Fostering Student Well-Being: Engaged Learning with Positive Teacher Language

This is the second of a three-part article describing research studies by NIE researchers as they explore how supporting students in elements of well-being – sense of purpose, strong relationships and engagement, and positivity – can help improve overall well-being. Through exploratory studies as well as school interventions, they seek to understand and help students not only cope with difficulties and improve their academic performance, but also thrive in life.

Part 1: Fostering Student Well-Being: A Purposeful Education
Part 3: Fostering Student Well-Being: Engaged Learning with Positive Teacher Language

Dr Ailsa Goh explores the power of teacher language in creating a conducive and positive classroom environment to engage students. She shares preliminary findings and insights on how spoken words can influence teacher-student relationship and students’ achievement in terms of their socio-emotional development and academic performance.

Positive Teacher Language

The concept of positive teacher language comes from the Responsive Classroom, an approach to education that focuses on the relationship between academic success and social-emotional learning. “This whole-school approach started in America and one of its key strategies is positive teacher language,” Ailsa shares. “It is about how teachers use words, phrases, tone and pace.”

In her research study, Ailsa’s team examines its impact on teacher-student relationships and engagement of low-progress learners in a classroom setting.

“There are six types of positive teacher language but we decided to focus on just three for our study,” she says. This includes envisioning language, reminding language and reinforcing language (find out what these three languages are in the box story below).

The Three Positive Teacher Language

Envisioning language helps students to envision themselves achieving success, and uses ideas and concrete images to engage them in the lesson.

“My junior environmentalists, we are going to think of different ways we can save our world.”

Reminding language gets students to actively remind themselves, rather than telling students what to do.

“What do you need to do before handing up your worksheet?”

Reinforcing language is more than general praise – it points out exactly which behaviours students are doing well in order to motivate them to continue building on those behaviours.

“Linda, I noticed that you have been taking down notes in class and completing your homework on time. Well done!”

Language that Builds Relationships

Improving students’ relationships with teachers through positive teacher language has positive and long-lasting impact for students’ academic and social development. When a teacher uses positive teacher language, it helps to create a supportive and conducive classroom environment for learning.

Ailsa feels that teachers could take advantage of the power of language to encourage and engage their students – especially lower-progress ones – to not give up on their learning. Doing so helps to foster a supportive interaction between teacher and student.

“For struggling learners, reinforcing language shows them that teachers are acknowledging their effort. This will help encourage perseverance and build teacher-student relationships,” Ailsa adds.

A Positive Teacher Language Habit

A challenge that most teachers face during Ailsa’s research study is that it is not easy to make positive teacher language a part of their natural teacher language. “Even at the end of the study, they are still consciously trying to use it,” Ailsa shares. “This could be due to the research design of the study where there isn’t sufficient time for teachers to internalize the language so that it can become a habit.”

One way to overcome this challenge, according to Ailsa, is to make positive language a conscious and deliberate effort. “If you know the students are going to be doing a certain task in class, then you might want to think about what you can say to set a positive tone for learning and to let them see an exciting vision of themselves learning something meaningful,” Ailsa explains. “You need to think about it and plan ahead. It is a deliberate effort.”

A Collaborative Effort

Another way to ensure continuation of positive teacher language is to form professional learning communities where teachers encourage and support one another through this process of change.

“Buddy teachers can observe one another in class and provide helpful feedback to improve on the use of positive teacher language,” Ailsa elaborates. “If enough teachers are using positive teacher language, students will hear a consistent message throughout their school day.”

For Ailsa and her research team, words and tone of voice can have profound effect on learners. By putting in conscious efforts to use positive teacher language, students are empowered to learn and become their best selves.