Innovation in Language Learning

Since one of the four objectives of today’s education, as defined in the Strategic framework – Education & Training 2020, is to stimulate creativity and innovation, more and more universities have started to apply the method of design thinking, a creative problem-solving approach, developed in the United States at the end of the ‘90s and used mainly in architecture and business. However, less business-oriented courses have also discovered the potential of this method. In the academic year 2017/2018 the Constantine the Philosopher University in Nitra piloted a workshop of design thinking focusing on different subfields of tourism such as sport tourism or creative tourism. One of the biggest benefits of this method, expressed by all the participants, was that it forced them to work together and to communicate in English, since it was the language of the training.  In addition, as it was verbalized by all the mentors, students were far more active and enthusiastic than in case of traditional teaching methods.  Therefore, the potential of design thinking can be seen not only in terms of stimulating creative thinking, team-work or problem-solving skills, but also in terms of developing foreign language competences as well as making students more motivated. The present paper offers an insight into the possibilities and the benefits of applying design thinking in teaching ESP, providing the framework of the workshop applied within the course of Tourism Product Development in order to come up with innovative solutions in the field of creative tourism. In addition, the teachers’ and students’ opinions on the advantages as well as disadvantages of the method are also summarized.

Keywords: English for Specific Purposes, Design Thinking, Creative Tourism;