An approach to social emotional learning to enhance communication of high school students in english

Abstract

[eng] Emotional intelligence is said to predict the communicative performance of students of a foreign language. For this reason, social and emotional learning (SEL) is a field of study that is increasingly being applied in schools around the world. In Spain, emotional skills have not been paid much attention to teaching English. This is evidenced by the lack of studies on SEL practices in the academic environment. Nevertheless, the current society demands more attention to social and emotional skills among young learners, which could be applied to a high school setting. On the one hand, the theoretical part of this research paper is aimed at explaining the benefits of addressing emotional intelligence in high school through a social and emotional learning approach. On the other hand, the objective of the second part is to present some activities to illustrate how SEL could be applied in secondary education to enhance the student’s speaking abilities in the English language while boosting their emotional state.