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Mit Ruhe und Gelassenheit : Imagination, Movement, and Relaxation in the German Language Classroom
Author(s) -
Jany Berit
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
die unterrichtspraxis/teaching german
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1756-1221
pISSN - 0042-062X
DOI - 10.1111/tger.12121
Subject(s) - german , feeling , psychology , stress (linguistics) , movement (music) , anxiety , dissociation (chemistry) , pedagogy , mathematics education , social psychology , aesthetics , linguistics , art , chemistry , philosophy , psychiatry
Schools and universities continuously face new generations of students who struggle with stress management. Many learners have sedentary lifestyles in which they are deprived of somatic learning opportunities. Other learners experience feelings of dissociation and sensations of disembodiment that have a negative impact on their learning. This article presents a way to establish a connection between mind, body, and language that can help students and teachers counter the negative effects of stress in our high‐pressure world. The use of imagination, movement, and active relaxation encourages and sustains a body‐mind integration that offers learners of German a somatic learning experience. The proposed movement and relaxation elements serve as tools for students to comprehend and speak German in a relaxed atmosphere that enables them to self‐regulate their stress and anxiety levels and explore their own somatic psychology.