Where Awareness and Empowerment Meet.” In L. Landolfi (ed.). Framing Minds. English and Affective Neurosciences

The paper presents the results of a two-year experimentation with university students who manifested reiterated difficulties in advancing in their English-connected academic path. After a review of the theoretical and philosophical lines at the basis of the adopted approach, the study highlights the steps that were followed to achieve both personal and linguistic awareness/empowerment. The premise is that human beings, i.e., university language students, have the capacity to make choices and, as adults, they are/should be/should be made responsible of the consequences of their choices. Empowerment is seen and treated as an educational process designed to help learners develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and degree of self-awareness necessary to effectively assume responsibility for their English-connected decisions and advancements. The adoption of empowering strategies and practices were based on the analysis of topics such as well-being, self-image, motivation, adaptability, stress management, problem-solving, social support, self-awareness, and life vision. The results that have been achieved during the two-year experimentation suggest that blocked learning realities may change thanks to integrated and holistic training attitudes. Educators need to address and treat the physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual needs of learners challenged to live with a chronic “learning disease” which entangles and/or blocks learning progression.