Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan

This paper discusses how group problem-solving projects can enhance learners’ creative and critical thinking skills while improving their interactional skills. According to the L2 literature, intensive use of such tasks can facilitate an optimal L2 learning environment that promotes a range of eff...

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Main Author: Onoda, Sakae
Format: Article
Language:en
Published: Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022
Online Access:http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20087/1/52446-187239-2-PB%20%282%29.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20087/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1526
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author Onoda, Sakae
author_facet Onoda, Sakae
author_sort Onoda, Sakae
building Tun Sri Lanang Library
collection Institutional Repository
content_provider Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
content_source UKM Journal Article Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
description This paper discusses how group problem-solving projects can enhance learners’ creative and critical thinking skills while improving their interactional skills. According to the L2 literature, intensive use of such tasks can facilitate an optimal L2 learning environment that promotes a range of effective learning behaviours. Problem-solving tasks help learners achieve linguistic, affective, and social learning goals critical to L2 learning. This paper reports a mixedmethods study comparing the effects of such projects with those of teacher-led activities that maximised student interactions, both of which are deemed effective for L2 learning because they motivate language use. Participants consisted of two intact classes each with 24 third- and fourth-year English majors in a private university in Japan. Each task took up 50 minutes of a semi-content-based course. Results indicate that the projects significantly improved participants’ creative, critical, and L2 interactional skills compared with teacher-led activities. Participants’ feedback also revealed pedagogic benefits of group problem-solving projects of value to other educational settings.
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institution Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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publisher Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
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spelling my-ukm.journal.200872022-10-12T03:50:55Z http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20087/ Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan Onoda, Sakae This paper discusses how group problem-solving projects can enhance learners’ creative and critical thinking skills while improving their interactional skills. According to the L2 literature, intensive use of such tasks can facilitate an optimal L2 learning environment that promotes a range of effective learning behaviours. Problem-solving tasks help learners achieve linguistic, affective, and social learning goals critical to L2 learning. This paper reports a mixedmethods study comparing the effects of such projects with those of teacher-led activities that maximised student interactions, both of which are deemed effective for L2 learning because they motivate language use. Participants consisted of two intact classes each with 24 third- and fourth-year English majors in a private university in Japan. Each task took up 50 minutes of a semi-content-based course. Results indicate that the projects significantly improved participants’ creative, critical, and L2 interactional skills compared with teacher-led activities. Participants’ feedback also revealed pedagogic benefits of group problem-solving projects of value to other educational settings. Penerbit Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia 2022-06 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20087/1/52446-187239-2-PB%20%282%29.pdf Onoda, Sakae (2022) Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan. 3L; Language,Linguistics and Literature,The Southeast Asian Journal of English Language Studies., 28 (2). pp. 1-17. ISSN 0128-5157 https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1526
spellingShingle Onoda, Sakae
Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan
title Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan
title_full Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan
title_fullStr Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan
title_full_unstemmed Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan
title_short Enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate English majors in Japan
title_sort enhancing creative thinking, critical thinking, and interactional skills through problem-solving group projects among undergraduate english majors in japan
url http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20087/1/52446-187239-2-PB%20%282%29.pdf
http://journalarticle.ukm.my/20087/
https://ejournal.ukm.my/3l/issue/view/1526
url_provider http://journalarticle.ukm.my/