Written by: Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I have just finished reading a fascinating book which explores the connections between neuroscience and language teaching and learning. While I am far from being a neuroscientist, I believe that having a basic understanding of what is happening in the physical brain can help us understand our responses to certain situations and assist us to stop blaming ourselves when we don’t respond in the way we would like. This is important because so often, language learners blame themselves when they don’t perform as they believe they should. By learning a little about the brain’s automatic responses, we can start to understand our behaviour on a deeper level and can see that some of what we experience is down to biology and not personality.
When we are in a situation that the brain perceives as threatening or dangerous, the brain triggers the fight-or-flight response, also known as the panic response. When this happens, the sympathetic nervous system is activated and hormones including adrenaline and cortisol are released. These hormones prepare you to either fight or run away and cause physical symptoms such as increased heart rate, shaking muscles and a dry mouth. Interestingly, the brain does not differentiate between a real or imagined threat, which is why it’s possible to activate the fight-or-flight response from imagining something scary, or between one that is socially or emotionally threatening.
That last point is important.
Fight-or-flight works well in real, physically dangerous situations when we genuinely need to get the hell out or put our fists up. But it’s far less helpful when the threatening situation is one that poses no physical risk but does contain a great deal of emotional or social risk. Research has shown that there are close parallels between how our brains deal with physical and social pain and that the same networks within the brain are activated for both (Rippon, 2020).
Moreover, when the fight-or-flight response is activated, it inhibits our ability to think clearly because our emotions have taken over, temporarily reducing our cognitive capacity. This is why it’s so hard to concentrate when we are in high-risk situations such as interviews or exams where there is no threat of physical harm yet, because the brain perceives the situations as socially or emotionally threatening, still leading to a fight-or-flight response.
Speaking a second language can trigger negative feelings such as shame, embarrassment, or fear of rejection. Now that we know a little about the way the brain can automatically assume that all threats are dangerous and deserve the same response, it starts to make sense that when a non-native speaker is in any situation that they perceive as threatening, their brains automatically trigger the fight-or-flight response which impedes their ability to logically process information, making fluency and comprehension far more difficult that it would otherwise be.
Because most of us are not aware of the way our brains work, we have a tendency to blame ourselves for what we see as our inadequacies, wrongly believing that it is our fault that we didn’t speak as fluently in our exam as we usually do, or imagining that our listening skills must be awful when we fail to understand everything that was said in an important meeting. Blaming the self, of course, triggers further anxiety and is likely to result in a similar or worse experience next time.
However, if we understand that our reduced cognitive ability in times of stress is not our fault but simply the brain’s way of dealing with what it sees as a threat, we stand a better chance of being able to take positive action out of this state and back towards a more balanced position whereby we are able to remain calm, focussed and present. To achieve this, it’s important to remember that the fight or flight response affects our body as much as it affects our mind. Therefore, taking action that will calm both body and mind is of great help if you are suffering from an unwanted fight-or-flight response. My favourite way to do this is a simple breathing exercise where you breathe out for slightly longer than you breathe in. Doing this activates the parasympathetic nervous system and informs the brain that the threat is over, thereby restoring a calmer state to the body and mind. The added advantage of this technique is its simplicity and portability. You can use it before or during an exam, interview, meeting, or presentation.
Although this breathing technique can be used in almost any setting, it is important to back it up with a regular practice that helps foster calmness. It’s a bit like cooking dinner for important guests. Of course, you can simply turn up in the kitchen and cook the important meal as a one-off, but your chances of cooking something delicious are much stronger if you have a regular routine of cooking!
Meditation is a great way to calm the mind and body. You do not need to sit in the full lotus position for hours. Instead, why not try several short meditations per day, perhaps of 2-5 minutes? When I am working at home, I take a 5-minute meditation in the morning before I open my computer and another after my lunch break. I also do micro-meditations of 30 seconds throughout the working day. This is enough to stop my mind racing and keeps me in a relaxed yet focussed state.
To get deeper into the body, physical exercise that combines movement with meditation and breathwork is a fantastic resource. While there are many to choose from, my personal favourites are yoga and taiji. In the same way that breathwork can be practised in many situations, yoga has the advantage of being easily transferred to different environments. For example, a quick search on YouTube will bring up short routines of desk yoga where you are able to remain at your workplace yet still take a refreshing internal break. Both yoga and taiji are great for overall physical health, balance and general wellbeing as well as teaching you how to become more aware of your body and the way it is feeling at any given moment.
Ultimately, I believe that learning about our unique responses to stressful situations takes time and practice. If you need to use a foreign language in challenging situations, learning how your brain behaves and how you can help yourself to activate a relaxation response rather than a panic response will pay dividends in the long run.
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Sarah Henderson-Sharon, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Sarah Henderson-Sharon is an expert in helping non-native English speakers overcome Second Language Anxiety: the fear, shame, and anxiety they experience when speaking English. A teacher with 17 years of experience, Sarah became aware of the damaging impact of Second Language Anxiety four years ago. Since then, Sarah has dedicated herself to helping her clients understand and move beyond their fears so that they can use English with confidence. She is the founder of Think Positive English where she offers 1-2-1 programs and a community speaking club empowering members to improve their spoken English.
Sources:
Neurolanguage Coaching by Rachel Paling, The Choir Press 2017
The Gendered Brain by Gina Rippon, Vantage 2020
