JALT2025 - Tokyo

Developing Young EFL Students' Interactional Competence Through Activities Integrated with Music

Nov 2, 2025, 1:45 PM

1h

National Olympics Memorial Youth Center / 国立オリンピック記念青少年総合センター

Research-Oriented Presentation (60-minutes) Learner Development Room 408

Speaker

Shiori Watashima

Description

This presentation will report on how the integration of music into Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) based EFL teaching helped enhance young learners’ interactional competence (IC) and reduce Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA), which data were found through a three-year Action Research (AR). The findings from several data sources, such as questionnaires and transcription analyses, suggest that activities integrated with music positively influenced students’ IC as well as memory retention and FLA.

Summary

This presentation will report on how the integration of music into Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) based EFL teaching helped enhance young learners’ interactional competence (IC) and reduce Foreign Language Anxiety (FLA). The findings from several data sources such as questionnaires and transcription analyses suggest that activities integrated with music positively influenced students’ IC as well as memory retention and FLA.