Mindfulness Enhancing Concentration in English Foreign Language Reading Comprehension

Abstract

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) Learning Compass 2030 for teachers emphasizes that cognitive, metacognitive skills, and emotional intelligence skills such as compassion, attentiveness, critical thinking, creativity, and communication are indirectly important to developing reading comprehension. Reading is a challenge for EFL students who have difficulties understanding written texts because of the lack of concentration, stress, and anxiety. Mindfulness appears as a practice that may offer some benefits. Recent studies show that mindfulness training can alleviate anxiety and stress, improve confidence, improve cognitive and social abilities, and elevate academic goals. In this regard, this review synthesizes existing literature to evaluate the effectiveness of mindfulness in enhancing concentration in EFL reading comprehension classrooms and provide insights for educators, practitioners, and researchers. Criteria for selected articles were kept as recent as possible. All peer-reviewed papers were cited or published in scientific journals. This review suggests that mindfulness training has the potential to make learners more aware of their learning system. In addition, students learn to regulate their emotions to be more flexible and creative. Mindfulness training changes their point of view of their thinking in a way that encourages conscious control of their feeling, actions, and thoughts, improving cognitive abilities.