Ganz entspannt im hier und jetzt: Fostering social presence in communicative language instruction—Before, during, and after the pandemic

Abstract

This Forum contribution reflects on the new experience of the lack of human contact and interaction in a common space of physical closeness, and how this has affected language learning-and-teaching. Language instruction as a social event (Fahim & Haghani, 2012, p. 693) and as a humanistic endeavor in the here and now, which requires students to be present and interactive in the classroom, has been my teaching philosophy, which I followed ever since I was trained in applying the Natural Approach (Krashen & Terrell, 1988) in the early 1990s at UCLA. It is a method of language learning which aims at a classroom fostering language acquisition through meaningful input, and, consequently, output. To achieve this aim, social presence is a must as a low affective filter supports language acquisition, enabling a fear-free environment in which social exchange is key. The classroom time is mainly dedicated to input activities (listening, including being read to) and interaction (speaking), whereas the time outside of the classroom is dedicated to reading and writing. Classroom activities are affective-humanistic activities (such as dialogs, interviews, preference ranking, personal charts and tables, and revealing information about yourself) and activities using the imagination and the body, including total physical response (TPR) (Krashen & Terrell, 1988, p. 109), which is a method developed by Asher (1969). In the TPR classroom, the students are asked to move in the space according to the instructions of the teacher. They can act out movements, mental or emotional states, and everyday activities or become pantomimes acting out entire stories with their bodies. Of course, this might be more difficult in online instruction, but the student does not always have to be in front of the computer. They can just use the space of their room and follow the instructions of the teacher.

I think of my classroom as a blended-learning space making use of readily available “roughly tuned input” (Krashen & Terrell, 1988, p. 33) of the second language (L2) from many online resources. However, “finely tuned input” (p. 33) still needs to be generated by the instructor in face-to-face instruction as well as in online teaching according to the needs of the group most of the time. That is why all activities presented here are centered around finely tuned input and help language acquisition through repetition (high-frequency input), recycling of words, and range (a great variety of input in different contexts), to name just some input techniques (Caspari, 2019). The concept of social presence “the degree to which a person is perceived as ‘real’ in mediated communication” is an essential indicator of success in online teaching (Cobb, 2009, p. 241). The activities suggested here target relationship, community building, and awareness of and contact with one's own (physical) self.

At the start of the pandemic, we were told that all institutions of higher education (as all schools) in Germany would be closed, and teachers would be expected to begin delivering instruction online almost immediately. This proved to be a stressful time for me, particularly as I did not know for quite a while what platform would be used and what it could do and how social presence could be fostered. I started thinking about what aspects of physicality could be transferred to online teaching. Even though “crisis-prompted” (Gacs et al., 2020, p. 380), these ideas would become online language teaching methods in their own right.

I began to reevaluate what activities were the most beneficial, and exciting, for my students. Although most activities seemed to depend on physical presence, I realized they were as much suited for online teaching as they were for the traditional classroom, observations which were also made by Yamada (2009) and Cobb (2009). The activities I chose do not depend on a specific language or level, on a specific age of the learner, or a specific delivery tool. What they have in common is that they are done in a synchronous setting. Gacs et al. (2020, p. 386) pointed out that the “key to online language learning is to make sure to keep the experience personally relevant and communicative,” something at which all activities suggested here aim. They fall into two categories: affective-humanistic activities (sense of self and interacting with others) and activities involving the actual body and, thus, creating a sense of the (physical) self. The individual experiences could then be used for follow-up exercises with the entire group or for pair or group work.

Many input activities aim at all students at once and do not require breakout groups. The students simultaneously need to react by giving a sign, for example, by handclapping for yes or no. In any class and with any conferencing tool, it is possible to have a few students work on a specific task; and all other students are quiet observers or listeners and can be given different tasks, like taking notes, studying the behavior of the active participants, reflecting on their interaction and the adequacy of the language used, commenting on the practicality of the ideas developed, and so on. Everybody is involved, and follow-up tasks can be created based on those activities. The personal space of the students can become part of the social event, their respective rooms at home—with a virtual background to protect their privacy. Students should be encouraged to leave the camera on for better interaction (Castelli & Sarvary, 2021; Petchamé et al., 2022).

Fantasy trips (Krashen & Terrell, 1988, p. 107–108) also allow for rich comprehensible input and are useful for big groups. They are authentic and personally relevant and can be adapted to many instructional needs. These trips are a kind of internal TPR with great focus and inner attention and capable of “striking deep” (Stevick, 1973). A trip into a forest can serve as an example: The forest is described in detail. The audience is asked to make decisions in their imagination, such as what the forest should look like (ideas given by the narrator), how to overcome an obstacle on the ground (again, ideas are given by the narrator), what to do when encountering other hikers, and what to do when getting to a pond, to a hut, and so on. Fantasy trips allow for high-frequency input, range (great variety of input in different contexts), and frequent recycling of vocabulary (Caspari, 2019).

The method of storytelling allows for rich teacher input during story listening phases (Caspari, 2020). Storytelling, depending on the stories told and the genre chosen, can be done on all levels of language teaching. Mason (2013) offered an extensive collection of storytelling and listening material for different languages and levels. Stories can be the starting point for other activities where production and output (speaking and writing) are emphasized.

Awareness activities can also serve as an effective input tool. They resemble fantasy trips. However, fantasy trips refer to an outside world with which the students are getting in touch and to which they react. Awareness activities center on the body or the self. Stevens (1971) offered a vast range of still very popular activities. The activities increase the awareness of the body and deepen the awareness of the outside world through, for example, listening to sounds, smelling, feeling the body parts, the heart, sensing inner tension, pain, getting in touch with nature and the elements like rain, wind, heat, or cold. Ideally, the student who concentrates on awareness is unaware of the process of the acquisition of language while receiving rich input. Awareness activities, as used in my classroom, are an extension of the activities introduced by Krashen and Terrell (1988, p. 107). The importance of these activities lies in the interest students have for each other's experiences during the follow-up activities (p. 108). Certain activities from face-to-face instruction could easily be transferred to online teaching, creating a strong sense of social presence and sense of self in the students, being part of a synchronous social event. Comprehensible finely tuned input can be directly given and worked with. Even though I am aware that there are many effective ways of creating social presence using online features and programs (Hampel & Stickler, 2015), some activities from the classroom that enable the delivery of finely tuned input can be directly transferred to online-only formats.

Finally, the lockdown ended and eventually, I started teaching in the classroom again, now called Präsenzunterricht (face-to-face teaching). After going through the experience of complete isolation, people appeared to deeply appreciate being present and together again. German university students across all subjects—mostly not satisfied with exclusive online instruction—had missed the feedback, daily structure, and the exchange with their fellow students (see Kearney, 2022).

My observations during the first day of Präsenzunterricht were astounding to me. The students, who had never met me or the other students before, came in and sat down as close as possible to the board. After 30 min of instruction, they asked if they could create a WhatsApp group to stay in touch outside of class. Each day, they had lunch together after class, all of them. For the first time in more than 30 years of teaching, I had perfect attendance of the entire group throughout the intensive course. By their own initiative, they worked together outside of class and solved problems proactively by reaching out to their classmates—instead of the instructor. Finally, they prepared for the exam together and did not need my encouragement.

Before the lockdown, we were mostly unaware of what (almost) complete isolation was and how it would affect us. The appreciation of the return to “normal” was striking. People seemed to cherish real-life encounters, which were possible again. I realized that the sense of being “ganz entspannt im Hier und Jetzt” (relaxed in the here and now) is what I will continue to foster even more than before, supported by activities that give the learners a sense of community in the physical and online worlds. The acquisition of language happens online—and face-to-face—when the teacher and other participants are “visible, present, and authentic” (Gacs et al., 2020, p. 388) and a learning community is established. This is a solid basis for successful language instruction, and, in fact, for all human interaction.