Integrating Social and Emotional Learning in the Foreign Language Classroom

Abstract

The objective of this project is to design English as a Foreign Language (EFL) material for public secondary students in Uruguay with a communicative approach and with the intention to develop their social and emotional skills to increase their academic achievement in language learning. The first time that official documents included this social and emotional aspect in students‟ learning was in 2017, in the framework of reference (Marco Curricular de Referencia Nacional) for all the levels of formal education and one of the dimensions of learning is called „An ethic of well-being, feeling and being in the group‟. This dimension implies the social and affective development of the student and it is directly linked to Social and Emotional Learning (SEL). Uruguay has a short history in the writing of documents related to language learning, whether official, second or foreign languages. However, this national framework explicitly attests the need for teachers to develop these skills in every student. The distinction between including an ethic of well-being in an official framework and letting teachers decide by themselves whether to develop students‟ social and affective skills, reveals the significance of the concept of the learner as a whole, therefore, SEL is an increasingly important area in language learning (LL) in Uruguay. In recent years, there has been an interest in the connections between emotions and learning, a considerable amount of literature has been published on SEL. Questions have been raised about the implementation and integration of SEL and LL, consequently, this project has the intention to contribute to show its practicality and to gather information about the benefits and drawbacks of a systematic and thoughtful application of EFL and SEL activities in our country. This work is divided into seven sections including this introduction. The second section deals with the justification of the academic and personal interest where the author explains in detail the situation of language learning and the personal view related to social and emotional skills, which offers a short history of the linguistic policy in Uruguay and the current situation. Section Three includes the general and specific objectives of this project, and Section Four begins by laying out the theoretical framework which shows the contributions from Positive Psychology and Neuroscience before describing Social and Emotional Learning. The fifth section is concerned with the methodology used for this project, and section Six includes the design and a guide for the implementation. Finally, the conclusion gives a summary and critique of the findings.