Performance–assisted learning (PAL) was introduced at the 2017 annual Japanese Association for Language Teaching (JALT) conference. It was revealed to be a “new concept in education” and that EFL university teachers were “extremely excited about its efficacy and power to motivate” (Head et al., 2018, p. 233). However, it was claimed that in many institutions, English department administrators did not share the same enthusiasm, seeing PAL activities as not academic enough. This study aims to gather a variety of qualitative data to validate the use of PAL. Over 5 weeks, a micro-evaluation involving a number of data sets was conducted on two university classes, containing 46 students in total, for a PAL activity (in this case, a four-page skit). The evaluations were individual student journals, peer-assessment, creative writing, teacher observation, and a video. The study describes the 5-week project procedure, and aims to provide more comprehensive evidence to support the use of PAL in the EFL classroom. Findings indicate very positive student engagement in the project, and a need to give more explicit instruction to students for the creative writing task.
The power of visual art: Higher felt inspiration following aesthetically pleasing visual prompts in a creative writing task