Mindful Learning Practices with Young Learners

Esim GÜRSOY

Abstract
Teaching English to young learners require a lot of teacher skills
and knowledge due to children’s characteristics, learning
context as well as learner and learning needs. Teachers’ ability
to plan and manage the learning environment no doubt has an
effect on the learning environment. As a consequence of the
digital era and the world’s struggle with the covid-19 pandemic,
learners’ and teachers’ needs have been altered. The students are
more anxious, less concentrated, less focused and as a result
teachers required digital skills, classroom management
techniques and a variety of engaging activities to help their
learners. Despite the benefits of being exposed to multi-media
resources, experts underline the side effects of being too
digitalized by taking our attention to the increase in young
people with attention deficit disorder (ADD). Moreover, the
survival conditions of the covid-19 pandemic era increased
negative psychological reactions like anxiety, worry, surrender,
loss of hope etc. It is no doubt that our learners have been
affected by these conditions. Thus, the language teachers, as all
others, have been trying to readjust the learning environment by
taking students’ psychological and emotional well-being into
consideration. Mindfulness practices have cognitive and
emotional benefits that can be integrated into the language
classroom. By definition, mindfulness is a state of mind in
which the person is actively engaged in the present by
developing the awareness to notice the self and the surrounding
by being sensitive. Derived from meditational practices,
mindfulness can help us reduce stress and anxiety, increase
awareness, become more autonomous by being aware of our
thoughts, feelings and needs. “Mindlessness” as an opposing
term for mindfulness is a result of automatization and rote
learning. These are acts and activities done without thinking.
Traditional classrooms mostly engage students with mindless
activities that restrict the transferability of information to real
life as they rely mostly on memorization. Although relatively
new in foreign language learning environments, studies that
investigate the effects of mindful practices have found that they
have a positive impact on learning, achievement, vocabulary
retention and lowering anxiety levels. Hence, this chapter will
focus on the concept of mindfulness and mindful practices in
ELT young learner classrooms by providing practical examples
as a solution to problems in front of reaching our learning
outcomes.
Keywords: mindfulness, mindlessness, meditation, young
learners
Introduction
The world is no longer the one that we “teachers” were born
into. Considering that the majority of EFL teachers are still
digital immigrants, the far and the foremost change has been the
use and integration of web 2.0 tools in language classrooms over
the years. Being digital natives, our students are very much into
technology that some of them almost “born on to” a tablet or a
computer. Effective and fluent use of technology has brought in
many benefits such as easy access to information, facilitated
communication, flexibility in time and space etc. Field of
education has no doubt use these advantages not only for these
purposes but also to take learners’ attention, increase
motivation, meeting their needs, transferability of information to
out of class contexts and even for classroom management.
The need for using technology, especially web 2.0 tools,
has increased with the Covid 19 pandemic over the last two
years. Ready or not, all teachers started to use digital tools at
some point during their online lessons. The emergency use and
integration of these tools were a cry for help for some time,
however, as the pandemic conditions remained constant for a
while teachers have learnt to use them more efficiently.
Nonetheless, as we get more proficient in online teaching with
the hopes to have more autonomous learners as a consequence,
we have started to experience apathy, lack of motivation,
despair, carelessness, increased anxiety, lack of willingness to
communicate, etc. These reflected themselves as turned off
computer cameras and/or microphones, limited or lack of
participation, going back to the receiver mode as opposed to
being an active participant, over and overt comfort in front of
the cameras.
The adverse affective environment that the conditions of
the pandemic created has caused a second wave of worry on
teachers regarding their learning outcomes and the quality of
education provided. Unfortunately, teachers, as all the other
people around the globe, also experienced and were affected by
the negative emotional state that surrounded all of us. In times
of life and death, during which people struggle for their health
and wellbeing, every day concerns shifts to survival mode.
Thus, teachers concerns for quality education were doubled or
even tripled by the pandemic conditions. Reducing stress,
increasing concentration, keeping motivation up, were no longer
only relevant to students but also to teachers. Hence as with all
the other people, teachers sought for ways to reduce the negative
effects of the pandemic both for themselves and students. At this
point meditation, breathing exercises, yoga and mindfulness
activities gained much more attention than before.
On top of this, despite the positive impact of technology
use, negative consequences of over access or overuse of digital
tools (mobile phones, computers, tablets, etc.) and social media
caused young people to lose concentration and focus easily,
triggered Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), created an uneasy
state, boredom, eyestrain, depression, poor body posture,
isolation, sleeping disorders (Medical News Today; Ra et al.,
2018). Thus, our classrooms were already facing some struggles
even before the pandemic. These unfavorable and most of the
time worrisome side effects of frequent use of technology
affected young people in terms of their social, cognitive, and
physical well-being. In addition, the tension caused by the
centralized exams, pressure of being successful, and many more
context-specific factors play an important role in increasing
students’ anxiety.
Children have different characteristics then adults. They
are naturally less anxious; they live in the here and now and can
focus only to present. Moreover, they are curious, creative,
kinesthetic, talkative and imaginative (Cameron, 2001; Gürsoy,
2012; Halliwell, 1992). Yet, at the same time due to the fact that
they are still in the process of cognitive development they can
learn quickly but also forget quickly, they have short attention
span and can lose focus easily. Although most of the children’s
characteristics are in favor of the teacher (they have lower
affective filters, they are curious, imaginative, they have an
ability to grasp the meaning from context, they go for meaning
(Moon, 2000)), some of them are actually barriers to be
overcome. Added to these the abovementioned issues, seeking
alternative ways to teach children seems to be a compulsory
endeavor rather than a nice gesture.
In the following parts of the chapter, mindfulness as an
approach for the betterment of the language learning and quality
education and a way to promote emotional and mental
wellbeing, will be discussed with examples. In addition to the
ways that mindful activities can help create a better person and a
language learner, the chapter will provide some activities that
can be used in the classroom for a variety of purposes.
What is mindfulness?
Mindfulness, as part of meditation activities, is simply related
with awareness. Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn developing an eight-week
stress reduction program (Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction
– MBSR) in 1979 helped patients practice self-care
(mindful.org) in the basement of a hospital. The program is now
being practiced for over 40 years around the world to help
people reduce the everyday stresses. According to Kabat-Zinn
“Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention,
on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally,”
(mindful.org). Mindfulness practices requires having awareness,
acceptance, non-judgmental attitude for our thoughts (Aydın,
2021) during which observation of the mind, the physical self
and/or the things around us is necessary.
As adults we usually have lots of issues going on in our
minds and most of us brag about their multi-tasking ability. The
inevitable speed of the modern life is forcing everybody to do
multiple things at once. We never have “enough” time for
anything. The everyday hustle and bustle push us to be faster
and faster with little or no time to “stop and smell the roses”
thus result in burnout.
Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental
exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It
occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained,
and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress
continues, you begin to lose the interest and motivation
that led you to take on a certain role in the first place
(Help Guide).
A person feeling burnout loses motivation, interest and
willingness to continue whatever they are responsible for. In
such cases not only the productivity reduces but also the quality
of life is impaired. To break down the vicious circle, a person
needs to learn to live in the here and now. This is something
easier said than done. Children, on the other hand, can only live
in the here and now (Gürsoy, 2012). They do not have future
concerns, nor do they care about the past. This is mostly because
of their cognitive development. According to Piaget, in the
period of concrete operations children can only understand the
concrete information. Anything that is hypothetical, say, the
grammar of the language, is abstract and beyond children’s
comprehension (Damar et al., 2013). Thus, we adopt an
interactional view, mostly oral interaction, when teaching
English to children.
In addition, we prefer contextualized language learning to
connect the content of the language classroom to everyday life.
This way, children can see and use foreign language as a
medium, rather than an end in itself. Considering “English” as a
lesson as all the other courses in a curriculum is against the
nature of learning and using a language. Language is for
communication, and it is used to talk or learn about other
content like science, history, geography … Children mostly
interact by using oral language as listening and speaking are
primary, reading and writing are literacy skills that develop
later. When we observe children in the playground, at home or
at school with their peers and families, we notice that the
conversation topics are mostly related to what is happening at
that moment and it is almost always in the oral language. We
can deduct from this simple observation that children use
language to meet their immediate communication need and it is
to express meaning rather than practice a chunk or a vocabulary
item. Such informal contexts create a comfortable environment
to use and practice the language and the focus is never on the
language itself. Formal “learning” environments, unless they are
organized otherwise, focus on accuracy, form and the language
itself. The learning process that does not focus on the language
functions and the practical purpose of learning a language can
increase anxiety, although children by nature have lower
affective filter unlike adults.
In addition to the learning environment, the social context
can cause children build stress and worry towards education
despite their characteristics. The external causes of stress and
anxiety has an effect on children’s attitudes towards school and
their motivation to learn. These negative feelings can also be fed
by unsupportive and competitive learning environments. Such
external conditions create an uneasy state of mind ending up
with behavioral problems as well as troubles in communication.
As children in primary school are still developing cognitively
and have less metacognitive awareness, they are mostly unaware
of the causes of stress and anxiety. In order to control their
behaviors and to improve their communication they need to
become aware of their thoughts, senses, emotions and feelings.
Mindfulness practices can be used as a technique to develop
metacognitive awareness. Children’s natural and instinctive
characteristic to stay in the “here and now” has a critical and
practical effect on helping children become mindful.
In addition, mindfulness requires individuals to have a
non-judgmental attitude towards their thoughts and emotions.
Still developing emotionally, children tend to be judgmental on
their and others’ behaviors, ideas and actions which can create
communication problems. Thus, mindfulness practices can
contribute to children’s social and emotional development by
helping them not only to become aware of their thoughts and
feelings but to accept them with a non-judgmental attitude as
also mentioned by Caballero et al., (2019). As beliefs and value
judgements develop during early years of a human life (Gürsoy
& Salı, 2014) it can be argued that mindfulness activities can be
used to increase children’s sensitivity in accepting themselves,
their surrounding and the environment with a non-judgmental
attitude.
What is mindfulness in education?
Mindfulness is now practiced in many different areas
from politics, to business, from sports to education. Many big
companies such as Google, Apple, Starbucks, Reebok are
having their employees practice mindfulness at the workplace
(see What is mindfulness, Simple answers, profound meaning at
What is mindfulness? Simple answers, profound meaning at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ny0d20TBc7s). In addition,
NBA - Chicago Bull’s coach Phil Jackson was also having the
basketball players use mindfulness techniques (TEDx
Bahçeşehir University, 2019). Most interestingly, mindfulness
practices are being used by the parliaments of Britain, Whales,
Sweden, Denmark and Holland.
It is no surprise that mindfulness is becoming a part of
educational process recently. Mindfulness in education can be
discussed as opposed to mindlessness in education.
Mindlessness in the field of education is associated with rote
learning, memorization, and automatization. Hence, it
emphasizes a more behavioristic and traditional approach. It can
simply be argued that if one is not into traditional learning thus
should consider a mindful approach.
A mindful approach to education puts teachers’ efforts
into good use by improving the learning outcomes. Mindfulness
in education requires awareness, attention, focus, acceptance
and non-judgmental attitude. Increased awareness in the
learning context contributes to the improvement of children’s
short concentration span by helping them to bring their attention
back in the classroom again. The ability to focus on tasks and
classroom instruction would no doubt affect students’
achievement. As children get easily distracted, mindfulness
practices can be used to help them to stay in the here and now.
Such practices can also be used as a classroom
management technique along with other contemporary
classroom management techniques. During times when children
feel agitated, over excited (because of a competitive game, a
task, an event …), worried (because of an upcoming exam, or
due to other internal or external factors), angry (to a friend, the
result of a game, …) and/or behaving inappropriately in the
classroom, mindfulness practices can be used to take the
attention to the self (thoughts, senses, feelings) or the
environment, by becoming aware of the feelings/thoughts and
accepting them by letting go.
In addition, breathing exercises can be used as a transition
from a stirring activity, during which students are physically and
cognitively active, to a settling activity. Usually after kinesthetic
activities children have hard time to settle down, thus, teachers’
either avoid such activities in order not to deal with classroom
management problems or only use them at the end of the lesson
in order to be “saved by the bell”. Limiting activity selection to
abstain from the possible discipline issues or not to waste time
to bring the students’ attention back to the class and to the next
activity might cause teachers to make their decisions for reasons
other than effective language practice. Hence, the use of
mindfulness practices can serve a dual purpose by increasing
students’ attention and focus and also helping teachers manage
the classroom.
 Intense focus and increased awareness on the self and
environment that are raised by mindfulness practices can also
trigger critical thinking. Critical thinking and conscious
awareness are two important elements of 21st century classes.
Such abilities pull the teacher and the student away from a
traditional approach to learning and teaching, during which the
students are not allowed to think but to repeat and memorize.
Therefore, it would be safe to argue that mindful education is a
way to promote 21st century learning and support 21st century
learner. It is also argued by some researchers that mindfulness
practices can also promote creativity as well (see, Langer, 2000;
Moafian et. al, 2019; Wang & Liu, 2016). From this perspective,
mindfulness can be an important element of a 21st century
classroom.
Why do children need mindfulness activities in the
classroom?
The use of mindful activities increases the learning
outcomes as the techniques help lower anxiety, facilitate
classroom management, positively affect vocabulary retention,
increase success (Zeilhofer, 2020), increase concentration,
develop focused attention (Napoli et al., 2005), improve
listening skills and create room for more engagement in
language learning activities (Moafian et. al, 2019). Children
being affected by the global, contextual, developmental, and
personal factors are in need of mindfulness activities. These
factors can be listed as follows:
1. The outcomes of the Covid - 19 era
2. Overuse of technology (which increased while online
teaching during pandemic)
3. Exam oriented education system / assessment anxiety
4. Behavioral problems
5. Hormonal and emotional changes towards and during puberty
Survival conditions of the Covid-19 pandemic era
increased negative psychological reactions like anxiety, worry,
surrender, loss of hope etc. Children were affected by the
negative consequences of the process as much as adults did.
Emergency use of technology and practicing online
teaching at first seem to have positive consequences like helping
learner autonomy, creating a flexible time and place to study as
the materials and video recordings were uploaded for students’
practice. However, due to the emotional load of the pandemic all
our hopes came to naught. We couldn’t benefit from the
opportunities that technology brought as much as we hoped.
Students, as well as teachers, experienced apathy, lack of
motivation, despair, carelessness, increased anxiety and lack of
willingness to communicate. We found ourselves “begging” our
students to turn on their cameras and microphones. In addition,
our students went back to the receiver role as opposed to being
active participants in the learning process. The over and overt
comfort in front of the camera was also another handicap of the
learning environment, added to these, the parents’ and/or the
siblings’ presence and sometimes interference with the learning
were some of the other issues that both the teachers and the
students have to cope with.
In addition, the pandemic increased the screen time of
young learners as 6-8 hours of teaching were added to their
everyday technology use. Although technology has many
benefits in education, overuse of technology has drawbacks that
affect children’s emotional and physical health such as apathy,
attention deficit disorder (ADD), poor body posture, isolation,
depression etc. (medical news today; Ra et. al, 2018). Over
access to computers created an uneasy state on top of the
emotional disturbance of the pandemic.
Children are not anxious by nature, however, the context,
learning environment, product orientedness, rather than the
process, parents’ and older children’s unrealistic or incorrect
understanding of the assessment, children’s lack of
understanding of the benefits of assessment as well as the exam-
oriented system in Turkey triggers assessment anxiety. Focus on
success and failure rather than the progress of each child, creates
a pressure and a competitive environment, which usually results
in anxiety and worry. When assessment is not used as a form of
feedback for students to benefit from, it contributes to the
negative feelings that children might develop about learning.
Another reason why children might need mindfulness
exercises in the classroom is due to the result of their emotional
development. Children are not aware of their emotions and they
are not very good at identifying how they are feeling. Therefore,
they can react or respond in inappropriate ways when they are
upset, angry, jealous ...etc. They have limited ability to control
their emotions. They are still in the process of learning social
relationships, rules, developing respect to others and
personal/cultural differences. They are also learning building
and sustaining relationships. The emotional development
process can be sometimes hard on children causing them to use
inappropriate behaviors. Awareness about emotions and
accepting them is difficult for children but at the same time
necessary.
Finally, another reason for children to practice
mindfulness might be the hormonal and emotional changes that
they go through as they approach puberty. During this stage in
life, children become more concerned with others’ thoughts
ideas and becoming a group member is more important to feel
accepted. This natural process might distance them from
themselves as they become more concerned with what others
think and do. They need to learn to focus on themselves, their
feelings, and thoughts for self-development and to be able to
stay in the here and now as they use to do before puberty.
During puberty children have higher affective filters and
become more anxious as being approved by others become more
important. They need to learn to cope with the physical,
hormonal, and emotional changes. For this to happen they need
to stay focused and develop the ability to identify feelings,
emotions and thoughts and watch them as they change. Using
mindfulness techniques will definitely help them to lower
anxiety, calm them, increase concentration, develop focused
attention and stay in the here and now.
Mindfulness practices enable one to develop the ability to
stay in the “here and now”. This is easier said than done. During
a day, 60.000 different thoughts come through our minds (see,
MindfulNEWS, 2015). Unfortunately, more than half of these
are either related to the future or the past. Getting stuck with the
past or future thinking causes us to skip focus from the present.
As we start to observe our breath, surrounding and/or the
physical self, we become more aware of the present. These
practices will help us stay in the moment and bring our mind to
what we are dealing with.
Such concentration and attention are very needed in the
classroom. Children loose concentration easily, they get
distracted very quickly, and most importantly due to the
abovementioned reasons they need to lower their anxiety.
Mindfulness practices are not only good for psychological
and emotional wellbeing but also for language learning and
skills development. They also contribute to creating a positive
classroom atmosphere.
In short mindfulness practices have a positive impact on;
 learning and achievement (Taşan et al., 2021; Zeilhofer,
2020),
 vocabulary retention (Jenkins, 2015; Önem, 2015;
Zeilhofer (2020),
 concentration and focused attention (Zeilhofer, 2020),
 building positive and effective relationships,
 developing positive emotions (Langer, 2000).
 lowering anxiety and stress levels (exams, relationships,
worries related to future …) (Langer, 2000; Önem,
2015),
 classroom management (Jenkins, 2015),
 increase in memory (Langer, 2000,
 contribute to creativity (Langer, 2000; Moafian et. al,
2019; Wang & Liu, 2016)
When to use Mindfulness practices in the classroom
Mindfulness practices can be used at any time depending
on the teacher’s purpose for using them. Taşan et al., (2021)
argue that breathing exercises can contribute to language
learning when used during foreign language instruction. At the
beginning of the lesson they can be used to;
 help students concentrate on the lesson
 help students to clear their minds from the past or future
worries
 take students attention
 help students feel comfortable
 ease students minds
They can also be used during the lesson;
 for classroom management
 to bring students’ minds back to the learning
environment (when they are distracted)
 to reduce stress before an exam
 to help students concentrate on a task
 to ease behavioral problems
 to regulate their relationships with friends
 to help distracted learners come back to the present
moment
At the end of the lesson mindfulness practices can be used;
 to help students get ready for the next lesson
 to help them focus on themselves and their senses and
the environment
 as a closure for the lesson
 for inner peace …
Mindfulness practices to lower anxiety
Focusing on our breath is the simplest way to regulate
our heartbeat and lower anxiety. Moreover, bringing attention to
breath also increases conscious awareness. Children in primary
school are always excited and active. Although teachers use
these characteristics as an advantage for classroom activities,
they can also be a reason for distraction. The natural
characteristics of children can be an issue for classroom
management. Added to these, losing concentration easily and
having a short attention span are other challenges that teachers
have to face. Breathing exercises when made visual (concrete),
can help children to calm down and lower anxiety (see breathing
boards 1 & 2 below).
Breathing in a calmer rhythm via counting or observing
the breath takes our attention to the self. When the many
thoughts come visit our minds we let go of them by focusing our
attention to counting our breath or the visual that we use for
attention. In addition to breathing boards as shown below
children can practice breathing by following their fingers via the
index finger of the other hand.
For this exercise ask children to open one hand and
stretch it out. Then ask them to follow the fingers starting from
the thumb with the index finger of the other hand. As the index
finger climbs up the thumb tell them to breathe in and as the
index finger goes down, to exhale. If they are confused while
tracking the fingers, tell them to go back to the thumb and start
again. Here, using both hands will help the children bring their
attention to the hands and the breathing process. Tracking is also
making breathing a more concrete activity for children which is
appropriate for their cognitive development.

(visual taken from

https://www.facebook.com/funsensoryplay/photos/a.117246676
469862/390995292428331/?type=3)
A variation to this exercise might be to ask children to
stay with their breath when they are at the tip of a finger for
three seconds and then exhale slowly. Here the emphasis should
be made to “staying with the breath” rather than “holding the
breath”. Holding the breath could be tiring for young children as
it puts a lot of pressure to the lungs. However, the aim in
mindful breathing exercises is to take tummy breaths as babies
do when they were born.
If a newborn baby is observed while sleeping, as
different from the adults, one can see that the baby’s tummy gets
bigger rather than the lungs. This type of breathing is what we
were meant to do throughout our lives. However, as we grow
older with the speed that life brings to our lives, the rush and the
everyday worries make us take short and quick breaths to the
lungs. Appropriate breathing is related with the oxygen intake,
which is necessary for the cells in our body. Thus, rhythmic
breathing with an effort to send the air down to our diaphragm
contributes to our oxygen intake and regulating our heart beat.
In addition, watching and observing the index finger as it
goes up and down the fingers prevents distraction. The
environment has lot of stimuli that would cause to lose focus
and attention. Such activities direct concentration on a single
point and contribute to the process. For adults, breathing could
be practiced by closing the eyes, if they are comfortable with it,
again to avoid external distractions.
Mindfulness practices for classroom management
Breathing exercises within mindfulness practices can
also be used for classroom management. For younger learners in
primary school, who are in the period of concrete operations, it
might be difficult to follow the breath or regulate anxiety with
rhythmic breathing. Therefore, using breathing boards will be
easier as they make breathing process visual and thus concrete.
The students will follow a path to breathe in and out with their
fingers. So, they will be touching, seeing, and practicing
breathing in a more concrete manner. As a result, children will
be able to regulate their excitement, anxiety, stress and become
more focused. Below are some examples of breathing boards
(see, teacherspayteachers.com). A teacher can also create his/her
own shape and lines. Older children can use these by following
the path in the air with their fingers.
Breathing Activity 1: Breathing Boards

Breathing Board 1
(taken from teacherspayteachers.com)
 Breathing Board 2
(taken from teacherspayteachers.com)
Another way to make breathing a concrete activity
together with imagination, is to use objects that students are
familiar with. Students can be asked to smell a flower by taking
a deep breath and blow out a leaf to exhale (see breathing
activity 2 below).
Similarly, they can imagine that their tummy is a balloon,
and they need to blow it. Teacher asks the students to put their
hands on their tummy and observe the movement as they
breathe in and out. Visualization of the breathing process also
creates room for speaking activities afterwards. Children are
imaginative by nature. Asking them questions like;
 What color is your flower/balloon?
 How does it smell (flower)?
 How big is your balloon?
 Where is your leaf?
 How far did it go?
 Is your leaf green, yellow, orange or red?
 How do you feel? (When practicing emotions:
happy, relaxed, calm, excited …)
Another version could be blowing out the birthday
candles on a cake. You can start by asking questions about
birthday parties, their favorite birthday cake, party materials like
candles, balloons, presents, food and drinks;
 When is your birthday?
 Do like birthday parties?
 What do you do in your birthday?
 Do you have cake and candles?
 What is your favorite cake? …
After activating their schema show them a picture of a
cake with candles. First ask: “How many candles are there on
this cake?” Then tell them to blow them out together by taking a
long deep breath and then long blowing. Do this exercise several
times. You can stick paper candles and take one of them each
time students blow. Repeat this until all candles are off.
Breathing Activity 2:

(visual taken from teacherspayteachers.com)

Mindfulness activities for the awareness of the senses

If one checks their observation of a parent and a child

they will soon realize that parents work hard to protect their
children from cold, sun, hunger, etc. Children are not usually
aware of their senses, they rarely sense they are cold and need a
jacket or they stayed under the sun for a very long time and got
sunburn. Usually, parents warn their children to wear something,
get into the shade or its time to stop playing and eat something.
Learning to listen to our senses develops in time and only with
awareness. Most adults also have a tendency to ignore their
senses throughout the day but continue to live with the
discomfort of the feeling. For instance, one might suffer from
back pain yet, ignore it to continue and finish the tasks that they
were assigned. Or some forget about the fact that they haven’t
eaten for a long period of time as they were working on
something and realize that they are starving. Moreover, there are
quite a lot of people who forget to breathe while working or
speaking and suddenly they feel the urge to take a deep breath.
How is it possible that we forget to breathe or ignore the fact
that we are thirsty or continue doing our house chores with a
pain in our neck? Although one might not be aware of these
senses and feelings they suffer from, these negative senses cause
discomfort on them. As the unidentified unpleasant feeling
continues to exist, it starts affecting our behaviors by making us
impatient, quick tempered, restless, tired etc. Awareness on the
senses facilitates awareness on the self. Mindfulness practices
like body scan, mindful walking, mindful eating/drinking etc.
can whet such consciousness.

Mindful walking activity

Mindful walking activity can be a fun and an awareness

raising activity for young learners. During the activity the
children will walk without a destination. The aim is to observe
the body, muscles, steps, posture … Ask students what kind of a
“walker” they are. Here are some questions you can ask as they
are walking:

 Are you walking “toes first”, “heel first” or “sole first”

(when taking your steps).
 Are you a slow walker or a fast walker?
 Which muscles are tight? Which muscles are loose?
 Can you feel your back/tummy …?
 What do you do with your hands?
 Can you feel your clothes as you walk?
 Can you feel your shoes? Are they comfortable?
 Can you feel the ground? …

These and similar questions will help the children to focus their
attention to the physical self. If the students are cognitively more
developed you can ask how they feel when they walk.

Mindful walking activity can be done outside to observe

the environment. Take children to the school garden for a walk.
As they walk around ask them to notice the things they see. Ask
them to look at the details (like a cat on a tree, a bee on a flower,
a sign drawn on the ground, clouds in the sky, pebbles on the
ground etc.) The following questions can be used as a guide for
teachers;

For the sense of sight,

  What are somethings you see?
 Do you notice anything different?
 What are some colors you see?
 Where do you see these colors?
 Do you see the bird? What color is it?
 What colors are the flowers?
 Are they big or small flowers? ….

For the sense of hearing,

 What are some sounds you hear?

 How many different sounds can you hear?
 Where do these sounds come from?
 Can you hear the buzzing of the bees? Or chirping of the
birds?
 Can you hear your footsteps?
 What kind of a sound do they make (sound changes
depending on where they walk)
 Which sounds do you like?
 Which sounds you don’t like?
 Can you hear people or the cars on the street?
 Which vehicles can you hear? (car, bus, bicycle,
motorcycle, electrical scooter …) …

For the sense of scent,

 What are some smells you can notice?

 Can you smell the food coming from the cafeteria?
 Can you smell the soil?
 Can you smell the flowers?
 Can you smell the air?
 Can you smell the wind?
 How many different smells can you notice?

For the sense of touch,

 Can you feel your clothes as you walk?

 Can you feel your shoes?
 Can you feel the ground under your shoes?
 Is it soft (soil) or is it hard (asphalt)?
 Touch the tree how does it feel?
 Touch the leaf how does it feel?

Such activities will help children direct their attention on the

surroundings and also they can be used as a language practice
activity afterward. How mindful walking can be used as a
language practice will be explained in the following section.

Mindfulness activities for foreign language practice

Most of mindfulness activities can be used as language

practice as well. Moreover, they can serve as a transition from a
stirring activity. After a kinesthetic activity children find it
difficult to settle down and concentrate back on the other
activities to come. During this time asking children to be quiet
or sit down may not work. As children are not good listeners and
as they learn by doing and seeing, a settling activity should
follow a stirring activity. To get students back to their focus,
increase their concentration and attention, the teacher might
choose to do some breathing exercises. As students follow their
breath by counting or as if smelling a flower, they get back to
the here and now.

Another advantage of using mindfulness practices is to

compensate a weakness of children’s characteristics. As
mentioned above, children are not good listeners. Yet, effective
communication requires focused and attentive listening.
Discrimination of sounds, words, phrases, sentences are
important micro-skills that require some time to develop. Most
importantly, listening comprehension relies mostly on careful
listening. Following activity is a good one to practice focused
listening and a way to stay in the here and now.

Mindfulness activities to develop focused listening:

notice each
listen to sound
sit straight your (how many
close your
allign your eyes surrounding different
spine carefully sounds can
you
identify?)

This focused listening activity can then be turned into a

writing activity as well. Students can write as many different
sounds (pen scratching on paper, teacher’s footsteps, car
honking outside, cleaning lady swiping the floor in the corridor,
chairs/desks squeaking, etc.) as they hear. The teacher can ask
the most interesting one or can ask for a round of applause to
those who heard more sounds. With this activity students will
practice attentive listening. They can differentiate hearing
(inattentive, inevitable) from listening (purposeful, focused).
Listening as one of the important oral communication skills can
be difficult to develop. One way to prevent communication
breakdowns is to listen carefully. As children are not good
listeners by nature such activities will serve a double purpose by
helping them to calm down and stay focused and develop
attentive listening.

Another activity that can engage students with the here

and now is to focus on attentive observation of their senses. Five
senses activity below can be used as a speaking and a writing
activity as well.

Five Senses Activity

Stay at the present moment:

Sit in your chair. Observe your senses. Bring your attention to what is
happening now. Write/say what you sense right now!

I can see ………………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………

I can taste …………………………………………………………………….

…………………………………………………………………………………

I can feel ……………………………………………………………………...

 …………………………………………………………………………………

I can hear ……………………………………………………………………

…………………………………………………………………………………

I can smell …………………………………………………………………..

…………………………………………………………………………………

Such activities can start with breathing exercises as well.

Focusing on breathing helps children to be more focused. Also,
they can be used as a settling activity.

Identifying feelings and accepting them is a very

important step of emotional development. Children are not
usually aware of their feelings; thus, they might react or respond
inappropriately when they feel upset, angry, anxious, jealous or
nervous. Mindfulness activities can help children’s emotional
development. Recognizing different feelings is the first step for
that. Teachers can use many videos prepared for children. “Be
the pond” (Cosmic Kids Yoga, 2019) is one of them that can be
used with children.

Another activity could be a coloring activity during

which children are asked to color the parts of their body
according to where they feel a certain emotion. Our bodies
respond to our feelings in many different ways (headache,
heartburn, sweaty hands, foot shake…). Noticing the changes or
the warnings of the body can help us become aware of that
feeling and let it go.

Anger –

Jealousy –

Happiness –

Anxiety –

Worry –

Love -
Mindful walking activity to promote speaking and
collaboration

As explained in the previous section mindful walking

activity can serve as a speaking and or a collaborative writing
activity for language learning purposes. After their observations
of their surrounding individually, asking them to pair up or form
groups to tell and/or write as many things as they see, hear,
smell or feel. This could turn into a collaborative competition
during which students force themselves to listen more carefully
or look for details. Later students can be asked to share their
observations with the rest of the classroom.

Teacher’s questions for deeper awareness can also be

used as a language practice.

T: What do you see? St: I can see trees, a bird and cars.

T: What color are the flowers? St: They are red and yellow.

T: What is your favorite color? St: Red or Yellow?

T: How many trees are there in the garden? St: There are 7 trees.

T: Tell me what do you see in the garden? St: I see …

T: How do you feel now? St: I feel happy, excited, calm ….

The teacher can also encourage the students to ask and

answer the questions to each other. This would create a
meaningful, contextual and relevant learning environment as
well as contributing to children’s wellbeing.

Conclusion

Mindfulness, in other words developing the ability to

stay in the here and now without any judgement, is becoming a
necessity of modern life both for adults and children. Today,
people cannot stop multitasking and carry out many
responsibilities all at the same time. As we cannot reduce the
number of tasks we have to deal with, it might be possible to
increase our effectiveness and productivity by staying focused
and concentrated. Simple breathing exercises and other
mindfulness practices as exemplified in the chapter can provide
a more settled, calmer state of mind that gives the motivation to
continue.
 Children are no exception! Be it their characteristics,
natural instincts, cognitive and emotional development, or
teachers’ needs for classroom management, language practice
and contextual factors, mindfulness can be used as a part of
lesson plans to create a positive and productive learning
environment. With higher concentration and more focused
attention it is possible to increase learning outcomes as well as
to deal with emotional hardships that children might be going
through.

Mindfulness practices can be used at any time during the

lesson. At the beginning of the lesson to help children focused
on the course, during the lesson to regulate the classroom, cope
with classroom management problems, make a transition from a
stirring activity, or at the end of the lesson to reduce anxiety,
prepare students for the next lesson, help them gain focus or
internalize what they have learnt.

All in all, being mindful is a practical way to enjoy the

present, increase work productivity, reduce stress and anxiety,
develop concentration and focus, become better communicators
by being better listeners, increase self-awareness as well
awareness about the surrounding. It can be used by teachers and
with students, even with the young learners, for the betterment
of the teaching-learning environment.

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