Asynchronous (Online) Creativity / Critical Thinking / 4Cs Pecha Kucha (Asynchronous)
How Stories Can Help Students Find the Words to Talk About Emotions
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.
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Andrew Nelson is from Nashotah, Wisconsin, USA. He holds a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance and a Master of Arts in TESOL, both from the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He has extensive experience teaching adults at the university level. He has been teaching English at Yachay Tech University since August, 2017, where he employs a teaching philosophy of helping students become self-directed learners.