ELT METHODOLOGY (I) – 202

Core Concepts of NLP

I feel really lucky for learning NLP. The core concepts we learned last take my attention
most.

Submodalities -- > “how we imagine the things in our mind”

It is about the question if we see, hear or feel when we remember a thing. Do we see a
picture, do we hear sounds, or do we get sensations?
For instance, when I remember my first day at university, I see the picture of it in my
mind, and sometimes I feel the excitement of that day.

Anchoring -- > “the things that you remember when you are doing sth”
It is about the picture, sound or else makes you remember that thing. For instance, when
you go to a place, you remember a person or an event, which is anchoring.
Anchoring is a way of making a deliberate connection between a state of mind and an
anchor. I like this concept, and when I become a teacher, I will use it to compose a non-
verbal language between me and my students. For example, when I ‘d like them to listen to
me carefully, I can stand in the middle of the scene, and I can raise my two hands up :)
I really liked anchoring.

Sensory acuity -- > “noticing what other people are communicating”

As a teacher we should read the non-verbal messages. While doing this or that, what do
they want to say us? If I get negative messages from my majority of students, I should
immediately do sth. I should notice what is going on in the class.

Rapport -- > “maximising similarities minimising differences”

In the classroom, as a teacher I can catch the attention when I build a close bridge
between me and my students. I can achieve this by laughing with them, by using their talking
style, and by noticing their needs. For example, there could be a computer game that is
popular among students, and when I talked about the game, they automatically give their
attention to me. And I’m sure they think that teacher is from us :) Another example is that if
I notice when they are bored, I can stop the subject there and in a few minute I can make
them an activity or talk together. This is all about being able to get the non-verbal messages.
We mentioned matching and mirroring under this title. I really liked this concept, too.
Doing the same thing with my students may be funny :) , and it works when making the
wrong things right.

Perceptual positions -- > “how you look at the issues”

In every situation, we must see the situation from different positions. As a teacher we
should be able to move flexibly from one position to another to evaluate ourselves better in
the classroom. Are we good enough to teach or not?

Someone else’s shoes -- > “see it from someone else’s perspective”

I like the activity we do when we talk about this concept because it shows us how we
evaluate the problem, and which window we should look from. In my daily life, I always try
to put myself in one’s shoes that I have a problem with. Therefore, I am sure I take my
students behavior into consideration.

Metaprograms -- > “why we do what we do”

This concept depends on what motivation we have. As a teacher we should make our
students find what motivates them. For example, your student may understand a subject
through examples from life, so we should pay attention to this.

Modelling -- > “the study of excellence”

I also like this concept, and I totally agree with that. How we expect from our students to
speak in English if we don’t? Our students are likely to model us, so if we do our best, they
also do their best. If we want to be good at sth, then we should model someone who is
good at it. Therefore, we should lead students to learn modelling strategies.
 Reframing -- > “renaming things”
This is to rename or re-label things in order to change our perception of them. If a thing
reminds us negative sense, then we can change its name. Remember the example “cosy
bumbum” standing for homework.

When we come to the teaching pronunciation, it is necessary to teach pronunciation to

establish understandable communication. I think teachers should give more attention to it.
Because students speak as they hear. If they hear wrong pronunciation of the words, and if
their pronunciation mistakes are not corrected, or if they have no training in pronunciation,
it is likely that they learn wrong, and this follows they cannot understand each other while
speaking. As a teacher we cannot speak perfectly in English as well because we are not
native speakers. However, we should be intelligible. As our students will model us, the more
intelligible we speak, the more excellent they are. We should aim to achieve intelligibility.
That is, it is important to understand the person who is speaking and to be understood by
someone. There is some reasons for misunderstanding. One of them is what students hear,
which creates problems. For instance, speaker say something, s/he thinks that s/he is right
because they cannot hear what they say. In that point, recording their own voice in a type
could be helped. Second, students cannot talk in appropriate way because they are not able
to use their tongue or teeth throughly. Maybe, if they talk in front of the mirror, watch
movies, or listen to stories with sound, it can work.
As a teacher we should direct them to produce correct sounds and intonation. As they
are conscious of the importance of pronunciation, their intelligibility will arise. We don’t
want them to be perfect speaker but understandable by everyone.
In sum, what is important in pronunciation is intelligibility not perfection.