Being able to communicate about emotions supports the ability to understand oneself and others, which is essential to effective collaboration. However, talking about emotions can be difficult for anyone, and this is especially true for those speaking in a foreign language. The use of folktales, fairytales, and fables in the EFL classroom can help these students talk about emotions in the following ways. First, discussion about feelings can be prompted by the analysis of the experiences of the characters in the story and students’ own related experiences. Second, noticing the language of these stories provides lexical and grammatical structures students can use to communicate about emotions. Because stories are enjoyable and memorable, both these processes are reinforced. The presenter will use a Pecha Kucha presentation to demonstrate how he incorporates stories in the classroom to aid students in achieving the aforementioned benefits.

The development of Japanese students’ critical thinking skills is being encouraged by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT). Unfortunately, many students at the tertiary level in Japan are still not able to use these skills effectively, and many students lack a basic understanding of critical thinking. In order to develop university students’ critical thinking skills this presenter has combined a variety of different reading techniques including, SQ3R and signposting, in combination with effective questioning techniques, such as Costa’s Levels of Questioning. For this presentation, after a quick description of the scaffolding used to teach students, participants will be presented with the results of a classroom-based project on the implementation of this scaffolding. Examples of students’ improvement on question development as well as the connection to deeper text interaction, will also be presented.

Horizontal integration across university curricula is an oft cited ambition but one which frequently falls foul of instructor individualism, on the ground realities, and communication shortfalls. We put to the test the theory that inter-syllabi coordination could prove beneficial for second language acquisition. In one class, students worked on cooperative projects, including making a short movie. In another, they studied creative writing, producing their own poems, stories and scripts. In a third, they were learning academic writing with a particular emphasis on peer review skills. However there was no specific integration between these three syllabi. When it was discovered that nine students were enrolled in all three courses, it presented an ideal opportunity to test horizontal integration in a controlled real-world context. This research report will explore the theories behind horizontal integration before explaining the methodology of the experiment, the results and the lessons learned for the future.

This pecha kucha presentation is extemporaneous and based on audience suggestions about TESOL. The presenter asks the audience about topics at the conference they wanted to hear but didn’t get a chance to hear about. Key words will be put on a whiteboard or in a small notebook. The presenter has pecha-kucha slides prepared – 20 slides timed at 20 seconds each – but does not know in advance what topics will be requested. With the topics suggested, the presenter begins the presentation, addressing topics from the audience while connecting them to pecha kucha slides prepared in advance. The pictures may inspire connections or word choice while the presentation occurs. The pictures themselves will be simple, appropriate for public viewing, but unrelated to TESOL or other related fields. The presentation lasts six minutes and 40 seconds. The goal is that those in attendance see the topics suggested in a more creative, connected, and entertaining light.

This workshop provides ideas on how to use a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) approach to develop undergraduate students’ writing and communication competencies. Participants will experience how an authentic communication problem is facilitated in the Writing and Reasoning (WR) course at Singapore Management University. Through this learning process, students can hone their problem-solving, critical thinking, collaborative, communication, and presentation skills. In this workshop, participants will experience the steps in breaking down a problem, using scaffold questions to guide students’ learning, and giving feedback on students’ solutions to the problem. Suggestions on applying this workshop’s ideas to the participant’s own contexts will be discussed.