I. Introduction

Although the birth of mindfulness is often considered a philosophical concept that dates back to the beginnings of Buddhism (Davis & Hayes, 2012), I think it is safe to assume that it was also used by the prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies as a natural and perhaps crucial survival mechanism, for they needed to be mindful of so many different elements in their daily lives. However we choose to reflect on the beginnings of mindfulness, it certainly is an activity that has withstood the test of time; and it is assuredly alive and well in the 21^st century.

Jon Kabat-Zinn popularized and breathed even more life into the practice of mindfulness in 1979 when he used it to treat patients in a stress reduction program. Kabat-Zinn (1994) defines the basic notion of mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality” (p. 4). The wonderful element of mindfulness is that it can be used by all ages and for a variety of reasons.

I find it especially useful in my classes to help my English language learners (ELLs) focus on the lesson when in class and observe aspects of their host culture and target language when outside of class. In this article, I will first offer four mindfulness-based activities for teachers and students, and then conclude with a brief survey of how mindfulness benefits our language learners.

II. Four Activities: Encouraging Mindfulness While Learning

Getting Ready to Learn with Mindfulness

In order to make the most of my classes, I always start by having my students practice a mindfulness activity. I first ask them to stand and relax their bodies. With their eyes closed, I guide them through a body awareness session. I next ask them to focus on their feet and pay attention to how their heels and toes make contact with the floor. Then, I have them consciously move methodically from their feet to the rest of their body by paying attention to and feeling the presence of their legs, hips, upper body, arms, neck, and head. I, then, ask them to be aware of their entire body. Finally, I have them focus on their breathing, paying attention to each breath as it enters and exits their mouth or nose. This activity usually takes only two to three minutes. Students have commented that they like this warm-up because it gets them immediately focused, builds a sense of classmate community, and inspires them to learn.

Daily Mindfulness and Observation Journals

Daily Mindfulness and Observation Journals are two extremely effective ways to encourage students to observe their immediate environment and then write about these mindful moments in their journals.

Daily Mindfulness is an activity where I ask the students to observe their surroundings and be mindful of situations in their lives that happen in- and outside of class. Areas that they can easily observe are:

1. aspects of their host culture;
2. how people use the target language;
3. the dynamics of their classroom settings;
4. occurrences they see in nature;
5. various ways they personally react to new daily situations; and
6. the different sensory experiences they encounter (Randolph, 2018a).

Next, I have the students record three observations per week in their Observation Journals. Each entry is a paragraph that highlights and details the observation of interest. As the journal entries are short (8-12 sentences), they do not require a great deal of time to write. Two added benefits of these are that, due to the frequency of writing the journals, writing becomes a non-stressful activity and a useful exercise that becomes a very natural part of their lives. Moreover, the students’ eye for detail and their ability to write effective descriptions are enhanced. For more on these journals, please see “Employing Observation Journals to Enhance Self-Awareness and Writing Skills,” (Randolph, 2018a).

Vocabulary Mindfulness: Feeling the Sound of Words

Can we know the meaning of a word by the sound it makes or the way it is pronounced? This depends. Not all English lexical items lend themselves to an intuitive understanding of their meaning by their pronunciation. There are, however, a number of words that we can guess the meaning of if we are mindful of the sounds they require as we pronounce them. For example, I have found that my students can guess—or come very close to guessing—the meanings of words like “blissful,” “glide,” “harmonious,” or “stress” by feeling the sounds they make in their vocal cords and the effects the words produce in their auditory systems.

When I teach a lexical item that allows for a pronunciation-meaning inference (e.g., glide or harmonious), I first have my students pronounce it without addressing the definition. I ask the students to close their eyes and repeat the term four to five times in a very concentrated state. I want them to focus on the sounds each time we pronounce the word and pay attention to the feeling it elicits as it makes its way through their vocal cords and into their ears; I also want them to be mindful of how the sounds make them feel emotionally. It is this visceral response that often helps them guess the meaning of the word.

As mentioned above, this cannot be accomplished with all words, but for those that lend themselves to the experience, I encourage instructors to try using mindfulness as a means to teach vocabulary for these kinds of lexical items. My students have often shared that “feeling the meaning in the actual sound of a word” is a fantastic way of internalizing the lexical term at a very deep and intuitive level.

Using the Mindful Noticer for Word Parts

I also use mindfulness to help my students reinforce what they already know about word parts and to help them expand their knowledge of affixes and roots. The Mindful Noticer is a bi-monthly journal activity that encourages ELLs to record word parts that they notice in- and outside of the classroom (Randolph, 2018b).

The students are free to record word parts from various words they discover in our own textbook, from textbooks in their other courses, from online or print newspapers, or from signs or billboards on the city campus or from the downtown area. Below are two example entries of “review” and “new” recorded word parts.

Word Part                             Word/Phrase                       Location Spotted
prefix: trans- (across)          transfer students                   TV screen in the English
                                                                                                department
Type: Review- learned trans- in class
Example: The new transfer students are all very enthusiastic this fall.

Word Part                             Word/Phrase                       Location Spotted
root: cogn- (know)               cognitive flexibility                in my psychology textbook;
                                                                                                p. 39
Type: New
Example: My professor said cognitive flexibility is a key to success.

III. The Benefits of Mindfulness

Practicing mindfulness not only helps our ELLs develop a heightened sense of awareness about their own lives, their new host culture, and their target language, but it also helps in a number of ways that will ultimately benefit their overall well-being. According to Davis and Hayes (2012), practicing mindfulness is equally beneficial for the mind and the body, for it (1) reduces stress; (2) improves working memory; (3) helps the mind focus; (4) calms the emotions; (5) increases empathy and compassion; and (6) boosts the immune system. Each of the aforesaid factors is crucial for our students’ growth and development; and therefore, mindfulness ought to be considered a standard component of our language learning curriculum in order to increase the health, happiness, and productivity of our ELLs.

IV. Concluding Remarks

As an English language educator, I firmly believe that we should, of course, teach our students the needed skills to become proficient in the language. I, however, also feel it is equally important to teach our students about ideas, skills, and possibilities that will go beyond the language classroom and help them live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Using mindfulness in ELL pedagogy and encouraging our students to practice it in their daily lives will take them to new heights of self- and life-awareness. Mindfulness is a fundamental tool that can open our eyes to all the simple miracles that we take for granted or overlook because we are too busy with school or work. Mindfulness is not only a tool for survival, but also one that adds to the awakening of an enlightened life; and the more we inspire our students to practice it, the more remarkable their minds will become in our classrooms and—most important—in their own lives.

References

Davis, D. M., & Hayes, J. A. (2012). What are the benefits of mindfulness? American Psychological Association, 43(7).

Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are. New York, NY: MJF Books.

Randolph, P. T. (2018a). Employing observation journals to enhance self-awareness and writing skills. MIDTESOL Journal, 1, 1-12.

Randolph, P. T. (2018b). Examining the Language-based Components of the Head-to-Toe Method of Associations for Vocabulary Acquisition, Part 4. College ESL Quarterly, 1-9.

Art source: Image is from www.pixabay.com.

Patrick T. Randolph teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he specializes in vocabulary acquisition, creative and academic writing, speech, and debate. Patrick was recently awarded the “Best of the TESOL Affiliates” in 2017 for his 2016 presentation on plagiarism. This is his second "Best of TESOL Affiliates" speaking award. He has recently received the “Best of CoTESOL Award” for his 2017 presentation on Observation Journals. Patrick lives with his wife, Gamze; daughter, Aylene; and cat, Gable, in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.


Encouraging Mindfulness In and Outside the Classroom By Patrick T. Randolph I. Introduction Although the birth of mindfulness is often considered a philosophical concept that dates back to the beginnings of Buddhism (Davis & Hayes, 2012), I think it is safe to assume that it was also used by the prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies as a natural and perhaps crucial survival mechanism, for they needed to be mindful of so many different elements in their daily lives. However we choose to reflect on the beginnings of mindfulness, it certainly is an activity that has withstood the test of time; and it is assuredly alive and well in the 21^st century. Jon Kabat-Zinn popularized and breathed even more life into the practice of mindfulness in 1979 when he used it to treat patients in a stress reduction program. Kabat-Zinn (1994) defines the basic notion of mindfulness as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally. This kind of attention nurtures greater awareness, clarity, and acceptance of present-moment reality” (p. 4). The wonderful element of mindfulness is that it can be used by all ages and for a variety of reasons. I find it especially useful in my classes to help my English language learners (ELLs) focus on the lesson when in class and observe aspects of their host culture and target language when outside of class. In this article, I will first offer four mindfulness-based activities for teachers and students, and then conclude with a brief survey of how mindfulness benefits our language learners. II. Four Activities: Encouraging Mindfulness While Learning Getting Ready to Learn with Mindfulness In order to make the most of my classes, I always start by having my students practice a mindfulness activity. I first ask them to stand and relax their bodies. With their eyes closed, I guide them through a body awareness session. I next ask them to focus on their feet and pay attention to how their heels and toes make contact with the floor. Then, I have them consciously move methodically from their feet to the rest of their body by paying attention to and feeling the presence of their legs, hips, upper body, arms, neck, and head. I, then, ask them to be aware of their entire body. Finally, I have them focus on their breathing, paying attention to each breath as it enters and exits their mouth or nose. This activity usually takes only two to three minutes. Students have commented that they like this warm-up because it gets them immediately focused, builds a sense of classmate community, and inspires them to learn. Daily Mindfulness and Observation Journals Daily Mindfulness and Observation Journals are two extremely effective ways to encourage students to observe their immediate environment and then write about these mindful moments in their journals. Daily Mindfulness is an activity where I ask the students to observe their surroundings and be mindful of situations in their lives that happen in- and outside of class. Areas that they can easily observe are: 1. aspects of their host culture; 2. how people use the target language; 3. the dynamics of their classroom settings; 4. occurrences they see in nature; 5. various ways they personally react to new daily situations; and 6. the different sensory experiences they encounter (Randolph, 2018a). Next, I have the students record three observations per week in their Observation Journals. Each entry is a paragraph that highlights and details the observation of interest. As the journal entries are short (8-12 sentences), they do not require a great deal of time to write. Two added benefits of these are that, due to the frequency of writing the journals, writing becomes a non-stressful activity and a useful exercise that becomes a very natural part of their lives. Moreover, the students’ eye for detail and their ability to write effective descriptions are enhanced. For more on these journals, please see “Employing Observation Journals to Enhance Self-Awareness and Writing Skills,” (Randolph, 2018a). Vocabulary Mindfulness: Feeling the Sound of Words Can we know the meaning of a word by the sound it makes or the way it is pronounced? This depends. Not all English lexical items lend themselves to an intuitive understanding of their meaning by their pronunciation. There are, however, a number of words that we can guess the meaning of if we are mindful of the sounds they require as we pronounce them. For example, I have found that my students can guess—or come very close to guessing—the meanings of words like “blissful,” “glide,” “harmonious,” or “stress” by feeling the sounds they make in their vocal cords and the effects the words produce in their auditory systems. When I teach a lexical item that allows for a pronunciation-meaning inference (e.g., glide or harmonious), I first have my students pronounce it without addressing the definition. I ask the students to close their eyes and repeat the term four to five times in a very concentrated state. I want them to focus on the sounds each time we pronounce the word and pay attention to the feeling it elicits as it makes its way through their vocal cords and into their ears; I also want them to be mindful of how the sounds make them feel emotionally. It is this visceral response that often helps them guess the meaning of the word. As mentioned above, this cannot be accomplished with all words, but for those that lend themselves to the experience, I encourage instructors to try using mindfulness as a means to teach vocabulary for these kinds of lexical items. My students have often shared that “feeling the meaning in the actual sound of a word” is a fantastic way of internalizing the lexical term at a very deep and intuitive level. Using the Mindful Noticer for Word Parts I also use mindfulness to help my students reinforce what they already know about word parts and to help them expand their knowledge of affixes and roots. The Mindful Noticer is a bi-monthly journal activity that encourages ELLs to record word parts that they notice in- and outside of the classroom (Randolph, 2018b). The students are free to record word parts from various words they discover in our own textbook, from textbooks in their other courses, from online or print newspapers, or from signs or billboards on the city campus or from the downtown area. Below are two example entries of “review” and “new” recorded word parts. Word Part Word/Phrase Location Spotted prefix: trans- (across) transfer students TV screen in the English department Type: Review- learned trans- in class Example: The new *transfer students* are all very enthusiastic this fall. Word Part Word/Phrase Location Spotted root: cogn- (know) cognitive flexibility in my psychology textbook; p. 39 Type: New Example: My professor said *cognitive flexibility* is a key to success. III. The Benefits of Mindfulness Practicing mindfulness not only helps our ELLs develop a heightened sense of awareness about their own lives, their new host culture, and their target language, but it also helps in a number of ways that will ultimately benefit their overall well-being. According to Davis and Hayes (2012), practicing mindfulness is equally beneficial for the mind and the body, for it (1) reduces stress; (2) improves working memory; (3) helps the mind focus; (4) calms the emotions; (5) increases empathy and compassion; and (6) boosts the immune system. Each of the aforesaid factors is crucial for our students’ growth and development; and therefore, mindfulness ought to be considered a standard component of our language learning curriculum in order to increase the health, happiness, and productivity of our ELLs. IV. Concluding Remarks As an English language educator, I firmly believe that we should, of course, teach our students the needed skills to become proficient in the language. I, however, also feel it is equally important to teach our students about ideas, skills, and possibilities that will go beyond the language classroom and help them live a meaningful and fulfilling life. Using mindfulness in ELL pedagogy and encouraging our students to practice it in their daily lives will take them to new heights of self- and life-awareness. Mindfulness is a fundamental tool that can open our eyes to all the simple miracles that we take for granted or overlook because we are too busy with school or work. Mindfulness is not only a tool for survival, but also one that adds to the awakening of an enlightened life; and the more we inspire our students to practice it, the more remarkable their minds will become in our classrooms and—most important—in their own lives. References Davis, D. M., & Hayes, J. A. (2012). What are the benefits of mindfulness? American Psychological Association, 43(7). Kabat-Zinn, J. (1994). Wherever you go, there you are. New York, NY: MJF Books. Randolph, P. T. (2018a). Employing observation journals to enhance self-awareness and writing skills. MIDTESOL Journal, 1, 1-12. Randolph, P. T. (2018b). Examining the Language-based Components of the Head-to-Toe Method of Associations for Vocabulary Acquisition, Part 4. College ESL Quarterly, 1-9. Art source: Image is from www.pixabay.com. Patrick T. Randolph teaches at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he specializes in vocabulary acquisition, creative and academic writing, speech, and debate. Patrick was recently awarded the “Best of the TESOL Affiliates” in 2017 for his 2016 presentation on plagiarism. This is his second "Best of TESOL Affiliates" speaking award. He has recently received the “Best of CoTESOL Award” for his 2017 presentation on Observation Journals. Patrick lives with his wife, Gamze; daughter, Aylene; and cat, Gable, in Lincoln, Nebraska, USA.
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