Abstract

Personal feeling of self-confidence plays one of the most important roles in the healthy psychological development of a human being as well as in the process of acquiring a foreign language and developing language competence. This paper discusses the role of self-confidence and self-concepts in the development of general ability to express oneself and to make contact with ones environment. Using the insights form psychology, psycho-therapy, humanistic approach to teaching and numerous experiences of language teachers, this paper focuses on researching general and specific characteristics of defensive mechanisms and the cause and effect movements of the particular set of psychological processes which cause the stop of communication and non-constructive patterns of behaviour which hinder the education attempts. The focus of the paper is put on the process of learning foreign languages and on discovering how particular types of communication between a teacher and students support constructive or non-constructive attitudes towards ones own self, others and life in general. The aim of this paper is to raise awareness about the subtle processes in which the teachers are neccesaraly involved and which they always contribute to, and to help gaining the insight about the great influence teachers and the way they communicate with their students have on lives, personal development and concepts of self-worth and personal mision in life of their students.

Key words: self-confidence, self-esteem, self-image, ego-threatening situations, psychological conditioning, defensive mechanisms, emotional filters, consciousness, subconsciousness, negative projections, negative will, inhibition, human needs, empathic communication, positive affirmations, learners authonomy;