Latest Issue of the MindBrainEd Think Tank + (ISSN 2434-1002) 5 MindBrainEd Bulletin V4i5 Think Tank Emotion May | Page 11

into an apathetic torpor. These are materials developed to present language that is
clear and understandable, but somehow also manage to achieve a kind of
discombobulated split between clarity and the kind of nuanced speech you would
expect to hear in natural conversation. Take a look at the talking pen that goes with
current materials: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_3k_jIAuEs
This is not a new problem for language teachers who work in elementary or junior
high school, as many have to deal with materials adaptation as a basic part of their
work. Ever since joining the BRAIN SIG I have become increasingly aware that we
need ways to take students out of their cultural comfort zone and to present them
with novel situations. Barrett puts it like this: our brains are built to predict what we
consider true and therefore we do not pay much attention to what we already believe
in (BSP, Podcast Episode 135). So, if you play a CD where all the words and phrases
are spoken at the same pace, with the same clear tone, without any emotionally-
charged nuance then students will learn to perceive and predict language as an
emotionless endeavor and possibly fall asleep. I fondly remember using a Pimsleur
CD for learning French. At the time I thought that I might still subconsciously absorb
the input. Now, I understand from my French speaking friends that my French is
abysmal and quite clearly it didn’t work.
“Your brain only takes in information that it doesn’t predict. And we have a very
fancy name for this in psychology, we call it learning.” (Brain Science Podcast,
Episode #135)
On the other hand, infusing language with emotion is not only going to help students’
phonological skills, it is going to get noticed. So, as teachers, we can potentially rouse
student interest through doing something as basic as reading material out loud
ourselves.
If, like the textbooks I currently use, yours feature little to no emotional content, you
might also consider including students in the process of determining the content of
lessons using routines designed to promote reflective, metacognitive activities that
form a basis for critical thinking (Tokuhama-Espinosa, 2010, p.122). For example,
one idea, from learning improvisation in acting, is Characters-Relationships-
Objectives-Where (CROW). Having students imagine and assign emotional roles to
characters and situating language in terms of relationships between people is one
activity through which we can explore the different ways we conceptualize the same
material. Now, having students analyze the emotional content of a textbook situation
can be both unpredictable and rewarding, as I have found. If I could go back, I would
ask those elementary school students to show me their gestures for how they feel
when they are fine, and then show them mine as a comparison.
At university, I ask first-year students to read through scripts from the TV show,
“The Big Bang Theory” (2008). The first time I did this, using first episode from the
first season, I read the script once without any nuance, and then watched the