I recently went on a tour of Germany where I gave talks sponsored by Helbling Languages Academy. One of the talks I gave was called – Self-Esteem and Confidence in the EFL Class. Robert Reasoner, the founder and former President of the International Council for Self-Esteem established five components of self-esteem that can be dealt with in the classroom. These are: Security – Identity – Belonging – Purpose – and – Competence.
Referring to the second of these – Identity – Verónica de Andrés and Jane Arnold explain the following in their groundbreaking book – Seeds of confidence * –
The Sense of Identity refers to the knowledge I have of myself. It is knowing who I am and who I can become. Identity can be described as the picture that one holds of oneself; and self-esteem is how we feel about that image.
Teachers who promote a sense of identity:
– celebrate the uniqueness of individuals
– promote the development of a positive self-concept
– show acceptance of students, and interest in them as people
– help students recognise their strengths and their points to be developed.
Below is an activity from their book Seeds of confidence * to illustrate how teachers can help students to reinforce their sense of identity and modify their self-concept.
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Jack Scholes has a first degree in Modern Languages from Liverpool University, a Post-Graduate Certificate in Education and EFL from London University, and he is also a Licensed Master Practitioner of Neuro-Linguistic Programming. He has over 40 years experience in ELT and is now a freelance writer, trainer and ELT specialist.
