The Mind and the Body: Putting the Puzzle Together

Fl Copias

Año: 2019 p. 112

978-987-1976-89-8

In conjunction with such topics as the Powers of Language, Social Conflicts and Dilemmas, Conformity and Prejudice, and Music and Painting, the connections between the human mind and the human body constitute the thematic background against which English Language III students at the School of Languages (Facultad de Lenguas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba) embark on the task of developing and enhancing their linguistic skills. To post- intermediate and advanced students, understanding how the mind and the body are related may be a genuinely stimulating challenge. As ESL teachers specialising in these levels, however, we have also often encountered insecurity on the part of some of our students and even reluctance to participate in classes which promote the active and lively discussion and expression of ideas which center around scientific or medical issues. We have also noticed that such fears are rooted in the perception that a person has to be well versed in science to be able to express an opinion or communicate a response.We have designed the present material for our students? in-class and out-of-class work taking special note of two different groups of students: the ones who are naturally inclined to enjoy science-related content and the ones who would also do so, if they could only overcome their initial fears. We have addressed the needs of the former by including listening and reading texts which deal with a variety of perspectives on such topics as fears and phobias, emotional literacy, and alternative medicine, as well as material which presents or describes original, engaging, unusual, and controversial ways of dealing with certain ailments and psychological conditions. We have addressed the needs of the latter through a two-fold approach. We have provided student-friendly background information about common disorders and increasingly popular treatments. Additionally, we have designed activities and tasks which will involve all students alike in a multiplicity of collaborative tasks in which they will be able to share and allay their fears, learn from one another, and construct their knowledge following individual and shared pathways.