Humanistic Language Teaching: A Critical Look

Abstract – One of the conspicuous shifts in the world's educational system was the introduction of humanism and humanistic views into education in general and language teaching in particular. Respecting students ' ideas, allowing them to have their say, and affording them some opportunities to take control of their learning process are among the tenets of humanism. Humanism makes a reference to a thinking paradigm to solve others ' problems or taking somebody's emotions and feelings into consideration. It also means rendering human or humane, imparting human qualities to, making a process or system less severe or easier for people to understand [10]. Thus, it can be stated that humanizing means helping others with something out of affection and benevolence. Humanism takes heed of developing self-concept and self-esteem in students. Humanistic language teaching holds that language learners will speed up their learning process if teachers make their attempts to draw on the humanistic views in their instruction. This article makes endeavors to deal with humanistic aspects of language teaching and the criticisms which have been leveled against them in second/foreign language instruction.