Danger! I’ve Been Asked to Talk in English
By: Christopher Regier
Non-Threatening Situations
Look away from your screen. What do you see? Now check in with yourself. How are you feeling? Neutral? Good! Now listen attentively to the sounds in your immediate surroundings. Feeling neutral once again? Good! Through your senses (with the exception of smell), everything is initially interpreted by a part of your brain called the thalamus, then sent to the amygdala. Just a moment ago your amygdala determined that the sights and sounds were non-threatening, which it then signaled to the hypothalamus to keep the nervous system at rest. At this point, approximately 500 milliseconds has passed ( Rossi, 2018). This physiological state not only allows for the process of digestion to continue, but also for a broad range of higher-order cognitive processes like memory function and problem-solving to occur as efficiently as possible.
Threatening Situations and Distress
Hopefully you haven’t been in a situation that threatens your safety or life; however, it does happen. In the distant past, it could have been fending off an intruder or running from a hungry predator. In modern times, real threats can include swerving your bicycle in order to avoid a collision, and getting to safety in the event of a natural disaster. Once a real threat has been detected and passed through the thalamus to the amygdala, it then says “danger!” to the hypothalamus (LeDoux, 1993). The hypothalamus responds to this signal by notifying the anterior pituitary gland to tell the adrenal glands to make and release hormones such as adrenaline and the stress hormone cortisol (Purves et al., 2018). Now your body is prepared with the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response. Fight requires you to defeat or neutralize the threat; flight causes you to run away from it as fast as possible, and freeze would immobilize you in the hopes that the threat doesn’t see you. Fawn is a relatively new term that describes an appeasing or pleasing response to the threat in an attempt to neutralize the situation, for example, moving the hands up and down slowly and saying “take it easy” (Raypole, 2021). At this point, 14 milliseconds have passed, and you don’t feel anything yet.
Now the hormones have entered the bloodstream, and the activation of physiological responses has begun. These include increased heart rate, sweating, hyperventilation, sensitivity of the skin’s nerve endings, and hyper alert senses. Throughout this experience, an area of the brain called the prefrontal cortex monitors the situation to assess whether the continuation of the fight/flight/freeze/fawn response is necessary, or if the body can settle down. If the threat persists, another part of your brain called the Bed Nucleus of the Stria Terminalis (BNST) perpetuates the fear response and the body stays in danger mode (Walker et al., 2003). If the threat is no longer present, then the prefrontal cortex says to the amygdala “It’s alright, you can turn off now. I’ll take it from here”.
Consequences
The process I’ve outlined not only has life or death implications, but also consequences. The prefrontal cortex and the area of the brain largely responsible for memory (the hippocampus), are offline during this experience. Moreover, the body is neither in a rested state for digestion to occur smoothly, nor able to release other types of hormones associated with positive feelings.
Perceived Threat
Now I want you to sit where you are and imagine that you will lose your smartphone when you get on the next train. Take a few moments to take in this scenario with as much detail as possible. Pause for a moment. This story you’ve told yourself is called a perceived threat, and threats of this type are much more common in modern industrialized safe nations. Within this category of threat is a vastitude of negative mental images and thoughts. These perceptions can also take the form of phobias that are non-life threatening, ruminations of the past, and anticipating judgments from others in the future. Whatever the perceived threat is, the amygdala sends a message to prepare the body for fight, flight, freeze, or fawn. In other words, the brain processes these threats in the same way as described when a real threat is present (Rossi, 2018). It can’t tell the difference. As a result, the areas of the brain that are necessary for learning are inhibited throughout a perceived threatening situation, resulting in a suboptimal learning experience for the student, and perhaps a discouraged teacher. It is also critically important to know that the cortex is not fully formed until late adolescence, making it more difficult for teenagers to call upon any capability to calm themselves down from a response to a perceived threat.
Perceived Threat In the Classroom
The implications of this have profound impacts on students in the classroom. Right around the time of adolescence, students become more self-conscious and concerned about how others will perceive them. If they grew up in a learning environment where speaking EFL is discouraged or even punishable through social isolation and stigma, then the opportunity to communicate in English with peers or foreign teachers can be seen as a perceived threat to their reputation. If the concern is being perceived as showing off or standing out, then the student is most likely to freeze, since fight, flight, or fawn aren’t really options in the classroom. Similarly, if children learn that avoiding to speak L2 results in a rewarding outcome (e.g. acceptance from peers and teachers), then the brain learns through repetition from childhood into adolescence to associate the avoidance of communicating in English, with safety and pleasure.
When a student enters a new type of learning environment where L2 communication is not only encouraged but expected, teachers could be up against years of perceived threat. The theme for any given lesson can vary massively, but at the root of all learning goals should also be an unlearning of the freeze response throughout communication tasks. The tools for achieving this outcome go well beyond the scope of this article; however, one is authentic praise and accolades from the teacher that takes into account the student’s emotional well-being, both in the spoken and written form (Hadden & Frisby, 2018). Feedback that is perceived as punishment because the outcome of the task was not met, may reinforce the feedback loop of perceived threat. This includes tense body language and a tone of voice that’s too formal (Effiong, 2015). Perhaps an even more powerful tool is fostering a learning environment where peers encourage one another to use English with each other, in a lighthearted and playful manner. It is also important to consider the controversial topic of the use of L1 in a foreign language class as a crutch to get the student to the next moment, as opposed to having them stutter until they find the right word in the foreign language (Aoyama, 2020). Of course, casual chit-chat in their native language needs to be appropriately handled, but kind redirection, reminders, and firm boundaries are more likely to keep the student in a subjectively non-threatening brain state.
Conclusion
It is without dispute that a teacher’s job is to facilitate a positive and quality learning experience for the skill their students are trying to develop. Yet it is important to realize that the way students process their lived experience can have enormous impacts on their time in the classrooms and the outcomes of a lesson. Be mindful of their perceived threats.
References
Aoyama, R. (2020). Exploring Japanese high school students’ L1 use in translanguaging in the communicative EFL classroom. TESL-EJ, 23(4). https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1242655
Effiong, O. (2015). Getting them speaking: Classroom social factors and foreign language anxiety. TESOL Journal, 7(1), 132–161. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.194
Hadden, A. A., & Frisby, B. N. (2018). Face threat mitigation in feedback: An examination of student feedback anxiety, self-efficacy, and perceived emotional support. Communication Quarterly, 67(1), 60–75. https://doi.org/10.1080/01463373.2018.1531043
LeDoux, J. E. (1993). Emotional memory systems in the brain. Behavioural Brain Research, 58(1-2), 69–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/0166-4328(93)90091-4
Purves, D., Augustine, G. J., Fitzpatrick, D., Hall, W. C., Lamantia, A.-S., Mooney, R. D., Platt, M. L., & White, L. E. (2018). Neuroscience (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.
Raypole, C. (2021, August 26). Fight, flight, freeze, or fawn? Understanding trauma responses. Healthline. https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/fight-flight-freeze-fawn
Rossi, A. M. (2018). First, just breathe: A guide to slightly less regret in your life. Lulu.com.
Walker, D. L., Toufexis, D. J., & Davis, M. (2003). Role of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis versus the amygdala in fear, stress, and anxiety. European Journal of Pharmacology, 463(1-3), 199–216. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0014-2999(03)01282-2
Chris has accumulated over 15 years of experience in both ESL and EFL in four countries. Throughout his career he has worked in administration, curriculum development, and taught students spanning various age groups, from primary school children to adults.