This article reports on a practitioner research study that adopted the intercultural approach to integrating Vietnamese and Indonesian cultural issues into Taiwanese university classes for English as a foreign language (EFL). A content-based course design was developed to infuse cultural topics including food culture, lifestyle and interpersonal interaction into an 18-week English curriculum with a dual focus on facilitating students’ intercultural competence and learning of English. This study recounts the teacher researcher’s process of developing and implementing this course; it also evaluates the effects of the course by analysing students’ perceptions based on data collected from an intercultural competence scale, a course evaluation survey and a semi-structured interview in two consecutive semesters. Based on the results, the students showed obvious growth in their intercultural competence; many of them also perceived that the course facilitated their learning of English. Overall, this study offers English language teachers novel insights with regard to developing and administering an EFL course featuring the teaching and learning of intercultural issues.
This article reports on a practitioner research study exploring how creative thinking activities can be designed and integrated into high school English classes. It delineates the process of developing a metaphorical creativity workshop for year 11 students in Taiwan and demonstrates the students’ workshop experiences and learning outcomes. Results of the study reveal that the workshop stimulated the students’ metaphorical creativity and expanded their English‐language knowledge. Findings also suggest that the workshop can be further improved in several ways, such as including more diverse topics about language creativity and combining creativity training with textbook content. Overall, this study provides essential insights that can help English teachers design creative thinking activities and integrate them into high school English curricula effectively.
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