Dr. Hilda Freimuth
As an immigrant child to Canada, I experienced teachers who had very little understanding of how difficult it was to learn a new language. In fact, the strategies and methods used back in the 1970s primary school system were so dreadful that it inspired me to become not only an English as an additional language (EAL) instructor but also a professor of Teaching English to Speakers of other Languages (TESOL). My early experiences of learning English as a newcomer to Canada were painful. The inability to speak English often left me emotionally and physically scarred, as it did other immigrant children. The lack of empathy from most teachers at the time was palpable. I fear most teachers had not received any training in anti-racism, anti-bullying, the process of acculturation, or second language education in the mid-70s. The notion that EAL learners need support with both language acquisition and the acculturation process (Berry, 1997; Daniel & Conlin, 2015) seemed non-existent at the time, despite government funded programs for adult newcomers having been around since 1947 (Ciccarelli, 1997). This lack of training and experience in new teachers of EAL in the school system in Canada was also noted more recently (Aisicovich, 2018). Even the lack of desire to get training was noticed. In the case of British Columbia, most EAL students are immediately placed into mainstream content classrooms (Gunderson, D’Silva, & Murphy Odo, 2014). This underscores the importance of teacher training. Teachers of EAL learners need to acquire an understanding of what it is like to learn a new language and, possibly, even to live in another culture– ideally before they step into a classroom. In light of the mainstream placement of most EAL learners, Cummins and Early (2011) emphasize the need for all teachers in the school system to have a basic understanding of teaching approaches that are culturally and linguistically responsive. So, the question then is: how can universities in Canada better prepare teachers for their EAL students? The building of empathy is one possible solution. This article examines how one university in Canada addresses the building of empathy in its TESOL training program. Although all the courses in the program develop empathy to varying degrees, the ‘curriculum and instruction’ course is an ideal place to situate this type of learning and therefore the focus of this discussion.
The Challenge: Building Empathy
The old Greek term ‘empathicus’, from which the word empathy stems, refers to the ability to understand others “by entering their worlds” (Jaray-Benn, 2019, para 4). Brown (2000) confirms that this definition of empathy fits well into the world of language learning as learners need to be able to understand and feel what another person does in order to effectively communicate. While the focus here is on the learner, an argument can be made that ‘empathicus’ is needed for teachers to do their job effectively as well. Here, Krznaric (2014) takes the notion of empathy one step further and maintains that the cognitive and affective components of empathy need to be combined with a third aspect – empathic concern. This is the use of the one’s understanding to guide one’s actions. In the case of a language teacher then, this empathic concern would guide the teacher’s actions and activities in the classroom. But is this type of empathic concern even teachable?
Over a century ago, Edith Stein (2008), a renowned German phenomenologist, argued that empathy is, at its core, not teachable. This is due to the nature of how empathy works. Empathy is something that is experienced in the moment – a natural phenomenon that emerges from within a person. Consequently, it can be facilitated, but not taught (Davis, 1990). In light of this, teacher training programs should try to find ways for future teachers to experience empathy naturally through activities in the classroom that allow them to enter their students’ worlds. The importance of developing empathy in teacher training programs for K-12 has been already noted:
Literature indicates that an ethos of caring deeply and empathically about children and their welfare has been identified as being at the heart of purposeful teaching, vital to personal happiness and daily attitude renewal and essential to inspiring children to care about their own learning (Boyer, 2010, p. 313).
In the K-12 classrooms, the positive impact of teacher empathy on learners has been widely acknowledged (Verducci, 2000). In one particular study, empathy training for K-12 teacher trainees showed statistically significant increases in levels of empathic abilities (Fraser & Vitro, 2012). This success in K-12 teacher training programs begs the question: what is being done across Canada in TESOL training programs to build empathy? Here is one example at one university in Canada.
The TESOL Course
The university TESOL certificate program for both international and domestic university students, who are either working towards or have completed an undergraduate degree, consists of five different courses, all of which touch on the building of empathy in some way. The focus of discussion here is the ‘Curriculum and Instruction’ course, a 3-credit full semester university course. The course description is as follows:
This course emphasizes the development and practical application of English language teaching methodology. Topics include curriculum design; lesson planning; techniques for teaching reading, writing, listening, and speaking; evaluation; and assessment.
Although the building of empathy is not one of the course’s specific learning outcomes, it was embedded in ‘the history of teaching methodology’ component of the course by the instructor. Part of the assessment of this course was the keeping of a ‘learner journal’. As students experienced the learning of different languages through different historical methodologies, they needed to reflect on their experience and how it felt to be a new learner of the language. They closely examined their emotions in terms of the difficulty of the task and the methodology used. In the first class, students learned a writing system that was new to them all – hieroglyphics. They learned how to read and write their names (and others’ names) in hieroglyphics. While they were doing the lesson, students were asked to think about how it would feel to step back into Ancient Egypt with no knowledge of the communication system. How easy would it be to communicate? What if the lesson were taught fully in Egyptian and not English? How would they feel?
The course then continued on to introduce the history of methodology in language learning. In particular, students experienced learning German from the instructor using the grammar-translation method, the direct method, total physical response, suggestopedia, and the communicative approach. In order to expose students to as varied an experience as possible, the teacher trainees had to create their own lessons based on what the instructor had just done but for their own second or third language. In this way, students not only experienced the methodologies but also learned how to use them in the classroom. The languages students taught each other through the various methodologies included Tagalog, Spanish, Mandarin, Korean, Farsi, and French. The instructor was part of the class lessons as well and so experienced what the cohort was experiencing at the same time. As a student, the instructor experienced the frustrations and joys of learning a new language all over again.
To give the reader some context, an example lesson using the direct method is given here. The instructor begins with three physical items (pen, watch, book) from the classroom. She places them on a table near the students. The following dialogue begins:
Instructor: (holds up the pen and says the word and signals for students to repeat) STIFT
Students: STIFT
Instructor: (holds up the watch and does same thing) UHR
Students: UHR
Instructor: (holds up the book and does same thing) BUCH
Students: BUCH
Instructor: (holds up the pen and says the article and item) DER STIFT
Students: DER STIFT
Instructor: DAS IST DER STIFT.
Students: DAS IST DER STIFT.
Instructor: (holds up the watch and says article and item) DIE UHR
Students: DIE UHR
Instructor: DAS IST DIE UHR.
Students: DAS IST DIE UHR.
Instructor: (holds up the book and says article and item) DAS BUCH.
Students: DAS BUCH
Instructor: DAS IST DAS BUCH.
Students: DAS IST DAS BUCH.
Instructor: (holds up the pen and says) IST DAS DER STIFT? JA, DAS IST DER STIFT.
Students: JA, DAS IST DER STIFT.
Instructor: (holds up the watch and says) IST DAS DIE UHR?
Students: JA, DAS IST DIE UHR.
Instructor: (holds up the book and says) IST DAS DAS BUCH?
Students: JA, DAS IST DAS BUCH.
Instructor: (holds up the book again and says) IST DAS DER STIFT? NEIN, DAS IST
NICHT DER STIFT.
Students: NEIN, DAS IST NICHT DER STIFT.
Instructor: (holds up the pen and says) IST DAS DIE UHR? NEIN, DAS IST NICHT DIE UHR.
Students: NEIN, DAS IST NICHT DIE UHR.
Instructor: (holds up the book and says) IST DAS DER STIFT?
Students: NEIN, DAS IST NICHT DER STIFT.
Instructor: (points to the book and says) WAS IST DAS?
Students: DAS IST DAS BUCH.
Instructor: (holds up the pen and says) WAS IST DAS?
Students: DAS IST DER STIFT.
Instructor: (holds up the watch and says) WAS IST DAS?
Students: DAS IST DIE UHR.
The instructor stops the lesson at this time and debriefs with the students. Then the students choose three items from the classroom and apply the same technique to teach their peers a different language they know. Even if the students only know the basics of another language, they are able to do this lesson. Students without fluency in second or third languages, chose either French or Spanish (from high school or university) for the lesson. After everyone completed their lessons, students took out their learner journals and reflected on the experience and technique as a whole.
Evaluation of Technique and Conclusion
The learner journals clearly revealed that the teacher trainees gained a better understanding of what it felt like to learn a new language through these activities. Since the journal reflections were part of the course grade and protected, they cannot be cited here. However, at the end of the course, students were asked to give feedback on this particular course methodology and to comment if it helped them build empathy for their future students. These are the three responses (out of six) that spoke to the issue:
A: It gave me a perspective I didn’t know I needed. I am of two ethnicities, so I thought I had a good understanding of empathy for learners of new languages, but I was wrong… The patience, the frustration, the excitement, the happiness are but a few emotions I experienced… I think it would be, and is, extremely valuable for any teacher to experience in any area of teaching!
B: This technique provided an immediate experience of being a ‘fish out of water’. From hearing new sounds to trying to form these sounds, I had feelings of awkwardness, shyness to be loud, doubt and [uncertainty], but also joy. This experience definitely gave me an experience of being a new language learner and what it would feel like… Very helpful!
C: This technique was a great way to step into the shoes of the students who we will one day be teaching… since we were learning different languages for the teacher and one another, many of which we had no previous exposure to, it was a perfect introduction to what a beginner English learner would go through.
From the limited feedback given, it can be seen that the use of the historical methodological approach allowed students to step into the world of a new language learner and helped them build empathy for their future students. What it does not address is the understanding of culture shock that students experience in the acculturation process. For this, students would need to travel overseas for a short period of time (at minimum) as part of the TESOL program to experience culture shock and life in a new environment. At this point in time, the closest thing our current TESOL program has on offer is a practicum course in Vietnam. Some of the teacher-trainees from the class cohort are at the terminal with me as we speak. At the end of the practicum in Ho Chi Minh City, students will once again reflect on how the experience has helped them build empathy for their future students. In fact, the students may not understand the impact of the experience until they are back home. In the words of the famous American screenwriter, Eric Roth: “It’s a funny thing coming home. Nothing changes. Everything looks the same, feels the same, even smells the same. You realize what’s changed is you”.
References
Aisicovich, M. (2018). Teachers’ and administrators’ perceptions of EAL students in one Manitoba metro division. [Doctoral dissertation, University of Manitoba]. https://mspace.lib.umanitoba.ca/items/db44c5c8-8cfc-4d6c-937f-6b03f479e38f
Berry, J. (1997). Immigration, acculturation and adaptation. Applied Psychology, 46(1), 5-34. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1464-0597.1997.tb01087.x
Boyer, W. (2010). Empathy development in teacher candidates. Early Childhood Education Journal, 38, 313-321. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10643-010-0419-8
Brown, H. D., (2000). Principles of language learning and teaching (5th ed.). Pearson & Longman.
Ciccarelli, S. (1997). ESL for nation building: The origins of federally funded ESL in Canada. [Master’s thesis, University of Toronto].
Cummins, J., & Early, M. (2011). Identity texts: The collaborative creation of power in multilingual schools. Trentham Books Ltd.
Daniel, S. & Conlin, L. (2015). Shifting attention back to students within the sheltered instruction observation protocol. TESOL Quarterly, 49(1), 169-187.
https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.213
Davis, C. (1990). What is empathy, and can empathy be taught?, Physical Therapy, 70(11), 707–711. https://doi.org/10.1093/ptj/70.11.707
Fraser, J., & Vitro, F. (2012). The effects of empathy-training on empathie response levels and self- concepts of students in a teacher-training program. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 10(1). Retrieved from https://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/article/view/60020
Gunderson, L., D’Silva, R., & Murphy Odo, D. (2014). ESL (ELL) literacy instruction: A guidebook to theory and practice (3rd ed.). Routledge.
Jaray-Benn, C. (2019). Empathy as a source of motivation in language learning and language teaching. https://www.hltmag.co.uk/feb19/empathy-as-a-source-of-motivation#:~:text=In%20order%20to%20communicate%20effectively,further%20enhance%20their%20empathic%20skills
Krznaric, R. (2014). Empathy: A handbook for revolution. Rider.
Bottom of Form
Stein, E. (2008) [1917]. Zum problem der Einfühlung. Verlag Herder.
Verducci, S. (2000). A conceptual history of empathy and a question it raises for moral education. Educational Theory, 50(1), 63-80.
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