Nlp In English Language Teaching

ABSTRACT ii

The purpose of this presentation is to determine the use of NLP in language teaching. In this study, in the first part, some background information was given about what Neuro-Linguistic programming (NLP) is, and whether NLP was used in language teaching before. To put forward whether NLP is effective in language teaching, general questions related to NLP are to be asked to language teachers in questionnaires and interviews. The collected data were analyzed in tables and graphics by using numerical system. According to the findings, the hypothesis and the results were once more examined in the conclusion part.

1. INTRODUCTION

Language learners generally think that learning a language is a long and a difficult process. It is logical for language to require a long time but this is not such difficult. Or, in fact, learning a language must not be regarded as something difficult. For a language learner to find learning it enjoyable rather than difficult, teachers should always search for ways to make it enjoyable for them. If learners do not enjoy this process, their anxiety and stress increases. Both physically and psychologically, this gives harm to learners.

For all these reasons, new methods or ways must always be tried in language classes. In addition to this, a language teacher must never find the courage himself to say that he is the best teacher, or he knows the best way of teaching. Instead, a teacher should always try to develop himself maybe by searching and reading a lot, or maybe by modeling his colleagues.

Since 1970s, there has been a rising attention to individual's memories and psychologies. This approach brought a new learning method: Neurolinguistic programming. It refers to providing a theoretical framework and a set of working principles for directing or guiding therapeutic change. NLP provides questions and patterns to make our communication more clearly understood. NLP teaches us to understand how language affects us through implicit and embedded assumptions. Since advertisers, the media and politicians use language to convey their messages, learning about language through NLP can increase awareness and "consumer protection" for individuals' minds.

If NLP can increase awareness also in language learning and gives learners to discover their own learning and memory types, then it may be really effective for language learners. This is to be proved or maybe not at the end of this study.

2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

2.1. Background to NLP

Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP) refers to a training philosophy and a set of training techniques first developed by John Grindler and Richard Bandler in the mid-1970s as an alternative form of therapy. (Richards & Rodgers, 2002: 125). Grindler (a psychologist) and Bandler (a student of linguistics) were interested in how people influence each other and in how the behaviors of very effective people could be duplicated. They were essentially interested in discovering how successful communicators achieved their success. They studied how successful therapists and concluded that they "followed similar patterns in relating to their clients and in the language they used, and that they all held similar beliefs about themselves and what they were doing." (Revell and Norman 1997:14). Grindler and Bandler developed NLP as a system of techniques therapists could use in building rapport with clients, gathering information about their internal and external views of the world, and helping them achieve goals and bring about personal change. They sought to fill what they perceived to be a gap in psychological thinking and practice of the early 1970s by developing a series of step-by-step procedures that would enable people to improve themselves.

NLP is...a collection of techniques, patterns, and strategies for assisting effective communication, personal growth and change, and learning. It is based on a series of underlying assumptions about how the mind works and how people act and interact. (Revell and Norman 1997:14)

The NLP model provides a theoretical framework and a set of working principles for directing or guiding therapeutic change, but the principles of NLP have been applied in a variety of other fields, including management training , sports training, communications sales and marketing, and language teaching.

NLP, with its roots in psychology and neurology, is about the way the brain works and how the brain can be trained for the purpose of betterment. It encompasses or is related to 'left / right brain' functions, 'visual / auditory / kinesthetic' learning styles, multiple intelligence and other areas of research which are attempting to identify modes of learning whilst recognizing the importance of the individual learner.

(http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/methodology/nlp.shtml#one)

Here are the key features of NLP:

* NLP is about recognizing patterns.

* NLP is concerned with process rather than content.

* NLP provides a model of how we communicate with ourselves and others. (Darn, 2005:1)

The name "Neurolinguistic Programming" might lead one to expect that it is based on the science of Neurolinguistic and that it also draws on behaviorist theories of learning. However, in NLP neuro refers to beliefs about the brain and how it functions: the literature on NLP does not refer to theory and research in neurolinguistics. Linguistic has nothing to do with linguistics but refers to a theory of communication, one that tries to explain both verbal and nonverbal information processing. Programming refers to observable patterns (referred to as "programs") of thought and behavior. NLP practitioners claim to be able to deprogram and program learners' behaviors with a precision close to computer programming. Learning effective behaviors is viewed as a problem of skill learning. It is dependent on moving from stages of controlled to automatic processing. (O'Connor and McDermott 1996:6). Modeling is also central to NLP views on learning:

Modeling