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Title

外国語教育における創造性の育成と評価：連想を用いた活動とバイオメトリックデータ分析

Author(s)劉, 婷CitationIssue Date

2021-03

Type

Thesis or Dissertation

Text version

ETD

URL

http://hdl.handle.net/10119/17466

RightsDescription

Supervisor:由井薗隆也, 先端科学技術研究科, 博士

Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Cultivation and Assessment of Creativity in the Foreign
Language Classroom: Association-based Activities andBiometric Data Analysis

LIU TING
Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

Doctoral Dissertation

Cultivation and Assessment of Creativity in the Foreign
Language Classroom: Association-based Activities andBiometric Data Analysis

LIU TING

Supervisor: Associate Professor Takaya Yuizono
Graduate School of Advanced Science and Technology
Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Knowledge Science

March 2021

Abstract

Cultivating students’ creativity has become an important part of teaching foreign
languages at the university level. This study proposed a creative pedagogy for theforeign language classroom. Activities that involve association and mind mapping in a
student-centered mode can encourage students to think creatively. This study
implemented association-based activities with mind mapping to encourage students toexercise creative, divergent thinking in their learning process. The setting for the study
was a school of Japanese studies at a university in Dalian city in China. At thisuniversity, the students generally follow a traditional curriculum, which is unconcernedwith improving creativity. The fundamental aim was to explore whether a creative
pedagogy could effectively promote creativity development in students’ creative
thinking skills, language proficiency, and learning motivation. The experimental group
received an 8-week intervention that combined the regular curriculum with associationbased activities with mind mapping. The control group received the regular curriculum.
It assumed that association-based activities with mind mapping positively impact thecultivation of creativity.
At present, few studies have investigated to what extent association-based
activities influence foreign language learning among university students in terms ofcreativity outcomes. To clarify the effect of the association-based activities on
creativity, we employed an experimental methodology involving a pre-test/post-test
repeated measures design. All students were tested on creativity performance using
three assessment instruments, a creative thinking test, a foreign language proficiency
test, and a motivation questionnaire: evaluating creative thinking skills through creative
thinking test, performance rating by three factors of fluency, flexibility, and originality;
assessing Japanese language proficiency through Japanese-language proficiency test,
in terms of vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing; administering a
motivation questionnaire, including choice, executive, and increased motivationquestionnaire, to assess students’ learning motivation.
Besides using traditional tests to measure students’ creativity outcomes, anelectroencephalography (EEG) investigation was taken for testing students’ divergent
thinking skills, and an eye tracking analysis was taken for assessing students’ Japanese
language proficiency, which provided biometric data to further verify the effectivenessi

of creative pedagogy. In recent years, with the rise and development of cognitive
neuroscience, the research techniques of EEG and brain function imaging haveprovided powerful research tools for directly observing the activity of the brain whenprocessing complex information, which provides a more direct method for exploring
the brain mechanism of creative thinking, especially divergent thinking. In this study,
the EEG data of the two groups students were compared and analyzed during thedivergent thinking tasks’ process. It’s expected that the findings will deepen
understanding and promote the study of the effectiveness of creative thinking skills. In
addition, this study used eye tracking sensors to explore creative pedagogy’s effects onreading ability that is considered as the comprehensive reflection of foreign language
proficiency. Eye tracking sensors was used to record eye movement indicators in realtime, going on to map the eye movement indicators to the reading process that caneffectively analyze the reading ability, which provides a quantitative assessment anddata evidence of creative pedagogy’s effectiveness on students’ language proficiency.
In summary, the findings in this study suggest that association-based activities
could be taken into consideration when cultivating creativity in foreign language
teaching in university. Data and insights culled from the findings in this study establish
the knowledge framework of creative foreign language teaching methods andevaluation, which will contribute to the knowledge science to set future directions forthe creative pedagogy in the field of foreign language teaching and learning inundergraduate education.
Keywords: creativity; association-based activities; creative thinking skills; foreign
language proficiency; learning motivationii

Acknowledgments

During my doctoral life and studies, I am fortunate enough to receive help frommany people. I am sincerely grateful to the following people for their support.
First, I wish to express my sincere thanks to my supervisor Associate Professor
Takaya Yuizono of Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, for theacademic instruction as well as his meticulous guidance in regards to my participation
in international conferences, publishing journal papers, and completing my doctoral
thesis.
Second, I would like to thank my second supervisor Professor Yukari Nagai ofJapan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology for her care and encouragementthat instructed and helped me a lot. In addition, thanks would be extended to my advisor
for minor research project Associate Professor Eunyoung Kim of Japan Advanced
Institute of Science and Technology and Associate Professor Xiaoyan Li of Kyushu
University for their guidance and suggestions that greatly helped towards my minor
research project’s successful completion. I would also like to thank the professors who
have given my instruction during their wonderful courses in the Knowledge Science
School of Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology. Their help is
indispensable for every achievement.
Furthermore, my sincere thanks would be extended to all the leaders in Dalian
Polytechnic University for their valuable guidance and support during the whole
doctoral period. At the same time, I wish to express my gratitude to the teaching staff
in Dalian University of Foreign Languages who provided me with their earnest
assistance and help for the smooth carry-out of my doctoral thesis research.
I am most grateful to my family. The support and encouragement of my family
members is an important driving force for me to pursue my doctorate. Thanks to myparents, husband and son for their understanding, support and care. During the periodof studying for the doctor’s degree, they always backed up me and gave spiritualsupport, which was imperative in enabling me to finish doctoral studies successfully.
Final thanks goes to all the people who have given me care and help in study, life
and the completion of my doctoral dissertation.
iii

Table of Contents

Abstract ..........................................................................................................................i
Acknowledgments ...................................................................................................... iii
Table of Contents ........................................................................................................iv
List of Figures.............................................................................................................vii
List of Tables ...............................................................................................................ix
Chapter 1 Introduction................................................................................................ 2
1.1

Research background ............................................................................................ 2
1.1.1 The necessity of creativity cultivation in foreign language teaching ........... 2
1.1.2 The need to apply appropriate creative pedagogy for creativity cultivation 4
1.1.3 Biometric data analysis toward creativity assessment .................................. 5

1.2

Research objectives............................................................................................... 7

1.3

Research design .................................................................................................... 8

1.4

Research significance............................................................................................ 9
1.4.1 Theoretical significance ................................................................................ 9
1.4.2 Application significance ............................................................................. 10
1.4.3 Knowledge science significance ................................................................. 11

1.5

Structure of the dissertation ................................................................................ 11

Chapter 2 Literature review ..................................................................................... 14
2.1

Definition of creativity ........................................................................................ 14
2.1.1 Psychological definition of creativity ......................................................... 14
2.1.2 Linguistic creativity .................................................................................... 16
2.1.3 Creativity education .................................................................................... 17

2.2

Individual components of creativity ................................................................... 19
2.2.1 Creative thinking skills ............................................................................... 19
2.2.2 Expertise ..................................................................................................... 21
2.2.3 Motivation ................................................................................................... 22

iv

2.3

Creativity cultivation, association-based activities ............................................. 24
2.3.1 Association definition ................................................................................. 24
2.3.2 Association method..................................................................................... 25
2.3.3 Association’s effect on creativity................................................................ 26
2.3.4 Association-based activities with mind mapping ....................................... 27

2.4

Summary ............................................................................................................. 28

Chapter 3 Association-based activities in the foreign language classroom .......... 30
3.1

Research outline .................................................................................................. 32
3.1.1 Vocabulary association activity ................................................................... 32
3.1.2 Association reading activity ........................................................................ 33
3.1.3 Association writing activity ......................................................................... 35

3.2

Experimental methods ........................................................................................ 37
3.2.1 Vocabulary association activity ................................................................... 37
3.2.2 Association reading activity ........................................................................ 39
3.2.3 Association writing activity ......................................................................... 40

3.3

Results and discussion ........................................................................................ 42
3.3.1 Association-based activities effects on creative thinking skills .................. 42
3.3.2 Association-based activities effects on language proficiency ..................... 47
3.3.3 Association-based activities effects on learning motivation ....................... 51

3.4

Summary ............................................................................................................. 55

Chapter 4 EEG investigation on creative thinking skills ....................................... 58
4.1

Research outline .................................................................................................. 58

4.2

Materials and methods ........................................................................................ 60
4.2.1 Participants .................................................................................................. 60
4.2.2 Apparatus ..................................................................................................... 60
4.2.3 Procedure ..................................................................................................... 62

4.3

Results and discussion ........................................................................................ 65
4.3.1 TRP values in the divergent thinking tasks ................................................. 65
4.3.2 TRP values in different positions ................................................................ 66

4.4

Summary ............................................................................................................. 70v

Chapter 5 Eye tracking detection on foreign language proficiency ...................... 73
5.1

Research outline .................................................................................................. 73

5.2

Materials and methods ........................................................................................ 76
5.2.1 Participants .................................................................................................. 76
5.2.2 Apparatus ..................................................................................................... 76
5.2.3 Procedure ..................................................................................................... 77

5.3

Results and discussion ........................................................................................ 81
5.3.1 Eye movement indicators analysis .............................................................. 81
5.3.2 Heat map analysis ........................................................................................ 85
5.3.3 Fixation trajectory map analysis .................................................................. 87
5.3.4 Reading comprehension indicators analysis ................................................ 90

5.4

Summary ............................................................................................................. 91

Chapter 6 Conclusion ................................................................................................ 94
6.1

Contribution ........................................................................................................ 95
6.1.1 Academic contribution ................................................................................ 95
6.1.2 Practical contribution ................................................................................... 96
6.1.3 Original contribution to knowledge science ................................................ 97

6.2

Future direction ................................................................................................... 98

References ................................................................................................................. 100
Research accomplishment ....................................................................................... 115
Appendix 1 ................................................................................................................ 116
Appendix 2 ................................................................................................................ 121

vi

List of Figures

Figure 1. Research contents and methods. ..................................................................... 9
Figure 2. Structure of the dissertation. ......................................................................... 12
Figure 3. Creative pedagogy guidance of enhancing learning motivation. ................. 23
Figure 4. Creative pedagogy. ....................................................................................... 30
Figure 5. Vocabulary association activity with mind mapping. .................................. 33
Figure 6. Association reading activity with mind mapping. ........................................ 35
Figure 7. Association writing activity with mind mapping. ........................................ 37
Figure 8. Samples of vocabulary association activity with mind mapping. ................ 38
Figure 9. Samples of association reading activity with mind mapping. ...................... 40
Figure 10. Samples of association writing activity with mind mapping...................... 41
Figure 11. Statistical comparison of creative thinking skills for the two groups.. ...... 44
Figure 12. An experimental group student’s answers to the creative thinking test. .... 46
Figure 13. Statistical comparison of language proficiency for the two groups. .......... 49
Figure 14. Statistical comparison of learning motivation for the two groups. ............ 52
Figure 15. Emotiv Epoc+ equipment and wearing method. ........................................ 61
Figure 16. Emotiv Epoc+ reference sensors location distribution and signal display..
.............................................................................................................................. 61
Figure 17. Schematic diagram of the EEG data acquisition. ....................................... 63
Figure 18. Schematic diagram of the EEG data analysis. ............................................ 64
Figure 19. Statistical comparison of TRP in the divergent thinking tasks for the twogroups. .................................................................................................................. 65
Figure 20. TRP results for the two groups. .................................................................. 67
Figure 21. Tobii T120 eye tracker equipment and eye movement test........................ 77
Figure 22. The schematic diagram of eye movement data acquisition. ....................... 77
Figure 23. Schematic diagram of a heat map. .............................................................. 80
vii

Figure 24. Schematic diagram of a fixation trajectory map......................................... 80
Figure 25. Statistical comparison of eye movement indicators for the two groups.. ... 82
Figure 26. Text Areas 1 and 2 in four Japanese reading articles. ................................ 85
Figure 27. Heat map of the two groups in four Japanese reading articles. .................. 85
Figure 28. Statistical comparison of mean fixation duration on Text Areas 1 and 2 forthe two groups. ..................................................................................................... 86
Figure 29. Fixation trajectory map of the two groups in four Japanese reading articles.
.............................................................................................................................. 87
Figure 30.Statistical comparison of the number of fixations and saccade amplitude on
four Japanese reading articles for the two groups.. .............................................. 88
Figure 31. Proportion of skipping reading in the two groups. ..................................... 90
Figure 32. Creativity cultivation model in foreign language classrooms. ................... 94
Figure 33. Creativity assessment model in foreign language classrooms. .................. 95

viii

List of Tables

Table 1. Practical lectures for the two groups. ........................................................... 31
Table 2. ANOVA results of creative thinking skills. ................................................. 45
Table 3. ANOVA results of language proficiency. .................................................... 49
Table 4. ANOVA results of learning motivation. ...................................................... 53
Table 5. Items in the divergent thinking tasks. .......................................................... 62
Table 6. The t-test results of TRP for the two groups. ............................................... 66
Table 7. The t-test results of eye movement indicators for the two groups. .............. 83
Table 8. The t-test results of mean fixation duration for the two groups. .................. 86
Table 9. Number of fixations and saccade amplitude for the two groups. ................. 88
Table 10. The t-test results of reading comprehension indicators for the two groups.
.................................................................................................................................... 91ix

Chapter 1

Introduction

Content

・ Research background・ Research objectives
・ Research design
・ Research significance・ Structure of the dissertation

1

Chapter 1
Introduction
1.1 Research background1.1.1 The necessity of creativity cultivation in foreign
language teaching
At present, we are part of the global society that face many complex and largescale problems, which need diverse knowledge to deal with. Besides professional
knowledge and analytical skills, it is more important to obtain multidisciplinary
creativity and practical skills that can solve complex and large-scale social problems(Miyata, Nagai, Yuizono, & Kunifuji, 2017). Promoting creativity has become an
important educational objective (Simonton, 2000; Sawyer, 2006; Craft, 2011), and theincorporation of creativity into curriculums has become a popular topic (Amabile, 1983;
Shaheen, 2010; Craft, 2011; Cremin, 2015). Recently, creativity education has become
the goal of educational reform policy and teaching strategy in Chinese universities.
Creativity is the core of language learning and teaching (Jones & Richards, 2016). The
goals of foreign language teaching in undergraduate education are practical applicationand the development of students’ personality (Sadykova & Shelestova, 2016),
especially creativity. It is an inevitable choice and basic requirement for the reform of
foreign language education system, in order to cultivate students’ creativity, especiallycreative thinking skills in the area of university foreign language teaching. Traditional
teaching modes and methods are being changed into those that give full play to students’subjectivity, shift from passive learning to active learning, making students more
willing to participate in foreign language learning as well as encouraging students’inquiry and thinking skills. This plays an important role in improving the efficiency of
foreign language teaching and achieving teaching objectives.

2

The author is a Japanese language teacher at a Chinese university, and has been
engaged in Japanese language teaching for 10 years. The author has always been
thinking about the cultivation of students’ creativity in Japanese classrooms, andexplored what kind of creative teaching methods could be constructed and what
approaches should be taken to carry out creativity education. Within the Japanese
language classroom, key issues are how to define students’ creativity and what kind ofcreative pedagogy should be adopted. If a type of creative pedagogy is applied for
creativity development, it is important to further consider how to evaluate the effectsof that kind of creative pedagogy and how to judge whether the creativity of students
has improved, etc.
Foreign language learning is inseparable from creative thinking skills. Cultivating
students’ creative thinking skills in foreign language teaching can help students to better
understand, master and use the foreign language. With practical applications andcommunication activities, students can more easily master foreign language grammar
points, memory, practice, and in that process of constantly discovering and using
language, they can then improve their self-study abilities and comprehensive language
abilities (Shu & Zhuang, 2000). This study puts emphasis on the cultivation of creative
thinking skills. The methods of cultivating students’ creative thinking skills are added
into the teaching process. This study then goes on to explore how to make sure thatstudents master foreign language expertise and skills, at the same time, applying
students’ learning motivations to the whole teaching process, as well as embody
personalized teaching, broaden students’ knowledge, and improve their learning
abilities and creative thinking abilities. This can then compensate for the disadvantagesof traditional teaching methods, such as “emphasizing knowledge, neglecting ability”
and “emphasizing teaching but neglecting thinking”, so as to promote the developmentof students’ creativity.

31.1.2 The need to apply appropriate creative pedagogy forcreativity cultivation
Many studies have concluded that creativity can be cultivated through appropriate
teaching methods and enhanced with activities (Esquivel, 1995; Craft, Jeffrey, &Liebling, 2001; Runco, 2004; Eleonora et al., 2014; Liao et al., 2018). Cultivating
creativity entails integrating appropriate activities into everyday teaching so that they
complement foreign language learning, rather than compete with it (Maybin, 2016),
and enhance students’ creativity (Maley, 2015). Regular curriculum-infused creative
activities, especially those involving student-centered, interactive, and open-based
elements that are well-suited to developing students’ creativity. A foreign language
classroom that offers a playful, student-centered atmosphere can foster creativity(Ghonsooly, 2012). Maley (2015) offers tenets for using creative pedagogy to teach aforeign language, including the random principle (presenting unexpected combinations
to encourage students to find connections), the association principle (using students’imagination), and the divergent thinking principle (finding as many solutions as
possible). Activities that involve imagination and novel idea generation in a studentcentered mode can encourage students to think creatively.
This study presents a creative pedagogy that uses association-based activities withmind mapping for the foreign language classroom. Association-based activities are alearning process to select a knowledge as a starting point for associating related
knowledge in the process of drawing a structure diagram, which could help students
firmly grasp the knowledge they have learned, and help them to establish connections
among knowledge and perform a flexible transfer of the knowledge. As an effective
tool of thinking, mind mapping can help students to associate ideas, develop creative
thinking skills and potential (Buzan & Buzan, 2010). It can also facilitate creative
thinking through invigorating the classroom atmosphere during the learning process.

4

There are three individual components of creativity, that is creative thinking skills,
expertise, and motivation (Amabile, 1996). It is expected that through the creative
pedagogy presented in this study, students’ creative thinking skills could be well trained
and improved. In addition, it would give full play to the students’ subjectivity, andmobilize their initiative in learning. Therefore, students’ foreign language learning
could be changed from passively receiving knowledge to actively exploring knowledge,
which could improve students’ performances. Moreover, the knowledge structure
diagram drawn by the students themselves can show their own thinking process andenjoy the fun of thinking to enhance their enthusiasm and learning motivation.

1.1.3 Biometric data analysis toward creativity assessment
At present, in the foreign language education, few studies have investigated towhat extent creative pedagogy influence students’ creativity outcomes. Based on thethree components model of creativity: creative thinking skills, expertise, andmotivation, this study examined the pedagogy’s effectiveness on the development ofcreative thinking skills, foreign language proficiency, and learning motivation, andadministered before and after the intervention: a creative thinking test (fluency,
flexibility, originality), a foreign language proficiency test (vocabulary, reading, andwriting), and a motivation questionnaire (choice, executive, and increased motivation).
The traditional creative thinking test can provide analytical data, but whether thescores of fluency, flexibility, and originality obtained by these tests are related to reallife creative problem solving ability has not been fully confirmed (Dietrich & Kanso,2010). In recent years, with the rise and development of cognitive neuroscience, theresearch technology of EEG and brain function imaging provides a powerful researchmeans for directly observing the activity of brain when processing complex information,
thus providing a more direct method for exploring the mental mechanism of creative
thinking (Bowden & Jung-Beeman, 2007; Fink et al.,2007; Luo & Knoblich, 2007;
Srinivasan, 2007). Applying EEG acquisition equipment to measure EEG effectively
can effectively and intuitively reflect the characteristics of cerebral cortex electrical5signal of divergent thinking, visualize thinking and explain the operation process ofdivergent thinking. To our knowledge, no study appears to exist that has analyzed EEG
correlates of creative pedagogy in the foreign language education. In this study, wemeasured the students’ EEG signals to effectively obtain information from the wholebrain, in order to realize more direct empirical research, and lay a solid foundation forverifying the effectiveness of creative pedagogy in the development of creative thinking
skills.
In addition, we conducted an eye tracking analysis for assessing students’ reading
ability, which provide biometric data to further verify the effectiveness of creative
pedagogy on foreign language proficiency. Reading ability is significant in foreign
language learning (Nuttel, 1982). Linguistic psychology demonstrates that readingrefers to the process of extracting information from the word system and thenunderstanding the article through brain coding processing (Peng, 1991). Nerves
emanating from the cerebral cortex dominate eye movement, which is dominated by
the brain and then reversed back to it. Eye movement is a biological signal, and its
exploration may reveal lots of information which enables greater understanding of thebiology and mechanisms of the brain (Katarzyna & Pawel, 2019). Thus, eye movement
can reflect our minds. Reading is a complex cognitive process; through eye movement
analysis, the real-time language understanding cognitive processes are grasped
accurately, and the reading process can be researched more in-depth (Just &Carpenter,1980; Zhan, Shen, & Wang, 2014). Eye tracking technology provides moreaccurate and effective support with high universality in the field of language
understanding, which could capture and analyze data of cognitive processing process
in reading behavior and conduct comprehensive reading process analysis. It can not
only provide real-time and visual measurement for language understanding but also
continuously measure and record the entire process of reading comprehension. In thisstudy, the eye tracking research method was used to investigate eye movement
characteristics of students in the process of reading. Data and insights culled from thefindings were used to provide analysis data further supporting the hypothesis thatcreative pedagogy presented in this study can improve the foreign language proficiency.

61.2 Research objectives
The overall purpose of this study is to construct a new type of foreign language
classroom teaching method to achieve the teaching goal of promoting the developmentof foreign language learners’ creativity, and to investigate what extent the creativity
could be cultivated. Through applying association-based activities with mind mapping
teaching method design, to explore the feasibility based on the analysis of biometricdata valuation, and suggest practical implication for creative pedagogy design in theforeign language classroom.
Based on Amabile’s three component of creativity components: creative thinking
skills, expertise, and motivation, we pursue specific research objectives as follows.
I. Construction of a creative pedagogy of association-based activities with mind
mapping that centered on the development of creativity, including creative thinking
skills, foreign language proficiency, and learning motivation.
II. Presenting traditional measurement methods for investigating the associationbased activities’ feasibility, including creative thinking test, foreign language
proficiency test, and learning motivation questionnaire.
III. Applying biometric data analysis of EEG investigation for creative thinking
skills, and eye tracking detection for reading ability that can reflect the comprehensive
foreign language proficiency to present more accurate numerical results.
This study takes “creativity is the inherent endowment of each student” as it’s
starting point, and therefore does not regard creativity training as an additional teachingtask in the process of foreign language teaching, but rather believes that it can promotelearning motivation and improve the positive aspects of foreign language expertise in
the daily classroom. It is hoped that the teaching methods and the evaluation patternthat are presented in this study can be extended to other foreign language education
fields in colleges and universities and promote the reform of foreign language teaching.
7

1.3 Research design
This study carried out according to the following research process (Figure 1).
In the preparatory stage, research materials were sorted, and the theoreticalanalysis and the construction of creative teaching methods were explored.
During the implementation stage, we explored appropriate creative pedagogy inforeign language classrooms We conducted practical lectures using the creative
teaching method of association-based activities with mind mapping that focused on
cultivating students’ creativity, including creative thinking skills, foreign language
proficiency and learning motivation.
In the verification stage, we conducted experimental methods, which were done
for the investigation of the creative pedagogy’s implementation effectiveness. In orderto verify the effectiveness of association-based activities, besides traditional measuremethods, we applied biometric data analysis, including EEG investigation to evaluate
creative thinking skills, and eye tracking detection to measure foreign language
proficiency.
Finally, in the summary stage of the study, the models for creativity cultivation
and assessment were proposed, and the contribution and future research directions of
this study was outlined.

8

Figure 1. Research contents and methods.

1.4 Research significance1.4.1 Theoretical significanceThe promotion of creativity education and full development of students’ creative
spirits can be considered a requirement for foreign language teachers in both modern
and future society. Classroom activities plays an important role in the development ofstudents’ creativity. In this study, creative pedagogy was applied to teaching practice.
The main focus is on the development of students’ creativity, especially the cultivationof creative thinking skills, rather than the general training and foreign language
knowledge teaching. This is conducive to the innovation and reform of foreign
language teaching. The creative pedagogy proposed in this study focuses on cultivating
students’ creative thinking skills, as well as constructing a student-centered learning
atmosphere in order to improve students’ foreign language ability and interest in
9

learning. It is hoped that this creative pedagogy can be extended to other foreign
language education fields in colleges and universities and promote the reform of foreign
language teaching.

1.4.2 Application significanceForeign language education in Chinese universities basically adopts a teachercentered traditional teaching method (Ying, 2007). There are very few courses that
adopt creative pedagogy to cultivate students’ creativity. In the process of traditional
foreign language teaching, there is little emphasis on students’ foreign language
learning concepts and strategies (Van Lier, 1996; Lantolf, 2006). Teachers pay lessattention to the individual language knowledge and learning interest of students. The
teaching process is mechanical, with more teachers’ monologues, less students’ practice,which is not easy to arouse students’ interest in learning, and students are in a passive
learning state (Zhang, 2005; Su & Zhuang, 2008). As a result, the accuracy ofpronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar is too pursued, and students’ language creation
ability is ignored, and the subjective initiative of foreign language learners cannot be
fully utilized. This study innovated the traditional foreign language teaching concepts
and advocate student-centered creative teaching concepts in foreign language
classrooms. In foreign language teaching, the learning process is not a process ofknowledge transfer from teachers to students, but a process of knowledge constructionin which students’ new and old knowledge and experience interact in a specific learning
environment (Cazden, 2001; Jordan, 2004). Foreign language learning is not the passive
acceptance of the knowledge granted by the teacher, but the active construction basedon students existing knowledge and experience (Van Lier, 1996; Lightbown, 2000;
Lantolf, 2006). The creative pedagogy presented in this study applies daily associationbased activities with mind mapping that emphasizes the cultivation of students’ creative
thinking skill and the improvement of language proficiency and learning motivation,
which made up for the lack of curriculum-level development of creativity in foreign
language education in universities.
101.4.3 Knowledge science significanceThis study constructed a creative pedagogy and evaluation criterion for creativity
in the foreign language classroom, and technological equipment were used toinvestigate the effects of the creative pedagogy, which innovate teaching evaluation
methods in the field of foreign language education. The assessment methods combinescience and technology with teaching, establish the knowledge framework of creative
foreign language teaching methods and evaluation, provide the basis for the evaluationof the effects of foreign language creativity teaching and aim to promote thedevelopment of foreign language creativity education. In addition, from the perspectiveof knowledge creation, the creative pedagogy could establish basic creativity-based
activities for contributing to the foundation of motivator of creativity based on theexperimental science.

1.5 Structure of the dissertation
In chapter 1, the research background is described from the issues of creativity
cultivation in the foreign language education. In addition, the research aims, design,
methods, significance and the structure will be summarized.
In chapter 2, focusing on literature review of creativity, research theories will beorganized. The definition of creativity, influence components of creativity, cultivation
and assessment of creativity for the foreign language classroom will be summarized.
In chapter 3, based on the research theories in literature review, this chapter
describes the issues of creativity cultivation and evaluation in foreign language
education. Integrating the creative pedagogy into foreign language classrooms,
implementing association-based activities with mind mapping for cultivating creativity.
In chapter 4, providing biometric data analysis on association-based activities by
EEG investigation, which is considered to further verify the effectiveness of creative
pedagogy on creative thinking skills.
11

In chapter 5, providing biometric data analysis on association-based activities by
eye tracking detection, which can investigate the creative pedagogy’s effect on reading
ability that is significant for language performance.
In chapter 6, in summarizing this research, proposing creativity cultivation andassessment models, and discussing the contribution and future research direction.

Figure 2. Structure of the dissertation.

12

Chapter 2

Literature review

Content

・ Definition of creativity
・ Individual components of creativity
・ Creativity cultivation, association-based activities
・ Summary

13

Chapter 2
Literature review

This chapter first explains creativity from the perspectives of psychological,
linguistic and educational, and discusses the relationship between foreign language
learning and creativity. And then this chapter analyzes the factors that affect creativity
from intrinsic influence components, and presents creative pedagogy of associationbased activities with mind mapping and discusses its feasibility.

2.1

Definition of creativity

2.1.1 Psychological definition of creativity
Creativity is a complex psychological phenomenon. The concept of creativity,
which has received much scholarly attention, is generally described as the ability togenerate

original,

imaginative,

anduniqueideas(Guilford,1967; Torrance,

1988; Ruscio et al., 1998; Jones & Richards, 2016). Creativity includes elements suchas originality, novelty, value (Nęcka, 2001; Runco & Jaeger, 2012), which is the ability
to come up with original, novel and valuable ideas (Boden, 2004). According toCsikszentmihalyi (1996), creativity is an ideological behavior that can change anexisting field or transform an existing field into a new field. Simonton and Damian(2013) believed that only the novel, unique, adaptable and effective idea can be called
creative idea. Kaufman and Sternberg (2015) summarized the characteristics of creative
idea, that is, representing novel or innovative things, and completing the task which isabout to be completed with high quality. To sum up, creativity is the ability to produce
creative ideas, which need to be novelty (uniqueness, surprising) and functionality(appropriateness, effectiveness, value).

14

Creativity is a universal human characteristic, and all people have varying degrees
of creativity (Rogers, 1959; Rogers, 1961). According to Gardner (1999), creative
people mainly have three features. First, they are very smart and have unusual ideas;
Second, they often experience a certain field in novel and unique ways; Third, theyusually discover new problems with free spirit. This classification also reflects theimpact of creativity on people’s creative ideas. Everyone has the potential of creativity,and some creativity is hidden without a chance to be released, which requires proper
excavation. If there are proper conditions, creativity will be released and manifested(Rogers, 1961). Creativity is related to factors such as emotion, motivation,
environment, knowledge, and learning styles (Sternberg & Lubart, 1995).
De Dreu, Baas and Nijstad (2008) believe that a higher level of creativity is related
to active emotions. When emotions are positive, it implies an environment that supports
cognitive flexibility and can also stimulate the motivation, because emotion andmotivation are related. Motivation also affects creativity. The type of motivation isdivided into intrinsic and extrinsic. When people have intrinsic motivators, in order tofind fun in the process of performing tasks, they will be more focused and engaged inwork or study than people who have external rewards, and therefore more creative(Amabile, 1996; Csikszentmihalyi, 1978; Nęcka, 2001). The release of creativity
potential mainly depends on people’s autonomous creative consciousness and creative
motivation (Rogers, 1959). At the same time, knowledge and practical exercises arenecessary for earn recognition, and they are related to creative attainment (Kaufmann& Sternberg, 2015). The environment is also connected with creativity through emotion
and motivation (Simonton & Damian, 2013).
In summary, from a psychological point of view, creativity is an ability
characterized by novelty and functionality. It is associated with a series of individual
characteristics and environmental factors. A full understanding of the psychologicaldefinition of creativity is very important for the implementation of creativity education.
When carrying out creativity education in foreign language teaching in universities, it
15

is necessary to tap the creativity potential of students, develop their creativity awareness,and stimulate creativity motivation. It can improve the creative ideas of students in theprocess of foreign language learning from two aspects of personality cultivation andlearning environment, which can not only increase learning interest, but also promote
the accumulation of foreign language knowledge, and at the same time enhancecreativity.

2.1.2 Linguistic creativity
Language acquisition is not the result of mechanical imitation of language, but theresult of the brain’s internalization of external language information. This process is akind of “creation” (Ellis, 1994). The so-called “creation” is a product of thinking.
Language acquisition is the process by which the brain processes, absorbs, processes,
and reproduces external language information through thinking. This theory of thoughthas been recognized by most scholars (Krashen, 1981; Dwight & Donald, 1981;
Schmidt & Frota, 1986; Swain, 1995; Swain, 2013). Krashen (1985) proposed language
input hypothesis. There is a stage of language intake between language input andlanguage acquisition. Not all language input can promote the occurrence of language
acquisition. Only when language knowledge is digested and absorbed by learners, canit enter the brain’s long-term memory and play a role in catalyzing language acquisition(Krashen, 1982; Van Patten, 1996; Skehan, 1998). The process of language acquisitionis the product of thinking, and a creativity process that transforms through the internalfunctions of the brain (Schmidt, 1990). Therefore, the process of language acquisitionis also the creative thinking process of the brain, and the cultivation of language
creativity is a key point to foreign language learning.

Foreign language learning in the traditional way is always carried out in a plannedand step-by-step classroom. The lack of a vivid language environment makes theconsciousness of language creation in the brain restricted. Therefore, in foreign
language teaching, creative pedagogy should be developed that can stimulate students’16

consciousness of language creation in the brain, cultivate students’ language creativity,
promote students’ knowledge of foreign languages, and improve their creative thinking.
Everyday creativity is a universal feature of language and a key component ofinterpersonal communication (Carter, 2004; Maybin, 2016). The function ofimagination plays an important role in communication (Jakobson, 1960; Halliday,1975). Through association, the development of language can be promoted, for example,
telling jokes, making up stories, word pun games, etc. (Halliday, 1975). The firstfunction of language may be to create the world of association, whether it is fantasy,
game, or storytelling (Cook, 2000). This indicates that language is naturally creativeand is used daily in creative ways. In the process of foreign language learning, boring
and tedious exercises such as memorizing words, grammatical rules, sentence patterns,
and sentence structure can be avoided. It should adopt a creative pedagogy focusing on
the development and cultivation of brain thinking in language learning, which canpromote the flexible use of foreign languages for information exchange and cooperation,and improve the effect of foreign language learning. Just like the association activities
mentioned above, it is an effective way to learn foreign languages flexibly and enhance
students’ creativity.

2.1.3 Creativity education
Creativity has been seen as a much needed human capacity for living in a rapidlychanging, globalized, and competitive society (Simonton, 2000; Shaheen, 2010; Runco,2004). There is an obvious relationship between creativity and education. The
cultivation of creativity should be one of the most important goals of education (Karnes
et al., 1961; McCabe, 1991). However, the traditional education system often attaches
importance to academic skills and test scores, not the cultivation of creative students
with new ideas and abilities (Robinson, 2011). The university education system must
not only develop students’ academic skills, but also cultivate their creativity (Friedman,2009).

17

Traditional foreign language classrooms lack a playful atmosphere that supports
creativity cultivation, which makes it difficult for students to generate creative ideas
because they lack intrinsic motivation (Dörnyei, 2005; Albert, 2006). In foreign
language classrooms, traditional teaching ideas and concepts should be changed, andmeasures should be actively taken to enhance students’ creativity. Andrew (1998)
believed that, in foreign language learning, we should not ignore the joy of learning inorder to achieve the purpose of learning, that is, we should allow students to learn
foreign languages in a relaxed and pleasant atmosphere, so that students can fully
perceive and understand foreign languages, and cultivate their creative thinking skills.
Students are more creative in dealing with issues that are instructive andmeaningful to them (Beghetto & Kaufman, 2014). Classroom activities can help
students understand and master a foreign language more readily, and they can help
students learn to use a foreign language for communication creatively (Krashen, 1982).
Creative tasks and activities supportive of creative teaching can be designed in order tofoster creativity, which should have interesting content with novelty, fantasy, andcertain challenges. In addition, it should also encourage risk-taking and creative
thinking, so that students can enjoy the process of participation in problem-solving, andcan learn corresponding knowledge and stimulate their intrinsic motivation while also
improve their professional skills. Moreover, the use of technology (e.g., mind mapping)and group cooperative learning methods also support creativity, which can also be
actively applied to foreign language classrooms.
When people are interested in an activity, they tend to be proactive in completingthe activity, which can encourage them to participate in the learning process more
actively and perform better (Cremin et al., 2006; Cheung 2018). Teachers can makestudents focus more on the learning process, thus promoting their learning attainment(Maghsoudi & Haririan, 2013), and improve creative thinking skill. Thus, this study
presents a creative pedagogy of association-based activities with mind mapping in aforeign language classroom. It’s expected that this pedagogy is an innovative reform of18

traditional foreign language education, which allows students to learn in a playful
learning atmosphere, improve their creativity, and at the same time enhance theirforeign language proficiency and learning motivation.

2.2 Individual components of creativity
As was mentioned in Chapter 1, the influences on creativity include three withinindividual components: creative thinking skills, expertise, and motivation (Amabile
1996; Amabile 1999). This chapter elaborates these three within-individualcomponents respectively.

2.2.1 Creative thinking skills(1) Characteristics
Creative thinking is the concrete expression of individual creativity and refer tothe ability to create new associations from existing ideas and rearrange and link preexisting ideas (Amabile, 1996). It is the imaginative control (combining experience andknowledge) of a goal, and is a kind of wisdom thinking, which refers to the ability tosolve problems (Guilford, 1967). Creative thinking is a way of looking at problems orsituations from a fresh perspective. According to Guilford and Hoepfener (1971), there
are six features related to creative thinking, that is, sensitivity, fluency, flexibility,
originality, elaboration and redefinition. Sensitivity is the ability to accept new thingsand discover new problems; fluency is the ability to generate a large number of ideas;
flexibility is related to the ability to create different types of ideas and to perceive an
idea from different angles; originality refers to the ability to generate unique ideas that
others cannot think out; elaboration reflects the ability to expand ideas or create
complex plans by embellishing details; and redefinition is the ability to find multiple
ways to use specific things. Creative thinking which involves sensitivity to problems,
fluency of production, flexibility of creative mind, ability to generate novel ideas,

19synthesizing and analyzing ability, reorganization of the conceptual structure (Guilford,1950), might be a factor affecting foreign language learning.

(2) Mechanism
Wallas (1926) proposed four stages of creative thinking, that is preparation,
incubation, illumination and verification.
I. Preparation
This is a thinking process, and the stimulus of the situation induces various
associations. It’s the stage of collecting and selecting information, and finding out theclues to solve the meaningful and valuable problems.
II. Incubation
If the problems cannot be solved immediately, it will enter the incubation stage.
During this period, problems are no longer deliberately solved, but unconscious brain
activity continues, that is, the brain’s underlying consciousness is still unconsciously
screening and reorganizing the collected information.
III. Illumination
This stage is also known as the epiphany period or inspiration period, which refers
to the stage when suddenly realize how to solve the problem.
IV. Verification
This is the final stage of problem solving. The solution proposed in the previous
stage will be further specified, applied and tested.

(3)

Divergent thinking
Divergent thinking is the foundational component of creative thinking skill, which

is widely considered crucial to the cultivation of creativity (Guilford, 1986; Russ, 2003).
It is the process of generating multiple related ideas for a given topic or problem
solution, which helps people formulate a wide range of ideas toward solving problems.
20Divergent thinking refers to thinking in different directions, reorganizing theinformation and the information in memory system, so as to produce a large number of
unique new ideas (Guilford, 1967; Guilford, 1986). Among the six features related tocreative thinking, fluency, flexibility, and originality are the central factors of divergent
thinking (Guilford, 1986; Kim, 2006). It overcomes the defects of one-way thinking inconventional thinking and is a kind of thinking form that does not follow rules, seeksvariation, and explores answers from various aspects, which is the foundation andimportant part of creative thinking.
Most university-level foreign language curriculums and pedagogies continue tofocus on academic activities (Dörnyei, 2005; Albert, 2006). In turn, many foreign
language learning university students still lack the creative thinking needed for their
specialty. In foreign language education, instructors should find new ways to teachstudents so that they learn to apply the target foreign language freely and move awayfrom rote memorization (Andrew, 1998; Mayer, 2002; Maghsoudi & Haririan, 2013),
and improve creative thinking during the foreign language learning process. This study
presents creative pedagogy focusing on enhancing students’ creative thinking skills,
especially divergent thinking skills.

2.2.2 Expertise
Domain expertise is crucial for creative attainment (Kaufmann & Sternberg, 2015).
According to Ottó (1998), there are statistically significant correlations between
creativity and foreign language proficiency. In his research, creativity was measured bya creativity test including association task, Alternative uses (AU) task, common
problems task, consequences task and categories task. Foreign language proficiency
was assessed by end-of-term grades. Creativity was analyzed based on four factors, thatis associational fluency, ideational fluency, originality, sensitivity to problems. The
results indicate that the four factors are all related to foreign language learningachievement, and students who score higher on creativity are more successful inlearning foreign languages. Ghonsooly (2012) found the relations between foreign21

language learning and divergent thinking skills (the ability to provide various reactions
to a stimulus). Divergent thinking skills are positively correlated with foreign language
learning. Ghonsooly’s research results show that students with higher foreign language
proficiency significantly perform better than those of low-level proficiency on thedivergent thinking skills assessment, such as fluency, flexibility and originality.
Therefore, it will be very effective to explore creative pedagogy to promote creativity
while improving foreign language proficiency.

2.2.3 Motivation
People rarely do truly creative work unless they enjoy it (Amabile 1996; Amabile1999). Motivation refers that the students’ learning purpose is directed to the learning
activity itself, which can make students emotionally satisfied, thereby generating a
sense of success. It provides a natural force that promotes learning and development,
which can stimulate behavior without external rewards and pressure. Motivation plays
a vital role in reflecting whether an individual have creativity in the field he is engaged
in. Bruner (1978) emphasized that motivation is the driving force for learning, and it
has a great role in promoting human creativity. High-level motivation is an significant
feature of outstanding creative talents. According to Amabile (1988) and Amabile(1995), motivation principle is the social psychology foundation of creativity. People
are more creative when they are motivated by the satisfaction and challenge of work or
learning, rather than external pressure. If the individual has a high motivation, he will
actively propose tasks and search for the current situation and the individual’s existingknowledge and experience to generate various possible responses. Even if interfered byexternal stimuli (such as competition, evaluation, etc.), they will maintain an open mind,
can keenly perceive the more hidden major clues related to problem-solving in thestimulus, dare to take risks, be challenging, and have novel, unique and smooth thinking,so as to solve problems creatively.
Gardner (1979) proposed that foreign language teaching should not only staywithin the scope of curriculum, but should pay more attention to cultivating students’22

learning enthusiasm and motivation, and believes that motivation mainly includes threeelements: 1). Integrativeness, including integrative orientation and interest in foreign
language; 2). Attitudes toward the learning situation, including evaluation of the teacher
and the course; 3). Motivational intensity, which refers to the desire to learn foreign
language and the attitudes toward learning foreign language. Clement (1980) andClement et al. (1994) founded that there is also linguistic self-confidence that canenhance students’ motivation. This study will propose the creative pedagogy that takes
the improvement of student motivation as an important factor in developing student
creativity. Teachers can take appropriate activities to create a fun and supportive
atmosphere in the classroom in order to make foreign language learning exciting andenjoyable, which create a basic motivational learning environment that can strengthen
students’ favorable foreign language values and attitudes and improve their confidence
and satisfaction toward the foreign language learning (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Creative pedagogy guidance of enhancing learning motivation.

23

People can evaluate their motivation by measuring whether they choose to carryout or persist in an activity on their own, or by evaluating their interest or favorite in an
activity. This measure can be called “intrinsic interest evaluation” (Nicholls, 1984).
Questionnaire is an effective way to evaluate the relatively stable individual differencesof students’ motivation in academic achievement activities (Harter, 1978). This study
will mainly adopt the motivation questionnaire method to investigate students’ learning
motivation.

2.3 Creativity cultivation, association-based activities
In this study, the creative pedagogy of association-based activities consists ofvocabulary, reading, and writing activities designed to let students engage in a playful,student-centered learning process. It seeks to promote their creativity by activating theircreative thinking skills, language proficiency, and learning motivation. This chapter
will analyze association characteristics, method, the effect on creativity, and discuss
association-based activities with mind mapping.

2.3.1 Association definition
Association refers to the thinking process from a certain thing or phenomenon toother related ones. Association is generally divided into four types, that is similar
association, close association, contrastive association, and causal association. Similar
association refers to thinking of things or phenomena that are similar to the given topic,
and then generating new ideas; close association is to perform association based on thecloseness in space or time, and then produce a new way of thinking ；contrastive
association refers to the association of things or phenomenon with opposite properties
or characteristics; causal association refers to the association of things or phenomenon
that are logically causal (Wang, 2016). In the foreign language learning process, theseassociations can be used comprehensively for associative learning.
There are two categories of association: short-distance association and longdistance association. Short-distance association can help the retrieval of memory, and24

long-distance association is related to creative thinking (Mednick, 1962). Mednick(1962) founded that, the less likely it is to associate one concept to another, the farther
the distance between the two is. Highly creative people often associate things or
phenomenon in a unique way, they can easily produce more long-distance associations,and their “association level” is very wide, which also means that They are not inclined
to choose association words that are “typically high-expectation related to stimulus
words”. Instead, they tend to choose association words with low expectations. This alsoechoes with creative thinking’s typical features of flexibility and originality.
In the foreign language teaching process, we can cultivate students’ long-distanceassociation ability through word association, reading association, composition
association activities, and improve students’ creativity.

2.3.2 Association method
There are mainly three association methods. First is free association. It is a way of
thinking about a certain theme that lets one idea come after another without apredetermined structure (Takahashi, 2002). Second is rational association. This
associative approach requires making full use of logic and rules around a core theme,choosing relevant keywords reasonably, focusing on hierarchy and affiliation, andreflecting on the nature, regularity, and overall picture of the words accurately (Budd,
2004). This method can help students memorize and understand the content and thinkcarefully about problems. Third is compulsory association. Compulsory association isthe ability to correlate unrelated questions, problems, and ideas. It is often performed
along with free and rational association to arrive at unexpected combinations andextend students’ ability to associate (Dyer, Gregorsen, & Christensen, 2011). In thisstudy, vocabulary association activity is implemented by free association; association
reading activity is implemented by rational association; and association writing activity
is implemented by compulsory association.

25

2.3.3 Association’s effect on creativity
There is a close relationship between association and creativity. Cultivating
associative thinking is of great help to improve creativity. The ability to connect
seemingly unrelated things or phenomena together is considered as the key point forthe creative thinking process (O’Malley & Chamot, 1990). The essence of creative
thinking is the process of establishing a connection between two seemingly unrelated
things or phenomena. In other words, the “ordinary” sporadic ideas are combined toform the “non-trivial” ideas. This new “combination” of ideas is the manifestation ofcreative thinking. According to O’Malley and Chamot (1990), association refers to alearning strategy that connects new and old knowledge to improve the understanding
and memory of learned materials. Association plays an important role in the“combination” of new ideas and things. The association of ideas forms the basis ofcreative thinking.
Activities that require students to generate association ideas based on a topic orparticipate in tasks can promote creative minds (Paivio & Desrochers, 1980; Sadoski,2006). In the teaching process, taking a certain knowledge point as the center, guiding
students to link related knowledge, which is conducive to broaden students’ horizons,stimulate students’ divergent thinking, and cultivate students’ creativity. This study
adopts association-based activities to facilitate creative learning that can play animportant role in promoting creative thinking by breaking a singular mindset andrevealing multiple angles, aspects, and levels. In addition, association plays animportant role in promoting memory, imagination, and thinking skills (Paivio, 2014;
Porter, 2016). Students can learn the simplest language elements to express themselvesmore clearly and better remember language points (Coleman & Klapper, 2005). The
association process builds on imagination, thinking, and logical analysis (O’Malley &Chamot, 1990), which can challenge and keep students interested. It’s expected toenhance students’ domain foreign language proficiency and learning motivation.

26

2.3.4 Association-based activities with mind mapping
Creativity is closely related to divergent thinking, that is, if an individual can
associate lots of different things from one topic, he may show a high-level creativity(O’Malley & Chamot, 1990). Integrating mind mapping into foreign language teachingis an effective way to cultivate students’ divergent thinking and association abilities.
Assisted by lines, symbols, text, colors, and graphics elements, a mind map is aneffective tool of thinking that can show students’ thinking process and result in an
intuitive and visual way that offer a view of the “forest” as well as the “trees”, which
can help them visualize information and develop their thoughts (Hyerle, 1996). A mind
map can enhance creative thinking because of its unique radial structure that is goodfor producing long-distance association and stimulating divergent thinking. Mind
mapping can help students to associate ideas, develop creative thinking skills, and reach
their potential. This association tool uses images to increase the probability of creativeideas (Buzan & Buzan, 2010). A mind map is a diagram that represents relationships
among words, ideas, and other items connected to and arranged around a central
concept (Wycoff, 1991). It also develops the ability to memorize, learn, and thinkcreatively (Budd, 2004; San, 2013). This exteriorization of divergent thinking canrepresent the natural functioning of the brain and help students to explore thepossibilities of a given subject and free their imagination.
Creative thinking is a process of comprehensively using multiple thinking, anddivergent thinking triggered by association is an important way to cultivate creative
thinking. Mind mapping can exercise students’ mind in the application process, whichhelps students to improve thinking ability of students’ mind as well as enhancing theirlearning efficiency (Farrand, 2002). In this study, mind mapping was used as a toolwith association-based activities to stimulate students’ associations and develop theirdivergent thinking. Participating association-based activities with mind mapping caninvigorate the classroom atmosphere through the learning process of encouraging
students to think creatively. It can stimulate students’ divergent thinking, help students27break the mindset, establish new connections between different things or phenomenon,
and discover new ways to solve problems, thereby improving their creative thinking
and thus creativity.

2.4 Summary
Based on the above literature review analysis, this study proposed the creative
pedology in foreign language education. Cultivating students’ creativity has become an
important part of teaching foreign languages at the university level. This study reformed
the traditional foreign language classroom model and applied association-based
activities with mind mapping to enhance students’ creativity. In addition, we examinedthe effectiveness of the creative pedagogy in terms of three dimensions: creative
thinking skills, foreign language proficiency, and learning motivation. This study
focuses on the following research questions. In the foreign language classroom at theuniversity level, (1) Can a creative pedagogy effectively improve creative thinking
skills? (2) Does a creative pedagogy affect students’ foreign language proficiency? (3)Does a creative pedagogy enhance students’ enthusiasm and learning motivation?
Besides traditional methods, we examined the creativity outcomes by biometric data
analysis. There is little research on the effect of creativity cultivation in foreign
language education by biometric data analysis. This study added EEG investigation andeye tracking detection. It’s expected that the creative pedagogy will play an importantrole of enhancing students’ creativity.

28

Chapter 3 Association-based
activities in the foreign language
classroom

Content

・ Research outline
・ Experimental methods
・ Results and discussion
・ Summary29

Chapter 3
Association-based activities in the foreign
language classroom

This study presented a creative pedagogy that used association-based activities
with mind mapping for the foreign language classroom. As shown in Figure 4, thiscreative pedagogy consists of vocabulary, reading, and writing activities. It seeks topromote their creativity by activating their creative thinking skills, language
proficiency, and learning motivation.

Figure 4. Creative pedagogy.

Table 1 shows the practical lectures for the two groups. The participants consistedof 227 second-year students in a school of Japanese studies at a university in Daliancity in China. The experimental group (115 students, 34% male) and the control group(112 students, 33% male) shared a similar Japanese language level. Both groups
received an 8-week practical lecture from their current Japanese teachers and used thesame teaching materials. They took a total of 24 Japanese classes, which met for 90
30

minutes three times a week. Both groups sequentially learned vocabulary, reading, andwriting. The materials were selected from the university’s existing texts. The
experimental group engaged in association-based activities. The control group received
the regular curriculum, which ensured that the class was teacher-centered and that thestudents learned in the traditional way of following a certain sequence. To clarify theeffect of the association-based activities on creativity, we employed an experimental
methodology involving a pre-test/post-test repeated measures design. All students were
tested on creativity performance using three assessment instruments: creative thinking
test, foreign language proficiency test, and motivation questionnaire.

Theme

Participants
Conductive
teachers
Pre-test(Beforepractical
lecture)Practical
lectures(8 weeks)
Post-test(Afterpractical
lecture)Table 1. Practical lectures for the two groups.
Experimental
Control
Group
Group

Remarks

Second-year students who

115 students

112 students

34% male

33% maleshared a similar Japanese
language level

Current
Japanese teachers

Current
Japanese teachers

Each group was taught by
3 teachers.

(1) Creative thinking test 1(2) Foreign language proficiency test 1(3) Motivation questionnaire 1
Engaged inassociation-based
activities

Traditional
teaching withregular curriculum(1) Creative thinking test 2(2) Foreign language proficiency test 2(3) Motivation questionnaire 2

31

Scored by experienced
Japanese teachers andadvanced psychology
experts.
A total of 24 Japaneseclasses, which met for 90
minutes three times a week.
Scored by experienced
Japanese teachers andadvanced psychology
experts.

3.1 Research outline
3.1.1 Vocabulary association activity
Vocabulary is a basic element of foreign language learning. How to enable
students to learn words and phrases more effectively is an important part for foreign
language teaching. Students can develop associations and connect a series of words thathave a certain connection. In this way, the words learned are not isolated, but are
vocabulary groups with certain internal connection, which play an important role in theconstruction of students’ word system memory. It is more effective through meaningful
memory than purely memorizing vocabulary (Rumelhart & Ortony, 2012).
Vocabularies are organic parts of the language framework, and they have close
relationship. However, the traditional “duck-stuffing” type of teaching often requires
students to master the vocabularies through rote memorization, which separates theirinterrelationships and unknowingly increases the burden on students’ learning.
Using the teaching method of vocabulary association activity with mind mappingin the classroom can memorize multiple different words in the divergent thinking
process, reducing the burden of students’ learning and increasing their interest in
learning. At the same time, it can cultivate students to develop good divergent thinking
habits and improve their comprehensive application ability. As far as the fragmented
nature of language teaching is concerned, the use of mind mapping to systematicallyclassify fragmented languages and vocabularies can help improve students’ language
proficiency. Mind mapping follows the divergent thinking on framework and diverging
representation of words and expressions and peripheral topic vocabularies related to thecentral word. This central point-centered memory method can be reconstructed,
reclassified and recreated the knowledge in the learners’ mind, so that the newknowledge is integrated with the old knowledge, so as to achieve the purpose of
improving learning efficiency.
In this study, we apply vocabulary association activity with mind mapping. It was
implemented with free association, which is a way of thinking about a certain theme32that lets one idea come after another without a predetermined structure. Freely
associating can help to stimulate divergent thinking and spark students’ interest. The
students were presented with a worksheet with a word in the center of the page andasked to add related words, phrases, or sentences around the central word. Then, theyclassified and grouped the words as a group. They formed an inclusive language
database on their own so that they could remember all the words according to theirmind maps. An example of a vocabulary mind map is shown in Figure 5. Starting fromthe central word displayed on the worksheet of the vocabulary association activity,
students write the words that they think out immediately around the central word within
the given time limit. For example, it supposes that the word “fish” is presented.
Speaking of fish, some people associate with the sea, others associate with sushi, otherswith fishing, and so on. Students who associate with the sea may continue to associatewith swimming and seagull, for example.

Figure 5. Vocabulary association activity with mind mapping.

3.1.2 Association reading activity
Among the five skills of foreign language listening, speaking, reading, writing andtranslation, reading is the performance of comprehensive ability. Long and tediousforeign language reading materials are not easy to stimulate students’ motivation andassociation. Mind maps use visual graphics to present the main clues of the readingmaterials. Students can give full play to their association when making mind mapping,33

which can stimulate their reading motivation. In addition, most students tend to focus
on comprehension of long sentences when reading articles, and neglect to grasp andmemorize key words, which causes them to be unable to understand the readingmaterial clearly. The mind map can highlight the main content of the article throughkeywords, various colors and hierarchical structure, to make the structure of the article
more clearly, and to remove redundant information, so that students can better
understand the reading material. Moreover, mind maps use graphics to present
knowledge, which are highly visual that can make the reading material easier tounderstand and memorize longer. Mind mapping is known as an effective learning
strategy to promote recall and obtain information from text (Farrand, 2002). According
to the characteristics of the reading material, students can exert their divergent thinking
to use various forms, colors, images, etc. to draw personal style mind maps, analyze
and think about problems from multiple angles.
In this study, we used rational association to implement the association reading
activity with mind mapping. Rational association requires making full use of logic andrules around a core theme, choosing relevant keywords reasonably, focusing on
hierarchy and affiliation, and reflecting on the nature, regularity, and overall picture of
the words accurately. This method can help students memorize and understand thecontent and think carefully about problems. It applies mind mapping to help students
visualize their thinking processes and stimulate their interest in reading. First, we asked
the students to skim and find the answers to two questions and add them to the firstlevel trunk of the mind map. The questions were: What is the main idea of this passage?
How many parts can it be divided into, and what is the general idea of each part? Next,
students were asked to scan and find the keywords and key sentences of each paragraphof the article and add them to the existing mind map. Then, the students were asked tofreely associate and add more detailed information to the mind map within the given
time limits. For example, they could draw good words and sentences from eachparagraph, especially the necessary connectives and transition words, which strengthen
students’ vocabulary and sentence input. Figure 6 is a mind map sample. Mind mapping34

will help students to open up their reading ideas from different perspectives, establish
a knowledge structure, and stimulate their divergent thinking in reading.

Figure 6. Association reading activity with mind mapping.

3.1.3 Association writing activity
Foreign language writing requires language accuracy, standardization andeffective transmission of information. It also requires logical organization ofparagraphs to make the content of the article clear. Conception is an important step inwriting. Making full use of association and divergent thinking can enrich the content of
essays and improve the quality of writing. Mind mapping can effectively help thestudents diverge their thinking, improve their writing enthusiasm and skills, and makethe content richer and the structure more clearly and reasonable. The process of mind
mapping to conceive writing is actually a thinking mode that records the thoughts
generated in the brain around a center in a networked pattern. Especially when freewriting, according to their existing knowledge, students show their ideas and some newcreative content focusing on the writing theme in the form of a mind map, and finally
edit and adjust, outline the structure and main content of the article.
In this study, we implemented the association writing activity with mind mapping.
We used compulsory association, which involves correlating unrelated questions,35

problems, and ideas. It is often performed along with free and rational association toarrive at unexpected combinations and extend students’ ability to associate. This
activity aims to encourage the students to write a creative foreign language essay by
combining the compulsory association and free writing. In this activity, the teacher
distributed some pictures, which appeared to be unrelated at first glance. The students
were asked to write the keywords of each picture and find connections to arrive at awriting topic. Then, the students drew mind maps on the writing topic, summarized thecontents, and wrote an essay within the given time limits. The mind map shown in
Figure 7 shows an example of the association writing activity. First, the students
associate relevant keywords related to each picture: learning to drive, doing sports,
visiting places of interests, reading books. Then they connect these keywords to acommon topic: summer vacation plans. The students take “summer vacation plans” as
the writing topic, engage in divergent thinking by drawing a simple mind map, andform a clear writing framework.

36

(a)

(b)
Figure 7. Association writing activity with mind mapping.
(a) Connecting keywords to a topic; (b) Drawing a mind map.

3.2 Experimental methods
3.2.1 Vocabulary association activity
In the daily vocabulary association activities, students are asked to make thematic
associations around certain central word or topic. Students start from a certain word to
think about different related words, phrases, or sentences, and draw mind maps withina given time limit of 5 minutes. After having finished their own mind maps, students
37were required to change and discuss their ideas according to their different mind maps.
Figure 8 is the mind maps drawn by different students when learning the word
“frustration”. Mind maps can be used to review and consolidate various words, someof which are the common ones for students, and more are the new vocabularies throughknowledge sharing. Different mind maps drawn by students can show their different
divergent thinking patterns in dealing with the same vocabulary. Teachers canunderstand students’ thinking ability and knowledge level. Students can also learn
different knowledge provided by each other. Therefore, in the daily vocabulary
association activities with mind mapping, students find related words, phrases or
expressions through associations, which not only consolidate the ones they have learned
before, but also activate students’ divergent thinking to learn and master new
vocabularies more comprehensively, meanwhile, get clear and deep memory.

Figure 8. Samples of vocabulary association activity with mind mapping.
38

3.2.2 Association reading activity
Mind mapping assists to fracture the text passage into sentences and words tomake them easier to understand. In the daily association reading activities, students findkeywords and key sentences from the reading materials, and take a hierarchical or tree
branch format to express the main idea of the article and keywords and key sentencesof each paragraph. Association reading activity with mind mapping was carried out inthe following steps: (1) First, give the students a few minutes to complete the quick
reading and grasp the main idea; (2) Second, ask the students to read the article again,
and guide them to draw the mind map according to the central idea of the article. The
students draw mind maps within a given time limit of 30 minutes; (3) After having
finished their own mind maps, students were required to change and discuss their ideas
according to their different mind maps. Figure 9 shows the mind maps drawn bydifferent students around the same article in daily association reading activities.
Different mind maps drawn by students can show their different divergent thinking
patterns in dealing with the same article. The students’ mind maps will be presented,
and the teacher will let them explain the content of the article based on their mind maps,
which help to carry out more in-depth language learning and application.
In the mind maps of these students, the key points are highlighted, and each branch
is also represented by graphics, using methods such as fonts, lines, and graphics toachieve personal style mind maps. Mind mapping can activate students’ reading andthinking by forming a clear frame of the article structure in their minds. Students candiverge their thinking on the article topic and add content to their mind maps, whichclearly show the article composition and the details of each part. Through mind
mapping, students can better grasp the overall structural context and layout of the article,
deepening their understanding of the content and allowing them to gather detailed
information efficiently.

39

Figure 9. Samples of association reading activity with mind mapping.

3.2.3 Association writing activity
In the daily association writing activities, applying mind maps to the conceptionof writing contains following steps: (1) Ask the students to freely associate among thepictures given by the teachers in two minutes, and write down related keywords, andtry to associate the keywords together to form a common topic; (2) Draw mind maps tosort out the various points that are most consistent with the relevance and importanceof the article; (3) Start writing essay according to the mind map within a given time
limit of 20 minutes. The mind map drawn by students’ divergent thinking can make theframework of the essay more clearly, and make the students’ essay writing thinking
more cohesive and logical. Figure 10 shows the daily association writing activities withmind mapping by different students. In the process of drawing their mind maps,
students can better recall and master the topic vocabulary and sentence expressions.
Mind mapping can encourage the students to play with association and divergent
40

thinking in writing, turning a potentially boring thinking process into something fun
and interesting.

Figure 10. Samples of association writing activity with mind mapping.
41

3.3 Results and discussion
To clarify the creative pedagogy’s effect on creativity, this study applied creative
thinking test to gauge the students’ creative thinking skills, Japanese language
proficiency test to measure their language performance, and a motivation questionnaire
to assess their learning motivation. ANOVA was conducted, with the post-test scoresas the dependent variable, group membership as the fixed factor, and pre-test scores as
the covariate, to examine whether the creative pedagogy intervention resulted instatistically significant differences between the two groups and whether the
improvement in scores from pre- to post-test for the experimental group was
statistically significant. The analyses were performed using SPSS statistical software
version 25. The results showed that the creative pedagogy significantly improved thescores of the experimental group on the creative thinking test, the foreign language
proficiency test, and the choice and executive motivation subscales. These findings
suggest that the proposed pedagogy can help cultivate creativity in university foreign
language classrooms.

3.3.1 Association-based activities effects on creative thinking
skills(1) Instrument
Alternative Uses Test (AUT) measures divergent thinking effectively by asking
participants about different possible uses of the common objects within a specified time
(Guilford, 1986). In this study, the stimulus for the creative thinking started with the
AUT, to which the students respond by writing ideas. The theme in the creative thinking
pre-test was “the uses of an empty beer bottle”, and the theme in the creative thinking
post-test was “the uses of an umbrella when it isn’t raining”. The students were required
to elaborate on their ideas as thoroughly as possible within a time limit of 5 minutes.
All the answer sheets were written in Japanese and graded by experienced Japanese42teachers and advanced psychology experts. Divergent thinking emphasizes fluency,
flexibility, and originality (Guilford, 1986). These three factors were included in thecreative thinking test. Fluency is related to the ability to generate relevant, meaningful
ideas; flexibility reflects the ability to produce a variety of idea types; and originality ismeasured by unique or uncommon answers (Kim, 2006). In this study, the definitionsof fluency, flexibility, and originality were summarized as follows: Fluency refers to
the ability to produce a large number of ideas (simple sum of answers appropriate to
the theme); flexibility refers to the ability to produce a wide variety of ideas (simple
sum of different categories obtained by comparing the answers); and originality refers
to the ability to produce unusual ideas (answers that are unique and uncommon,
frequency of occurrence is low).

(2) Creative thinking skills
Based on the statistical comparison of the creative thinking skills for the two group(Figure 11), ANOVA analysis was conducted (Table 2). The results indicate that themean scores of the experimental group improved more than those of the control groupfrom the pre-test to the post-test. The effect of the creative pedagogy intervention
reached a significant level in fluency, with a large effect size, F (1, 225) = 151.14, p <0.001, 𝜂𝑃2 = 0.403; flexibility, with a medium effect size, F (1, 225) = 18.64, p < 0.001,
𝜂𝑃2 = 0.077; and originality, with a medium effect size, F (1, 225) = 10.64, p < 0.01,
𝜂𝑃2 = 0.045. The improvements in these three creative thinking skill subscales were all
statistically significant.

43

(a)

(b)

(c)
Figure 11. Statistical comparison of creative thinking skills for the two groups.
(a) Fluency; (b) Flexibility; (c) Originality.
44

Item
Fluency
Flexibility
Originality

Table 2. ANOVA results of creative thinking skills.
Pre-test
Post-test
Group N
df
F
M
SD
M
SD
EG

115

6.98

1.57

9.65

1.53

CG

112

6.87

1.28

7.10

1.27

EG

115

2.49

0.95

3.30

0.87

CG

112

2.23

0.74

2.39

0.72

EG

115

1.27

0.80

2.35

0.81

CG

112

1.23

0.68

1.42

0.59

p

𝜼𝟐𝑷

1

151.14*** 0.000 0.403

118.64***

0.000 0.077

1

10.64**

0.001 0.045(Note. EG–Experimental Group; CG–Control Group. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.)
An example of answers by a student from the experimental group on the AUT isshown in Figure 12. The student wrote the answers in the Japanese language. In the
pre-test, ideas written according to the prompt “the uses of an empty beer bottle” were“to store water,” “to keep a fish,” “to sell,” “to use as an ashtray,” “to store glasses,”and “to use as a bookend.” The number of ideas (fluency) was 7, the variety of ideas(flexibility) was 2, categories: “container” and “recycling,” and unusualness of ideas(originality) was 1, “to use as a bookend.” In the post-test, ideas on “the uses of anumbrella when it isn’t rainy” were “cover your body from others,” “to shield against
ultraviolet rays,” “to use as a cane,” “to use when it is snowing,” “to wind up,” “to use
as a weapon,” “to use as a tool when taking pictures,” “to use as a prop when dancing,”“to carry water upside down,” and “to use as a pointer for a presentation.” The numberof ideas (fluency) was 10, the variety of ideas (flexibility) was 3, categories: “healthappliances,” “play equipment,” and “weapon,” and the unusualness of ideas (originality)
was 2, “to carry water upside down” and “to use as a pointer for a presentation.” In the
post-test, this student wrote more ideas in different categories than in the pre-test, andthe unusualness of ideas increased.

45

(a)

(b)

Figure 12. An experimental group student’s answers to the creative thinking test.
(a) Creative thinking pre-test; (b) Creative thinking post-test.
In traditional foreign language classrooms, there are less enlightenment andguidance to students, and less communication and discussion between teachers andstudents. For answering questions, a traditional lecture often advocates uniformity andstandardization, but does not advocate extensiveness, multi-level, or diversification.
Traditional teaching process would lead to form a regular thinking mode, which limits
the development of students’ creative thinking skills. Breaking the traditionalclassroom teaching model is the key to stimulating students’ creativity. This study
proposed the creative pedagogy of association-based activities with mind mapping in
the classroom, which enables students to fully demonstrate their own thoughts while
using foreign language, so that they can have a broad space for creative thinking.
Following the intervention, the experimental group’s scores for the creative
thinking post-test were higher than those for the creative thinking pre-test. Significant
between-group differences were also observed in the creative thinking skill subscales.
Notably, the effect size for fluency was large. The results indicate that the creative
pedagogy intervention can promote creative thinking skills, which is consistent withthe findings of Lin (2011), Siraj-Blatchford et al. (2002), and Ulger (2016), noting thatparticipants who received creative training while engaging in activities havedemonstrated a significant improvement in creativity, especially in terms of creative
thinking skills. Creative activities often provide opportunities to improve students’46

creative thinking. Association plays an important role in divergent thinking. Students
who have participated in association-based activities are more likely to think creatively
to generate ideas. The results confirm the effectiveness of association-based activities
in enhancing the creative thinking skills of university foreign language learning
students. Divergent thinking is a way of thinking about problems from multiple angles
and aspects, and mind mapping is a graphic technique for expressing divergent thinking.
Mind mapping is a visual thinking structure diagram that can provide students with aplatform to think about problems from multiple angles. In this study, association-based
activities with mind mapping created a free learning atmosphere and independent
learning opportunities for students, and guided them to think about problems frommultiple angles, and expanded their thinking perspectives. It enabled students to use
known information as the starting point of thinking, based on the knowledge andexperience they have mastered, to use associations to speculate and imagine, and to
think from different angles and different directions, thereby have promoted thedevelopment of students’ divergent thinking skills.

3.3.2 Association-based

activities

effectsonlanguage

proficiency(1) Instrument
In this study, the students’ language proficiency was measured with a Japanese
language proficiency test on vocabulary, reading comprehension, and writing. First, inthe vocabulary part of the test (accounting for 30% of the total score), students were tocomplete sentences by choosing the best answer from four words or phrase options
within 10 minutes. Second, in the reading comprehension section of the test (accounting
for 40% of the total score), the students read five Japanese articles and completed thetest within 50 minutes. Each article had approximately 500 words and was followed by
two reading comprehension multiple-choice questions. The students also had to write
down the keywords and main sentences from each article. Finally, the writing part of47

the test (accounting for 30% of the total score) required the students to determine thetitle of the composition based on the pictures given and write a composition of about
200 words within 30 minutes. The composition needed to be fluent in the language,
appropriate in word choice, reasonable in structure, appropriate in style, and persuasive.
The difficulty levels of the Japanese language proficiency pre-test and post-test weresimilar but not identical.

(2) Language proficiency
The statistical comparison (Figure 13) and ANOVA results (Table 3) show thatboth groups received higher mean scores on the post-test. However, experimental group
received higher mean scores than the control group did, and the differences were
statistically significant, with a medium effect size in each case: vocabulary, F (1, 225)
= 23.08, p < 0.001, 𝜂𝑃2 = 0.093; reading, F (1, 225) = 2.03, p < 0.01, 𝜂𝑃2 = 0.029;
writing, F (1, 225) = 1.60, p < 0.05, 𝜂𝑃2 = 0.027; and total score, F (1, 225) = 8.69, p< 0.01, 𝜂𝑃2 = 0.037.

(a)

(b)
48

(c)

(d)
Figure 13. Statistical comparison of language proficiency for the two groups.
(a) Vocabulary; (b) Reading; (c) Writing; (d) Total score.

Item
Vocabulary
Reading
Writing
Total score

Table 3. ANOVA results of language proficiency.
Pre-test
Post-test
Group N
df
F
M
SD
M
SD
EG

115 21.70 1.79 23.70 1.86

CG

112 22.06 2.57 22.62 2.44

EG

115 30.64 2.15 33.27 2.54

CG

112 30.49 3.03 31.18 2.73

EG

115 22.25 1.97 24.92 2.13

CG

112 21.51 2.67 22.05 2.19

EG

115 74.60 3.73 81.90 3.40

CG112 74.06 4.61 75.84 4.26

p

𝜼𝟐𝑷

1

23.08*** 0.000 0.093

1

2.03**

0.006 0.029

1

1.60*

0.030 0.027

1

8.69**

0.004 0.037(Note. EG–Experimental Group; CG–Control Group. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.)
49

The significant increase in the experimental group’s mean total score indicates thatthe creative pedagogy intervention can enhance students’ Japanese language
proficiency. This indication is similar to the observation by Fisher (2004) that thecultivation of creativity can improve students’ academic performance and rekindle theirlearning motivation. In contrast to learning through rote memorization or repetition, awell-designed learning process can improve students’ access to their foreign language
knowledge, which can enhance their language proficiency. The creative pedagogy
presented in this study is an innovative teaching mode for facilitating students’ creativeuse of a foreign language. In the daily association-based activities with mind mapping,students choose a certain knowledge as a starting point for free association of related
knowledge, which guided them toward relevant information around a central theme,
improve their systematic understanding, and broaden the scope of their knowledge.
This process can not only help students have a firm grasp of what they have learned,
but also help them build connections between knowledge. In the process of using mind
maps to draw knowledge structure, students can clarify the knowledge context quickly
and visualize disordered knowledge. The visual thinking framework can deepen
students’ understanding of knowledge, and stimulate their various new ideas. In
addition, the association-based activities enabled students to study in various forms
instead of learning by rote, which was conducive to creating a playful, student-centeredlearning environment and mobilizing their initiative to learn. Therefore, students’foreign language learning can change from passively receiving knowledge to actively
exploring it. Association-based activities can guide students toward relevant
information around a central theme, improve their systematic understanding, andbroaden the scope of their knowledge. Creative pedology may have a positive impact
on memory and thinking. When students are interested in the association-based
activities, they tend to be proactive in completing the activity, which can encouragethem to participate in the learning process more actively and perform better. Thus,
association-based activities can play an important role in improving students’ language
proficiency.
50

3.3.3 Association-based

activities

effectsonlearning

motivation(1) Instrument
A motivation questionnaire was administered to clarify whether a creative
pedagogy could motivate and interest students. According to Dörnyei (2001),
motivation in language learning is modeled as a three-step process involving choice
motivation (which requires fostering a fun, supportive atmosphere during the lecture),
executive motivation (which requires instructors to make learning exciting andenjoyable), and increased motivation (which requires increasing learner satisfaction).
Based on this research, the motivation questionnaire in this study consisted of threesubscales, each of which had six items: choice motivation (e.g., study in a free and funclassroom atmosphere), executive motivation (e.g., deepening understanding andleading to the acquisition of new knowledge), and increased motivation (e.g., a senseof accomplishment) (Liu et al., 2019). All answers were evaluated as follows: agree =5, slightly agree = 4, uncertain = 3, slightly disagree = 2, disagree = 1. There was alsoa free description section in the questionnaire where the students could elaborate on
their ideas: “What do you think of the teaching method in this classroom?”(2) Learning motivation
The learning motivation results for the two groups are shown in Figure 14 andTable 4. The experimental group’s mean scores were significantly higher than those of
the control group in the post-test in two categories. The effect size for both choice
motivation and executive motivation were medium: choice motivation, F (1, 225) =9.70, p < 0.01, 𝜂𝑃2 = 0.041; and executive motivation, F (1, 225) = 7.06, p < 0.01, 𝜂𝑃2= 0.031. In the case of increased motivation, the improvement was not statisticallysignificant, with a small effect size, F (1, 225) = 2.57, p > 0.05, 𝜂𝑃2 = 0.011.

51

(a)

(b)

(c)
Figure 14. Statistical comparison of learning motivation for the two groups.
(a) Choice motivation; (b) Executive motivation; (c) Increased motivation.
52

Item
Choicemotivation
Executive
motivation
Increased
motivation

Table 4. ANOVA results of learning motivation.
Pre-test
Post-test
Group
N
df
F
M
SD
M
SD
EG

115

24.92 1.86

26.63

1.47

CG

112

24.21 1.35

24.90

1.36

EG

115

25.10 1.57

26.93

2.00

CG

112

25.17 1.38

25.39

1.74

EG

115

25.14 1.23

26.23

1.58

CG

112

24.91 1.46

25.33

1.92

p

𝜼𝟐𝑷

1

9.70

0.002**

0.041

1

7.06

0.008**

0.031

1

2.57

0.111

0.011

(Note. EG–Experimental Group; CG–Control Group. *p<0.05; **p<0.01; ***p<0.001.)
The following comments by students came from the free description section,
which reflected a positive attitude towards the creative pedagogy. First, this pedagogy
appeared to help students develop and elaborate on their ideas more effectively.
Students’ comments included: “It was different from the previous lecture, rather thanremembering by rote, I could remember by thinking;” and “I obviously felt thatassociation-based activities could help me generate more creative ideas.” Second,
students found the mind maps to be effective tools in learning. The students responded:“In the vocabulary association activity, I can imagine lots of words and sentences thatcan be connected, which can help me learn vocabularies comprehensively;” “In theassociation writing activity, mind mapping can help me to think effectively to relate themain idea with its elaboration;” and “Mind mapping helps me to organize ideas, even
if the article had a large number of words, contained a large amount of information, or
had a complex structure, it’s easier to capture key information and analyze it.” Finally,
the association-based activities stimulated the students’ interest and improved their
enthusiasm and initiative. The students commented: “My learning satisfaction wasincreased;” “It inspired my interest and enthusiasm in learning;” and “I hope thisteaching method will be maintained all the time, and I want to recommend thisclassroom activity to other universities.”

53

Students used mind maps to draw their own knowledge structure diagrams. In themind mapping process, students gave full play to their own associations to conduct
independent exploration of knowledge and form a knowledge structure diagram that
conforms to their own way of thinking. Mind maps drawn by the students themselves
can show their thinking processes and help them enjoy thinking, thereby enhancing
their enthusiasm and learning motivation. The results of the motivation questionnaire
showed that association-based activities created an active classroom atmosphere, madelearning exciting and enjoyable, and increased student satisfaction. On the motivationquestionnaire, most students positively evaluated all question items, and the feedback
from the free description section was generally positive. Many students expressed theirinterest in the association-based activities, which differed from those used in theprevious traditional classes. Mind maps drawn by the students themselves can show
their thinking processes and help them enjoy thinking, thereby enhancing their
enthusiasm and learning motivation. The results show that creative pedagogy canprovide learners with a supportive environment that enables them to improve theirmotivation while learning content. Therefore, language educators should strive topresent the classroom as an interesting place where students can learn with eager
enjoyment (Lightbown & Spada, 2013).
Significant between-group differences were obtained in the learning motivation
subscales other than increased motivation, possibly because the implementation periodof creative pedagogy was relatively short. If the implementation had occurred over alonger period, the between-group differences might have been statistically significant.
Learning motivation has been shown to have a positive influence on learners’ language
proficiency (Oxford & Shearin, 1994). To develop learners’ language proficiency inforeign language education, teachers should creatively enhance their students’ learning
motivation (National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education[NACCCE] 1999). A longer intervention period may have not only further enhanced
the students’ learning motivation but also better stimulated the experimental group’s
acquisition of language proficiency.
54

3.4 Summary
A creative educational environment can cultivate creativity in foreign language
learning university students. This study reformed the traditional foreign language
classroom model and applied daily creative activities to enhance students’ creativity.
The creative pedagogy presented in this study has illustrated the feasibility of using
association-based activities with mind mapping, not only resulted in the developmentof students’ creative thinking skills but also improved their language proficiency andlearning motivation. Data and findings from this study will contribute to undergraduate
foreign language teaching and learning processes and offer directions for creative
pedagogy in the field.
In addition, this study has several implications for undergraduate foreign language
education. Foreign language learning university students should be encouraged toparticipate in association-based activities with mind mapping in everyday learning tocultivate their creativity. Teachers can emphasize creative activities in their teaching
techniques, design mind maps for foreign language textbooks, and provide overviewsof the appropriate forms to teach vocabulary, reading, and writing. This teaching
method can help students learn a foreign language efficiently and enhance their creative
thinking skills.
In this chapter, we have investigated the creative pedagogy’s effectiveness throughtraditional testing methods: Alternative Uses Test (AUT) to measure creative thinking
skills, foreign language proficiency test to measure language performance, motivationquestionnaire to measure learning motivation. The traditional tests can provide
analytical data, but whether the scores of these tests are related to creative problem
solving ability has not been fully confirmed. In addition, it’s more convincing if thestudents’ learning outcomes can be observed through their biometric data. In the next
two chapters, we will apply modern science and technology, including EEG
investigation and eye tracking detection, to present more accurate numerical results to55

prove the effectiveness of creative pedagogy on students’ creative thinking skills andforeign language performance.

56

Chapter 4 EEG investigation on
creative thinking skills

Content

・ Research outline
・ Materials and methods
・ Results and discussion
・ Summary57

Chapter 4
EEG investigation on creative thinking
skills

Besides using Alternative Uses Test (AUT), in this chapter, an EEG investigation
was taken for testing students’ creative thinking skills, which provided biometric data
to further verify the effectiveness of creative pedagogy. Divergent thinking is a
dynamic process. EEG experiments can be used to record the change process to deepen
the understanding of divergent thinking. In recent years, the development of EEG andbrain function imaging has provided powerful technical support for the study of theneural basis of creativity, including the alpha band activity in divergent thinking. We
used EEG to consider an assessment technique of creative thinking with biometric data.
Participants’ EEG signals were measured by Emotiv Epoc+ equipment in this study.
The brain wave images and the divergent thinking task data of the experimental groupand the control group were compared and analyzed, and the alpha band power ofdivergent thinking task was investigated. The results show that the experimental group
had significant higher alpha band power in anteriofrontal lobe, frontal lobe,
frontocentral lobe, and temporal lobe, especially in the anteriofrontal lobe area, and thealpha band activity of the right cerebral hemisphere was more active. It indicated thatstudents who have received creative pedagogy had stronger divergent thinking skills,
and the creative pedagogy used by this study can effectively develop students’
divergent thinking skills.

4.1 Research outline
Many scholars have studied the relevant brain regions in the process of creative
thinking task. Most studies have shown that creative thinking is the product of multiple
brain regions, and there are similarities and differences in the key brain regions
58

involved in specific tasks (Razoumnikova, 2000; Razoumnikova, 2007; Sun et al., 2016;
Zabelina & Andrews, 2016; Shen et al., 2010). Flaherty (2005) proposed a three factors
model of brain anatomy, noting that creative thinking was caused by the network
connection function of front lobe, temporary lobe and limbic area. Among them, frontal
lobe is responsible for the generation of creative ideas. In the process of creative
thinking, the anteriofrontal lobe is interrelated with divergent thinking (Dietrich &Kanso, 2010). During the divergent thinking task, both sides of the brain of highly
creative participants had significant activation of the opposite anteriofrontal lobe
(Carlsson et al., 2000; Wu et al.,2015; Razoumnikova, 2000). Fink et al. (2010)
improved the novelty of participants’ responses by increasing cognitive stimuli, andfound that the activation of the medial anteriofrontal lobe cortex plays an important rolein generating novel ideas. Liu et al. (2015) used the poetry creation task to find thatdifferent brain regions were activated in the generation and revision processes ofcreative ideas, and the medial anteriofrontal lobe was activated in both processes.
There are four kinds of EEG in human beings: alpha band, beta band, delta band,and theta band. Among these, the alpha band is a more subconscious EEG. When EEG
is presented as alpha band, imagination, creativity and inspiration continue to flow out,
judgment and understanding of things is greatly improved, and at the same time, thebody and mind will present a sense of stability, happiness and relaxation. Alpha band
synchronization can reflect an active cognitive process (Klimesch et al., 1999).
Jausïovec (2000) used EEG technology to investigate the alpha band power in thedivergent thinking task. The results showed that highly creative participants had higheralpha band power, especially in front lobe areas. Fink, et al. (2006) investigated thealpha band synchronization of participants on the divergent thinking task by using theevent related desynchronization (ERD) method. The results showed that the answers
with higher novelty are accompanied by stronger alpha band synchronization. Morecreative ideas are related to stronger alpha band power increase. In addition, JungBeeman et al. (2004) pointed out that compared with non-insight solutions, insight59

solutions have a higher level of alpha band power, and the most prominent one is theright cerebral hemisphere cortex.
At present, in the foreign language education, the effect of creative pedagogy ismeasured by traditional divergent thinking test. To our knowledge, no study appears toexist that has analyzed EEG correlates of creative pedagogy in the foreign language
education. Based on the previous researches, this study mainly focused on the researchquestion that what is the difference between the alpha band power of experimentalgroup and control group, and then elaborated on the development effect of creative
pedagogy on divergent thinking. We mainly analyzed task-related alpha band power
while participants worked on different divergent thinking tasks.

4.2 Materials and methods
4.2.1 Participants
We selected 20 students from each group. All participants gave their informed
consent for inclusion before they participated in the experiment. Experimental groupstudents received creative pedagogy to develop their divergent thinking training in theirusual classrooms, mainly consisting of carrying out association-based activities withmind mapping for 8 weeks. After completing the divergent thinking training, the twogroups of students participated in the divergent thinking tasks for EEG data collection.

4.2.2 Apparatus
The experiment used the Emotiv Epoc+, which is produced by Emotiv systems, aneurotechnology company in San Francisco, California (Figure 15 (a) ). It is a wirelessBluetooth EEG recorder that can collect 14 channels EEG signals and transmit thesignals to the computer through wireless transmission. The 14 EEG channel names
based on the international 10/20 system are: AF3, F7, F3, FC5, T7, P7, O1, O2, P8, T8,
FC6, F4, F8, AF4. The distribution of the reference sensors is symmetrical, the odd
number is on the left and the even number is on the right. Anteriofrontal lobe (AF3,60

AF4), frontal lobe (F3, F4, F7, F8), frontocentral lobe (FC5, FC6), temporal lobe (T7,
T8), parietal lobe (P7, P8), occipital lobe (O1, O2). In addition, CMS / DRL noise
reduction configuration is also used in the device (Figure 16 (a) ). EEG signal is filtered
between 0.2 Hz and 43 Hz, and a 50 Hz notch filter is added to avoid power line
pollution. The sampling frequency of all EEG signals is 256 times per second. The
reference sensor has a black rubber cover. Place the sensors on the bone behind each
earlobe. The two front sensors should be on the hairline approximately or 3 inches wide
above the eyebrows (Figure 15 (b) ). Press and hold the 2 reference sensors (above andbehind the ear) for about 20 seconds, then Emotiv Epoc+ will begin to collect EEG
signals (Figure 16 (b) ).

(a)

(b)

Figure 15. Emotiv Epoc+ equipment and wearing method.
(a) Emotiv Epoc+ equipment; (b) Emotiv Epoc+ wearing method.

(a)

(b)

Figure 16. Emotiv Epoc+ reference sensors location distribution and signal display.
(a) Reference sensors location distribution; (b) Emotiv Epoc+ signal display.

61

4.2.3 Procedure(1) Divergent thinking tasks
In this experiment, the EEG of the two groups in the process of completing
divergent thinking tasks was compared and analyzed. There are four kinds of divergent
thinking tasks which emphasize association. Insight (IS) task: give an unusual scene
description, and ask participants to explain the causes and consequences of this scenario;
Utopian situations (US) task: participants were instructed to put themselves in a utopian
situation and to think of their own unique ideas or solutions; Alternative uses (AU) task:
provide daily necessities and let participants say as much as possible about the unusual
uses of daily necessities; Vocabulary association (VA) task: give a word and let theparticipants associate it with other words (Table 5). Separate measurement method was
adopted, and sound insulation wall was installed in the closed classroom. After eachparticipant entered the classroom, staff explained the purpose, significance and processof the experiment. Participants will rest for 5 minutes. During the experiment,
participants tried not to have large body movements or communicate with others.
Table 5. Items in the divergent thinking tasks.
Divergent thinking tasks

Items

Insight (IS)（1）The phone in the office kept ringing, but noone answer the call.
（2）Person A is standing, person B is smilingand person C is crying.

Utopian situations (US)（1）If there is no night, every day is daytime,
what kind of life would it be like?
（2）If all animals could speak and communicate
with people, what would the world be like?

Alternative uses (AU)（1）Brick（2）Plastic wrap

Vocabulary association (VA)

（1）Japanese words that begin with ‘は’（2）Japanese words ending in ‘む’62(2) EEG data acquisition
Figure 17 shows the schematic diagram of the EEG data acquisition. The
participant sits on a chair facing the PC and performs the divergent thinking tasks while
wearing the Emotiv Epoc+, and the EEG data at that time are recorded. The Emotiv
Epoc+ sends data to the PC via the bluetooth driver. It is accessed by the EmotivPRO
integrated software inside the PC. Data packets are sent every second, and by analyzing
the acquired packets, numerical data of the alpha band can be retrieved. The averagedalpha band power using Fast Fourier Transformation (FFT) were calculated.

Figure 17. Schematic diagram of the EEG data acquisition.

(3) EEG data analysis process
The divergent thinking task starts with the presentation of the ‘○’ symbol (Figure18). Participants are required to pay close attention to the ‘○’ symbol for a duration of
15 seconds. After the ‘○’ symbol disappears, the divergent thinking task will be
displayed on the computer screen. The participant then reads the introduction of eachtask, and after having an idea, they will press “enter” on the computer keyboard. At thistime, the words “please answer” will be displayed on the computer, and the participants
will begin to describe their ideas after reading. Participants were asked to express theirideas in as much detail as possible, which was recorded by the experimenters. Once thenarration of ideas is completed, participants press the “enter” button again to confirm
their ideas. After 5 seconds, the next task description will appear on the computer screen
again. Each task needs to be completed within 3 minutes, and this process will be63repeated until the last divergent thinking task is completed and EEG data collection iscompleted.

(Note. R–Reference; A–Activation.)
Figure 18. Schematic diagram of the EEG data analysis.

As was shown in Figure 18, in the process of participants performing divergent
thinking tasks, this experiment will select two time periods of EEG signals for data
analysis: Reference (pre-stimulus) interval (10 s): The 10s time period when paying
attention to the‘○’symbol (2500ms-12500ms); Activation interval (1s): The 1s time
period before the enter button is pressed (1250-250ms before enter). Each divergent
thinking task has two items, so there will be two activation intervals. This experimentwill take the average of the EEG signals in the two activation intervals for analysis.
In the reference interval and activation interval, alpha band power (μV2) was
calculated by filtering the EEG signals with FFT filters. In order to investigate thechanges of the task-related power (TRP) in the alpha band (Pfurtscheller, 1999), in eachdivergent thinking task, the (log-transformed) power in the activation interval minusthat during the reference interval according to the formula as follows:
TRPi = log (Powi activation) – log (Powi reference)
If the alpha band power decreased from reference interval to activation interval,
the TRP value is negative; If the alpha band power increased from reference interval toactivation interval, the TRP value is positive (Pfurtscheller, 1999).
64

4.3 Results and discussion
4.3.1 TRP values in the divergent thinking tasks
Based on the statistical comparison in Figure 19, t-test was conducted (Table 6).
The results show that the TRP in the alpha band of the two groups were both positive,
which proved that the alpha band power of the two groups increased from the reference
to the activation interval. In addition, the experimental group displayed significant
stronger alpha band power increased than the control group in the IS task, (t = 2.786, p< 0.05), AU task, (t = 3.197, p < 0.01), and VA task, (t = 5.086, p < 0.001). In the caseof US task , the difference was not statistically significant, (t = 1.705, p > 0.05).

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 19. Statistical comparison of TRP in the divergent thinking tasks for the two groups.
(a) TRP in IS task for the two groups; (b) TRP in US task for the two groups;(c) TRP in AU task for the two groups; (d) TRP in VA task for the two groups.

65

Table 6. The t-test results of TRP for the two groups.
Divergent
thinking
tasks

Experimental Group

Control Group
t

p

0.056

2.786*

0.012

0.382

0.498

1.705

0.104

0.345

0.157

0.515

3.197**

0.005

0.293

0.095

0.273

5.086***

0.000

M

SD

M

SD

IS task

0.596

0.339

0.194

US task

0.601

0.343

AU task

0.581

VA task

0.501(Note. M–Mean; SD–Standard Deviation; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.)
The EEG data in this experiment indicated that both experimental group andcontrol group showed an increase in TRP value. Divergent thinking was usuallyaccompanied by an increase in alpha band power from the reference to the activationinterval. The difference of alpha band power increased in the divergent thinking tasksof the two groups indicated that the alpha band power might check the promotion of
the divergent thinking skills after the creative pedagogy. In the US task, the TRP valueof experimental group was not significantly higher than that of control group, this may
be due to the higher image thinking ability, intuition and understanding required for thedescription of US task. Both groups had similar imagination when performing
divergent thinking, so there was no obvious difference between the two groups.

4.3.2 TRP values in different positions
Figure 20 (a) shows that the alpha TRP values of the whole brain area were all
positive, which proved that the alpha power increased from the reference to theactivation interval. The alpha TRP value of experimental group was higher than that ofcontrol group, and the differences were mainly concentrated in anteriofrontal lobe (AF),frontal lobe (F), frontocentral lobe (FC), and temporal lobe (T) areas. In addition, theTRP values of the AF areas in both groups were higher than other areas, and theexperimental group displayed higher TRP value over AF areas than the control group.
Moreover, in this experiment, we not only limited the detection of the differences of
TRP values in the whole areas in both groups, but also made the investigation of the66differences of TRP values in the left and right cerebral hemisphere in both groups
respectively.

(a)

(b)
Figure 20. TRP results for the two groups. (a) TRP from anterior toposterior regions for the two groups. AF, anteriofrontal; F, frontal; FC,
frontocentral; T, temporal; P, parietal; O, occipital; (b) TRP in the left andright cerebral hemisphere for the two groups. Left cerebral hemisphere:
AF3, F3, and FC5; Right cerebral hemisphere: AF4, F4, and FC6.

67

The results show that the TRP value of the right cerebral hemisphere in the AF, F,
and FC areas was higher than that of the left cerebral hemisphere in the experimentalgroup. However, there was no significant difference between the right and left cerebral
hemisphere in the control group, and in the AF and FC areas, the left cerebral
hemisphere was a little higher than that of the right cerebral hemisphere (Figure 20 (b) ).

(1) TRP values in AF areas
The alpha TRP values of both groups were higher in the AF areas than other areas.
In addition, compared with control group, experimental group had more task related
synchronization of alpha activity. AF areas plays an important role in the developmentof creativity, especially for divergent thinking (Shamay et al., 2011; Crone & Dahl,
2012). The AF lobe regions of highly creative participants were significantly activated(Rutter et al., 2012). AF areas play an important role in the development of creativity
and divergent thinking because the areas involve cognitive control functions (Miller &Cohen, 2001). In the process of cognition and thinking, alpha band power produced by
AF area will increase, which will lead to in-depth analysis of the reading information(Carlsson et al., 2000). AF areas mainly calm and relax people in order to produce new,unique or original ideas. Dietrich (2004a) proposed that creativity requires cognitive
ability (such as memory, concentration or cognitive flexibility), especially cognitive
flexibility, which is regarded as the core connotation of divergent thinking, that is,breaking the conventional mode of thinking, adopting new thinking strategies, or
establishing unique connections with stored knowledge. These cognitive abilities areusually attributed to the AF areas of the brain. The experimental group showed higher
cognitive ability than control group, and has more prominent alpha activity in AF areas,
which indicated that the development of their divergent thinking skills.

(2) TRP values in F and FC areas
F and FC areas are frontal brain regions, which are crucial for the involvement indivergent thinking (Carlsson et al., 2000; Dietrich, 2004a). The alpha TRP value of the68experimental group was higher than that of the control group, which proved that the F
and FC areas were more actively involved in divergent thinking and were fully utilized
when the experimental group performed divergent thinking tasks.

(3) TRP values in T area
The T area is an important part of the brain’s memory generation. The difference
between the two groups in this area indicated that the experimental group paid more
attention to connecting memories formed by different sensations, and promoted thecompletion of divergent tasks.

(4) TRP values in P and O areas
Both groups had high alpha TRP value that was similar in the P and O areas. The
P lobe is somatosensory area. Both groups had high alpha TRP values in the P area,
which indicated that the sensory experience of completing the divergent thinking tasks
in both groups was strong, and there was a certain amount of pressure and anxiety. The
O lobe is visual processing area. The increase of the alpha TRP value in the O area is acognitive suppression of the interference information by the visual system (Sauseng etal., 2005; Klimesch, Sauseng & Hanslmayr, 2007). When performing divergent
thinking tasks, both groups visually processed the divergent thinking tasks presented
on the computer to effectively suppress interference information. In summary, multiple
brain regions were involved in the divergent thinking process, and there weresimilarities and differences in the key brain regions. The similarities in P and O lobe
areas showed a common phenomenon in the process of completing tasks, and thedifferences between the two groups in AF, F, FC, and T lobe areas indicated theexperimental group significantly activated in divergent thinking, and this might becreated by higher divergent thinking skills.

69

(5) TRP values in right cerebral hemisphere
There are more activations in the right cerebral hemisphere cortex, which plays animportant role in the execution of divergent thinking tasks (Carlsson, et al., 2000;
Razoumnikova, 2000; Fink, 2006). However, precious researches mainly detected thewhole right cerebral hemisphere cortex’s role in the divergent thinking tasks. In thisstudy, we particularly focused on investigating the experimental group students’ TRP
values in the AF, F, and FC areas in the right cerebral hemisphere. As was shown in
Figure 20 (b), the TRP values of the AF, F, and FC areas in the right cerebral
hemisphere of the experimental group was significantly higher than on the left side,
whereas the control group showed no significant difference between right and left
cerebral hemispheres, and they had a little higher TRP value in the left cerebral
hemisphere in the AF and FC areas. The results show that the association-based
activities presented in this study could effectively improve the experimental groupstudents to generate more alpha activity in the right cerebral hemisphere cortex, which
played an important role during completing the divergent thinking tasks and enhanced
their divergent thinking skills.

4.4 Summary
This study used Emotiv Epoc+ to collect EEG signals. The TRP values of the twogroups in divergent thinking tasks were compared and analyzed to provide convincing
data support for different divergent thinking states of the two groups. The above resultsof EEG and brain function imaging show that the key point of brain mechanism ofdivergent thinking is the anteriofrontal lobe, and higher divergent thinking skills are
related to the increase of alpha band power of anteriofrontal lobe. The alpha band powerin the anteriofrontal lobe areas of the experimental group significantly increased, andwas higher than the control group. In addition, the alpha band power of the rightcerebral hemisphere was higher than the left cerebral hemisphere. These data can provethat association-based activities can improve the effectiveness of divergent thinking
skills, and promote the development of students’ creativity. The results show that the70

creative teaching method of association-based activities with mind mapping caneffectively improve students’ creative thinking skills.
In this study, all the participants used Emotiv Epoc+ equipment to participate in
the experiments for the first time, their mentality may not be the natural state in ordinary
times, and the biometric data collected in the experiments may be affected. In the future,
we should increase the measurement times to make the participants get more used to
the EEG signals and eye movement indicators collecting equipment and thus keep anatural mentality.

71Chapter 5 Eye tracking detection
on foreign language proficiency

Content

・ Research outline
・ Materials and methods
・ Results and discussion
・ Summary72

Chapter 5
Eye tracking detection on foreign language
proficiency

In this chapter, we used eye tracking sensors to explore the creative pedagogy’s
effects on students’ reading ability. We analyzed eye movement indicators, including
fixation-related indicators (number of fixations, fixation frequency, and mean fixation
duration), regression count, saccade amplitude, and pupil diameter. In addition, theanalysis of heat maps and fixation trajectory maps, which are specific tool for
visualization of eye movement data and intuitive analysis of reading process, wereexplained. The results show that the number of fixations, fixation frequency, mean
fixation duration, and regression count in the experimental group were all lower thanin the control group, and the pupil diameter was larger than in the control group. The
heat map and fixation trajectory map show convergence, mostly focusing on theposition of keywords and key sentences, with relatively large saccade amplitude andmore information obtained by one gaze. Moreover, they had a higher skipping reading
rate, which enhanced reading speed to obtain information accurately and quickly. Theseempirical results indicate that the association-based activities was an effective method
for improving students’ reading ability.

5.1 Research outline
Reading material includes words, grammar, expressions, sentence patterns etc.
Reading ability is significant in foreign language learning, which comprehensively
reflect foreign language proficiency as a whole (Nuttel, 1982). In this study, students’foreign language proficiency evaluation focused on the measurement of their reading
ability. To comprehensively test reading ability, it is necessary to analyze the cognitive
process of reading effectively and study the real-time understanding process of73

discourse comprehension. Therefore, in addition to the traditional reading
comprehension testing, we applied an eye tracker to test students’ reading abilities byvisualizing the cognitive processing of text understanding and the reading process
directly. The association reading activity with mind mapping requires students toconsciously find keywords and key sentences from the article and draft the structural
framework of the whole article, which allows them to fully grasp the main content of
the reading article and therefore realize the goal of quickly understanding the generalidea of the article and therefore improve reading efficiency. Mind mapping is acognitive process, thus it is of great practical significance to study how mind mapping
training affects students’ reading process. In this study, the eye tracking researchmethod was used to investigate eye movement characteristics of students in the processof reading. The results show that there are differences in the eye movement indicators
for the two groups. Participants of different reading levels have different cognitive
processing levels during the reading processing, and the eye movement indicators canbe used as a means of detection (Rayner & Sereno, 1994).
Eye movement indicators can reflect cognitive process in the reading process, andthis is an important research area of psycholinguistics and reading psychology (Rayner,1998). Eye tracking sensors represent a human–computer interaction technique forrecording online reading behavior, showing eye movement indicators during readingand providing sufficient data support for the reading comprehension process. It can beconsidered as a tool for biometric measures (Aurora & Lorenzo, 2020). It was used torecord eye movement indicators in real time, going on to map the eye movement
indicators to the reading process that can effectively analyze the reading ability andprovide a variable with psycho-ecological validity for reading research (Keith &Charles, 2003; Liversedge & Findlay, 2000)
The reading process is the course of cognitive processing of visual information,and eye tracking is the most effective method of studying cognitive processing of visual
information (Hai, 2000). There is a definite corresponding relationship between reading
process and eye tracking (Mancheva et al., 2015); the eye tracking research method has
an important role and position within the study of reading process. Reading ability has
74a significant influence on reading process; however, there is no fixed standard for themeasurement or evaluation of reading ability. The study of the influence of reading
ability on reading process can be attained by studying the differences of reading ability
and cognitive processing. Reading ability is interrelated to the mode of eye movement,
and through eye movement indicators the cognitive process of the differences in reading
ability can be explained (Just & Carpenter, 1980). Through the study of eye tracking,we can understand the direction and times of eye movement during the process ofreading, which can then provide a theoretical basis for the proposition of reasonablereading teaching methods to improve reading efficiency and learning effects (Ikeda &Saida,1978; Balota et al., 1985; Wu & Shu, 2001). Many previous studies have focusedon researching eye indicators during the reading process, such as fixation-related
indicators, saccade amplitude, regression, and pupil diameter (Zhan, 2013; Zhan, Liang& Ma, 2014). Fixation-related indicators can best reflect the reading characteristics ofparticipants, such as number of fixations, fixation frequency, and mean fixation
duration. Saccade amplitude can accurately show the reading efficiency and cognitive
processing ability of reading materials. Regression can effectively reflect the processof reprocessing the reading materials. Pupil diameter’s change is closely related to
fixations, gaze, and other specific reading eye movements, which can analyze thepsychological changes in people’s reading process (Zambarbieri & Carniglia, 2012;
Rivas-Lalaleo et al., 2017; Krieber et al., 2016). Readers who have high speed inreading tend to produce fewer fixations when reading sentences and texts, along with ashorter fixation duration, a larger scanning range, and a smaller range of regression(Rayner, Slattery & Bélanger, 2010; Everatt & Underwood, 1994; Häikiöet al., 2009).
High level readers have shorter fixation duration and smaller regression count thanordinary readers (Ashby, 2005; Jared, Levy & Rayner, 1999). Rayner et al. (1994)
found that, as the difficulty of the article increases, the cognitive processing becomes
more complex and difficult. The saccade amplitude generally becomes shorter, while
the regression count increases significantly, and the mean fixation duration becomes
longer. Van Gerven et al. (2002) stated that, the greater is the effort in cognitive
processing, the greater is the change in scope of pupil diameter. Previous studies
provide a basis for explaining the relationship between eye movement indicators andcognitive processing in reading. However, at present, in regards to research on the effectof mind mapping training in reading teaching methods, previous studies mostly use
reading tests or questionnaires to evaluate reading ability or identify reading difficulties
75

(Marton & Booth, 1997; Bahareh & Abbas, 2015; San, 2013; Andriani, 2017), while
there are few studies on eye movement in the process of reading from the perspectiveof visual cognitive processing.
As indicated above, these assessments only present the results of reading
comprehension and cannot explain the real-time process of text comprehension, thus itis difficult to objectively measure and evaluate reading ability. As a step toward filling
this gap, to make the research more convincing and the results more precise, this study
adopted the method of using an eye tracking experiment to study the different eye
movement characteristics between the experimental group and the control group of
students in the reading process from the perspective of visual cognitive processing,which can then go towards explaining the effect of the association-based activities onreading ability.

5.2 Materials and methods
5.2.1 Participants
We selected 20 students from each group. All participants gave their informed
consent for inclusion before they participated in the study. Experimental group students
received creative pedagogy to develop their foreign language proficiency, mainly
consisting of carrying out association-based activities with mind mapping for 8 weeks.
After the creative pedagogy, the two groups of students participated in the eye tracking
experiment, which require them to read the reading materials that were the JapaneseInternational Proficiency Test N2 exam reading comprehension simulation test
materials. The number of words in each article is approximately 500, and the basic
frame is 16 lines × 30 characters. The reading article contains Kanji, Hiragana, andKatakana, ensuring a comprehensive examination of Japanese reading ability.

5.2.2 Apparatus
The experiment used the Tobii T120 eye tracker, which is produced by Tobii in
Stockholm, Sweden, with a sampling frequency of 1000 Hz and a resolution of the test
machine display of 1024 × 768 pixels. Figure 21 (a) is the Tobii T120 eye tracker, andFigure 21 (b) is the participant’s physical eye movement test.
76

(a)

(b)

Figure 21. Tobii T120 eye tracker equipment and eye movement test.
(a) Tobii T120 eye tracker equipment;(b) Participant’s physical eye movement test.

5.2.3 Procedure(1) Eye movement recording
Figure 22 shows the schematic diagram of eye movement data acquisition. The
procedure consists of the five steps.

Figure 22. The schematic diagram of eye movement data acquisition.

77

I. Give instructions to the participants about how to do the experiment. The
participant’s eyes and the Tobii T120 eye tracker screen always at a distance of 70
cm, which is approximately at a perspective of 30°.
II. Ask the participants to read four Japanese articles that are displayed randomly
on a PC screen, one after another. The time given for reading is unlimited.
III. Record eye tracking data during reading. The data of eye movement indicators
are imported into Tobii Studio software.
IV. Follow each article with two reading comprehension multiple-choice questions
and a requirement to write down the keywords and key sentences to measure theirreading comprehension rate and reading efficiency, which participants must do
immediately after reading.
V. Analyze the obtained eye movement data and reading comprehension data.

(2) Eye movement indicators
Among all kinds of eye movement indicators, fixation-related indicators,
regression count, saccade amplitude, and pupil diameter are the most reported data ineye tracking studies and recognized as primary indicators playing critical roles in
identifying students’ reading abilities (Zhan, 2013; Zhan, Liang & Ma, 2014).
Moreover, heat maps and fixation trajectory maps can provide an intuitive view of eye
movement indicators and visualize the reading process (Zhang & Ye, 2006; Beymer etal., 2005). Therefore, in this study, these eye movement data were used for analysis.
I. Fixation-related indicators
Fixation indicates the position where eye remains still for a certain time period(Chamberlain, 2007; Dong et al., 2018), which can reflect reader’s cognitive processingof reading materials (Holmqvist et al., 2011). Number of fixations, fixation frequency,
and mean fixation duration are all general fixation-related indicators. Number offixations is the number of gaze points while gazing at a certain area of interest (unit:
number); fixation frequency is the number of gaze points per second (unit: times/s);
and mean fixation duration refers to the average time that the eye remains still at eachgaze point of a certain area of interest (unit: s). Compared to reading simple materials,
78

reading difficult materials has significantly more fixations, and the fixation frequency
and mean fixation duration would be higher (Radach & Kennedy, 2004).
II. Regression countRegression refers to the reading process that move in the opposite direction to thereading materials (Chamberlain, 2007; Dong et al., 2018). The reason of regression eye
movement may be that readers have difficulty in understanding the article (Rayner,1998). Regression count is the number of regressions per second (unit: times/s).
III. Saccade amplitude
Saccade is the rapid movement between fixations (Chamberlain, 2007; Dong et al.,2018). Saccade amplitude refers to the distance at which the gaze point moves fromone fixation to another (unit: °/s). The saccade amplitude can reflect the amount of
information obtained in a single gaze, showing the reading efficiency and processing
difficulty. The longer is the saccade amplitude, the more information would be obtainedin a single gaze, making the reading speed faster (Irwin, 1998).
IV. Pupil diameter
Pupil diameter is an eye movement indicator used to infer the size of “cognitive
processing” and “cognitive load”, which is often used in the field of education (unit:mm) (Van Gerven, et al., 2002). The size of pupil diameter is closely related to thedegree of psychological effort in information processing. When the psychological load
is large, the range of pupil diameter will be larger (Heo et al., 2014; Bang, Heo & Choi,2014). In addition, it is also closely related to people’s emotions. For example, whenpeople see things of interest, their pupil diameter will increase (Heo et al., 2014; Bang,
Heo & Choi, 2014).
V. Heat map
Heat map representing fixation duration and fixation location have been shown to
be a better representation of visual processing (Henderson, 2003). It is a visual form
that displays visual behavior features by superimposing eye movement data of multiple
participants, thus reflecting the distribution of the visual trajectory and visuallydisplaying key areas of visual attention on the interface. In addition to representing the79

concentration trend and dwell time of watching on the same page, it can also express
eye movement patterns as they are superimposed on the same interface (Wang & Liu,
2018; Rayner, 2009). Figure 23 is a schematic diagram of a heat map. The focused area
is represented by a spectrum of red–yellow–green, with red showing the area of most
focus and green showing the area of least focus.

Figure 23. Schematic diagram of a heat map.
VI. Fixation trajectory map
Figure 24 is a schematic diagram of a fixation trajectory map. Circles in the fixation
trajectory map indicate the number of fixations; the size of the circle indicates the
fixation duration; and the lines between the circles indicate the saccade amplitude. By
examining the fixation trajectory map, the complete reading process can be observed.

Figure 24. Schematic diagram of a fixation trajectory map.

80

(3) Reading comprehension indicators
To measure reading comprehension rate and reading efficiency, each article wasfollowed by questions that participants needed to answer after eye tracking. Reading
comprehension indicators were used for analysis, which are divided into four aspects:
reading time, reading speed, reading comprehension rate, and reading efficiency (Zuo
& Yang, 2006; Bai, Li & Yan, 2008). Reading time refers to the time (in min) spentreading the entire article; reading speed refers to the number of words (words/min) readper minute; reading comprehension rate refers to the number of questions answered
correctly divided by the total number of questions; and reading efficiency refers toreading speed times the reading comprehension rate.

5.3 Results and discussion
5.3.1 Eye movement indicators analysis
Based on the statistical comparison in Figure 25, t-test was conducted (Table 7).
The results show that the number of fixations, fixation frequency, mean fixation
duration, and regression count were all significantly lower for the experimental groupcompared to the control group (number of fixations, t = 13.375, p < 0.001; fixation
frequency, t = −4.094, p < 0.001; mean fixation duration, t = 2.663, p < 0.05; regression
count, t = 8.062, p < 0.001). In terms of the saccade amplitude, the experimental groupwas significantly higher than the control group (t = −6.473, p < 0.001). The pupil
diameter in the experimental group was larger than that in the control group, although
there were no significant differences (t = 1.961, p > 0.05).

81

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

(e)

(f)

Figure 25. Statistical comparison of eye movement indicators for the two groups.
(a) Number of fixations; (b) Fixation frequency; (c) Mean fixation duration;(d) Regression count; (e) Saccade amplitude; (f) Pupil diameter.

82

Table 7. The t-test results of eye movement indicators for the two groups.
Experimental
Control GroupEye Movement
Groupt
Indicators
M
SD
M
SD

p

Number of fixations

250.9119.16

404.7047.78

13.375 ***0.000

Fixation frequency

3.60

1.19

5.10

1.12

−4.094 **0.001

Mean fixation duration

0.20

0.01

0.22

0.03

2.663 *

0.015

Regression count

63.15

11.80

90.00

8.94

8.062 ***

0.000

Saccade amplitude

5.06

0.93

3.34

1.01

−6.473 ***0.000

Pupil diameter

5.25

0.06

5.21

0.08

1.961

0.065

(Note. M–Mean; SD–Standard Deviation; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.)
These eye movement indicators can reflect the understanding and information
processing of the article when reading. From the perspective of fixation, a high numberof fixations and fixation frequency indicate the difficulty in interpreting the fixated
information (Ehmke & Wilson, 2007), and shorter mean fixation duration indicates ahigher work efficiency (Van Orden et al., 2001). As skills improve, more information
can be extracted around the point of fixation, making eye movements more effective
overall (Holmqvist, 2011). Readers who have difficulty in understanding tend to reread and have more regressions (Kuperman & Van Dyke, 2011; Rayner, Ardoin &Binder, 2013). Saccade amplitude can reflect task difficulty; longer saccade amplitudes
are more exploratory (Tatler, Baddeley & Vincent, 2006). Pupil diameter provides aquantitative index for measuring the psychological load of information processing andcan be used as an indicator of cognitive processing intensity. In general, the greater theeffort of cognitive processing is, the greater the memory load is, and thus the greater
the pupil diameter will be (Van Gerven et al., 2002).
The number of fixations and fixation frequency were lower in the experimentalgroup than in the control group. The number of fixations and fixation frequency canreflect the comprehension and information processing of the subjects, which indicatesthat the experimental group can understand the reading materials easily.
The mean fixation duration in the experimental group was shorter than the control
group. The length of the mean fixation duration is related to the semantic extraction of
the observed words. The mean fixation duration of the experimental group was 0.20 s,
83which can show that the main content of the reading materials can be extracted in ashort time and the reading speed can be improved.
The regression count of the experimental group was significantly less than of thecontrol group. Generally, regression is produced when there are difficulties and errors
in understanding the reading content. The regression count of the control group was 90
times/s, which could infer that there were some difficulties in extracting and processing
the information of reading materials, which requires repeated processing to achieve thegoal of understanding the content of reading materials.
Saccade amplitude can reflect reading efficiency and processing difficulty. The
saccade amplitude of the experimental group was significantly larger than that of thecontrol group, which indicates that the experimental group could obtain a larger amountof information from the reading material and had a higher level of reading efficiency,
while the saccade amplitude of the control group was small, indicating difficulty inprocessing reading materials.
The pupil diameter of the experimental group was larger than that of the control
group. This indicates that the experimental group paid more attention to the information
processing when reading materials, and their effort of cognitive processing was higher
than that of the control group. In addition, it is possible that, after the creative pedagogy,
the experimental group was more confident in their reading comprehension and had
positive emotions regarding the completion of the reading task. The difference between
the two groups did not reach a significant level, which may be due to the fact that thereading materials were not difficult and did not cause excessive psychological load oneither group.
The reason the two groups have the above differences in these eye movement
indicators is that the cognitive processing level of students with different reading ability
will be different during the reading process. The association reading activity with mind
mapping can effectively improve the reading comprehension rate, while reducing thetotal reading time, the number of fixations, fixation frequency, mean fixation duration,and regression count and increase the saccade amplitude and pupil diameter, which canhelp the students to complete reading comprehension more quickly and accurately.

84

5.3.2 Heat map analysis
The visual focused areas were compared by detecting the mean fixation durationand fixation location in heat maps. As presented in Figure 26, in this experiment, fourJapanese reading articles were delineated into two specific visual areas: Text Area 1(first specific visual area) — the area of the “keywords and key sentences” section —and Text Area 2 (second specific visual area) — the area of other parts.

Figure 26. Text Areas 1 and 2 in four Japanese reading articles.
Figure 27 depicts heat maps of all participants for the four Japanese reading
articles. For the heat maps of the experimental group, the red hotspot particles werelarge, and the hotspots were convergent, mainly concentrated in Text Area 1, thekeywords and key sentences, and appeared rarely in other parts of the material. In termsof the heat maps of the control group, the red hotspot particles were discrete, and thehotspot areas were less concentrated.

Figure 27. Heat map of the two groups in four Japanese reading articles.

The results are shown in Figure 28 and Table 8. The experimental group’s mean
fixation duration on Text Area 1 of four Japanese reading articles were significantly85higher than that on Text Area 2 (t = 6.543, p < 0.001). On the other hand, there were no
significant differences in the control group’s mean fixation duration on Text Areas 1
and 2 of four Japanese reading articles (t = −0.526, p > 0.05).

Figure 28. Statistical comparison of mean fixation duration on
Text Areas 1 and 2 for the two groups.

Table 8. The t-test results of mean fixation duration for the two groups.
Text Area 1
Text Area 2
Group
t
M
SD
M
SD

p

Experimental group

0.223

0.023

0.183

0.017

6.543 ***

0.000

Control group

0.222

0.032

0.224

0.034

−0.5260.605(Note. M–Mean; SD–Standard Deviation; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.)
The experimental group’s most focused areas were the keywords and the key
sentences, and the control group’s reading process was fragmented. The results showthat different reading teaching methods had different reading effects, and they affected
the students’ most focused areas on the reading materials. Through creative pedagogy,
the students could create associations on keywords and key sentences, establish
memory links, and use relevant hierarchical diagrams to integrate the language
knowledge in the reading materials (Bahareh & Abbas, 2015; San, 2013). The students
in the experimental group were able to grasp the keywords and key sentences forreading, which promoted the grasp of the structure and the understanding of the mainidea of the article. In the case of the control group, the students were taught in the
traditional reading teaching classroom, and teacher-centered teaching was conducted,
which did not require students to do the practices to find key words and key sentences86

in the reading materials. Thus, the eye movement characteristics on the heatmaps forthe two groups were also different.

5.3.3 Fixation trajectory map analysis
Figure 29 is the fixation trajectory map for all participants in four Japanese reading
articles.

Figure 29. Fixation trajectory map of the two groups in four Japanese reading articles.
Number of fixations and saccade amplitude results for the two groups are shownin Figure 30 and Table 9. It indicated that the experimental group’s gaze moved more
quickly and the number of fixations was lower: the average number of fixations of thefour Japanese reading articles was 250.91. The saccade amplitude was larger: theaverage saccade amplitude of four Japanese reading articles was 5.06 °/s. In contrast,
the control group read each sentence (from first to last) carefully. The speed of eye
movement between words and sentences was slow and the number of fixations washigher: the average number of fixations of the four Japanese reading articles was 404.70.
The saccade amplitude was smaller: the average saccade amplitude for the fourJapanese reading articles was 3.34 °/s.

87

(a)

(b)
Figure 30.Statistical comparison of the number of fixations and saccade amplitude on fourJapanese reading articles for the two groups. (a) Number of fixations; (b) Saccade amplitude.

Table 9. Number of fixations and saccade amplitude for the two groups.
Group
Article 1 Article 2 Article 3 Article 4 Average
Number ofExperimental group250.50248.70252.85251.60250.91fixationsControl group405.60404.95402.55405.70404.70

SaccadeExperimental group

4.95

5.15

5.15

5.00

5.06

amplitude

Control group

3.40

3.25

3.45

3.25

3.34

As mentioned in the t-test of Table 7, the number of fixations was significantly
lower for the experimental group as compared to control group (t = 13.375, p < 0.001).
In terms of the saccade amplitude, the experimental group was significantly higher thanthe control group (t = −6.473, p < 0.001). The results show that the experimentalgroup’s reading process was relatively smooth, and the overall grasp of the article was88good, which could save reading time and improve reading speed. On the other hand,the control group had some difficulty in reading the article, which would lead toincreasing reading time and decreasing reading speed.
During the reading process, people obtain information through fixations andtransferred the fixations through saccades. The saccade amplitude changed due to thedifficulty of reading materials. Saccade amplitude in fixation trajectory map indicatesthe skipping phenomenon. The greater is the saccade amplitude, the more words are
skipped (Hutton, 2008). However, in the previous studies, although saccade amplitude
data was obtained, little researches focused on the analysis on the skipping phenomenon.
In this study, we detected skipping reading rate for the two groups. During the readingof Japanese articles, when gazing, readers usually see between two and five (mostly
three and four) characters (Osaka, Koga & Nakazawa, 1993). In this experiment,skipping was defined as five words or more sight moving, or new line sight moving.
Figure 31 shows the proportion of the skipping phenomenon in the entire line of sightmovement data during the reading process of four Japanese articles in both groups. The
results show that the skipping rate in the experimental group was high, at almost 70%,
while, in the control group, it was low, at almost 30%. Skipping depends on the
difficulty level of the entire article; the lower is the difficulty level of the readingmaterial, the higher is the skipping rate (Hutton, 2008). It indicated that the difficultylevel of the reading materials for the two groups was different, and the two groups
showed different skipping rate. Reading materials were relatively less difficult for theexperimental group, which may be related to the creative pedagogy’s effects. Throughmind mapping, the attention and time used on the reading unit can be reasonably
allocated, and key points can be selected for reading to improve students’ reading
efficiency (Marton & Booth,1997), which will reduce the reading processing difficulty
and make reading process more smoothly to a certain extent. Therefore, the saccade
amplitude of the experimental group was larger, and the skipping rate was higher thanthat of the control group.

89Figure 31. Proportion of skipping reading in the two groups.

5.3.4 Reading comprehension indicators analysis
To further investigate the reading ability of the two groups, reading comprehension
indicators analysis was conducted. As presented in Table 10, the t-test results show that
there were significant differences in the reading comprehension indicators between thetwo groups. By comparing with the control group, in the experimental group, thereading time was significantly shorter (t = 6.075, p < 0.001); the reading speed wassignificantly faster (t = −5.674, p < 0.001); and the reading comprehension rate andreading efficiency were significantly higher (t = −3.035, p < 0.01; t = −5.822, p < 0.001).
The results further confirm the considerable reading effect of creative pedagogy,
which can save reading time, improve reading speed, enhance reading comprehension
rate and reading efficiency, and thus promote students’ reading ability to a certain
extent. Mind mapping can activate students’ reading skills to form a clear article
structure frame in head. It can clearly show the structure of articles, so that students canmore clearly understand and grasp the specific details of each paragraph and analyze
the structure and content of the article in detail. Through mind mapping, students will90

have a clear grasp of the overall structural context and layout of the article, as well as
deepen their understanding of the content of the article and obtain detailed information
efficiently. It can improve their ability to analyze micro-details of the article.
Table 10. The t-test results of reading comprehension indicators for the two groups.
Experimental Group
Control Group
Reading Comprehensiont
Indicators
M
SD
M
SD

p

Reading time

1.25

0.25

1.90

0.34

6.075***

0.000

Reading speed

250.9052.87

163.5230.89−5.674***0.000

Reading comprehension rate

0.81

0.14

0.66

0.16

−3.035**0.007

Reading efficiency

200.32

49.03

109.2638.67−5.822***0.000(Note. M–Mean; SD–Standard Deviation; * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01; *** p < 0.001.)

5.4 Summary
By eye tracking analysis, the reading process can be inspected in-depth. In thisstudy, we used eye tracking sensors to record eye movement indicators in real time,
which provides a quantitative assessment and data evidence of creative pedagogy’s
effectiveness on reading ability. The results suggest that there are significant
differences between the experimental group and control group’s eye movement
indicators during the reading processes. Their different eye movement indicators reflect
their different states as parts of the process of information input and information
extraction. Students in the experimental group were found to understand the readingmaterials more promptly, showing fewer fixations, fewer regressions, longer saccades,
and larger pupil diameter, which measured creative pedagogy effectiveness on reading
ability from the perspective of analysis data to evaluate the association-based activities
on foreign language proficiency more comprehensively.
This study only applied six eye movement indicators to describe and explain thereading process. It may give limited implication to the correlation between the
improvement of reading ability and the eye movement indicators. More eye movement
indicators could be considered for further investigation and verification, such as91

refixation rate, landing position, and first fixation duration. In addition, in future work,
we look forward to recognizing students’ cognitive and emotional status according totheir eye movement indicators in order to have a more comprehensive and in-depth
understanding of the cognitive process of reading.

92

Chapter 6

Conclusion

Content

・ Contribution
・ Future research direction

93

Chapter 6
Conclusion

Based on the findings obtained from previous researches and the practical lecture
analysis, we presented a future creativity cultivation model in the foreign language
classroom (Figure 32), which help students improve their creativity, including creative
thinking skills, foreign language proficiency and learning motivation.

Figure 32. Creativity cultivation model in foreign language classrooms.

Creative teaching method of association-based activities with mind mapping, a
topic on which there is little previous research in foreign language education, is thecreative pedagogy proposed in this study. This teaching method enabled students tostimulate divergent thinking through associations. Meanwhile, it enlivened theclassroom atmosphere to enhance their learning interest and foreign language ability.
This kind of teaching model has changed the past teaching methods that simply
explained vocabulary and grammar in foreign language classrooms, and filled the blankof creative teaching in foreign language education.
Moreover, in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the creative pedagogy, thisstudy used a combination of traditional methods evaluation and biometric data analysis
to optimize the evaluation method of creative teaching. Besides creative thinking testfor exploring students’ creative thinking skills, EEG investigation was applied for94checking their divergent thinking skills when they were doing divergent thinking tasks;
In addition to the language proficiency test for testing students’ foreign language
performance, eye tracking detection was used for recording their reading process toinvestigate their reading ability. The results showed that this combination assessment
method can provide more convincing evidence data for the evaluation effects. As wasshown in Figure 33, we presented a creativity assessment model that can be applied forthe future creativity assessment in foreign language classrooms.

Figure 33. Creativity assessment model in foreign language classrooms.

6.1 Contribution
6.1.1 Academic contribution
An important criterion for measuring the quality of talents in current society is thelevel of creativity. How to cultivate students’ creativity in foreign language classrooms
is an important issue in the foreign language education. The foreign language educationin universities shoulders the mission of cultivating creative foreign language talents.
This requires that students should not only be taught foreign language knowledge, butmore importantly, their creative thinking skills and pioneering and enterprising ability
should be cultivated to adapt to the development of society. The main academic
95contribution of this study is the construction of the creativity cultivation and assessment
in foreign language classrooms in the universities.
This study provided theoretical support for creativity cultivation in the field of
foreign language education in colleges and universities. Through the research andpractice of association-based activities with mind mapping, this study explored whether
it is suitable for creative teaching in foreign language classrooms in colleges anduniversities. The creative pedagogy that presented in this study can emphasize thesubjectivity of students, fully mobilize their enthusiasm and initiative in learning, andtransform their learning style from “knowledge accumulation type” to “knowledge
exploration type”.
Association-based activities in the daily foreign language classroom training can
get the simultaneous development of “foreign language understanding and creative
thinking”, “foreign language proficiency and learning ability”, and “foreign language
knowledge and enthusiasm for learning”. The teaching process was student-oriented,
which helped them express and communicate ideas and thoughts creatively and freely,
and to stimulate their interest in learning foreign languages and improving learning
effects. This creative pedagogy provided students with creativity-focused classroom
activities, so that students’ creativity can be fully developed. The EEG investigationand eye tracking detection experiments were used to verify the teaching effect, which
provided a more effective basis for creativity assessment. Overall, this study presented
a new way for cultivating students’ creativity, including creative thinking skills, foreign
language performance, and learning motivation, and provided an effective theoreticalbasis for creative foreign language teaching.

6.1.2 Practical contribution
At present, foreign language teaching in universities provides little space forstudents to carry out creative learning, which directly affects the cultivation anddevelopment of their creativity. This study explored the theory and practice of foreign96

language classroom teaching methods that promote the creativity development ofstudents, which emphasized on the combination of learning and thinking in teachingprocess. The association-based activities with mind mapping advocates heuristic andparticipatory teaching, stimulate students’ creative thinking skills and learning
motivation. Moreover, the effectiveness of this creative pedagogy was evaluated by
combining traditional testing methods with modern science and technology.
In foreign language education research and practice, exploring creativity
development methods and evaluation approaches can provide support and guidance forcultivating creative foreign language talents. By constructing a new type of teachingmodel and exploring its evaluation system, this study provided an effective reference
for creative teaching design and implementation of foreign language education. It is
hoped that it will be popularized and applied to foreign language courses in othercolleges and universities.

6.1.3 Original contribution to knowledge science
Knowledge science is a problem-oriented interdisciplinary field. This study set a
joint study area of foreign language education and experimental technology for carryingout creativity cultivation and assessment.
Pedagogical content knowledge is essential to the creative foreign language
teaching. This study discussed the construction and application of creative pedagogy,
which used association-based activities with mind mapping for the foreign language
classroom. This creative pedagogy created association atmosphere, cultivatedassociation situations, and encouraged students to use mind mapping for association
training. It supported and encouraged students to express novel and unique ideas, andcultivated their creative thinking skills.
This study also developed a set of teaching evaluation and assessment system totest the teaching effect produced by implementing creative pedagogy. The effectivenesswas mainly verified from three aspects: creative thinking skills, learning motivation,
97

and foreign language proficiency. The results indicated that association-based activities
with mind mapping is an effective way of creative teaching, which can help cultivate
creativity in university foreign language classrooms.
In addition, in order to further verify the effect of creative pedagogy, besides
traditional methods, this study proposed innovative creativity assessment of biometricdata analysis, including EEG investigation and eye tracking detection, for the creativeevaluation methods from the perspective of brain sciences. EEG investigation measured
the difference in creative thinking skills between the two groups students by comparing
their EEG signals. Eye tracking detection evaluated the impact of creative pedagogy on
foreign language proficiency by detecting their reading ability. Biometric data analysis
in this study was an innovation in creative evaluation methods in the field of foreign
language teaching, which can make full use of analysis data to verify the effectivenessof creative pedagogy.

6.2 Future direction
Although this study achieved its aims in both theoretical and applicational level,
certain limitations should be noted.
I. The creative pedagogy intervention was implemented for eight weeks. This
length of time was sufficient to investigate the effectiveness but was short to generalize
the results. Future research should be conducted with a longer period for the creative
pedagogy intervention, and the results should be analyzed further. In addition, all theparticipants in this study were second-year students who had a basic level of Japanese
language. For the students who had intermediate/advanced level of foreign language
learners, and who learn different foreign language, further investigation and verification
are required to confirm whether the creativity outcomes can also be achieved under thecreative pedagogy presented in this study.
II. The present study focused on the cultivation of creativity in vocabulary andliteracy learning. All five skills of listening, speaking, reading, writing, and translation98

are significant in foreign language teaching and learning processes. Future researchshould be conducted on the use of the creative pedagogy intervention on listening,speaking, and translation learning processes to see whether it results in morecomprehensive forms and methods for students’ creativity cultivation.
III. In order to provide biometric data analysis, this study conducted EEG
investigation on creative thinking skills and eye tracking detection on foreign language
proficiency. Although the sample size was sufficient to clarify the effectiveness ofcreative pedagogy, it is still a small number for the generalization of the results. In the
future, it is necessary to conduct the experiments with larger number of participants andto analyze the results further. Moreover, in this study, we haven’t applied biometricdata for further analyzing students’ learning motivation. In the future studies, we willconsider other signals to measure students’ learning motivation status in the foreign
language classroom. On this basis, we can make more accurate biometric data analysis
on creativity outcomes.

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Research accomplishment

1. The paper published in journal
Ting Liu, Takaya Yuizono; Mind Mapping Training’s Effects on Reading Ability:
Detection Based on Eye Tracking Sensors; Sensors; 20, 4422, 15 pages, 2020.
(Doi:10.3390/s20164422; Indexed by Scopus, SCI; Impact factor: 3.275; SJR Q1)
2. Conference proceedings(1) International conference proceedings●

Ting Liu, Takaya Yuizono; Developing Innovation Skills in Second Language
Education-CultivationofCreativity

andIntercultural

Communicative

Competence-; The 13th International Conference on Knowledge, Information
and Creativity Support Systems (KICSS-2018); pp.47-52; November, 15-17,
2018, Pattaya, Thailand.
●

Ting Liu, Takaya Yuizono; Eye Movement Characteristics in Reading Foreign
Language Text Based on Mind Mapping Training; The 5th International
Conference on Education (IICE Hawaii-2020); Oral presentation, January, 1012, 2020, Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.

(2) Domestic conference proceeding
Ting Liu, Takaya Yuizono; Proposal of Curriculum for Foreign Language
Education to Cultivate Creativity; The 40th Research Conferences of Japan
Creativity Society; pp.97-100; September, 11-13, 2018, Osaka, Japan.

115

Appendix 1

Association-based Activity Teaching Plan

116

Association-based Activity Teaching Plan
This practical lecture will apply a creative pedagogy that uses
association-based activities with mind mapping for the foreign language
classroom. Association-based activities are a learning process to select aknowledge as a starting point for associating related knowledge in the processof drawing a structure diagram, which could help students firmly grasp theknowledge they have learned, and help them to establish connections among
knowledge and perform a flexible transfer of the knowledge. As an effective
tool of associative thinking, mind mapping can help students to associateideas, develop creative thinking skills and potential. It can also facilitatecreative thinking through invigorating the classroom atmosphere during thelearning process. Association activities with mind mapping can encourage
students to think creatively.
1. Vocabulary association activity
Starting from the central word presented on the worksheet, students add
Teaching
Content

related words (phrases or sentences) around the central word to draw mind
maps within a given time limit of 5 minutes.
2. Association reading activity
Draw the mind map according to the central idea of the article, and use
association and continue to add more detailed information to the mind map
within a given time limit of 30 minutes.
3. Association writing activity
The teachers distribute some pictures that seem to be no relationshipamong them, and students are asked to write the keywords of each picture,
and associate pictures to get writing topic. Then, the students will draw mind
maps on the writing topic, and summarize the contents in order to write an
essay within a given time limit of 20 minutes.
In the process of drawing a mind map, students can use colored pens,pictures, etc., to highlight the key points, which can make the mind map moreclearly presented and impressive; After having finished the mind map,
students were encouraged to change and discuss their ideas according to theirdifferent mind maps.

117

The key words of teaching objectives are creative thinking skills,
Japanese language proficiency and learning motivation.
Objective 1 (After vocabulary association activity)
Remember multiple different words in the creative thinking processaccording to mind maps, and an inclusive language database is formed. In
addition, increasing interest in learning to develop good divergent thinking
habits and improve comprehensive vocabulary ability.
Objective 2 (After association reading activity)
Teaching
Objectives

Diverge students’ thinking on the article topic and add content to theirmind maps from different perspectives, to establish a clear foreign language
knowledge structure, and stimulate their divergent thinking skills in reading,which would carry out more in-depth language learning and application.
Objective 3 (After association writing activity)
Students show their ideas and some new creative content focusing on thewriting theme in the form of a mind map, and finally edit and adjust, outline
the structure and main content of the article, which encourage them to playwith association and divergent thinking in writing, turning a potentially boring
thinking process into something fun and interesting.
First week
Practical lecture 1: Vocabulary association activity 1: Associate vocabularies
with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 1 in the text book).
Practical lecture 2: Association reading activity 1: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 1 in the text book)
Practical lecture 3: Association writing activity 1: Based on mind mapping,
write an essay according to the pictures that were distributed by the teacher

Teaching(One of the pictures is related to Lesson 1 in the text book).

Procedure Second week
Practical lecture 4: Vocabulary association activity 2: Associate vocabularies
with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 2 in the text book).
Practical lecture 5: Association reading activity 2: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 2 in the text book)
Practical lecture 6: Association writing activity 2: Based on mind mapping,
write an essay according to the pictures that were distributed by the teacher(One of the pictures is related to Lesson 2 in the text book).
118

Third week
Practical lecture 7: Vocabulary association activity 3: Associate vocabularies
with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 1 in the text book).
Practical lecture 8: Association reading activity 3: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 1 in the text book)
Practical lecture 9: Association writing activity 3: Based on mind mapping,
write an essay according to the pictures that were distributed by the teacher(One of the pictures is related to Lesson 3 in the text book).
Fourth week
Practical lecture 10: Vocabulary association activity 4: Associate
vocabularies with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 4 in the
text book).
Practical lecture 11: Association reading activity 4: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 4 in the text book)
Practical lecture 12: Association writing activity 4: Based on mind mapping,
write an essay according to the pictures that were distributed by the teacher(One of the pictures is related to Lesson 4 in the text book).
Fifth week
Practical lecture 13: Vocabulary association activity 5: Associate
vocabularies with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 5 in the
text book).
Practical lecture 14: Association reading activity 5: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 5 in the text book)
Practical lecture 15: Association writing activity 5: Based on mind mapping,
write an essay according to the pictures that were distributed by the teacher(One of the pictures is related to Lesson 5 in the text book).
Sixth week
Practical lecture 16: Vocabulary association activity 6: Associate
vocabularies with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 1 in the
text book).
Practical lecture 17: Association reading activity 6: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 1 in the text book)119

Practical lecture 18: Association writing activity 6: Based on mind mapping,
write an essay according to the pictures that were distributed by the teacher(One of the pictures is related to Lesson 6 in the text book).
Seventh week
Practical lecture 19: Vocabulary association activity 7: Associate
vocabularies with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 1 in the
text book).
Practical lecture 20: Association reading activity 7: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 1 in the text book)
Practical lecture 21: Association writing activity 7: Write an essay according
to the pictures (One of the pictures is related to Lesson 7 in the text book).
Eighth week
Practical lecture 22: Vocabulary association activity 8: Associate
vocabularies with mind mapping (Select vocabularies from Lesson 8 in the
text book).
Practical lecture 23: Association reading activity 8: Write the reading material
into a mind map (Select reading materials from Lesson 1 in the text book)
Practical lecture 24: Association writing activity 8: Based on mind mapping,
write an essay according to the pictures that were distributed by the teacher(One of the pictures is related to Lesson 8 in the text book).

Teaching

LIU, L.G., & Gong, W., et al. (2016). The new classic Japanese basic course

Text book(Book 4), Foreign Language Teaching and Research Press.

120

Appendix 2

Association-based Activity Questionnaire

121

Association-based Activity Questionnaire
Dear all,Thank you very much for taking the time to fill out this questionnaire. The
purpose of this questionnaire is to analyze the impact of association-based activities
with mind mapping on your learning motivation.
This questionnaire is anonymous. All data are for research analysis only. Thereis no right or wrong answer, as long as it reflects your true thoughts.
Thank you for your cooperation and support!
Part 1: Single-choice question
Please select your opinion on the association-based activity with mind mapping
accepted in this semester.
1. Study in a free and fun classroom atmosphere• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree

2. Improve learning enthusiasm• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

3. Increase the fun of learning• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

4. Make learning content easier to understand• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

5. Improve thinking skills• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

6. Make language expression more clearly• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

7. Deepen understanding and leading to the acquisition of new knowledge• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree

8. Student-centered teaching• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

9. The knowledge learned in the class is impressive• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

122• Slightly Disagree• Disagree10. Active learning in the class• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain• Slightly Disagree• Disagree

11. Improve concentration in the learning process• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree

12. Enhance teacher-student interaction• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

13. A sense of accomplishment• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

14. Improve comprehensive foreign language ability• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree• Slightly Disagree• Disagree

15. Promote the formation of clear learning goals• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

16. Enhance learning confidence and satisfaction• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

17. Association-based activity will keep continue• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain

18. Association-based activity can be extended to other universities• Agree• Slightly Agree • Uncertain• Slightly Disagree• Disagree

Part 2: Free description section
What do you think of the association-based activity with mind mapping in theforeign language classroom?

Thank you for sharing your opinions with us!

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