On the Question of Teacher’s Emotional Communication

Lyudmila Slavnetskova

, Kseniya Chepelenko

and Yulia Baurova

Institute of Social and Production Management, Yuri Gagarin State Technical University of Saratov, 77

Polytechnicheskaya Street, Saratov, Russia

Keywords: Communication, Emotionality, Pedagogy, Teacher, Interpersonal Interaction.

Abstract: The question of teacher’s emotional communication is one of the urgent issues of current pedagogical science

and educational practice. To date, the content field of the concept of emotional communication has not been

formed. Its development in the field of pedagogical activity is urgently needed, since it opens up new prospects

for current educational practice, responding to the challenges of our time to preserve the emotional component

with the increasing technological effectiveness and pragmatism of the educational process. The authors of the

paper emphasize that while realizing in practice the principle of emotional content, emotional support of the

educational process, it is the teacher who is responsible for the emotional attractiveness of communication

between the subjects of education. This feature allows us to classify the profession of a teacher as an active,

emotionally charged type of intellectual activity, characterizing it as an intense “work of the heart and nerves.”

1 INTRODUCTION

This article is devoted to the insufficiently studied

question of teachers’ emotional communication. The

key terminological expression in the title of the work

actualizes the concept of interdisciplinary scientific

knowledge. As a concept of pedagogy, emotional

communication is the quintessence of the educational

process initiated by the teacher.

The purpose of the study is to identify the content

of the concept of emotional communication,

considered in the context of the activities of a

university teacher.

The starting point of reflection of the paper

authors can be the postulate according to which the

creative activity of the teacher, unfolding in the

“person-person” system, is communicative in nature,

while communicativeness is based on interpersonal

relationships of an emotional character.

The emotional component, obviously, is a

professionally significant quality of pedagogical

communication. Realizing in practice the principle of

emotional content, emotional support of the

educational process, the teacher is responsible for the

emotional attractiveness of communication between

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the subjects of education. This feature allows us to

classify the profession of a teacher as an active,

emotionally charged type of intellectual activity,

characterizing it as an intense “work of the heart and

nerves.”

The emotional approach to the teacher's activity,

which is gaining relevance, is one of the areas of

current pedagogical science, that is increasingly

aware of the need to “preserve the emotional

component with the increasing technological

effectiveness and pragmatism of the educational

process” (Robotova, 2018).

2 MATERIALS AND METHODS

The history of the issue of emotional communication

originates in European science since the 40s of the

last century. The first steps in this direction belong to

the Swiss scientist Charles Bally. Considering

communication in terms of the combination of

rational and emotional principles, he comes to the

conclusion that communication is neither purely

rational, nor purely emotional, since it balances

between these qualities (Bally, 1944).

Slavnetskova, L., Chepelenko, K. and Baurova, Y.

On the Question of Teacher’s Emotional Communication.

DOI: 10.5220/0010669800003223

In Proceedings of the 1st International Scientiﬁc Forum on Sustainable Development of Socio-economic Systems (WFSDS 2021), pages 433-436

ISBN: 978-989-758-597-5

433

Noting the merits of domestic science in the

development of the topic under consideration, it is

necessary to name L.I. Umansky, who, within the

framework of the parametric concept, formulated the

key definition of the concept of emotional

communication (Umansky, 1967).

The idea of emotionality of communication was

developed in the research by the linguist V.G. Gak

(Gak, 1998). Academician, Russian sociologist T.M.

Dridze in his works bases on the thesis that in the

process of communication, the perception of any

information begins directly with emotional

perception (Dridze, 1980).

Among the most significant works devoted to the

question of emotional communication of our time is

the fundamental encyclopedic work of a team of

authors. One of its sections is called “Emotional

Communication in Interpersonal Interaction”

(Matyash, 2011). Since 2000, in the mainstream of

numerous linguistic studies, Professor V.I.

Shakhovsky began the studies of emotional

communication (Shakhovsky, 2008, 2011, 2015,

2016).

Thus, the scientific field, defined as emotional

communication, is the subject of research by various

scholars in the humanities: linguists, sociologists,

psychologists, and teachers.

In the scientific world, the phenomenon of teacher

emotionality is of great interest. This problem is the

subject of research by A.E. Olyshannikova

(Olyshannikova, 1983), B.M. Teplov (Teplov, 1961),

O.A. Sergeeva (Sergeeva, 2-10). D.V Makarova

(Makarova, 2008), T.L. Shabanova (Shabanova,

2011), L.V. Tarabakina (Tarabakina, 2018), M.I.

Stasyuk (Stasyuk, 2014), O.A. Kholina (Kholina,

2014) I.A. Malikova (Malikova, 2017), I.M.

Kondyurina, A.M. Yudin (Kondyurina and Yudin,

2012), A.S. Robotova (Robotova, 2018), O.V.

Polunina (Polunina, 2009), D.A. Kutuzova

(Kutuzova, 2006), A.A. Rukavishnikov

(Rukavishnikov, 2001), T.V. Formanyuk

(Formanyuk, 1994), W. Sato, E. Krumhuber, T.

Jellema, J. Williams (Sato, Krumhuber, Jellema, and

Williams, 2019), E. Stefani, D. Marco (Stefani and

Marco, 2019), M. Taddicken, A. Reif (Taddicken and

Reif, 2020) and others. These and many other

scientists in their works develop the “emotional”

theme of pedagogical communication.

It is advisable to start theorizing on the topic of

pedagogically-oriented emotional communication

with an analysis of the terminological nomination,

which is a two-term one. The emotional lexeme in S.I.

Ozhegov's dictionary has a double interpretation: “1.

emotional – meaning saturated with emotions,

expressing them; 2. emotional – an emotional, easily

aroused person” (Ozhegov, 1989).

3 RESULTS

The concept of emotionality is bivalent in terms of

content. This concept can characterize both the

attitude towards another person and the attitude

towards oneself. Obviously, for successful

pedagogical interaction, a synthesis of two principles

is necessary: understanding the emotions of others is

one side of the issue, the ability to manage one's own

emotions is no less significant, being the second. Both

beginnings are interconnected.

Having defined the bi-directional vector of

pedagogical emotionality, let us turn to the second

lexeme of the phrase “emotional communication” –

communicativeness itself.

As you know, the concept of communicativeness

is the cognitive matrix of communication. These

terms are single-root words that differ in their

content: “Unlike communication, which can be

technical (lines or communication channels, for

example), communicativeness by definition is

focused on people, this is human communication”

(Grechko, 2013).

Taking into account the specific property of

communicativeness, it is possible to apply to it the

developed provisions of the theory of

communication, sociological in its content. So, the

teacher in multifaceted pedagogical activity

participates in unidirectional (linear) communication

and bidirectional (nonlinear) communication.

In relation to pedagogical activity, instead of the

term communication, we use communicativeness.

The communicativeness of the monologue type is

based on the communicative actions and statements

of the teacher – the initiator and organizer of the

educational process, while the background for these

statements invariably becomes the student audience.

Such communication is related to the first type of

communicating.

In the dialogical and polylogical types, all

subjects of communication are in an active state. The

priority here is the type of bidirectional “symmetric”

communication / communicativeness with explicit

feedback.

The analytical vector of the research makes it

possible to classify emotional communication

according to the principle of external and internal

connections. The interpersonal model represents the

system of contacts between the teacher and students.

The intrapersonal model represents the teacher's own

WFSDS 2021 - INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC FORUM ON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC SYSTEMS

434

autocommunication. This article focuses on the

analysis of the first model.

4 DISCUSSION

In the context of this discourse, let us define the

theoretical provisions that are common for the two

above-named models. These are, firstly, the features

of emotional and communicative representation, and

secondly, the principle of the sign differentiation of

emotions.

Commenting on the first point, we note that

emotional communication is a complex phenomenon.

In contrast to the linguistic concept, which specifies

the principles of verbal communication, in sphere of

pedagogy its content is actualized at two different

quality levels: verbal and non-verbal. Verbal -

linguistic – associated with speech forms of

communication, non-verbal - visual – with non-

verbal, gestural-mimic forms. Thus, not only the

linguistic, speech, but also the behavioral sphere

determines the emotional communicativeness, which

we are talking about in this case in connection with

teaching. It is this quality that makes the teacher's

activity similar to the work of an actor in a drama

theatre.

Commenting on the second position, we

emphasize that in pedagogical communication the

principle of emotions differentiation by sign remains

effective: positive, negative and neutral emotions are

distinguished. In emotional and communicative

pedagogical reality, positive emotions are priority.

Belief in success, pedagogical optimism is provided

exclusively by positive emotions, which are produced

and transmitted by the teacher in his work.

The ability to build a dialogue on the basis of an

emotionally coloured attitude towards all participants

in the educational process is regarded today as one of

the significant competencies of a teacher. At the same

time, the teacher's personal example is of great

importance for creating a comfortable atmosphere of

emotional communication. An enthusiastic teacher

who infects with his enthusiastic mood in his work is

able to evoke “emotions of interest” (Dodonov,

1978), to develop the need for cognitive activity in his

students. And if pedagogical communication, by

definition, is positively coloured; then the

“overtones” of emotional disturbances, which are

possible in pedagogical practice, provoke

communication of a negative nature, which prevents

the establishment of effective emotional contacts

between the teacher and the students (Verkhozina,

2007).

The emotionally mature personality of the teacher

represents in interpersonal communication his own

individuality, charged with communicative feelings

of sympathy, respect, thereby confirming the attitude

that productive pedagogical activity is impossible

without an emotional and sensory component

(Fomina, 2016).

In the thesaurus, which explicates the emotional

component of the teacher's professional portrait, let us

note the most common terminological phrases,

grouping them according to several criteria. The first

group is associated with the transmission of various

states of emotional communication, such as:

emotional stability, emotional tension, emotional

expressiveness, emotional relaxation, and emotional

burnout. The second marks the quality of emotional

communication: emotional empathy, emotional

contact, emotional response, emotional experience,

emotional accompaniment, emotional attractiveness,

emotional feedback, emotional flexibility, emotional

regulation, and emotional responsiveness.

The third group represents the creatively and

intellectually coloured component of the

terminological apparatus of emotional

communication: emotional intelligence, emotional

competence, and emotional creativity. Each of the

lexical units of this thesaurus is an actual material for

study, including in the field of pedagogy.

5 CONCLUSIONS

At the end of the emotional and communicative

discourse developed in this article, let us turn to

another significant phenomenon, without which the

overall picture would not have been completely

defined. Emphasizing the importance of a teacher's

personal qualities for successful educational

activities, one cannot discount such a characteristic

feature as a developed sense of humor. Irony and

humor represent a natural reaction to the phenomena

of pedagogical reality, turning “a potentially negative

emotion into its opposite, into a source of positive

emotion” (Luk, 1968). It is in this aspect, within the

framework of the theory of emotions and feelings that

represent the emotional sphere of the personality, S.L.

Rubinstein studied a sense of humour in his works

(Rubinstein, 1999).

A sense of humor can be viewed not only from an

“emotional” point of view; some researchers consider

humor to be an element of informal communication

(Sergeev, 2012). Thus, humor is a significant

emotional and communicative resource of the

On the Question of Teacher’s Emotional Communication

435

teacher's personality, which has a certain potential for

pedagogical influence.

As the main conclusion of the work, it is proposed

to assert the relevance of the concept under

consideration in pedagogy, which has both theoretical

and practical significance. The study of the

phenomenon of emotional communication allows us

to expand the existing ideas about humanitarian

pedagogy, the specificity of which is determined by

the ideas of “meaningful” communication, and

emotionally coloured pedagogical relations. At the

same time, it is obvious that emotional

communication is acquiring today the value of a key

element of educational practices of our time.

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