STORIES THAT SPEAK, THEMES THAT TEACH: THEMED TIME AS A PEDAGOGICAL INNOVATION IN INCLUSIVE ESL AND EFL CLASSROOMS

Abstract

In the contemporary educational landscape, fostering inclusive classrooms has emerged as a critical priority to ensure equitable learning environments that embrace diversity and promote holistic development. This study introduces a pedagogical innovation titled “Themed Time”, designed to integrate inclusivity and language development through a structured, theme-based daily practice. The strategy involves dedicating the first 15 minutes of each academic day to the themes such as gender equality, societal hierarchy, linguistic diversity, disability awareness, and cultural sensitivity that are in demand to facilitate an inclusive classroom. ‘Themed time sessions’ comprises of multimodal activities such as storytelling, reflective writing, video viewings, and gamified tasks on the theme selected for the week. These multimodal tasks anchored in the LSRW (Listening, Speaking, Reading, and Writing) framework, will cater to both linguistic enrichment and the cultivation of empathy. To evaluate the efficacy of the strategy, the research proposed suggests the conduct of pre- and post-intervention assessments to measure the student progress in language proficiency and empathetic understanding. The anticipated outcome is a measurable enhancement in both language acquisition and the development of inclusive attitudes among learners, thereby offering a sustainable and replicable model for inclusive education in diverse classroom settings.

Keywords: Inclusive pedagogy, value-based learning, LSRW techniques, empathy development, pedagogical innovation, theme time