Let’s Get Creative!

【Practical Report】

Let’s Get Creative!
Considerations for an English Creative Writing Module inJapanese Universities
Mark Guthrie
Organization for Promotion of Higher Education and Student Support, Gifu University

Abstract
The purpose of this report is to examine some of the considerations that must beundertaken when devising and redrafting an English language creative writing textbook forJapanese university-level ESL students. Through theoretical and literary research, this report
explores how activities and processes that are common in native English creative writing classes
can be adapted for learners who would be not only using a second language (L2), but who arealso unlikely to have experienced any creative writing education at all. A key consideration is how
this textbook can be implemented to use English as a medium of instruction (EMI) to teachcreative writing.
Key words: creative writing, fiction prose, scriptwriting, critical analysis, textbook production,
EMI

1. Introduction
Every autumn semester, the English Center at Gifu University offers an Advanced Writing
elective module, open to students of all departments. Previously, this had taken the guise of acontent-based instruction (CBI) curriculum focusing on essay construction, with grammar
development and error correction a key objective. Starting in the autumn 2023 semester, this willchange to an EMI creative writing class, for which the author of this paper will design and develop
an original textbook. The proposed textbook, Let’s Get Creative! will cover a fifteen-weeksemester and be divided into three five-week sections: story writing, scriptwriting, and criticalanalysis. Each section of the textbook comprises of three developmental lessons and two peer

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review and redrafting lessons. This report discusses how the story writing section—separated into
Unit 1: Genre and Plot, Unit 2: Exploring Character, Unit 3: Story Development—was developed,and what challenges were faced in its production.

2. Background Information
To assist in highlighting issues that Japanese learners might encounter when faced with acreative writing class in L2, this section will offer a brief insight into English writing educationin Japan, how students may or may not implement that learning, and how they may haveexperienced creative writing in the classroom. It will also discuss why creative writing is a useful
tool for ESL university students.
English and Creative Writing in Japan
English writing in Japanese education is almost entirely functional and based aroundgrammar and practicing textual understanding (Kamata & Guenther, 2013). Furthermore, as Japanbelongs to Kachru’s (1985) Model of World English’s Expanding Circle, students rarely haveopportunities to practice English outside of the classroom. This leads to a negative relationshipbetween anxiety and a willingness to communicate (Koga, 2010; Yashima, 2002) cementing
student impressions that skillsets are insufficient for communication. However, by the time they
begin university education, students will have had a minimum of six years of formal English
education, though when it comes to writing, it is unlikely that they will have had occasion to write
creatively (Thompson, 2013). In fact, not only is creative writing seldom-if-ever taught in English
classes, but it is also rarely even taught in Japanese classes, due to a persistent belief that writing
talent is innate (Madeen & Sugimoto, 2019).
Why Creative Writing?
Aside from test-taking and general classroom activities, many students may conclude that
English has little or no practical use to them other than for university entrance exams and thenreceiving university credits. To examine this supposition, the author quizzed 10 first-year
university classes about the percentage of English vocabulary they retained after studying foruniversity entrance exams. Despite having spent many hours memorizing vocabulary the previousyear, the majority claimed to have retained less than 50 percent. These quizzes were informal andin a classroom setting with a raising of hands, and are therefore not rigorous enough to bestatistically accountable. However, the results create the impression that for many students
English is something that is picked up when required, and then forgotten when it is of no longer
of practical use. Consequently, in order to successfully navigate—or even alter—this mindset,

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“what is needed in tertiary English education is to give learners opportunities to access theirknowledge and to produce English in meaningful contexts as often as possible” (Ike & Nishi 2013,
p 502).
This necessity could be considered the reason for the increase of EMI courses worldwide,with the number of bachelor and master’s degrees in Europe taught entirely in English climbing
from 725 in 2001 to 8,089 in 2014 (Wächter & Maiworm, 2014). Implementing classroom
learning through EMI, described as “an umbrella term for academic subjects taught throughEnglish” because there is “no direct reference to the aim of improving students’ English” (Dearden& Macaro, 2016, p. 456), can enhance the notion that learning is taking place within meaningfulcontexts, as students receive no evaluation of their language ability, and all consequences rely on
the application of skills that are learned in the classroom. In the case of a creative writing course,students produce a tangible body of work the like of which can as be witnessed in global culture,and though they will recognise the minimal likelihood of their work being reproduced in a societal
setting, they may recognise the practical uses of skills they gained better than the straightforward
memorisation of vocabulary and grammatical rules that they are used to.

3. Engagement
As “the chief obstacle to adopting EMI coursework at Japanese universities seems to be
the low English language proficiency of many Japanese students” (Strong, 2019, p. 3), the firstconsideration when writing a textbook that utilises work of this kind is that it must be applicablefor students of potentially low comprehension levels. This issue is compounded when dealing
with a subject in which experience is lacking in both L1 and L2, meaning that a variety oftechniques are required, starting with engagement arousal. Here, it is imperative that opening
activities are simple enough that all students can easily participate, no matter their level, boosting
confidence in students whilst gently guiding them into the topic at hand. As Barker (2018, p. 184)
notes, “Most students appear to believe that they have ‘failed’ at learning English […] so it is
crucial to persuade them that this new challenge is one at which they have a chance of success.”
As such, Activity 1 of Unit 1: Genre and Plot simply asks students to consider a story that theylike, Activity 1 of Unit 2: Exploring Character requires students to identify well-known
characters from Japanese popular culture, and Activity 1 of Unit 3: Story Development merely
asks students to think about their previous day in relation to their senses. To make therequirements unambiguously apparent, all activities begin with model answers (fig. 1).
Another consideration towards engagement is in how much of the vocabulary is directly
aimed at the reader, with activity introduction utilising first person plural imperatives such as“Let’s talk about stories”, and guidance such as “You will learn how to…”, phrases that are72

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intended to encourage the student to recognise their shared investment and development. This
steers away from the more abstract and disengaged language that can often be found in textbooks.
Furthermore, in initial drafts, key vocabulary essential to the subject of creative writing—such as‘genre,’ ‘character,’ and ‘common tropes’—were introduced through unwieldly explanations. In
the redrafting process, it was decided that these were likely to bemuse lower-level students, andso a glossary was added at the beginning of the unit. While this may go somewhat against thestrictest of definitions of an EMI lesson, it was considered a necessary step to ensure that allstudents were smoothly able to grasp key concepts and thus transition into the required skillsets.

3. Upskilling
Following engagement, the next step is to impart upon the students the requisite
information and skills to enable them to carry out the targeted aim, in this case writing a shortstory of their own creation. Crucial to this is a steady build up of activities that continually add tostudents’ understanding. This can be seen in Unit 2: Character Development (figs 2-5), whereidentifying traits in popular characters advances to the development of an original character,culminating in a full character description.
A further addition in later drafts was the inclusion of an extension activity, in whichhigher-level students are given more freedom to come up with character traits of their own,
something that would further develop their understanding of the process, though would
potentially be beyond the capabilities of the average student. These extension activities are laced
throughout the textbook to give teachers flexibility, something that can be a concern in unstreamed
classes in which English abilities fluctuate.

4. Putting into Practice
Scaffolding
According to Madeen and Sakimoto, (2019), Japan is the world leader in terms of “StrongUncertainty Avoidance”, meaning that by far and away the most important consideration whendevising a textbook for ESL learners of varying levels is instructional scaffolding, as championed
by Vygotsky (1978). This concept has inspired the most rigorous editing in the drafting process,whether it be the addition of example answers for all activities, or the reallocation ofbrainstorming and free-hand activities to expansion activities so that they can be replaced withmore structured activities and word banks such as Genre Activity 3 (fig. 6), and Character
Activities 1 and 4 (figs. 2, 4 and 5).

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Gradual Release of Responsibility
Also known as ‘I do, we do, you do’, gradual release of responsibility (GRR) is a strategy
that Buehl (2005, online) believed “emphasises instruction that mentors students into becoming
capable thinkers and learners when handling the tasks with which they have not yet developed
expertise,” and after the redrafting process, this has been utilised at the culmination of each unitof the textbook. For example, original drafts of Unit 1: Genre and Plot informed students of thevarious points of The Story Mountain (fig. 7), an adapted version of Freytag’s Pyramid (Freytag,1881), asked them to locate those points in the folklore tale Momotaro, before then instructing
them to develop a Story Mountain of their own. However, it was felt that this may be daunting
for many students, and as such the GRR technique was introduced by including Activities 5, 6and 7. In the first of these, students match the Story Mountain stages to plot points in Momotato(I Do). Then, in Activity 6 (fig. 8), they work with a partner or group to develop a plot from oneof two established beginnings (We Do), the use of two options giving students agency to develop
an idea in which they may have interest or possess knowledge, engendering greater engagementlevels. Finally, once students are accustomed to the task at hand, they are instructed in their
homework to develop a plot of their own (You Do).

5. Conclusion
The process of developing an EMI-based textbook teaching creative writing to Japanese
university-level students is far from straightforward. However, through the implementation ofestablished pedagogical theory and research into the development of original activities, combinedwith a careful observance of the language required to reach its diverse target audience, the belief
is that the production of a well-crafted textbook is well under way. The next step is to carry out
lesson trials in autumn 2023 and, should they be successful, put the full textbook into construction
in time for the 2024 autumn semester.
With the addition of an EMI-based creative writing course implemented within theAdvanced Writing elective, students will have the opportunity to not only build upon their Englishskills, but more importantly uncover new skillsets that enable them to use English in moremeaningful contexts. Furthermore, these capabilities may become established skills that aretransferrable into their native language, maybe convincing them that creative writing is not as
innate as it is sometimes believed, but rather it is in fact a teachable skill. In addition, having
gained new expertise in a second language, perhaps they will recognise that English is not simply
a tool to be discarded once they have received their credits, but instead a gateway into a newworld of abilities and skillsets.

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Appendix

Fig. 1

Fig. 2

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Figs. 4&5

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(d)

(c)
(e)

(a)

(b)

(f)

Fig. 7

Fig 8.

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