Article Review

“Design Thinking in EFL Context: Studying the Potential for Language

Teaching and Learning”
Emelyn A. Nombre
ELT 204

“Design Thinking in EFL Context: Studying the Potential for Language Teaching and
Learning” is a study conducted by two professors in University of Japan- Deboproyo Roy and
John Brine. The study focused in the application of design thinking strategy in teaching English
as a Foreign language (EFL). According to Harvard University, “design thinking is a mindset
and approach to learning, collaboration, and problem solving. In practice, the design process is a
structured framework for identifying challenges, gathering information, generating potential
solutions, refining ideas, and testing solutions. Design Thinking can be flexibly implemented;
serving equally well as a framework for a course design or a roadmap for an activity or group
project.”1

The tool used in this study is web design analysis which can be considered as an activity
for design thinking strategy. According to this article, web design analysis focuses on explaining
on how the elements of website (design text, formatting, graphics, menus, and overall screen
design and navigation) affect the website itself and its impact to the readers. The subjects of this
study are Japanese computer science students with pre- intermediate English language ability but
without any background in website analysis and design. The students underwent six (6) weeks
of lectures and discussions about web design. There was also an evaluation of different websites
every week. The evaluation was driven by a set of eight (8) open –ended questions. After each
week’s evaluation, oral presentations were also conducted highlighting the summary of
discussion of their website evaluation strategies and how they did it. At the end of the sixth week
of the website evaluation exercise, students were handed out a post- test questionnaire which was
designed to test their reflective self- report of how they approached the website and the
evaluation process.

In this article, it is observable that the researchers used the best strategy to elicit and to
evaluate students’ responses which is open- ended questions that require higher order thinking
skills. By having HOTS questions along with the ideas, the participants were able to organize
their thoughts and ideas better before they start writing their essay. The answer to
the questions provides the main ideas of the story as the learners are free to insert extra ideas and
details in their writing (Nation, 2009)2. The technique used by the professors (web design
analysis) promotes creative and analytical thinking because the students are the ones who
construct information and ideas based on what they have seen in the website they evaluated
through the questions they had to answer weekly which had elicit diverse responses from the
students. From this, students generate their own idea. When we encourage students to generate
new ideas, we are not concerned with how earth-shattering the ideas are; we are far more
interested in the process by which students generate these ideas.3

As a result of the study, this article claims that the lack of proficiency of the English
language is not an impediment in response building process. It is revealed that the lack of higher
order thinking skills and holistic comprehension of the core design issues affect the quality of the
responses.

Another finding is that the use of technology for text authoring purposes is to encourage
the learners to write more and more. But those activities largely overlooked the process by which
language learning and learning could be integrated successfully. The web design analysis is an
example of how content- based learning could be successfully initiated in a foreign language
classroom with systematic effort. In Content- Based Learning, language teaching does not focus
on the language itself but rather on what is being taught through the language; that is, the
language becomes the medium through which something new is learned.4

Throughout the article, it is emphasized that language teaching should not just focus on
writing activities that students should be engaged to but by providing designed- based activities
that will enhance students’ higher order thinking skills. This is also the same with metacognitive
approach in teaching. In this approach, it is emphasized that learners’ metacognitive skills must
be empowered. Metacognition, which refers to the knowledge and control people have over their
own thinking and learning activities (Flavell 1979), deals with the "individual's knowledge about
the task, possible strategies that might be applied to the task and the individual's awareness of
their [sic] own abilities in relation to these strategies" (Taylor 1983, 270).5

This article suggests that we need a platform which largely provides original context and
a situation where the text content for the queries cannot be authored directly, based on the
existing textual content available to the reader. This is when learners actually start thinking and
formulating a response based on the independent thinking styles and thought processes. Learners
should not only learn to write but they must learn what and how to write.

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1. https://tll.gse.harvard.edu/design-thinking
2.https://www.academia.edu/32421863/THE_EFFECTS_OF_HIGHER_ORDER_THINKING_SKILLS_H
OTS_QUESTIONS_IN_IMPROVING_ESL_PUPILS_WRITING_PERFORMANCE
3.https://www.washoeschools.net/cms/lib/NV01912265/Centricity/domain/170/21st%20century%20elevato
r%20guides/KC%20Planning%20Instruction%20for%2021st%20Century%20Learners%20v2%20-
%203%20Knowledge%20Construction.pdf
4. https://sites.educ.ualberta.ca/staff/olenka.bilash/Best%20of%20Bilash/content.html
5. http://www.socialstudies.org/sites/default/files/publications/se/5903/590303.html