On Viewing Learners as Spiritual Beings

Abstract: This article, first presented as a plenary address at the CELT 2007 conference at Seattle Pacific University, explores the implications of challenging reductive understandings of learners in language classrooms and working instead with a conception of the learner as a spiritual being. Some reasons why it has been difficult to frame a place for spirituality in accounts of the language learner are described, and an example is examined of an attempt to design a sequence of classroom learning in the light of a concern for students’ spiritual growth.