Neuro-linguistic Programming and Its Implications for English Language Learners and Teachers Neda Hedayat Department of Language Teaching and Translation, Varamin-Pishva Branch, Islamic Azad University, Varamin, Iran Reza Raissi Department of Language Teaching and Translation, Varamin-Pishva Branch, Islamic Azad University, Varamin, Iran Solmaz Azizzadeh Asl Department of Language Teaching and Translation, Varamin-Pishva Branch, Islamic Azad University, Varamin, Iran Abstract—In the world we live in, education is praised as a base for training and nurturing future generations and teaching is considered as a valuable profession through which future generations are flourished. The main components of each educational system must work well in order to create a successful system and achieve the desired results. Teachers are considered as one of the key determinant factors and active decision-makers of any educational system. Learners are also taken into account as one of the main elements of the system who are instructed to reach some educational goals. Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), with high potential for English teaching and learning, is regarded as a supplementary technique which helps the teachers to develop outstanding skills like critical thinking, self-efficacy, and rapport which are necessary to bring on success and achievement to the education and to support learners to achieve excellence in their performance. The article first presents a brief history and definition of NLP. Then it is followed by some information about the main pillars of neuro-linguistic programming. The discussion then turns to understanding some of the implications of NLP for English language teachers and learners and its potential for educational success. Index Terms—neuro-linguistic programming, learners’ success, teachers’ success I. INTRODUCTION Language is at the heart of human being life. We use it to show our feelings, to reach our desired outcomes, to pray, or to express our ideas. Through language, we exchange our attitudes and experiences, plan our lives and form individual and social identities. Some people are capable of doing things in more than one single language. Knowing more than one language may mean having a chance to get educated, get a job, having the opportunity to immigrate to other countries, expand the cultural horizons, and talk to other people with different linguistic and cultural backgrounds. So we can claim that language is the most unique feature of the creature. In today’s globalized scenario, in which many people know more than one language, and with the technological developments which have made our world a global village, acquiring the ability to communicate effectively has become obligatory. Learning English as the language of international communication which enjoys the status of lingua franca has become necessary for anybody who wants to interact and communicate with other individuals around the world. In the past decades, communicative competence and the interactive aspect of language were not emphasized by the methods and techniques used by language teachers. But nowadays, methods like communicative language teaching or CLT has become popular in most educational organizations. Neuro-linguistic programming has been recognized as a tool which can help the English language learners to improve the communicative competence, presentation skills and body language effectively (Siddiqui, 2018). As teachers are considered as the key components of the educational system who affect its success, so identifying the elements which help them in teaching profession is very important. NLP is regarded as a supplementary technique which helps the teachers to develop outstanding skills necessary to bring on success to the education and to support learners to achieve excellence in their performance. It is also helpful for language teachers to establish a better communication with the learners, strengthen the educational environment, and have a supportive and effective interaction which leads to the higher academic achievement. The present article first presents a brief history and definition of neuro-linguistic programming and then it introduces the main pillars of NLP. In the next sections, some of the implications of NLP for English language teachers and learners are provided and discussed. II. NEURO-LINGUISTIC PROGRAMMING Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) is an interpersonal communication system, developed by John Grinder, an associate professor of linguistics, and Richard Bandler, a mathematician and a graduate student of psychology, in the early 1970s as a new method to language teaching. It is a collection of strategies, techniques, and patterns which are ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 10, No. 9, pp. 1141-1147, September 2020 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1009.19 © 2020 ACADEMY PUBLICATION