20th - Century Humanism and 21 ST - Century Technology

20th –Century Humanism and 21 st –Century Technology
Learning a foreign language is a challenging task and teaching a foreign language can
be just as daunting.Though as teachers we may experience only minimal changes in
our curricula from year to year , we are constantly looking for new and creative ways
to motivate our students to learn .Once upon a time ,n back in the day of peace , love
and revolution( that is , the 1960s) , a philosophy gained popularity among educators .
That method was base don the premise that if our students feel better about
themselves , they will achieve greatr results as learners.Additionally , the philosophy
said , the more inclined students are to share their hopes, values , feelings and
interests.That philosophy appealed to foreign language teachers because is also meant
that our students would have the confidence to speak more in the target language and
move closer to full linguistic competence . This inovation in teaching was known as
the humanistic approach to education , and exercises developed for the classroom
were reffered to as humanistic activities.
Now , almost fifty years later , we are experiecing another revolution in education : a
social media revolution in which people communicate in cyberspace through aural ,
visual and written discourse. Via facebook , YouTube , a blog , or other venues , one
can reveal interests m innermost feelings , core values ,and straightforwaord opinions.
Furthermore , it’s possible to reveal the real you to hundreds of people who can
become your newest friends at the click of a mouse .
In certain respects , twentieth – century humanism and twenty-first-century social
media are a logical match ; the more you interact with others in cyberspace , the self-
assured you can become , and with the increasing availability of social media .This
paper will explore the background and principles of humanism , then present ideas for
humanistic activities updated for the twenty –first century.
Origins of humanistic methodology in education
Educators realized that more attention needed to be paid to students ’emotional needs ,
and that also had to be reflected in the way teachers performed their duties .
One result was that greater attention was paid to the personal as compared with the
intellectual dimension of the students .In this environment of alienation and rebellion ,
attention to humanism and self- actualization –achieving one’s full potential- gained
momentum in society and in the classroom.
Critics of this shift of emphasis from cognitive to the personal insist that the goal of
education ist o teach academic content according to the requirements of the curriculum ,
and that by devoting time to activities that address the feelings of students , we are
simply creating a distractin from the main task at hand.
Gadd (1998) argues that some teachers substitute affective learning for more formal
learning , to the detriment of the student’s academic progress.
If we consider the basic principles that provide a justification for humanism in
education , its benefits become clear . Reffering to those principles Moskowitz has
written , ‚’’Suppose the target language is taught so that students develop more positive
feelings about selves and their classmates and fiind aut more about what they are really
like. Such an approach will help increase the esteem and undrstanding students have for
themselves and others …’.
Today with the increasing popularity of social media , students have new forums where
they can share their feelings with others. This is an important development for English
language teachres and learners, if we apply the principles of humanism to social media ,
it means that as the number of English language –speaking peers in one’s social media
network grows , it will be easier for a student to move along the path to self-
actualization and that student will have greater potential for success in learning the
target language .
Humanistic activities
Traditionally , humanistic activities designed for the classroom have not been dependent
on advanced technology , so they serve as realistic possibilities for teachers in nearly
every context. But because an increasing number of teachers and students have access to
the Internet the exercises described are adaptable , they include instructions for using
web platforms or more recent innovations such as web-cam chat and social network..
These activities are easy to carry aut in the classroom.
1 Find Someone Who…
Many teachers have had experience with Find Someone Who …, but in humanistic
exercise , the questions that students usually ask each other about hobbies , experiences
and skills can be supllemented with others that address a student’s feelings, valuesand
personal qualities .
Some teachers use this activity during the first week of class , depending on
their students’ level.Each student is given a series of prompts or copies the prompts
from the blackboard . Students move around the classroom and ask their classmates
questions based on those prompts .For example ”Find someone who… has a younger
brother ”, the student must turn the prompt into a question and ask a classmate ”Do you
have a younger brother? ”. if the response is , ”No” the student moves to another
classmate and epeats the question . if the response is ”Yes”, the student asks for the
respondent’s name and writes it after the prompt.The activity gives students practice
with forming questions using ”Do you …,” ”Are you…, ”and ”Can you …,”along with
other structures . The activity also allows for practice using vocabulary related to things
students do , think , and feel ,inside and outside the classroom. Following are examples
of prompts .Fiind someone who …
 can keep a secret( trust )
 is a member of a club( sociability)
 can tell funny jokes ( humour )
 wants to be a leader (leardership)
 wants to read a book ( personal growth )
 cleans his or her room every day (self-discipline )
 likes to works with others (teamwork )
The students are given enough time to fiind people who say ”Yes” tom ost or all of the
prompts . The classroom usually becomes quieter as students near compltion of the
task . Teachers can ask students to talk about some of the interesting things they have
learned about their classmates. Follow- up questions can be used to ellicit more details
during the discission phase.
Using a chat room for Find Someone Who

An internet connection can make it possible for a class to participate in chat rooms.
Such platforms make it possible for students or instructors to post messages hat othres
can read and respond to almost instantaneously . Find Someone Who… can be adapted
to an online chat room format , but instead of the teacher providing the prompts , the
students anonymously post their own sentences . In class, these sentences become the
prompts that students turn into questions as hey try to discover who wrote them in the
chat room. Here are a few exaples of online postings , followed by the in-class questions
they would prompt :
1Post : I taught my brother how to swim last weekend.
Question : Did you teach your brother how to swim (last weekend)?
2Post : I volunteer to tutor students who study English ay my school.
Question : Do you volunteer to tutore students who study English at our school?
The teacher gives a deadline for posting statements , an don the day of the activity prints
the pages containing all of them or writes the statements on the board. The students
mingle as they search for the authors , and when they fiind one , they write his or her
name on the printour . Students should be encouraged to give extended answers and not
limit their responses to a simple ”Yes” or ”No” . A student might answer the question ”
Do you volunteer to help other students ?” by saying ” No . I don’t have any free time to
volunteer because I am studying for my entrance examinations .” That answer tells the
questioner something important about the student .The teacher can ask students if they
were able to identify to authors of all the postings and conclude with a discussion about
the interesting things they learned about their classmates.
Find Someone Who.. can be adapted to a humanistic context . It will give the students a
forum , either in the classroom or online, where they can share information about their
values , feelings and personal qualities . As they do , stronger bonds will be formed ,
confidence to speak in the target language will increase , and they will make progress
towards reaching theit full potential as language learners and human beings .
References :
Simpson , A.J.2011 Why use games in the language classroom?
Arnold , J., 1998 Towards more humanistic English teaching
Samuel , H., 2013 English Teaching Forum

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