The environment, a friend or a foe?

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The Environment, a Friend or a Foe?

by Adina 邱天美

As soon as people hear the word "environment", the first thing they usually think about is pollution or the lack of clean air, especially in China. However, as an environmental psychologist, I tend to understand the environment as the space we are in and the people that we are surrounded by at a given time. With this in mind, our home, school, workplace etc are all environments that influence our behavior more than we are aware of.

who are currently studying English. Many people think that studying a language is very hard, but the space we decide to study in has a very big impact on our study outcomes. As a matter of fact, a proper physical environment can increase learning outcomes up to 25%, thus next time you face difficulties learning English, just take a closer look at the space you are in. What environmental factors should you look at?

If it's the first time you hear about environmental psychology, no worries! You are not the only one. Very few people are actually aware of this broad, yet very important field. In simple words, environmental psychology looks at how our behavior influences and is influenced by space. In other words, everything we do is space related, whether we do it alone or with others, thus the space and the people around us will influence our behavior. Starting from this idea, we can separate the environment into two parts: physical (space) and social (people). Environmental psychology has broad implications, but for the sake of clarity, in this article I will focus on the physical learning environment to emphasize its influence on our learning outcomes, more specifically in relation to language learning, given the amount of Chinese people

Furniture Sitting in comfortable and soft chairs will make you want to spend longer time in that classroom. However, hard and uncomfortable chairs will make you involuntarily lose your patience. As a consequence, our attention span is reduced, thus not being able to fully focus, nor remember new English words. It becomes even more disturbing once back pain starts to kick in, as it won't only make you want to get out of that classroom faster, but it will also ruin your mood for the rest of the day. Layout Desks of more than two people arranged in rows in a classroom, will put you into the listening mood, not the interaction mood. If you are sitting on the side and your colleagues in the middle of the row need to go out of the classroom, they will disturb you, thus make you lose focus on the lesson. Once your attention is lost, it will be very difficult to continue

following the teacher's ideas, thus your learning outcome has been already compromised.

However, a cluster type arrangement of tables (students facing each other) will make you more willing to interact with others and encourage to better cooperate in group work. When you are trying to improve your English speaking, this is definitely the type of layout that you should be looking for.

Color Vivid colors in a classroom will keep you awake and help you keep your mind focused on the lesson. As

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an example, research shows that blue helps increase the ability to concentrate, while purple encourages cooperation. Classrooms painted in very pale colors (e.g. grey, white, beige etc) will negatively influence your ability to focus and make you feel distracted and sleepy, unable to focus on the tasks at hand. For more info about colors and mood, you can do some research on the psychology of colors.

Temperature When talking about temperature, it is very difficult to point out the perfect temperature for maximizing learning outcomes, as different people perceive temperature differently, depending on which geographical area they grew up in. However, it is worth pointing that if you feel too cold or too hot in a classroom, that feeling will inhibit your brain activity, thus trying to attend a lesson in such conditions is a waste of time and resources.

It is also worth mentioning that people's perceptions about hot or cold can be influenced by giving them the illusion of control. In other words, research shows that if people feel they have control over the temperature (e.g. they are able to turn the AC up or down), even if the temperature in the room doesn't actually change, but their perception about how hot or cold

it is will change, thus becoming more comfortable in that room.

Acoustics If you are among those students who always run to the back of the classroom out of fear that the teacher will ask you questions, depending on how good or bad the acoustics of the classroom is, you might be losing 80% of what the teacher is saying. As a result, it is very easy for you to feel distracted, sleepy and want to find other type of entertainment while in the classroom (e.g. play with your mobile phone, talk with other colleagues etc).

If you are a teacher, remember this: next time you face some naughty students in the back of the classroom, just change their position and let them help out with your lesson (e.g. teaching assistant) and see what the result is. I have a feeling you won't be disappointed!

Lighting A lot of research is being done in relation to the influence of light on our ability to keep awake and focused. When we are in a classroom, it is very important to have as much natural light as possible, spread equally in all parts of the classroom. Our biological clocks follow the sun's activity: we wake up when the sun rises, we fall

asleep when the sun sets. Sunlight makes us feel awake and energetic, improves our brain activity and helps us focus. If there is not enough light in the classroom, in order to keep both the teacher and the students focused, it is crucial to supplement the lighting. The absence of good light will not only make us lose focus, but it will also add extra pressure on our eyesight when trying to read or do other class activities, thus increase the need to wear glasses.

So next time you are in a classroom, either as a student or a teacher, try to observe how these environmental factors influence your behavior and ability to focus. The space you learn (or teach in) has a major impact on learning outcomes, so I will finish this article with the following:

1. There is no "bad" student, there are only improper learning environments and teachers who don't understand the influence of environmental factors on themselves and their students and/or can't adapt their teaching styles to different styles of learning.

2. Everyone is a genius, but each person's talent is different. Only by having a proper learning environment and guidance can we discover our true potential!

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