Revista simpozionului Eficienta si calitate in educatie 2018 Revista simpozionului | Page 72

TEACHING ENGLISH THROUGH EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
Georgiana Ursuț, Școala Gimnazială „Radu Selejan” Sibiu
Abstract: In a world dominated by violence, conflicts and competition, emotional intelligence comes to offer a
new perspective to our school and to our students, helping them to discover and understand themselves, to
manage their emotions, to interact with others, to find mild solutions to problems. We need to teach
emotional intelligence on the same level of importance as we teach the ABCs. One way to do that is through
books. Teaching English through books opens students’ hearts, helps them to understand themselves better,
to communicate, to control their feelings and to make emphatic and wise decisions.
Key words: emotional intelligence, creativity, empathy, books, happiness, control, communication
“Once upon a time the animals decided they must do something heroic to meet the
problems of a “new world” so they organized a school. They had adopted an activity
curriculum consisting of running, climbing, swimming and flying. To make it easier to
administer the curriculum, all the animals took all the subjects. The duck was excellent in
swimming; in fact, better than his instructor. But he made only passing grades in flying and
was very poor in running. Since he was slow in running, he had to stay after school and
also drop swimming in order to practice running. This was kept up until his webbed feet
were badly worn and he was only average in swimming. But average was acceptable in
school so nobody worried about that, except the duck. The rabbit started at the top of the
class in running but had a nervous breakdown because of so much makeup work in
swimming. The squirrel was excellent in climbing until he developed frustration in the flying
class where his teacher made him start from the ground up instead of the treetop down.
He also developed a “charlie horse” from overexertion and then got a C in climbing and D
in running. The eagle was a problem child and was disciplined severely. In the climbing
class, he beat all the others to the top of the tree but insisted on using his own way to get
there. At the end of the year, an abnormal eel that could swim exceeding well and also
run, climb and fly a little had the highest average and was valedictorian. The prairie dogs
stayed out of school and fought the tax levy because the administration would not add
digging and burrowing to the curriculum. They apprenticed their children to a badger and
later joined the groundhogs and gophers to start a successful private school.”
It’s important to see if we can find resemblances between this fable and the modern
school. Is there any chance to help students discover the way to themselves and gain an
emotional balance? Daniel Goleman opened the path for a new psychology called
Emotional Intelligence which is the ability to use emotions effectively and productively.
Emotional intelligence is the skill to be aware of, control and ultimately express emotions.
Let’s give an example of healthy, civilized, tempered attitude towards life’s difficulties that
can be built only through emotional and social education, during many years. It’s about the
Japanese attitude towards the great tsunami from March 11 th 2011, characterized by calm
(no image with wild pain), quiet dignity (disciplined water and supplies queues, no harsh
word), mildness (people bought only what they needed for a day), order (no robberies in
shops, no horns or overtakes, just understanding), care for the other (the restaurants had
reduced the prices, the strongest looked after the weakest), discretion (the media showed
calm newsletters). We can distinguish here different aspects of emotional intelligence:
self-expression - a person's ability to communicate how he or she feels in any given
situation; conflict resolution refers to our ability to discuss our issues with another person
calmly and work together to resolve the issue; empathy refers to our ability to understand
the emotions of those around us.
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