A New Window on Interaction: Does Mindfulness Play a Role?

Proceedings of The 4th World Conference on Teaching and Education

Year: 2022

DOI:

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A New Window on Interaction: Does Mindfulness Play a Role?

Fatemeh Khonamri, Mahsa Soleimani

ABSTRACT: 

The present study aims to investigate the interactions of the learners who engaged in mindful tasks in an English reading classroom. Mindfulness as a fairly new concept in English language teaching is attracting attention as an alternative to promote learning. However, within the context of education, there have been a select few studies that have focused on the benefits of mindfulness in English reading classrooms. To this end, a case study approach was utilized in which eight BA students (both male and female), majoring in English language and literature at the University of Mazandaran participated in this study. They were divided into two groups of non-mindful and less mindful each having four members based on their scores from Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS). The data was collected in three sessions of critical reading practice in which both groups engaged in different forms of critical reading tasks. The less mindful group were encouraged to engage in some mindful activities prior to the critical reading tasks. All the sessions were video recorded and then transcribed for analysis. The transcribed data were analyzed by the researcher and a second rater. The results of analysis demonstrated that there were some minor differences in interactions of non-mindful and less-mindful group in critical reading tasks. The less-mindful group seemed to have more interactions than the non-mindful one.  Yet due to the study limitations the results cannot be generalized.

keywords: critical reading; interaction; mindfulness.