Innovating at the nexus of world languages and cultures and design thinking

ABSTRACT An approach to solving complicated and multileveled issues, design thinking offers strategies for secondary and higher education curricula innovation. Recent scholarship on the teaching and learning of world languages and cultures (WLC) has focused on some of the design thinking aspects: innovation, interpersonal connection, and creativity. Although educating future instructors in design thinking is gaining momentum, existing WLC educators, particularly those in higher education, lack opportunities to learn them. Given the lack of literature at the nexus of design thinking and WLC pedagogy, we conducted a pilot exploratory study to establish a preliminary understanding of instructor motivations, possibilities at the intersection and to develop a framework for empirical research. The study suggests a hands-on tell and show-based workshop has the potential to raise curiosity, and to develop basic design thinking skills and a positive attitude, motivating the instructors to begin to experiment at the nexus. It highlights the need to demonstrate the adaptability of design thinking to WLC but suggests that instructors can identify relevant opportunities. Follow up empirical research is suggested.