Exploring Perceptions of EFL Learners Toward Blending Aesthetic Experience Pedagogical Design

Abstract

English language skills have long been a core competence in formal and informal education in Taiwan. Yet, given the lack of exposure and the necessity of the language, English is still treated as a subject to master, instead of a skill to be applied to express oneself. In an attempt to shift this phenomenon, the purpose of this research aims to adopt aesthetic experience as a vehicle to enhance language expression skills while also enhancing the satisfaction of language learning. Aesthetic experience is believed to have the potential to unlock the imagination of learners and break the barrier of language differences. Nonetheless, the connection between aesthetic education and second language learning remains underexplored. This research aims to observe how adopting aesthetic experience in an English course could affect college language learners in overall learning satisfaction and perceptions. The participants consisted of 88 freshman students from two General English classes at a university located in central Taiwan. The research adopts four major aesthetic related group projects blended with language learning. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected via surveys to obtain a holistic perspective of how aesthetic education can affect language learning satisfaction. The findings of the research confirm the positive outcomes of the learners’ satisfaction, self-perceived language performance, aesthetic appreciation skill, observation skill, cross-disciplinary learning experience as well as peer learning via group projects.