Introduction
Teaching and learning English as a foreign language to adolescents is
always a challenge not only for students but also for teachers. According to Bordignon
(2005), dozens of emotional, social, educational and even political factors
exert profound influence in the way learners acquire knowledge in this respect.
In 2017, after several failed attempts to improve the educational system, the
government of the Province of Cordoba created a special program for secondary
schools called Programa Avanzado de
Educación (ProA) which has the objective of emphasizing the use of Information and
Communications Technology (ICTs) in all areas of instruction. However, nothing
has been previously said about the tools that may contribute to improve
students’ performances and motivation in relation to foreign language
acquisition.
For this reason, it is of paramount importance to provide answers to
questions like How can Social-Emotional Education and Neuroscience help teachers of English as a foreign language of public schools in Villa Nueva Cordoba belonging to the Programa
Avanzado de Educación (ProA) boost their secondary students’ motivation? or
Which educational strategies can efficiently increase the motivation
to learn a foreign language in the previously mentioned individuals?
Furthermore, it seems necessary to conduct some research in order to be
able to describe the educational role of Social-Emotional Education and Neuroscience in motivating public
secondary school students belonging to the Programa Avanzado de Educación
(ProA) schools in Villa Nueva Cordoba to learn English as a foreign
language.
Literature Review
Bordignon, Nelso Antonio (2005). El desarrollo psicosocial de Eric Erikson. El
diagrama epigenético del adulto. Revista Lasallista de Investigación, 2(2),
50-63 https://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=69520210
Summarizes
the psychosocial development theory of Erik Erikson, and the epigenetic diagram
of young people. Gives a brief account of the content of each psychosocial
stage according to the VIII stages of the whole life cycle proposed by Erikson.
Cefai, C.,
Regester, D., & Dirani, L. A. (2020). Social and
emotional learning in the Mediterranean: Cross cultural perspectives and
approaches. BRILL.
Characterizes
how the rise of social and emotional learning (SEL) is an essential requirement
in positive human development and meaningful education. Describes the
consequences of adverse educational practices in the Mediterranean region.
Gotlieb, R., Hyde, E.,
Immordino-Yang, M. H., & Kaufman, S. B. (2016).
Cultivating the social-emotional imagination in gifted education: Insights from
educational neuroscience. Annals of
the New York Academy of Sciences, 1377(1), 22-31. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13165
Gives an account of
evidences from education, psychology, and neuroscience about development of the
social–emotional imagination in educational contexts in Sierra Leone.
Introduces the term giftedness to
refer to the general intelligence students have to acquire language.
Sklad, M.,
Diekstra, R., Ritter, M. D., Ben, J., & Gravesteijn, C.
(2012). Effectiveness of school-based universal social, emotional, and
behavioral programs: Do they enhance students’ development in the area of
skill, behavior, and adjustment? Psychology in the Schools, 49(9),
892-909. https://doi.org/10.1002/pits.21641.
Attempts
to answer the question of whether teaching social and emotional skills to
foster social–emotional development can help schools extend their role beyond
the transfer of knowledge through 75 recently published studies.
Van Lancker Sidtis, D. (2008). The Relation of Human
Language to Human Emotion. In Handbook
of the Neuroscience of Language (pp. 199-207). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-045352-1.00019-7.
Provides a clear overview of
how neuroscience has grown as an auxiliary educational science over the last
few decades. Discusses methods and techniques such as clinical assessment
approaches, and methods of mapping the human brain.
