Speaker
Description
This workshop explores how Irvin Yalom’s four existential givens—mortality, freedom, isolation, and meaning—can serve as powerful lenses for expanding empathy within ELT. We examine how these profound human themes can recalibrate our pedagogical stance and collegial relations, foregrounding an active ethic of care and mutual regard. By re-contextualising these givens for the EFL classroom, we demonstrate how an empathetic presence can transform the climate for learner interaction. Rather than prescribing rigid techniques, this session cultivates a shared vocabulary: empathy as a foundational orientation rather than an ornament, and connection as a deliberate practice. Participants will be equipped to imagine context-sensitive applications that honor their unique local constraints. Attendees will leave with conceptual touchstones for designing humane, language-rich spaces where existential awareness bridges isolation, fostering a deeply empathetic and resonant classroom experience.
Daniel Svoboda is an Assistant Professor of Korean-English Translation at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and a professional translator since 2009.