Abstract
Discussing international affairs demands multidisciplinary knowledge and communication strategies from partakers. The demand is elevated for nonnative English speakers when critical ideas are exchanged for controversial topics in English. This research explores the value of an innovative ESP training featuring interactive educational technology and cross-disciplinary team-teaching, to introduce international literacy to 26 college-level Taiwanese English learners and guide them to develop analytical perspectives on global news and discussion strategies. The training includes three learning modules with three themes tackling major global issues at the present time. Each module composes of six stages: starting from an orientation from an ESP instructor, followed by guided and intensive English news reading and poster presentations on the students’ side, journalistic communication unfolded by a field practitioner, blended role play, task production, and finally virtual briefing. Data collection includes entry and exit assessments, in addition to focus group interviews as well as work products. Descriptive statistical analysis and thematic analysis unfold the induced effects of the training. The learning outcomes after comparing the entry and exit assessments show positive progress, in both students’ English news processing and their confidence in voicing themselves. The results from interviews also reveal participants’ satisfaction toward the training and their communication ability growth. The online role-play creates the affordance to facilitate students to contextualize global news from the media and develop relevance and insights. The results show that the training can re-educate news readers/viewers by equipping them with journalistic knowledge and clear logic.
Author Information
Wen-Chun Chen, National Chung Cheng University, Taiwan
Paper Information
Conference: ECE2020
Stream: Foreign Languages Education & Applied Linguistics (including ESL/TESL/TEFL)
This paper is part of the ECE2020 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Chen W. (2020) Learning International Literacy and News English Through Cross-disciplinary Instructional Modules ISSN: 2188-1162 The European Conference on Education 2020: Official Conference Proceedings https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2020.34
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2020.34
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