It was a teacher-experience that I would have paid good money for. My students had been working individually. With one minute left in the class, I softly told them that it was time to stop for the day. Some of them sort of jumped when they heard my voice and looked at the clock. Then a few of them slowly started to pack up their stuff. But most of them continued to read and write, finally standing up a few minutes later.

On my way home, reflecting on what I had just observed in that class, I realized that my students were probably in a state of flow. Deconstructing the lesson, I noticed that it contained many of the characteristic that researchers say promote flow. And after seeing my students’ responses, I became determined to apply as much as I could to future lessons. And that is what I have tried to accomplish in the sample activities below.

Why should we care about flow? Research has found that people who reportedly experienced flow in an activity tend to spend more time doing it and do it better. Also, they do it for intrinsic reasons; in other words, they felt enjoyment and satisfaction from the activity itself.

My students who seemed to have been in a flow state were probably experiencing characteristic described by researchers. They lost a sense of time; what they were doing seemed effortless; and they were especially focused.

Setting up activities to encourage flow experiences

According research, there are some common characteristics of tasks and classroom environments that are most conducive to helping our students experience flow, and thus, to learning:

• The task balances challenge with the skill level of the student. In other words, it’s neither too easy nor too difficult.
• Students feel like they have control. They feel like they have chosen the task or some part of the task, and thus, they have an intrinsic motivation.
• The environment is non-threatening and supportive with as few distractions as possible.
• Students feel a sense of enjoyment and a kind of “playfulness.”
• The goals are clear and attainable for the students.
• Students receive feedback.
• The content seems interesting, relevant or important, often with new information.

Examples of tasks with flow

When I originally put together these activities, I had heard about the concept of flow, but I didn’t know that it could be applied to ESL. It wasn’t until later after observing and hearing from students that I realized that they actually were experiencing flow while performing the tasks.

Writing

A writing workshop contains many of the “flow characteristics.” During a workshop, students work individually.

• Students feel like they have control. Each student decides what part of the writing process they want to work on at that moment. One student might focus on choosing topic or on brainstorming or outlining their ideas for an essay. A different student might be writing a first draft, and another one could work on a second draft. One might be revising a previous essay using the comments and marks that the teacher had made on the paper.
• The workshop is the opposite of a teacher-centered lesson. Thus, there are no distractions from “teacher-talk.” But there is continual support as the teacher’s role is to be available to assist each student if they need some help. The environment is non-threatening in the sense that students don’t need to worry about a teacher calling on them in front of the whole class.

For more about a writing workshop, see  • The Writing Workshop: Countless Benefits for ESL Students and Teachers

A “person description activity” has students secretly describe a classmate and post the descriptions on the wall with only a number (i.e., no names). The students circulate about the room, reading and trying to identify the classmate who was described.

• The task balances challenge and skill level. Depending on their skill, they could describe the classmate physically (e.g. color of clothes) or their personality (e.g funny, .
• Students have control over what they describe. Also, they decide how they want to move about the room reading the descriptions.
• There is a sense of enjoyment and playfulness. I can see students smiling while they are writing some clever description. They often laugh as the read the descriptions, unaware that they are doing this in a foreign language.
• They get feedback from how well their classmates are able to identify who they had described.

For more about this activity, see  • Writing Class Person Description Activity: Fun, Lively and Productive

Reading

Because Reading courses are typically based on intensive readings in which the whole class reads the same passages and are evaluated on their comprehension of details, they don’t usually have many of the features needed for flow experiences. However, we can build in flow opportunities to our Reading courses through extensive reading. A number of relatively short passages can be made available.

• Students can feel like they are in control if they are allowed to choose which passage they want to read and in what order they read them.
• This part of the course can be all individualized, making for a non-threatening environment in which the teacher is available for any individual’s request for help. During this time, there would normally be no distractions.
• The goal is clear and attainable. Basically, each student can decide what they want to accomplish. It could be to merely read something interesting, just as many of us do when we pick up a magazine or find something online. Or it could go beyond just reading and include answering simple comprehension questions, which could require a deeper reading.
• There can be a built-in balance between challenge and skill. Lower-skilled students might read mainly for the main ideas and to learn something new. Higher-level ones might want to go beyond answering the comprehension question and write short summaries or reflections.
• By offering a variety of readings to choose from, students can find something that seems interesting and that includes new information. This will add enjoyment to the experience.

For more about this approach, see • Introducing “Short, High-Interest Articles for Extensive Reading” (#1 “For More Happiness, Keep Your Good News Secret for a While.”)

Grammar

Believe it or not, students can actually get into a kind of flow stage while working on grammar. It usually occurs with inductive rather than deductive exercises. With inductive exercise, students are not told the rule and then told to apply it, which is the deductive approach. But rather, they are given some examples, and then given an opportunity to say what the rule is.

• Students find inductive exercises “playful.” They are trying to solve a mystery: “What meaning can I gather from these examples?” Most students understand the importance of grammar in L2 contexts, so solving the mystery feels important.
• There is a balance of challenge and skill. We don’t give examples and then expect students to verbalize the rules on their own. Instead, we give them some possible rules and have them choose the one that applies. It’s non-threatening in that if they make an incorrect choice, they can have more chances to correct it using their logic.
• Once they have decided what the rule is, they are given exercises to apply the rule that they have made, not a rule that is given to them.

For more about this approach, see • Learning Grammar Inductively (No Teacher-Talk)

Conversation

I always can tell when students are in a flow state during a conversation activity because it’s hard for me to get their attention when it’s time to stop. (In fact, I’ve often had to turn the lights off and on to notify them. And sometimes, I’ve even had to leave the lights off for 30 seconds or more as they finished what they were talking about in the dark.)

To illustrate the potential for flow in a conversation activity, I’ll refer to “Asking Follow-Up Questions” and link to a previous posting. Since that posting a few years ago, I’ve discovered a format which is even more conducive to producing flow. (Side note: new editions of my books, Conversation Strategies and Discussion Strategies are due out this within the next few months. One of the several changes will include the feature that I’ll describe below.)

• To give students more of a sense of control, I’ve changed from numbering the questions to using bullets instead. The directions for the previous edition told students to read the questions to their partners and then ask follow-up questions to their responses. The questions were numbered. Naturally, students read the questions in the order listed on their paper. In the new edition, I put bullets rather than numbers next to each question and changed the directions to “choose questions and ask your partner.” Now students have the freedom to choose which question they want to ask first, second, etc.
• To include content that seems interesting and relevant, we can include questions that students write with a partner(s). Then they can find new partner(s) and ask and answer each other’s questions. However, it’s vital that the students first interact in the activity using professionally-made questions, which can serve as models for their student-made ones. Using classmate-created questions can add to the enjoyment and even “playfulness” of the activity.
• To create a non-threatening and supportive environment, we can have students practice the conversational technique in pairs/small groups rather than in teacher-fronted whole class.

For more about this approach, see • Conversation magic: Two most important techniques. (Part 2)

David Kehe
Faculty Emeritus