without any explicit instruction: a hidden curriculum for the benefit of students.

         Given their importance, then, we should reflect on ways to promote soft skills in our daily work. An example could be how we encourage active listening: we could ask students to talk about something personal, and then ask their partners to report it to the whole class in as much detail as possible, including personal reactions to what they heard. It may sound rather obvious, but for some students this is quite challenging, as they are not used to paying too much attention to their peers. Furthermore, the next step would be to discuss ways to address soft skills with colleagues, in order to find common best practices and set criteria to assess them in a way as objective as possible. Perhaps, in our current world filled with emotionless technology, this could be the light at the end of the tunnel: a way to create the human beings the world needs.

Now it’s your turn

What do YOU think?

Do you promote soft skills in your lessons? How?

  

Biodata
Mayra Yaranga (1985) has completed Doctorate studies in Education at UNIFÉ; Master’s Degree in Media, Culture and Identity from Roehampton University (London) revalidated by PUCP, a Bachelor’s Degree in Education - UPCH and the Professional Title of Licenciada - IPNM. Currently she is Cambridge Oral Examiner and Member of the Research Area for Universidad del Pacífico Language Centre. She is also ESP coordinator and Pre-University Centre Director at UNIFÉ.

Be Chained to the Textbook or be Creative?

By Flor de María Vila

When teaching English, we, teachers, always try to find the best way to help our students achieve their objective: to communicate in English. In this process, we need to take into account our students’ needs, their preferences, their interests as well as the reasons why they are studying. Furthermore, we should enable them to convey their message beyond the topics offered by the course. Thus, to offer the opportunity to express themselves regarding different themes is crucial because of the following:

1.  Students must have a real motivation. Sometimes, unfortunately, the only motivation is to pass their course, exams and so on. Probably this answer varies according to the place where English is taught. It might not be the same to learn English at school as it might be to learn it at a private institution. Nevertheless, in any of the cases, there are pupils who are studying this language because they “have to,” because of either work or studies requirements. The latter may be because they need to study abroad or they need to finish a school or university term successfully. Having further information about what engages students will definitely become a valuable asset.

2. Students must be able to use English in contexts beyond the ones presented in the coursebook. The idea is not necessarily to teach English through different contents as suggested in the article http://languageteachingblogger.blogspot.com/2018/08/teaching-foreign-language-are-we-on.html. The plan would be to use the same themes used in other subjects at school or propose themes that are relevant for the students who are not studying at school or university. In the first case, pupils may consider one of the themes worked in other courses. This is really advantageous because the student would have to deal only with the language (structure & vocabulary) and not the topic which many times inhibits participation. Since students would have already worked with the concept of the theme, they will find less threatening to try to communicate. In fact, they may feel more comfortable because not everything is new. For instance, if at school all courses are working with the topic of “drugs,” the English teacher can use this topic to help students communicate giving their opinions in a debate organized with students from different classes. Students from different levels and years could participate. Even more, if possible, the whole school could organize things in such a way that different places at school could display banners with information related to the topic.

Regarding our students of the second group, they will always find it more appealing and useful to exercise using English in contexts that are more meaningful for them.

3. This way of working adds variety to the lessons: Not following always the material presented in the texts makes our teaching less predictable and thus more stimulating for both students and teachers. Contemplating other themes whether they are transversal like the ones worked in schools or just different and relevant for students automatically generates a different environment in the lessons. Experience shows that students are more willing and engaged when they are challenged with useful and interesting issues they can use to communicate. 

Are there any other advantages? What about the disadvantages? Do the benefits outweigh the drawbacks?

BIODATA

M.A. in Cognition, Learning and Development from PUCP, B.A. in Education with a major in English Teaching. Ms. Vila is currently Pedagogic Advisor and Member of the Research Team at Centro de Idiomas de la Universidad del Pacífico and Academic Director of International Contacts (test training & foreign applications advisory). She is official Examiner for several University of Cambridge tests, freelance consultant with Universidad ESAN, experienced speaker on diverse English teaching issues for prestigious institutions, and senior international examinations trainer (GMAT, GRE, TOEFL, IELTS).