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LANGUAGE ISSUES 29.2 ARTICLES 49
Physical activity and second
language acquisition: mind and
body working together
Luz Locatelli Dalimier
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to implement physical activities in two
teenage groups of ESOL students (entry level 1 and Entry level 2) N=54 to
improve their motivation and wellbeing in the classroom. The ndings
oer a preliminary baseline to support and to justify the next step of this
research project, which will consist of designing specic vocabulary and
grammar activities using physical activities. Learning a language for
long hours in the classroom can lack stimulation for younger learners.
This in turn can then trigger disruptive behaviours. A questionnaire
was adapted and administered before and after the physical activities.
An analysis of variance was applied to show the modications on their
psychological states and their motivation. Behaviour changes with
and without the physical activities were considered. The results show
modications on the pre-test and test despite the dierent characteristics
of both groups. Kinaesthetic activities show a positive impact on learner
motivation and wellbeing, demonstrating the importance of physical
activities in the classroom to promote engagement.
Introduction
Many researchers have demonstrated that physical activity can improve
well-being and some cognitive functions in the people who regularly
practise it. (Garcia Naveira & Locatelli Dalimier, 2015). According to
Garcia Naveira et al. 2015 and Lengel & Kuczala (2010) children and
adolescents who maintain a physically active life have a more positive
appreciation of life, can set goals and projects easily and they will have
beer and stronger emotional and physical resources to help them to
deal with dicult life situations and to cope with learning processes.
In addition to these active life habits will help them to avoid sedentary
behaviours and aitudes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends at least 60
minutes of moderate-to-vigorous intensity physical activity daily in
order to improve cardio-respiratory and muscular tness, bone health,
and cardiovascular and metabolic health biomarkers (e.g. heart rate,
blood pressure). The WHO emphasize that these recommendations are
applicable for all children and young people between 5-17 years old
irrespective of gender, race, ethnicity, or income level.
Like many post-16 institutions in the UK, the college where the author
currently works places great importance on Personal Development and
Wellbeing (PDBW) and consequently new teaching strategies and work
relationships needed to be created to accommodate this.
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My research background in sports science helped me decide to
include other resources from other elds to improve well–being and
concentration in 16-18 year old ESOL students. My belief in teaching is
not only to support the students with basic grammar and vocabulary or
reading and writing, but also to promote wellbeing in the classroom as
part of the PDBW strategies proposed by the College.
The aim of this study was to incorporate movement to practise
vocabulary, reading and basic grammar with Entry 1 and Entry 2
ESOL learners who are preparing for an accredited TRINITY ESOL
examination and to highlight how these activities can have a positive
eect on the students’ motivation to learn and on their well-being in the
classroom.
The reasons to add kinaesthetic activities to the lesson plan were as
follows:
1. Students do not always engage and contribute suciently well in
their programmes. The large majority of learners aend regularly
and punctually and are prepared. However, this is not always the
case for a small minority of students. Sta do not always manage
the challenging behaviour of students with sucient condence to
re-engage them successfully in tasks without disrupting learning
(kinaesthetic activities could help with dierentiation engaging beer
learners with diculties).
2. These activities could help to maintain beer concentration levels in
students with these diculties.
3. The hours of physical, activity suggested by the National Health
Service (NHS) is 60 minutes per day in children and adolescents.
However, according Moreno Murcia, et al. (2012) if this specic
population is not enough intrinsically motivated, then they do not
reach this minimum amount of physical activity. These activities
would cover some of the minimum required by NHS.
4. This pilot project tried to demonstrate how 2 dierent ESOL Entry
level classes could improve their wellbeing and motivation levels
in the classroom (and consequently beer behaviour) through the
practise of physical activity included on their lesson plan.
5. The 16-18 immigrant ESOL learners have challenged teachers to
design and apply new techniques to improve motivation, well-being
and learning management in the classroom. This project tried to
explain how it was possible to maintain high levels of well-being and
motivation during teaching hours (5 hours of ESOL classes per day)
applying some specic physical activities for 4 consecutive weeks.
6. These kinaesthetic activities could help students to retain the
information more quickly and eciently by relating the language to
fun and movement .
7. The students’ perception of time spent in the classroom might be
shorter.
8. Personal Development and Wellbeing would be included in the
scheme of work (SoW) in line with institutional policy.
Many studies have been carried out in the ESOL environment applying
dierent techniques, designing new ways of interaction and learning in
the classroom (Woulds, 2015; Walsh, 2014) highlighting the importance
of applying dierent group techniques to reinforce and motivate the
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LANGUAGE ISSUES 29.2 ARTICLES 51
learning process in the classroom. However, no research using specic
physical activities in the classroom to improve well-being and motivation
has yet been conducted.
Well-being
Subjective well-being (SWB) was dened by Deiner (2009) as the general
evaluation of one’s quality of life. SWB has been conceptualized as
having three components:
1. A cognitive appraisal that one’s life is good (life satisfaction).
2. Experiencing positive levels of pleasant emotions.
3. Experiencing relatively low levels of negative moods (Deiner, 2009).
Ry & Keyes (1995), proposed a theory of well-being including dierent
components such as a positive evaluation of oneself and one’s past
life (Self–acceptance), a sense of continued growth and development
as a person (Personal growth), belief that one’s life is purposeful and
meaningful (Purpose in life), having relations with others (Positive
relations with others), the capacity to manage eectively one’s life and
the world (environmental mastery), and a sense of self-determination
(autonomy and self-determination).
This SWB has been positively associated with participation in sport and
vigorous recreational activity among adolescents (Fung Kei, 2015; Garcia
Naveira & Locatelli Dalimier, 2015; Steptoe & Butler, 1996).
Motivation and engagement
The motivation and engagement scale (MES) was elaborated by Martin
(2007, 2010). He developed a model which provides a complete evaluation
of motivation and engagement at college or school. This model was
considered for this research because it easily explains the link between
learners’ engagement and motivation, but a pilot questionnaire designed
by the researcher had to be used to allow students with basic English
language skills to understand and to provide the right information about
how they feel before and after participating in an activity in which sports
and language learning would be related.
According to Martin (2009), motivation gives students’ ability to engage
in their studies and to achieve one’s potential and engagement is the
behaviour that follows from this energy and drive. Motivation and
engagement inuence the learners’ interest in and enjoyment of study
(Martin 2007, 2009, 2010).
Motivation and engagement are relevant to all students and educators.
Students at all stages in their studies may benet from adaptive
motivation and engagement, while disruptive students may benet
through greater engagement. Educators may benet through enhanced
opportunities for learning and development in the classroom. This
raises several questions. How can we engage adolescent ESOL students
to maintain a good level of motivation in a ve-hour lesson? How can
we distribute the activities to keep the basic cognitive skills (aention,
memory, motivation) on the best baseline? What are the advantages of
these evaluations with our learning groups? Could these activities be
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facilitators when we need to develop dierentiation in the classroom?
Could we engage all the students despite having diering writing, and
spelling skill levels in only one activity and to keep the group together?
The connection between the kinaesthetic
andthe classroom
How often do students need to move?
According to Healy (1990), it is very dicult to determine children and
adolescents’ aention span because it varies from subject to subject. Some
studies (Schmi, 1999; Bruer, 1991; Kinoshita, 1997), measured subjects’
ability to stay focused on a task. Children and adolescent concentration
levels vary in relation to age. On average, it has been reported that
concentration levels increase by three to ve minutes each year. For
adults, the average aention span is between 15 to 20 minutes.
Bruer (1991) suggested that children who are raised in stimulating, active
environments produce more neural connections in the brain. When the
body is inactive for 20 minutes or longer, there is a decline in neural
communication (Kinoshita, 1997).
Following these ndings as a teacher and researching for this paper my
questions were:
• What appears to be the average aention span of the students in my
classroom when they are interested in the topic and/or activity?
• What appears to be the average aention span of the students in my
classroom when they are not interested in a topic /or activity?
• How much material can I cover in a particular timeframe where my
students can comprehend, process, and retain the information?
• How many learners in my classroom like kinaesthetic learning?
According to Mitchell, (2009) it is clear that movement allows students to
refocus and strengthen their ability to pay aention. The ndings were
signicant when they did reading, spelling, and maths achievement tests
following exercise.
In our opinion, teachers are responsible for keeping a high level of
engagement and well-being in the classroom. How can this be achieved
when learners are having diculty in staying focused?
Low levels of engagement may be evident through signs like:
• Staring into space
• Fidgeting, wiggling hands and feet
• Humming
• Doodling
• Talking to a neighbour
• Shouting answers before the question is completed
• Acting up by breaking class rules
• Displaying aention-seeking behaviour
• Failing to follow directions accurately or completely
• Inability to nish activities
• Interrupting others.
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Identifying these signs will assist in determining when students need
to move their body so they can refocus and re-energize their brain.
Additionally as teachers, we could talk about well-being and avoid
talking about bad behaviour.
Why is so important to keep learning
processes and physical activity in the
classroom?
Purpose 1: Prepare the brain
It is believed the way we think, learn, and remember can be directly
inuenced by the physical movements in which we participate
(Ratey, 2008). Each hemisphere of the brain controls the opposite
side of the body. A thick bundle of 250 million nerve bres called the
corpus callosum connects the two hemispheres and allows them to
communicate. Crossing the midline, also known as cross laterals, refers
to moving the arms and/or legs across the body from one side to the
other. These integrative movements help students prepare for learning by
forcing the hemispheres to work together, assisting in energy and blood
ow, decreasing muscle tension, and stimulating and focusing the brain
to improve concentration (Dennison & Dennison, 1998; Hannaford, 1995;
Promsilow, 1999).
Purpose 2: Provide brain breaks
Blaydes, Madiga & Hess (1999) argue that approximately 90% of the
oxygen in our body or brain is stale unless we take a deep breath, or get
up or move.
Some of the reasons to include brain breaks are:
• To give the hippocampus, in part responsible for short-term memory
and navigation, time to process information.
• To lessen feelings of being overwhelmed by content.
• To provide the opportunity for laughter and fun.
• To refocus the brain as students return to the content.
• To develop social skills.
• To reenergize the body and the brain.
Purpose 3: Support Exercise and Fitness
In less than 60 seconds, you can have the students participate in a
physical activity, such as jogging in place on the spot, which can refocus
their brain while giving it a burst of fresh oxygen. Ratey (2008) concluded
that there is a strong correlation between academic skills and physical
tness scores. Nevertheless, what could we improve by introducing some
physical activity into the classroom?
• Providing a brain break.
• Energising the body and refocus the brain.
• Improving students’ health and wellbeing.
• Improving academic achievement through enhanced brain function.
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• Improving mental/emotional wellbeing.
• Learning more eciently.
• Reducing stress.
Purpose 4: Develop class cohesion
Following Sousa (2006) it was postulated that the parts of the brain,
which use higher-level thinking strategies and critical-thinking shut
down when an individual’s emotional state is compromised. The third
priority of the brain is receiving data for new learning. In conclusion,
the emotional climate in your classroom plays a major role in a student’s
ability to learn new information. How can we improve the class
cohesion?
• Providing the brain with a much-needed break.
• Improving communication and listening skills.
• Providing an opportunity for problem solving and higher–level
thinking.
• Oering an environment that promotes laughter and fun while
engaging learners.
• Improving motivation and discipline.
• Heightening students’ interest in aending and participating in class.
• Building relationships and a general concern for one another.
• Developing a sense of belonging
• Improving self-esteem.
Purpose 5: Review Content
Some researchers have found a positive correlation between learning
and physical activity (Sousa, 2006; Hannaford, 1995; Jensen, 1998). When
cognitive information is linked with movement, retaining and recalling
the data become easier and memories and neural pathways fade when
they are not used. Reviewing concepts can take place at the beginning,
middle, and end of each lesson. Combining the review of material with
movement can easily be implemented throughout lessons.
For example, spending a long time reviewing previously taught concepts
at the beginning of the lesson may not be the best use of time (Wile
& Shouppe, 2011). However, a quick kinaesthetic activity that allows
students to review information and focus the brain can be very eective.
An activity of this type may motivate and prepare the brain to dive into
something new.
This explains why it is so important to consider specic physical
activities and games, which involve movement to review vocabulary and
to practise new grammar acquisition in the ESOL environment.
Purpose 6: Teach content
Now the question is: how can I teach content using movement? Jensen
(2000) proposed a few reasons for increasing the amount of learning in a
classroom seing:
• More information can be absorbed and may be retained for longer.
• Every age group can learn and obtain knowledge.
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• Bridges may be formed that connect the body and brain.
Some teachers may lack the condence to could think they would not
be capable to carry out these activities in their classes and they may ask
questions such as: personality to make this work?
• Can I maintain eective classroom management?
• Will movement make learning more ecient?
• Will I have enough space?
• Will I be able to maintain a safe environment?
In short, yes. The teacher does not need to have specic knowledge in
physical training or physical education. At the end of this paper, this
paper, you will nd some pictures with very simple and easy activities to
use with the students. Once you get use to these activities, you can start
to think about grammar or vocabulary revision applying physical games
or kinaesthetic activities with the help and coordination of Physical
Education (PE) teachers or the information easily found in Primary or
secondary school manuals, which explain these activities (see a list of
good references at the end of this paper).
The brain–body connection
Since I started with my research journey in Sport Psychology and
physical activity and well-being (Locatelli Dalimier, 2012; Garcia Naveira
& Locatelli Dalimier, 2015), I was very interested and motivated to nd
out the biological responses to some psychological states like anxiety,
motivation and concentration. My question was: in education: should the
brain and body be addressed separately or together? How does the brain
learn, and how can movement help this process be more ecient?
In 1999, Marillee Sprenger, in her book Learning and memory: the brain
in action, proposed ve dierent memory lanes through which the brain
stores information in long-term memory.
1. Semantic: represents word meaning by using discussion and reading.
2. Episodic: refers to location memory by creating pictures of where we
were when an event occurred.
3. Emotional: the most potent of all lanes, it processes emotionally
charged events.
4. Automatic: contains information that becomes automatic and readily
available.
5. Procedural: stores information related to movement.
In 2004, Oberparleiter, developed what he called the same part of the
brain – compatible principles. Movement can play a direct role in ve of
those principles during the classroom experience:
1. The brain is aracted to novelty. The six purposes of movement can be
used to provide this desired novelty.
2. The brain pays aention to movement. Movement with purpose acts to
keep the aention and focus of students.
3. The brain needs to interact with people and things in its environment: class
cohesion activities using movement build a sense of community
among classmates.
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4. Learning is easy to store, remember, and retrieve if it has an emotional base.
Movement activities often create positive emotional states causing
students to link positive emotions with learning.
5. The brain operates from concrete experience – everything stems from that.
Nothing is more concrete than using movement to learn or review a
concept.
Following Oberparleiter (2004) it is an advantage to include physical
activity in the classroom as makes more pathways accessible to
learning and memory than with a traditional model; it involves sensory
engagement, makes recall easier, engages the whole brain learning for a
clearer picture, and provides immediate rehearsal of new information.
After describing all the previous research in relation to movement in the
classroom and learning, I would like to list the reasons why this learning
method might be very useful for adolescent ESOL learners.
Reason 1: Movement provides a break from learning and refocuses aention.
(Levin, 2011). The hippocampus, crucial to the conversion of working
memory to long-term memory, has a limited capacity and can be easily
overwhelmed.
Reason 2: Movement allows for implicit learning. Implicit learning is
generally dened as learning that takes place beyond our conscious
awareness. Though there are many ways for this to take place, movement
is a strong learning tool.
Reason 3: Movement improves brain function. Ratey (2008) concluded that
movement as aerobic exercise not only stimulates cognitive functions,
but it improves our cardiovascular system as well.
Reason 4: Movement meets basic needs. As a part of his choice theory and
internal control psychology, Glasser (1998) identied the following as
basic human needs:
• Survival
• Belonging
• Power
• Freedom
• Fun, which also would reinforce the ESOL learners’ wellbeing, as
they are in a new culture and country.
Reason 5: Movement improves the learning state. According to Jensen
(2000), if a student has a positive learning state when material is being
taught, the learner has a beer opportunity to make connections and
understands the concepts and the information they are learning.
Reason 6: Movement dierentiates instruction. It has been suggested that
85% of students are predominately kinaesthetic learners, which means
that they rely on kinaesthetic intelligence for learning (Jensen, 2000).
Reason 7: Movement engages the senses. The brain learns and stores
information through sensory cues. The more senses used for learning,
the more likely the information will be learned and stored. In a
classroom seing, this often happens through listening, writing, seeing,
and discussing (Sousa, 2006).
Reason 8: Movement reduces stress. Schools and classrooms are stressful
environment (Queen, 2004). These stressors come from many areas,
including prolonged siing, academic expectations, feelings of
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disconnection from the educational seing, social and peer pressure, and
unmet needs. Movement and exercise can have a positive eect on the
brain as it aids in the reduction of stress levels.
Reason 9: Movement increases circulation: siing for long periods causes
blood to pool in the buocks and legs, which means less blood is geing
to the brain. Allowing students to stand up and move around while
incorporating the six purposes of movement alleviates these issues by
increasing heart rate and blood ow to the brain.
Reason 10: Movement enhances episodic learning and memory. The brain
makes note of where it is when it learns something. With movement, the
learning is easy to recall.
Method
Participants
Thirty-seven (N=37) ESOL students participated in this study. Seventeen
(N=17) students were Pre-entry 1 ESOL level, eight males and nine
females and twenty (N=20) students were Pre-entry 2 ESOL level, ten
males and ten females. They were all between 16-18 years old, from
dierent Central and Eastern European (Romania, Slovakia, and Poland),
Western European countries (Italy, Greece, and Spain), Middle East
countries (Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Afghanistan) and African countries
(Guinea, Sudan and Somalia).
All of them come to College from Monday until Friday and study
dierent subjects (ESOL, Maths, ICT and Sports). ESOL classes last two
and a half hours, and two days a week, they have ve hours with thirty
minutes’ break for lunch. All of the students read and write in their rst
language and have gone to school in their countries.
Group 1: Entry level 1. This group shows some aendance and behaviour
issues. They tend to disrupt the class, especially after the rst hour.
Lesson planning is focused on interactive and practical activities, which
helps them to work beer and to keep high levels of concentration, as
they tend to lose it very quickly. There are some late starters in the class.
Group 2: Entry level 2. Minor behaviour issues. Concentration and
amount of activities is higher than the other group. Their writing and
reading skills are higher than those of the group. Their aendance and
punctuality is much beer as well. Lesson planning for this group is
dierent as they can concentrate on writing and reading activities for
longer periods.
Design
An ANOVA repeated measures study was carried out with these two
groups. ANOVA is a statistical method in which the variation in a set of
observations is divided into distinct components. General wellbeing in
the classroom (dependant variables) was evaluated before and after some
physical activities (independent variables) for four weeks. The groups
were divided according to their English language level (Entry 1 and
Entry 2).
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Materials
A questionnaire with a Likert scale 1: strongly agree (SA), 2: I agree (A),
3: disagree (D), 4= strongly disagree (SD) (a questionnaire pilot design)
was used to evaluate how students felt in the classroom before and after
they did some kinaesthetic activities. This list of questions was adapted
to their English language level. It has 22 items, which evaluate di erent
aspects of the wellbeing, e.g. anxiety (12. I feel anxious), cognitive
abilities (2. My concentration is not good), mood states (5. I feel sad),
body stress responses (4. My body is relaxed).
The intention in using questionnaire was to avoid language barriers, as
other questionnaires evaluating wellbeing use more complex vocabulary,
needing at least a Level 1 ESOL to understand some of the items. Another
well-being questionnaire was used as a model (Ry , 1995) and the items
were adapted at the students English language comprehension.
Procedure
Before starting with the study, all the participants were asked to sign a
consent form in which information regarding the study and its objectives
were clari ed to them. This study followed the British Psychological
Society guidelines. The study was carried out on Wednesdays and
Thursdays in November 2017 between the afternoon (12:30–15:00 hrs.
session) and twilight session (15:30–18:00 hrs. session). The students
have 5 hours of English lessons on each of these days. At the end of the
afternoon session, they participated in some speci c physical activities.
Before starting with the activities and completing the questionnaire
students were taught the vocabulary they would need to follow the
activities, respond to the questionnaire vocabulary, and were shown how
to do the kinaesthetic exercises (see pictures below).
These pictures illustrate which activities learners participated in and
the charts what impact they would produce on their wellbeing in the
classroom.
These activities were done with the intention of using movements, which
would cross the midline of the body and improve visual tracking and to
develop the vestibular system and spatial awareness.
After Christmas learners responded to the wellbeing and motivation
questionnaire designed for this activity two times a week over four
weeks, but this time without doing any physical activity (normal ESOL
grammar and vocabulary delivery following the scheme of work (SoW),
but no kinaesthetic activities were carried out. The purpose of the control
group was to have the same group reactions but this time without
applying a kinaesthetic routine.
Pictures with di� erent physic al activities applied with both groups.
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Results
For the two groups, an ANOVA repeated measures study was carried
out. Measures 1, 2, 3 and 4 correspond to the Entry level 1group, and
measures 5, 6, 7 and 8 correspond to group 2 Entry level 2. On the graphs
1 and 2 , it is easy to visualise how both groups start from lower levels
of wellbeing and after the kinaesthetic activity, they modify positively
their feelings.
On the graphs, 3 and 4 no signi cant modi cations were seen. These
two graphs belong to the wellbeing carried out on the same group after
Christmas but this time without doing the Kinaesthetic activities.
Graphs
Gra ph1. Entr y 1 group. Graph2. Entry 2 group.
Before and after physical activity Before and after physical activity
Graph 3. Entry 1 Tests without Graph 4. Entry 2 Tests wit hout
before and after physical activity before and afte r physical activity
Discussion
The aim of this research was to incorporate movement (kinaesthetic)
through speci c physical activities to improve wellbeing and motivation
(PDBW) in Entry 1 and Entry 2 ESOL learners who were preparing for
accredited TRINITY examinations.
These ndings were a preliminary baseline to support and to justify
the next step of this research project, which will consist of designing
speci c vocabulary and grammar activities with the combination of
kinaesthetic activities.
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After conrming that wellbeing and motivation suered positive
modications increased by doing these activities, new ideas and next
steps started to be shaped by the researchers.
Supporting the ndings of Fung Kei, 2015; Garcia Naveira and Locatelli
Dalimier, 2015; Steptoe & Butler, 1996, the practice of physical activity
modies levels of wellbeing in a positive direction. The results show
that both groups improved their positive feelings after the completion
of specic physical activities which were supposed to modify and
improve concentration, motivation, anxiety and feelings toward the
learning process in the classroom. However, some dierences could be
seen in both groups. Group 1 (Entry level 1) showed improvement but
less consistently due to the shorter concentration span compared with
group 2 (Entry level 2). This could be the reason why lesson planning
diers from one group to the other and why the physical activities they
participated in aected them.
As Mitchell, 2009, Gardner, 1999 and Oberparleiter, 2004 showed
wellbeing, concentration and positive feelings improved in this study
after doing kinaesthetic activity. According to our ndings, this pilot
project has proved that after kinaesthetic activities in the classroom,
wellbeing has a positive impact on motivation and concentration. This
could give insight into how the body and mind work together and how
movement helps to improve some cognitive functions and emotions.
These learning strategies could be designed with the help of expert
teachers or researchers in PE and psychologists who could advise
which are the best activities to improve specic psychological states.
For example, how can we reduce anxiety in the classroom, reinforce
motivation, memory, concentration, practise dierent content such as
vocabulary, grammar, or just have fun learning?
One of the next steps on this kinaesthetic learning model would be to
add some grammar and vocabulary content to link with the physical
activity as Sousa, 2006; Hannaford, 1995 and Jensen, 1998 suggested.
It could be useful to compare a review of previous concepts in a more
traditional way in the classroom with a quick movement activity that
allows learners to refresh the recently-learnt content.
Some possible advantages of using the physical activities were
summarised in the introduction, and these have been borne out in
the ndings.
Reason 1: Movement provides a break from learning and refocuses aention
(Levin 2011). It was shown in this study that there are modications in
the psychological aspects related to wellbeing. Two dierent groups were
evaluated in a period of time and both after the kinaesthetic activities
modied positively their motivation, well-being and concentration.
Reason 2: Movement allows for learning. After these specic kinaesthetic
activities, students were capable to work beer or to recover a good
concentration level and positive aitude to the learning process.
Reason 3: Movement improves brain functions. Ratey (2008). With these
activities, some cognitive functions like concentration improved and
at the same cardiovascular functions were activated as a consequence
of the exercise, which would mean a very important and considerable
secondary positive eect.
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Reason 4: Movement meets basic needs. Glasser (1998). Some psychological
aspects were reinforced doing these activities, such as fun, freedom,
power, body domain, which is very important for adolescents in a
vulnerable situation.
Reason 5: Movement improves the learning state. Jensen 2000. Matching
dierent intelligences and learning areas (kinaesthetic and linguistic)
could provide a more positive learning environment for the adolescents.
After these activities, both groups modied their psychological aspects
into a more positive state across the dierent tests.
Reason 6: Movement dierentiates instruction. Jensen (2000) showed that
85% of the students are predominately kinaesthetic-learners, which was
demonstrated in this study, both groups and the majority of the students
responded to the activities in a positive and engaged way.
Reason 7: Movement engages the senses. Dierent exercises to stimulate
specic areas of the brain were used in this study. According to Sousa
(2006) the more senses you use, the beer learning and storage processes
occur.
Reason 8: Movement reduce stress. This study demonstrated that the stress
levels were lower after the application of these specic activities.
Reason 9: Movement improved circulation. Cardiovascular variables were
not considered in this study but for future studies some physiological
variables could be used as Locatelli Dalimier (2012) used to demonstrate
the link between cognitive and somatic anxiety and blood pressure and
heart rate modication.
Reason 10: Movement enhances episodic learning and memory. We could
not conrm with this study the positive modication of these cognitive
aspects, but for future studies, it would be interesting to measure brain
activity before and after these tests.
In summary, with this pilot study the positive eects on the wellbeing
and engagement of the application of a program of physical activity
(kinaesthetic) in two dierent groups of ESOL students were
demonstrated. From a practical perspective, there were a number of
advantages for teachers. The increased movement will improve the well
being of the students, and matching the kinaesthetic activities with
writing, reading and speaking activities will help students to learn
quicker because the learning will be positively associated with the
physical activities. Engagement and participation will be more eective
as the students will be doing mixed activities (physical activity and
intellectual activity). It will also facilitate socialization as they will do
group activities. This last will also contribute to reducing behaviour
issues especially in hyperkinetic students or with those who nd it
dicult to concentrate for long periods of time. There are many positive
outcomes with respect to the use of the kinaesthetic activities in the
classroom and the importance for the wellbeing of the students if we
apply these techniques with them. These activities could be applied to
any subject and any ESOL levels and the most important aspect is that
the teacher does not need to be a PE teacher or sport sciences expert.
Future research is needed to show the ndings and novelty resources
obtained after applying these kinaesthetic activities.
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62 LANGUAGE ISSUES 29.2 ARTICLES
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Luz Locatelli Dalimier is team leader for th e Wellbeing and Counsellin g Department at
Leeds City Colleg e. She has also taught E SOL, and has a backgrou nd in psychology and
sport s sciences, as well as l ecturing in psych ology at Leeds Beckett Univeristy and t he
Universi ty of Bradford.
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Appendix 1: Consent form
Title:
Contact:
Please initial box
I conrm that I understand the purpose of the study and have had the chance to ask
questions.
I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw at any
time, without giving reason. If I do not wish to answer any questions I can refuse.
I agree to the inter view being audio recorded.
I agree to the classroom session being video and audio recorded.
I agree to the use of anonymised quotes in publications.
I agree for the data collected from me to be used in future research.
I understand that some of the data collected during the study may be looked at by
individuals for academic purposes. I give permission for these individuals to see this
data.
I agree to take part in the above study.
Name of participant
Signature
Date
Name of researcher
Signature
Date
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LANGUAGE ISSUES 29.2 ARTICLES 65
There are a number of sentences which dene how you feel right now. There are no right or wrong answers.
Youjust need to choose (write X) the option between 1 and 4 which is correct for you right now.
1 = strongly agree (SA)
Example: I feel tired.
1 I feel tired. 1SA
x 2A 3D 4SD
2 = Agree (A)
3 = Disagree (D)
4 = Strongly Disagree (SD)
1SA 2A 3D 4SD
1 I feel tired.
2 My concentration is not good.
3I feel happy in the classroom.
4 My body is relaxed.
5I feel sad.
6I nd it easy to concentrate.
7My attention level is good.
8I feel better when I do exercise or sports.
9I feel energetic now.
10 I am interested in the class.
11 My upper back and shoulders sometimes hurt.
12 I feel anxious.
13 I have fun in my class.
14 I feel better to learn now.
15 I like my class activities.
16 I enjoy my class activities.
17 I feel positive.
18 I like my classmates.
19 My activities are fun.
20 I feel motivated to learn.
21 I feel calm.
21 I can think clearly.