Rita Divéki: Developing Global Competence in the Hungarian EFL Classroom
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5. Secondary School Teachers’ Views and Practices Concerning GCD – Presentation of the Results from the Secondary School Context
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5.3. Good Practices in Developing Students’ Global Competence
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5.3.1. The Results of the Classroom Study
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5.3.1.6. Activities Based on What Makes a Good Life

5.3.1.6. Activities Based on What Makes a Good Life

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Material(s) the sequence is based on
Language aims
GCD aims
Suggested methods and techniques to be used in the sequence
Robert Waldinger – What makes a good life (TED talk on Youtube)
– to develop student’s listening, reading and speaking skills
– to expand students’ vocabulary with advanced-level words
– to raise awareness of an important issue
– to expand students’ knowledge about a widespread phenomenon
– to develop students’ self–awareness, emotional intelligence, and empathy
– to develop students’ critical thinking
– to develop students’ autonomy, presentations skills, research skills and cooperation
– Pairwork discussion
– Watching the video
– Comprehension questions based on the video
– Discussion (groupwork)
– Matching vocabulary items with their meaning
– Filling in questions with key vocabulary and discussing the questions
– Filling in quotes with words and reflecting on the quotes
– Analysing the infographic
– Project 1 – Creating an infographic Project 2 – Service-learning
 

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5.3.1.6.1 Results from the Reflective Journals and Focus Group Interviews. The activities centring around the TED talk were tried out in five different groups (Alma, Hédi, Johanna, Klaudia and Zsóka chose this worksheet), with the participation of 72 students. Even though five teachers used the worksheet in their classes, only one of them, Hédi had the time to write a journal entry about the classes. Given the lack of available documents, comparative analysis would have been impossible, thus, I decided to complement the journal entry with the transcript from the focus group interview, which was conducted as a follow up to the classroom study. There, the teacher had a question, in which they were asked to say which activity sequences they did with their groups and tell the others about their experiences. During the interview, Hédi, Johanna and Zsóka talked about the lessons centred around the TED talk in detail, thus, after analysing these documents together, some emerging themes were found.

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Some of them did mention the reason behind choosing this video for their groups: Hédi wanted to give the students an example to follow for finding happiness in their lives, Johanna wanted to give them some comfort during the vicissitudes of the COVID-19 period, and Klaudia could link the topic to the upcoming chapter of the coursebook. They all mentioned that the students truly enjoyed the video, they found the speaker’s style captivating and in Klaudia’s group, they were interested in the longitudinal study presented in the talk (which they discussed in detail later). Both Klaudia and Hédi both found that the activity where the students had to work on infographics was extremely useful and thought-provoking. Hédi and Johanna both reflected on the fact that the students enjoyed the discussions about the video, even though in Hédi’s group, discussing quotes about loneliness turned out to be quite challenging, as it “would have even been difficult for them in their native language” (J/GL-H-1). Based on Klaudia’s testimony, there was no time for her group to work on the project, and Johanna would have liked to assign it to her group, but they were not eager to do any research as homework. In Hédi’s group, all the students chose the infographics task on helping the elderly cope with loneliness. What shone through the teachers’ answers was that they also really loved the TED video and they appreciated that their students had meaningful discussions they could easily engage in.
 

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5.3.1.6.2 Results of the Student Questionnaires. All in all, 70 students did the activity sequence under the guidance of five teachers, however, only 43 of them gave feedback on the lessons. They mostly enjoyed the activities, as they rated it with an average of 4.16 (SD = .81) on a scale of 5. Regarding the extent to which it developed their language skills, they gave it an average of 4.23 (SD = 1.03), which was relatively high compared to the other worksheets. Finally, they were asked to rate to what extent the activity sequence develop their 21st-century skills, and they awarded it an average of 3.77 (SD = .98). By doing the activity sequence, the students think they developed their communication skills (28), presentation skills (17) and collaborative skills (16).

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Some common themes were found in the students’ answers to the open-ended questions. They assessed the lesson as being useful (n = 18), interesting (n = 14) and many of them (n = 10) highly appreciated the TED talk they had to watch. Concerning the language gains of the activity sequence, they noted that it improved their vocabulary (n = 13), speaking (n = 10) and listening skills (n = 6). While doing the activities, the students could engage in meaningful discussions, and some of them referred to these discussions and the activities as being eye-opening, which is clearly shown by the following comments:
 

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I think it was very useful because we could step into each other’s shoes and get to know them better. Nowadays a lot of people, especially teenagers consider themselves unhappy but during this lesson, I realised that I actually live a pretty happy life and having a bad day does not mean that my life is unhappy and other people my age should be aware of that too… As I mentioned before I really enjoyed stepping into other people’s shoes and I also learned a lot about healthy relationships and why is it important to have them and how do loneliness and toxic relationships affect my life. After learning these I will definitely be careful with my friends and family and show them my love more because they are the source of my happiness (#10).
I think they were very useful because they helped me take a look into what happiness really is and they gave me some really good tips about my future life (#11).
It’s not just about English. These activities reminded me how much I love my girlfriend and my family and how lucky I am to have them (#9).
 

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Some students added that they do not think they learnt anything about the world by doing these activities, but they were the minority (n = 3). Nevertheless, other students really seem to have appreciated the lesson, felt that they learned about the world by listening to their peers, and as Respondent 22 put it, they did so in a “more interesting and meaningful way than in a regular class”.
 
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