International Journal of Instruction October 2021 ● Vol.14, No.

4
e-ISSN: 1308-1470 ● www.e-iji.net p-ISSN: 1694-609X
pp. 965-980
Article submission code: Received: 26/10/2020 Accepted: 02/03/2021
20201026225301 Revision: 06/02/2021 OnlineFirst: 23/06/2021

Mindfulness as a Coping Strategy for EFL Learning in Education1

Katherine Jane Skelly

Madrid Open University, Spain, [email protected]
Jose Luis Estrada-Chichon
Dr., University of Cadiz, Spain, [email protected]

Mindfulness is a relaxation technique that has been associated with positive effects
when used as a coping strategy for stress and anxiety. In this regard, the objectives
of this article are to investigate how mindfulness could help improve adolescents’
ability to regulate their attention, emotion, behaviour and thinking; learn English as
a Foreign Language (EFL); and increase EFL performance. A literature review of
the previous research including 11 academic works published in scientific journals
(2016-) using quantifiable data collection methods, statistical analysis software and
having a control group as part of the investigation is important to be explored to
find an answer to the following questions: Can mindfulness improve an
adolescent’s ability to regulate attention, emotion, behaviour and thinking? How
can mindfulness improve Obligatory Secondary Education (OSE) students' ability
to learn and acquire EFL? Can mindfulness increase working memory capacity and
as a result increase students EFL performance? The findings from this literature
review strongly suggest that mindfulness could be a highly effective strategy for
improving the ability of OSE students in Spain to learn EFL, as a result of the
reduced stress and anxiety levels experienced by adolescents when mindfulness is
incorporated as part of a consistent daily routine.
Keywords: English as a Foreign Language, language instruction, mindfulness secondary
education, stress, EFL
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, adolescents are under significant pressure to do well in school. Two studies
conducted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) (2014; 2020) found that Spain
ranked fourth as the country where adolescents felt the most pressured by schoolwork
and homework. This is supported by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) (2015) that found that students in Spain had on average six and

The current academic paper is the result of a Master’s Degree dissertation presented at
1

Madrid Open University (Spain, 2019-2020) by the author.

Citation: Skelly, K. J., & Estrada-Chichon, J. L. (2021). Mindfulness as a Coping Strategy for EFL
Learning in Education. International Journal of Instruction, 14(4), 965-980.
https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2021.14356a
966 Mindfulness as a Coping Strategy for EFL Learning in …

half hours of homework, compared to the world average weekly amount of the 72
countries that participated in study (no more than three hours). Moreover, the number of
Spanish students who reported feeling certain levels of anxiety related to studying for
exams was well above the average. This level of anxiety is one of the main reasons for
students in Spain feeling dissatisfied with their life.
One potential solution could be mindfulness, a relaxation technique derived from
Buddhism. The Mindfulness All- Party Parlimentary Group (MAPPG) (2015) argue that
mindfulness “means paying attention to what is happening in the present moment in the
mind, body and external environment, with an attitude of curiosity and kindness” (p. 4)
This work will use this definition when referring to mindfulness as it is currently how
the technique is defined and used as the basis for developing the teaching curriculum of
mindfulness in primary and secondary schools in the British Education System. There is
research (see Diaz-Gonzalez et al., 2018; Quach, Jastrowski, & Alexander, 2016) to
support findings that mindfulness is an effective technique in reducing stress and anxiety
in adolescents, as well as improving their working memory capacity. Further research
studies that suggest practising mindfulness could have a significant impact on improving
the ability to learn and acquire English as a Foreign Language (EFL) (Fallah, 2016;
Charoensukmongkol, 2019; Riggs & Brown, 2017) of adolescents (Lueke & Lueke,
2019; Mrazek, 2013; Sapthiang et al., 2019). Since statistics show that between 14.8-
30% of Obligatory Secondary Education (OSE) students in Spain fail the subject of EFL
every year (Chaparro, 2020), this issue needs to be addressed. Thus, this work will argue
that mindfulness should be incorporated into Spanish secondary schools with time
dedicated to the teaching and practice of mindfulness for OSE students in Spain, in
order to try and significantly reduce the levels of stress and anxiety and therefore
improve their EFL performance.
Objectives
1. To investigate if mindfulness can improve OSE student’s ability to regulate their
attention, emotion, behaviour, and thinking.
2. To explore how mindfulness can help to improve OSE students’ ability to learn
and acquire EFL.
3. To justify that mindfulness can increase EFL performance as a direct result of it
increasing working memory capacity.
Research Questions
1. Can mindfulness improve an adolescent’s ability to regulate attention, emotion,
behaviour and thinking?
2. How can mindfulness improve OSE students' ability to learn and acquire EFL?
3. Can mindfulness increase working memory capacity and as a result increase
students’ EFL performance?
METHOD
The authors used search engines (Table 1) to identify sources of information. The
criteria for the selected papers were searched by first using the key words and
terminologies (Table 1). Furthermore, if there was a study of interest that had been
referred to in another academic paper, the references were also used as a resource to

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find that study and it was then sourced directly using the search enginesi. Moreover,
research studies were kept as recent as possible with the majority no later than 2016.
However, a few key studies that were prior to this date were also considered, including
the data collected by the WHO, the OCED and Krashen (1982) –studies that were
conducted before 2016 were excluded except for the few key studies mentioned in
language research that are still relevant today–. All peer-reviewed works sourced have
been published or cited in scientific journals describing original research and are
considered quality research studies that could be replicated if necessary.
To be considered for inclusion in this research, the studies must have used quantifiable
data collection methods, statistical analysis software to analyse their data and had a
control group as part of their investigation. This was first judged by on the abstract, then
all the research papers were read in more depth. In order to determine if research studies
should be excluded, first the abstract was assessed, which quickly determined suitability
regarding the method and findings. Also, if they had not been published in a scientific
journal or used qualitative data collection methods then they were excluded because
they could not be justified or replicated with statistical analysis. Mostly all of the studies
that were conducted before 2016 were also excluded:
Table 1
Search engines: Database and descriptors
Database Search descriptors
Proquest “mindfulness”; “stress in teenagers”; “anxiety and EFL”; “mindfulness in adolescents”
Wiley Online Library “mindfulness reducing stress”; “mindfulness reducing stress in teenagers”
Springer “the effects of stress on the brain”; “adolescent brain development”
Jstor “mindfulness improving English language performance” and; “adolescents and stre
Medes “adolescentes y la salud mental”; “mindfulness y adolescentes en España”; “estrés y
ansiedad en adolescentes en España”; “el desarrollo de cerebro en adolescentes”
Google Scholar “brain development in adolescents”; “English language anxiety and mindfulness”;
“mindfulness and EFL performance”; “the effects of mindfulness on the brain”
FINDINGS
Since this study needs to consider several aspects regarding answering the objectives,
these will be separated into EFL learning and acquisition, stress and anxiety, and
mindfulness. Table 2 below shows the number of studies that were assessed for selection
to be included in this research:
Table 2
Academic papers selection
Database Academic papers reviewed Academic papers selected
Proquest 10 3
Wiley Online Library 15 5
Springer Link 20 7
Jstor 20 5
Medes 10 2
Google Scholar 30 12
Table 3 outlines a summary of the research discussed and analysed including the topic,
authors, scientific journal, the objectives of the study, the method, sample size and the
results of the study:

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Table 3
Summary of the research
Topic Authors Scientific Objectives Method Sample Results
Journal
English Krashen (1982) To distinguish Language acquisition
language between language happens when we
learning and learning and understand what
acquisition acquisition. people tell us.
The role of Lueke and Lueke Memory & To identify Controlled stud 85 They found a
mindfulness in (2019) Cognition mechanisms by using the Rey undergraduate significantly
verbal learning which mindfulness Auditory Verbal students enhanced encoding
and memory can improve verbal Learning Test. process in the
learning and mindfulness group.
memory.
The role of Erbe and Lohrmann The Health To review the A literature Mindfulness
mindfulness in (2015) Educator literature regarding review of positively affects
adolescent mindfulness current research. school performance.
stress and programmes in
well-being schools.
Neural Deng et al. (2020) Scientific To discover Experimental 43 Chinese Trait mindfulness
underpinnings Reports neurological links study adolescents influence the
in the role of between mindfulness regulation of
mindfulness in and emotion negative emotions
emotion regulation. and effects how they
regulation in are processed.
adolescents
The role of Gomes and Grace Schizophrenia To identify if Follow-up A predisposition to
stress in (2017) Bulletin heightened stress analysis from a stress hyper
adolescents during adolescence previous study sensitivity can lead
causing can lead to involving stress to schizophrenia.
schizophrenia schizophrenia. induced rats.
The role of Chareonsukmongkol International To investigate if Data collection 333 Low levels of
mindfulness in (2019) Journal of mindfulness had an about undergradu-ate anxiety correlated
reducing Bilingual effect on the level of mindfulness and students with high scores for
English Education and anxiety experienced presentation trait mindfulness.
language Bilingualism when using EFL for scores. Lower anxiety
anxiety public speaking. correlated with
higher scores.
Stress affects Vogel et al. (2018) Learning and To investigate the Randomised 55 participants Stress affected the
on the neural Memory neural basis for controlled study. neural assemble
assemble for stress-induced activated during
integrating schema related learning.
new learning.
information
Mindfulness- Diaz-Gonzalez et al. Psicothea To assess the Randomised 101 Statistically
based stress (2018) potential effects of a clinical trial. adolescents significant decrease
reduction in mindfulness in adolescent anxiety
adolescents programme in levels.
adolescent
stress levels.
The role of Fallah (2016) An To investigate the Questionnaires 295 Higher levels of
mindfulness in International effect of mindfulness mindfulness were
English Journal of on English language associated with
language Experimental anxiety. lower EFL anxiety.
anxiety Educational
Psychology
The role of Mrazek et al. (2013) Psychological To see if Randomised 48 Mindfulness training
mindfulness Science mindfulness could controlled Undergradua e improved both GRE
and cognitive decrease mind investigation. students. Scores and working
performance wandering and memory capacity.
improve cognitive
performance.
The role of Lardone et al. (2018) Neural To describe the Controlled 60 participants Altered topography
mindfulness Plasticity long-term effects of study using in meditators, in
and changes in meditation on brain magnetoence particular in the
the networks phalography in frontal lobes.
hippocampus Vipassana

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Skelly & Estrada-Chichon 969

meditators
The sub- Loewen and Sato To investigate the It is possible to
division of (2017) ability to acquire acquire EFL in an
ISLA EFL in an ISLA ISLA environment,
environment. considering several
factors.
The role of Sapthiang et al. Journal of To investigate the A review of Positive effects of
mindfulness in (2018) Child and impact of previous introducing a
schools in Family mindfulness literature. mindfulness
improving Studies programmes in programme in
mental health schools. schools.

English Language Learning and Acquisition

This article will take into consideration the distinctions between language learning and
acquisition to see if there is evidence of the effects of stress only affecting learning,
acquisition, or both. Krashen (1982) argues that language learning is a conscious
process when individuals are aware of what it is they are learning. In contrast, he defines
language acquisition as a subconscious process, where consequently people are not
aware that they are actually acquiring the foreign language and while using it they are
gradually developing the tactic language knowledge humans are preprogrammed in
Chomskian terms. Krashen (1982) suggests that learning appears when learners need to
make changes to the utterances after it has been learnt and consequently produced by the
acquired system. Typically, during language acquisition, strategies that are used to learn
native languages are employed to acquire the second language (L2). However, during
language learning, it is argued that the learner uses other strategies, such as translation
from their first language (Mirbazel & Arjamndi, 2018).
Linguists have also been trying for years to establish the critical period to master second
language (L2) acquisition and to find an answer for the optimal time to learn it (Rahmen
et al., 2017). Although there is vast variation in the findings for age range of the critical
period, Hartshorne, Tenenbaum, and Pinker (2018) found that the critical period
(optimum age) for mastering syntax phenomena was much later than previous research
has proposed. They suggest that the critical period for acquiring L2 syntax may be up to
17 years old. What is more of interest is that their research also revealed there was no
difference between full immersion settings for L2 acquisition and those who had at least
30 years’ experience of learning the L2. Furthermore, the results of this study imply that
it is possible for OSE students to master EFL in a non-immersion setting such as the
EFL classroom. Loewen and Sato (2017) have been investigating Instructed Second
Language Acquisition (ISLA) and they argue that there are many contextual aspects to
consider regarding ISLA in the EFL classroom. Their findings also correspond with the
evolution of brain development during adolescence when neural plasticity and
neurocircuitry is at its peak, particularly in the frontal lobe, which is involved with
memory, language and problem-solving (Arain et al. 2013).
Neuroscience research has been investigating the neural underpinnings of the processes
involved with language learning and acquisition. Some studies found evidence to
suggest there are different mechanisms and pathways in the brain regarding the
processes. Vogel et al. (2018) carried out a study using functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI) of neural activity. They found that when individuals are learning new

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970 Mindfulness as a Coping Strategy for EFL Learning in …

information this is encoded by the hippocampus as new episodic memory, where a new
schema (an associative network structure) in the brain is then created for this
information. Nonetheless, there is considerable evidence to suggest that stress during
adolescence can cause impairments in the ability to learn and acquire new information.
Thus, they looked at schemas, which facilitate memory formation that could directly
impact our ability to learn due to the effect on our mental scripts that have already been
established. They argued that enhancing the effect of these schemas on our new learning
is essential to improving education. In contrast, when people are acquiring information
the medial prefrontal cortex is activated and finds a schema that has relevant prior
knowledge, related to the information being acquired and then adds it to the already
existing schema in our brains. Thus, if Krashens’ (1982) definitions are accurate, and
the research findings by Hartshorne et al. (2018), as well as taking into consideration the
neuroplasticity of the brain during adolescence (Arain et al. 2013), one could argue that
OSE students have the optimal conditions for learning and acquiring EFL.
Moreover, Krashen (1982) developed the Affective Filter Hypothesis that could explain
the reason for such poor results in EFL by OSE students. He argues that humans have a
filter, which decides how much intake can reach the Language Acquisition Device
(LAD) proposed by Chomsky in the 1950s and 1960s, which everybody possesses and is
an innate mental structure that processes the input and creates the schema in the long-
term memories of the acquired knowledge. However, this filter can act as a barrier to
language acquisition and Krashen (1982) contends that the barrier is up when the learner
is unmotivated, lacking in confidence or experiences anxiety. The idea of an affective
filter is also supported by recent neuroscience discoveries by Vogel et al. (2018) who
investigated the effects of stress on the neural processes for integrating new information
and prior knowledge. They found that individuals with higher levels of the stress
hormone cortisol had pronounced connectivity in the hippocampus for schema related
learning compared to the control group, who were not exposed to stressful
circumstances. The findings revealed that during novel learning trials with new
information and no prior knowledge, the mPFC showed enhanced connectivity, yet there
was no enhanced connectivity found in the control group. This suggests that stressed
individuals may experience difficulty in accessing and segregating the appropriate brain
region for learning and acquisition.
Stress and Anxiety in Learning English as Foreign Language
According to Shonkoff and Garner (2020), stress and anxiety can cause detrimental
effects to the developing brain during adolescence and can negatively affect their
learning. They argue that those can lead to loss of neurons and neuronal connections in
the hippocampus and mPFC, which can result in increased anxiety, impaired memory,
and therefore impaired learning. They contend that although the hippocampus can turn
off the effects of cortisol, prolonged stress and anxiety reduces its capacity and as well
as impairing memory also impedes neurogenesis in the hippocampus, which is essential
for encoding new memories. In addition to the stress and anxiety caused by the
overwhelming amount of homework, it is necessary to consider that OSE students may
be experiencing anxiety in the EFL environment, which has been defined as “a distinct

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complex of self-perceptions, beliefs, feelings and behaviours related to classroom

learning arising from the uniqueness of the language learning process” (Horwitz et al.,
1986, p. 128). Research has shown that this type of anxiety can also have negative
consequences on students EFL results (Charoensukmongel, 2019) and thus increase the
levels of anxiety and lack of confidence even more. These findings are in line with the
previous research discussed and offer reasonable explanations as to why OSE students
in Spain are experiencing such high levels of stress and anxiety and consequently are not
learning the foreign language. Vogel and Schwabe (2016) argue that it is imperative that
researchers consider the possible effects of stress in an educational setting and strategies
to reduce it. However, they also note that stressful events do not always lead to a
stressful response and that the response is very much dependent on the individual.
Although research studies cited have tried to control individual differences in learning
EFL, it is not possible to control how individuals perceive stressful events. Past
influences and preconditioned behavioural traits can determine whether one individual
sees making an error in the EFL classroom as stressful or as feedback that they need to
improve on next time. Furthermore, it can also be argued that individuals can acquire
languages differently for similar reasons, for instance some individuals may have had
prior experience from very young age to other languages that they are unaware of and as
a result their brains may have already developed strategies that can actually be
beneficial and improve their ability to acquire and learn languages (Kuhl, 2010). To
counteract the strong negative effects of stress and anxiety coping strategies must be
implemented by the stressed and anxious individual. Since the WHO’s (2013, p. 6)
action plan proposes that strategies are developed to overcome the issues discussed and
it plans to help children develop “a positive sense of identity, the ability to manage
thoughts, emotions, as well as to build social relationships, and the aptitude to learn and
to acquire an education.” In this regard, this article examines in detail how mindfulness
could be used as a coping strategy to reduce adolescents’ levels of stress and anxiety as
well as fulfill the proposed criteria for the action plan of the WHO (2014).
Mindfulness
Kabat-Zinn (2003, p. 145) defines mindfulness as “the awareness that emerges through
paying attention on purpose, in the present moment, and non-judgmentally to the
unfolding of experience moment by moment.” In this respect, the authors contend that
mindfulness should be incorporated into the OSE curriculum in Spain either as a
separate subject or as part of the physical education curriculum. There is quite a number
of research to suggest that mindfulness may be beneficial to adolescents by reducing
stress and anxiety levels, as well as improving executive functions in the brain including
working memory (Riggs & Brown, 2017). Deng et al. (2020) argue that for adolescents
whose “higher brain regions” (p. 8), such as the mPFC, are still developing and are
responsible for executive cognitive processes, mindfulness could help regulate the
emotions, and reduce the effort and cognitive overload that they are prone to experience
during this time of development. Their study revealed that higher levels of mindfulness
in adolescents was correlated firstly, with lower reactions of emotion-generating brain
regions and secondly, without activation of higher brain region. This could imply that if

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adolescents were aware and regularly practiced mindfulness, then not only could they
benefit by having more emotionally stable behaviour, but their brains would also
develop without the risk of damage that stress and anxiety can cause.
A meta-analysis review of mindfulness studies all of which involved adolescents by
Erbe and Lohrmann (2015) showed that mindfulness consistently had significant results
for its positive effects. Firstly, mindfulness could reduce depression and anxiety in
adolescents, as well as stress, emotion regulation and general well-being. Moreover, the
meta-analysis (Erbe & Lohromann, 2015) found significant improvement to academic
performance, which they argued is a result of mindfulness increasing attention and
cognitive performance. In addition, a study by Diaz-Gonzalez et al. (2018) specifically
tested the effects of mindfulness practice on Spanish adolescents aged 13-16 who were
receiving psychological treatments as outpatients. They found that after eight weeks of
practising mindfulness for 20 minutes with an instructor and a further 25 minutes at
home there was a significant decrease in their reported levels of anxiety compared to the
control group who received no treatment. As a result, other researchers have asked how
it is possible that mindfulness could be responsible for improving academic performance
and reducing levels of stress and anxiety.
Although the exact neural pathways that mindfulness affects are still unknown, several
studies have found that long-term practice of mindfulness can cause increased volume
the hippocampus (Lardone et al. 2018; Greeneberg et al. 2019). Lardone et al. (2018)
revealed by using metaencephalography that participants who had been practising
mindfulness every day for a year had better neural connections in their brains between
the right hippocampus and the rest of the network. So, the right hippocampus is involved
with the creation of future events or prospective memories, including novel memory
without prior knowledge or a schema that is already present. However, they also found
that the left hippocampus was activated when information regarding past events was
registered. Thus, their findings support the idea on a neurological level that there is a
difference between learning new information and acquiring information if it is already
connected to a schema that has been established in the brain. Moreover, it provides
evidence that mindfulness can increase working memory capacity. In contrast,
Greeneberg et al. (2019) carried out an investigation to reveal the results after only
practising mindfulness for four weeks. There were no significant differences between
the control group and the mindfulness group regarding the right hippocampus.
Nevertheless, they did find a significant increase in the volume of the left hippocampus
in the mindfulness group after only this short time of practising mindfulness. This
suggests that even for those who have only just started consistently practising
mindfulness there are almost immediate benefits. As this work has already shown that
the left hippocampus is essential to working memory capacity, these findings provide
further evidence that mindfulness can indeed increase EFL performance.
Considering that this research is focusing on adolescents, it is important to mention that
the research findings by Lardone et al. (2018) and Greeneberg et al. (2019) were done
with participants aged 18-50. However, a research study by Quach, Jastrowski, and
Alexander (2016) also carried out a four-week study of the effects of practising

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mindfulness on directly working memory capacity, but specifically in adolescents aged

12-17. The findings revealed that after four weeks of practising mindfulness, their
working memory capacity test scores increased compared to the control group. Although
they did not use technology to assess differences in brain regions, the memory tests used
clearly suggest that mindfulness can improve working memory capacity. Furthermore,
there is also evidence to show that regularly practising mindfulness can reduce the stress
and foreign language anxiety in an EFL setting. Charoensukmongkol (2019) contends
that the anxiety experienced by EFL speakers when using the language in all skill sets
can hinder their performance. His study focused using EFL for public speaking when
giving a presentation. He compared students test scores for state and trait mindfulness
and found that students who reported feeling high levels of state and trait mindfulness,
also claimed to feel less anxious during presentations using EFL. Moreover, the high
levels of state and trait mindfulness reported in students was found to predict higher
scores on presentations given in EFL than those students who reported feeling anxious
or low levels of state and trait mindfulness.
Fallah (2016) carried out a similar research study regarding the impact of mindfulness
on English language anxiety and found that higher levels of mindfulness correlated
strongly with less English language anxiety. Moreover, once again higher levels
mindfulness and self-awareness were able to predict levels of anxiety and EFL
performance. Given that statistics in Spain reported that 67% of OSE students felt
anxious (OECD, 2015) it is not surprising that so many have problems passing EFL
subject (Meyer, 2018). Even though the mechanisms by which mindfulness can improve
anxiety and stress are unknown, some research has suggested that it also links to the
effects stress and anxiety can have on learning and memory (Vogel & Schwabe, 2016).
They argue that being stressed may lead to stronger memories of negative events such as
failing exams or being embarrassed. These memories then lead to negative stressful
emotions, which are context dependent in the classroom and due to the mere fact of
being at school the students feel constantly stress. They contend that this level of stress
is detrimental to the formation of new memories and memory retrieval.
A research investigation by Mrazek, Franklin, Phillips, Baird, and Schooler (2013)
found surprising results when they introduced mindfulness into a university class for 10-
20 minutes a day for two weeks, as well as ten minutes outside of class. The researchers
used a modified version of the Graduate Record Education (GRE) test, which is used for
admission into graduate school in the United State and Canada. The participants were
given four 45-minute classes a week for two weeks with clear instructions about how to
incorporate and practise mindfulness in their daily lives. The students completed the
modified GRE test, which included a verbal test using vocabulary and an element of
reading comprehension before and after introducing mindfulness. The researchers
choose to exclude accuracy rates on the test of less than 85% from the results. After only
two weeks of practising mindfulness the participants’ vocabulary test and reading
comprehension scores increased on average by 30%.
A recent study by Lueke and Lueke (2019) also investigated the effects of mindfulness
on verbal memory and learning. They argued that mindfulness increases working

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memory capacity through improving levels of encoding. They also gave participants a
two-week course of mindfulness and used a control with no mindfulness knowledge or
training. Their findings supported their hypothesis that mindfulness does increasing
encoding, and thus, they contend that it is through this mechanism that mindfulness can
improve test scores. These findings also support the neurological evidence previously
discussed (Greeneberg et al. 2019) because they found evidence to suggest that only
after two weeks, mindfulness could increase the capacity to learn new information,
which would be processed by the left hippocampus using working memory.
Regarding the implications for L2 learning, Ullmann and Lovelett (2018) agree that the
hippocampus initiates the learning and consolidation of new information, whereas the
prefrontal cortex is responsible for recalling previously stored information. They argue
that declarative memory prompted by the hippocampus concerns learning facts and
explicit knowledge such as grammar, and is more active during childhood, however, it
starts to plateau during adolescence. Thus, mindfulness could potentially increase the
ability of declarative memory, since research has already shown that it can increase
hippocampus volume in adolescents. Further evidence to support that claim that
mindfulness can improve EFL results can be found in an investigation by Strickland and
Selwyn (2019). They introduced mindfulness to undergraduate participants for two
weeks using only a three-minute guided video of mindfulness. They tested error rates of
students using a Single Letter Cancellation Test before and after the two-week period.
They found that after the two-week period students in the mindfulness group made
significantly fewer errors on the test than the control group.
Moreover, Franco, Mañas, Cangas, and Gallego (2011) studied a group of first year
compulsory secondary school students in Spain to measure the students’ levels of self-
concept and anxiety levels they used questionnaires both pre-test and post-test. The
experimental group were given a 1 hour 30-minute mindfulness training per week and
instructed to practise mindfulness at home for 30 minutes daily based on the training
they received for a period of ten weeks. They analysed differences between the control
group for: Total academic performance, Spanish language and literature, foreign
language, self-concept, state, and trait anxiety. They found statistically significant
differences between all the groups for all the variables analysed after the post-test,
despite the fact there were no differences between any of the variables for the groups
pre-test. What is more, the variable with the largest improvement was academic
performance, although all the variable saw large to very large improvements. In a
similar study conducted in a Chilean secondary school with adolescents aged between
12 and 14 years, Langer, Schmidt, Aguilar-Parra, Cid, and Magni (2017) found
significant reductions in stress and anxiety levels after introducing the experimental
group to eight weekly sessions mindfulness for 45 minutes each session. Despite they
did not measure differences in academic performance, this supports the previous
research that has also found mindfulness can reduce stress and anxiety in teenagers.
DISCUSSION
In terms of research objectives and questions, the findings from this study support the
idea that mindfulness can increase EFL performance in OSE students, as well as reduce

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the high levels of stress and anxiety. First, although there have only been limited
research studies conducted regarding the ability of mindfulness to regulate emotions in
adolescents, the results are promising (Erbe & Lohrmann, 2015; Deng et al., 2020). If
the regular practice of mindfulness is responsible for regulating emotion in adolescents,
this could potentially have a significant positive impact on the lives of OSE students.
Furthermore, since Deng et al. (2020) found that because of emotion regulation,
cognitive overload was also reduced and consequently the higher brain regions
responsible for executive cognitive processes in adolescents are not activated
unnecessarily. This discovery is also of great importance because such cognitive
overload in these regions during adolescence has been correlated with developing
mental health disorders, such as schizophrenia as adults (Gomes & Grace, 2017).
Second, despite the lack of evidence to support the idea that emotional regulation due to
mindfulness practice can increase EFL performance, there is ample evidence to suggest
how mindfulness could be contributing to increased EFL performance in particular
(Chareonsukmongkol, 2019; Vogel et al. 2018; González-Díaz et al. 2018). The findings
strongly suggest that there is a clear link between regularly and consistently practising
mindfulness every day with reduced levels of stress and anxiety. It could be argued that
the mere fact of reducing stressing and anxiety in adolescents is what is responsible for
improved EFL performance in class, learning and acquisition. The research by Fallah
(2016) found a direct correlation between practising mindfulness in young adults with
significantly reduced reported levels of anxiety when having to use EFL in the
classroom. This was supported by Charoensukmongkol (2019) who found a strong
correlation between practising mindfulness and reduced language anxiety.
The idea that a significant reduction in stress and anxiety could improve EFL
performance is very plausible if Krashen’s (1982) affective filter hypothesis is
considered. Krashen (1982) argued that language learners have a filter that decides if the
input they receive will be passed onto what Chomsky referred to as the LAD or not. He
contended that this filter is more receptive to input when the EFL learner is in an
emotionally balanced state with positive thoughts. However, when the EFL learner is
experiencing negative emotions such as frustration, stress, or anxiety the filter is up and
blocks the acquisition of comprehensible input for the learner. The consequences of
these findings for EFL learners are imperative to improving the secondary education
system in Spain and the EFL performance of OSE students. Thus, this study argues that
the negative emotions experienced by a vast majority of OSE students is the primary
cause for the lack of EFL performance at secondary school.
Third, the research discussed has shown strong evidence to support the notion that
mindfulness can increase EFL test scores and performance results at school (Mzarek et
al. 2013; Lueke & Lueke, 2019) due to the reduction in stress and anxiety levels. There
is also research with statistically significant findings cited that suggest mindfulness
increases working memory capacity, and as a direct result this could be responsible for
the increased EFL academic performance. The findings from this study strongly indicate
that regularly practising mindfulness has the potential to increase the volume of the
hippocampus (Lardone et al. 2018; Greeneberg et al. 2019). As the hippocampus is

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976 Mindfulness as a Coping Strategy for EFL Learning in …

involved with working memory capacity, in particular the left hippocampus, these
findings indicate that mindfulness can improve OSE students’ ability to learn EFL at
school. It is generally agreed upon that there is a distinction between learning and
acquisition. The neurological evidence discussed indicates that this concept is supported
with distinct pathways in the brain for learning and acquiring information.
The authors of this work contend that since the research studied here indicates that new
information is learnt via the hippocampus and acquired information is processed through
the mPFC (Vogel et al., 2018), that if mindfulness were to be incorporated into the
Spanish secondary curriculum, both EFL learning and acquisition results would be
increased. This can be explained by the findings from the research cited, which have
shown that not only does mindfulness directly increase working memory capacity in the
hippocampus, but it can also reduce the stress and cognitive overload experienced by the
developing prefrontal cortex during adolescence. Thus, if the prefrontal cortex were
functioning at its optimum capacity because of mindfulness practice, OSE EFL students
may be capable of unconsciously acquiring EFL in the classroom.
There is new research investigating the idea of ISLA (Loewen & Sato, 2017), which
refers to the concept of students acquiring EFL through instructed teaching in the EFL
classroom. This idea arose based on the individual differences seen in learners and their
performance. The research examined here may lead to plausible explanation as to why
some individuals learn EFL better than others. Firstly, this study has shown that EFL
learners who score highly for state and trait mindfulness characteristics indicate
statistically significant trends for scoring highly on tests and oral presentations, these
characteristics were present in the participants’ personality and self-awareness without
even integrated the practice of mindfulness (Charoensukmongkol, 2019). Thus, this
work argues that such personality characteristics could account for the individual
differences observed in EFL learners and suggests that those with more of mindful traits
in their personality are able to acquire EFL through ISLA compared to EFL learners.
It is important to note that some of the studies only implemented mindfulness for as little
as ten minutes a day for two weeks (Mrazek et al. 2013) found statistically significant
results for improved vocabulary test scores with an average improvement of 30%. In
fact, even research that introduced a three minute of guided mindfulness video daily
found statistically significant results to suggest that it can improve EFL performance in
OSE students. Therefore, the authors want to recommend that the Spanish education
system seriously consider implementing mindfulness as a technique for OSE student to
learn to self-cope with their state of mind and improve adolescent mental health.
Sapthiang, Gordon, and Shonin (2019) recommend that the practice introduced should
be an approach to mindfulness that has already been empirically validated such as
learning to breathe (Erbe & Lohrmann, 2015). The benefits discussed in both the long
and short term to adolescents considerably outweigh and short-term interruption that
would be experienced from its implementation.

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Skelly & Estrada-Chichon 977

CONCLUSION
Mindfulness clearly plays an important role in reducing the levels of stress and anxiety
experienced by OSE students on a general basis, as well as more specifically in an EFL
context. Firstly, this study has shown that there are serious mental health issues for
teenagers in OSE that need to be addressed immediately. As well as the impact these
high levels of stress and anxiety are having on their potential to learn new input.
Additionally, this research has identified that there are specific neural pathways, which
are activated in the process of learning and acquiring information, showing that under
stressful conditions these pathways are negatively impacted with the brain struggling to
acquire and consolidate the information being learnt. The research discussed suggests
that mindfulness can help reduce stress and anxiety not only on a general basis for
adolescents, but also reducing language specific anxiety, which as a result has been
shown to result in improved EFL performance.
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i
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