Creativity in the English
language classroom© Mat Wright

Edited by Alan Maley and Nik Peachey

www.teachingenglish.org.uk

Outside the Box
Being inside the box
was comfortable –warm and cosy.
We curled up
with cushions of routine,
wadded with words,
blanketed by books,
swaddled in certainties.
A bit stuffy perhaps,
and we sometimes felt cramped,
but never mind,
we were so used to itthat it felt normal –and, as I said,
comfortable.
Out here we are exposed,and cold winds blow.
We need to hold on tight,
keep our eyes open
for sudden snow squalls,
hidden crevasses.
It’s a precarious existence now –but here we can move and breathe,see clear to the far horizon.
And if we come to a cliff,
we know we can step off it
into empty air,trusting it to bear us up.
We have no fearoffalling.
Alan Maley

Nagoya, November 2010

Creativity in the English
language classroom
Edited by Alan Maley and Nik Peachey

ISBN 978-0-86355-767-5© British Council 2015 Brand and Design / F004
10 Spring Gardens
London SW1A 2BN, UK
www.britishcouncil.org

Contents
Foreword: Chris Kennedy............................................................................................................................................................................... 3
Introduction: Alan Maley and Nik Peachey............................................................................................................................................. 4
About the editors ............................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how
Alan Maley............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 6
1

Medium: companion or slave?............................................................................................................................................................14
Andrew WrightThis chapter focuses on the idea that a sensitive awareness of the characteristics and potential of themedia and materials available to the teacher can lead to ideas which are fresh, relevant and efficient.

2

Challenging teachers to use their coursebook creatively ....................................................................................................24
Brian Tomlinson
This chapter looks at how teachers can ‘open up’ the often closed activities to be found within coursebooks.

3

Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT......................................................................................................................................29
Carol Read
This chapter looks at children learning English as a foreign language at primary schools and how by using sevenpillars of creativity teachers can help students with limited language skills exploit their creative potential.

4

Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set.......................................................37
Chrysa Papalazarou
This chapter looks at how we can encourage creative thinking in the English classroom by using artful visual
stimuli and the Visible Thinking approach.

5

Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories............................................................................................................44
David Heathfield
This chapter looks at the role of storytelling in the classroom and shows how the language classroom is aperfect environment for teachers and students to tell stories about their own lives and experiences.

6

Teaching grammar creatively.............................................................................................................................................................51
Jill and Charlie Hadfield
This chapter looks at how applying creative techniques to grammar practice can motivate students bymaking what could be a routine and repetitious activity into something novel and exciting.

7

From everyday activities to creative tasks ..................................................................................................................................64
Judit Fehér
This chapter provides a range of tips for teachers to help them integrate creativity into their everyday classroom
practice and typical language-learning activities and exercises.

8

Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom....................................................................................73
Jürgen Kurtz
This chapter looks at how placing strong emphasis on communication as participation and on learning astransformation of participatory competence and skill, we can engage foreign language learners in increasingly
self-regulated improvised oral interaction in the target language.

9

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively.....................................................................84
Kathleen M Bailey and Anita Krishnan
This chapter documents a number of creative uses of images and objects by English language teachers who
have worked in under-resourced areas in several different countries around the world and describes creative
activities and tools that these teachers have developed, working entirely with free or very inexpensive materials.

Contents |1

10 A creative approach to language teaching: a way to recognise, encourage

and appreciate students’ contributions to language classes .............................................................................................98
Libor Stepanek
This chapter offers a practical insight into a creative approach to language teaching which has beendeveloped as a reaction to recent changes in, and the growing demand for, creativity, flexibility andadvanced communication skills in the current knowledge and communication society.
11 Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects.................................................................................................................. 104

Malu SciamarelliThis chapter explores some basic features of project-based learning, then shows five examples of mascotinspired projects with the fluffy toy Brownie the Bear and its friends. Based on these projects, teachers will
be able to create and elaborate their own original and creative projects with a mascot of their choice.
12 Creating creative teachers ...............................................................................................................................................................115

Marisa Constantinides
This chapter looks at the role of teacher training courses in supporting the development of teacher creativity
and helping new teachers to understand the importance of approaching course materials in a creative way.
13 The learner as a creativity resource............................................................................................................................................ 123

Marjorie Rosenberg
This chapter looks at how we can exploit our students’ experiences and use them as the basis for creative
language tasks.
14 Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes ............................................................................ 134

Peter Lutzker
This chapter looks at how story writing techniques can be applied within the younger learner classroom andhow this creative writing process can help to aid the development of language and thought and shape theimaginative and emotional life of a child.
15 Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context ............................................................................. 142

Phuong thi Anh Le
This chapter looks at the role of creativity within the context of a graduate level American literature
course being taught to EFL students in Vietnam. The activities focus on a reader-response approach to
exploring the literary texts.
16 A framework for learning creativity ............................................................................................................................................. 150

Tessa Woodward
This chapter looks at the established stereotype of the creative individual and provides a more inclusive
framework for developing our students’ creativity.
17 Drama and creative writing: a blended tool ............................................................................................................................. 158

Victoria Hlenschi-Stroie
This chapter looks at activities and techniques that can be used to encourage younger learners to engage
in drama and creative writing activities that will lead to greater linguistic, personal and social development.
18 A journey towards creativity: a case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state school ................... 165

Zarina Markova
This chapter looks at various ELT techniques for leading young learners step-by-step into a more creative
process, which would support a more product-orientated approach to creative writing.

2| Contents

Foreword
It is worrying in our market-driven world that,in domains such as politics, business, andeducation, certain concepts, and the words used
to express them, lose their value through over-use
or ill-definition. We can all think of such items andwe have our pet hates. The danger is that suchterms may be hijacked by public bodies and private
institutions which employ them as convenient but
opaque policy pegs on which practitioners, including
educators, are expected to hang their approaches
and behaviours. ‘Creativity’ is one such term, andUK government reports on the subject in the last few
years show the concept of creativity being used tosupport a particular instrumental political view asa means of promoting the economy, rather than asa focus for developing individual skills and talents.
It is refreshing therefore to see Nik Peachey andAlan Maley, the editors of this volume of articles
on creativity in ELT, adopting the latter focus on
individual development. They are not especiallyconcerned with defining terms, avoiding a narrow
definition of creativity which would be open tocontested interpretations. They prefer to present
a kaleidoscope of practical case studies to illustrate
what practitioners regard as creative. Readers may
then work ‘bottom-up’ towards their own meaning,
though the writers of the case studies do almost give
an implicit definition in their description of varied
activities that stimulate the imagination and resultin something new and of value to the individuals
and groups concerned.

Developing creativity is not an easy option andposes future challenges. It has been compared
to a muscle that needs the constant constraining
discipline of exercise to strengthen individuals’
innovative thinking and problem-solving. There isa tendency to devote time to its development withchildren and young learners, when it is as important
to extend its use to give positive satisfaction to all
ages. Finally, we need to consider ways of diffusing
good practice, and perhaps most important ofall, ways of integrating approaches across thecurriculum and across institutions so that the
professional innovations represented in thisvolume can influence not only ELT situations
but other, more general educational contexts.
I would like to end with an amusing but revealing
anecdote from one of Sir Ken Robinson’s talks
on creativity with which readers may be familiar.
A six-year old pupil in a drawing class said she wasgoing to draw a picture of God. The teacher said:‘But nobody knows what God looks like’. ‘They will,in a minute’, the child replied.
Chris Kennedy
March 2015, Birmingham

Foreword |3

Introduction
This collection of chapters on various aspects ofcreativity in language learning and teaching arose
partly from discussions at the IATEFL (International
Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign
Language) Conference in Harrogate in 2014, in thecontext of the newly formed C Group (Creativity for
Change in Language Education). A majority of thecontributors to the volume are, in fact, membersof the C Group.
The call for papers attracted over 200 proposals,from which we had the unenviable task of selecting
just 18.
It was the aim of the editors in sorting and selecting
these chapters to show that creativity isn’t somethingwhich is reserved for a specific part of a course or alesson, but that it is something which can and should
be integrated into every aspect of our classroom
practice and at every level of our learners’
experience.
The final selection comprises chapters which covera range of levels – from young learners, throughsecondary school, to adult and tertiary settings; anumber of geographical contexts worldwide – from
Brazil and Vietnam to Greece and Bulgaria; and anumber of different perspectives – from focus onlearner creativity, to focus on teacher creativity, andon the contributions which materials and teacher
training can make.

4| Introduction

This volume mixes contributions from a wide range ofauthors, from those with many years’ experience andprevious publications to those who have just started
their journey. We feel that this demonstrates thatcreativity in the language classroom isn’t limited tothe ‘gifted’ and ‘talented’ but is something that any
teacher can try to apply.
Creativity is an endangered species in the current
model of education, which is increasingly subject toinstitutional, curricular and assessment constraints.
We hope that this collection will serve to encourage
and inspire teachers to allow their creativity toflourish, and to foster it in others.
For more information on the C Group, see:
http://thecreativitygroup.weebly.com
Alan Maley and Nik Peachey

About the editors
Alan Maley has been involved with English language
teaching for over 50 years. He worked with the
British Council in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France,
China and India (1962–88) before taking over as
Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust,Cambridge (1988–93). He then worked in university
posts in Singapore (1993–98), Thailand (1999–2004),
Malaysia and Vietnam (2004–11). He is now afreelance consultant and writer. He has publishedover 50 books and numerous articles. He is a past
President of IATEFL, and recipient of the ELTons
Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He is a cofounder of The C Group.
Nik Peachey is an author, blogger, teacher trainerand educational technology expert. He has worked
as editor and consultant on many major web-based
language learning initiatives around the world andhas more than 20 years’ experience in the field of
ELT. At present he works as Head of Learning fora web-based language school and is a frequent
presenter at ELT conferences.

About the editors |5

Overview: Creativity – the what,
the why and the how
Alan Maley
Introductory chapters to collections like this usuallyoffer some kind of summary of the content of thefollowing chapters. I have decided against this.
Instead, I shall attempt to trace common threads
running through the chapters in this book. Many ofthese threads then feed through into the second partof this chapter, where I shall try to clarify what wemean when we talk about ‘creativity’, to explain why
I think creativity is important in language teaching,
and to offer some generic ideas for implementing
creative ideas within our practice as teachers.

Some common threads
There are quite a number of themes and beliefs
which recur right across this collection. I shalltake up most of these issues in the second partof this chapter.
Unsurprisingly, virtually all the chapters subscribe to
the view that creativity is really important both in life
and in teaching and learning a language. Creativity
is widely believed to be a ‘good thing’, enriching thequality of life and of learning – but these chaptersoffer a practical demonstration of how this belief
can be realised.
There is also a good measure of agreement that thecurrent educational ethos is damaging to creativity.
This is largely due to the increasingly tight curricularconstraints, the obsessive concern with objectives
to the exclusion of broader educational aims, theintense focus on testing and measurement, and thelove-affair with ‘efficiency’ expressed in statisticalterms and quick results – all of which characterise
so much of what currently passes for education(Robinson, 2001). The following chapters, directly
or indirectly, all propose ideas which seek to restore
a balance, so that creative teaching can find its
place in this otherwise hostile and increasingly
sterile environment.
Many of the chapters do not seek to define the natureof creativity, assuming perhaps that we all know it
when we see it. Those which do attempt to define it,
admit the difficulty of finding an inclusive definition.
Many of the chapters subscribe explicitly to the belief
that everyone has the capacity to exercise creativity,that it is not the preserve of a privileged elite. Whilenot everyone will have the big ‘C’ creative genius ofan Einstein, a Picasso, a Mozart or a Dostoevsky,
everyone can exercise what some have called little

6| Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how‘c’ creativity, which is inherent in language itself.
The chapters also demonstrate how creativity
extends right across all age ranges, all levelsof competence, all teaching contexts and all
geographical regions. And it applies equally toteachers as well as learners. Creativity is universal,
though its manifestations may be specific and local.
Creativity is widely believed to be about letting
the imagination loose in an orgy of totally free
self-expression. It is, of course, no such thing.
Creativity is born of discipline and thrives in acontext of constraints. It is therefore reassuring tofind this view repeatedly expressed throughout thecollection. The issue of the value of constraints bothas a stimulus and as a support for creativity will be
addressed again later in this chapter.
Related to the issue of constraints is the frequency
with which low-resource teaching environments
are cited. Many of the chapters amply demonstratethat we have no need of expensive and elaborate
equipment and technological gizmos to stimulate
the latent creativity of our students. In a sense,
the less we have, the more we make of it. And noclassroom lacks the single most important resource– the human beings who make it up, with their richly
varied personalities, preferences and experience(Maley, 1983; Campbell and Kryszewska, 1992). It isalso clear that creativity in the classroom does nothave to involve epochal changes. Even very smallchanges can bring about disproportionately large
creative benefits.
There is also broad agreement that creating theright atmosphere is central to fostering creativity.
Encouraging an environment of trust – between
teacher and class and among class members – isabsolutely crucial. Among other things, this implies
curbing the teacher’s impulse to constantly interveneand over-correct. There is an acceptance thatcreative effort and communicative intent trump
accuracy and correction in this situation. ‘Creative
thinking cannot be purchased, downloaded or
guaranteed but it can be fostered with the rightenvironment. Developing individual conceptual
frameworks for understanding and interpreting
the world also means encouraging individuals tohave the confidence to question and deconstruct
dogma and traditional views, to possess thecourage to make new associations without fear of
the opinions or cynicism of others’ (Greenfield, 2014).

Over time a learning community can come into
being, where co-operation, sharing and the valuingof others’ contributions become a natural part of theway things are done – what Wajnryb (2003) calls a‘storied class’.
There is a consensus too that teachers need to act
as role models. It is no good preaching creativity to
our students unless we also practise it ourselves.
If we want our students to sing, we must sing too.
If we want them to act and mime, we must act andmime too. If we want them to write poems or stories,
or to draw and paint, then we must engage in thesame activities as they do. If we want the bread torise, we need to provide the yeast. In order to do
this, we need to relinquish our excessively ‘teachercontrol’ persona, and become part of the group,
not someone who is above it or outside it. Stevick’s
words are relevant here too: ‘we should judge
creativity in the classroom by what the teacher
makes it possible for the student to do, not justby what the teacher does’ (Stevick, 1980: 20).
Another thing to emerge from these chapters isthe need for teachers to develop a creative attitudeof mind which permeates everything they do –not to regard creativity as something reserved forspecial occasions. This also requires of teachers an
unusual degree of awareness of what is happening
both on and under the surface, and an ability torespond in the moment to the unpredictability
as the action unfolds (Underhill and Maley, 2012;
Underhill, 2014). This kind of reactive creativity
complements the proactive creativity of the‘activities’ the teacher offers.
Clearly too, creativity is facilitated by a wide variety
of inputs, processes and outputs (Maley, 2011).
This implies that teachers need to be open to suchvariety, and willing to ‘let go’, and to ‘have a go’by trying things they have never done before.
A playful attitude and atmosphere seems to bea key ingredient for creativity (Cook, 2000). The
notion of varied outputs reminds us that creativity
encourages and facilitates divergent thinking, andfrees us of the idea that questions always have asingle, right answer.

The what
Creativity is a quality which manifests itself in manydifferent ways, and this is one of the reasons it has
proved so difficult to define. As Amabile (1996) points
out, ‘a clear and sufficiently detailed articulationof the creative process is not yet possible.’ Yet wereadily recognise creativity when we meet it, evenif we cannot define it precisely. For all practical
purposes this is enough, and we do not need tospend too much time agonising over a definition.
There are of course, some features which are almost
always present in a creative act. The core idea of‘making something new’ is at the heart of creativity.
But novelty is not alone sufficient for something to
be recognised as creative. We could, for example,
wear a clown’s red nose to class. This would certainly
be doing something new and unusual but it would
only count as creative if we then did something withit, like creating a new persona. It is also necessary
for creative acts to be recognised and acceptedwithin the domain in which they occur. They need
to be relevant and practicable – not just novel.
Sometimes creative ideas are ahead of their time andhave to wait for technology to catch up. Leonardo daVinci designed an aeroplane in the 15th century, but
before aeroplanes could become a reality, materials
and fuels had to be available.
Among the earliest modern attempts to understandcreativity were Wallas’ (1926, 2014) ideas. He outlined
a four-stage process: Preparation, Incubation,
Illumination, Verification. Given a ‘problem’, ‘puzzle’ or‘conceptual space’, the creative mind first prepares
itself by soaking up all the information available.
Following this first preparation stage, there isa stage of incubation, in which the conscious
mind stops thinking about the problem, leaving
the unconscious to take over. In the third stage,iIlumination, a solution suddenly presents itself(if you’re lucky!). In the final verification stage, theconscious mind needs to check, clarify, elaborate
on and present the insights gained.
Koestler, in The Act of Creation (1989), suggeststhat the creative process operates through thebisociation of two conceptual matrices, not normallyfound together. He believed that putting together two(or more) things that do not normally belong together
can facilitate a sudden new insight. This is anotheridea that we can put to use in the classroom throughOverview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how |7

applying the random principle (see below) to create
new and unexpected associations.
Bisociation was also one of the key principles of the
Surrealist movement in art, photography, music, film,
theatre and literature which flourished mainly in Parisin the 1920s and ’30s. But they also emphasised theimportance of the unconscious mind, especiallydreams, of playing around and experimenting, and ofseeing ordinary things from unusual viewpoints. They
also explored the creative potential of constraints:
one novelist (Perec, 1969) wrote an entire novel
without using the letter ‘e’, for example. There arelessons we can learn from the Surrealists too.
By contrast, Boden (1990) takes an AI (artificial
intelligence) approach to investigating creativity.
She asks what a computer would need to do to
replicate human thought processes. This leads toa consideration of the self-organising propertiesof complex, generative systems through processes
such as parallel distributed processing. For her,creativity arises from the systematic explorationof a conceptual space or domain (mathematical,
musical or linguistic). She draws attention to theimportance of constraints in this process. ‘Far frombeing the antithesis of creativity, constraints on
thinking are what make it possible’ (p. 82). Chaos
theory (Gleick, 1987) tends to support her ideas.
Boden’s approach is richly suggestive for language
acquisition, materials writing and for teaching, in that
all are rooted in complex, self-organising systems.
Csikszentmihalyi (1988) takes a multidimensionalview of creativity as an interaction between
individual talent, operating in a particular domain
or discipline, and judged by experts in that field.
He also has interesting observations about the roleof ‘flow’ in creativity: the state of ‘effortless effort’
in which everything seems to come together in aflow of seamless creative energy (Csikszentmihalyi,1990). He further explores creativity by analysing
interviews with 91 exceptional individuals, andisolates ten characteristics of creative individuals(Csikszentmihalyi, 1996).
Amabile (1996) approaches creativity from a socialand environmental viewpoint. She claims that
previous theories have tended to neglect the powerof such factors to shape creative effort. Her theory
rests on three main factors: domain-relevant skills(i.e. familiarity with a given domain of knowledge),
creativity-relevant skills (e.g. the ability to breakfree of ‘performance scripts’ – established routines,
to see new connections, etc.) and task motivation,

8| Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how

based on attitudes, intrinsic motivation, extrinsic
constraints and rewards, etc. The social andenvironmental factors she discusses include peer
influence, the teacher’s character and behaviour, theclassroom climate, family influence, life stress, thephysical environment, degree of choice offered, time,
the presence of positive role models and the scopefor play in the environment. These factors clearly
have relevance for learning and can be blended into
an approach which seeks to promote creativity.
There is sometimes a confusion in the relationshipbetween creativity on the one hand and discovery
and invention on the other. Discovery is about finding
something that has always been there – but was until
then unnoticed. For example, the phenomenon ofgravity was not created or invented by Newton: hediscovered it. By contrast, invention means bringing
something into being which had not until thenexisted. A new poem or a picture would be instancesof this – but it could also be extended to creatinga new recipe, or a new game, or a new way ofusing paper… Is discovery an instance of genuine
creativity? Perhaps it is simply a different aspect of
creativity from invention: the outcome is not a new‘product’ but a creative solution to a problem neversolved before.
This is related to the tendency to regard problemsolving and critical thinking as integral to creativity.
There is a good deal of overlap but before we treat
them as equivalent, we should be aware of thedifferences. Problem-solving may indeed involve
students in experimenting with multiple possible
solutions, in making unusual connections, acting
on a hunch, engaging with the Wallas model above,and so on. But it may also be conducted in a purely
logical, rational way which has little in common withcreative processes. In problem-solving, we are given
someone else’s problem to solve. In problem-finding,
we need to make an imaginative leap to perceive thata problem might be there to solve.
One issue frequently raised is whether creativity
can be taught. There are many, such as de Bono
(1969) and Seelig (2012), who believe that it can.
And there are shelves full of self-help books claiming
to teach us how to be creative in our lives and in
our work. What is certain is that creativity can betacitly learned even if it cannot be explicitly taught.
But unless we as teachers demonstrate our own
commitment to creativity, and unless we offer ourstudents a richly varied diet of creative practices,
they are unlikely to learn it.

The why

General factors

We cannot avoid it. The human species seems tobe hard-wired for creativity. Humans are innately
curious about their environment, which they explore
tirelessly. Put in a maze, we will find our way out, but
unlike rats, we are also capable of forming theconcept of a maze, and of designing one.

■■ Establish a relaxed, non-judgemental atmosphere,

Creativity is also necessary for survival. The historyof our species can be mapped with reference to key
creative breakthroughs: agriculture, the wheel,
writing systems, printing – a cumulative andconstantly proliferating series of discoveries andinventions. Without this creative capacity, we would
still be living in caves. Creativity helps us to deal
with change, and as the world changes ceaselessly,
so will more creative solutions be needed.

■■ Frame activities by creating constraints.

Linguistic creativity in particular is so much part oflearning and using a language that we tend to takeit for granted. Yet from the ability to formulate newutterances, to the way a child tells a story, to theskill of a stand-up comedian, to the genius of a
Shakespeare, linguistic creativity is at work. In
Carter’s words, ‘…linguistic creativity is not simply
a property of exceptional people but an exceptional
property of all people’ (Carter, 2004: 13).
In the learning context, creativity also seems tostimulate, to engage, to motivate and to satisfy in a
deep sense. Many of the chapters in this book testify
to the motivational power which is released when
we allow students to express themselves creatively.
Likewise, creativity tends to improve student
self-esteem, confidence and self-awareness.
This enhanced sense of self-worth also feeds into
more committed and more effective learning.
When we are exercising our creative capacities
we tend to feel more ourselves, and more alive.

The how
I will first of all suggest some ways in which we
can lay the foundations for a more creative climate.
These are important because creativity in teachingdoes not simply happen in a vacuum. We need tocreate favourable conditions for it.
I will then suggest some generic ways in which we
can develop creative activities – for students, forteachers, for the classroom and for materials.

where students feel confident enough to let go
and not to worry that their every move is being
scrutinised for errors. This means attending to what
they are trying to express rather than concentratingon the imperfect way they may express it.
Paradoxically, the constraints also act as
supportive scaffolding for students. In this way
both the scope of the content and the language
required are both restricted. By limiting what they
are asked to write, for example, students are
relieved of the pressure to write about everything.
■■ Ensure that the students’ work is ‘published’ insome way. This could be by simply keeping a large
noticeboard for displaying students’ work. Other
ways would include giving students a project for
publishing work in a simple ring binder, or as partof a class magazine. Almost certainly, there will be
students able and willing to set up a class website
where work can be published. Performances,where students read or perform their work forother classes or even the whole school, areanother way of making public what they havedone. The effects on students’ confidence ofmaking public what they have written is ofinestimable value.
■■ Encourage students to discuss their work together

in a frank but friendly manner. We get good ideas
by bouncing them off other people (Johnson,2010). Help them establish an atmosphere where
criticism is possible without causing offence. Thisimplies creating a ‘storied class’ (Wajnryb, 2003) –a co-operative learning community.
■■ Explain regularly how important accurate

observation is, and encourage ‘noticing’ things.
Encourage them to collect data which may be
used later: pictures, games, DVDs, videos,
websites, books and magazines… Students alsoneed to be encouraged to be curious and to follow
up with ‘research’ – looking for more information,
whether in books, on the internet or by asking
other people.
■■ Do not try to do too much. Take it easy. And be

kind to yourself (Casanave and Sosa, 2007). Try
introducing small changes over a period of time.
And allow time for activities and for talking about
them. Johnson (2010) among many others talks
about the need for the slow burn of hunches
and ideas.

Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how |9■■ Make it clear that what they do in the classroom

is only the tip of the iceberg. To get real benefit
from these activities, they need to do a lot ofwork outside class hours. Most of what we learn,
we do not learn in class.
■■ Do the activities regularly in order to get thebest effects. Maybe once a week is a sensible
frequency. If you leave too long between sessions,
you have to keep going back to square one. That is
a waste of time and energy.
■■ Be a role model. This means working with thestudents, not simply telling them to do things.
This is especially true for reading and writing
activities. If they see you are reading, or writing,they will be more likely to engage in these
activities themselves.
■■ Never underestimate your students. Their capacity

for creativity will astound you, if you can help them
unlock it.
■■ Make sure you offer a varied diet – of inputs, ofprocesses and of products (Maley, 1999). This
diversity helps to promote an atmosphere of‘expectancy’ (I wonder what will happen today?),rather than the feeling of ‘expectation’ (Here wego again. Unit 4…).
■■ As a teacher, apply the four golden principles:

acknowledge, listen, challenge, support.
Acknowledge the individuality of students whomake up the class group by showing that you
value what they bring to the group. Learn to listen
carefully and without pre-judgements to what they
say or try to say. Make sure that you provide theright level of challenge in what you ask them to do.
And offer support to them while they struggle tomeet that challenge. It sounds easy but of course,
it is not.

Some generic principles for developing
more creativity
My intention here is not to provide a set of ovenready activities but rather to suggest some principles
which can be used to develop various forms ofcreativity.

Use heuristics at all levels
By ‘all levels’ I mean that many of these heuristics(and others not mentioned here for reasons of space)can be used for teacher decisions, for developing
materials, for varying classroom routines, and fordevising student activities. It will be for the teacher
to decide exactly how a given heuristic is applied.

10| Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how

A heuristic is a kind of ‘rule of thumb’. Rather thanapplying a formula with a pre-determined outcome(an algorithm), heuristics work by trying things to see
how they work out. The ‘suck it and see’ principle.
Here are some examples of heuristics to try:■■ Do the opposite. This has been extensively

described by John Fanselow (1987, 2010).
Essentially, it involves observing the routines andactivities we consciously or unconsciously follow,
doing the opposite and then observing what
happens. Examples would be: if you always standup to teach, sit down; if you teach from the frontof the class, teach from the back; if you usually
talk a lot, try silence.
■■ Reverse the order. Here you would do things

backwards. For example: in dictation, instead ofgiving out the text at the end, you would give it
out at the beginning, allow students to read it thentake it away, then give the dictation; if you normallyread texts from beginning to end, try reading themstarting at the end; if you normally set homework
after a lesson, try setting it before; if you usually
give a grammar rule, asking them to find examples,try giving examples and asking them to derive
the rule.
■■ Expand (or reduce) something. For example,

increase (or decrease) the length of a text invarious ways; increase (or decrease) the time
allotted to a task; increase the number ofquestions on a text; increase (or decrease) the
number of times you do a particular activity.
(Maley’s books, Short and Sweet [1994, 1996]
suggest 12 different generic procedures,
including this one, to develop more interesting
activities/materials.)

Use the constraints principle
The idea here is to impose tight constraints onwhatever activity is involved. For example:■■ Limit the number of words students have to write– as in mini-sagas, where a story has to be told injust 50 words.
■■ Limit the amount of time allowed to complete

a task – as when students are given exactly
one minute to give instructions.
■■ Limit the amount of materials – as in a construction

task where each group is given just four file cards,
ten paperclips and two elastic bands with which tobuild a structure and write instructions on how toconstruct it.

Use the random principle
This is essentially using bisociation – putting two or
more things together that do not belong together
and finding connections. For example:■■ Students work in pairs – all the As write ten

adjectives each on slips of paper, all the Bs write
ten nouns. The slips are put in two boxes. Students
take turns to draw a slip from each box, making an
unusual combination, e.g. a broken birthday. Whenthey have ten new phrases they combine theminto a text.
■■ Students are given pictures of five people taken

at random from magazines. They then have towrite a story involving all five characters.

Use the association principle
This involves using evocative stimuli for students toreact to. For example:■■ Students listen to a sequence of sounds, thendescribe their feelings or tell a story suggestedby the sounds.
■■ Students are given a set of character descriptions

and a set of fragments of dialogue – they matchthe characters with what they might have said.
■■ Students are all given a natural object (a stone,

a leaf, etc.). They then write a text as if they were
their object.
■■ Drawing on their own experience, students

choose a taste, a smell, or a sound which bringsback particular memories.

Use the withholding-information principle
This involves only offering part of the informationneeded to complete a task. Jigsaw listening/readingare examples of this. Other examples would be:■■ A text is cut up into short fragments. Each student

has one fragment. They have to reconstitute thetext without showing their fragments to others.
(The same can be done with a picture.)■■ A picture is flashed on the screen for justa second. Students must try to recall it.

■■ Students find as many uses for a common object(e.g. a comb) as possible.
■■ Students have to find as many different waysof spending a given sum of money as possible.

Use feeder fields
Feeder fields are domains outside the limited fieldof ELT but which may offer insights of use in ELT(Maley, 2006). Examples would be:■■ Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) (Baker andRinvolucri, 2005).
■■ Multiple Intelligences (Gardner, 1985; Puchta andRinvolucri, 2005).
■■ Literature (Maley and Duff, 2007).
■■ The Arts (Maley 2009, 2010) – Music (Paterson

and Willis, 2008), Art (Grundy et al., 2011; Keddie,
2009), Drama (Maley and Duff, 2005; Wilson, 2008),
Clowning (Lutzker, 2007), Story-telling (Heathfield,
2014; Wright, 2008), Creative Writing (Spiro, 2004,
2006; Wright and Hill, 2008), Improvisation(Nachmanovitch, 1990).
■■ Technology (Dudeney and Hockly, 2007;

Stannard – see web reference below).

Use the full range of materials available
All the above principles can be used to devise new
and interesting ways of doing things. However, there
already exist a wide range of resource materials
which teachers can draw upon to augment theirown creativity. The list below offers a necessarily
incomplete sample of such resources. Some havebeen referred to above, others have not.
Arnold, J, Puchta, H and Rinvolucri, M (2007)
Imagine That!: Mental Imagery in the EFL Classroom.
Innsbruck: Helbling.
Baker, J and Rinvolucri, M (2005) Unlocking
Self-expression through NLP. London: Delta.
Bilbrough, N (2011) Memory Activities for Language
Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Use the divergent thinking principle

Campbell, C and Kryszewska, H (1992) Learner-based
Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

The core idea here is to find as many different uses
as possible for a particular thing or ways of carryingout a task. For example:

Clandfield, L and Meddings, L (2015) 52: A Year ofSubversive Activity for the Language Teacher. London:
The Round.

■■ Teachers find alternative ways to do some of theirroutine tasks: set homework (Painter, 2003), takethe register, give instructions, arrange the seating,
do dictations (Davis and Rinvolucri, 1988), etc.

Davis, P and Rinvolucri, R (1988) Dictation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how |11Deller, S and Price, C (2007) Teaching Other Subjects
Through English. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Rodari, G (1973) Una Grammatica della Fantasia.
Torino: Einaudi.

Dudeney, G and Hockly, N (2007) How to TeachEnglish with Technology. Harlow: Pearson.

Spiro, J (2004) Creative Poetry Writing. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.

Duff, A and Maley, A (2007, second edition) Literature.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Spiro, J (2006) Storybuilding. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Goldberg, M (2006, third edition) Integrating the Arts:
An Approach to Teaching and Learning in Multicultural
and Multilingual Settings. New York: Pearson.

Stannard, R. Available online at:www.teachertrainingvideos.com

Graham, C (2006) Creating Songs and Chants. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Grundy, P, Bociek, H and Parker K (2011) English
Through Art. Innsbruck: Helbling Languages.
Hadfield, J (1990) Classroom Dynamics. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Heathfield, D (2014) Storytelling with our Students.
London: Delta.
Helgesen, M. Available online at:
http://helgesenhandouts.terapod.com
Helgesen, M. Available online at:www.ELTandHappiness.com
Keddie, J (2009) Images. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Maley, A (1994, 1996) Short and Sweet 1 & 2.
London: Penguin.
Maley, A (2000) The Language Teacher’s Voice.
Oxford: Macmillan Heinemann.
Maley, A and Duff, A (2005, third edition) Drama
Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Meddings, L and Thornbury, S (2009) Teaching
Unplugged. London: Delta.
Morgan, L and Rinvolucri, M (1983) Once Upon a Time.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Painter L (2003) Homework. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Paterson, A and Willis, J (2008) English ThroughMusic. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Puchta, H and Rinvolucri, M (2005) Multiple
Intelligences in EFL. Innsbruck: Helbling Languages.
Pugliese, C (2010) Being Creative: The challengeof change in the classroom. London: Delta.

12| Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how

Underhill, A (1994) Sound Foundations. Oxford:
Macmillan Heinemann.
Wajnryb, R (2003) Stories. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Wilson, K (2008) Drama and Improvisation. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Wright, A (2008, second edition) Storytelling withChildren. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, A (2014) Creativity in the Classroom. Godollo:International Languages Institute.
Wright, A and Hill, D (2008) Writing Stories. Innsbruck:
Helbling Languages.
Wright, J (1998) Dictionaries. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

Conclusion
This book is intended to add to the growing demand
for more creative approaches to the teaching of
languages. The variety and stimulating content of thechapters which follow are testimony to the interest in
this direction in language education. It is our sincere
wish that teachers everywhere will find inspirationand encouragement to experiment for themselves.

References
Amabile, M (1996) Creativity in Context. Boulder,
Co: Westview Press.
Boden, M (1990) The Creative Mind. London: Abacus.
Carter, R (2004) Language and Creativity: The art ofcommon talk. London: Routledge.
Casanave, C and Sosa, M (2007) Respite for Teachers:
Reflection and Renewal in the Teaching Life. Ann
Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.
Cook, G (2000) Language Play, Language Learning.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Csikszentimihalyi, M (1988) ‘Society, culture andperson: a systems view of creativity’, in Sternberg, LJ(ed) The Nature of Creativity. New York: Cambridge
University Press.
Csikszentimihalyi, M (1990) Flow: The Psychology of
Optimal Experience. New York: Harper and Row.
Csikszentimihalyi, M (1996) Creativity: The Work andLives of 91 Eminent People. London: Harper Collins.
Csikszentmihalyi, M (1997) Creativity: Flow and thePsychology of Discovery and Invention. New York:
Harper Perennial.

Maley, A (2011) ‘Squaring the circle: reconcilingmaterials as constraint with materials as
empowerment’, in Tomlinson, B (ed) (2011) Materials
Development for Language Teaching (second edition).
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Nachmanovitch, S (1990) Free Play: Improvisation in
Art and Life. New York: Tarcher/Putnam.
Perec, G (1969, 1990) La Disparition. Paris: Denoel
and Gallimard.
Robinson, K (2001) Out of Our Minds: Learning to becreative. Chichester: Capstone.

de Bono, E (1969) The Five Day Course in Thinking.
London: Penguin.

Seelig, T (2012) inGenius: A Crash Course in Creativity.
London: Hay House.

Fanselow, J (1987) Breaking Rules. London/New York:
Longman.

Stevick, E (1980) A Way and Ways. Rowley, MA:
Newbury House.

Fanselow, J (2010) Try the Opposite. Charleston, S.
Carolina: Booksurge Pubs.

Underhill, A (2014) Training for the unpredictable.
TESOL Teacher Education and Development: Special
number of EJALELT 3/2: 59–69.

Gardner, H (1985) Frames of Mind: The Theory ofMultiple Intelligences. London: Paladin/Granada
Publishers.
Gleick, J (1987) Chaos. London: Sphere Books.
Greenfield, S (2014) Mind Change. London:
Rider/Ebury.

Underhill, A and Maley, A (2012) Expect theunexpected. English Teaching Professional. Issue 82,
September 2012: 4–7.
Wallas, G (1926, 2014) The Art of Thought. London:
Solis Press.

Johnson, S (2010) Where Good Ideas Come From.
London: Allen Lane/Penguin.
Koestler, A (1989) The Act of Creation. London:
Arkana/Penguin.
Lutzker, P (2007) The Art of Foreign Language
Teaching: Improvisation and Drama in Teacher
Development. Tubingen and Basel: Francke Verlag.
Maley, A (1983) A Roomful of Human Beings.
Guidelines, 5/2. Singapore: RELC.
Maley, A (1999) The dividends from diversity. Paper
given at Congres de l’APLIUT, Angers, France.
Maley, A (2006) ‘Where do new ideas come from?’,in Mukundan, J (ed), Readings on ELT Materials II.
Petaling Jaya: Pearson Malaysia.
Maley, A (2009) ‘Towards an Aesthetics of ELT’ Part 1.
Folio Vol. 13.2, December 2009.
Maley, A (2010) ‘Towards an Aesthetics of ELT’ Part 2.
Folio Vol. 14.1, September 2010.

Overview: Creativity – the what, the why and the how |13

1Medium: companion or slave?
Andrew Wright‘…a relationship between humans and the things
they create which is both a love affair and adependency.’(MacGregor, 2012)

Introduction
This chapter focuses on the idea that a sensitiveawareness of the characteristics and potential ofthe media and materials available to the teacher canlead to ideas which are fresh, relevant and efficient.
Examples in the chapter are limited to those media
which are probably available to the teacher even infinancially deprived areas.
The language teacher must help the students to use
the target language for purposes which they careabout. In this way, the students experience English
rather than merely studying it, and this helps to makethe language meaningful and memorable. With thisaim, the language teacher must first of all be an‘event maker’: events which the students want tobe part of.
Examples of the creative use of media and materials
in order to contribute to this ‘event making’ aredescribed and discussed.

Historically: a creative response
to materials
From the beginnings of time inventions have arisen
because someone has observed the potential ofa material which may have been consideredirrelevant or even inconvenient at the time. Only after
thousands of years was the sharpness of broken flint
noticed and its potential for cutting realised. It was
only realised in about 3500 BC that solidified dropsof copper in the charred remains of a fire might offer
the potential for casting metal tools and weapons.
In some societies the wheel was never invented
even though people had to dodge rocks spinninglike wheels down hillsides!

14| Medium: companion or slave?

Some authors have described how they conceive
the nature of their protagonists and then begin thestory and the protagonists almost write it for them.
Media and materials can be like living companions
for the teacher, creating new ideas and new waysof doing things.
I submit that most people use media and materials
in the way that they have been used to. Sometimes,
aspects of a material’s character are regarded asa nuisance (like a rock bouncing down a hillsideor having a very large class of students). It takes acreative person to see that a nuisance might be apotential for doing something never done before.

Language teaching methodology
My chief focus is on revealing the normally untapped
potential of common media and materials available
to the teacher. For this reason I am not giving many
details of classroom organisation. However, it isimportant to stress that we must maximise thechance of every student, even in a large class, taking
part. For this reason, pair and group work are very
important. For example: when you ask a question of
the class, normally say ‘Please tell your neighbour
what you think the answer is.’ Only when this has
happened, ask someone to call out their idea.
Methodologically, it is important to note that an
ingenious use of the media or materials is normallynot enough. We have to combine this with ways ofengaging the students. Broadly, ways of engaging
the students can be summarised by:■■ challenging them (to identify something difficult to

identify; match things objectively or subjectively,
group, order, sequence and remember things)■■ inviting them (to hypothesise, create and share)■■ showing you care about the content of theircontribution more than the language forms.
For more on ways of creating engaging events in theclassroom, see Ur and Wright (1992); Wright et al.
(2006); and Wright (2014).

In the remaining part of the chapter, ideas for using
commonly occurring media and materials in a fresh
way are combined with ways of challenging or
inviting students to respond. The media andmaterials are in five sections:■■ the language teacher as a resource■■ the students■■ the classroom■■ the school■■ the neighbourhood.

The language teacher as a resource
The first medium and resource is the teacher!
I fully appreciate and respect that there are special
conventions of behaviour and of relationships inthe classroom in each culture. Furthermore, thereis the question of the teacher’s own nature andpersonality. Each reader must, of course, find theirown way related to their own nature and to their local
conventions. At the same time, I think it is reasonable
to say that ‘creativity’, by definition, means new ideas
and a fresh way of doing things!

■■ Be driven, above all, by using your voice tohelp the listeners to hear the words you aresaying and to understand them and to understandthe added feeling implied by the way you use
your voice. Some people are driven by the wish
to sound authoritative and they tend to bark theirwords, and let their intonation fall at the end of
every sentence. Others want to sound light andinteresting and speak in a lighter voice, using alilting pattern of rise and fall. Others just articulate
the words and hope the listeners will understand.
I believe we should use the potential of our voice
to articulate clearly and expressively, each partof every sentence.
■■ Speaking in sense chunks/related to the content/

but also to the ability of the listeners/to grasp thecontent/is the most important skill/in myopinion.//Sense chunking/does not necessarily
follow/written punctuation.//The length of thepause/between each sense chunk/can be shown/with an oblique stroke/as in this paragraph.
■■ Stress and pitch, volume and pace each havetheir important part to play.
■■ The quality of one’s voice, whether it is hard

Voiceor soft, positive or uncertain, is important.

We all recognise the heartfelt complaint of theperson who says, ‘It’s not what she said that hurt
me! It’s the way she said it!’ Central to our dailyexperience though this experience is, little attention
is given to the use of the voice in language teacher
training. The focus for language teachers is on thewords themselves, not on the way they are spoken.

■■ And, of course, how your voice works in harmony

The teacher can significantly increase
communicative clarity and expressiveness by giving
more value to the characteristics of the voice as arich medium rather than a mere articulating device
for words. For an actor the voice is subject to a
lifetime of training. Here are just a few indicationsof what a teacher can do in order to use his or her
voice more effectively:■■ For more on the use of the voice in languagewith your body is important.
■■ A sensitive and appropriate use of the characterof the voice can transform a communication fromthe plain to the memorable. A great example?
The speech by Martin Luther King, ‘I have a
dream!’ (Luther King, 1963).
teaching, see Maley (2000).

Body
Just as actors study and develop the use of their
voices over their lifetime so do actors, clowns, opera
singers and mime artists work on the communicative
power of their bodies. There are some things weteachers can do in order to make more effective
communicative use of our bodies.

Medium: companion or slave? |15

For a number of years I toured as a storyteller inschools in about 30 countries. Working in Europe,
I did six lessons a day in every school and in theevenings drove to the next school to be ready forthe next day. I became very used to walking into aclassroom with two or three classes waiting for me…
60 to 90 children… sometimes more and sometimes
less. I learned that my job started the moment thechildren saw me. How I walked into the classroom
affected them. Any hesitancy, any tension, any
self-doubt would be picked up within an instant(Gladwell, 2006).
The old fashioned idea of a good posture certainly
affects people, positively. Walking firmly, but notshowing any sign of pressure… no uncertainty. Being
firm with how I want the children to be arranged,
being firm without tension, good-naturedly conveyingthat I know what I want: slow, slightly ‘heightened’
gestures… indicating, ‘Settle down’, ‘Stop speaking’,‘Can I help you?’ etc.
Slowing down and slightly simplifying andheightening movement seems to have a powerful
effect and creates acceptance of your leadership,readiness to be involved, to give and to share aswell as to listen.
Body language is also a powerful communicator ofmeaning and expression while you explain things orwhile you tell stories. Small movements allow me, as
an old man, to represent a young woman, a baby oran elephant or a butterfly. Awareness of the mediumof my body creates a vividness of experience in mylisteners’ (and viewers’) imaginations. Body language
is, of course, a traditional part of an actor’s and amime’s expressive form of communication.
Just as the voice can be used to increase the clarityof our speaking and the expressiveness of what weare saying, so can the body support the grasping of
meaning and add qualities of association, making theimpact richer and more meaningful and memorable.
The body is a largely untapped medium in theclassroom. Lutzker (2007) among others has drawn
attention to the effects of incorporating clowning in
training programmes.

Life experiences
I do understand that some teachers, in somecontexts, might feel reticent about sharing stories
from their life experiences with their students.
However, doing so can be extremely powerful andcan lead to the students being willing to reciprocate.

16| Medium: companion or slave?

What a way of making language meaningful andmemorable! These are rich assets in materially
impoverished classrooms and as rich and importantas any in materially fortunate classrooms! If you
have not used this immense resource yourself,then here are a few tips:■■ Don’t feel you have to have climbed Mount

Everest in order to have a story to share! Losing
your house keys, having a snake come into yourhouse, having a bad dream and worrying about
your grandmother are perfect subjects,
depending on the age and concerns of yourstudents, of course.
■■ What is a good story? Above all the story needs

someone for the students to identify with, then aproblem that person has, and then the struggles
to overcome that problem and then a happy oran unhappy end. Details are important so thestudents can see, hear and sense the people
and place you are talking about. Stories can bebased on fact or be fiction.
■■ Perhaps finish the story with a question – nota comprehension question, but a real question
about what the students think about what
happened, what you did and thought, and ifanything like that ever happened to them.
■■ In my, very strongly held, opinion, it is wrong tofollow up a real story which you care about with
old-fashioned, sterile comprehension questions.
Work of this kind immediately devalues yourperceived intention of human sharing.

Pets
Here is an unusual example in order to demonstratethat any medium or material is potentially useful inthe classroom!
Recently, a teacher in my school was unable totake her lesson with a class of five- to six-year-olds.
They had been ‘doing prepositions’ in the last lesson.
What could I do to make prepositions ‘come alive’
and without any time for preparation? Toffee, oneof our dogs, is small with white curly hair. He loves
children and children love him. I left him outside theclassroom door. I told the children that the classroom
was a giant’s house and I acted out a giant to teachthem the word. I showed them my table and chair.
‘This is the giant’s chair and this is the giant’s table.
Where is the giant? Is he in the room? No, he isn’t.
He’s walking in the garden.’ I pointed through thewindow and acted out the giant.

Then, I told them that Toffee was outside andwanted to come in. ‘Call, Toffee! Toffee! Come in!’
The children called, ‘Toffee! Toffee! Come in!’ Toffee
came in, wagging his tail. The children had made adelightful dog come into the room by using English!
Then I said, ‘Toffee is walking towards the giant’stable. Say, Toffee! Walk towards the giant’s table!’
So the children all called to Toffee to walk towards
the table.
In the sequence, Toffee came into the classroom,
walked towards the table, walked under the table,
between the legs of the table, around the chair andonto the chair. He then fell asleep, on the chair. Whenhe didn’t do these things immediately it was perfectfor ‘classroom drilling of the appropriate forms’!
Then, I said, ‘Oh! The giant’s coming!’ And I got all thechildren to stamp their feet in unison. For a giant you
need as many feet as possible – that is when bigclasses are better than small classes (a class, like adog, is a medium; a characteristic of a big class is thepotential for a lot of noise which can be bad or good,
and a characteristic of a small dog is delight).
Toffee was tired by this time so I asked a child to act
out his part in the story and we re-enacted it. Someparents came and we re-enacted it again and Toffee
was the star. He had been just a dog but now he wasa medium or ‘material’ which made language live,
meaningfully and memorably.
We also used Toffee in a class of 20- to 30-year-olds,
at elementary level. The students had spent a largepart of the lesson interviewing each other, and at theend of the lesson my wife, Julia, told the class thatthey could interview Toffee. She put him on a chairand he looked at the class with interest, head on one
side and smiling. The class asked him questions andJulia interpreted for him!
Seeing the potential in a dog is seeing the potential
in any medium or material which is around you andperhaps, unused, not even considered.

The students
Yes, a big class has its problems. Yes, it’s difficult
to help each individual student and to give them
the focused attention they each need. At the sametime, a large class offers some possibilities a smallerclass cannot. In the media selected in this section
the size of the class is seen as a potential strength.
When singing, how much more powerful, moving
and memorable 100 students are than 15! Carryingout surveys has far more significance with large
numbers!

Drama, stories, music, song, chants, poetry
and dance
How deep the expressive arts go, in our beings, as
humans! And, in some societies, these expressive
arts are central to the nature of daily life, outside theschool. In some visits to countries in Africa I haveseen prime ministers and archbishops start to dance!
On one outing, with a coachload of teachers in Sierra
Leone, we came to a village which was celebrating.
Then, I learned that every single teacher among mycolleagues was a drummer, as well as a dancer! Whata resource! But there is no mention of this resource
in normal language teacher training!
Not to use this deep, rich, relevant and free resource
in language teaching is a tragic waste! I once had
about 150 students. I divided them into two groups:
one group said ‘Good’ and the other group said
‘morning’ and then the whole group chanted‘Good morning to you’, with rhythm and goodwill.
What power! What working together! What amemorable sound! What a positive start to thelesson! Cost? Nothing!
‘Jazz chants’, most notably pioneered and developed
by Carolyn Graham, take the idea further than‘Good morning’! Her chants embody functions andgrammatical items galore: perfect for large classes
and especially for classes in cultural areas wheresong, chant and dance are central to their way of life
(Graham, 1978, 2006).

Writing poetry
Poetry means a heightened use of language indescribing ideas and feelings. The easiest and mostrewarding writing of poetry is based on the simple
repetition of sentence patterns. You give them thepatterns and they compose their poems and thenwalk around and tell them to at least 20 otherstudents: speaking and listening: intense, meaningful
and memorable!
Every dayEvery day, I get up at 6 o’clock.
I get dressed and eat my breakfast.
I walk to school.
I work and talk to my friends.
Today!
Today is Saturday!
I am lying in bed!
I am listening to music!
For more on writing poetry see Maley (1989).

Medium: companion or slave? |17

Hypnogogic imagery, ‘seeing in
the imagination’
The majority of people have the ability to see
pictures in their imagination, usually with their eyes
closed. Some can see their inner images even with
their eyes open. William Blake, the English writerand artist, saw angels sitting in a tree. Hypnogogic
imagery is a rich resource, rarely tapped into in the
English lesson. Here are a few summaries of activities
which you might try out.
You hold up or describe an old key. The students
close their eyes. You ask questions about what they
can see and later hear and smell. They don’t callout their answers but just look in their imaginations.
Here are some of the questions you might ask:■■ This key is for a door. Is it an old door or a

new door?
■■ Is it big or normal in size or small?
■■ What is the door made of?
■■ What does the wall around the door look like?
■■ What is it made of?

Drama and mime
Acting out dialogues, given in a student’s book,
is a well-established language classroom activity.
However, creative acting and creative mime is not
so common and represents a huge potential for
emotional involvement that is a meaningful andmemorable use of language.

Miming animals, emotions, objects, jobs■■ Students take it in turns to act out an animal,

an emotion, an object or a job, etc. The otherstudents call out their ideas. Vocabulary practice!

Miming tense forms■■ Students, by themselves, or in pairs, take it inturns to act out particular tense forms. The
other students call out their interpretations. A
meaningful and memorable focus on tense forms!
For more on the vast area of drama in language
development, see Susan Hillyard (susanhillyard.
blogspot.com.ar). Also see the classic book in thisarea (Maley and Duff, 2005).

■■ You put the key in the lock and open the door.

What can you see? What can you hear?
■■ Now close the door and when you are ready, open

your eyes. Ask your neighbour what he or she saw
and heard, etc.
Then, you might question some individual students
in the class. Push them with your questions to
describe what they saw and heard, in great detail.
For example:■■ You saw a table in the room. Tell me about it.

Was it a big or a small table? What was it madeout of? What colour was it? Was there anything on
the table?

Writing or just inventing an imaginary
situation or journey
Launch this activity by preparing an imaginary
situation or journey yourself.
■■ Ask the students to close their eyes. Read yourdescription slowly and clearly.
■■ Now ask the students to each prepare a short text

which they can then read out to their neighbour
or group member, who listens with their eyes shut.
■■ If the students enjoy this then their texts cannot

be thrown away! They must be kept and publishedor made available for use in another class. And if
you tell them this is going to happen, there is areason for getting the grammar and punctuationand spelling perfect!

18| Medium: companion or slave?

Stories, legends, and proverbs and personaland family anecdotes
It is often the case that financially deprived partsof the world are rich in traditional stories, legends
and proverbs. And every family is rich in personal
anecdotes. Stories are a huge potential for language
use in the classroom and then in future life when
English is used as an international language. People
must not only transact with English but represent
themselves as characterful human beings. Whatbetter way than telling stories? This is a freeresource, which the students care about, providing
teachers don’t dominate it, with a concern for
accuracy!
For more on stories and storytelling and story
writing, see Heathfield (2014); Wright (1997);
Wright (2008); Wright and Hill (2008).

Stories from imagination
The students can create an imaginary soap operawith locality and people who live there. Once
invented, the information cannot change except
through dramatic events. The people can be drawn,
or be made out of clay or wood. During the first few
weeks of learning the people can be named, givenages, jobs, likes and dislikes, etc. At higher language
proficiency levels they can have more subtle
relationships and take part in more complicatedsituations.

The community can be realistic or fantasy or a
mixture. Imagine a swarm of strange monsters
invading the community. Students can describe
the colours, shapes, features, numbers, andcharacteristics and behaviour of them! And what
they did and what the community did! Such an
imaginary community can be created in the firstfew weeks of learning.

The classroom
Noises■■ Ask the students to make themselves comfortable

and to close their eyes. Ask them to listen andto try to identify all the noises they can hear.
■■ After a few minutes, tell them to open theireyes and to share with their neighbour what
they heard, and then to another pair of students
and do the same. Then, have a class sharing.
This activity is peaceful and calming but it also
provides a natural context for the use of simple andcontinuous past forms of actions, e.g.: ‘Somebody
dropped a book. Somebody was whispering. A car
drove past the school. A bird was singing’.

Walls
If you use the same classroom for every lesson then
the walls become very important. You can build up
on them a vast picture dictionary of words andphrases related to the events you have been creatingwith the students during your lessons. The pictures
can be on paper, of course, but they can also be
drawn directly on the wall. Re-assure the school
director. The wall can be whitewashed at the end of
the year! I have drawn and painted pictures on mud
walls in Nubia. The pigment I used was made fromgrinding local, soft stones and mixing it with water,
but egg yolk would have been better. No evidenceof this enterprise is left, I am sorry to say: it is now
under the Aswan Dam.
Reading from left to right: actions in the past can beon the wall on your left, in the present on the backwall of the class and in the future on the right. Points
in time are no longer an abstract and immaterial
concept but physically there. A time line can be
drawn around the room.

What can you see through the window?
The teacher (or a student) stands by a window in theclassroom. If the students cannot see through thewindow from their sitting position, the teacher asks
questions. If the students can’t see, then it is achallenge to their memories.
Teacher: If you stand by the window and lookthrough it, what can you see? You walk on thatstreet everyday: what is there?
Students: A street. Shops.
Teacher: What sort of shops?
Students: There is a grocery shop.
Teacher: And next to the grocery shop?
Students: I think there’s a greengrocer’s shop.

Hiding somewhere through the window
The teacher or a student says ‘I am hiding in theschool/town. Where do you think I am hiding? You’ve
got twenty questions’. This provides good practicefor asking questions and for the use of prepositions
and places. (The hiding person should write down
where they are hiding before starting the game.)
Are you in the town hall?
No, I’m not.
Etc.

Using the windows for shadow theatre
If you cover the window with paper or with a white
sheet, you can then use it as a shadow theatre if thestudents can safely stand outside the window – forexample, the ground floor or a balcony. Small groupsof students work out a play and then perform it
outside the window, the sun casting their shadowson the paper or sheet. The students can make anduse card puppets held and moved on sticks.
Benefits from the activity:■■ engaging■■ fun■■ using English for real purposes in creating thestory, rehearsing and performing.

Medium: companion or slave? |19

A cotton sheet fixed to a wooden frame can also be
used for shadow theatre: it is more convenient than
the window!

Clouds seen through the window
Finding pictures in clouds, fire or patches on walls is
an old idea.

Paper is happy to be folded!
Here is one of my favourite examples, created bya teacher in Germany. ‘He is going to make himself
invisible.’ ‘He is making himself invisible.’ ‘He’s madehimself invisible.’ You can show all three pictures
together or fold them to show just one picture.

‘I think it’s a dragon. That’s its head. These are its
legs’ etc.
You can also make Rorschach inkblots and ask
students to interpret them.

Materials
Paper and card
In most parts of the world paper is supplied in theinternational paper sizes. We normally use A4 paper
in computer printouts and in photocopying. When we
use A4 paper for making notes we normally start
writing at the top and work to the bottom. Nothing
wrong with that!
However, the nature of paper is that we can do otherthings with it. We can turn it round and write on it
horizontally.
Here is an extreme idea, invented by a student aged
14 in one of my classes:■■ He wrote a story on a piece of A4 paper and thencrumpled it into a ball. Bits of the writing could
be seen.

Illustrations in this paper are by Andrew Wright

The students make these ‘tense form cards’ andtake it in turns to show them to the class. What aconcentrated grammar focus practice! Timeconsuming? Meaningful and memorable!
And the idea comes out of the character of paper –it ‘likes’ to be folded! Of course, this can be doneon a computer but the paper is tactile, not elusive
on a screen.
Don’t forget paper aeroplanes: making them, flying
them, competing for distance, measuring, numbers,comparative forms!

■■ He then said the challenge was to read thecomplete story without ‘uncrumpling’ it!
■■ How? He said ‘you must look at it and write down

the words and phrases that you see. Then, you
put it behind your back and you ‘re-crumple’ thepaper, look at it again and once more write down
all the words you can see.
■■ You keep on doing this until you are sure you haveseen all the words. Then, you arrange them so thatthey tell the story so you can read it.
■■ Only then can you ‘uncrumple’ the paper fully

and compare the original with your own.
Time-consuming? Unforgettable! I have remembered
this for twenty years! Most activities in the classroom
are forgotten after twenty minutes!

20| Medium: companion or slave?

The classroom: paper is translucent!
Usually, the translucency of paper is a nuisance!
Here is an idea for pair testing using thetranslucency. Draw a picture on one side of apiece of paper, for example, a face.
Put the paper against a window with the drawingof the face against the glass. You will see the face
perfectly because the light is coming throughthe paper.
Now write the words for the features of the face,for example, eyebrow, nose, etc. next to the featurein the drawing (but on the back of the paper).

Hopscotch in the playgroundThe game of hopscotch is played all over the world:
chalked on the path or yard or scratched in the bareearth. This, particularly for children, is a perfect way
of practising sentence patterns!

Pairs sit facing each other. A sits with his back to
the light and looking at the face. He cannot see thewords written on the other side of the paper because
the light is behind him. He points to each feature on
the face and says the word for it in English. B sits on
the other side of the paper and sees the face throughthe paper and the words on his side of the paper.
He also sees the shadow of A’s finger touch a featureand he can then check the accuracy of the word
which A says.
Paper can be folded, torn, cut and crumpled. Playwith paper, see what it likes to do and then perhaps
you will get an idea for how each bit of playfulness
can be used in language teaching.

In this example, the child hops onto square 1 saying,‘I’, then onto square 2 saying, ‘like’, then onto square
3 or 4 or 5 choosing his or her favourite drink or foodor animal, etc.
The child can hop a negative sentence by hopping
onto square 1, ‘I’, and then jumping down with both
feet on either side of square 2, ‘don’t’, and then backwith one foot onto square 2, ‘like’ and then onto thethird square, for example, ‘coffee’.

For more on using paper creatively, see
Wright (1989).

Other materials?
The chalkboard, the floorboards, tiles or earth
floor, furniture, boxes, cardboard rolls, bags, string,washing lines and pegs: each has its own character
and with empathetic appreciation can offer all kindsof ‘events’ for language use. The ceiling? How abouta mobile slowly swinging round with different wordcards slowly spinning round?

The school
Corridors invite time lines illustrating events forstorytelling and for the use of tense forms. Stairs
invite words or phrases to be written on each step:a story, a dialogue, proverbs, jokes!

Medium: companion or slave? |21

Instead of chalked hopscotch, use a tiled floor
or corridor with pictures and words on each tile.
Tiled floors can also be used as giant language
game boards.

The students can work in groups in order to makea class collection of a wide variety of wildlife in thearea of the school. An exhibition can be held in thelocal community centre using real objects, posters,
diagrams and stories.

Other things■■ The life of the school, for describing everyday

activities and for special events; a school
newspaper.
■■ Growing plants and keeping school pets: recording

their lives, care, problems, rates of growth, etc.
■■ Making a sundial for telling the time.
■■ Using a mirror to reflect the light onto everythingwhich can be seen; naming places and using
prepositions.
■■ Trees or high buildings and working out theirheight by using the triangulation method:measuring the distance to the base of the tree
and measuring the angle from the beginningof the base line.
■■ Making a pile of stones and guessing how

many there are. Choosing stones to representcharacters in a story: creating the story andtelling it using the stones. A class of 100 students,
working in groups of five, would mean 20 stories
from 20 different collections of stones. Having
invented the story, every student in each groupmust try telling it to his or her group and thenwhen everybody can tell their story, every student
must retell their story, at least five times, tostudents from other groups.
■■ Collect a large number of stones and write aword on each one – make sentences, tell stories.
■■ Clay, for making people and objects which canbe used to illustrate situations and stories.

The neighbourhood
NatureNature is all around even in poor areas of the worldand even in the centre of every city. Nature is‘material’ plentifully available to the teacher and isusually not even noticed, let alone used as a medium,topic or material. For example, the present habitualtense is useful in describing the repeated actions ofinsects, animals, birds and plants. Migrating birds canlead to a study of maps, countries, distances andmonths of the year.

22| Medium: companion or slave?

Conclusion
One way of being able to create fresh activities which
engage the students so that the language associatedwith the classroom activities is experienced rather
than only studied is for the teacher to have an
empathetic awareness of the character of media
and materials available. Openness to potential is afundamental characteristic of creativity, hence, thetitle of my chapter, ‘Medium: companion or slave?’.

References
Gladwell, M (2006) Blink. London: Penguin.
Graham, C (1978) Jazz Chants. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Graham, C (2006) Creating Chants and Songs.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heathfield, D (2014) Storytelling with Our Students.
Peaslake: Delta.
Hillyard, S. Available online at: http://susanhillyard.
blogspot.com.ar
Luther King, M (1963) The ‘I have a dream speech’by Martin Luther King, made in Washington, on
August 28 1963.
Lutzker, P (2007) The Art of Foreign Language
Teaching. Tubingen und Basel: Francke Verlag.
MacGregor, N (2012) A History of the World in
100 Objects. London: Penguin Books.
Maley, A and Duff, A (2005, third edition) Drama
Techniques. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maley, A (2000) The Language Teacher’s Voice.
Oxford: Macmillan.
Maley, A and Duff, A (1989) The Inward Ear.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Ur, P and Wright, A (1992) Five Minute Activities.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Wright, A (1989) Pictures for Language Learning.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Wright, A (1997) Creating Stories with Children.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, A (2008, second edition) Storytelling withChildren. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, A (2014) Creativity in the Classroom. Godollo:International Languages Institute.
Wright, A, Betteridge, D and Buckby, M (2006, third
edition) Games for Language Learning. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Wright, A and Hill, D (2008) Writing Stories. Rum:
Helbling Languages.
Andrew Wright studied painting at the Slade Schoolof Fine Art, University College London, and hestudied the history of art under Professor EH
Gombrich. He is an author, illustrator, teacher trainer,
storyteller and teacher. As an author and illustrator
he has published with Oxford University Press, forexample, Storytelling with Children, with Cambridge
University Press, for example, Five Minute Activities,
and with Helbling Languages, Writing Stories. As an
author and illustrator he has also worked for BBC TV,
ITV and WDR, in Germany. As a teacher trainer andstoryteller he has worked in over 40 countries.
As a teacher he is currently working in Budapest.

Medium: companion or slave? |23

2Challenging teachers to use theircoursebook creatively
Brian Tomlinson

Introduction
For me, fostering learner creativity is a vital role
for any teacher, as doing so can help learners todevelop predictive, analytical, critical and problemsolving skills, to develop confidence and to develop
self-esteem. Fostering creativity is even more
important for a teacher of a second or foreign
language as it can help to achieve the affective
and cognitive engagement vital for language
acquisition as well as helping learners to understandlanguage used for natural communication and to use
language for effective communication themselves.
Teachers of EFL therefore need to be creative inorder to encourage their learners to be creative too.
I have been involved in teacher training/teacher
development for over 50 years in many different
countries and I have yet to work on or visit a course
where developing teacher creativity is an objective
or is even encouraged.
Most language teachers still rely on coursebooks toprovide the activities they will use in the classroom
and most coursebooks do not typically provide
activities which foster creativity (Tomlinson and
Masuhara, 2013). It is therefore important thatteachers make use of their coursebook as a resource
rather than follow it as a script and that they develop
the confidence, awareness and creativity to adapt
coursebook activities in ways which can foster
creativity. One way of adapting coursebooks so thatthey foster creativity is by opening up their closed
activities so that they invite a variety of personal
responses instead of requiring all the learners togive the same correct answer. If you open any global
EFL coursebook at a random page you will find thatmost of the activities on that (and every other) pageare closed. I have just opened an intermediate levelglobal coursebook published in 2012 and picked at
random from my shelf. I have turned to page 72 and I
have counted ten student activities. Seven of these24| Challenging teachers to use their coursebook creatively

activities are completely closed in that they require
the one and only correct answer, two of them aresemi-open in that the topic and structure of thelearner utterance is prescribed but slots are left
open, and one is almost open in that learners areinvited to ‘Tell other students your ideas.’ When
writing textbooks myself I have tried to provide alot of open-ended activities but have nearly always
been prevented by my editor, who has usually told
me that teachers want closed questions because
they can use them as tests. If you have experienced
the many education systems and institutions aroundthe world which demand regular testing of theirstudents, you will understand the teachers’ needs
and the publishers’ reasons for catering for them.
But this does not mean that every teacher has to beruled by assessment. The teacher can very easily
open up the closed activities which they are notusing for testing and in so doing can increase theirenjoyment of teaching and their students’ chancesof acquiring language and developing skills.
The numerous ways of opening up closed activities
is the focus of this chapter, and I am going to discussand exemplify them by reporting a mini-case study
I conducted in Bogotá, Colombia.

The case study
Prior to a workshop session on adapting thecoursebook for English teachers at Universidad
Javeriana in Bogotá in May 2014, I asked theparticipants by email to form pairs and then in eachpair to suggest adaptations for using a page froma global coursebook which I provided (selected
at random from a recent coursebook on my study
shelf). I suggested they spend only 15–30 minutes on
the task and I gave them a table to use in noting andexplaining their adaptations. I did not ask them to becreative or to foster creativity in their learners.

When I met this group of teachers in Bogotá I
thanked them for doing the task and I collected intheir task sheets. Then I led a two-hour workshop
during which we discussed the value of creative
language teaching and what this involves. I thendemonstrated how the use of coursebooks could
become more creative by replacing or modifying
closed activities with open activities which
encourage:■■ personal response to meaning■■ language discovery by the learners■■ authentic communication■■ the taking of risks■■ affective engagement■■ cognitive engagement■■ being different.

My demonstration included 11 different typesof adaptation of closed activities from currently‘popular’ British coursebooks, each one being
exemplified by me acting as the teacher and thecourse participants being the students. The
workshop was interactive, with the participants
discussing the activities and evaluating their likely
effect with their students. In every case they were
optimistic about the potential effect of enlivening
and engaging their students, who they disclosed
were usually bored and demotivated by all theclosed activities in their coursebooks.
In the last 15 minutes of the workshop I asked theparticipants to sit in the same pairs they had done
the pre-workshop task in and I gave them a new task
in which they had to come up with ideas for adapting
a different page from the same global coursebook
for use with a class of learners of English in Colombia.
I did not ask them to be creative or to foster
creativity in their learners.
After the workshop I compared the adaptations
suggested by each pair in the pre-workshop taskwith those they suggested in the post-workshop task
(13 pairs gave me a pre-workshop adaptation and
15 pairs handed in a post-workshop adaptation).

Ways of opening up closed activities
These are the ways of opening up closed activities
which I demonstrated in my workshop in Bogotá.
They are creative ways of adapting prosaic
coursebooks which I have been using in my teachingfor many years, some of which I also advocated anddemonstrated in a symposium with the Creativity
Group on Creative Use of the Coursebook at the
IATEFL Conference in Harrogate in 2014 (Maley, 2014)
and all of which I would recommend teachers to
use in order to open up their coursebooks fortheir students.

Lead-in texts■■ The teacher tells a relevant and ideally bizarre‘personal’ story before asking the students toread a rather dull text in the coursebook. For
example, the teacher tells the following story
before asking the students to read a passage
about the advantages and disadvantages ofmodern technology.
Being pretty ancient, I’m not great with computers.
Last week I printed something out and the type wasvery faint. So I phoned my local computer repair
shop and asked them what I should do. The guy on
the phone said, ‘Your printer probably just needs
cleaning. If you bring it in it’ll cost you £50. You
could easily do it yourself though. Just read the
instruction book which comes with the printer.
‘Thanks very much’, I said. ‘But does your bossknow you’re helping people like this?’‘Oh yes,’ he said. ‘It’s his idea. We find we cancharge even more if customers try to fix things
themselves first.’■■ The teacher tells ‘humorous’ stories before asking

the students to read an uninspiring story in theircoursebook. For example, the teacher tells these‘stories’ about misunderstandings before thestudents read a story about a misunderstanding
in their coursebook.

Challenging teachers to use their coursebook creatively |25

In life we often listen to one story and hear another.
Here are two examples:
I saw a man at the beach yelling ‘Help, shark! Help!’
I just laughed, I knew that shark wasn’t going tohelp him.
‘What would you like?’ says the barman.
‘What would I like?’ says Bob. ‘A bigger house,
more money and a more attractive wife.’‘No,’ says the barman, patiently. ‘I meant what
do you want?’‘To win the lottery, for my mother-in-law todisappear and for my child to be born healthy!’‘What’s it to be?’ says the barman, less patiently.

‘What are the comparatives and superlativesof the adjectives in the table?’ changes to:
1. In pairs find examples of words which arecomparing things in the passage on p. 52 andin the transcripts of 2.13 and 2.14 on p. 148.
2. Use the examples to write about the different waysof forming the comparative, e.g. ‘He’s taller thanme’ and the superlative ‘He’s the tallest player
in the team’.
3. For homework, find other examples of thecomparative and superlative. Use them tocheck and revise your discoveries in 2 above.

‘A boy or a girl, I don’t care.’Peer activities‘You misunderstand me,’ says the barman,
impatiently, ‘I only asked what you want to drink.’

The students develop activities for their peers to doin relation to a text in the passage. They are told to
make their activities challenging and interesting. For
example, one group asked another group to turn thedescription in the coursebook of a robbery in a mallin New York into a scene from a film set in their town.

‘Oh,’ says Bob, ‘I see. Why didn’t you say so? What
have you got?’‘Nothing at all,’ says the barman. ‘I’m perfectly
healthy.’
And some people look at one event and see another.
Here’s an example:
I was out having a meal last night with my long-term
girlfriend when, all of a sudden, I got out of my chairand slowly got down on one knee. ‘Oh my god,’ mygirlfriend shrieked, ‘let me get my phone so I canshow my mum and remember the moment for the
rest of my life’. ‘OK,’ I replied, ‘but I’m sure they’veseen somebody tie their shoelace before.’
What are all these examples of? It’s a word
beginning with M.

Readiness activities
These are activities which get students to think about
their own experiences so as to activate their minds
in relation to the theme, topic or location of a text inthe coursebook they are going to be asked to read(Tomlinson, 2013). For example, before getting
students to read a text about the advantages anddisadvantages of ‘modern technology’ tell students to:‘See a picture in your mind of you using technology.
Is the technology working well? Are you happy
with it?’‘Tell a partner about this experience withtechnology.’

Discovery activities
These are activities which help students to discoverthings for themselves about language features
highlighted in their coursebook. They modify, comebefore or replace the closed testing or teachingactivities in the coursebook.

26

Example:| Challenging teachers to use their coursebook creatively

One creative teacher I observed in Jakarta got her
12-year-old students to decide which activities theywanted to use with texts from their coursebook. Each
Friday one group would meet the teacher and give
her the activities they wanted her to use in class on
the following Monday.

Examples of modificationsof coursebook activities
The following examples of coursebook modifications
are those I demonstrated with the teachers in theworkshop in Bogotá.
■■ The teacher acts out a text from the coursebook.

For example, when reading a passage abouta park in China which activates spikes whensomebody sits on a bench for too long, theteacher actually acts out going to the park, being
tired, sitting down on a bench, falling asleep, being
woken up by spikes, screaming with pain, jumping
up and running away.
■■ The students act out a text from the coursebook

as the teacher reads it aloud as dramatically as
possible. For example, before reading aloud a
Korean folk tale about a hard-working but poor
farmer and his lazy, greedy and rich brother, theteacher divides the class into two halves and tells
one half to act out what the hard-working brother
does and the other half to act out what the lazy
brother does.
After this dramatisation of the text the teacher
asks the yes/no questions from the coursebook,as personal questions to the brothers. Forexample, instead of asking ‘Was X lazy?’, theteacher asks ‘Were you lazy? Why?’

Other creative adaptations I have made tocoursebooks include:

Then, instead of asking the question from thecoursebook about the lessons to be learned
from the story, the teacher asks the students incharacter to think about what they have learned,
if anything, from what happened to them. These
small changes are easy to make and, in myexperience, bring the story to memorable life.

■■ the students drawing their interpretation of a■■ The teacher writes and performs a bizarre

story using the words of a coursebook drill.
The students in groups then write and perform
another bizarre story using the same words. Thisway the students hear and pronounce the target
sounds many times in ways more engaging andmemorable than repeating them without context
in a drill. For example, the teacher performs thestory below, which makes use of these words
from a drill:

text rather than answering questions about it■■ the students interviewing characters from a text■■ the students developing a text by, for example,

continuing it, re-writing it from a different
perspective or in a different culture or location,
responding to it with a letter or email■■ the teacher turning a closed activity into acompetition by getting each group to develop
an extra question to challenge their peers with■■ the teacher giving the students thecomprehension questions and getting themto create the text■■ groups of students chanting out a drill in different

voices (e.g. a very young child; a headmaster;a very old person).

Cycle; cyclist; cycling; thunderstorm; bike; tornado;
gym; dog; vacuum; chores; clouds; rainbow.

The pre-workshop suggestions
for adaptation‘It’s not been a great week to be a cyclist. On
Monday I went cycling in a thunderstorm and was
blown off my bike. On Tuesday I went cycling in a
tornado and was lifted off my bike. On Wednesday
I went cycling in the gym and was knocked off mybike by a dog who was vacuuming the floor. On
Thursday, after doing my household chores, I went
cycling in the clouds and was washed off my bikeby a lion who was cleaning a rainbow.’

When asked before the workshop to adapt a pagefrom a global coursebook to make it more suitablefor Colombian students, the teachers in Bogotá
came up with an average of 3.5 adaptations per
pair. Of their 45 suggestions, 16 would add openended activities and ten would be likely to stimulate
student creativity. Twenty-five of the additions
involved student activity and 12 provided extra help
to the students. It was noticeable that only threedeletions were suggested and that most of the pairs
intended to retain all the coursebook activities but
add more activities to them.

■■ The students perform dialogues in character. For

example, in a dialogue in which A is a salesman ina shoe shop and B is the customer, A is told that heis the ex-husband of B and has not seen her since
the divorce. Or in a dialogue in which A asks B how
to operate her new office computer, B is told that
he is in love with A but she doesn’t know this.
■■ The students find ways in which wrong answers

could become right. Example:–– ‘In pairs, decide on the rules for a library.
Complete the sentences with: can, can’t, haveto or don’t have to.’–– ‘You

keep quiet in the library.’

Changes to:–– ‘Use ‘can’t’ and ‘because’ to complete each of
the sentences.’–– ‘You

keep quiet in the library.’

The examples above of additions and modifications
are easy to think of and to apply and yet they makethe experience of using a coursebook much morecreative and potentially much more enjoyable andrewarding for both the teacher and the students.

The post-workshop suggestions
for adaptation
When given 15 minutes at the end of the workshop
to adapt a different page from the same global
coursebook to make it more suitable for Colombianstudents, the teachers in Bogotá came up with anaverage of 5.5 adaptations per pair. Of their 101
suggestions 99 would add open-ended activities
and all 99 would be likely to stimulate student
creativity. All 99 of the additions involved student
activity and six of them involved the teacher being
creative too. It was noticeable that only two deletions
were suggested and that most of the pairs intended
to retain all the coursebook activities but add
more activities to them. Many of the additions andmodifications were driven by the principles I had
applied in my workshop demonstrations, but not
many were direct imitations of my procedures.

Challenging teachers to use their coursebook creatively |27

Some of the suggested procedures did, however,resemble some of those I had demonstrated in otherworkshops in the same university in the same week,
but interestingly with different groups of teachersand student teachers. I had not referred to theseprocedures in my creative adaptation workshop andthey had featured in demonstrations of original unitsof material rather than adaptations of material.

Conclusion
The effect of my workshop demonstrations exceeded
all my expectations. I expected an increase inteacher creativity between the pre-workshop
adaptation task and the end of the workshop
adaptation task but I was delighted just how large
the increase was and how rich the adaptations wereboth in variety and in quality. But then I should havelearned by now not to underestimate teachers. I
knew this already from workshops and projects withsuch different groups of teachers as rural Botswana
primary teachers, Indonesian junior high school
teachers, Namibian senior high school teachers,
Turkish EAP teachers, Ni-Vanuatu remote island
primary teachers and Vietnamese university
teachers. All you need is to provide teachers withnew learning experiences, get them to reflect on theprinciples driving those experiences and stimulatethem to design principled learning experiences fortheir students, and they will be creative in providing
opportunities for their students to be profitably
creative too (see Tomlinson, 2014, for further
discussion of the value of materials development
workshops for teacher development). Most of theother workshops and projects I have listed above
involved teachers developing new materials. Whatwas so remarkable about the Bogotá workshop wasthat the teachers were able to dramatically improve
activities from a global coursebook in just 15 minutes
and in ways which did not involve cutting and pastingor other time-consuming preparations.

Recommendations
I would strongly recommend that sessions on
creative adaptation of coursebook material be
included in all teacher training, teacher educationand teacher development workshops and courses,
whether they be for aspiring, inexperienced orexperienced teachers. I would also recommend thefollowing workshop structure:■■ trainer demonstration of creatively adaptedmaterials■■ participant discussion of the principles andprocedures which drove the adapted materials■■ trainer presentation of other principles andprocedures of creative adaptation with
exemplification of each one
28| Challenging teachers to use their coursebook creatively■■ participant adaptation and justification of materials

provided by the trainer■■ post-workshop participant adaptation of materials

they are using with their students■■ while-use and post-use evaluations of the adaptedmaterials developed above■■ revision of the adapted materials.

Including such sessions can help the participants toachieve more understanding and more awarenessas well as develop more creativity, confidence andself-esteem than they would from months of lectures(Tomlinson, 2013).

References
Maley, A (2014) ‘Creativity for a change’, in Pattison, T(ed) IATEFL 2014 Harrogate Conference Selections.
Faversham: IATEFL.
Tomlinson, B (2013) ‘Materials development courses’,in Tomlinson, B (ed) Developing Materials for
Language Teaching. London: Bloomsbury.
Tomlinson, B (2014) Teacher growth throughmaterials development. The European Journalof Applied Linguistics and TEFL 3/2: 89–106.
Tomlinson, B and Masuhara, H (2013) Adult
coursebooks. ELT Journal 67/2: 233–249.
Brian Tomlinson has worked as a teacher, teacher
trainer, curriculum developer, football coach anduniversity academic in Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria,
Oman, Singapore, UK, Vanuatu and Zambia as wellas giving presentations in over 70 countries. He is
Founder and President of MATSDA (the international
Materials Development Association), a Visiting
Professor at the University of Liverpool and at Leeds
Metropolitan University, and a TESOL Professor at
Anaheim University. He has over 100 publications
on materials development, language throughliterature, the teaching of reading, language
awareness and teacher development, including
Discover English (with Rod Bolitho), Openings,
Materials Development in Language Teaching,Developing Materials for Language Teaching,
Research for Materials Development in Language
Learning (with Hitomi Masuhara) and Applied
Linguistics and Materials Development.

3
Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT
Carol Read

Introduction

Foundations of creativity in primary ELTCreativity is often described as thinking ‘out of thebox’, coming up with fresh, divergent responses,
original ideas and objects, new solutions toproblems, or ways of looking at problems.
Children who learn English as a foreign language
at primary school may have limited language skills
but they come to class full of creative potential.
By establishing a classroom environment in which
the development of creativity is fostered from thestart, the experience of learning another language
is considerably enhanced. Through the integrationof creative thinking in English lessons, children
develop relevant cognitive skills, such as observing,questioning, comparing, contrasting, imagining andhypothesising, that they need in all areas of thecurriculum. They also develop metacognitive skills,
such as an ability to evaluate and reflect criticallyon their own performance and learning outcomes.
In addition, the development of creativity in the
primary ELT classroom:

When laying the foundations for developingchildren’s creativity in the primary foreign language
classroom, there are a number of general factors tokeep in mind:■■ increases children’s engagement and motivationin studying a foreign language■■ makes language learning enjoyable and memorable■■ gives children a sense of ownership and a feelingof success■■ allows for divergent responses and, for children

who may be strong in other areas of thecurriculum, e.g. art, music or dance, to use theseto support their learning■■ promotes children’s ability to think in a flexible way■■ provides a personalised challenge■■ develops qualities such as patience, persistence

and resourcefulness■■ provides a basis for the development of moresophisticated, conceptual and abstract creative
thinking in future.

■■ Creativity doesn’t happen in a vacuum. There isalways something that stimulates and underpins
the generation of children’s original thinking, suchas an idea, picture, text, story, object, questionor problem, or some combination of these.
■■ Creative thinking arises from the emotional

quality of children’s engagement and involvement
in an activity. This leads to a state of ‘flow’(Csikszentmihalyi, 1996) in which children’s
attention is positively focused on a personalised
goal and they feel motivated to achieve aparticular creative outcome.
■■ Children need a framework in which to develop

creative thinking skills, and it is usually helpful toprovide a model or build up an example outcome
with the whole class first. The framework delimits
the scope of an activity and allows children tofocus on their ideas. The model or example
provides necessary language support.
■■ Creativity involves the opportunity to play withideas freely and spontaneously. At the same time,it involves disciplined thinking, curiosity, andattention to detail and effort. It also needs to beunderpinned by the development of specificstrategies and skills.
■■ Creativity is best fostered by the developmentof a ‘growth mind-set’ (Dweck, 2006) in whichchildren are encouraged to believe that they can
improve their performance and achieve better
outcomes through their own effort, persistence
and hard work. One way this can be achieved isthrough constructive feedback and praise, which
focuses on the effort children make to be creative
rather than on their innate talents (ibid.).

Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT |29

Big ‘C’ and little ‘c’ creativity
There are two types of creativity that have been
identified in an educational context: big ‘C’ and little‘c’ creativity (Craft, 2005). In the primary ELTclassroom, big ‘C’ creativity refers to learning
outcomes, which are new and original for a child interms of their current age, stage of development
and level of English, and are valued as such by theteacher. An example of big ‘C’ creativity in a primary
ELT classroom is the following poem about a conker
by two 11-year-old boys (Read, 2007: 83):
ConkerFrom a chestnut tree
In autumn
On the ground
Round and brown
Hard and shiny
The winter is coming
I feel cold and sad.
Little ‘c’ creativity refers to the process of children
creatively constructing and communicating meaning
in the everyday, interactional context of theclassroom using the foreign language repertoirethat they currently have available. This kind ofcreativity involves children in predicting, guessing,hypothesising and risk-taking as well as using nonverbal communication, such as mime and gesture.
In order to establish a classroom environment
where creativity thrives, it is important to provide
opportunities for both kinds of creativity. In thecase of big ‘C’ creativity, this means planning andstructuring lessons in ways that systematically equip
children with the skills and strategies they need inorder to be able to achieve a creative outcome inrelation to the topic and their current language level.
This may be expressed through writing, acting,music, art, dance, multimedia, or any combinationof these, and the outputs may take a wide variety
of forms such as poetry, riddles, stories, role plays,
sketches, dances, posters, paintings, videos or
multimedia project presentations. In the case oflittle ‘c’ creativity, it is important to provide frequent
opportunities where you ‘loosen the reins’ in termsof language practice and children experience
using any and all the language they currently haveavailable in real communicative situations in a varietyof contexts. When given regular opportunities toconstruct and communicate their own personal
meanings, children usually prove creative andresourceful, and this helps to develop theirfluency and self-confidence.

30| Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT

By using English as the main language ofcommunication in the classroom, you will naturally
provide opportunities for little ‘c’ creativity. It is also
worth systematically planning for little ‘c’ creativity
in lessons at appropriate moments, such as when
you brainstorm what children know about a topic,
find out their opinions, or ask for their personal
response to a story. By responding to children’s
meanings, and using techniques such as remodelling
and recasting, rather than insisting on language
accuracy and correcting every mistake, you willencourage children to use and acquire language
in a natural, creative and memorable way.

Seven pillars of creativity
The establishment of a classroom learning
environment, in which both types of creativity
flourish, needs careful nurturing and doesn’t justhappen by itself. The seven pillars of creativity
are a series of generic considerations, which enable
you to develop creativity in your classroom whatever
age and level of children you teach, and whether
or not you are using a coursebook and digitallysophisticated materials or no technology at all. The
seven pillars are rooted in educational literature on
creativity (Craft, 2005; Fisher, 2005a; Fisher, 2005b)
but above all based on many years of classroom
experience. The section on each pillar contains arationale for its inclusion followed by practical ideas
and activities for immediate classroom use.

Pillar one: build up positive self-esteem
Self-esteem is characterised by five components:
a sense of security, a sense of identity, a senseof belonging, a sense of purpose and a sense of
personal competence (Reasoner, 1982). If children
feel threatened or insecure and lack a sense of
personal competence, this acts as a barrier tocreativity. By building up children’s positive selfesteem through recognising their individual
strengths, valuing their contributions, respecting
divergent views and establishing a classroom
community in which collaboration and interaction
are the norm, children are more likely to engage inthe kind of fluent and flexible thinking, as well as thewillingness to take risks, that characterise creativity.
You can build up children’s positive self-esteem inways that permeate your whole teaching approachand transmit to children that you care about themand value them as members of the class. You canalso use a range of specific activities and proceduresto build up different aspects of self-esteem. Three
examples are:

Self-esteem fan
Use this activity to help children to develop a positive
sense of identity.
■■ Give each child a sheet of A4 or A5 paper.

Ask children to fold the paper concertina-style
to make a fan and demonstrate this. They shouldhave as many folds as letters in their first name.
■■ Children write the letters of their name at the topof each section of the fan. They think of a positive
adjective about themselves, which starts witheach letter, and write this vertically on the fan,e.g. Helena – Hardworking, Enthusiastic, Lively,
Energetic, Nice, Active.
■■ Children compare their fans and say why they havechosen the adjectives, e.g. I think I’m hardworking
because I always do my homework.
■■ Children illustrate and colour their fans. The fanscan be displayed and also used or referred towhenever children need reminding of theirpositive characteristics.

Circle time
Use circle time to personalise learning, foster asense of security and belonging, and encouragesocial skills such as listening to others, turn-taking,cooperating and showing respect for views which
are different from your own.
■■ Children sit or stand in a circle. Have a soft ballor other item ready to pass round the circle.
■■ Children take turns to pass the ball or other item

round the circle and complete a sentence. Thiscan relate to a text, topic, story or personal
feelings and be graded appropriately to the age
and level of the children, e.g. I like…, I feel happy/
sad/angry when…, I think the story/video/poem is…,
I think wild animals are in danger/we need to savewater/global warming is worrying because… Rulesof circle time are that you only speak when it isyour turn, you can say ‘Pass’ if you have nothing
to say, or use your mother tongue if you need to.
When the focus of circle time is on a particular
topic or issue, such as the latter examples above,
you may like to note children’s responses on theboard in a mind map (see Pillar six) and use thisafterwards to get children to write about the topic.

Word tennis
Use a version of this game to reinforce children’s
sense of personal competence as well as listening
and turn-taking skills.
■■ Divide children into pairs.

■■ One child pretends to serve and says, e.g. I’m goodat swimming. Their partner pretends to hit the ballback and says, e.g. I’m good at dancing. The pairs
continue taking turns to say sentences about what
they’re good at in the same way and make theirrally as long as possible.
■■ At the end, children report back to their partner

to check they can remember, e.g. You’re good at….
They can also tell the class, e.g. Marco is good at…/
We’re both good at…

Pillar two: model creativity yourself
An essential rule-of-thumb for developing any skill or
quality in others is to model it yourself. For example,
if you want children to be polite and show respect,then you need to be polite and show them respect
too. By the same token, in order to encouragechildren to see things in new ways, explore ideas
and come up with original outcomes, it also helps if
you model creative processes in the way you teach.
These can be reflected in many ways, for example,
how you motivate and engage children, the kindsof tasks and activities you offer, how you cater forindividual differences and diversity, and the way you
manage and organise your class. It is often useful tothink about how you can be creative in small ways in
the routine aspects of teaching. Here are some ideas:

Lining up
This can typically waste time and be dull. So why
not think of little challenges to make it more creative,e.g. lining up in alphabetical order of first names orsurnames, either forwards or backwards, lining up
in order of height or age or month of birthday. Oncechildren have got the idea, they will almost certainly
suggest other ideas as well.

Taking the register
This can be made more creative by relating it tovocabulary that children are learning. As you go
through the register, children respond by naming
e.g. an animal. Children need to listen to what otherssay, as no repetitions are allowed. By varying theorder in which you call the names on the register,
this allows you to make it easier for some children
and more challenging for others. Alternatively,
you can pre-assign an animal to each child in theregister. When you call out the name of their animal,children respond by naming its baby, e.g. Dog!
Puppy!/Tiger!/Cub! You can also do this with, e.g.
names of countries and languages or capital cities,
e.g. France – French! or Paris!; Argentina – Spanish!
or Buenos Aires!

Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT |

31

Learning routines

Pillar three: offer children choice

Learning routines make children feel secure aswell as provide opportunities for personalisationand natural acquisition of language. You can varylearning routines appropriately with different ages
and levels. For example, with younger children an
enjoyable opening lesson routine is a rhythmic gym
sequence in which you cumulatively add different
actions. With older children an opening lesson
routine such as ‘News of the Day’ gives different
children in each lesson an opportunity to share
their personal news with the class.

By offering them choice, children learn to takeresponsibility for their decisions. They also begin todevelop autonomy and have control of their learning.
This leads to a sense of ‘ownership’ and motivation
to go the extra mile to produce creative work.
Exercising choice also helps to make learning more
personalised and memorable. You can offer children
choice in a range of ways from micro-decisions,such as who to work with, to macro-decisions suchas choosing topics to study. Offering choice canbe a powerful tool in behaviour management too.
Some examples for offering choice are as follows:

Classroom management
You may like to think about creative techniques tomanage your classes effectively, for example, thesignal you use to get attention, e.g. a tambourine, abell, a special gesture, or counting down to zero fromfive. Other examples of creative ideas for managing
behaviour include a yellow and red card system as infootball, or a ‘noisometer’ based on traffic lights: red= Too loud!, orange = Turn the volume down!, green =Our quiet voices!
It is also useful to have ‘up your sleeve’ simple,
creative ideas that need no materials or preparation
and use these to change the mood or as a warmer,
closing or revision activity. Two of my favourites are:Spelling gym
This activity helps children associate the shapeof lower-case letters in the alphabet with physicalactions and is an active and enjoyable way topractise spelling. Children start with their hands ontheir shoulders. This represents the line on the page.
For vowels or consonants like ‘m’ or ‘n’, children crosstheir hands to the other shoulder. For consonantswith a stalk above the line, e.g. ‘d’, ‘t’, or ‘h’, children
raise their arms in the air. For consonants with astalk below the line, e.g. ‘j’, ‘p’, or ‘q’, children stretch
their arms down to the floor. Either you spell words
children know in chorus, e.g. apple, and children
do the actions for each letter or, once children arefamiliar with the activity, they take turns to spelland guess words in pairs or groups.

Red or blue
This activity allows for a personal response to familiar
vocabulary. Children stand in the middle of theclassroom. Say two words from the same category
or lexical set, e.g. ‘red… blue...’ and point to eitherside of the room. Children go to the side of the roomof the colour they prefer. Children then talk to eachother and explain the reasons, e.g. I’ve got a blue
bike./My favourite T-shirt is red. Repeat with othervocabulary, e.g. dog/cat, hot, cold/milk, fruit juice/
sweet, salty/swimming, cycling/seaside, countryside.

32| Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELTFriendship groupings
Although not always desirable, it is beneficial toallow children to choose the friends they work withat times, e.g. for projects (at the same time making
sure that no child ever feels left out). By choosing
whom to work with, children generally feel more
motivated. They also have an emotional investment
in making the collaboration work successfully.

Lesson menu
Write a list of, e.g. five activities to do in the lessonon the board. Ask children to choose, e.g. three ofthem and explain that they can do them in any order.
By giving children choice, you will find that theyusually work in a more motivated and attentive way
than if you impose a lockstep progression throughactivities. Children also often voluntarily choose to
do the most challenging activities.

Format freedom
Whenever possible, allow children to choose theformat for their work. This encourages both creativity
and effort. For example, for group projects, children
can choose the format in which to present theirwork, e.g. a poster, a digital presentation or a video.
Similarly, when giving a personal response to a story,
it may be appropriate to ask children to choose
whether to, e.g. write a letter to, or from, one of thecharacters, or a newspaper report, a dialogue, apoem or a story review. Children usually find having
the choice energising, and put greater effort andcreative thinking into their work as a result.

Behaviour choices
Offering choice helps children to take responsibility
for their decisions and to regulate their own
behaviour. For example, in the case of a child who
is not settling down to work, instead of telling him or
her off, you might say, e.g. I see you haven’t started
the activity yet. What would you prefer to do? Would
you like to do the activity now in our lesson? Or would
you prefer to stay behind and do it at break time? The

child will almost certainly choose to get the activity
done in the lesson and comply with what you want. In
this way, you avoid potential conflict and there is noloss of face for the child, as the outcome is a choicerather than an obligation that has been imposed.

Pillar four: use questions effectively
The way you use questions to engage children andlead them to think creatively is an essential skill.
The stereotypical initiation-response-feedback (IRF)pattern of questions, e.g. T: What colour is the car?
P: It’s red. T: Yes, very good, is often prevalent inprimary ELT lessons but has limited value. Although it
can encourage participation, especially with younger
children, if it’s the only question type used, it canclose down thinking. It is important to ask questions
which interest children and open up, probe andextend their thinking. You also need to give children
sufficient thinking time to answer questions andprovide opportunities for them to construct and ask
interesting and challenging questions themselves.

In order to differentiate, grade and sequence
questions from easier to more challenging, it is
helpful to use Bloom’s revised taxonomy of thinking
skills (Anderson and Krathwohl, 2001). This is divided
into lower order thinking skills (LOTS) identified asremembering, understanding and applying, andhigher order thinking skills (HOTS), which are
identified as analysing, evaluating and creating(ibid.). LOTS are essentially to do with recall,
identification and basic comprehension. HOTS
are more complex and demand greater cognitiveeffort. Developing LOTS is vital for foreign language
learning especially in the early stages. However,
if lessons never move beyond LOTS, this can leadto boredom and demotivation. Lessons that include
HOTS make learning more engaging and memorable.
They also develop thinking skills that are transferable
across the curriculum and can lead to ‘flow’(Csikszentmihalyi, 1996) and creative thinking.
Below is an example of how you can use Bloom’s
revised taxonomy to plan questions and scaffold
thinking skills based on a story.

Question staircase
OR in another form,
e.g. a role play.
OR tell or rewrite from adifferent point of view.
Create: Invent a new ending.

Evaluate: Which part do you like/
don’t you like? Why/Why not?
Analyse: Classify the characters./Explain how
different parts of the story relate to each other.
Apply: What would you do in the same
situation? How would you feel?
Understand: Why…? How…? What’s the main
idea? Sequence…, Order… Match… Describe…
Remember: Who…? What…? When…?
Where…? Identify…, Name…

Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT |33

Question dice
The ability to ask questions is an effective way oflearning and also helps children think creatively.
Question dice can be a useful and enjoyable activity
to practise this. Children make dice out of paper orcard and write a Wh-question word on each face:
What, Why, When, Where, How, Who. Children workin pairs and take turns to roll the dice and ask theirpartner questions using the question word on theface where the dice lands. This activity is suitable
to do e.g. after a story or topic-based work, or asa way to get children to talk about and sharepersonal information.

Pillar five: make connections
Making connections and seeing relationships
between things generates ideas and underpins
creative thinking. It is helpful to encourage children
to make connections between home and school
as well as between subjects across the curriculum.
Similarly, children can be encouraged to makeconnections between present and previous learning,
between experiences inside and outside theclassroom, and between ideas learned from different
sources such as books and the internet. They canalso make connections between English and theirown language and culture, and between skills, which
may be developed in one context or subject andtransferred and used in another. The awareness ofconnections between different areas of their lives
helps to build children’s confidence and provides
the foundations for them to become increasingly
adventurous and creative in work they produce.
There are also specific activities that you can use
to develop children’s ability to make connections
between ideas and objects and to think in divergent
and creative ways. Some examples are:Random association
This activity encourages children to makeconnections between things that don’t have an
obvious connection. Write words that children know
on small pieces of card and put them in a bag or hat.
Children take turns to take three cards at random
and make a sentence or invent a story that connects
them. You can also do the same activity using small
objects, rather than word cards.

Odd one out
This activity typically has one right answer. In thisversion, children identify an odd one out according
to any criteria they can think of. For example, if
children have been learning about how fruit grows,
the activity can be done using five flashcards,

34| Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELTe.g. peach, strawberry, melon, pineapple and grapes.
Children take turns to identify an odd one out, e.g. I
think it’s peach because peaches have a stone./I thinkit’s strawberry because the seeds are on the outside.

Comparative moments
Playing with the use of simile develops flexible
thinking skills and often produces creative andamusing outcomes. Give children sentences tocomplete, e.g. A lesson is like a sandwich because… /A school is like a funfair because… Alternatively
children choose words and create their own
similes, e.g. Homework is like a dessert when
you aren’t hungry.

How many ways?
This activity develops flexible, inventive thinking andcan be used to extend children’s vocabulary in an
enjoyable way. Choose an everyday object such asa paperclip, plastic cup, metal coat hanger, peg or
ruler. Children work in pairs and brainstorm all thedifferent things you can use the object for, e.g. You
can use a ruler as a sword. If they don’t know words
in English, they use a dictionary to find them. They
can also draw pictures to illustrate their ideas.

Pillar six: explore ideas
In order to foster an open, creative mind-set, youneed to regularly provide frameworks and stimuli
that encourage learners to explore, experiment andplay with ideas. This needs to be in an atmosphereof mutual respect where divergent views arevalued and judgement is withheld. Brainstorming
techniques, problem-solving tasks and activities inwhich learners consider issues from different pointsof view all encourage exploration and lead tocreative thinking. Some examples of these are:Mind maps
Mind mapping, based on the work of Tony Buzan(2003), allows children to explore their thinking on a
topic in a visually appealing way. Mind maps can be
useful to build up ideas collaboratively with the wholeclass. Write the name of the topic in the centre of theboard, e.g. ‘Elephants’, and three initial headings to
guide the children’s thinking, e.g. appearance, where/
how they live, why they are in danger. Choose one
heading at a time, listen to the children’s ideas andadd them to the map. Use different colour pens andadd sub-headings as appropriate, e.g. colour, size,
African, Asian etc. Children can then use the mind
map to write a description of elephants or make theirown mind map about another animal of their choice.

Wh-question web

Reflective continuum

Write the topic in a circle, e.g. Rainforests/The water
cycle. Draw lines and write question words aroundthe circle: What? Why? When? How? Where? Who?
Children work in pairs and write questions they areinterested in, beginning with each word. They thendo research using suitable websites you havepreviously identified, and note and compare theirquestions and answers with the class. They use
this as preparation for writing about the topic.

Give children a sheet with four to six areas forreflection and self-assessment on a continuum, e.g.

Five senses web
This is a variation of the above activity. Write thetopic in a circle, e.g. The playground. Draw lines
from the circle and write: see, hear, smell, touch,taste. Children note their ideas, either individuallyor collectively, and use the results to write a poem
or description.

Imagine that…!
Use this activity to explore hypothetical possibilities
and elicit creative ideas, e.g. Imagine that… animals
can talk/we don’t need to sleep/children rule theworld/we live on Mars. What happens?

Creative observation
Use images to encourage creative thinking and anawareness of how images, particularly in advertising,
influence our feelings. Ask, e.g. What does the image
make you think of? How does it make you feel? Why?
As a follow-up activity, children take digital photos
designed to encourage a particular response,
e.g. to make you feel hungry, or that a toy or gameis fun. Children take turns to share their images andinvite responses and compare if these are the sameor different to the ones they intended.

Pillar seven: encourage critical reflection
Finally, as part of promoting creativity, we need totrain children to evaluate and reflect critically on
their own ideas, performance, actions and outcomes.
As well as being an integral part of developing
learner autonomy, it is only through critical reflectionthat children can assess the validity and valueof their own creative work. This forms part of areflective learning cycle and over time leads to thedevelopment of enhanced creative thinking. You
can do this by reviewing learning outcomes against
success criteria at the end of activity cycles andlessons, and through the regular use of learnerdiaries or self-assessment sheets. Two examples ofother activities that encourage critical reflection are:

I didn’t make aneffortI did my best.

I didn’t use
interesting words

I used interestingwords

Children reflect on the work they have produced andmark where they think they are on the continuum foreach area.

Self-assessment dictation
Ask children to make three columns in theirnotebooks and write ‘yes’, ‘so-so’ and ‘no’ at the topof each one. Use gesture to explain the meaningof ‘so-so’. Dictate sentences, e.g. I worked hard./I
co-operated. Children listen and write the sentencesin the column they think applies to their work. They
then compare and talk about the results. How many
sentences in the ‘so-so’ column can they move to the‘yes’ column next time?

Conclusion
This chapter outlines the benefits of developing
creative thinking skills in primary ELT. It looks at
general factors to bear in mind when laying thefoundations of creativity in the classroom and thedifference between big ‘C’ and little ‘c’ creativity(Craft, op. cit.). Although there are often barriers todeveloping creativity in primary ELT, such as a rigid
syllabus, a dull coursebook, a lack of time, and thewashback effect of external exams, developingchildren’s creativity has many benefits for language
learning and for developing broader educational
objectives, attitudes and values. Whatever the age
and level of children you work with, the seven pillars
are designed to help you establish a classroom
learning environment in which creativity flourishes,
and to provide you with realistic and practical ideas
for how to go about it.

Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT |

35

References
Anderson, L and Krathwohl, D (eds) (2001) A
Taxonomy for Learning, Teaching and Assessing:A revision of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational
Objectives. New York: Longman.
Buzan, T (2003) Mind Maps for Kids. London:
HarperCollins.
Craft, A (2005) Creativity in Schools: Tensions andDilemmas. London: Routledge.
Csikszentmihalyi, M (1996) Creativity: Flow and thePsychology of Discovery and Invention. London:
HarperCollins.
Dweck, C (2006) Mindset. New York: Random House.
Fisher, R (2005a, second edition) Teaching Children
to Learn. London: Nelson Thornes.
Fisher, R (2005b, second edition) Teaching Children
to Think. London: Nelson Thornes.
Read, C (2007) 500 Activities in the PrimaryClassroom. Oxford: Macmillan Education.
Reasoner, R (1982) Building Self-Esteem:
A Comprehensive Program. Palo Alto:
Consulting Psychologists Press.
Carol Read has over 30 years’ experience in ELT
as a teacher, teacher educator, academic manager,materials writer and consultant. She has taught
students of all ages and levels, from very young
children to adults. Carol has published extensively
in the field of teaching English to young learners,
including coursebooks, supplementary materials,
online storytelling and CLIL projects, as well as many
articles on primary ELT. Carol’s award-winning titles
include Bugs, which won a British Council ELTon,and 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom,
which was Highly Commended in the ESU Duke of
Edinburgh Awards. Carol’s most recent publications
are Footprints and Tiger Time. Carol is currently
President of IATEFL.

36| Seven pillars of creativity in primary ELT

4Making thinking visible in the English classroom:
nurturing a creative mind-set
Chrysa Papalazarou

Introduction
By integrating creative activities in English language
teaching, we encourage learners to practise animportant element in language learning which alsolies behind personal growth and the developmentof culture and society: thinking creatively. Creative
thinking involves a focus on exploring ideas,
generating possibilities, looking for many rightanswers rather than just one, and sharing of results.
Creativity, then, is present not only in terms of a
product, but in a process that promotes a more
open, curious and questioning relationship to others
and to the world. In this chapter I will be dealing
with how we can encourage creative thinking in the
English classroom by using artful/visual stimuli andthe visible thinking approach. First, I will briefly
describe Visible Thinking and its link to creative
thinking. Then, a more practical part will follow withsuggestions on how the approach can be useful inthe English classroom. This part draws on classroom
experience from working on a project with sixth
grade primary school students (11 years old) in astate school in Greece.

Visible Thinking has a double goal: it deepens
content learning and it fosters thinking skills
and dispositions. These are dispositions such as‘curiosity, concern for truth and understanding,a creative mind-set, not just being skilled but also
alert to thinking and learning opportunities andeager to take them’ (Visible Thinking website:www.visiblethinkingpz.org). Thinking dispositions,or alternatively habits of mind, that nurture acreative mind-set (Ritchhart et al., ibid.; Tishman,2000) involve elements such as:■■ wondering and asking questions■■ observing closely and describing■■ building explanations and interpretations■■ reasoning with evidence■■ making connections■■ capturing the heart and forming conclusions■■ looking for many possible answers rather

than one■■ not jumping into judgment quickly■■ making mistakes■■ sharing thinking with others

What is Visible Thinking?

■■ thinking about thinking (metacognition).

Visible Thinking is a research-based approachthat looks into how we can encourage learners’
engagement, independence and understanding.
The underlying idea is to nurture students’ thinking
by ‘externalising’ it when they engage with content,
by making it visible. The approach stems from
Project Zero, an educational research group at
the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Three
principal ideas are important here: a) learning is
the outcome of thinking, b) thinking is intricately
connected to content and c) thinking does not
happen in a linear manner (Ritchhart et al., 2011).

Why make thinking visible?
Thinking is largely an internal process. We areso used to most of it staying out of sight that ‘wedon’t notice its invisibility’ (Perkins, 2003). Making
students’ thinking visible is about getting an insight
into what and how they understand something.
When we do so, we are giving them more to build
on and learn from.

Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set |37

How do we make thinking visible?
Visibility of students’ thinking rests upon threeelements: questioning, listening and documenting.
■■ Questioning

This is where thinking routines come into play.
Thinking routines are at the heart of the visible
thinking programme. They are short, flexible
structures like a short sequence of steps or a setof questions − questions which promote curiosityand discovery, ask students to observe, makeinterpretations, make connections, and build
on ideas. They are easy to learn and teach, andwithin the classroom students can work on them
individually, in pairs or in groups. When theseroutines are used systematically − in this case incombination with the use of artful/visual learning
stimuli − and made relevant to specific content,
they are instrumental in stimulating student
curiosity and imagination, and in nurturing acreative mind-set.
■■ Listening

Listening is understood as active sharing. It
involves both the extent to which we sincerely
listen to and value individual students’ thoughts
and ideas, as well as our ability to listen andrespond to one another’s ideas. We learn fromthose around us and our interaction with them.
This is a view of thinking as a social endeavour.
It involves a constant interplay between thegroup and the individual that allows for a better
relationship between teachers and learners, whileat the same time encouraging community building.
■■ Documenting

Documentation of thinking may include:–– keeping blogs–– use of sticky notes where students’ responses
are recorded–– sheets of construction papers on the walls–– taking notes–– writing learning journals.

38

Journal writing is a powerful tool. When students
enter the process of reconstructing classroom
experience in writing it helps them become more
attentive and concentrated. Their commitment
levels grow and their note-taking skills too;they become more actively involved. Active
involvement fosters their motivation, selfconfidence and responsibility. Students monitor
their progress better, there is a deepening ofself-understanding and awareness of groupdynamics. They feel they write with a purpose.

Visible Thinking put into practiceIn this section I will be dealing with a selected
number of thinking routines and how I applied themin the classroom. Ideas, suggestions and examples
will be discussed. Description of the routines draws
on Making Thinking Visible (Ritchhart et al., ibid.) andthe Visible Thinking website.
During a project that explored how artful/visual
stimuli and the visible thinking approach can be
integrated in the English classroom, we worked on
five themes. This was done bearing in mind that a)thinking cannot be nurtured without content andb) I wanted to include the wide use of artful/visual
stimuli (paintings, images, short videos and animation
films). Some of the themes we dealt with were:bullying, war/peace, Asperger’s and autism, andschool. Each theme lasted about eight 40-minuteteaching sessions. Students’ thinking was revealed
and promoted through sticky notes, construction
paper on the walls, taking notes in class, a classblog, and through writing learning journals.
I should add that for every theme, apart fromthe thinking routines, activities that focused on
vocabulary and grammar were also developed.
Evaluation was continuous through the students’notes and learning journals. No tests were given.
Project time was coursebook-free, since the one
available had little to offer in terms of triggering
students’ interest and providing content
opportunities for thinking beyond the surface tooccur. The two groups I worked with each consistedof 21 mixed-ability students aged 11, their level ofEnglish ranging from pre-intermediate to upperintermediate. They were 6th grade state primaryschool students.

| Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set

Below are the descriptions of the thinking routinesthat were used in the project.

■■ ‘I perceive I shouldn’t play with them – I believe

they might hurt me – I care about my family.’■■ ‘I perceive I have no future – I believe my end

has come – I care about escaping.’

Step inside: perceive-believecare about■■ ‘I perceive I am frightened – I believe I am inThis routine asks students to step inside a character,and deepen their understanding of the other’s
perspective.

danger – I care about myself.’■■ ‘It’s not fair because everyone makes mistakes.’■■ ‘It’s not fair even if he had done something

because they are six and he is one.’Aim■■ ‘In my opinion, the children are cruel. They’re

six against one.’■■ It helps stimulate empathy.

Materials
An event portrayed in a work of art, a photograph,a story the class has read, a video.
Note: events having to do with issues of social justiceand fairness (racism, bullying, a historical event,slavery) can evoke an emotional response and leadto more creative understanding.

Procedure

What makes you say that?
This routine asks students to observe, describe
and interpret.

Aim■■ Students have to share their ideas about what

they see, read or hear. They have to back themwith evidence. It encourages them to understandalternatives.

■■ Introduce the source material. Ask students tostep inside, place themselves within the situationand imagine they are a person from the source
material. From this perspective ask them:

Materials
Works of art, photographs, poetry, readings that
invite making predictions.

–– What do you perceive?
–– What might you believe?

Procedure–– What might you care about?

■■ Introduce the source material. Ask students

Note: perceive here can be replaced by see,observe or understand. Likewise, believe can be
replaced by know or think. Generally, the visible
thinking approach invites teachers to adapt thewording of routines as they see fit.
■■ Students can work individually, in pairs or ingroups. It depends on how many ideas you wantto generate.

Classroom experience
I used this routine when introducing the theme ofbullying. The source material used was a detail fromthe painting Children’s Games by Pieter Bruegel the
Elder. The detail showed six boys holding anotherboy by feet and hands. It was the bump bouncing
game which involved bouncing someone’s buttocks
on a wooden plank as a form of punishment. I asked
students to step inside and imagine they were theboy in the middle of the picture. Here are some ofthe students’ ideas:■■ ‘I perceive that they are playing a game – I believe

they might make fun of me – I care about my
physical wellbeing.’

to reflect on the questions:–– What’s going on?
–– What makes you say that?
■■ The question ‘What makes you say that?’ should

convey a genuine interest in how the students
understand something. It should not sound like achallenge or test. Students can work individually,in pairs or in groups depending on how many ideas
you want to generate.

Classroom experience
One of the occasions I used this routine was again
on the theme of bullying. The source material used
was the painting ‘Bullying’ by the American painter,illustrator and filmmaker Matt Mahurin. The painting
shows an older girl with clenched fists and an
aggressive stance leaning over a younger one, atthe edge of a cliff. Some dark and gloomy shadows
are at the back of the painting. Here are some of thestudents’ ideas:■■ ‘An older girl is threatening a younger one

because some other people told her to do it.
I say that because the little girl is at the edgeof a cliff. Some shadows are behind the girls.’

Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set |39

■■ ‘The older girl is threatening the younger girl.

I say that because the older girl has tight fists.’■■ ‘I can see an older girl who is threatening ayounger girl and I understand it because theyoung girl is at the edge of a cliff. I think thatsomeone told the older girl to do it, because
I can see some shadows behind them.’

Classroom experience
I used this routine when introducing students to thetheme of war/peace. The source material used was
Picasso’s Guernica. Students’ responses were madevisible through the use of a concept map, a circle
map. Red colour is used for the phase when we
repeated steps one and two.

■■ ‘In the painting I can see two girls and six shadows.

The older girl is laughing at the little girl and says
words that hurt it. She is very threatening because
she has tight fists. If I were the little girl I would bevery afraid and frightened. I think it is an argument
or something like that. I am sure the little girl isin danger.’■■ ‘The title of the painting is Bullying and it issymbolic. We can see two girls, an older and ayounger. The younger is at the edge of a cliff.
There are some shadows, too. They’re witnesses.
Sometimes witnesses don’t know what to do.’Looking ten times twoThis is a routine from ‘Artful Thinking’ (another Project
Zero programme). It also aims at developing thinking
dispositions that support thoughtful learning.

Aim

Here are some of the students’ ideas:■■ This routine asks students to slow down, observe■■ ‘I saw in Guernica animals, people and destruction.

and think about words or phrases to describe
what they see. It encourages them to go beyond
obvious descriptions.

Materials
Any kind of artwork, especially visual art.

Procedure■■ Introduce the source material. Ask students

to take the following steps:–– look at the image quietly for thirty seconds–– make a list of ten words or phrases about any
aspect of what they see. Share them with therest of the class–– repeat steps one and two. Look again and try
to make a list of ten more words or phrases.
Share them.
■■ The ‘Looking Ten Times Two’ routine is useful ingenerating descriptive language before a writing
activity. Be flexible with the number of words andphrases students can come up with, depending on
their language level. The routine works best as awhole-class brainstorming activity.

40

I think this amazing painting depicts a frightening
event, a war. Lost dreams and lost lives travel fastin the painting.’■■ ‘…then of course we shared our ideas with eachother. We did that for two times and every time
we found new incredible words and phrases.
We call that a thinking routine.’■■ ‘It is a black world with a lot of sadness andscreaming. It is a war that never stops andkeeps you thinking. Is that real life? Or justan imaginary room?’

See think wonderThis routine asks students to observe carefully, thenthink and ask questions. It emphasises how important
it is to observe closely as the basis for the thinking
and wondering steps that follow.

Aim■■ It stimulates students’ interest and curiosity.

Materials
A painting, photo, object, video or excerpt of text.
Almost anything that can encourage observation,interpretation, and wondering. It is critical, however,to use a powerful stimulus.

| Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set

Procedure■■ ‘Out of this we must say that peace is more■■ Introduce the source material. Ask students toreflect on the questions:–– What can you see?

important than war. Because Guernica I believe
was painted about the wrongs of the people andone of these is war.’■■ ‘…what made Picasso draw like that. It’s because–– What do you think about it?
–– What does it make you wonder?
■■ If students begin by providing a response only

to ‘I see’, ask the follow-up question (i.e. ‘What do
you think about it?’) to prompt the next response.
Students can work individually, in pairs or ingroups. They can first take notes of their ideas
before sharing them.

Classroom experience
One of the occasions I used the ‘see, think, wonder’routine was in the theme of war/peace, again with
Picasso’s Guernica. It was the follow-up to the‘looking ten times two’ routine. The painting iscomplex and the students I worked with were quite
young, so I wanted to encourage more carefulobservations and deepen their understanding.
Out of the children’s wonderings I developed thenext activity, which was a text about the historicalfacts behind Guernica.

the Nazis bombed the ancient capital of theBasque Country, Guernica, and many people died.
That event shocked Picasso so much so he painted
Guernica.’

Colour symbol image
This routine helps students capture the essence ofideas they explore in the selected source materials.
They express themselves creatively in both verbal
and non-verbal ways.

Aim■■ They make connections and develop their

metaphoric thinking.

Materials
A story, a poem, a song, a short video.

Procedure■■ Ask students to take the following steps:

Here are some of the students’ ideas:■■ ‘I see dead people, sad faces, lots of animals

fighting with humans – I think it is a fantastic
painting, extraordinary – I wonder what was
happening when Picasso was painting Guernica?’■■ ‘I see a war of shapes, frightened faces, a hugedinosaur who eats a man, and a dying horse –I think it is a strange painting, but a fantastic
painting, too – I wonder is this painting fromreal life?’■■ ‘I see a fight where many people lost their lives

and then they became ghosts and monsters – I
think people are drowning in chaos – I wonder
what does the painting symbolise?’■■ ‘I see many people and animals. Many people havecut their hands maybe in a fight, and two ghosts
are looking at them. Someone holding a broken
knife or a broken sword – I think there are animals
and people that escaped from a fight – I wonder
what Picasso wanted to show with this painting?
What’s the true meaning of Guernica?’■■ ‘I think that the violence or sadness are strong,

but when people fight for their freedom or peace,the violence and sadness become weak.’–– Choose a colour that you feel represents
the ideas we have discussed. Explain why
you chose it.
–– Choose a symbol. Explain why you chose it.
–– Choose an image. Explain why you chose it.
■■ The routine works well as a small group activity.

Ideas can rush in and members of the group cancontribute in diverse ways. Some may offer theverbal part, others the more creative drawing part.
Some groups may find it easier to start with theother parts of the routine first, i.e. symbol or image.
The order is not binding. Use the student-madeoutput as a teaching input. Have groups present
their work and co-ordinate a plenary discussion.

Classroom experience
This routine was the last activity in the theme of war/
peace. Students organised themselves in groups andchose what they wished to represent – war or peace.
Here are some of the students’ ideas:■■ ‘Colour: we chose red and black because black

symbolises death and red symbolises blood.’■■ ‘Symbol: we chose the cross on a tomb because

many people die in a war. The spirit symbolises
the lost souls like in Picasso’s painting.’■■ ‘Image: we chose the bare tree because it

symbolises sadness and no life.’

Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set |

41

be exceptionally clever and that autism can’t
stop life for anyone. I think we learned torespect difference.’■■ ‘I used to think that autism is always a bad thing.

That they are not (so) normal people. Now, I thinkthat Asperger’s or autistic people can be smarter
than the non-autistic people. I also think now thatthey are normal.’■■ ‘I used to think nothing about Asperger’s andautism because I didn’t know anything. Now, I thinkpeople with autism are normal people. They can
go to school, they have families, jobs, and they
can do what we do, just differently.’

I used to think... Now I think...
Aim■■ This routine helps students reflect on how theirthinking and ideas might have changed overtime as they have developed their understandingof an issue.

Now, I think that they are very normal people
and that I want to have an autistic friend.’

Chalk talkThis routine asks students to think and respondsilently a) to a prompt and b) to the thoughts of others.

Materials

Aim

After reading or discussing new information,
watching a short film, completing a unit of study.

■■ It helps them read others’ points of view andProcedure■■ Ask students what they used to think about the

topic when you started and what they think about
it now by using:–– ‘I used to think...’–– ‘Now I think...’■■ By reflecting on what they used to think about a

topic before, and what they think about it after
a period of instruction, students have the chance
to think about thinking itself, and develop their
metacognitive skills. Students work individuallyin this routine.

Classroom experience
This was the routine I used when we finished thetheme of Asperger’s and autism. The artful stimuli
that had been used during the theme included
a painting by an artist with Asperger’s, a shortanimation film, and relevant short videos.
Here are some of the students’ ideas:■■ ‘I used to think people with autism weren’t normal.

Now, I think that with our support, love, faith...
we can make people with autism feel betterin our world.’■■ ‘I used to think, what is autism? I believed people

with autism aren’t so clever. Now, I think they can

42■■ ‘I didn’t use to think anything about autism.

comment on them or ask questions. It helps thembuild understanding collaboratively. It is actuallya silent conversation on paper.

Materials
A single word, a phrase, a question relevant to a topic
of study. Questions generally trigger more thoughts
and comments.

Procedure■■ When starting a topic, give students a relevant

prompt to reflect upon.
■■ Ask them to write their thoughts, ideas andquestions about that theme on a big pieceof paper.
■■ Invite them to comment on their classmates’

thoughts, ideas or questions.
■■ Tell them that this has to be done in silence.

They can stand up, and move freely, but theycannot talk.
■■ Chalk talk works best when done in two rounds.

One at the beginning of a topic, and one at theend after more aspects of the issue have been
explored.
■■ While working on the routine the flow of ideas is

more important. In the end students can workin groups and focus on the accuracy of thesentences they have written.

| Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set

Classroom experience
The primary school students I worked with liked thefact that they could stand up and move freely aroundthe classroom in a circular way, reading and writing.
They found the silent element of the routine gamelike and responded warmly to it.
I tried chalk talk when we worked on the themeof school. We first looked at some paintings withdiverse school settings, observed and described
them. Then, I wrote on the board: ‘What ideas,
feelings or wonderings do you have about school?’
After the first round of chalk talk we elaborated
more on the theme of school. At the end of thetheme we had the second round of chalk talk.
This gives an idea of what finished chalk talk papers
look like:that the thinking routines are not used just onceor occasionally and that they are attached tomeaningful content. They need time, careful choice,and systematic use to bear fruit. My aim during the
project was to teach English in a way that would
encourage my students to unleash their creative
thinking, improve their self-esteem and motivation,and have a more memorable learning experience intheir English class. I also wanted the approach to be
associated with values, and a sense of community,
respect and trust. Through an ongoing, exploratory
effort visible thinking has been of considerable help
to that end.

References
Art in the English Class Project Website. Available
online at: http://1stchaidarienglish.blogspot.gr/
Last accessed 30/11/2014.
Artful Thinking Website. Available online at:www.pzartfulthinking.org/index.php
Last accessed 30/11/2014.
Perkins, D (2003) Making Thinking Visible.
John Hopkins School of Education, John Hopkins
University. Available online at: http://education.jhu.
edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/thinkingskills/visible/ Last accessed 30/11/2014.
Ritchhart, R, Church, M and Morrison, K (2011) Making
Thinking Visible: How to Promote Engagement,
Understanding, and Independence for All Learners.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Tishman, S (2000) ‘Why teach habits of mind?’,in Costa, A and Kallick, B (eds) Discovering andExploring Habits of Mind. ASCD: 41–52.
Visible Thinking Website. Available online at:www.visiblethinkingpz.org/VisibleThinking_html_
files/VisibleThinking1.html Last accessed 30/11/2014.

Conclusion
Visible Thinking has been developed within thecontext of the American education system. A mixtureof professional curiosity and interest in the potentials
it could have in ELT has led the author of this chapter
to start exploring it and experimenting with its
transferability in her English classroom. The
approach can have rewarding effects, provided

Chrysa Papalazarou teaches English in a state
primary school in Greece. She likes to encourage
students’ creative thinking through the integrated
use of artful stimuli and thinking routines inclassroom projects that deal with topics on humanvalues and social justice. She shares her lesson
proposals in her personal blog Art Least, and herclassroom practice in her class blog Art in the English
Class Project. She holds a BA in English Literature
with a minor in Greek Studies from the Universityof Athens and a joint MA in Comparative Educationand Human Rights from the Institute of Education(University of London) and the University of Athens.

Making thinking visible in the English classroom: nurturing a creative mind-set |43

5Personal and creative storytelling:telling our stories
David Heathfield

Introduction
Storytelling is a deeply creative part of being human.
We learn about ourselves from the stories we are told
and the stories we tell. This chapter shows that thelanguage classroom is a perfect environment forteachers and students to tell stories about our own
lives and experiences. The practical and enjoyable
activities are designed to build confidence andfluency in personal storytelling, so that our students
get a clear sense of themselves as creators of theirown stories and, at the same time, they learn tocommunicate more creatively in English.
This chapter offers nine activities:■■ for large and small classes■■ for pre-intermediate to advanced level andmixed-ability classes■■ for students aged ten to 100■■ which involve face-to-face communication■■ where the creative content comes from thestudents and teacher■■ which provide clear frameworks within which

students share their personal stories■■ which promote speaking and listening skills■■ which require no written prompts.

Personal storytelling
Humans are narrative beings. We filter the data
we are constantly exposed to and make stories
to tell our lives. A huge proportion of our daily
conversation is made up of personal stories, mostof them featuring some kind of problem that needs
resolving. As narrative beings, we aspire to be fluent
and confident when telling our stories in our mothertongue. So when language learners say that theywould like to ‘speak English better’, what they areoften imagining is being able to take part in social
conversation more fluently and confidently. In otherwords, ‘speaking English better’ often means being
able to share personal stories in a fluent andengaging way.

44

| Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories

Storytelling is not a one-way process. Face-to-facestorytelling is a co-creative act in that the listener’s
brain activity mirrors the brain activity of thestoryteller. This ‘neural coupling’ (Stephens et al.,2010) means that the listener tells and anticipates
the story along with the storyteller and influences
the course of the story. Our imagination is stimulated
when listening to someone’s story: experimental
psychologist Stephen Pinker writes ‘A recent brainimaging study reported in Psychological Science
reveals that the regions of the brain that process
the sights, sounds, tastes and movement of reallife are activated when we are engrossed in acompelling narrative.’
Students bring their lifetime of stories with theminto the classroom and these stories are our richest
resource. We simply need to provide activities whichgive students opportunities to develop as co-creative
storytellers and story-listeners in English. The ideal
source of listening material to start off a storytelling
activity is of course you, the teacher. You provide
an ideal model for your students because they
can aspire to speak English as well as you one day.
Some teachers have reservations about doing more‘teacher talk’ in class, but it is important to value thepersonal and interactive live storytelling you canoffer above pre-recorded listening materials. Your
personal presence as the live storyteller is worth
any amount of new technology.

Creative tasks
A challenge for many teachers is to get their students
listening closely to each other in the language
classroom. But it is only when students do genuinely
listen that they can build up their own speaking skills.
To develop as personal storytellers, we can give
students creative peer listening tasks which involve
predicting, finding out, remembering, discerning
between truth and lies, acting out scenes and making
connections with their own experiences. These tasks
encourage students not only to pay close attention
to each other, but to build on each other’s responsesand develop as a community of learners. We canencourage students to do the following – assuggested by Alida Gersie in Earthtales (1992):■■ encourage a free flow of ideas and value

every contribution■■ enjoy and recognise different ways of doing a task■■ allow for and acknowledge different andunexpected responses■■ show genuine interest in one another’scontributions■■ make sure all the group members havean equal share of time and attention.
Nothing comes more naturally to students thanlistening to their English teacher or to each othertelling a personal story, and then to reciprocate withanother story on a connected theme. Becoming
English language storytellers leads to improved
memory, language development, fluency andconfidence in public speaking.

Personal and creative communication
When storytelling with you and with each other,students are responding to a live and present
person and using non-verbal language. As teacher,
it is important to be aware of your posture, facial
expressions, gestures and the other subtleties ofinterpersonal communication so that you make yourstory engaging for your students and provide a
useful model. Equally important is the way you use
your voice: the changes in rhythm, tempo, volume,
pitch and emotion all convey meaning. Students learna great deal about pronunciation when listening
attentively to and looking at the face of theirstorytelling teacher. Generally, the best idea is tokeep the storytelling simple and articulate words
clearly, but avoid slowing down too much or you
might lose the energy and impact of the story.

You can finely adjust the vocabulary you use
according to your students’ ability. It is importantto challenge your students; they do not need tounderstand every word in order to understand thestory. But remember that, in the case of the activities
presented in this chapter, you are providing a modelfor your students to aim for. This subtle tuning into what your students need comes naturally withexperience. The same story can be adapted andtold with students at very different stages of theirEnglish learning. With monolingual classes ofstudents starting out with English, it may be entirely
appropriate to do mixed-language storytelling, toinstantly translate key vocabulary or even to tell thewhole story in the students’ mother tongue before
telling it in English. As Shakespeare himself put it:‘An honest tale speeds best being plainly told.’
When students themselves start to tell their stories,
it is very often the longest piece of uninterrupted
speaking they have ever done in English. The
activities offered here involve students conversing
in pairs or small groups, so it is not possible for theteacher to hear everyone. Encourage students tofocus on fluency and clarity and not to be overly
concerned with accuracy. The main thing is thatstudents closely listen to and understand eachother. If they do not know how to say a particularword or phrase in English, they can say it in theirmother tongue the first time they tell the story.
They can then find out (from you, from otherstudents or from a dictionary) how to say it
in English before they tell the story again.
This extended interpersonal storytelling is hugely
satisfying and boosts their confidence as English
speakers. When evaluating their own English
learning, students comment that regularly doingthese kinds of personal storytelling activities
in class develops their confidence, fluency,
pronunciation, use of vocabulary and theirability to communicate creatively.

Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories |45

Listening and remembering
The first two activities focus on attentive listening
and remembering – fundamental in a class where
creative storytelling is valued.

I tell your story
Procedure■■ Ask who has a good memory and invite thisstudent to stand face-to-face with you.
■■ Explain that you are going to tell this student a

short one-minute personal story about somethingthat happened since you last met.
■■ As soon as you finish, challenge the student to tellit back to you in exactly the same way as if they
were you, using the first person ‘I’: same emotions,same energy, same pace, same gestures, same
facial expressions, same voice, same words.
■■ The other students will listen and notice similarities

and differences but must remain silent until
the end.
■■ Once the student has retold the story, find out

similarities and differences the other students
noticed in terms of emotions, energy, pace,gestures, facial expressions, voice and words andthen ask them light-heartedly to award the student
a percentage grade according to how similar theirstorytelling was, e.g. 76 per cent.
■■ In groups of three, students do the same. A listens

to and then repeats B’s story and is then given
feedback and a grade by C. B listens to C, andfinally C listens to A.

Problem stories
Procedure■■ Tell students the story behind a problem that is on

your mind and finish by asking ‘What should I do?’For example, today I might tell them the story
about my car needing repairs three times in thelast three weeks and each repair being more
serious than the one before.
■■ In pairs, students have one minute to listen to andremember the advice their partner would give.
As a whole class students report their partners’
advice to you.
■■ Ask students to think of a current problem they

feel happy to talk about in class and which theywould like advice about, e.g. a sick animal,
equipment that’s not working, something they
have lost, or forgetting someone’s name. When
half the students have indicated that they wantadvice, tell them that they are all A.

46| Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories■■ Put each A student with a B partner. B listens to A

tell the story causing their problem, ending with
‘What should I do?’ and then summarises the story
back to A to check they have understood andremembered correctly.
■■ Every B student finds a new A partner and tells

them the problem story they learned from theirformer A partner. The new A partner responds
to the story with a piece of advice.
■■ Every B student returns to their initial A partnerand gives them the advice.
■■ Invite the A students to comment on the advice

they have received to the whole class and whether
they will follow it.
This is adapted from an activity I did in a personal
storytelling workshop led by Dr Alida Gersie. It is bestused where an atmosphere of mutual respect andtrust is already established among members of thegroup and can be a genuinely effective way of
sharing advice with peers.

Truth or lie
The next three activities involve students guessing
how much of their partners’ stories is true. There’s nomore effective technique for encouraging students
to listen to each other than challenging them to workout whether their classmates are telling the truth
or not. One reason for this is that it’s just as muchfun to guess lies as it is to get away with telling them.
As well as this, the listening students focus not only
on the content but also on their partner’s bodylanguage and voice. This attentive listening supports
the speakers and gives them more confidence intheir ability to communicate creatively. In fact most
students find it surprisingly easy to invent a
believable lie.

What’s the lie?
Procedure■■ Let students know that you are going to tell a shorttrue personal story but that one detail will be a lie.
■■ Tell the story of something that happened since

you last met the students and do your best to hide
the lie among the true details.
■■ After listening to you, students in pairs guessthe lie.
■■ Find out students’ guesses without letting themknow if they’re right or wrong. When all theguesses have been made, reveal the lie.
■■ Students in groups of three take it in turns to telltheir recent story, while the other two listen andafterwards guess the lie.

■■ Find out which students proved to be the best–– Why?

liars and who told the most interesting stories.

–– What was the lie?

This activity has become a favourite among
students I teach and they enjoy repeating it atregular intervals. They become increasingly astuteat disguising their own lies while picking out
each other’s.

–– How did you feel?

Tell a lie
Procedure■■ In this activity you are going to play a gentle trickon your students so that they all spontaneously
create a believable story. In advance of the class,
you need to prepare enough small pieces of paper
marked only with a cross so that there is one foreach student and one for you. Fold them up andput them in a box. Fold just one piece of paper
marked with a tick.
■■ In front of the students unfold the one piece of

paper with a tick and take out and unfold anotherone with a cross from the box and show them bothto the students.
■■ Tell them that each piece of paper has either atick signifying ‘real story’ or a cross signifying‘made-up story’. Fold the two pieces again andsecretly discard the piece of paper with a tick.
Take another one (which of course has a cross)from the box, look at it secretly and tell a personal
story about a lie someone once told you.
■■ Your story must be completely made up.

In your story include answers to the prompt
questions below.
■■ Give students a minute to quiz you about the story

and then guess in pairs if it is a real lie someone
told you. Then they say in open class why they
believe or disbelieve your story. Do not reveal thatyour story is made up yet.
■■ Tell students that they are going to tell their own

story about a lie someone told them to at least
three different students. Invite each student totake out and unfold a piece of paper from thebox, making sure nobody shows their paper
to anyone else.
■■ Remind them that if they have a tick they must–– Did you believe the lie?
–– What were the consequences?
■■ Students stand in pairs ready to tell their stories.

Remind them that after each story the listenershould quiz the storytelling student who should
answer but should not reveal whether their story
is about a real lie or a made-up lie (of course they
will all be made up, but you are the only one
who knows this). As each pair finishes, they split
and form new pairs and tell their stories again.
Retelling the same story a few times helps themto improve their made-up story and develop theirstorytelling skills.
■■ Once every student has told their story at least

three times, bring all the students together and letthem discuss and guess whose stories were real.
After they give their reasons for believing a story,
the storytelling student reveals their paper which,of course, will show a cross.
■■ When students finally realise that none of thestories are real, let them all show their crosses
and then reveal your cross too. Students can say
how they feel about the fact that you didn’t tellthem the whole truth about the ticks and crosses.
You can justify this by pointing out that by having
to tell a believable lie, they had to use creative
thinking skills.

Whose loss?
Procedure■■ Choose a theme and prepare to tell a short true

anecdote. For example if you choose the themeof ‘losing things’, elicit and write up some suitablecommon collocations to complete a phrase
starting with ‘I lost…’ , for example, some money,
a book, my pet, my phone, my glasses, my pen,
my way, or my heart to somebody. Tell thestudents a short true anecdote about something
you once lost, using the prompt questions in thestage below to guide you.
■■ Ask the students to sit with a partner they don’ttell a real story and if they have a cross the story
must be completely made up, but they must makeother students believe them so the story should
be realistic (of course they will all have crosses).
Ask them to hide away their piece of paper. Tell
students that their stories should include answers
to the following prompt questions and read themout slowly, allowing time for students to imagine:know very well. Say: ‘In a moment you’re going totell your partner a true story about something
you once lost. Before you start, think about youranswers to these questions:–– When and where did it happen?

–– Who were you with?

–– Who lied to you?

–– What was happening at the time?

–– What did you lose?
–– When did this happen?
–– Where were you?

Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories |47

–– How did you lose it?
–– When did you realise you had lost it?
–– How did you feel?
–– What did you do?
–– Did you find it again?
–– If you did, how did you find it? If you didn’t,
when did you stop looking?
–– How do you feel now when you remember
this experience?’■■ Then tell them to listen to their partner’s story

to remember the details. Set a time limit of fiveminutes for both partners to tell their stories.
■■ When the pairs have finished, say: ‘In a moment

you’re going to choose one of those two stories.
Both of you are going to tell the same story toother students as if it happened to you. You wantto make them believe you. They are going to guess
whose story it is. One of you will be telling yourown true story. If you’re telling your partner’s
story, you’ll probably need to change a few things
to make us believe it could have happened to you.
OK, you’ve got three minutes to decide whichstory to tell and to learn it from your partner.’■■ When they are ready, ask each pair to sit facing

another pair. Say: ‘Listen to the same story toldby two different people and then you can ask
them both a few questions before you guess
whose story it is that you’ve just heard.’■■ As each group finishes, ask the pairs to form newgroups. Give students the opportunity to practise
telling the same story at least three times and toembellish it a little more each time. Finally, invite
the whole class to say how they managed to
identify the students who were lying and who
the most successful liars were.

Finding out
Knowing that it is up to them to find out what
happens in their partner’s story before they listendevelops students’ creative thinking and prediction
skills, builds anticipation and focuses attention when
they then listen.

Guess what happened in the end
Procedure■■ Choose a topic and prepare to tell a two-minutetrue personal story with an unpredictable ending.
For example, if the topic is travel, I might tell thestory of when a friend and I were involved in a car
crash while hitch-hiking from Italy to France.

48| Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories■■ Let students know that they are going to finish thestory, so they’ll need to listen closely. Tell the story,
establishing clearly who was involved and where
and when it happened and then stop and say,
‘Guess what happened in the end!’■■ Put the students in pairs and ask them to guess

two different endings to your story.
■■ Invite one willing student to tell their ending to

your story to the whole class. Then invite students
with very different endings to tell theirs. Next, tellthem the actual ending.
■■ Ask the students to think of a short personal

story with an unpredictable ending on thesame theme. They should raise a hand only
when they’ve thought of one. Make equal-sizedgroups of between three and five students with
one storytelling student in each group.
■■ Remind the storytellers to stop and say,

‘Guess what happened in the end!’ and remindthe others to guess and tell at least two different
endings. Finally, the storytelling students telltheir true endings.

Personal story questions
Procedure■■ Choose a topic and announce the title of a two-minute personal story you are happy to tell withinthat topic. For example, if the topic is the weather,my story could be ‘The day our house flooded’.
■■ Before they listen, ask students to fire you withquestions about your story for one minute.
Mentally note the questions but don’t answer
them yet. This will focus their attention.
■■ After a minute, immediately tell your two-minutestory incorporating answers to as many of yourstudents’ questions as you can. After finishing,point out that you didn’t answer the questions
as a list but integrated the answers into the story.
■■ Students each decide their own topic-related story

title and form groups of three. A announces theirtitle and B and C fire questions for one minute,followed immediately by A’s story. The sameprocess is repeated for B and C.

Act it out
Physically acting out events in a story together
promotes expressive storytelling and use of gestureand enables students to connect closely with theirpartners’ experiences.

Celebration

An act of kindness

Procedure

Procedure■■ Tell students the story of a celebration you■■ Learn and tell this short tale to your students. An

remember well. Use the prompt questions below
in the fourth stage to guide you, for example I
might tell the story of the night I went to a carnival
rehearsal with Brazilian friends in São Paulo,
when I tried to do the samba in the summer heatamong incredibly vibrant dancers and drummers.
Use mime to bring the experience to life andengage with the students as if they’re there at
the celebration with you. For example, you say:
‘It’s so hot in this warehouse, isn’t it? Look overthere! Can you see the way that couple are moving
their hips so quickly to the rhythm? Look how
their costumes are shimmering silver and gold.
Have you ever seen anything like it? Listen to that
deafening samba rhythm − there must be at leasta hundred drummers. Let’s get out there and joinin the dance procession − are you ready?’■■ Encourage students to ask you questions along

the way.
■■ Say, ‘In a minute you’re going to tell the storyof a celebration – it could be a ceremony,a festival, a party or another kind of special
occasion. It could be something really big ora small family celebration.’■■ Ask students to close their eyes. Read, slowly

pausing between questions: ‘Breathe in … and out… As you breathe, feel your body relax … You’regoing to remember the celebration and I’m goingto ask you some questions … Please answer themin your head so you don’t need to speak yet …
Where are you at the start of the celebration? …
Who are you with? ... What kind of place are you in?
… What time of day is it? ... Look, what do you see
around you? … Look at the people, the movement,
the colours, the light and shade, all the things you
see … What sounds do you hear? … What do you
smell and what do you taste? … How do you feel? …
What’s the best thing about the celebration? ... Is
there any kind of problem? … Now it’s coming to
the end … One final question − how do you feel
when you remember this celebration? ... Now listen
to your breathing, you’re back in the classroom …
you can open your eyes.’■■ In groups of three to four, students standand, in turn, invite their classmates to theircelebration. Before they begin, remind themto use present tenses, gesture and mime andto ask and answer questions.

Iraqi student called Jalil Kwad told me this story.

The pigeon and the ant
A pigeon was thirsty and flew down to a poolof water to drink. There in the water the pigeon
saw an ant. The ant was drowning in the waterand the pigeon felt sorry for the ant. The pigeon
found a dry leaf and dropped it into the water.
The ant climbed onto the leaf and was safe.
Some time later the ant saw a hunter. The
hunter was going to shoot the pigeon. The ant
remembered the pigeon’s kindness and the ant
bit the hunter on the foot. The hunter cried out
in pain. The pigeon heard and flew away, safe.
■■ Tell students a personal story that ‘The pigeon

and the ant’ reminds you of − an occasion whensomeone’s act of kindness helped you out of adifficult situation. Start the story by giving themsome background information about the situation;
be clear about your relationship with the person
who helped you and describe what happened andwhat was said.
■■ Ask a confident student to stand with you and play

the role of the person who helped you and act out
the story physically and verbally in front of theclass. Invite the other students to watch and listen
closely. It is not important if this conversation is alittle different from the original interaction.
■■ Ask students to think of a personal story

which ‘The pigeon and the ant’ reminds them of.
It should be a difficult situation when they helped
someone out or were helped out by someone notin the class, e.g. by giving something, by lending
something, by carrying something, by explaining
something, by giving directions, by looking after
someone or something. When half the class areready with a story to tell, ask them to pair withones who haven’t and to tell them the story.
■■ After a couple of minutes invite all the pairs tostand and act out the scene in English.
■■ Ask for pairs who are willing to show theirscene to the rest. The others watch and listen
in order to work out which student’s story it is,the details of the relationship, the situation andthe act of kindness.

Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories |49

Each of these activities can be extended very
effectively with a writing stage or can easily be
adapted for use as an interpersonal creative
writing activity.

Conclusion
By bringing creative personal storytelling activities,
such as the ones outlined in this chapter, into yourteaching, you are sowing seeds on fertile soil. With
your gentle nurturing, students’ stories grow andflourish and bring colour to the learning in yourclassroom in ways that cannot be foreseen. One
student responds to a classmate’s story by telling
another, deepening their appreciation of eachother’s thoughts, feelings, experiences anddifferences. The reciprocal nature of storytellingmeans that students begin to share their stories
spontaneously with minimal teaching input. The
content is rich and meaningful so students become
increasingly involved in each other’s life stories andtheir learning environment evolves into a selfsustaining community.
You can find examples of most of the story
activities included in this chapter on David’s
YouTube Channel at: www.youtube.com/channel/
UCscW6lz3okT_y_69SsY0LGw

References
Gersie, A (1992) Earthtales: Storytelling in Timesof Change. Green Print London (no longer in print).
Heathfield, D (2005) Spontaneous Speaking.
Peaslake: Delta Publishing.
Heathfield, D (2014) Storytelling With Our Students.
Peaslake: Delta Publishing.
Pinker, S (1999) How the Mind Works. London:
Penguin.

50| Personal and creative storytelling: telling our stories

Stephens, G, Silbert, L and Hasson, U (2010) ‘Speakerlistener neural coupling underlies successfulcommunication’. Proceedings of the National
Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
107 (32). Available online at: www.pnas.org/
content/107/32/14425.full?sid=c8205d6a-08c1463f-9e38-b496c4da
David Heathfield combines teaching English in
Exeter with being an international storyteller
and teacher trainer. He tells stories with adults,
teenagers and children in an array of settings:
festivals, museums, forests, care homes and all
kinds of educational institutions. His books
Storytelling With Our Students and Spontaneous
Speaking (DELTA Publishing) offer teachers practicalways of putting creativity at the heart of language
learning. His work revolves around celebrating
cultural diversity, and he learns stories by listening
to people from all around the world.
David’s website: https://sites.google.com/site/
davidheathfield2/home6
Teaching grammar creatively
Jill and Charlie Hadfield

Introduction
Four main reasons have been advanced for using
creative activities with students. The first is thatthey are motivational, leading to positive affect.
‘Creativity stimulates and motivates. Students
given the opportunity to exercise their own
creativity tend to respond positively. Language
use and language learning are inherently creative
processes. I would argue that these features shouldat least be given some space in teaching materials.’(Tomlinson, 2003: 187). Similarly Hadfield andHadfield find that creative writing activities ‘often
demonstrate to students how powerful they can bein the foreign language, even at a fairly elementarylevel. Every new discovery they make in the foreign
language is in a sense an “act of creation”, butwhen they produce words on paper which are
original and creative, they see written proof of theprocess. This is a great encouragement to them forfurther learning’. (Hadfield and Hadfield, 1990: viii)
Other writers find creative activities encouragelearners to take risks, engage more deeply with thelanguage and exceed their current language abilities.
Tan Bee Tin (2007) finds that creative activities
enable learners to ‘push past their current language
abilities’. Murugiah (2013), citing Craik and Lockhart(1972) in turn, states that ‘as learners manipulate
the language in interesting and demanding ways,
attempting to express uniquely personal meanings(as they do in creative writing), they necessarily
engage with the language at a deeper level ofprocessing than with expository text.’
A third reason is that such deeper processing of
language also acts as a memory aid (Nematis, 2009;
Schmitt, 2000). Schmitt finds that the creativetechniques of mental linkage and imaging improve
retrieval of language items, and Nematis explainsthat ‘the more cognitive energy a person exerts
when manipulating and thinking about a word, themore likely it is that they will be able to recall anduse it later’ (2009: 14).

Finally, creativity plays an important part in L2
identity building (Hadfield and Hadfield, 1990; Maley,
2012; Norton, 1995; Tin, 2007). Tan Bee Tin (2007)
finds that through creativity learners ‘become
themselves’ in the foreign language, and Hadfieldand Hadfield (1990) explain that:‘By thinking up new ideas of their own in the foreign
language, students begin to make a personal
investment in the language and culture. In a way
they begin to “own” part of it, so they are no longer“foreigners” and “outsiders”’.
Using creative techniques for grammar practicewill thus motivate students, by making what could
be a routine and repetitious activity into somethingnovel and exciting. It will increase their self-esteem
by proving to them that they can use the newgrammar patterns in an original and entertaining
way. And it can increase retention of the grammar
items by leading to deeper processing of thelanguage. Finally, through the identity-building
function of L2 creativity, it can give them a senseof ownership of the new language.

Combining grammar and creativity:
constraints and freedom
There may be compelling reasons for using
creativity in the classroom, but at first sight,
grammar practice and creativity do not seemcompatible. Practising grammar involves following
rules, writing to prescribed patterns, following
established connections and repetition – all ideas
which seem antithetical to creativity, which is
associated with the freedom of breaking rules
and making new connections.
However, creativity, paradoxically, thrives withinconstraints: the adherence to rules, or followingof a pattern, as in a limerick or a sonnet, both ofwhich have tightly prescribed forms. Additionally,
many poems, stories and songs gain their effectthrough use of repetition. This paradox can be
exploited to provide opportunities for grammar
practice in creative activities by the provision oftightly controlled frameworks within which towrite. The activities provided in this chapter will
demonstrate these frameworks: ‘pattern poems’,and ‘listing’ activities.
Teaching grammar creatively |51

Helping students with what to say
and how to say it
Providing constraints will also help students with the‘what’ and ‘how’ of creative expression. The activities
in this chapter demonstrate two other ways in which
students can be scaffolded into thinking of andexpressing creative ideas: providing an imaginative
trigger and providing an audience.

Imaginative trigger
The activities in this chapter have three kinds of‘imaginative trigger’ designed to engender ideas.
■■ The simplest is a concrete stimulus: pictures,visualisations, texts, objects, music. These canhelp students by providing something for them todescribe, an example of ideas or style of writing,or by setting a mood. Guiding questions can beprovided to help the students exploit the stimulus.
■■ The second trigger involves activities which groupstudents in pairs and asking them to brainstorm alarge number of ideas, from which a selection canbe made for the creative product (poem, story,etc.). Several writers on the creative process haveseen this process as crucial to creativity. Campbell(1960) for example proposes a three-stage model:
the blind generation of large numbers of ideas –blind because it is not known in advance which
ideas will be selected and finally retained – thenthe selection of certain of these ideas for further
elaboration, and finally the retention of thosemost useful. Simonton (2003) elaborates on thistheory, seeing creativity as beginning with chancecombinations of ideas which are then subject toa selection process to determine which will finallybe retained. Smith et al. (1995) have a similar
theory in their ‘Geneplore model’ which consistsof a two-stage process: the generation of large
numbers of ideas which are then explored to findwhich are most productive.
■■ The third kind of imaginative trigger also derives

from writers’ observations on creativity, suggestingthat creativity involves somehow connecting two
apparently unrelated ideas. Heraclitus wrote that‘a wonderful harmony arises from connecting the52| Teaching grammar creatively

seemingly unconnected’, and in more modern
times, Koestler took up this theme in The Act
of Creation (1964), finding that the basis of all
creativity is ‘bisociative thinking… the creative
leap which connects two previously unconnected
frames of reference.’ It is of course difficult to thinkof unconnected ideas that might be creatively
connected, so scaffolding has been provided forstudents in two ways: ‘Idea Collision’, where two
normally unconnected ideas are provided for the
student, for example providing instructions foreating spaghetti or falling in love – activities which
do not normally come with instructions – and‘Making the Familiar Strange’, where students are
asked to take an unusual viewpoint on the world,
for example writing about a day’s events from thepoint of view of a toy rather than from the child
who played with it.

Providing an audience
One of the difficulties of writing is caused by theabsence of audience. A speaker has an interlocutor
who can react to what is said or ask for clarification.
Whereas a writer is communicating with a void. It canhelp students immensely with the organisation andexpression of their thoughts if they have an
audience. In these activities, students act as bothwriter and audience. Two techniques are used,‘Chain Writing’ and ‘Read and...’.
In ‘Chain Writing’, the students are simultaneously
writer and audience. In ‘Overheard in a Café’, forexample, students work in pairs, writing a line of an
overheard conversation at a time, then passing it totheir partner who writes the next line, thus mimicking
spoken interaction.
In ‘Read and…’ students write first, then become eachother’s audience. They not only read each other’swork, but have a task to complete, for example toread and guess what is being described, and to readand match descriptions and pictures. This ensuresthat students have an audience in mind while writing
and are suiting their writing to the task their audiencemust perform.

The table below shows how each activity we havedescribed uses constraints, imaginative triggers
and audience.

Activity

Target language

Genre

Constraint

Imaginative
trigger

Audience

Mystery object

Place
prepositions

Place description

Pattern poem

Picture stimulus

Read and guess

My day so far

Simple past

Narrative

Listing

Object stimulus

Read and identify

Brainstorming
Making thefamiliar strange
Platform 17

How it’s done

Present
continuous

Descriptionof a scene

Pattern poem

Imperatives

Instructions

Listing

Picture stimulus

Read and identify

Brainstorming
Idea collision

Read and match

Brainstorming
Emotive objects

Adjective order

Objectdescription

Pattern poem

Visualisation
Brainstorming

Read and give an
explanation
Chain writing

Maternal advice

Overheard
in a café

Constructions
with gerund
and infinitive

Advice/rules

Reported speech

Dialogue

Listing

Text stimulus

Read and guess

Idea collision
Brainstorming
Listing

Picture stimulus

Chain writing

Making thefamiliar strange

Read and identify

Teaching grammar creatively |53

Mystery object
Aim
For students to write a poem describing a scene.

Level
Elementary and higher.

Language practised
Place prepositions.

Preparation
Find a picture of a scene from Creative Commons: (http://creativecommons.org).
The scene can be indoors or outdoors but should have various objects, forexample a table, chair, bench, tree or umbrella that objects can be beside,
next to, under, etc.
Prepare the bubble table like the one below. Adapt it to cover prepositions/lexis
that your students know or that you want them to practise.

table
chair
sofa
bookshelf

In
On
Near
Besideathewindowlies a …
is a …

fireplace
tree
lake

Procedure■■ Show students your picture from Creative Commons.
■■ Create a poem like the one below and read it to them and ask them to guess

the final object at the end of the poem.
On a bench
Next to a tree
Beside a lake
Beneath the mountains
Under a deep blue sky
Lies a….
■■ Ask them to think a bit about the story behind the book – what kind of book?

Why is it there? Where is the owner/reader?
■■ Ask them to close their eyes and imagine a scene. It can be indoors or

outdoors. There should be a special object somewhere in the room. What is it?
Who owns it? Why is it there?

54| Teaching grammar creatively

■■ Put up the bubble table to help them with vocabulary and structure and ask

them to write a poem like the example above. You can specify a number oflines or give them the pattern:(preposition)… a /the …(noun)(preposition)… a /the …(noun)(preposition)… a /the …(noun)(preposition)… a /the …(noun)(preposition)… a /the …(noun)lies/is a…
■■ When they have finished, put them in groups of four or five and ask themto read each other their poems, but without saying what the object is.
The others should try to guess the object, and work out its story.
■■ Round off the activity by asking for feedback from each group. They should

read one poem and tell the story.

My day so far
Aim
For students to write a short narrative about the day’s events.

Level
Pre-intermediate and higher.

Language practised
Past simple (plus other narrative tenses if at higher level).

Preparation
Source a number of pictures of objects from Creative Commons for display
in class, or bring in a number of different objects, for example, pen, computer,mobile phone, camera/CCTV camera, glass or balloon.

Procedure■■ Display the pictures or objects.
■■ Ask students to work in pairs and choose one object.
■■ Then ask them to work individually. They should think of all the things thatthe object might have done during one day. Give them a time limit of aroundfive minutes to write as many things as they can think of, for example:–– for a pen: lay on the desk, wrote a love letter, drew a picture, scribbled
on the wall, ran out of ink, ended up in the wastepaper bin.
■■ They should compare lists in pairs and then use the ideas to write a shortnarrative of the object’s day.
■■ Pairs can read their narratives out and the others should guess the object.

Teaching grammar creatively |55

Platform 17
Aim
For students to write a collaborative pattern poem describing people waiting
on a station platform.

Level
Elementary or higher.

Language practised
Present continuous.

Preparation
Find an atmospheric picture of people waiting on a station platform. You cando this by searching Google Images (www.google.com/imghp) or Creative
Commons (http://creativecommons.org).
Prepare the questions and the poem pattern in the second and third sections of
the procedure for display on the board/screen.
Poem patternLine 1: Where are they?
Line 2: An (adjective) (woman/man) with (clothes or physical features)Line 3: What are they doing?
Line 4: And thinking of…

Procedure■■ Project the picture or give it out to the students. Ask them a few questions tofamiliarise them with the picture.
Example:–– Can you find someone who is texting?
–– Can you find someone who is sitting on a bench?
–– Can you find someone who is reading?
–– Can you find someone who is looking at the clock?
–– Can you find someone who is watching out for the train?
–– Can you find someone near the clock/by the stairs/by the lamppost, etc.?
■■ Ask students to work in pairs and choose one of the people on the platform.

Ask them to discuss the following questions:–– Who are they – what job do they do?
–– What do they look like?
–– Are they happy?
–– Where are they standing/sitting?
–– What are they doing?
–– Are they catching a train or waiting for someone?
–– Who are they going to see/who are they waiting for?
–– What is on their mind at the moment?

56| Teaching grammar creatively

■■ Give the students the poem pattern.
■■ Each pair should use ideas from their discussion to write the verse.

Example:–– sitting on the bench–– a sad woman with a long nose–– staring into space–– thinking of wasted time.
■■ When the pairs have finished, get them to read out their verse. The otherstudents should try to guess who they are describing.
■■ Finally you can put all the verses together to form a poem called ‘Travellers’or ‘Platform 17’.

How it’s done
Aim
For students to write a set of instructions for common actions.

Level
Pre-intermediate or higher.

Language practised
Imperatives, sequencing words.

Preparation
Prepare enough ‘making tea’ instructions for each pair of students to have a set.
Cut them up.

How to make a cup of tea
First, boil some water in a kettle.
When it is hot, pour a little in the teapot to warm it.
Then throw out the water and put in two spoons full of tea leaves.
Bring the water back to the boil.
Pour the boiling water on the tea leaves in the pot.
Leave the tea for two minutes.
Serve in cups with milk or lemon.
Add sugar if required.
Prepare enough of the ‘lucky-dip slips’ for each pair of students to have one each.
Cut them up and put them in a hat.

Teaching grammar creatively |57

Lucky-dip slips–– Eating spaghetti–– Falling in love–– Getting a promotion–– Having a relaxing evening–– Bathing a dog–– Going to a wedding–– Looking after a two-year-old–– Taking an exam
Also prepare the activities list, for each pair to have one copy.

Activity

NumberEating spaghetti
Falling in love
Getting a promotion
Having a relaxing evening
Bathing a dog
Going to a wedding
Looking after a two-year-old
Taking an exam

Procedure■■ Put students in pairs and give them each a list of the ‘making tea’ instructions.

Ask them what language helped them to sequence the instructions.
■■ Then ask each pair to take a slip from the hat. Explain that these are common

activities that do not normally come with instructions, but that they are goingto write a set of instructions for their activity.
■■ When they have finished, collect the slips in. Give each a number and pin themround the walls.
■■ Give each pair an activity list. Get them to walk around the room, reading the

instructions and matching them to the activities on their list. They should write
a number by each activity. When they have found one set of instructions foreach activity, they can sit down.
■■ Go through the answers.

58| Teaching grammar creatively

Emotive objects
Aim
For students to write a collaborative description of an object.

Level
Pre-intermediate or higher.

Language practised
Adjective order.

Preparation
Prepare a set of adjective strips for each group of five or six students in your class.
A/n

box

A/n

necklaceA/npair of shoes

A/nphoto frame

A/nnotebook

A/n

vase

A/n

clock

Prepare a poem framework for display.
She/he (action) the………….. Adjective 1………….. Adjective 2………….. Adjective 3………….. Adjective 4………….. Adjective 5………….. Adjective 6
Noun
That (more information about the object)
And (action)

Teaching grammar creatively |59Procedure■■ Put students in groups of five or six, sitting round a table. Give each groupa set of adjective strips. Each student should take one.
■■ Each student in the group should look at the noun (for example, necklace)and write one adjective describing it. They should leave space either sideof the adjective for other students to add adjectives.
■■ They should then pass the strip to their right, and the next student should

add an adjective. Remind them to leave space between each adjective forother adjectives to be added in the correct order.
■■ When the strips have been right round the group, they can look at andread the finished results. Each group should choose one to read out forthe other groups.
■■ They should read it out, but without saying the name of the object, e.g. ‘A small,round, red, lacquered, Japanese wooden…’ The other students should guess
the object.
■■ Ask the students to work in pairs and imagine:–– more information: about/history of the object, for example, how did theowner get it? (bought it on holiday/inherited it from an aunt/was given it
by a girlfriend etc.)–– action: a situation where the owner does something to the object, puts it
on/opens it/takes something out/destroys it, etc. (work out a reason why).
■■ Put up the poem frame. Students should put the ideas they discussed into thepoem frame. Example:
She took the:delicate
antique
Spanishsilverringthat he had given her for their engagement
and threw it into the river.
■■ They should then read out their poems. Others can try to deduce the reason

behind the action.

Maternal advice
Aim
For students to imagine giving advice from an animal to its young.

Level
Intermediate and higher.

Language practised
Imperatives, infinitives and gerunds:■■ should, must + bare infinitive■■ remember, try, take care, don’t forget, be careful + full infinitive■■ avoid, beware of, forget about, refrain from, resist+ing.

60| Teaching grammar creatively

Preparation
Copy the ‘Motherly Advice’ text for each student, if you want to use it.

AdviceIn this extract advice is being given to someone younger and lessexperienced. Read the extract and decide who is speaking.

Motherly Advice‘If … anyone scolds you – wash,’ she was saying. ‘If you slip and fall off
something and somebody laughs at you – wash .… Whatever difficulty you
may be in, you can’t go wrong if you wash. If you come into a room full ofpeople you do not know, and who are confusing to you, sit right down in the
midst of them and start washing. They’ll end up by quieting down andwatching you. Some noise frightens you into a jump, and somebody you
know saw you were frightened – begin washing immediately.’‘If somebody calls you and you don’t care to come and still you don’t wish to
make it a direct insult – wash…’‘And’, concluded Jennie, drawing a long breath, ‘of course you also wash to
get clean and to keep clean.’‘Goodness!’ said Peter, quite worried, ‘I don’t see how I could possibly
remember it all.’From Jennie, by Paul Gallico

Procedure■■ Give out the ‘Motherly Advice’ text. Get students to read it and discuss in pairs

who is speaking (a cat).
■■ Brainstorm with the class what other advice a mother cat might give to ayoung cat.
■■ Ask students to give you names of different animals (bird, dolphin, dog, etc.).

Put these up on the board as they offer them.
■■ Get students in pairs to choose an animal and write some maternal advice

from that animal to a younger animal. For example, ‘Remember to watch out
for cats’; ‘Try to avoid fishing nets’; ‘Be careful not to come in the house withmuddy paws’.
■■ Students read their advice to each other in small groups or to the class.

The others try to guess the animal.

Teaching grammar creatively |61

Overheard in a café
Aim
For students to report overheard dialogues.

Level
Pre-intermediate and higher.

Language practised
Reported speech, said, replied, asked, denied etc.

Preparation
Display around eight art portraits of men and women so that students can see
them all, or make one copy for each pair. The portraits should be numbered.
Write the numbers one to eight on small pieces of paper. Make enough foreveryone in the class to have one. Put them in a hat.

Procedure■■ Display the portraits or hand out copies. Tell the students they are in a café

and these are the people they can see around them.
■■ Pass around the hat and get each student to take a number. Make sure eachmember of the pairs has a different number.
■■ Ask the students to look at the picture with that number.
■■ Ask them to imagine:–– who is their character? (Name, job, married, town/country they live in)–– think of three adjectives to describe them.
–– what are their hopes and fears?
–– what do they worry about?
–– what is on their mind at the moment?
■■ Put students in pairs. Ask them to imagine they are sitting in the café and canoverhear a conversation between their two characters.
■■ Ask them to take a piece of paper and write a report of the conversation.

Student A should begin, for example, writing at the top of the paper: She said
that she wasn’t very happy. Student B should write the next line, for example:
He asked her why she felt like that.
■■ When they have finished, get the pairs to swap the conversations with anotherpair. They should try to identify the two characters.

62| Teaching grammar creatively

Conclusion
This chapter has demonstrated a number oftechniques for generating creativity – often thoughtof as the breaking of rules – in order to practise
grammatical pattern, and the application of rules.
We believe that such activities will prove more
motivational to learners, cause them to process
language more deeply, and to engage with thelanguage more personally than traditional grammar
activities, and in doing so will enable them to takepossession of the language, making it their own
and so develop an L2 identity.

References
Campbell, D (1960) Blind variation and selective
retention in creative thought as in other knowledge
processes. Psychological Review 67: 380–400.
Craik, F and Lockhart R (1972) Levels of Processing:
A Framework for Memory Research. Journal for
Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour II: 617–84.
Hadfield, J and Hadfield, C (1990) Writing Games.
Harlow: Pearson.
Koestler, A (1964) The Act of Creation. New York:
Macmillan.
Maley, A (2012) Creative Writing for Students
and Teachers – Humanising Language Teaching.
Available online at: www.hltmag.co.uk/jun12/
mart01.htm
Murugiah, M (2013) Improving the 5th formers’continuous writing skills through the creative writing
module. Advances in Language and Literature Studies
4/2 2 July 2013. Available online at: http://journals.
aiac.org.au/index.php/alls/article/viewFile/83/79
Nemati, A (2009) Memory, vocabulary learning
strategies and long-term retention. International
Journal of Vocational and Technical Education
1/2: 14–24.
Norton Peirce, B (1995) Social Identity, Investment,
and Language Learning. TESOL Quarterly 29: 9–31.

Tin, T (2007) A Report on a Collaborative
Creative Writing Endeavour: Spreading the Spiritof Creativity through Creative Writing Workshops
in the Asia-Pacific Region. Humanising Language
Teaching. Available online at: www.hltmag.co.uk/
mar07/mart05.htm.
Tomlinson, B (2003) Developing Materials for
Language Teaching. London: Continuum.
Charles Hadfield teaches on the postgraduate
TESOL courses at Exeter University Graduate Schoolof Education, after a decade at Auckland University,and a previous career in many different countries.
He has always had a great interest in ‘teaching
English in difficult circumstances’, spending many
years working in ‘developing countries’ in Asia andAfrica. As a poet published in Europe, the USA, New
Zealand and Britain, with four collections to date, he
has always emphasised ‘creativity’ in his teaching
and training. He is the author of several ELT books
including Writing Games, Reading Games, Introduction
to Teaching English and the Oxford Basics series.
Jill Hadfield has worked as a teacher trainer in
Britain, France and New Zealand and worked on
development projects with ministries of education
and aid agencies in China, Tibet and Madagascar.
She has also conducted short courses, seminars
and workshops for teachers in many other countries.
She is currently Associate Professor on the Language
Teacher Education team in the Department of
Language Studies at Unitec, New Zealand andhas been appointed International Ambassador for
IATEFL. She has written over 30 books, including
the Communication Games series (Pearson),
Excellent!, a three level primary course (Pearson),the Oxford Basics series, Classroom Dynamics and
An Introduction to Teaching English (OUP). Her latest
book, Motivating Learning, co-authored with Zoltan
Dornyei, was published in 2013 by Routledge in the
Research and Resources in Language Teaching series,of which she is also series editor.

Schmitt, N (2000) Vocabulary in language teaching.
New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
Simonton, D (2003) ‘Creativity as variation andselection: some critical constraints’, in M Runco (ed)2003, Critical Creative Processes. NJ: Hampton Press,
Cresskill.
Smith, S, Ward T and Finke R (1995) The Creative
Cognition Approach. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Teaching grammar creatively |63

7
From everyday activities to creative tasks
Judit Fehér

Introduction
Creativity is not for special days and not for aselect few; it is a life skill we use on a daily basis.
We combine elements of a language in a way that wehave never heard before and express thoughts thatare truly ours. We make decisions in situations wehave never been in before, form our opinions on
things we never knew of before. We improvise food
we never ate before, find ways of using faulty objects
we cannot replace, or use tools differently from theirdesignated use. We are humans and we simply
cannot help but be creative. This is how we survive.
Why do we then think that creativity is something
extra in our classrooms and not an integral part ofwhat we do? Couldn’t we integrate creativity into theeveryday practice of our teaching?
In this chapter, I aim to give tips to teachers on doing
just that: to integrate creativity into everyday
classroom practice and typical language learning
activities and exercises. I will use a framework of
thinking that is used by many teachers around theworld to think about and plan their lessons, namely:■■ working with the language system:–– presenting and practising vocabulary–– presenting and practising grammar–– improving pronunciation.
■■ working with skills:–– developing speaking–– developing writing–– developing listening and reading.
While sticking to this familiar framework, I would liketo show that small changes introduced step-by-stepat different levels of teaching can gradually lead to aricher and more motivational, more creative learning
environment for the learners and a more fulfilling,
more rewarding teaching experience for the teachers.

With each typical classroom/coursebook activity
discussed, I will use the following format:■■ How is the activity normally done?
■■ What alternative do I suggest?
■■ How does the proposed change affect teacher

and learner creativity?
■■ Adaptation, variation, extension – how can theidea be used in different ways?

Background to the activities
The activities in this chapter were designed withsecondary and adult classes in mind and they
are informed by a variety of current approaches
including learner-centredness, holistic learning,
multiple intelligences, neuro-linguistic programming,
humanistic teaching and task-based learning.

Presenting and practising vocabulary
When teaching vocabulary, we normally aim to help
our students to connect the form of a word with its
meaning so that they can get to the meaning if theycome across the form (they see or hear the word)
and that they can come up with the form (say it or
write it) when they have the meaning in mind. When
we present vocabulary, we provide the form, spoken
and/or written, and give some guide to the meaning
through a context, images, objects, mime, sounds
and verbal clues or by creating a situation in which
the meaning is clarified. This often calls for a lot ofteacher creativity, as they try to find ways to clarify
meaning without using the mother tongue, but thestudents can do some of this creative work.

From meanings to words
Students present meanings of words they don’tknow in English.

Procedure■■ Give students an example of what we mean bydifferent clues for the meaning of words. For
example, if your topic is travelling by train, choose
the word ‘train’, give a simple definition, imitate themovement and sound of a train and show students
a simple drawing of a train.

64| From everyday activities to creative tasks

■■ Ask groups of four to six students to write down intheir mother tongue five words on your topic thatthey do not know in English but they think would
be useful to know, e.g. station, ticket office, seatreservation, timetable, platform, written in thestudents’ mother tongue.
■■ Ask groups to provide clues to the words they

have chosen. They can use drama, mime, sounds,
drawings, gapped texts, paraphrasing – anything
but the mother-tongue word.
■■ Ask groups to give their clues, one at a time.

For example, students in a group pretend to be
trains while some students make sounds like aloudspeaker and they sing the tune you hear
before railway announcements in your country
for the meaning of ‘station’.
■■ Ask if another group thinks they have a clue for thesame meaning. If there is a group with the same
meaning, get them to give their clue, for example,‘You can get on and off trains here’, or they show apicture they drew. Check with the first group if it is
the same meaning.
■■ Ask students if any of them know the English word,

and ask them to say the word. If not, provide theword yourself. Get them to repeat the word andwrite it on the board.
■■ Continue like this, asking groups to repeat theirclues from time to time and say the word, to recap.

Variation■■ If you have a specific list of words you need toteach, make a big poster/slide of the words inthe students’ mother tongue and ask groups
to choose the five they want to learn the most.
■■ This technique can be used with any topic

which students have some experience ofand knowledge about.

Lessons from the box
Student-generated vocabulary games, activities
and exercises.
Michael McCarthy claims that ‘seven repetitions seemto be enough for most people to be able to memorise
a word’ (McCarthy, 1990: 117). Whether it is moreor fewer depends on many factors, such as thenumber of new words, the quality of repetitions
and the lapses of time between the repetitions.
For a word presented to a student to become apart of their active vocabulary, we need to create
opportunities for them to experience and use theword in a memorable way soon after the firstencounter, and then at longer and longer intervals.
Thus to keep a record of the new words is an
important aspect of effective teaching. The easiest
way is to have a word box in your classroom and ask
a student every lesson to make word cards for the
new words and put them in the box. The box thenbecomes the class’s word bank, where you find thewords that need to be recycled. Apart from using thewords in skills work, recycling can be done at threedifferent levels of creativity.

The teacher makes the game/exercise
Every now and then you can use the word cards todevise games and exercises. These may include:■■ matching and dominoes, e.g. matching word to

definition, word to picture, word to phonetic sign,
two parts of a word, collocations, etc.
■■ pelmanism■■ snap■■ miming competition■■ crossword puzzles■■ word search■■ word jumbles■■ snakes and ladders■■ gap-filling■■ multiple choice.

See the links at the end of this chapter to sites thatgive you rules, tools and ready-made word games.

From everyday activities to creative tasks |65

Students make a game/exercise usinga familiar framework/rules
Once your students are familiar with a gameor activity, they can provide the cards, boards,
dominoes and the necessary task sheets foreach other.
■■ Choose a game/activity your students know well,and get them to revise how it goes.
■■ Put them into small groups of about four to six.

Give them a selection of word cards from the box.
Tell them that their task is to make the game/activity using these words. Give groups thenecessary art supplies (paper, cards, coloured
pencils, etc.).
■■ When the games/activities are ready, get

the groups to swap games and play eachother’s games.
■■ Ask groups to give feedback to each otheron the games/activities they made.

Students invent a new game
This can be a class or school project/competition.
Teams of about six students work together to invent
a vocabulary game. Tell students that:■■ the games have to be original■■ teams need to write up the rules and make all

the tools (board, cards, dominoes, etc.)■■ there is a deadline■■ they can organise a games session where they

can play each other’s games.

Presenting and practising grammar
Typically, grammar structures are presented tolearners in texts written by a third party, mostoften the coursebook writer. The involvementin the procedure for the learner is limited to:■■ understanding the use and the ‘meaning’of the structure■■ identifying it in the text■■ generalising rules■■ applying rules.

This procedure engages the learners linguisticallyand logically, which is a rather limited engagement
given that our learners have a variety of skills, awide range of experiences, and their own unique
imagination and preferences for learning. The
alternative suggested below results in a more
complex engagement of the learner − thus a morememorable learning experience for most.

66| From everyday activities to creative tasks

From blues to bliss
Presenting and practising the different usesof the past simple and past continuous witha personalised story.

Procedure■■ Ask students to remember their previous day

and find a time when they were a bit bored, tired,unhappy, etc. Ask them to write down this time of
day on a sticky note and wear it, e.g. ‘around six
in the evening’.
■■ Get students to line up from the earliest to thelatest time of day. Then make small groups ofstudents who chose similar times. Ask students toshare what they were doing at the time they choseand demonstrate it saying ‘I was correcting tests
around six yesterday evening. What were you
doing around six?’■■ Get groups to report to the whole class, e.g. ‘Sueand Peter were revising the physics homework and
I was washing up around six yesterday evening.’■■ Ask groups to find a person or a group of people

they think could have changed that time of day
for the better for them, and write this name down,e.g. ‘Superman.’■■ Ask pairs to imagine that the person(s) reallyarrived and the changes their arrival caused.
Ask them to write this down as a short story.
Write the starting sentence on the board: ‘J J
were ___ing and J was ___ing when ___ arrived.’■■ As groups are writing their stories, monitor andhelp as needed. An example of a possible story:‘Sue and Peter were revising the physics
homework and John was washing up whenSuperman arrived. First he did the washing-up forJohn in twenty seconds and then we did a lot ofinteresting physics experiments. We laughed a lot
and we understood and learned everything easily.
We were looking at some Superman comic books
when we heard “Help! Help!”. Superman said
goodbye and left at once.’

Follow-up■■ Get students to write them/part of them on

the board and use them to explain the grammar,
ask concept questions, represent them on atimeline, etc.
■■ Collect and redistribute them, making sure pairs

do not get their own story back. Ask pairs to mime
the story as other students tell the story.

■■ Collect them and make a grammar exercise using

students’ stories, e.g. put the verb into the righttense. Or ask the creators of the stories to makeup the exercises themselves and then swap withanother pair.
■■ Get students to combine all the stories into one

adventure story.

Variation■■ You need to find the appropriate context that

relates students’ lives and/or their imagination
to the grammar point, e.g. a dream holiday for
future continuous, or a report about arrivingon a faraway planet for present continuous.

Improving pronunciation
Pronunciation is most often improved by recognition– repetition activities. Some form of this can be very
playful, like using tongue twisters, which gave me theidea for this activity.

I’ll twist your tongue
Students write tongue twisters collectively.

Procedure■■ Choose some tongue twisters for your class(see the sites below). Cut them into smaller parts.
■■ Give each student a part of one of the tongue

twisters.
■■ Get them to mingle and keep repeating their lines,

and find other students with the same tongue
twister and sit down together.
■■ Ask groups to put the parts in order, and thenperform the tongue twister.
■■ Ask them which English sounds they find hard topronounce and elicit the ones that are typicallydifficult for people in your students’ country.
Write the phonetic symbols of these on one
A3 sheet each with an example of a word that
contains this sound, e.g. /θ/ think. To the same
sheet, add a sound that is in contrast with thefirst sound and an example, e.g. /s/ sink.
■■ Put the sheets on the walls/floor/desks or passthem around and ask students to write more
words on the sheets with the same sounds. Add
some yourself as you walk around and monitor.

■■ Put students into groups of four and tell them tochoose one of the sheets. Ask the groups to write
as many sentences as possible using words withthe sounds on their sheet. They can use any of thewords on the sheets or other words that come tothem with the same two sounds. They can also add‘grammar words’ as needed, e.g. ‘The three silly
Smith sisters think that the maths class on
Thursday is awesome.’ All the students shouldmake a copy of the sentences.
■■ Ask students to decide who is A, B, C and D intheir groups. Ask students with the same letter tosit together, taking the sentences they wrote withthem. You’ll have four groups (A, B, C, D) this way.
If groups have more than eight members,
subdivide them. This will mean that you’ll havegroups A1 and A2, groups B1 and B2, etc.
■■ Ask groups to put their lines together to make atongue twister. They need to find the best orderfor their lines, and they can add to and take awayfrom any line as they think best. They will all needa copy of the tongue twister they make.
■■ Ask them to write the group’s letter sign on their

copy of the tongue twister and return with it totheir original groups.
■■ In their original groups, they then read out

their tongue twisters and get each other torepeat them.
■■ Ask groups to vote for the tongue twister that theyfind the most challenging. Tally the votes and do
the winning tongue twister with the whole class.

Follow-up
You can use these new tongue twisters in many ways:■■ to raise students’ awareness of different sounds:

give (groups of) students cards with one of thephonetic symbols in the tongue twisters. Read out
the tongue twisters. (Groups of) students stand up
and sit down quickly every time they hear thesound on their card■■ run a tongue-twister competition■■ use them as a warm-up activity before

a speaking task.

Variation■■ To practise the stress-timed rhythm of English, you

can use jazz chants in a similar way. After teachingsome to your students, they can write their own.

From everyday activities to creative tasks |67

Developing speaking
Typically, speaking activities fall into three
categories:–– Judit: Hello, I’m Judit’s bathing suit.
You are Joe’s trumpet, aren’t you?

■■ Students talk about themselves. They are asked to–– Joe: That’s right. Nice to meet you.

share facts about themselves, their feelings, ideas,
opinions, etc.
■■ Students talk as someone else. They act and speak

in a role. They receive some information about asituation, a problem, the character they are, etc.
and they pretend to be that person in the given
situation.
■■ Students talk about someone or somethingelse. They talk about a situation/story they
are not part of.

Students talk about themselves
Telltale objects
They identify with one of their own objects and talkabout themselves in this role at a ‘party’.

Procedure■■ Ask students what objects they use regularly athome, at school and in their free time. Write theobjects students mention on the board, e.g. plate,fork, school bag, maths book, mobile phone,computer, television, bicycle, toothbrush, ball,armchair, etc.
■■ Ask students to choose an object they have,e.g. they can choose ‘computer’ if they have one.
Check who chose which object and make sure
you have a good variety.
■■ Give students a sticky note/card each and ask

them to write the object they have chosen on
their sticky note/card and wear it.
■■ Explain that they are to become the object on

their sticky note/card, i.e. they become theirown plate, fork, school bag, etc. Give them aminute to imagine what it might feel like to be that
object, e.g. their own plate, fork, school bag, etc.
Are they a happy object? Sad? Clean? Dirty? Busy?
Relaxed? Bored? Old? New? Write these adjectives
on the board.
■■ Ask students to imagine that this is a party of theirchosen objects. They will mingle and meet eachother and chat with each other as these objects.
They need to find out if the objects they talk to
are happy, sad, clean, dirty, busy, relaxed, bored,
old, new, etc. (refer to the adjectives on the board),
and they will need to explain why they think so.
To be able to do this, they will need to have a chatand ask each other questions. Demonstrate thiswith a student.

68

Example:| From everyday activities to creative tasks–– Judit: And you. How are you?
–– Joe: I’m a little tired.
–– Judit: Does Joe often play on you?
–– Joe: Yes, every day for several hours.
–– Judit: Good for you! Judit only takes meto the swimming pool once a week.
–– Joe: How long have you been with Judit?
–– Judit: Ages! etc.
■■ After the demonstration, ask students what

adjectives could describe the objects (Judit’sbathing suit: bored, neglected, old; Joe’s trumpet:
tired, busy).
■■ Give students a time limit of about ten minutes tomingle and ask them to take notes. You may want
to play some party music in the background.
■■ When time is up, ask students which objects theyfound happy, sad, clean, dirty, busy, relaxed,bored, old, new etc., and why.

Variations■■ In lower-level classes, only use two objects,

which all your students have, e.g. half of thestudents become their schoolbag and the otherhalf become their shoes. Students talk to eachother in different object pairs.
■■ The basic idea of this activity is to aid students

with, and give them an aim for, talking about
themselves. This can be done in many different
ways, e.g. through asking them to choose somecoloured paper to represent an experience they
had or through asking them to compare
themselves to different objects, etc.

Students talk as someone else
Prompts for roles
When we would like our students to act and speak
as a different person, we need to communicate tothem who this person is and what the situation is.
This can be done using different prompts.

Role cards exchange
When students speak in role as a different person,
the question is: to what extent can I rely on mystudents’ knowledge about the world, theirexperience and their imagination to be able to act
in this role? If the situation is familiar to them, a shortscenario may be enough. If it is something that thestudents have little experience of, we tend to givethem information on how to act and what to say, too.
This, however, can be done by the students.

Procedure■■ Explain the situation you want students to writerole cards for, e.g. ‘We are in a shop. The customer
bought a T-shirt yesterday and at home theyrealised it was torn. The customer is now talking to
the shop assistant that sold the T-shirt to him/her.’
Have a chat about students’ experiences in similar
real-life situations.
■■ Put students into pairs and give them two blankcards. Ask them to write one of the characters on
top of one of the cards and the other character on
the other card. Ask them to divide the cards into
two columns and then write prompts in the twocolumns, like this:■■ Describe the situation to your learners and giveeveryone a feelings card. Tell them not to show
it to anybody. Explain that as they act out thesituation, they need to start talking with the firstemotion on their card. They change to the second
emotion when their partner uses the first one
in a sentence about them, e.g. ‘Oh, you are sofriendly!’, or ‘Why are you so reserved?’ Adjectives
with similar meanings are OK, e.g. kind/nice or
unfriendly. They finish when both of them havenamed both of the feelings, or when the time you
set is over.
■■ Demonstrate how this works with a student.

Then set a time limit of about three minutes.
■■ After the role plays, ask students if they managed

to get the emotions and how they worked out how
the other student was feeling.

Variations

Customer■■ In lower-level classes, give students only

Do this

Say this

Show the hole in the T-shirt

I bought it from you
yesterday.
When I got home, I showed
it to my mother and thishole was there.

■■ Give each pair a paperclip and ask them to clip

the two cards together. Collect the cards andredistribute them. Make sure pairs do not get
their own cards back.
■■ Pairs act out the situation using the cards

as a rehearsal.
■■ Pairs perform their dialogues as others listen

and say if they think the dialogue was acted
out using the role cards they made.

one emotion.
■■ Some other creativity-triggering limitations

include:–– start your reply with the last word yourpartner says–– one of the pair can only speak using questions–– one of the pair cannot say ‘Yes’ or ‘No’–– the speakers have to start their utteranceswith a word starting with the next letter of thealphabet, e.g.
A: Are you Peter?
B: Be sure I am.
A: Can you dance with me?
B: Do me a favour. Ask someone else.

Change of feelings scenarios

Find my picture home!

Short scenarios often work better if we impose
some kind of limitation, as this gives a direction
to students’ thoughts, and triggers their problemsolving thinking. Here the limitation is the emotions
they need to express.

Students describe their life in a picture, while theothers select the picture. Visual cues can make asituation clear at a glance while leaving it open for
personal interpretations.

Procedure■■ Choose a situation students are familiar with, e.g.

A: You are at the disco. You are sitting at a table
alone. B: You are at the disco. You see Student A
at a table alone. Ask him/her to dance.
■■ Prepare cards with two different feelings written

on them, e.g.: friendly → impatient, reserved →infatuated, etc. Have two extra cards fordemonstration.

Procedure■■ Select about five or six landscapes and put themon the walls so that everyone can see them. You’ll
need to have at least A3 sizes. Alternatively, makea slide-show and project them. Assign a letter toeach picture.
■■ Ask students to mentally choose one of thelandscapes and imagine that they live in that
picture. Who are they? What is their life like? What
do they do? Are they lonely or do they live in a
family? Are they rich or poor? etc.

From everyday activities to creative tasks |69

■■ Ask them to mingle and chat about their lives in

the role of the person they imagined. They must
not say which picture they are from. As they talk toeach other, they try to match the people they talkto with the pictures and write down the person’s
real name with the letter sign of their picture.
■■ Check with the class how they matched people

to pictures. Ask them if they liked their life in the
picture and why/why not.

perform their dialogues. The class guesses
which music inspired the performers.

Students talk about a third person
As with speaking in role, students will also need
prompts to talk about a third person.

Tell me my story!

Variation

Procedure

You can ask students to identify with charactersor objects in a picture:■■ Put students into small groups and ask them■■ choose a picture with quite a few objects and■■ What kind of story should it be? A fairy tale, anpeople in it■■ project it, and ask them to choose a person or an

object in the picture and speak about their life asthat person or object. The others guess who/whatthey are■■ the student who makes the correct guess first is

the next person to talk.

Musical dialogues
Students make up a dialogue prompted by music.

Procedure■■ Play four or five short instrumental pieces of music

to decide about a story they would like to hear.
adventure story, a science fiction story, a romantic
story, etc.
–– Who are the main characters?
–– What is the storyline?
–– What is the title?
■■ Ask students to draw an illustration related to thisstory on a sheet of A4 paper. Ask them to write thetitle on it, too.
■■ Ask two groups to exchange drawings. Givegroups about five minutes to prepare to tell thestory of the other group based on the drawing.
All the students in a group must take part in thestory-telling.

that suggest different moods. Ask students tolisten to the pieces and imagine two people
talking. They should then think about:■■ Put the two groups that exchanged drawings–– Who is talking?

■■ Get different groups to exchange drawings two–– What are they talking about?
–– What is their mood?
–– Is there a conflict?
–– Do they agree or disagree?
–– Is there a change of topic/feelings?
■■ Before playing an extract, announce the number

you have assigned to it.
■■ Stop after each extract and give students a minuteto jot ideas down.
■■ Play all the pieces again in the same order with thesame numbers announced.
■■ After each piece of music, give students one or

two minutes to compare in pairs what situations,people and dialogues they imagined.
■■ Play the pieces again and ask students to jot

down what people in their imagined situations
may be saying.
■■ Ask pairs to compare notes and then choose oneof the imagined dialogues and get prepared toperform it.

70■■ Play the pieces again, and then ask pairs to| From everyday activities to creative tasks

together and ask them to tell each otherthe stories.
or three more times, and repeat the second andthird steps each time.
■■ Ask original groups to discuss which story

based on their drawing they liked the most.
They may decide to give their drawing to thatparticular group.

Variations■■ Instead of drawing, groups can write key words

to prompt the story they would like to hear.
■■ You can use music to trigger students’imagination. Play some extracts for characters,
the place and the problem.

Developing writing
We often ask students to write something similar towhat they have read and/or we give them a scenario
and some prompts on what to write about and what
language to use. A lot of what has been said aboutdeveloping speaking applies to developing writing,too. Creative speaking activities can often be run as
creative writing activities and/or followed up by a

writing activity. You need to make sure, however, thatyour students are familiar with the genre you wantthem to write, e.g. they are familiar with letter formats
if you want them to write a letter.

Telltale objects
Students write a letter to themselves in the roleof the object they identified with.

Role-cards exchange■■ Pairs describe a scenario in which someone

returns an object to a shop:–– What is the object and what is wrong with it?
–– When and where was it bought?
–– What does the customer want?
■■ Pairs exchange scenarios and write an email/letterof complaint using the prompts.
■■ Pairs read each other’s letters and commenton them/reply to them.

Change of feelings scenarios
Instant messaging like real or simulated online chats/text messages work best. If students cannot do thereal thing, they can send a sheet of paper backand forth.
Find a scenario that works for instant messages,
e.g. making an arrangement or appointment or
discussing what happened at school. Engage each
student in two chats at a time to keep them busy.

Comprehension tasks fall into two main categories:■■ Hard listening/reading tasks

These allow for one interpretation and one correct
answer. If you misinterpret this kind of factual text
in real life, you are in trouble. You miss the bus orsign a contract that goes against your interests.
■■ Soft listening/reading tasks

These allow for many interpretations. They rely on
the reader’s/listener’s imagination and personal
judgement. How you imagine a character in a story
and what your opinion is of their actions does not
fall into the categories of right or wrong. This
open-endedness, which establishes a very
intimate, personal relationship between thereader/listener and the text, is an essential
element of stories.
Our comprehension tasks need to reflect thenature of the different texts. Both text types
may allow for some learner creativity, but more
so with the soft ones.

Hard listening/reading tasks
Pre-reading/listening questions andpredictions
Ask students to predict information they will getfrom a text, or get them to write questions theywould like to be answered. Discuss these after thelistening/reading.

Comprehension exercises from the students

Find my picture home!

Procedure

Students write about their life in the picture.
This can be done as diary entries, blog/Facebook
posts or tweets. Then they match each other’s
texts to the pictures.

■■ Divide the class into two groups. Ask groups toMusical dialogues
Ask students to write up their dialogue with stage
instructions and give it to another pair to perform
it. They could also write a letter as one of thecharacters to the other character in the dialogue.

read/listen to different texts, parts of the same
text, or ask them to focus on different aspects ofthe same text. Ask them to make comprehension
exercises for each other. It also works if they get
the same text and the two groups need to maketwo different types of exercise. It is also possible
to ask students to make a summary of the text andmake some factual mistakes in it, which anotherstudent will have to find and correct.
■■ In different groups they swap and do eachTell me my story!
Students write the stories instead of telling them.

other’s exercises.
■■ They then get the solutions for the tasks they havedone and check them.

Developing listening and reading
When we want our students to practise their
receptive skills, we want some evidence of what
they understand and how they interpret what they
have read or heard. We usually get this evidence
through comprehension questions, like open-ended
questions, true or false questions, completion,ordering, or multiple-choice exercises.

■■ Those who have done each other’s exercises

discuss questions and solutions in pairs or groups.
■■ Discuss any issues in plenary.

From everyday activities to creative tasks |71

Soft listening/reading tasks

Conclusion

These tasks invite students to share how they
imagine or interpret the text. They can also be invited
to elaborate on details or influence the developments
in a story.

In this chapter, we have seen a number of morecreative alternatives to typical, everyday classroom
exercises and procedures. They included activities
in which students create exercises and games foreach other that they normally get ready-made inbooks or from their teachers. With others, students
have a chance to tap into their own experience andimagination, reflect on their own life, act in roles,
animate objects or use their artistic, dramatic andmusical skills. The beauty of engaging our learners
in a creative process instead of keeping them in amore passive and receptive role is that this decision
automatically takes care of a lot of otherconsiderations such as:■■ Ask students to draw an illustration or a

cartoon strip after listening to or reading a story.
Then get them to compare with each other. It isalso possible to ask them to make some mistakeswith the illustrations, which other students thenneed to find.
■■ Stop the recording or students’ reading at a point

where a description of a character, their feelings
or a scene can logically fit. Ask students toimagine it and write it down or talk about it ingroups or pairs.
■■ Stop the recording or students’ reading at a point

where there is a decisive moment in the story. (Ifthey are reading, make sure you ask them before
they start reading to cover the part of the text
you don’t want them to read.) Get them to imagine
what happens next and share it through talking,mime, drama or drawing. Then they compare
these with what really happens. If you tell themthe story orally, you can stop at any point andask them to decide how the story goes on andcontinue the story the way students suggest.
If there is more than one suggestion, take avote or you can make the rule that you always
take the first suggestion you get.
■■ Give the descriptions of the main characters in astory to different groups of students. Ask them tomake a drawing of their character. Then groups
swap drawings and describe the character basedon the drawing. Groups return the drawings withthe descriptions they wrote on them. Groups
compare the description the other group madewith the original description, and they give eachother feedback.

■■ How is the topic/text going to be relevant andmotivating?
■■ How am I going to keep my learners busy?
■■ How are the learners going to be able to relyon their other skills and knowledge?
■■ How are they going to use the language

instrumentally, i.e. to achieve an aim?
■■ How are the learners going to derive pleasurefrom what they have done and achieved?
Through their creativity and the freedom creative
thinking gives to them, students get involved moredeeply and in more ways than with activities that
do not call for the use of their creativity. The resultof their work is more characteristic of them as
individuals and expresses more who they are andwhere they are at the moment. Taken together, thistends to lead to a richer, more memorable, moreenjoyable and more motivational learning
experience.

References
McCarthy, M (1990) Vocabulary. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.

■■ Ask students to choose pieces of music torepresent different characters in a story. Askthem to play the pieces and explain their choices.
■■ Ask students to sit facing each other as you playa dialogue/story with several different emotions/
events. Get them to show each other throughgestures and facial expressions how people inthe story feel. Then discuss.

72| From everyday activities to creative tasks

Judit Fehér is a freelance teacher, teacher trainer
and materials writer. Her students’ age has ranged
from five-day-old to 60+, and their levels from total
beginner to advanced. As a trainer, Judit works for
Pilgrims and the British Council, running courses andworkshops mainly in Hungary and the UK. Most of theteaching materials she has written target secondary
students. These include: Language Activities for
Teenagers (CUP) (contributor); Your Exam Successand the Bloggers series (NTK), which are courses
developed for Hungary; and Creative Communication,
which is a collection of skills-based, task-based
modular online materials. She is a co-author of
Creative Resources with Bonnie Tsai
(IAL, Atlanta).

8
Fostering and building upon oral creativity
in the EFL classroom
Jürgen Kurtz

Introduction
Creativity is a fascinating phenomenon. We typicallyview it in terms of thinking outside the box, in thisway generating partly unexpected, unconventional,
or novel ideas. ‘Creativity is inventing, experimenting,growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making
mistakes, and having fun’ (Mary Lou Cook, attrib.).
When we think of it in this way, we are inclined toassociate it with a high degree of mental agility,
flexibility and, ultimately perhaps, exceptional
intelligence. So when we think of creativity as an
outstanding product or an expressive outcome,we commonly think of great pieces of art, literature,
drama or music. This tends to make us consider
creativity as a special, very personal gift, and manyof us admire creative people for their talent and their
extraordinary achievements. In academia, this kindof creativity has been referred to as big ‘C’ creativity.
However, we can also observe a lot of creative
processes and acts in everyday life. These are less
spectacular, but nevertheless equally remarkableinstances of creative thought, expression, andbehaviour, referred to as little ‘c’ creativity inscholarly discussions (Sawyer, 2012).
Everyday cooking is a good example of creativity
with a little c. We often start off with an idea or
immediate desire, and proceed with a memorised
recipe or written script we find in a cookery book.
But sometimes we suddenly decide, or are forced
to decide, to change or add a few ingredients, andthis can result in a unique, tasty meal (in the bestcase). But usually, we are not aware of the creative
character or potential of daily cooking and all theother things we do in daily life.
When we learn a foreign language, we also engage
in multiple instances of little ‘c’ creativity. I remember
little Jenny, aged ten, who tried to ask for the rubbish
bin in one of my primary EFL classes in Germany a
few years ago. ‘Herr Kurtz, where is the dirty basket?’she said in a shaky, uncertain voice. This was a pretty
clever guess, because she managed to get her
message across, stretching her word knowledge to
its limits. An equally remarkable example of little ‘c’communicative creativity and oral spontaneity inforeign language learning is this utterance by Lucy,aged 13, who tried to express the notion of ‘living
upstairs’ in the target language, coming up with‘In our house, my grandparents live over me’.
I would argue that this kind of improvised speaking
or spontaneous communicative creativity inperformance is vital to target language development
and growth, mainly because of its inherent potential
for ‘failing forward’. Good teachers are alert toand pay close attention to all kinds of little ‘c’communicative creativity occurring in class andare prepared to respond adequately, on the spurof the moment. However, in order to enhancetarget language communicative competence insystematic ways, foreign language teachers alsoneed to be able to create windows of opportunity for
flexible, creative, and partially learner-regulated andimprovised target language use on a regular basis.
Waiting for little ‘c’ communicative creativity and oral
spontaneity to emerge in the EFL classroom is simply
not effective and efficient enough, given the limited
amount of class time and the number of learners ina typical class. Ultimately, teachers should have thenecessary know-how to design attractive learning
environments that can help nurture little ‘c’ oral
creativity in EFL classroom interaction.
This chapter begins by briefly looking at typical
patterns of interaction in EFL classrooms worldwide
and at potential threats to creativity in language
education in the current age of competency-based
standards, testing and outcome-oriented
accountability, underlining the pressing need forflexible, more process-sensitive instruction. Placingstrong emphasis on communication as participationand on learning as transformation of participatorycompetency and skill, it presents a small selection oftask-driven, learner-centred communicative activities
designed to engage foreign language learners inincreasingly self-regulated oral interaction in thetarget language. The activities are henceforthreferred to as ‘improvisations’.

Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom |73Oral interaction in EFL classrooms
around the globe
In many foreign language classrooms worldwide,
there is often very little room for learners to voice
their own thoughts and ideas and, furthermore,experiment with the target language in meaningfulcontexts and ways. As a considerable body ofresearch shows, instruction in many EFL classrooms
is usually largely pre-planned and scripted,
predominantly organised in terms of (teacher)initiation, (learner) response and (teacher) feedback
sequences (IRF). More generally speaking, foreign
language instruction is all too often viewed in termsof implementing a carefully structured curriculum,
attending to a particular approach or methodology,
following a specific procedure, actuating a fixedlesson plan, and interacting in pre-arranged, often
teacher-led ways. However, as already mentioned
above, in contexts like these there is usually very
little communicative space for learners to participate
spontaneously − from peripheral to central − inan experimental, experiential and improvisedmanner (Legutke and Thomas, 1999).
Current education reforms initiated andimplemented in many countries in recent years
seem to exacerbate this problem by placing primaryemphasis on the ability to perform to fine-gradedstandards of competency and skill. Imagination,
creativity and flexibility are chiefly viewed fromthis restrictive perspective. Moreover, creativity
is typically thought of as an individual process
or product, not as a co-operative endeavour. In
general, current reform initiatives focus much moreon accelerating measurable individual progress indiscrete areas of language learning than on fostering
mental agility, communicative flexibility, resourceful
spontaneity and a commitment to lifelong foreign
language learning.
Looking at recent education reforms in the UnitedStates, Berliner (2012) cautions against placing too
many expectations on standards-based reforms,on thinning down school curricula, and ultimately, onconceptualising education in terms of testing andmeasurable outcome primarily. In his view, reducing
education to competency-based instruction and thedemonstration of knowledge and skills in centralised
performance tests may eventually have someundesirable backwash effects. Sooner or later,
instructors might adopt a ‘teaching to the test
mentality’ which in turn could contribute to aclassroom learning atmosphere overshadowedby fear of failure and speaking inhibitions among74| Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom

learners. By analogy to the English word ‘suicide’,
Berliner (2012) warns against ‘creaticide by design’in this context.

Avoiding ‘creaticide by design’in the EFL classroom
In current international second language acquisition(SLA) and TEFL research, there is growing evidence
that thinking of classroom instruction and interactionin terms of a dynamic interplay of routine andnovelty, planning and improvisation, andpredictability and unpredictability appears to behighly important for promoting creative and flexible
language use and, ultimately, for successful learningand teaching (van Lier, 2007). However, conceivingof learning and teaching in terms of disciplined
improvisational practice is by no means new.
Johann Friedrich Herbart (1964) referred to thisfundamental issue as pedagogical tact or tactfulness.
In his inaugural lecture at Göttingen University, heoriginally framed learning in schools in terms of
cultivating the voice of the learner, placing strongemphasis on teaching as theory-informed, quickwitted professional decision-making in the here-andnow of the classroom. Viewed from this perspective,
promoting learner-centred, spontaneousinteractional flexibility within a supportive,
thoroughly planned, but not entirely scripted learning
environment is a key to orchestrating lively andfruitful EFL classroom interaction. In sum, it appears
to be important that teachers distance themselvesfrom what Sawyer (2001) refers to as educational‘script-think’. Underhill and Maley (2012) and Underhill(2014) address this issue in terms of ‘expecting theunexpected’ in class.

Fostering little ‘c’ oral creativity
through improvisational practiceIn order to avoid educational ‘script-think’ and,ultimately, ‘creaticide by design’, teachers need toquestion their individual beliefs about, and their rolein, developing oral proficiency in the EFL classroom.
It is essential that they reflect upon their personalrepertoire of teaching strategies and techniques,
including the ways they use EFL or ESL textbooks
and materials in class. Last but not least, they haveto be honest with themselves about their own levelof English proficiency and, if they feel it is necessary,
they need to invest extra time to improve it.
They should then consider the following, verybroad guidelines for orchestrating flexible,
instantaneous interaction in class.

Listening carefully to what learners say is of utmost
importance to fostering learning. This may soundobvious, but is complex and demanding, because
teaching a foreign language encompasses paying
attention to meaning (what do learners want to say?)and form (how do they say it?) simultaneously. In
many classrooms around the globe, teachers seemto focus overmuch on forms, especially on formal
mistakes or errors in pronunciation, grammar andvocabulary. Tolerance of error is usually low. In
addition, teachers frequently do not make it clear
whether their focus of attention is on formal aspectsof language or on the messages learners aretrying to convey. In consequence, learners arevery hesitant to respond to questions related towhat they did over the weekend, if teachers react
only to the linguistic mistakes and errors they
produce, disregarding the content of the message.
In the long run, interactional routines like these canseverely hinder learning because they undermine
learners’ willingness to take risks and speak
spontaneously and freely.
Being tactful means acting mindfully with learners
and respecting their dignity. Viewing learners as
deficient communicators who produce lots of errors
when given the opportunity to speak freely is a highly
questionable instructional approach. Rather, learners
should be seen as increasingly successful andeffective communicators who can participate
productively in many different ways in the classroom,
if confronted with ‘do-able demands’, that is, withmeaningful questions, cues, tasks and activities
which are just within their reach (Underhill and
Scrivener, 2012; Scrivener, 2014).
Nevertheless, the importance of IRF sequences
is not to be underestimated in this context. Good
questions and cues are those that facilitate learning,
including simple display questions, but these should
only be used when appropriate and necessary, andcertainly not exclusively. Ultimately, the traditional
IRF pattern of interaction remains as an importantpart of promoting learning, depending on thespecific goals and objectives to be attained(Kirchhoff and Klippel, 2013).
In general, it does not make sense to think ofsuccessful instruction in terms of an ‘either-or logic’.
Teaching needs to be approached in terms of a‘more-or-less logic’, depending on the specificinstructional contexts, goals and learners. This calls
for tact or intuitive tactfulness which cannot beplanned in advance. After all, teachers can only set

conditions for learning to happen, and – in the actual
teaching process – modify these settings flexibly,
simply because learners do not always learn what
they are taught.
Viewed from this perspective, lesson planningand improvisation are equally central to instruction.
It is perfectly clear that teachers cannot and should
not be expected to fully anticipate what is goingto happen in a lesson. Thus, unanticipated andsometimes erroneous learner utterances are not tobe viewed as an undesirable result of poor planningin the first place. Rather, they should be welcomed
as valuable learning opportunities. We do not learn
from getting things right all the time; it is mistakes
which fuel learning.
In sum, in order to promote oral proficiency inthe target language, it is essential to create
attractive environments for more adventurous,
partly self-regulated classroom interaction within
an error-tolerant, but not error-insensitive classroom
setting. Making good use of improvisations is ofcourse only one of many teaching options, as thispublication shows.

Improvisations in the EFL classroom
Improvisations are task-driven opportunities
for flexible communicative interaction in theclassroom, primarily designed to promotespontaneous, increasingly complex, fluent,accurate and contextually appropriate language use
between learners. The overall focus is on promoting
experimental oral practice in carefully planned, butpartially unpredictable situations in which learners
are allowed and encouraged to get their individual
ideas and messages across in many different ways,
both verbally and non-verbally, activating andstretching their entire communicative repertoire.
As communicative journeys into the unknown,
improvisations offer EFL learners a carefully
designed communicative framework for contextand culture-sensitive talk-in-interaction. In this way,
they are intended to bring together two fundamental
aspects of natural face-to-face exchanges outsideof the classroom:■■ the predictability of everyday communicative

events and social scripts as well as behavioural
patterns and routines■■ the unpredictability of spontaneous ideas

and thematic shifts within a given sociocommunicative framework.

Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom |75However, in order to enhance target language
learning and learning awareness systematically,
improvisations consist of two parts: an
improvisational framework for increasingly selfdirected peer-to-peer communication, followed byteacher-guided or teacher-supported whole-class orgroup reflection, conducted in the target language
as well. Here, teachers ought to avoid focusing
primarily on learners’ communicative problems
and target language deficits. Since nothing succeeds
like success, enhancing and adjusting learners’communicative contributions have to go handin hand. This does not mean that explicit error
treatment (attention to language form) is to be

Form
Meaning

neglected, but it needs to be integrated in a waythat is not threatening the learners’ willingness
to speak. If, and only if, the reflective part of an
improvisation is approached and conducted thisway, it can serve as a fruitful basis for subsequent
enactments, reflections and, ultimately, participatory
empowerment in the target language.
All in all, improvisations are complex learning
activities that seek to combine experientiallygrounded learner action with teacher-guided
communicative reflection in a cyclical, rather
than a linear way. The following diagram sums
up the underlying instructional concept:

Form
MeaningForm
Meaning

Meaning

Next improvised action (focus on communicativeinteraction on a slightly higher level of target
language fluency, complexity, accuracy andappropriateness)
Reflection (focus on enriching and/or adjustinglanguage and necessary world knowledge in terms
of promoting culture-sensitive learning; systematic
error treatment and language work if necessary)
Improvised action (focus on partly
scripted and unscripted, spontaneous
meaning-making and intention-reading in
the target language)76| Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom

The complex architecture of an improvisation
requires teachers to adopt different roles in the
EFL classroom, ranging from role model (‘the sage
on the stage’) to facilitator (‘the guide on the side’).
In general, good communicative timing is essential
throughout the whole instructional process.

A few sample improvisations
Geared towards intermediate, upper-intermediate,
and more advanced learners, the interactional
formats presented in the following were examinedthoroughly in terms of goal-specific design andpotential effects, but due to the highly contextualised
nature of the research project in which they weredeveloped and evaluated in Germany, they should
not be approached and misinterpreted as rigid
procedural scripts or recipes for instruction.
Rather, they should be seen as flexible instructionalframeworks or classroom scenarios that need tobe ‘brought to life’ by adapting them to the specificsocial and cultural contexts in which teachers wish
to use them.

The suggested situational contexts bearresemblance to real-world settings andcommunicative encounters. They vary in terms of(imagined) location, number of participants involved,
level of thematic and linguistic challenge, and, last
but not least, creative demand. Roughly arranged
in terms of required/targeted proficiency level(as outlined in the Common European Frameworkfor Languages; see: Council of Europe 2011), theyrange from A1/A2 (beginning) to B2/C1 (upperintermediate and advanced), but, in principle,
teachers can adapt each of the suggested activities
to the specific needs and interests of their learners
as well as to the special communicative goals andobjectives sought to be attained.

Each of the exemplary improvisations outlined
below is designed to provide learners with a flexible,
situated dialogical framework that consists of:■■ a brief opening sequence (a scripted opening

part or lead-in intended to break the ice and to
reduce speaking inhibitions among learners)■■ an unscripted middle part with a few

communicative cues or incentives that leave
enough space for a wide range of spontaneous
ideas, interpretations and learner-learnerexchanges, based on prior knowledge and skill■■ in contrast to the traditional role plays of theearly 1970s, a communicative ‘emergency exit’sequence (a scripted final part with which the
improvised dialogue can be brought to an end
once the participants feel that they cannot or
do not want to go any further).

Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom |77

London Zoo, Regent’s Park, London, UK
Level■■ Beginning EFL learners, proficiency levels A1/A2.

Preparation
This is for a group of two learners. The learners’ roles need to be defined ornegotiated beforehand.

Materials■■ You can download materials about London Zoo from:www.zsl.org/zsl-london-zoo

Procedure■■ Opening sequence (scripted and needs to be introduced, contextualised

and practised in advance).
L1: I’m so excited about our school visit to the London Zoo next week.
L2: Me too! I bet there’s a lot to see and learn.
L1: My mum says the zoo has over 700 different kinds of animals.
L2: I hope they have lions and tigers, too.
■■ Middle sequence (unscripted and spontaneous, based on communicative cues

drawn from a box).
What animals do you hope to see there?
Do you think we can touch and stroke the tiger cubs?
I’d love to feed the [monkeys] and [giraffes]. What do they eat?
I’d like to be a junior zoo keeper for a day. My favourite animals are[elephants] …
What do you think the Friendly Spider Programme is all about?
I would like to take some pictures, but I don’t have a camera …
■■ Exit sequence (scripted, memorised through repeated practice).

L1: Well, OK then, I’ve got to go home now. I’m late already. See you
tomorrow?
L2: See you tomorrow. Take care.

78| Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom

La Jolla Shores, San Diego, California, USA
Level■■ Intermediate EFL learners, proficiency levels A2/B1.

Preparation
This is a group activity for up to four learners. The learners’ roles need to be
defined or negotiated beforehand.

Materials
Recommended internet search for: ‘dog sitters San Diego’, ‘dog training San
Diego’, ‘dog day-care centers San Diego’, ‘The Original Dog Beach San Diego’.

Procedure■■ Opening sequence (scripted, needs to be contextualised and practisedin advance).
L1: Let’s go to the beach tomorrow. The weather report says it’s going
to be very sunny and warm.
L2: Great idea! Where to?
L3: Del Mar beach is nice. I love it. Nice waves over there.
L4: Too many surfers. What about La Jolla Shores?
L1: Cool, but lots of tourists. If we get up early we should find plentyof space for all of us.
L2: Can I take Murphy with me?
L4: I don’t know. Let’s ask Mom or Dad if we can take him with us.
L3: That’s not necessary. We were there a few weeks ago. Dogs aredefinitely not permitted.
L2: So what do I do with Murphy? I can’t leave him alone at home all day.
■■ Middle sequence (unscripted and spontaneous, based on communicativecues drawn from a box).
Why not? Give him a bone and leave him in the dog kennel in the garden.
Leave Murphy in the car, air-conditioning on, while we are on the beach.
Arrange for a dog sitter (quite expensive).
Murphy jumps up on every person he meets; one-day dog training.
Drop Murphy off for dog day-care (trim nails, clean ears, shampoo fur, etc.).
Find a nice dog beach in the area.
■■ Exit sequence (scripted, memorised through repeated practice).

Oh look, there’s Mrs Miller from next door. She’s just coming backfrom walking Pluto. He is such a nice dog. Let’s ask her if she can take
Murphy tomorrow.

Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom |79

Flinders Street Station, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Level■■ Intermediate to upper-intermediate EFL learners, proficiency levels B1/B2.

Preparation
This is a pair-work activity for two learners in role. The learners’ roles need
to be defined or negotiated beforehand.

Materials■■ You can find visuals and other context-related materials at: http://ptv.vic.gov.au

and www.melbourne.vic.gov.au

Procedure■■ Opening sequence (scripted, to be contextualised and practised in advance,

V = visitor; R = resident).
V: Excuse me – is this the tram to catch to Flemington Road?
R: No, Glen Huntly Road, you want a 19 or a 64.
V: Where do they go from?
R: Well, the 19 stops right here, but for Flemington you must change
to the 59 at Elizabeth Street.
V: OK, what about the other one you mentioned?
R: The 64? It doesn’t stop here. Walk up to Bourke Street right aroundthe corner.
V: Thank you, but I think I better wait for the 19 right here.
R: OK. The 19 runs every ten minutes. You just missed it. Are you new
in town or just visiting?
■■ Middle sequence (unscripted and spontaneous, based on communicativecues drawn from a box).
V: I’m a backpacker from Germany. I have only just arrived and …
V: I’m a travel writer and I’m looking for some genuine Aussie food …
V: I’m just visiting family, but they don’t know I’m coming …
V: Yes, I’m new here. I’m trying to find [a job; love …]
V: I’m a professional photographer travelling around the world …
V: I’m just staying a few days. Do you know if I can use cash to pay
for the tram?
V: I won’t be staying long. Does Worldwide Bank still have an officeon Flemington?

80| Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom

■■ Exit sequence (scripted, memorised through repeated practice).

Either:
R: This is my tram. Sorry, I got to hop on now. Nice talking to you.
Enjoy your stay. Bye.
V: Many thanks again.
R: No worries.
Or:
V: Look, the tram behind this one is a 37. Thank you very much again.
Nice talking to you.
R: No worries.

Pier 21 National Immigration Museum, Halifax,
Nova Scotia, Canada
Level■■ Upper-intermediate to advanced.

Preparation
This is a pair work activity for two learners in role. The learners’ roles need
to be defined or negotiated beforehand.

Materials■■ You can download context related materials from: www.pier21.ca

Procedure■■ Opening sequence (scripted, to be contextualised and practised in advance).

L1: What a great exhibit, L2 [name; real or imaginary]. Take a look at thisposter. It says ‘It was hard to leave our friends, but it was impossible tostay’. These must have been very difficult times, forcing people to leave
their country, their loved ones, everything they knew, and a home theymight never see again.
L2: Waiting here to be let in must have been equally difficult: ‘People weretalking in different languages, hands and arms gesturing wildly as they
tried to make themselves understood’, this woman writes.
■■ Middle sequence (unscripted and spontaneous, based on communicativecues drawn from a box).

Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom |81This person says they were given cornflakes to eat when they came here.
Because of this, some felt unwelcome. They believed the idea of eating
corn was ridiculous – to them it was cattle feed, or food for chickens.
What do you think of this?
This poster is about language problems: ‘How grateful we were for thosekind souls who, speaking our language, were on hand to ease complete
strangers through the formalities of officialdom.’ What languages doyou speak?
Just imagine we were forced to emigrate. What would make you leave
Germany forever? [push and pull factors?]
Canada is a huge country. Where would you go to live? In one of the
big cities, perhaps?
How do you think immigration has shaped Canada?
Many people say that Canada is a nation of immigrants. What about
Germany today?
■■ Exit sequence (scripted, memorised through repeated practice).

L1: I’m so glad that I’m not forced to emigrate and leave everything behind.
L2: Yes, but the good thing is, you could go, if you really wanted to. Let’sfind out more about immigration to Canada today and talk about all thislater again.

82| Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom

Conclusion
Empowering foreign language learners tocommunicate increasingly freely takes time andpatience. As case-study research carried out invarious EFL classrooms in Germany indicates (Kurtz,
2011), learners are more likely to participate actively,
creatively and autonomously, if teachers offer
appealing communicative scenarios or frameworks
for partly self-directed target language use, and,furthermore, orchestrate oral classroom interaction
tactfully, as it emerges. This entails being prepared
for and accepting errors and mistakes as a naturalpart of the overall learning process. Interrupting andexplicitly correcting learners while they are trying to
get a message across will almost certainly reduce
their willingness to improvise and takecommunicative risks.
The exemplary improvisational activities presented
in this chapter are intended to function as steppingstones towards establishing a learning culture in
the EFL classroom which is less mechanical, lessscripted and less teacher-dominated. Ultimately,
however, creativity will only flourish if teachers
break old patterns and embrace spontaneity andunpredictability as essential parts of everyday
classroom interaction.

References
Berliner, D (2012) ‘Narrowing Curriculum,
Assessments, and Conceptions of What It Means to
Be Smart in the US Schools: Creaticide by Design’,in Ambrose D and Sternberg, RJ (eds) How Dogmatic
Beliefs Harm Creativity and Higher-Level Thinking.
New York: Routledge.
Council of Europe (2011) Common European
Framework of Reference for Languages: Learning,
Teaching, Assessment. Council of Europe. Available
online at: www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/Source/
Framework_EN.pdf

Kurtz, J (2011) ‘Breaking through the communicative
cocoon’, in Sawyer, RK (ed), Structure andImprovisation in Creative Teaching. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Legutke, M and Thomas, H (1999) Process andExperience in the Language Classroom. London/New
York: Longman.
Lier, L van (2007) Action-based teaching, autonomy
and identity. Innovation in Language Learning andTeaching 1: 46–65.
Sawyer, R (2001) Creating Conversations.
Improvisation in Everyday Discourse. Cresskill,
N.J.: Hampton.
Sawyer, R (2012) Explaining Creativity: The Scienceof Human Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Scrivener, J (2014) Demand-high Teaching. The
European Journal of Applied Linguistics and TEFL 3/2.
Underhill, A (2014) Training for the unpredictable.
The European Journal of Applied Linguistics andTEFL 3/2.
Underhill, A and Maley, A (2012) Expect theunexpected. English Teaching Professional 82: 4–7.
Underhill, A and Scrivener, J (2012) Demand high
ELT. A Discussion about re-inventing our profession.
Available online at: http://demandhighelt.wordpress.
com/
Jürgen Kurtz is Professor of English/Teaching
English as a Foreign Language at Justus Liebig
University (JLU) Giessen, Germany. He previously
taught at the University of Dortmund (TU), at
Karlsruhe University of Education, and at Saint Mary’s
University, Halifax, Canada. His current research
focuses on the role of improvisation and creativity
in enhancing oral proficiency in EFL classrooms, on
EFL textbook analysis, use and development, andon culture-sensitive foreign language education.

Herbart, J (1964) Vorlesungen über Pädagogik.
[Lectures on Pedagogy, JK]. Heidelberg: Quelle& Meyer.
Kirchhoff, P and Klippel, F (2013) ‘On the role ofteacher questions in EFL classrooms: Analyzing
lesson videos’, in Pawlak, M, Bielak, J andMystkowska-Wiertelak, A (eds) Classroom-Oriented
Research: Achievements and Challenges. Berlin:
Springer.

Fostering and building upon oral creativity in the EFL classroom |83

9Old wine in new bottles: solving language
teaching problems creatively
Kathleen M Bailey and Anita Krishnan

Introduction

Brief backgroundThe editors of this volume shared with us thefollowing definition of creativity: ‘the ability to
produce something new from imaginative skill,whether a new solution to a problem, a new method
or device, or a new artistic object or form.’ They
also note ‘as applied to education, we may see thisbroadly as the developing of creativity in teachers,
and the developing of their skills in developing thecreativity of learners.’

The concept of multiple intelligences has beenused widely in general education, and in recent years
it has been applied in language education as well
(Puchta and Rinvolucri, 2005). Multiple intelligence
theory, in essence, is the idea that everyone hasvarious kinds of intelligence, and that these
intelligences influence the ways in which we learn.
The theory posits eight types of intelligence (see,e.g. Armstrong, 2000; Gardner, 1983, 1999, 2011):

But as teachers, we do not think that creativity
should be limited to ‘a new method or device, or a
new artistic object or form.’ Indeed, the possibility
that creativity can be manifested in ‘a new solution
to a problem’ is the aspect of creativity which ismost closely related to the daily work of teachers.
From our perspective, creativity can also involve
using existing materials in novel ways to address
problems in language teaching. In fact, we agreewith Andreasen (2014) that ‘the essence of creativity
is making connections and solving puzzles.’This chapter documents a number of creative usesof images and objects by English language teachers
who have worked in under-resourced areas. We
gathered these ideas from email correspondencewith teachers working in several different countries
around the world. We describe creative activities andtools that these teachers have developed, working
entirely with free or very inexpensive materials.
We begin by summarising some information
about Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences.
We use that framework to explore several low-cost
strategies that English language teachers use to
generate creative new solutions to problems. We
will provide examples of how teachers have helped
to prepare their own students to be creative learners
and users of English.

84■■ visual-spatial intelligence

The ability to create visual images of a projector idea, and to act on such visualisation■■ bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence

Using one’s own body for expression or tosolve problems■■ musical-rhythmic intelligence

The ability to perform musically or to compose
music, to think in musical patterns, or to see andhear musical patterns and manipulate them■■ verbal-linguistic intelligence

The use of language; the ability to read, write,or talk to others■■ logical-mathematical intelligence

Using numbers, understanding patterns,
and exhibiting logical reasoning skills■■ naturalist intelligence

Being in tune with nature; being interested
in living things; understanding features of
the natural world■■ interpersonal intelligence

Sensitivity towards others; the ability to work
well with other people, understand others,
and assume leadership roles■■ intrapersonal intelligence

Being self-aware; understanding personalwants and abilities, and acting according
to this knowledge (Gardner, 1983, 1999).

| Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively

Driscoll and Nagel (2010) cite the work of Armstrong(2000), who claimed that people possess all of themultiple intelligences and that these intelligences
can work together to promote learning. We believethat while learners may have varying levels of ability
in the different intelligences, most people have thepotential to develop each one further.
Teachers who are aware of, and intentionally workwith, these kinds of intelligences can draw upon
students’ existing strengths. While it can be assumed
that most activities in language classes involve
verbal-linguistic intelligence, teachers can help
learners develop their other intelligences as well.
In this chapter, several of the creative ideas teachers
shared with us exemplify activities or resourcesthat cater to various intelligences, in order toenhance learning.

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively |85

Practical suggestions from teachers
In this section we will share several creative ideas we gathered from experienced
English language teachers who have worked in under-resourced contexts aroundthe world. Much of their creativity involved generating innovative solutions toproblems, particularly the problem of having limited materials. The teachers gave
us permission to share their ideas in this chapter.

Creating postcards
By Kait Decker

Level
Secondary school students, lower-level learners.

Intelligences
Visual-spatial and verbal-linguistic intelligences.

Materials
Paper, colour pencils/markers, and tourism brochures (or other sourcesof information about the local area).

Procedure■■ Have your students read the brochure information about the local area andcopy down different parts of the text.
■■ Ask them to each create a postcard with the information by drawing a picture

to accompany the written text.
■■ Have students share their postcards either with a partner, a group, or with thewhole class.

Variation
If you are working with more proficient learners, you can adapt the activity sothat students have to write their own original texts rather than copying themfrom brochures.
To give the activity a real-life context, you can also match your class with another
English class (either from your school or another school), and have students fromthe different classes exchange postcards like pen-pals.

Name placards
By Kait Decker

Level
Secondary school students.

Intelligence
Visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic and bodily-kinaesthetic intelligences, withelements of intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligences.

Materials
Paper and colour pencils/markers.

86| Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively

Procedure■■ Ask your students to make signs with their names on them.
■■ Instruct students to illustrate the signs with drawings that represent

information about themselves.
■■ Have students present their placards to their classmates by describing theirdrawings and sharing information about themselves.
■■ Encourage students to be as creative as possible with both the writing andillustrating steps.

Variation
Instead of drawing, students can cut out and paste images from magazinesor brochures on their name placards.

Guided drawing
By Kait Decker

Level
Secondary school students/adults.

Intelligence
Visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic, and bodily-kinaesthetic intelligences; the variation
adds an interpersonal element.

Materials
Paper and a writing instrument (e.g. pencil, pen, marker).

Procedure■■ Draw an image constructed of simple geometric shapes (e.g. a houseconsisting of a large square, two smaller squares for windows, a rectangle
for the door, a triangle for the roof).
■■ Describe the image to your students and ask them to listen to your directions

and to attempt to recreate the image.
■■ Show students the original drawing and ask them to compare the pictures they

have created with it.
■■ Ask students to draw their own simple figure using similar geometric forms.
■■ Put students into pairs and have them take turns describing to their classmate

how to draw their particular image.

Variation
Once students are creating and describing their own images in partners(steps four and five), you can vary this activity by using ‘tango seating’.
In this seating arrangement, paired students sit side-by-side facing opposite
directions, so that their right shoulders are nearly touching. Tango seating
is a useful variation because when the two learners can neither see eachother nor see the original drawing, they are forced to express themselves
verbally, to produce the target language, and to listen closely to theirpartners’ descriptions.

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively |87Grocery store flyers
By Kait Decker

Level
Secondary school students.

Intelligence
Bodily-kinaesthetic, mathematical-logical, verbal-linguistic, and interpersonal
intelligences.

Materials
Paper (construction paper, when available), scissors, glue, colour pencils/markers
and grocery store flyers.

Procedure■■ Ask your students to look through grocery store flyers and to cut out picturesof food items.
■■ Have them paste the cut-out pictures on a sheet of paper.
■■ Instruct students to make up their own prices for each item. You can allow

students to arrange the images into categories if they wish (e.g. dairy products,
meat, vegetables, fruit).
■■ Ask your students to invent original names for their stores, and to write thenames decoratively on their flyers.

Variations
Students can use these flyers to enact role plays in English in which somestudents play the role of shopkeeper while others act as customers.
The materials created from this activity help students engage in target language
practice and can be used to focus on different features of English. For example,
you can use this activity to draw students’ attention to grammar points (e.g. countand non-count nouns); for vocabulary practice (the names of foods); to practise
mathematical functions and numbers; to teach common phrases used while
grocery shopping.
Other kinds of two-dimensional images that can be used creatively in language
teaching include maps, timelines, mind maps, charts and graphs. In addition to
working with existing resources like these, students can create their own graphicorganisers. For instance, students can draw timelines representing important
events in their own lives or the history of their country. These timelines can beillustrated with drawings or photographs or cut-outs from old magazines.
Simple objects can also be used productively in language lessons to activate
students’ various intelligences. Household items or available school supplies(pencils, paperclips, scissors, etc.) can be used creatively to generate language
practice for vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation lessons, as illustrated below.
None of these activities require expensive materials.

Guess the item
By Keri-Ann Moore

Level
Beginner level, including children.

88| Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively

Intelligence
Bodily-kinaesthetic, verbal-linguistic, and visual-spatial intelligences; the variation
may activate naturalist intelligence.

Materials
A box (or any kind of large container), and several household items or schoolsupplies that are available locally.

Procedure■■ Collect several items and place them in the box. Show your students all of

the items before turning away from them to remove one item from the box.
■■ Show your students the contents of the box once again and ask them to guessthe missing item.
■■ Let the students lead the activity by giving each one a turn to remove an itemand having the other students guess the missing item.

Variation
You can fill the box with rocks, shells, leaves, twigs, feathers and other natural
items from the surrounding environment.
This simple game focuses the students’ attention and provides an engaging way
to reinforce vocabulary learning. Items should be selected based on the target
vocabulary aims you have for your students. For example, these items could
include familiar foods such as fruits or vegetables, or other common items likecombs, brushes, pencils, keys or spoons.

Pronunciation awareness raising
By Aya Matsuda

Level
This procedure is probably best used with teenagers and adults rather than children.

Intelligence
Bodily-kinaesthetic and verbal-linguistic intelligences.

Materials
Flat lollipops, one per student.

Procedure■■ Have the students say words with different vowel sounds while the lollipops

are in their mouths.
■■ Have the students describe the tongue movement involved in producing

each vowel.

Variations
For lower-level learners, students can mark tongue placement on a vowel chartinstead of describing the tongue movements verbally. If lollipops are not available,
you can use spoons or tongue depressors.
The use of lollipops in this activity helps learners understand the somewhat
abstract concept of tongue placement in English production in a more concreteand physical way.

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively |89

Total physical response (TPR) with paper shapes
By Kathi Bailey

Level
Any age; any level.

Intelligence
Visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematicalintelligences.

Materials
Colour paper, scissors; variations require building blocks or several setsof playing cards.

Procedure■■ Cut out basic geometric shapes (squares, circles, triangles, rectangles)of varying sizes from the colour paper.
■■ Distribute a set of shapes to each student.
■■ Give your students instructions like these: ‘Put the small red circle on topof the large blue square. Put the large green triangle under the small red
circle.’ (You can make your instructions as simple or complicated as you
would like, depending on the level of students.)

Variations
You can do a similar activity using either a set of building blocks or by stacking
playing cards in a particular sequence. If you use playing cards, for example, startby giving each student just one suit (such as clubs). If there are desks or tables,
you can give commands such as ‘Put the three on the desk. Put the seven to theright of the three. Put the two between the seven and the three.’
These TPR activities provide good practice with numbers, prepositions anddirections. In addition, students get listening practice while simultaneously
handling objects, which can facilitate learning and memory of the target language.
If colour paper is not readily available, you can substitute plain white paper bysimply eliminating the colour from the commands. If paper is not an available
resource, you can use local objects, such as leaves, seedpods or shells. In fact,teachers can use any materials that are locally available for this activity. Using
Cuisenaire rods, from the silent way method, is also an option for teachers who
have access to them.
Games are yet another creative way to engage learners in memorable andmotivational activities in the language classroom. The following games all use
inexpensive or free items in a fun and engaging way, promoting communicative
language use and evoking a range of intelligences in language learners.

90| Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively

Fluency relay
By Doug Brown

Level
Most effective with teenagers and adults.

Intelligence
Visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, verbal-linguistic, interpersonal and logicalmathematical intelligences.

Materials
This game is most effectively played with building blocks, but playing cards canbe used if blocks are not available.

Procedure■■ Divide your students into groups of four.
■■ Assign each team an observer, a watcher, a communicator and a builder.
■■ Explain the roles to your students: the observer watches the entire process ofthe game and takes notes on the language being used, but cannot speak until
the game is over; the watcher sees the teacher’s original structure as it is being
built and relays the information to the communicator; the communicator hears
the watcher’s description of the structure and tells it to the builder; the builder
must attempt to recreate the teacher’s structure from the information they
have received.
■■ Build a structure out of blocks or arrange the playing cards in a particular patternand only allow the watchers to see the structure. (You can hide it behind a bookor cardboard folder, or simply build it while facing away from your students.)■■ The watchers observe the original structure being built.
■■ The watchers describe the structure to the communicators.
■■ The communicators instruct the builders how to recreate the structures,without having seen the structure themselves.
■■ Following the communicator’s instructions, the builder is charged withrecreating the hidden structure from second-hand directions alone. (Note:throughout steps five to eight, the observers are watching and listening to theentire process, noting down the language and communication strategies usedby their teammates.)■■ When the game is over, the teams get to see the original structure that you

built and discuss why their structure may differ from the model.

Variations
If the builder has questions for the communicator, it is up to the teacher to decide
whether the students can speak to each other multiple times for clarification,or if they only have one chance to deliver the information.
The student teams must all have the same set of blocks as the teacher, as theirgoal is to replicate what the teacher has built by communicating with each otherabout the structure. The first team to correctly recreate the teacher’s original
structure wins the game.
This game is a more complex variation of the previous TPR activity. By adding
in a co-operative-competitive element, the simple activity becomes more funand challenging. Fluency relay also requires learners to produce different kindsof language in the classroom, based on the varied nature of each role, while
simultaneously increasing their language awareness.

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively |91Personal event timeline
By Christina Baldarelli

Level
Adults/teenagers; appropriate for all levels.

Intelligence
Verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, interpersonal intelligences,and to a certain extent, mathematical-logical intelligence.

Materials
Strips of paper and pairs of dice.

Procedure■■ Give each learner three slips of paper, instructing them to write the following

two things on each one: a) the date of a significant event in their lives; b)a sentence describing the event.
■■ Divide the class into groups of three to five students each.
■■ In their groups, ask students to arrange the slips of paper chronologicallyon a flat surface.
■■ Have each student select an individual marker (any small item that is locallyavailable, e.g. a shell or a rock) as their playing piece.
■■ One person in every group rolls the dice and moves their marker to thecorresponding slip of paper, reading the date and event aloud.
■■ The student who wrote the chosen date and event is then required to speak

for approximately one minute, describing the event and why it is significant
to them.

Variations
Include a specific grammar focus (e.g. past tense), or require the student who
had the previous turn to ask a question to the student who’s just told a story.
A creative variation of this game is based on the ice-breaker ‘two truths and a lie’.
In this version, students must write two true statements and one false one.
Christina felt that this added twist required the students to listen very carefully
so they could decide which statement was false.
These kinds of small group activities are very effective in large classroom settings
because they allow for all students to be engaged at the same time. Christina
shared the following comment: ‘This activity struck me as so fundamentally
accessible for any student, and in repeating it for various classes in the years
since, I still have yet to find a student who hasn’t been engaged by it.’92

| Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively

Vocabulary flip cup
By Jeramie Heflin

Level
Teenagers/adults; suitable for all levels.

Intelligence
Visual-spatial, bodily-kinaesthetic, verbal-linguistic and interpersonal
intelligences.

Materials
Cut-up bits of paper, paper or plastic cups, a long table or flat surface.

Procedure■■ Write new vocabulary words on strips of paper.
■■ Cut up the words into individual letters.
■■ Put the cut-up letters of each word into different cups (each word gets

its own cup).
■■ Line up the cups on opposite sides of the table.
■■ Divide students into two teams.
■■ In a relay style, the students compete against each other by trying to flip

the cup over, then arranging the letters to form the vocabulary word.
(Note: Students flip cups by placing them on the edge of the table and using
their fingers to toss the cup up so that it lands upside-down on the table).
■■ Once a student has correctly arranged the letters, the next student on theteam can begin their turn. The first team to finish wins the game.

Variations
This spelling game could also be expanded to having the students use thevocabulary in sentences. They could even challenge the other team to makeup sentences using particular vocabulary items.
As English does not always have a strong phoneme-grapheme correspondence,spelling in English can be very challenging. This is particularly the case forstudents whose first language spelling system closely matches the sound systemof that language. This game allows students who are not normally good at English
spelling an opportunity to succeed, as their ability to spell English words may bescaffolded by seeing the cut-up letters.
When Christina Baldarelli was teaching in Kazakhstan, she had very limitedaccess to teaching materials. Fortunately, the US Embassy sponsored an‘American corner’ in the local library with a shelf that offered simple freematerials for teachers to use. It often had several copies of National Geographic.
Christina wrote, ‘Since there were not many other resources available, I tried
to make use of these in any way possible to break up the monotony of ourmandated textbooks (or sometimes lack thereof!).’ The following activity isbased on this context.

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively |93Narrating photos
By Christina Baldarelli

Level
Low-level learners; variations make the activity suitable for any level.

Intelligence
Visual-spatial, verbal-linguistic and interpersonal intelligences.

Materials
Old magazines with photos (National Geographic works well), scissors, tape, paper.

Procedure■■ Give each student a photo of a single person performing some kind of action.

(You can either cut these out ahead of time or instruct students to find theirown photos and cut them out during class.)■■ Ask students to write three sentences describing the physical appearanceof the person in the photo.
■■ Collect all of the photos and post them in the front of the room.
■■ Collect all of the students’ descriptions, redistribute them and ask students

to read the description they were given and to identify which photo matches
the description.
■■ Instruct students to post the description alongside the appropriate photoon the wall.
■■ Have students return to the photo that they started with and read thedescription to confirm whether it was the one they had written originally.

Variations
For higher-level learners, you can creatively adapt this activity in a numberof ways, by asking students to:–– generate three sentences describing the people in the pictures without
using any colours–– make predictions about the photos–– write a haiku poem from the perspective of the person in the photo–– speculate about the people in the photo, asking them what challenges the
person may face and what might contribute to these challenges.
In the original activity, Christina found that her students engaged in interesting
discussions after matching the photos with their descriptions, depending onwhether the matches were correct or incorrect. Regarding the creative variations,she commented, ‘As the task became more abstract, the students showedcreativity and stretched the assignment to connect with the issues that meant
something to them, whether political, global or personal.’
Christina’s lack of materials is a situation commonly faced by teachers working inunder-resourced areas. Her use of photographs from old magazines influenced
the culture of her school and attracted the attention of other teachers. The
students began to use what they had done in her course in their other classes.
For example, some of the people in the photos evolved into characters in thestudents’ creative writing projects. Christina shared that the reaction of teachers
in her department was rather surprising: ‘My local colleagues were always keen toborrow the books I had lent their students, which they believed to be the source

94| Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively

of the characters that were surfacing in assignments or stories in their own
classes. They were always disappointed that the only materials I had to share
were my tattered photos. They may have been a bit suspicious that I had a cacheof special literature somewhere that I was keeping secret and lending out to my
favourite students.’
Christina’s story demonstrates both her own and her students’ creativity,and illustrates how visual images can be used in a variety of ways to promote
language learning and target language use.
Teachers in under-resourced areas have also come up with numerous creative
ways to solve problems. Some of these solutions have resulted in inexpensive
tools that can be used and re-used in language lessons.

Mini-whiteboards
By Sarah Hoch and Keri-Ann Moore

Level
Any age/any level.

Intelligence
Intrapersonal, verbal-linguistic, visual-spatial and bodily-kinaesthetic
intelligences.

Materials
White paper, plastic page-protectors, washable markers, damp cloth/paper towel
or whiteboard erasers.

Procedure■■ To create their whiteboards, instruct your students to insert a plain pieceof paper into a plastic page-protector.
■■ Students can write on the whiteboards with the washable markers and use

a damp towel or whiteboard eraser to erase the writing.

Variations
Mini-whiteboards are creative, inexpensive and versatile learning tools that are
particularly effective in large classes. For instance, Sarah Hoch asked students
to respond to a listening prompt by drawing a picture or writing a word or asentence. She noted that these mini-whiteboards ‘are especially useful for
teenagers, who co-operate better in class if they are engaged in activities
that involve competition rather than grammar exercises.’
There is no limit to how teachers can use these mini-whiteboards in theirclassrooms. By enabling students to respond individually, the use of miniwhiteboards allows each student to engage with the task at hand to the best of
their abilities. In addition, teachers can also use mini-whiteboards for assessment
purposes by monitoring students’ answers in class and using them to gauge theindividual progress of many students at once. Keri-Ann commented, ‘Sometimes
I ask a question and have each student write it and display their board so that I
can know that each student is understanding. It also helps me as a teacher because
I’m easily able to see when a majority of the class is not understanding something.’

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively |95Conclusion
In this chapter, we have described several examplesof creative activities that teachers in underresourced areas have shared with us. A parable in
the New Testament advises people not to put newwine into old bottles, because doing so would break
the bottles. We have flipped the saying around in ourtitle to suggest that old or commonplace materials
can indeed be used in novel ways, as the activities
clearly show.
The suggestions we have described here, however,
only provide a glimpse into the many ways teachers
solve problems creatively, using simple images orobjects that are readily available in their local
environment. Countless activities, tools and games
can be adapted to promote language learning,which allows students to tap into several kindsof intelligence at once.
There are many creative solutions to ongoingproblems (e.g. limited materials, large classes)
which we have not discussed in this chapter. Crafting
activities around the arts is one way to achieve thisgoal. For example, music can be introduced into theclassroom by having students write and sing theirown songs, draw pictures to illustrate songs or act
out different songs. These activities would obviously
stimulate musical-rhythmic intelligence as well as
several of the other intelligences discussed above.
Learners who are more dramatically inclined can be
asked to create skits, improvisations and role plays,
or to write and perform their own original plays. As
Christina Baldarelli’s use of haiku poems illustrates,
creative writing is another way for teachers to elicit
and assess their students’ production of the target
language. Other creative writing activities forlanguage learners include writing autobiographies,
poetry, biographies, short stories, and radio or
television shows. As many of these activities
encourage group work, they allow students todevelop their communication and language skills
within a realistic social context, thus engaging theirinterpersonal intelligence.

Some readers may feel that the activities describedabove are simply ‘fun and games’. However, in our
experience, and in the experience of the teachers
who so graciously shared their ideas with us, there
is a point to using images, objects and interactive
games creatively in the language classroom.
We believe that engaging learners in language
practice that is simultaneously challenging andrewarding leads to communicative interaction
and creates contexts that facilitate language
acquisition. In addition, we believe that these
activities activate and may even develop students’various intelligences. In the words of Mary Ann
Christison, a recognised expert on multiple
intelligences and language learning, ‘Intelligences
work together in complex ways. Because no
intelligence exists by itself, language learning
activities may be successful because they actively
encourage the use of several intelligences’(1995–96: 10).

References
Andreasen, N (2014) Secrets of the creative brain.
The Atlantic. Available online at: www.theatlantic.
com/features/archive/2014/06/secrets-of-thecreative-brain/372299/
Armstrong, T (2000) In their own way: Discoveringand encouraging your child’s multiple intelligences.
New York, NY: Penguin.
Christison, M (1995–96) Multiple intelligences andsecond language learners. The Journal of the
Imagination in Language Learning 3: 8–13.
Driscoll, A, and Nagel, N (2010) The eight
intelligences. Available online at: www.education.
com/reference/article/eight-intelligences/Gardner, H (1983) Frames of mind: The theory ofmultiple intelligences. New York, NY: Basic Books.
Gardner, H (1999) Intelligence reframed. New York,
NY: Basic Books.
Gardner, H (2011) Frames of mind: The theory ofmultiple intelligences (second edition). New York, NY:
Basic Books.
Puchta, H and Rinvolucri, M (2005) Multiple
Intelligences in EFL. Innsbruck, Austria: Helbling
Languages.

96| Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively

Dr Kathleen M Bailey received her MA in TESL and
her PhD in Applied Linguistics from the Universityof California at Los Angeles. She now works at theMonterey Institute of International Studies in
California, where she teaches graduate courses
in language assessment, research methods andlanguage teacher education. Her research interests
include teacher development and supervision,
language assessment, classroom research and theteaching of speaking. She served as the Presidentof TESOL from 1998 to 1999 and is the Presidentof TIRF, The International Research Foundation forEnglish Language Education, and the Vice Presidentof the American Association for Applied Linguistics.
Anita Krishnan is currently a graduate student at
the Monterey Institute of International Studies,pursuing a master’s degree in Teaching English to
Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL). She holds a
BA in Journalism and Mass Communications, with aminor in Linguistics, from New York University. In
2008, Anita earned an ESL teaching certificate
through a year-long programme at The New School.
She has since taught English in various contexts in
New York City, California, and in rural Paraguay,
where she served as a Peace Corps Volunteer for
two years.

Old wine in new bottles: solving language teaching problems creatively |97

10
A creative approach to language teaching:a way to recognise, encourage and appreciatestudents’ contributions to language classes
Libor Stepanek

Introduction

Theoretical background

This chapter offers a practical insight into acreative approach to language teaching, which
has been developed as a reaction to recent changes
in, and the growing demand for, creativity, flexibility
and advanced communication skills in the current
knowledge and communication society. These socialand cultural changes influence all sectors of society
and have an enormous impact on the area of
education. As schools, universities and theirlanguage centres across the world adopt new
pedagogies, methodologies and educational
styles, the roles of both teachers and learners
are beginning to change. Language learners tend
to be less and less seen as mere objects of teaching.
Increasingly, they become active partners inindividualised and interactive learning processes.
Similarly, language teachers tend to be less andless seen as authoritative ‘truth-tellers’. Increasingly,
they become guides, advisers and facilitators of
those learning processes.

Creativity is a complex field studied and discussed
from many different perspectives. This is one of thereasons why there is no generally accepted definition
and we always have to be aware of the point of view
we take in defining creativity. A creative approachto language teaching is an approach that presents
creativity as one of our many innate skills, a talentthat every person and every language learner has.
This approach focuses on the idea that we all canenjoy the potential to be creative under certain
conditions; that we all abound with many different
forms and levels of creativity and that it is theteacher’s task to stimulate the creative potential
in students.

Such significant changes in roles require higher
levels of flexibility and creativity, and these areas
have become the focus of recent research at
Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic. This
chapter presents an approach which has beendeveloped, tested and successfully implemented at
Masaryk University Language Centre. The approachis primarily used by university teachers but it could
also be used by teachers and teacher trainers in all
types of schools for all levels of language learners.
Its main aim is to invite teachers to recognise andvalue the existing knowledge and the diverse skills
language learners bring with them, and to encouragelearners’ contributions to language classes.

98

Language teachers have three advantages that
can help stimulate creativity in students.
First, language is creative by its very nature. We
can express or communicate one idea in manydifferent ways. Furthermore, every expressed orcommunicated idea can provoke many different
reactions. Every single sentence, phrase or word
we say or write is created in a unique moment ofcommunication and can be recreated, reformulated,paraphrased or changed according to the goals of
the speaker or writer.
Second, language classes are not limited by any
specialised subject or knowledge. Language
teachers can, therefore, build their lessons on topics
related to sport, management, law or philosophy andstill focus on language. This is why a community-ofpractice setting, where students and teachers share
their individual types of expertise and knowledge,
can be more easily established.

| A creative approach to language teaching: students’ contributions

Third, language classes can easily engage students
in creative situations. By creative situations we mean
close-to-reality situations in which students do not
use well-known and practised steps that can beapplied almost automatically in order to achieve one
correct solution to a problem. In creative situations,students have to produce one or more answers toa series of inter-connected problems. They do notknow what steps can be used to solve a problem,
they may not be sure if the problem has one solution,a wide range of possible solutions or if it has any
solution at all. Students simply do not encounterclear-cut situations that can result only in ‘succeedfail’ or ‘correct-incorrect’ solutions, rather they
face unclear situations with unclear and tentative
solutions. Sometimes, even the setting of a situation
or instructions can require a certain level ofinterpretation. Since language usage represents
a form of communication that can be used in nearreality situations can be created more easily thanin classes of chemistry or history, for example.
To sum up, a creative approach to language teaching,which is based on the idea that any student canbe creative when they are engaged in creative
situations, shows students the complexity of alanguage by exposing them to close-to-real-lifesituations in a safe, flexible and dynamic environmentby means of a class of learners constituted as acommunity of practice.

Practical suggestions and activities
The range of creative activities that have somepotential to enhance language learning is relatively
broad. The following section presents five examples
of successfully used practical tasks relevant to wholecourses, a series of activities and some individualassignments. First, an example of student-generated
sources is given in order to offer a range of internetsearch-based activities that focus on creative

situations outside of the class in which students
have to form opinions, make decisions, look forsolutions and respond to authentic reactions fromtheir peers. Then, some writing activities arepresented. A ‘song’ task suggests how to introduce
writing from a different perspective, while a peerreview writing activity illustrates strategies that canhelp learners recognise the absence of absolutely
correct/incorrect situations in writing and give themmore confidence as authors. Similarly, a grammar
activity is put forward in order to illustrate cases that
do not expose students to situations with ‘wrong’ or‘incorrect’ solutions. And finally, a vocabulary task ispresented in order to show how learning can build
on students’ existing knowledge and language skills.
It also allows teachers to show students somepossible barriers to creativity.

Student-generated sources
Teachers often believe it is their duty to choose
texts and activities for students, and are sometimes
surprised when students are not satisfied with theirchoice. In order to minimise the danger of spending
too much time on preparing materials our students
do not find engaging, we can use strategies of thenegotiated syllabus method and ask them to finduseful materials and decide which activities theywould like to try on their own. This activity can
improve students’ autonomy and cater for individual
learning styles.
We can show the principles by using the example
of reading skills. We can ask students to:■■ explore their fields of interest and find texts they

consider both interesting and of high quality■■ send samples of such texts to the course

online space■■ read the text samples before the following session.

A creative approach to language teaching: students’ contributions |99

At this point, we can choose to take control anddecide what activities we are going to do, basedon the collected texts. In other words, we havesaved our time when looking for texts that could
be interesting for the group, and our task thenis to find the appropriate sections of the collected
samples that can suit our teaching purposes best.
Alternatively, we can ask students to identify
problematic issues or issues ‘of interest’ and follow
their particular needs. In order to help them identify
issues, we may proceed in different ways and ask
them to:■■ compare their own texts with those of theirclassmates and see what differences orsimilarities they find■■ choose one text and paraphrase it in theirown words■■ identify the main ideas in each text■■ identify the author’s position■■ discuss their internet search strategies■■ vote for the most interesting text, the least

understandable text, a text with the highest
level of past tense use, with widest range ofvocabulary, or any other feature the classwould like to focus on.
This style of work offers several advantages forboth teachers and students. Teachers do not haveto look for the ‘best’ material that would suit aparticular group. Instead they obtain a databaseof texts from their students. Teachers can also
move away from their traditional positions ofproviders of ‘one ultimate truth’ and can become
facilitators of complex processes that form part oflanguage learning. Students, on the other hand, aremore actively engaged in the search for the texts;
they have to create their own criteria for quality, andthey practise reading and critical thinking individuallyand intensively outside of the class. Each student
also works in their own area of interest, so they candevelop both their language- and non-languagerelated skills at the same time. What is more, students
are engaged in situations with unclear solutions: they
do not know whether they can find a suitable text;
they have to form their opinions, make decisions,present their results to classmates and be readyto respond to their reactions.

100

writing, webquests and music, and its goal is to finda song about writing (e.g. how to write an essay rap).
In this activity we ask students to:■■ go to the internet and look for songs that are

related to writing in general or to any specificarea we want them to focus on■■ choose one or two songs and share them with theothers. Students can post links to a discussion forum
or to any other online space the group shares.
The internet offers some great songs and an
enormous number of terrible, weird andembarrassing songs. Both types are equally usefulfor our purposes. Thanks to the song material they
have found, students previously unaware of English
writing style can get to know some basic rules andprinciples outside of the class in a way that allows
them to accept writing more naturally. Songs sourced
by other students allow students to see the world ofwriting from a new, more humorous and enjoyable
perspective.
Thanks to the flexibility of its outcomes, this activity
can also bring diverse benefits to teachers who may
obtain a database of interesting materials without
any search, or they may avoid situations in which
they bring into class materials that are not appealing
to their students.
The activity can finish in class with a short discussion.
When students have not found any material theteacher would like to use, we can discuss briefly,
for example, search skills or the quality of the songs
collected. It can generate some in-class activities,
such as listening for the main idea or for details ofa particular song; or it can also continue with more
instructions for more home activities, such as voting
for the best, most useful or funniest song (dependingon what collection of songs we have compiled) or fora song that offers the most relevant information indifferent areas. This voting task can also serve just to
make sure students watch/listen to most of the songs
and spend more time being exposed to the topic ofwriting in this way.

Peer review
This peer-review activity may help students practise
writing in many different situations.

A ‘writing song’ activity

Procedure

Writing is a specific skill that some students
enjoy and others do not. In order to invite those
who hate writing, who are afraid of it, or see nopoint in it, we can prepare activities that offerdifferent perspectives. This example combines■■ Write a short piece of text (three to five sentences)| A creative approach to language teaching: students’ contributions

on a given topic (a summary of a story, of a topic
we have discussed in class, or of what we havelearned in the session, for example) on a sheetof paper.

■■ Pass the papers with their texts to the person■■ Ask students to share the samples they havesitting on their left (or right).
■■ Read their classmate’s text and suggest twochanges (we have to clearly explain that a ‘change’
does not always mean ‘improvement’. Students
can write a synonym or different version ofsomething which is correct and clear already,or they can correct a mistake if they spot one.)
Students get some minutes for this step. Then,
students send their papers in the same direction
two or three more times doing the same activity
with only one new rule – they cannot repeat thechanges their classmates have already come up
with, they have to suggest new ones.
■■ Return papers to the authors of the original texts.

The original authors read the suggested changes
carefully (theoretically six to eight of them) anddecide whether they accept them or not.
■■ Discuss what types of changes they haveaccepted, and which they have not, or if the ideasof their peers have showed them some new pointof view.
This activity makes students realise that writing is apart of language and, similarly to speaking, there are
no ideas that cannot be expressed in more than one
way. They should realise that the same idea can be
written in many different ways and all those ways
can (but do not have to) be correct. They also learn
that asking a classmate makes sense, because even
if they cannot come up with any improvements,
sometimes their classmates can find different pointsof view, thanks to which the original authors canimprove their texts on their own.

Real-life grammar
Grammar is too often related to rules and drill
exercises where students work in uncreative
situations and where they can apply only one
strategy to solve the problem, and their answers
are either correct or incorrect. They succeed orfail, in other words. The following activity shows apossibility to engage students in creative situations
in which they can always succeed.

Procedure■■ Show students some grammar feature in real-life

use in a film, book, text or any audio material.
Examples: The Hours film trailer for reported
speech, or a section from The Curious Case of
Benjamin Button for third conditionals.
■■ Ask students to search the internet, or their film,

book and audio collections at home for similar
examples of the grammar feature they have justseen or heard in your example.

found in their favourite films, videos, texts andaudio materials by posting them (or their links)
to the course online space.
This activity engages students in a situation that
stimulates creativity. They are invited to work
autonomously, and preferably in the area of theirown interest. They are also asked to think criticallyand decide which films or videos to watch, whichtexts to choose or which audio materials to listen
to. Moreover, there is no clear solution. They do
not know whether they can find such an example
or not. Similarly, there is no absolute correct orincorrect answer to this task – they can find exactly
the same example or a variation of a particular
grammar feature. For example, in the case ofreported speech, they may not find an example of‘will-would’ change but ‘do-did’ or ‘was-had been’;in the case of conditionals they may not find a third
conditional example, but a second conditional one.
This activity is also beneficial to teachers. They canwork with materials generated by students, whichsaves their time and expands their database ofmaterials for possible future use. But what is more
important is that they do not expose students tosituations with ‘wrong’ or ‘incorrect’ solutions:students who find some examples are successful.
However, those who do not find any examples but
show a list of films, videos, books or audio materials
they have worked with are equally successful. The
reason for the success of everybody is the fact thatits actual goal is not to produce several sentencesor phrases with a correctly used grammar feature(e.g. in tasks with instructions of the ‘choose the best
sentence using the third conditional’ type) but tomake students spend some time thinking about andfocusing on a particular grammar feature in their own
real-life preferred contexts. In other words, students
normally do not watch their favourite films andvideos focusing on grammar. This activity showsthem that even videos and films of their choice
can become effective language learning tools.

Vocabulary activities based on
students’ existing knowledge
New vocabulary can be taught in many different
ways. Sometimes, we present it in class with norelation to students’ existing knowledge, and at othertimes we present it in relevant contexts. When weare not sure what students already know or how they
use their vocabulary and we want to see the rangeof our students’ active vocabulary, we can use simple,
repeatable and easily adaptable activities that can bepresented as a simple exercise or a competition ofindividuals, pairs or groups.

A creative approach to language teaching: students’ contributions |101

Here are four examples.

Letters and words
This activity may help students realise how many
words of a certain kind they already know.

Procedure■■ Ask students (individually or divided into groups)

to write as many different words as possible thatstart for example with L and end with D in two
minutes, e.g. lived.
■■ Check the highest number of words produced.
■■ Share some examples students have producedwith the class.
■■ Discuss different types of words (e.g. nouns,

verbs, adjectives).
In this activity, it is important to realise that our
choice of the letters is essential. It can influence thesuccess of the activity. It can make the task extremely
difficult or even inappropriate for teaching purposes.
For example, if we choose the combination of letters
X–Y, it is extremely difficult to form a word. However,
if we choose the L–D combination, we can expect anumber of past tense forms of verbs, and similarly, if
we choose any combination of letters with the letter‘S’ at the end, we can expect a number of plurals.

Letters and sentences

discussion, we often hear various types of reasons for
not producing more sentences, such as: ‘….it is just agame’; ‘…it is not creative, I wanted to have every wordin each sentence completely different’; ‘…I was not sure
about spelling of some words’; ‘…it is not good to use
informal words at school’; ‘…my grammar is very bad’.
If we hear similar explanations, we can challenge
students and ask questions, such as ‘Did the
instructions say the sentences should begrammatically correct?’; ‘Did the instructions mention
spelling?’; ‘Did they say each word should be always
different?’ or even ‘Did the instructions say you
should write the sentences in English?’ They did not.
Those questions should make the students realisethat it was not the instructions that made the taskcomplicated. It was rather their own thinking, thebarriers they had built for themselves in their heads,
which prevented them from getting better results.
This type of discussion may be useful at the
beginning of a course. Later, when we deal with more
complex tasks, we can always remind our students ofthis activity and ask them whether they believe the
new task is really difficult to solve or if it is difficult
because they make it difficult in their own heads.

Synonyms
This activity may help students focus on synonyms
at any moment during sessions.

This activity may show students barriers that might
influence their learning.

Procedure

Procedure■■ Ask students in groups to write as many■■ Divide the class into groups.

synonyms for a particular word (e.g. say)as possible in two minutes.

■■ Ask students to write as many different sentences

as possible where given words start with theletters ‘I,S,A,W,R’, in two minutes. I… S… A… W… R…
(e.g. I started acting with Robert).

■■ Check the highest number of synonyms produced.
■■ Write all the synonyms students have producedon the board.

■■ Check the highest number of sentences produced.
■■ Ask students with the highest numbers ofsentences to share their examples with the restof the class.

■■ Discuss the differences between the synonyms,

their meaning and use.
■■ Ask students to try to use the synonyms

in sentences.

■■ Discuss the reasons that have prevented othersfrom producing more sentences.
In this activity, students usually produce three to fivesentences on average. There are some who do notcome up with any and others who write as many as 22
sentences. Those who produce the highest numbersof sentences are usually those who choose a strategy
of changing only one word in the sentence (e.g. I saw awild rat/rabbit/Ralph/Rex/Richard…). In the follow-up

102

This activity may be used when some students tend
to repeat one word in their speaking or writing all
the time. It can show the class that as a group, they
can always generate some synonyms and help
each other. The follow-up discussion can also help
students understand that synonyms have meanings
that are similar, but not exactly the same, and thatthey can be used in different contexts differently.

| A creative approach to language teaching: students’ contributions

‘Groups of words’

idea that a creative approach to teaching allows
students to notice and experience their own individual
learning processes and help them bring and share
their existing knowledge and skills to class.

This activity may help students focus on categories
of words.

Procedure

References■■ Ask students to write all words that refer to some

Clarke, M (2010) Creativity in Modern Languages
Teaching and Learning. Available online at:www.scribd.com/doc/1582 5890/Perspectives-onCreativity-in-Modern-Language-Learning

idea or concept in two minutes (e.g. name all thethings that fly).
■■ Check the highest number of words produced.
■■ Ask students to form groups.

Csikszentmihalyi, M (2015) The Pursuit of Happiness.
Available online at: www.pursuit-of-happiness.org/
teaching-resources■■ Ask students in groups to divide words they haveproduced into different groups and categories.
■■ Let each group present their categories withEnglish for Academic Purposes Creatively. Available
online at: http://eapcreatively.blogspot.cz

examples of words that belong to each category.
■■ Discuss the criteria or systems students havecreated in order to group words into categories.
This activity can be used before we introduce
specific language functions, such as classification.
Students who first think about ‘flying things’ and later
classify them into groups may understand the idea ofclassification easier and teachers can later fully focus
on the language function without the need to explain
what classification is.
Another illustration comes from the field of language
styles, genres or registers. We can ask students towrite down, for example, all the words they would
never use in an academic article. Then, by dividing
particular expressions into groups (e.g. vague words,
colloquialisms, local expressions or spoken language
fillers) students can find some rules or principles
on their own without being told by the teacher.
A great advantage of all four examples is that students
share their vocabulary and enrich one another without
the necessity of any previous input from their teacher.

Conclusion
This chapter has addressed some aspects of acreative approach to language teaching that
describes creativity as a natural skill all learners
have, and creative teaching as an attempt toengage students in close-to-real-life situations thatcannot be solved by one clear-cut, correct solution.
The examples illustrate the potential that creativity
can have to improve and broaden personal teachingstyles in the areas of methods, strategies and tools.
They introduce situations in which teachers can invite
students to become active and enthusiastic coauthors of their own learning. They also show
possibilities as to how to make language learning
more varied by means of a combination of in-class andout-of-class activities. And finally, they emphasise the

How to Write an Essay Rap. Available online at:www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRpPHylKFCQ
Kryszewska, H and Campbell, C (1992) Learner-based
Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lady Grammar Sings Bad Syntax. Available online at:www.youtube.com/watch?v=DE4SUTlCzGE
Paragraph. Available online at: www.youtube.com/
watch?v=mbxKUBsTWF8#t=38
Paragraph Song: Intro to Writing Paragraphs.
Available online at: www.youtube.com/
watch?v=ivAvsXeJAqM
Sir Ken Robinson. Available online at:www.sirkenrobinson.com
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Available online
at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTDs0lvFuMc
The Hours. Available online at: www.youtube.com/
watch?v=gbc7jtmuOJM
Libor Stepanek is an Assistant Professor in
English at Masaryk University Language Centre,
Brno, Czech Republic. He is also a teacher trainer,
co-ordinator of language soft skills programmes
and author of teaching materials and publications.
His interdisciplinary and creative approach tolanguage teaching is based on a combination of
his formal academic background (MA in English
and American Studies; World History; PhD in
Political Science), informal drama education (TheBigy Theatre Workshop − San Remo GEF 2006
Special Committee Award Winner) and later intensive
training in ICT-enhanced teaching. His interests
include creativity, critical thinking, presentations,academic writing and videoconferencing.

A creative approach to language teaching: students’ contributions |

103

11
Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects
Malu Sciamarelli

Introduction
Teachers like using projects with children in language
classes for good reasons. The benefits of projectbased teaching with mascots are numerous:■■ thematically organised materials are easier toremember and learn (Singer, 1990)■■ the presentation of coherent and meaningful

information leads to deeper processing andbetter learning (Anderson, 1990)■■ there is a relationship between student motivationand student interest, and a student’s ability toprocess challenging materials, recall informationand elaborate (Alexander et al., 1994)■■ expertise in a topic develops when learners

reinvest their knowledge in a sequence ofprogressively more complex tasks (Bereiterand Scardamalia, 1993)■■ creativity is essential for learning, and withmascot-inspired projects it is developed andnot forced.
In this chapter, I will outline some basic features ofproject-based learning, then show five examples ofmascot-inspired projects with the fluffy toy Brownie
the Bear and its friends. Based on these projects,
teachers will be able to create and elaborate theirown original and creative projects with a mascotof their choice. Inexpensive materials can be used,such as cut-outs made from cardboard boxes, andall the activities can be adapted to small or large
groups. Finally, I will conclude by identifying theunderlying principles of project-based learning within
the examples shown, and also share some tips, ideas
and suggestions that teachers can apply in their own
contexts, wherever they are.

Project-based learning
Project-based learning has been described by alarge number of language educators and is widelyused in classrooms around the world. Whatever theapproach teachers choose to focus on, projectbased learning shares some common features.
■■ Project-based learning focuses on content

learning rather than on specific language targets.

104| Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects

Real-world subject matter and topics of interest
to students can become central to projects.
■■ Project-based learning is student-centred, though

the teacher plays a major role in offering support
and guidance throughout the process.
■■ Project-based learning is co-operative rather

than competitive. Students can work on theirown, in small groups, or as a class to completea project, sharing resources and expertise along
the way.
■■ Project-based learning leads to authentic

integration of skills and processing of informationfrom varied sources, mirroring real-life skills.
■■ Project-based learning culminates in an end

project that can be shared with others, giving the
project a real purpose. However, the value of the
project lies not only in the final product, but also
in the process of working towards the end point.
So, project-based learning has both a process andproduct orientation, and provides students with
opportunities to focus on fluency and accuracy
at different stages.
■■ Project-based learning is potentially motivational,

empowering and challenging, and stimulates
creativity. It usually results in building students’
confidence, self-esteem and autonomy as wellas enhancing students’ language skills, content
learning and cognitive skills.
■■ With project-based learning, students see work as

personally meaningful, boosting their creativity,
but it also fulfils an educational aim.

Practical projects
All the projects presented here can be carried out
intensively over a short period of time or extended
over some weeks, a full semester, or even a year;
they can be completed in small groups, or as a wholeclass; and they can take place completely in theclassroom or can be extended beyond its walls, withother groups in the schools, or even in other schools
via different forms of correspondence.

Flat BrownieThis project is a variation of ‘The Flat Stanley Project’, which was started in 1995
by Dale Hubert, a third grade school teacher in London, Ontario, Canada. In the
Flat Stanley children’s books, Stanley travels the world in envelopes. Students whoread the books send the paper doll and written notes to students in other parts of
the world by conventional mail or email. Children exchange ideas, photographs,
questions and their culture with students overseas.
With Flat Brownie, students have the opportunity to make connections withstudents of their own group, and also in their school, and to develop their reading
skills and facilitate writing.

Preparation
Choose a short story or book you want to use with a specific group of children.
The short story or book may focus on any kind of good teaching activities at thisstage: including geography, with locations of travels and destinations; maths, indistances and times; and narrative and writing, with journal entries andbiographies.
Alternatively, you can write a story to use in the classroom. I wrote the example
below to use in this project. You can focus on the following activities by using
this story:■■ plants■■ fruits■■ colours■■ animals and insects■■ comparisons.

The little girl and the golden bird
Malu Sciamarelli
Among the many treasured trees in the little girl’s garden, the mulberry washer favourite. She loved climbing the tallest trees from which she had a view
over the whole garden, and spending hours eating mulberries, talking to thetree, flowers, birds, bees, ants and all the varied insects she could see.
What a joy it was to come back, with her lips all red from the berries,
contrasting with her pale skin and golden hair, and tell her dad she was full of
blood, make up horror stories just to get kisses and hugs, and laugh together!

Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects |105

The little girl and the golden bird (continued)
These lovely purple berries were her favourite fruit, and one day notfinding any in the lower boughs, she decided to climb higher and higher andhigher. When she finally found more berries, she saw a little door among thebranches. As it was open, she decided to go in. To her amazement, it was abeautiful crystal dome, with tiny chairs all fringed with gold and when she
touched one of them, a little bird came through the door and started to talkto her. The bird was astonishing! He was made of gold and moon dust, andwith a long thin beak of the clearest crystal. When he talked, the crystal
emitted the most beautiful and purest light.
Never having seen a talking bird before, in spite of talking to all living beings
herself, she could not contain herself and reached out her hand to touch him.
However, the moment she did this, his eyes turned black and his tiny body
started to disintegrate. The beak was the last part to vanish, and before hecrumbled into grey dust, he said: ‘Take my beak – it is magical and soon you
will know what to do with it’, and then he was gone.
The little girl was devastated. She could not stop crying as she was climbing
down the tree. For several days, she stayed in her bedroom looking at the
crystal beak in her hands. Then one day, she decided to go back to thegarden clutching the crystal beak tightly in her hand. As soon as she started
to walk among the trees, she saw a bird with a broken wing lying on the grass.
She immediately took it in her hands, not knowing exactly what to do. To her
surprise, the crystal opened up and a strong golden ray of light blinded her.
The intense light seemed to flood her hands with a scorching energy and justas she thought she could bear it no longer, the bird that was lying almost
dead flapped its wings tentatively at first then flew away. The wing had been
healed by the light in her hands!
And this was the secret the golden bird said the girl would find out. The
golden bird had been waiting for someone to come, to get his crystal beakand, with its light, heal all the hurt animals in the garden! As soon as sheunderstood it, she was not sad any more. Since then, she has been walking in
all the gardens in her beautiful world, looking for wounded little creatures andhealing them with the magic golden light from the crystal beak in her hands.

Procedure■■ Read it to the group as a whole. If it is a short story, it can be done in one class.

If it is a book, select parts or chapters to read in each class.
■■ Ask students to draw the mascot Brownie (or a mascot of their choice) andmake a paper doll.
■■ If you are doing the project within your class, ask each student to write somenotes or questions based on the activities of the characters they remember orlike most about the short story or book they were reading, and that they would
like Brownie to tell other students.
Example:–– Brownie is a bear and loves honey.
–– The bees in the garden produce honey.
–– Does Brownie the Bear eat berries?
–– Can Brownie the Bear climb high trees?

106| Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects

■■ Put the paper doll and the notes in individual envelopes with the child’sname, and exchange the envelopes. If you are doing it within your school,
and more than one class is involved, exchange the envelopes with students
of other groups.
■■ Each student or group should read the activities written on the notes, add aquestion and return to the original student or group. In turn, they should thenanswer the question and add another activity. You can continue this process
as long as you want to keep the project going.
■■ Keep a journal in the form of a notebook, a poster in the classroom or a blog

to document all the activities in which Brownie, or the mascot of your choice,is involved.
■■ At the end of the project, read all the stories for the whole group.

Variation■■ You can arrange exchanges with other classrooms in other schools, or ask

students to get their parents’ permission to address an envelope and send
the paper doll to a friend in another state, or even another country.
■■ You can publish the stories, describe local traditions and scenery,

and add photos.

Benefits■■ Writing and learning becomes easier, flows naturally and tends to be

more creative with this project. This is what teachers may call an ‘authentic’
literacy project, in that children are inspired to write of their own passion andexcitement about the project, and given the freedom to write about manythings through the catalyst of Brownie or a mascot of their choice.

Model building
Model building and construction foster spatial play and nurture a child’s dexterity,
as well as other cognitive skills such as planning, problem-solving and logicalthinking. For younger children, they also provide opportunities for fine motor
development and for teaching interaction among peers and teachers.
A child’s interest in model building will inevitably originate from construction,
as most children are brought up playing with colourful building blocks during
their early learning years. Building blocks stimulate reasoning and creativity while
teaching basic maths and literacy. Combined with language teaching, learning willflow naturally and in a motivational way.

Preparation
Create a name for an imaginary city. For this project, use the same mascot for
the whole group − it will live in this city.

Procedure■■ Divide the class into groups. Each group will be responsible for building

one part of the city, for example a school, a park, a hospital, a pharmacy,a restaurant, a cinema, a petrol station, a museum, houses and shops.
Make sure it incorporates every amenity you would want in a city and, mostof all, what you want to teach your students.
■■ Build the different parts of the city in groups using paper, cardboard cut-outs,

polystyrene, old newspaper, aluminium kitchen-wrap, or any other material.
While the groups are building, make sure you teach all the vocabulary that is

Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects |107

needed for each part to the group as a whole, for example, ‘Could you pass
the scissors?’; ‘Can I have a red crayon?’■■ When the models are ready, each group has to create a story called ‘A happy

day in my life’ using the mascot in their part of the model.
The example below was written by a group of nine-year-old students.
Brownie lives in a cave in the forest. One day, he ran out of honey, anddecided to leave his cave in search for more. On his way, he met a smallbear called Dubi sitting under a tree. He was crying. ‘Why are you crying?’,
Brownie asked. ‘I have no honey any more, and I am hungry,’ Dubi
answered. ‘Come with me and we will find it together.’ They walked andwalked all around the forest, but could not find any honey. Suddenly, theysaw some bees flying away, and decided to follow them. The bees were
flying towards the village. They passed by the local school, the church, thepark, and went into a small market. Brownie and Dubi entered the market
too and were amazed at what they saw: piles of honey jars in shelves frombottom to top on the walls. They could not believe their eyes! Suddenly, awhite bear came in. His name was Snow. When he saw Brownie and Dubi,
he said, ‘I was waiting for you! Come and have some honey.’ Snow was
producing honey to give to all the bears who were hungry. On that day, thethree friends ate all they could and enjoyed themselves. It was the happiest
day in their lives. Since then, Brownie and Dubi visit Snow once a week, eat
honey and have a good laugh together.
■■ Make them present their stories separately, but before the presentation,model gestures, tone, volume, pace and facial expressions for the groups.
■■ Then, assemble all the parts together and make them use all the parts

to create a single story.
■■ Film the presentation and document it on a class blog.

Variation■■ Instead of a city, you can build a farm and teach them animals, and theenvironment, and focus on the relationship of the mascot with the animals.
■■ If you have a small group, you can build only one part of the city or farm,and create a single story.
■■ When the presentation is done and documented, you can make a storybook.

Make students draw the parts of the city or farm, and write the story theycreated. It may also be used as a resource for future activities such as
storytelling and vocabulary learning.

Benefits■■ Model building provides opportunities to develop other skills by making useof English.
■■ Students will learn structures, mechanisms, control, and designing andcraftwork skills.
■■ Maths: numbers, shapes, space and measuring skills.
■■ It stimulates creativity and communication skills.
■■ It is less stressful and more enjoyable.
■■ Students will learn how to follow instructions.
■■ Storytelling is highly social and each story told reminds students of theirexperience which they can recount at school and at home several times,
increasing the language practice.

108| Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects

Storytelling and creative writing
An observation is something that you notice about the world around you.
We make observations using our five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste andsmell. Our five senses are very important to us, helping to keep us safe, andhelping us experience the beauty and wonder of the world around us.
With this project, and the use of a mascot, students will use their five senses toexperience the natural world around them, write and tell stories, draw pictures
and write poems, using the vocabulary learned in the garden and from what isaround them. They will also learn the differences between the five senses andhow they are useful tools for experiencing the world, especially nature, thus
learning in a more efficient way, and enhancing their creativity.

Procedure■■ Ask students if they know their five senses, and have them demonstrate eachone. Ask them why we want to pay attention to our senses when we are out inthe garden.
■■ Before going to the garden, each student should make a mascot withcardboard cut-outs, colour it and give it a name.
■■ In the garden, start with the sense of sight. Have children find different colours

in nature. Have them explore whether the objects that are the same colour
are the same thing, and compare them with their mascots. Also ask them ifanything they see reminds them of something they usually find inside.
■■ Next, explore the sense of hearing. Tell children to close their eyes and ask

them what they hear. Are there birds singing? If so, is it just one kind of bird
song, or are there different ones? Can they hear leaves rustling? Can they tellif the wind is blowing hard or soft by the sound of the leaves? What noises arenear them, and which are far away? Ask them to open their eyes, and also
describe the sound their mascots can make.
■■ Explore the sense of touch next. Ask students to find a few different objects

with different textures. If there are flowers or plants nearby, have themcompare how different flowers of plants feel − some are rough, while someare smooth. Ask them to describe the texture of their mascots and what theirfavourite taste is.
■■ The sense of taste is difficult to explore in nature, because it can be dangerous

to eat things in the wild, unless you are with someone who knows how to
identify plants well, or you know all the plants in the garden. This is a good time
to explain this to the children. Bring some fruits and remind the children thatthey come from nature. Then ask them to imagine what their mascot eats.
■■ Next, have the children explore their sense of smell. Have them close their eyesand smell the air. Do they smell flowers? Wet earth? Cut grass? When have theysmelled these things before? Ask them to imagine what their mascots could
smell − since a dog can smell things that we can only imagine.
■■ Then sit on a nice spot, on the grass or under a tree, and ask them to talkabout what they experienced before. Give them plenty of time to talk about
each sense, and help them write a story based on their experience, using
their mascots.
■■ Back in the classroom, ask students to tell you the five different senses.

Ask them to name one thing they discovered using each.
■■ Ask students why it is useful to have five senses, and name a situationin their day when it is important to make use of each of the five senses.
Finally, ask them to tell their stories out loud, with their mascots.
■■ Document all the stories in posters in the classroom, or on a blog.

Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects |109

Variation■■ Have students repeat the ‘five senses’ activities inside the classroom.

How do things feel, look and smell inside compared to when they were outside?
Did they like exploring inside or outside more? Is a classroom a healthy place
for animals and plants to live? Why/why not?
■■ Have students try to draw pictures of the five senses – not just a picture ofan eye or a nose, but something that they noticed when studying each sense.
■■ Ask students to write an acrostic poem using the five senses or the nameof their mascots.
Example:Blue skyRough bark
Orange scent
Whistling wind
Nice soft grass
Itchy mosquito bite
Eating sweet raspberries

Benefits■■ Writing a story (or poem) based on their personal experiences, intuition, close

observation and imagination, combined with affective modes of thinking, willflow naturally in this project. The use of a mascot of their own will add a playful
engagement to the project and with the language, and the students will workin a fun-loving environment where risk is encouraged.

Comic book writing
Comic book writing is just as interesting and rewarding as a play, a poem, a novelor a film. But just as those genres have certain rules that arise from their forms,
so do comic books.
When you practise comic book writing with your students, you will teach them tothink visually and then communicate those visuals in such a way that it will spark
their imagination and enhance their creativity. You will also teach them not towrite the whole story, but instead use language to convey the immediacy of amoment, or the ‘flow’, in an instant.

Procedure■■ Divide the class in small groups of three or four children. Choose two or moremascots for each group and give them names. Alternatively, use a well-known
mascot from your country or region.
■■ Start the project by creating one strip. You can create as many strips as you

want later to form a whole comic book, depending on the length of the project.
■■ Next, create a plan for the beginning, middle and end of the story. Let students

manipulate the mascots to let their imagination and creativity flow. They canbe made with paper or cardboard cut-outs, or they can be real fluffy toys.
■■ After that, make them draw an emotion-graph for each mascot: draw a line,

write their names and their features (their appearance, emotion, and role inthe story).

110| Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects

Emotion Graph – Brownie
10
8
6
4
2

17.00 They are now
friends: the happiest
day of his life

14.30 Met Snow andentered the market:
afraid and surprised

14.00 Saw bees:
happy and hopeful

12.00 Met Dubai:
hungry and happy

10.00 No honeyanymore: sadand hungry

08.00 Brownie: Bear,small, friendly, funnyand happy0■■ Before drawing and writing, make students tell the story they created to thewhole class, using the mascots.
■■ Then, make them draw first (from three to five squares to form a strip).
■■ On a separate sheet of paper, ask them to write sentences to create the story.
■■ Finally, help them select what should be written in the strip.
■■ Repeat the steps to create as many strips as you want.
■■ Gather all the strips (or comic books), put them on the wall displays in theclassroom and document them on a class blog.

Variation■■ There are many ways of creating comic books, from pencil and ink, to digitalpens and pads. Choose what is best for your students, and what is available
for you.
■■ If you decide to use technology, there are many tools available online for free,

for instance:www.stripgenerator.com
www.toondoo.com
www.bitstrips.com

Benefits■■ Writing comic books in English is a medium of expression that cancommunicate a wealth of ideas and emotions. It is a way to channel children’s
creativity, and to capture it in pictures and words. Also, when you teachchildren to make a comic strip, a medium where it is all right for their art to looksilly or imperfect or childish, you will nurture their creativity and imagination
before it gets stamped out. It is an engaging way of teaching concise writing,in which you can teach any subject, including physical appearances, emotions
and time, and an extraordinary form of storytelling. It may also help children
develop a love of reading and improving their handwriting, without evenbeing aware they are practising.

Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects |111

Theatre
The basic idea of using theatre as an activity for students of English as a foreign
language is simple: getting children to practise the language they already knowor are learning in the classroom, in a real context. The real context here isamateur dramatics – short plays specially designed for young learnersof English. You can use plays that were already written and include a mascot, or
write a play for your class with the mascot of their choice. The plays can be used
as an exciting, rewarding and challenging classroom resource in their own right.
But the real joy of doing theatre both for the children as well as the teacher
comes from performing the play in front of an audience made up of theirstudents, teachers and/or parents.

Procedure■■ Divide the class into small groups.
■■ Teach them emotions in English.
■■ Choose a mascot for the whole class, and decide with them what its main

characteristic is, for instance, if it is a happy dog, a bear feeling lost, a friendly
sheep, and so on.
■■ Write mini-sketches (a short story that does not have many details) with themand have them try out simple emotions, including being scared, happy or lostand looking around.
■■ Make sure you perform with them. Children absolutely love it when they see

their teachers performing!
■■ Each group must have the mascot that will be used in the play, and practise

the emotions with it.
■■ At the end of the class, the groups perform the sketches for the whole class.
■■ You can use as many classes and sketches as you want to practise language,

and put them all together at the end to form a play. The play does not have to
be long, varying from five to ten minutes.
■■ This is an example of an initial mini-sketch, in which the teacher will participate

and help practising. The other ones can be done with children only and theteacher facilitating the activity. It is also easy to make it more personal byadding particular traits from your school, country or region:
Cast: teacher and five students
Teacher: Good morning, everyone!
Everyone: Good morning!
Teacher: (Student 1), stop hitting (student 2). (Student 3), let go of (student 4).
(Student 4), do not sit on the desk!
(Student 5): Sorry I’m late.
Teacher: Why are you late?
(Student 5): I missed the bus and had to walk.
Teacher: You live over there! Why are you late?
(Student 5): I got lost.
Teacher: Ok, sit down. (Student 1), where is your homework?
(Student 1): Shawn the dog ate it.
Teacher: Shawn the dog does not like paper. He loves biscuits, and he is always
hungry for it!

112| Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects

Variation■■ Instead of writing the sketches and play with the children, you can use playsthat are already written and add the mascot in the context.
■■ You can also practise other drama techniques in the foreign language, suchas mime and improvisation, in order to practise language, build confidence
and prepare students to act better. A great book with ideas for EFL teachers
on how to deal with such areas is Drama Techniques in Language Learning –A Resource Book of Communication Activities for Language Teachers(Maley and Duff, 1982).

Benefits■■ Involvement in theatre has an immensely positive effect on an English student.

The scripts are not linguistically challenging, written at a level of English withwhich the students will be familiar and comfortable. The linguistic benefit liesin the increased confidence it gives students in their oral skills, helping
improve fluency. However, there are other benefits that are more subtle. When
students are acting out the play, the English is full on. Even low-level students,
who only have a few lines to say, have to listen to and contend with a goodvolume of spoken English; they have to follow the script to know when to say
their lines. They are, of course, simply repeating a script they have learned
by heart, but it will boost their confidence and self-esteem.
■■ It is also fun, rewarding, motivational and effective in boosting the speaking

confidence of children. If you have the chance to perform for another classor parents, with scenery made from painted cardboard boxes, some chosen
props and sound effects, the final performance can be a wonderful activity forstudents to shine, and an event that the parents and children will not forget.

Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects |113

Conclusion

References

Project-based learning is an exciting way of teaching
children. With the projects described above, you will
be able to reach all students and get them engaged
in many different ways, thus giving them ownershipof their learning by making them lifelong learners.
They will also gain critical thinking and problemsolving skills that they will need as soon as theywalk out of the classroom into the real world.

Alexander, P, Kulikowich, J and Jetton, T (1994)
The role of subject-matter knowledge and interestin the processing of linear and nonlinear texts.
Review of Educational Research 64/2: 201–252.

The use of mascots in the projects will also:■■ increase engagement, imagination and creativity■■ increase motivation because they will dosomething that is meaningful for them■■ allow them to write their own stories, personalisingthem to the maximum■■ give them confidence to take risks in a fun-loving

environment■■ stimulate socialisation and playfulness.

You do not need to have a commercially mademascot. They can be made with inexpensive
materials, such as paper, cardboard cut-outs orpolystyrene. All you need is the enthusiasm of thechildren and the teacher to channel and create areason to carry out the projects.
You can also use mascots from your city, country or
region, or create a class mascot. For some projects,
children might create their own mascot to follow
them through the term or year.
Also, teaching children with mascot-inspired
projects is teaching children through play. Children
learn better through play, through being curious,
through exploring things and then making things andsharing them with others. This transforms how they
approach language learning for the rest of their lives,because the experiences children have in their earlychildhood build the skills that make them able to deal
with challenges in the future.

114| Teaching children with mascot-inspired projects

Anderson, J (1990, third edition) Cognitive psychology
and its implications. New York: WH Freeman.
Bereiter, C and Scardamalia, M (1993) Surpassing
ourselves: An inquiry into the nature and implicationsof expertise. Chicago: Open Court Press.
Maley, A and Duff, A (1982) Drama Techniquesin Language Learning – A Resource Book ofCommunication Activities for Language Teachers.
UK: Cambridge University Press.
Singer, M (1990) Psychology of language: An
introduction to sentence and discourse processing.
Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
Malu Sciamarelli has been working in Brazil forover 21 years as a teacher, materials designer,teacher trainer and consultant for publishers.
She has taught in schools, language institutes andin companies. Currently, her main interests are
creative writing in language teaching and creativity
in the English language classroom. She believes thatteachers can affect how students perceive the world
around them, help them ignite a spark of curiosityand develop their own creativity. Teachers can also
help students overcome fears, express themselves,initiate ideas, plans and actions, and build a desire
for lifelong learning.
Website: www.malusciamarelli.com
Creativity Channel: www.youtube.com/user/
MaluSciamarelli12Creating creative teachers
Marisa Constantinides

Introduction
Creative thinking has been a recent concern
among English language teaching professionals.
This is very much in line with the move away froman over-reliance on methods and approaches as ananswer to effective learning (Kumaravadivelu, 2003),
and towards a focus on the mental processes thatlead to more effective learning of languages as well
as of content.
However, this attention has centred mostly on
learners, with the very good argument that language
acquisition can benefit from activities developing this
aspect of higher order thinking, just as creativity
itself benefits from language use and L2 learning
opportunities.
In this chapter, I would like to focus on the teachers
who are expected to generate creative activities fortheir learners but whose ability to be creative istaken for granted. Yet teacher training courses do
not usually include any objectives that would help
trainee teachers, novice or experienced, to develop
this necessary aspect of their cognitive make-up.
For example, syllabuses such as the Cambridge
CELTA or the Cambridge DELTA, to mention two
publicly available syllabuses, do not include sucha category in their syllabus specifications.
In a recent survey among CELTA and DELTA
trainers (Constantinides, 2014), the majority
responded that they felt creative thinking wasnecessary, though it was not specifically addressedin their syllabus specifications. Only one respondent
felt it was neither needed nor the duty of trainers onthese courses to provide help to teachers to develop
creative thinking abilities.

Why do teachers need to be creative?
For me, teaching is not an exclusively creative
process but neither is it merely a set of repeatedaction sequences based on blueprints. It is basedon knowledge, professional understanding, technicalknow-how and the personal qualities of the teacher.
How this knowledge is synthesised, filtered,interpreted and translated into teaching is a complex
process involving higher-order thinking and cannot
be ‘learned’.

Memorable quotes from the colleagues who
responded to my survey include:‘…creativity is all about responding to the learners
in the moment’ and …without developing creativity,
we might as well be taught by robots!’
If most of us agree with this, one might question
why developing teacher creativity is not alreadyan objective on teacher development programmes.
The argument put forward is that the objectives
address knowledge of the content and the skills toapply this knowledge in the classroom. Syllabuses
do not seem to include objectives such as ‘helping
trainees develop their creative thinking skills’ or,indeed, any other thinking skills or cognitive abilities
and still less anything related to the affective domain,
assuming perhaps that a trainee teacher is a mature
person who comes to a course and to the profession
with all these abilities and strategies already in place.
The second point involves our perceptions of thecreative person – that is, of someone who can
produce original ideas, and possibly also has an
artistic bent.
I would like to suggest that the lack of creative
thinking skills in an educator needs immediate
attention for many reasons, most of which areinterdependent.
In the absence of creative thinking, teachers:■■ may be unable to develop flexibility in theirthinking, think ‘on their feet’ and respond to theunpredictable and the unexpected, to deal withlearner difficulties as they arise and to think ofgood solutions quickly■■ may be unable to do much more than follow acoursebook without appropriate changes to makethe material more accessible to their learners■■ tend to become more and more dependent on the

input and ideas of others − proponents of different
approaches and methods, coursebook writers,
teacher educators, article writers, and theauthorities in general■■ may become completely unable to develop theirown independent thinking, their own philosophyof education and, thus, unable to make their own
decisions and solve problems in their own way

Creating creative teachers |115

■■ may adopt techniques and activities unthinkingly;

an approach, method, or even the use of a book,may be ‘bought wholesale’ and often be usedwithout reflection. If the result is not successful, it
is quite difficult for the individual to understand why.

Why are we unable to think creatively?
When trainees are asked in training sessions andworkshops whether they believe they are creative,
most will reply in the negative; few think they are
creative. Yet psychologists and educators believethat some creative potential exists in all humanbeings, although it may be dormant or ‘blocked’.
These blocks are of various kinds.
■■ Blocks created by the social environment

An educational system based on memorisation
and rote learning does little to enhance creative
potential. Parents who frown upon any creative
tendencies may be another cause for blocks tothe creative thinking process. The attitudes of
employers, professors and parents may stifle
creativity. And in traditional educational settings,
logical, analytical thinking is much more
appreciated than the ‘flights of fancy’ of people
trying to be creative.
■■ Blocks created by the individual

Blocks to creative thinking may also be selfgenerated; Rickards and Jones (1989) mention
four, outlined below, to which I have added somerelevant examples:–– Strategy blocks
The wrong strategy is selected or no strategy
is available. For example, a teacher facedwith the problem of helping their learners tolearn vocabulary falls back on an inappropriate
strategy, giving the learners long lists of words
and their definitions or translations tomemorise.
–– Values blocks
The individual has certain beliefs and holds
on tightly to them to the point of rigidity. This
creates a negative mind-set that makes them
unable to accept a new set of values even if
there is a valid reason to do so. For example,
a deeply rooted belief that learning a languagemeans a teacher explaining the rules is often
seen on training courses. Even though new
ways are shown, the teacher is unable to usethem effectively, as they do not fit into theold values system. This is a problem trainers
often encounter on initial training courses
when experienced colleagues find it difficult
to abandon their ‘old ways’ and tend to staywith what they think is tried and tested.

116| Creating creative teachers–– Perception blocks
Solutions to problems other than thoserelating to the teacher’s immediate reality or
which personally affect him/her are ignored,
for example:–– a teacher rejects adopting games not
because they are unsuitable for the learners
or the aims of a lesson, but because materials
preparation for games takes longer thanfollowing the coursebook–– another teacher rejects the use of
educational technology because they
don’t want to learn how to use it.
–– Self-image blocks
The individual is convinced they are too
old or not clever enough to do certain things,
therefore no attempt is made to find othercreative or innovative solutions to existing
problems. For example, faced with a group of
students who have difficulty understanding agrammar point, the same explanation, example
and exercise sequence is repeated, even if its
result may have proved inadequate, because
the teacher is not confident enough to try
out any of the numerous other ways ofteaching grammar.
Clearly, these blocks are not only connected withcognitive processes but with values and beliefs, aswell as emotions and self-perception, so working
on creative thinking alone may not help, unlesswork on the other factors is included as well. In the
training classroom, knowledge as well as respect,encouragement, reflection and appreciation are allof equal importance.

Creative thinking skills training:
the basis of the practical ideas inthis article
It has been suggested that creativity, or as it is also
termed, divergent production (Guilford, 1967), is nota single unifying ability; it is viewed as a composite
of intellectual abilities. Guilford further suggests thatdivergent production facilitates problem-solving,something which language teachers are faced withon a daily basis in their classes – and that we know
enough about the creative process to be able to train
individuals. Here are the four main characteristics ofthe creative process that he describes:■■ producing lots of ideas (fluency)■■ producing ideas of various types (flexibility)■■ building on and embellishing existing ideas(elaboration)■■ producing clever and original ideas (originality).

These abilities enable the individual to produce
not only a multiplicity of answers as solutions to thesame problem or tasks, but answers that are also
varied; some may even be original.

■■ it is easier for teachers to see new ways ofchanging existing material to fit in with their aims,
learners and teaching context■■ teachers produce more ideas, and some of them

can also be quite original ones

Benefits to the teacher
Divergent production, then, seems to respondpositively to some of the issues mentioned earlier:■■ teachers are no longer ‘slaves’ to one or anothermethod but may be better able to evaluate, selectand be eclectic in a principled way.

■■ materials can be put to new use in more effective

and stimulating ways■■ materials and lesson design becomes easier andmore varied, as the teachers can come up withmore than one solution to the problem of what
to include at each stage
Characteristics of creative peoplelLaterag
thinkin

FlexibleityHigh produc tiv

Variety of solu

tions

thinking

High orig

inalityn d e n ce
Indepeof view

Creating creative teachers |117

The role of the trainer and/or
the institution
Helping teachers to develop their ability to thinkcreatively, including creative thinking skills training,
is not going to be enough, and the effects of thistraining may not be sustainable unless there is apositive culture encouraging and facilitating aswell as demonstrating creativity.
Trainers need to model creative behaviours
themselves by using a variety of ways of handlingcourse input, from training games to loop input –an idea suggested by Woodward (1991) – not ina relentless pursuit of fun and games but inaccordance with the topic and focus of each session.
In addition, work on team-building, generating
trust among trainees, is essential from day one
and needs to be followed through systematically,
either with activities such as those suggested
by Hadfield (1992), or with social activities in aschool setting or a self-help group.
Creativity needs to be inspired by inspiring
leadership that nurtures and appreciates
teachers who make the effort to be creative.

Practical suggestions and activities
Clearly, the practical activities and techniques
included here are based on the belief that it ispossible to provide specific training activities thatenhance divergent production in trainee teachers.
Furthermore, these activities and techniques canbe seamlessly integrated within the content syllabus
without what some colleagues might consider time
being wasted on brain training activities.
‘The ideas and techniques which follow work
particularly well in the context of any teacher
training course, but can also work in teacher
self-help groups or as part of regular professional
development meetings in the staff room.’(Aoki, 2002).
The inspiration for the activities has come from avariety of sources: from ideas suggested by Edward
de Bono in his famous book on lateral thinking (1985)
and some of his later publications, from the work ofteachers in primary classrooms, from the work ofcolleagues in creative writing workshops, from blogs
as well as working with colleagues in the context ofteacher development programmes and seeking ways
to embed creative thinking skills training into ourmaterials design.

118| Creating creative teachers

I have listed the activities following Guilford’s
categories (1967) but clearly, some could belisted under more than one category.

Activities promoting fluency
BrainstormingThis is perhaps the most frequently used activity
and will be familiar to all who are involved in teacher
development programmes. The value of getting
teachers in groups to brainstorm lots of ideas,
focusing on quantity at the initial stage and quality
later, when these ideas are discussed, evaluated andthe most suitable ones chosen, is highly conduciveto this aspect of divergent production.

Unusual uses
The original exercise involves brainstorming
many unusual uses for an ordinary object,e.g. a chair. In the training classroom, we can takeany coursebook activity and have teams or groupscompete to produce the longest list of unusual uses
for a gap-fill, a role play, a text plus comprehension
questions, or other activity.

Keep it going
One of the trainees begins with a word or expression
given on a card. With a partner they must brainstorm
as many questions as they can to elicit from theirpartner the word or phrase they have on their card.
This also helps trainees practise different types ofquestioning for elicitation.

Variation■■ An alternative in the same vein involves being

given a question on a course topic. For example,‘Do you believe that your students enjoy listening
to songs?’ – each player must continue with afurther question, never making a statement ora negative sentence. This activity is much moredemanding and its main focus is fluency as well
as flexibility (see below)

20 activities
Trainees are given a single piece of material, song,text, image, or video and are asked to brainstorm
20 (or five, or ten, etc.) activities that use it as a basis.

Variation■■ Using large sheets of paper, trainees can be asked

to create a mind map with their assigned topic or a
specific piece of material (e.g. a text) at the centre
which includes specific, labelled branches to help
prompt their brainstorming. These branches may
include ideas for practice, such as the ones listed
below, or any other the trainer deems suited to the
topic used as a focus:–– grammar–– functional–– listening–– speaking–– writing–– reading–– vocabulary–– pronunciation–– contexts.

Activities promoting flexibility
Role plays
With a group of colleagues, state a problem(e.g. My students don’t do their homework) andtake on different roles to discuss the situation –parents, director of studies, students and evenminister of education!
This activity is based on Edward de Bono’s Six
Thinking Hats (1985), and actual coloured paper
hats or badges representing different viewpoints
or attitudes to the problem can be created by thetrainer. In ELT, these viewpoints could be selectedfrom among the many professional roles we are allaware of. For instance, a director of studies, a parent,a sponsor, an ELT publisher, a teacher trainer, asyllabus designer, a researcher, a linguist, etc.

Variation■■ With higher-level courses, such as the DELTA,

the roles or the thinking hats could be well-known
ELT figures who represent an approach or away of thinking. Such names might include
Scott Thornbury, Henry Widdowson andStephen Krashen.

Predicaments, or getting yourself
out of troublesome situations
A number of strange situations related toteaching can be created and teachers must defend
themselves against specific accusations, e.g.
‘You were seen leading a group of blindfolded
students through a busy department store’, or‘A colleague overheard you telling your class tolight the candles and switch off the lights.’

Variation■■ Trainees can write their own predicaments inteams and nominate and challenge members of
the opposing team to find a quick and plausible
explanation for having used a specific activity
in a lesson or after a particular stage.

Preoccupations
This is an activity in which each ‘player’ is assigned
a word or phrase to focus on, such as role play,drilling, communicative language teaching, etc.
and in a pair or group they must attempt to steer
the conversation back to their own word or phrase,
keeping it coherent and logically connected, nomatter what other members of the group have to
say about their own focus words or phrases!

Variation■■ This can also be done as a playful mingling activity

in which some of the preoccupations can bematched, e.g. drilling/rote learning, information
gaps/communicative language teaching, PPP(presentation, practice and production) and TBL(task-based learning). Trainees walk about theroom and change partners on a signal from theirtutor until they find their match.

Balloon debates
This may sound a trifle heartless, but deciding
whether this or that originator of a method orapproach is the one who is chosen to be saved byallowing them to stay in the balloon can generate
great discussions and promote both creative as wellas critical thinking. I have deliberately opted not tomention any names as examples for this activity but
have used it very successfully in ‘approaches andmethods’ sessions on teacher development courses.

Creating creative teachers |119Activities promoting elaboration/embellishing‘Yes, and’ or expanding statements
Start with a suggestion, e.g. ‘I think we should havea game at the end of the lesson on first conditionals’.
Each subsequent player must begin their turn bysaying ‘Yes, and…’, thus being forced to elaborate
and expand the previous person’s ideas in a positive
rather than in a negative way. This is an activity I
learned in a workshop by T Rickards, who alsocommented that it builds a positive mind-set andcollaboration. You can see its mirror activity below
for a contrast.

‘Yes, but’ or contradictions
Take opposing sides on a teaching problem, e.g. forand against using information gap activities. Pairs
or small groups hold the argument for as long as
they can.

Inserting activities
Give trainees a coursebook page. They thenstart brainstorming as many activities as possiblethat can be added between activities in the unit.
This may mean new activities or changing existing
activities in some way. For example, instead ofcompleting the usual gap-fills, the students canbe asked to change the sentences and turn theminto complete nonsense, or write similar sentences
about classmates or famous people they know of.

Creating a new game from anexisting one
Trainees can be given a commercially produced
game, such as Pictionary or Taboo, and asked tothink of ways of adapting it for use with a class.
One such example produced by one of my traineeteachers after I had introduced them to a DELTA
Pursuits game was called ‘Proficiency Pursuits’and involved questions covered in the C2
Cambridge exam.

Imagine what the teacher said
Given a lesson plan or some hand-outs used bya teacher on video, the trainees watch an excerpt
without sound and recreate the teacher’s words
and student responses.

120| Creating creative teachers

Variation■■ The trainer can supply a group with a teachingpractice report and the hand-outs used, and thetrainees try to reconstruct the teacher’s language(mistakes and all).

Activities promoting originality
Design activities are generally excellent as waysof helping develop original ideas.

Turning coursebook activities into games
Ask the trainees to take an exercise from yourcoursebook and try to turn it into a game, e.g. The‘sentences in a sentence’ completion exercise canbe split into halves and used in a mingling activity.

Introducing an innovation into your teaching
programme
This is a more demanding activity involving
discussion and decision-making, e.g. ‘How would you
go about connecting your class with another classof learners in another country? Or ‘How would you
set up an extensive reading programme if you were
given ten sets of class readers?’

Problem-solving activities
These are activities that again may focus on yourteaching situation, e.g. your beginning students
are very reluctant to use English in class. Suggest
a number of different solutions to the problem of
persuading them to use English in class.

Desert island
Trainees are given a list of teaching supplies and adesert island brief and are asked to decide whicheight (or other suitable number) essentials theywould take with them if they had to teach a class at
a specified level of instruction with no other supplies
or facilities (see the image opposite for an example
I have used with my trainees).

© Marisa Constantinides

Putting creativity to work
As previously suggested, the activities are listed
under one heading but some do more than just one
thing. Overall, I consider these activities as practice
opportunities focusing both on the content and on
the cognitive mind-set. However, trainees need toapply the skill to their designated planning, design
and teaching tasks, and this is where, ultimately,
these practice opportunities are leading: to enable
teachers in training (and at work) to create more,
better and with more ease.

Ideas suggested by colleagues
In my survey, I asked colleagues to describe some
activities which they include in their sessions andwhich they believe develop creativity in their traineeteachers. Their suggestions, fall mostly under theumbrella of holistic practice that must also be
included in any attempts to work with thinking
skills development.
Here are some of their ideas.

Imagine you have no coursebook
for your next lesson
Some colleagues have also reported abandoning
coursebooks altogether for the duration of theirtraining programmes and report positively on
the benefits to their trainees (See also Tomlinson,in this volume).

Materials treasure hunts via Google
This idea may not in itself be creative, but it fits withthe concept of curating content before producing
one’s own.

Group projects
These may involve planning a series of lessons
or a set of materials.
Sessions in which these ideas are typically used
are assisted lesson preparation, materials evaluation
and adaptation, materials design based on authentic
documents and introducing educational technology
into the curriculum.

Visualisations and metaphors
Many trainers like to use this technique, e.g. draw
an image representing your coursebook; choose ametaphor for a lesson (e.g. a play, a concert, etc.);
draw an image to show how you visualise teaching.

Creating creative teachers |121

Curating online and offline content
as a stepping stone to creativity
Curation, which can be defined as the archiving
and preservation of digital assets, is a new way ofdescribing what teachers used to do in boxes andbinders in the past. Creating original and ‘clever’ideas is not the only expression of creativity. Creating
something new as a result of changing or building on
an existing idea has also given us many new works ofart, new inventions, new content, new artefacts, newappliances, new technology, new tools.
Curating and organising teaching resources createdby others can be key in supporting the creation oforiginal content. New ideas may sometimes originate
in a flash of inspiration without previous knowledge
or information, but that is not the usual way we create.
There are many great tools on the web to help
teachers collect and curate digital assets which
in turn may inspire them to blog, write new material,
design new lessons, and deal with classroom
problems in a novel and more effective way.
Some of the most popular include Diigo, Pinterest,
and Scoop.it.
Social networking has a significant role to playin such quests; indeed, most of these tools arealso social networking tools, encouraging users toshare learning and collaborate and learn together.
Facebook timelines and Twitter streams belonging
to teachers have themselves become great sourcesof new content for teachers and teacher educators.
Learning is, after all, social. We learn best in groups
and creativity is often sparked off in the presence
and company of others.

Conclusion
This chapter is based on the firm belief that byundergoing some focused training in developing
our own creative thinking skills, those of us involvedin the teaching profession will enhance our potential
for dealing with the problems of daily teaching andfind new ways of making our approach to teaching
more exciting and stimulating and the tasks ofplanning and lesson and materials design easierand more effective.
As teacher educators, I believe we need tomake a point of including such activities in our
programmes to equip teachers in training not onlywith the techniques and knowledge needed for theclassroom, but also with a set of skills which willsustain them in their own development long after
a course has ended.

122| Creating creative teachers

References
Aoki, N (2002) An alternative way for teachers
to develop. The Teacher Trainer 16/2, Summer
2002: 10–11.
Bloom, B, Engelhart, M, Furst, E, Hill, W and
Krathwohl, D (1956) Taxonomy of educational
objectives: The classification of educational goals.
Handbook I: Cognitive domain. New York: David
McKay Company.
Constantinides, M (2014) Creativity in Teacher
Education Courses. Unpublished Survey, results
available online at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/
1huDMEZBjmURpBrdo2jc9gMxm0XxR3FpTu9yQYSYtQw/viewanalytics
de Bono, E (1985) Six Thinking Hats: An Essential
Approach to Business Management. UK: Little,
Brown and Company.
de Bono, E (2009) Lateral Thinking: A Textbook of
Creativity. Penguin UK.
Guilford, J (1967) The Nature of Human Intelligence.
New York: McGraw-Hill.
Guilford, J (1968) Intelligence. Creativity and their
Educational Implications. San Diego: Robert R. Knapp
Publications.
Hadfield, J (1992) Classroom Dynamics. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Kumaravadivelu, B (2003) Beyond Methods.
New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Rickards, T and Jones, L (1989) Creativity Audit:a Diagnostic Approach to Overcoming Blocks.
Management Decision 27/1.
Woodward, T (1991) Models and Metaphors in
Language Teacher Training: Loop Input and Other
Strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Marisa Constantinides studied Applied Linguistics
at the University of Reading and has been a TEFL
teacher educator, ELT writer and conference
speaker for more than 20 years. She is the Directorof CELT Athens and trains teachers face-to-faceand online on a variety of teacher courses, including
the CELTA and DELTA. She also regularly volunteers
on TESOL Electronic Village Online (EVO) workshops,
moderates #ELTchat every week and blogs on TEFL
Matters, her main blog. She has published books
for young learners, using literary texts, andnumerous articles on teaching, learning andeducational technology.

13
The learner as a creativity resource
Marjorie Rosenberg

Introduction

The power of the learner

A simple definition of creativity is not possible,
as creativity comes in so many different forms.
Creativity can involve using one’s imagination,changing existing ideas, being unique, original andinnovative, having a vision, or simply having thefreedom to come up with new and unusual ways
to carry out tasks. Classrooms around the world
are filled with wonderful resources for creativity,
innovation, ideas and possibilities to ‘think outside
the box’. Those looking in from the outside may
notice not much more than a board to write on, alongwith some tables and chairs, and wonder where theresources are, perhaps overlooking the fact that themost important part of the classroom is the people init. Each of our learners comes to class with a unique
set of values, experiences, ideas and thoughts, anda wealth of knowledge waiting to be tapped. For thisreason making use of the learner as ‘a creativity
resource’ not only makes sense but also provides
teachers with an unending source of material todevelop and nurture both inside and outside theclassroom.

Our learners have much more power than we may
realise. When we walk out of a lesson feeling that
it went well, it is most likely because we felt that thelearners enjoyed it, made progress, were engaged
and motivated, and a positive atmosphere was felt
in the classroom. A lesson which is primarily ‘teacher
focused’ stops being an interaction and becomesa lecture, something not normally expected inlanguage learning. Our learners are not usually there
to ‘learn about the language’ but to discover what
they can do with it. Therefore it is necessary for us
to ‘create more situations in which the learners cancontribute, initiate, control and create what happensin the classroom’ (Deller, 1990). Keeping this in mind
can also help us to become partners in the learning
process, and the realisation that we can learn a lot
from our learners is a valuable lesson for all of us.

Giving the learners space
Sometimes it is simply a matter of giving the learners
the space they need to express their ideas andcreativity by setting tasks which enable them tocontribute their own thoughts and experiences
while experimenting and expanding on the language
they need to do this. Bringing in songs, music,
artwork, etc. can serve as a springboard to creativity
and allow learners to verbalise feelings and emotions
which they might instead have left outside theclassroom. Learners also bring knowledge ofother cultures and languages to class which
can be exploited with a variety of activities
demonstrating both creativity and innovation.
By maintaining a non-threatening atmospherein the classroom, the teacher can encouragerisk-taking and the joy of play, two factors which
can help learners to discover their own strategies
to learn a language and enjoy the process.

The teacher as facilitator
Sometimes it is difficult for teachers to ‘let go’ andgive the learners the chance to take over for a time.
However, when this happens it generally creates anatmosphere in which true learning begins to takeplace. Simply memorising vocabulary or learning
grammar rules is not necessarily a sign that learners
have internalised language or even dealt with ‘how
to learn’. But when we step back and give them theopportunity to access the language they need inorder to express what they would like to put intowords, a very different type of learning begins totake place. This is when creative ideas can spring
forth and learners begin to experiment with thelanguage (which is actually how we learn our first
language). It is then that an element of fun comes
into the classroom – an important element in thecreative learning process. It is also vital that we
do not think of our learners as empty vessels to
be filled with knowledge, but as fertile fields which
can be cultivated and harvested.

The learner as a creativity resource|

123

The activities
The activities described in this chapter have beenused in a variety of settings. In adult education
classes held in the evening or on weekends it very
quickly became apparent to me that learners needed
to be engaged and be able to put aside their daily
persona in order to fully participate in an English
class. Coming from the performing arts myself,
I found that incorporating drama, music and art
were easy to do and came naturally to me. As I was
enthusiastic about what we were doing, my learners
joined in and took part in the activities. These havethen been refined and developed to be used topractise particular areas of grammar or vocabulary
and have since been used in courses for government
officials, in companies, at the university level and inteacher training sessions.
One of the main factors of these activities is thefact that they fit into the concept of ‘NTP’ (no teacher
preparation). While I fully appreciate the value of
prepared and laminated cards and board games
and worksheets, the activities described here
can be done anywhere and with any group witha minimum of preparation. In addition, mostneed just the everyday articles we can find in theclassroom. The majority of them can be expanded
into writing activities which could be done in classor as homework, and they all rely on minimal input
from the teacher and aim for maximum output fromthe learners. Some of them I have learned fromother trainers and adapted, some I just tried out
because they seemed like fun and my learners
seemed to enjoy them. All in all, they encouragelearners to think for themselves, add their own
personal experiences, thoughts and ideas, andcommunicate these to others. Being creative isa wonderful thing but if we keep it inside us as awell-guarded secret, no one will ever realise thepotential we have for innovation and creativity.
Therefore these activities are done in pairs, groups
or even with the whole class. Creativity can be aself-fulfilling prophecy: if we think we are creative,
we have a better chance of developing this creative
talent, and this becomes a ‘virtuous circle’ as successbreeds more success.

124| The learner as a creativity resource

The activities also make use of the concept of
playfulness, which I like to encourage in all of
my learners, regardless of age. Having fun in
the classroom, being engaged and overcoming
inhibitions are ways to increase motivation, andthis motivation can encourage learners to try things
out and take chances. Success breeds successand therefore this type of encouragement may be
exactly what learners need to go on. Learning a first
language is something we do naturally – but learninga second generally involves hard work. Therefore,
providing the chance to remember what it was liketo be creative, as we were as children, and providing
a safe atmosphere in order to do this, can help
learners of all ages to discover not only new words
and grammar structures, but how to communicate
ideas, thoughts and feelings in a new language – thegoal of language learners everywhere. In addition,
creativity is encouraged when we provide input but
allow for a wide variety of output from our learners.

Creating a story
Aims■■ Inspire emotions and feelings with music and images.
■■ Give learners freedom to create their own story.
■■ Encourage self-access of vocabulary and grammar structures.

Materials
A short excerpt (three to four minutes) of a piece of dramatic-sounding
orchestral music.
Examples include:■■ Leonard Bernstein: Overture to Candide.
■■ Anton Dvořák: Slavonic Dance No. 2 in E minor.
■■ Puccini: Overture to Turandot.

Pictures of places, people, objects, etc. These can come from travel brochures,
advertisements, clip art or Eltpics: www.flickr.com/photos/eltpics/, etc.

Procedure■■ Put learners into small groups and give each group a set of eight to ten

pictures. Each group can have different sets or you can use the same set
for each of them.
■■ Instruct the learners to spread the pictures in front of them so that everyone

can see them.
■■ Ask them to discuss the pictures briefly and to ask if they have any questions

about vocabulary.
■■ Tell them that they are going to hear a piece of music. Based on what they hear,

feel and see, they are to create a story of their own.
■■ Play the piece of music for the learners.
■■ While listening, they can either begin to put the pictures into order or they

can wait until the music is finished and then decide on the story.
■■ Give them enough time to finish their story. They can write it down if they like,just make notes or remember it.
■■ Play the music again and have them look through the pictures and rehearse

the story in their minds.
■■ Ask each group to tell the others their story.

Students can write up the story in groups or individually for homework.

The learner as a creativity resource|

125

Making use of the masters
Aims■■ Give learners the chance to imagine themselves in a picture which they use

to elicit emotions and feelings.

Materials
Different reproductions of works by famous artists, ensuring that there areenough for each learner to have one. The best types to use are those whichshow scenes and people rather than just landscapes or single portraits.

Procedure■■ Lay the pictures out on the tables or have learners come to the front of theroom and choose a picture.
■■ Instruct them to look carefully at the pictures they have chosen and to imagine

themselves in the scene. They should then try to experience for themselves
the emotions or feelings that the picture elicits.
■■ Put the learners in small groups and have them lay out all their pictures

together. Then ask each learner to express the feelings they experienced
by imagining themselves in the picture and have the others guess which
one it was.
■■ When they have finished, they hold a discussion about the pictures in theirgroups and compare the feelings and emotions they experienced whenlooking at them.
■■ Learners can write a story about the picture describing what happened

before the picture was painted, or making a prediction about what will
happen in the future.
Students can write up the story in groups or individually for homework.

Creating modern art
Aims■■ Use a type of modern art drawing created by the learners as a springboardfor ‘language drills’ and moving on to freer speaking.

Materials
A large piece of paper for each ten learners, and coloured pens or crayons.

Procedure■■ Put the paper in front of the learners and make the pens available.
■■ Begin by drawing a line on the paper and encourage the learners to do

the same.
■■ Once a line drawing is finished, have the learners colour it in using different

colours to create a piece of modern art.
■■ Speak about the finished drawing using sentences such as: ‘What could thisbe?’ ‘This reminds me of…’ and ‘I think this looks like…’.

126| The learner as a creativity resourceBuilding a machine
Aims■■ Have learners work together to think of an unusual machine.
■■ Encourage them to use their bodies to create movement and a process.

Materials
A photo or drawing of a machine.

Procedure■■ Teach vocabulary of sequences (e.g. first, then, after that).
■■ Show a photo or drawing of a machine to learners and elicit ideas from themof its purpose.
■■ Put the learners into small groups and tell them to think of an unusual machine

and what it is for (or what it can do). The machine should have a part for eachmember of the group to act out. The machine has to have a purpose.
■■ They then work out who does what and present their machine to the class.

They can use sounds but no words.
■■ The others watch and then guess the purpose of the machine.
■■ To reinforce language, they act out their machine again and narrate what

exactly is taking place.
Students can write about their machine in groups or individually for homework.

Co-operative chain
Aims■■ Give learners freedom to complete sentences and work together to create

a metaphor (the chain) of the classroom.
■■ Get to know each other with an inclusive and creative activity.
■■ Transfer from first person singular to third person singular using the correct

form of the verb.

Materials
A list of ten numbered stem sentences on the board.
Example:1. My favourite food is…
2. I like to…
3. I am good at… -ing
4. I am bad at… -ing
5. etc.
You will also need some strips of paper and sticky tape.

Procedure■■ Give each learner a strip of paper and tell them to choose three of thesentences to complete.
■■ Learners write their name on the strip, the numbers of the sentences they

have chosen and their short answers, e.g. 4) dancing.

The learner as a creativity resource|127

■■ Make a chain out of the strips by making a loop out of one strip and thenadding the others until a connected chain is formed.
■■ Have the learners stand up and take hold of one of the links of the chain

which belongs to another student.
■■ Ask one learner to begin by saying whose link they are is holding andintroducing the person to the group by saying their name and then readingout the completed stem sentences, e.g. ‘This is Carol. She is bad at dancing.’■■ As each person is introduced they then take their turn to introduce the next

person until everyone in the group has been spoken about.
■■ Hang up the chain in the room and explain that the group is linked together

as they are in the chain.

Using ‘home’ and ‘expert’ groups
Aims■■ Learn to set up an atmosphere of interdependence in group work.
■■ Make use of combined creativity within a group.
■■ Encourage a feeling of belonging and peer encouragement.

Materials■■ Several short texts – enough so that each ‘expert group’ has one to workwith (these can be on the same topic or different ones), logic puzzles, maps,
charts, etc.

Procedure■■ Put the learners into so-called ‘home groups’ of four to six learners.

Give each of these groups a letter (A, B, C, etc.).
■■ Give them some time to choose a name for their group and either a logo

or a group cheer. They then tell the other groups what they decided andin the case of a cheer they can act it out for the others.
■■ Number each of the students within their group and ask them to remember

their numbers.
■■ Form new groups (the so-called ‘expert groups’). Each expert groupwill contain four to six learners drawn from the different home groups.
These expert groups can then be used to carry out a number of tasks.
■■ If you have given them a short text, instruct them to read it and then write

short summaries of it or answer questions about it. If they have a logic puzzle,
they should try to solve it and discuss how they did this. If they have a map,they can be asked to talk about travelling or terrain, and with charts they canbe asked to explain them, etc.
■■ When they have finished, ask the learners to return to their home groups.
■■ The teacher then leads the activity by asking someone in a home group to

give a short summary of the text, an answer to a question, explain a puzzle,
talk about a map or chart etc. The important part here is that the person asked
is not the ‘expert’ on that particular text, so they have to get the informationfrom the person who is the expert. The answers are then confirmed by theother experts in the room, rather than the teacher.

128| The learner as a creativity resourceCircle faces
Aims■■ Come up with a creative story about a fictional character based on a drawing

created co-operatively.

Materials■■ A piece of paper for each pair or group of three.
■■ A coloured pen or pencil.

Procedure■■ Tell the pairs or groups to draw a circle filling at least three-quarters of thepage on the paper.
■■ The learners then pass their papers to the right and the next group is asked

to draw a nose. They can be reminded to be creative with their drawing.
■■ The papers are passed again and the next group draws the eyes.
■■ This continues until the face is completed.
■■ The last groups to get the drawing can add anything they feel it needs, suchas jewellery or freckles.
■■ The drawings are then passed on one more time and the pair or group whogets the final drawing creates a persona for the face. They should think of aname, come up with a story about how they met the ‘person’, what the ‘person’
likes and dislikes, what they are good or bad at doing and add something thatmost people do not know about the ‘person’.
■■ They then present ‘their friend’ to the class and answer any questions theothers may have.
Students can write up the story in groups or individually for homework.

The learner as a creativity resource|

129Personal mind maps
Aims■■ Encourage learners to be creative with their own personal information.
■■ Awaken interest in the stories by others in the class.

Materials■■ A piece of paper and a pen for each learner.

Procedure■■ Ask each learner to draw a personal mind map. They first draw a circle in the

middle of the page and write their name in it and then add six to eight lines
which connect the circle to other circles.
■■ They fill in these circles with dates, names, abbreviations, words, numbers, etc.

that mean something to them personally.
■■ When they have finished they exchange their mind maps with their neighbours

who then ask questions about the meaning of the information in the circles.
■■ After ‘interviewing’ each other, they then introduce their partners to the restof the class.
Example:Importantyear

Anabbreviation

Name of pet

Name

ImportantnumberFavourite
activity
Activity
persondoes notlike doing130| The learner as a creativity resourceCreating an ideal home
Aims■■ Work together to create an ideal living environment.
■■ Use creative ideas to produce a poster.

Materials■■ A large piece of paper.
■■ Pens.
■■ Catalogues or advertisements from furniture stores or homes, travel

brochures, etc.
■■ Glue or tape.

Procedure■■ Put the learners into small groups.
■■ Ask them to talk first about their ideal home and its location; it can be a large

loft in a city, an old farmhouse in the country or a bungalow at the beach.
■■ They then have to create the perfect home for the group. They need to work

together and each of the people in the group has to contribute to the final
result, and the home must be designed for the whole group to live in.
■■ The groups can use the pictures they have to create their ideal home. They candraw floor plans or pictures, label rooms, outdoor facilities, etc. or paste on the
pictures they have.
■■ When the groups have finished, they present their posters to the class andanswer questions about it.

Soap opera – creating a family
I learned this game from Andrew WrightAims■■ Create an alternative identity for oneself.
■■ Work together to join the identities into a family unit.
■■ Make use of storytelling.

Materials■■ A4 paper cut in half.
■■ Pens.

Procedure■■ Give each of the learners a piece of paper and some pens.
■■ Tell them that they are going to think up a new identity for themselves.
■■ They then draw a picture of the person they would like to be and make somenotes about the details they will need. (Name, job, age, hobbies, interests,
traditions, etc.)■■ When they have finished creating their new personas they introduce

themselves to the group.

The learner as a creativity resource|131

■■ The next step is to form a family. This can be done with six to ten students;

larger classes can form more than one family. The groups work together todecide on the relationships of the fantasy identities and the dynamics within
the family.
■■ They can attach the drawings they have to a larger poster and then present

the information to the class and answer any questions the others may have.

Changing a story
This too is a game I learned from Andrew Wright

Aims■■ Add creative details to an everyday event.
■■ Remember details and gist by listening.

Materials
A small piece of paper for each learner.

Procedure■■ Give each of the learners a small piece of paper and ask them to write theirname on it.
■■ Tell them to think of a small thing that went wrong for them in the last couple ofdays. This can be something like forgetting to buy milk for coffee or forgetting
to set their alarm clock, etc.
■■ Explain that they are going to exchange their story with another person.

As they tell their first partner what happened they exchange the pieceof paper with their name on it.
■■ The learners take their slip of paper with a name on it and find a new partner

to exchange stories with, making one or two small changes in the stories. They
also exchange the pieces of paper with the names on them. They then look for
new partners and the game continues for ten minutes or so. Remind learners
that they can be as creative as they like when changing the stories, the only
rule is that they cannot tell the story to the person who started it.
■■ Stop the game and ask the learners to return to their seats. Then ask oneof them to tell the story they just heard without mentioning the name of theperson who told it. The class listens and people try to guess if it is their story.
Once they guess, they tell the original story so the class can see what has been
added, deleted, etc.
■■ Continue until all the stories have been told along with the originals.

132| The learner as a creativity resource

Conclusion
The ideas and activities suggested in this chapter
are taken from current methodologies andapproaches such as Suggestopedia, communicative
language teaching and co-operative learning.
Suggestopedia takes advantage of learners’
fantasy and imaginations by having them create
new identities which they use throughout the class.
The game about making a family was used in several
courses taught using this method. The learners areencouraged to take chances, and as they are able
to disassociate from their everyday identities andact as another persona, they do not have to worry
about mistakes. Music is used to relax students
and create an atmosphere which is different totraditional classrooms.
In the communicative approach learners becomeacquainted with the functions of language and areencouraged to use it to get their message across.
They can also talk about feelings and emotions whenpresented with pictures and other materials, andthe teacher works as a facilitator who sets up theactivities to promote communication. The social
aspect is regarded as an important factor andspeakers have the freedom about what to say andhow to say it. As authentic language (at least as muchas possible) is the goal with this approach, all theactivities suggested would fit into this method
and have been used in classrooms in which English
is taught communicatively.
Co-operative learning is explained in the activities
and is a method which teaches social skills alongwith language or other subjects. Students learn
to develop ‘positive interdependence’ in group
work and the groups are structured in such a waythat everyone has to take part. In addition, learners
help each other to reach a common goal andlearn from each other. As learners interact in thetarget language and take on responsibilities, theyalso develop respect for each other and theircapabilities, making it easier to use learners
as resources in the classroom.

This is one of the factors that keeps us fresh andhelps us to truly enjoy what we are doing. Realisingthat our learners are people who can contributesignificantly to what goes on in the classroom may be
the first step to opening the floodgates to creativity.
Finding ways to encourage them and support themcan be the way to optimise the impact of both thelearning and the teaching, a goal that those on‘both sides of the desk’ are aiming for.

References
Deller, S (1990) Lessons from the learner.
Harlow: Longman.
Grundy, P, Bokiek, H and Parker, K (2011) English
through Art. Innsbruck: Helbling.
Keddie, J (2009) Images. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Kryszewska, H and Campbell, C (1992) Learner-based
Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Larsen-Freeman, D (2002) Techniques and principles
in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Rosenberg, M (2013) Spotlight on learning styles.
Peaslake: Delta Publishing.
Marjorie Rosenberg has a Master of Fine Arts inMusic Performance and makes use of music, art andcreativity in the English classroom. Originally fromthe US, she has taught English in Austria, trainedteachers and presented at conferences for over
30 years on topics such as music in the classroom,
co-operative learning, personalising teachingmaterials, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) andactivities designed for a wide range of learner types.
Publications include coursebooks, photocopiable
activities, and articles and books on methodology.
Marjorie was the IATEFL BESIG (Business English
Special Interest Group) Co-ordinator and a memberof the IATEFL Membership Committee. She iscurrently the Acting Vice-President of IATEFL. She
blogs at https://learnerasteacher.wordpress.com

Once teachers have experienced the freedom ofgiving learners space to try things out, it becomeseasier to do it. We may be afraid to let go of control
at the beginning but seeing the enthusiasm oflearners and feeling the atmosphere of growth andtrust can help us to continue on this path. One of
the joys of teaching is suddenly coming up with a
new way to present a concept and realising that ourlearners have now gained a new perspective on it.

The learner as a creativity resource

|

133

14
Practising creative writing in highschool foreign language classes
Peter Lutzker

Introduction
In this chapter it will be argued that it is in the
deeply human need to listen to and tell stories thatthe finest potentials of creative writing lie. Stories
not only shape the imaginative and emotional life ofa child, but also the acquisition of language and thedevelopment of thought and self. In her seminal workon the role of stories in childhood Susan Engel writes:…stories are not merely a nice or fun decoration
added to the real stuff of mental development.
They are, in many respects, the real stuff ofmental development. The construction, telling
and retelling of stories allow children to learn
about their world and reflect on their knowledge.
The making of stories also allows them to know
themselves; through stories children constructa self and communicate that self to others. (…)...it is an essential aspect of what it means to
be a human being. (Engel, 1999: 206).
It is these same formative dimensions which listening
to and telling stories call upon that also lead her toemphasise the importance of later encouraging
children and young people to write them:
The purpose of encouraging kids to write is notjust to get them to write more happily or to become
better writers. These experiences have a profoundand formative effect on the child’s developing
narrative voice, and through this, his developing
sense of self. The narratives created in writing havea deep connection with the ones created in playand in conversation... (…) They all contribute to thedevelopment of the self and to the development of
the second world – the one that allows us to live inthe past, the future, the impossible, the world of
narrative that allows us to share ourselves withothers. (Engel, 1999: 221).
One of the precepts underlying the use of creative
writing in foreign language learning is that theseprocesses of storytelling and ‘story encouraging’can also have wide-ranging implications in learninga foreign language.

134

Creative and artistic processes
in adolescenceIn ‘entering into’ a foreign language, young people
not only have continual chances to perceive
the world from a new standpoint, but also ofexperiencing their own language, culture and ‘self’from another perspective. It is within this larger
context that creative writing can play a crucial role;
not as the occasional ‘fun and games on Friday
afternoons’ but as an essential dimension of what
can be learned in and through a foreign language.
Learning to express oneself creatively is a highly
individual process deeply rooted in one’s inner
imaginative and emotional life. At the same time,it also calls for a heightened perception andawareness of the world outside of oneself. Whenadolescents are given opportunities to become
engaged in such artistic processes, what they canlearn both about themselves and the world goes
far past what most traditional schooling generally
offers. Maxine Greene writes:
I believe that the learning provoked by what wecall aesthetic education is paradigmatic for thelearning many of us would like to see. Learning
stimulated by the desire to explore, to find out, togo in search. This is the learning that goes beyond
teaching – the only significant learning, I believe.
It is self-initiated at some point, permeated bywonder, studded by moments of questioning,always with the sense that there is somethingout there, something worthwhile beyond.
(Greene, 2001: 46–47).
Viewed from this perspective, the task of the teacher
is transformed from primarily imparting knowledge
into creating opportunities for pupils to be able totake their own initiatives as part of their broader
search for meaning and orientation. It is thisconnection between artistic experience andpersonal development that lies at the heart ofGreene’s understanding of a meaningful education:| Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes

Most significantly, I think we too often forget thatthe primary purpose of education is to free persons
to make sense of their actual lived situations – notonly cognitively, but perceptually, imaginatively,
affectively – to attend mindfully to their own lives,to take their own initiatives in interpreting them andfinding out where the deficiencies are and trying totransform them. (ibid. 206).
At the core of this vision lies a belief in the individualand biographical will of the pupils to grasp suchopportunities of growth when they are presented
to them:
Surely you recognize that this kind of thing seldom
happens naturally. Situations have to be createdthat release the energies required, that provoke
interest, that move persons to reach beyond
themselves. (…) With this in mind, we can somehow
trust that, if we have taught how to search and letthem catch some gleam of the untraveled, they
will find their own ways, as we have done, andbegin teaching themselves, pursuing their own
possibilities. (ibid. 47).
In pursuing their own possibilities, young people willneed both encouragement and feedback from theirteachers. What they will also need are opportunities
to practise.

The practice of the arts
Developing the skills called for in creative writing
invariably depends on having enough possibilities
to practise them. The word ‘practice’ is often usedinterchangeably with the word ‘training’, but they
have very different meanings, and the distinctionin this context between practising and training is
crucial. When training for something, one has clear
goals and attaining those goals becomes the focusof the work; the way one reaches them becomes, at
most, a secondary consideration. A typical example
would be muscle building in a fitness studio.

Traditional language learning relies heavily on the
training of language skills, particularly with respect
to vocabulary and grammar. Coursebooks arecarefully designed to train specific skills withinclearly defined frameworks. Such training also
implies focusing on clearly defined, short-term,
testable goals. Practising is fundamentally different
and involves a longer and subtler process. The
carpenter and violinist have in common that they
have practised for years and through their practicehave been gradually transformed. Their practice sits
deeply in their bodies and movements and also
shapes the way they feel and think. It is not reaching
the goal that transforms a practitioner – they may noteven reach a goal – but the nature of the practiceitself. It is this crucial distinction between training
and practising in language learning that is highly
significant in this context.
When creative writing is considered as a long-term
process of developing perceptual, imaginative andexpressive capabilities, then this calls for practisingin the sense that all creative artists continuallypractise. And it is within this larger and richer
context that heightened and transformative learning
experiences in a foreign language become mostpossible. In the context of viewing the practice of
creative writing in conjunction with the specificdemands of foreign language learning, Alan Maleyargues that the challenges and constraints impliedin developing one’s creative writing skills requiredisciplined engagement on different levels:
Contrary to what many believe, creative writing
is not about licence. It is a highly disciplined
activity. However, the discipline is self-imposed:“the fascination of what’s difficult”. In this it stands
in contrast to expository writing, which imposes
constraints from without. (…) Creative writing is apersonal activity, involving feeling. This does notmean that thought is absent – far from it. The
ingenuity of a plot or the intricate structure of apoem are not the products of unthinking minds.
(Maley, 2006: 35).

Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes |135

He argues further that precisely because the degreeof affective and cognitive engagement in aesthetic
creation is so much higher than in those activities
driven by specific language-learning goals, it will
also foster significant improvement in language
capabilities:
Creative writing aids language development at
all levels: grammar, vocabulary, phonology anddiscourse. As learners manipulate the language
in interesting and demanding ways in their attempt
to express uniquely personal meanings (as they doin creative writing), they necessarily engage withthe language at a deeper level of processing thanwith expository texts. The gains in grammaticalaccuracy, appropriacy and originality of lexical
choice, and sensitivity to rhythm, rhyme, stressand intonation are significant. (ibid).
The deeper level of language processing that
Maley refers to can be understood in conjunction
with a pupil’s desire to express themselves
meaningfully. The fact that they are being asked
to do this in a foreign language should not be
considered as an insurmountable hindrance, but
as a potential source of freedom. This is exactly
what the Swiss writer Peter Bichsel refers to when hedescribes his experiences in learning English. In stark
contrast to his traumatic experiences in having tolearn French in school (‘I am a victim – a victim ofFrench lessons’) (Bichsel, 1985: 52), he describes
his later learning of English:
Learning English was for me the realisationof a boy’s dreams. (…) ...a language that not
only opened a new world, but far more than that,gave me the possibility to take on a new role, aform of acting, a faint breath of change, a faintremembering of the human dream of becoming
someone else. I don’t have to be someone in thislanguage; instead I am allowed to play.
(Bichsel 1985: 54, my translation).
For language teachers to facilitate such creative
learning processes, it will be necessary for them tolook for possibilities to go beyond the constraints
which standardised curricula, coursebooks andtesting often impose. It will mean searching forways to encourage and support the individual
development of each of their pupils, not onlywith respect to language learning but also intheir broader search for meaning in their lives.

136

The argument that I am making is that creative
writing offers manifold possibilities of doing this andthe following section offers a concrete example of
how a creative writing project can help to serve suchgoals. Although the different exercises which will bepresented in the following section were offeredwithin a specific context, they could also easily be
used or adapted for use in other situations. They canalso be considered as representative of those kindsof exercises which I believe to be most valuable.

Short story projects in EFLhigh school classes
It has consistently been my experience that it
is very helpful to place individual creative writing
assignments within the broader framework of alarge-scale writing project. Exercises done overa period of weeks are thus viewed as a form ofpractising designed to enable pupils, for instance,
to write their own collection of poems, screenplays
or short stories. Working towards such a goal isparticularly important in artistic work: just as amusic student practises not only for herself, but
for a performance for an audience, a focus on
working towards a final text which will be readand appreciated by others is a strong motivational
factor throughout the entire process. At the sametime, establishing from the very beginning a clear
and highly challenging goal gives a structure anddirection to all the activities and lessons which follow.
The following section details a three-week
preparatory unit consisting of ten 45 minute lessons
which are designed to prepare pupils to write theirown short stories. After this introductory unit they
are given at least six weeks to work on their stories
as a long-term homework assignment. The classes
in which I taught these units were mixed-ability
EFL classes in Steiner schools in Germany. I havegenerally chosen to do this in 11th grade where theaverage age is 17. It would certainly be possible toalso do this project a year later and, perhaps in someclasses, a year earlier. At this point in the 11th grade
they will have already read, discussed and written
essays about two or three modern short stories inthat same year. They will also have read a numberof short stories in both 9th and 10th grades.

| Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes

Ten lessons as preparation forwriting a short story

A. Oh, I’ve never thought of it.

Split lines

C. I already have.

The announcement that we are beginning a project
which will end with the pupils having written theirown short stories is generally met with a mixtureof curiosity, disbelief and panic. In the first lesson
I am thus aiming to alleviate the feeling of dismaythat some pupils are already feeling and, at thesame time, to awaken their imaginative and creative
faculties in a playful way. In this situation I haveoften chosen to either use or adapt the following
exercise taken from Maley and Duff’s book Literature(1990: 24–26).

D. Why, how am I to judge?

B. That? Oh...

E. They consulted, and let him rise.
F.

G. My wife has left me.
H. I’m not so sure.
I.

I had imagined it was later.

J.

Don’t you?

K. What’s wrong with your voice?
Why can’t you talk properly?
L.

Materials
Match the following first lines with the responses
given in the next section. Feel free to list
different possibilities.
1.

I want to talk to you about this letter thatyou sent me.

2. You don’t think much of Australia then?
3. Now what is the matter?
4. Has anything happened?
5. I say, no need to call anyone.
6. Someone will go for her with a breadknife one day – and he won’t miss her.
7.

I’m sorry I was late. It was unavoidable.

8. Speaking out may get you into trouble.
9. Twenty-five minutes past five.
10. I wanted to ask you something.
11. You should take off your shoes before
entering the mosque.
12. Tell me, what kind of man do you prefer?
13. Why are you going to marry him?
14. May I sit up? I will not struggle against
you again.

Did you? What was it?

It’s often done so in the past.

M. I’m not so sure.
N. I was not going to.
O. Oh, it’s nothing, nothing. Go away.
Can’t you see that I’m not dressed?

ProcedureWorking either on their own or with partners, pupils
are encouraged to look for one or more possibilities
of combining these lines. I specifically make thepoint that it is not a question of getting it ‘right’, butrather realising that different combinations lead tocompletely different situations and possible stories.
For that reason, I do not use the answer key andleave the question open as to what lines originallybelonged together.
Naturally, there are pairs of lines that don’t makeany sense and if a pupil proposes one, I gently
suggest they should consider another. At the endof the lesson, they are asked to choose one of theirpairs and for homework to put this into a larger
context, either by describing the general outlines ofa situation that could have led to this brief exchange
or by writing lines preceding and/or following the
given exchange.
The wide range of choices which are thus offeredboth with respect to the combination of lines theychoose, as well as to the type of assignment, iscrucial and can also be seen as a thread going
through all the following creative writing
assignments.

Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes |137

Possessions
One highly worthwhile way of beginning the second
lesson would be to listen to some of the homework
generated by the first assignment. It has consistently
been my experience that the interest in finding out
what other pupils did with the same assignment isvery pronounced and thus the quality of listening
which then occurs in the classroom is unusually high.
Achieving this quality of listening to and generally
appreciating each other’s work is a significant
element of the entire project.
In this exercise, pupils are given two possible tasks
and are asked to choose one of them.
1.

Think of someone you know well and list
different possessions which you associatewith that person. Then choose one of thoseobjects, the one that seems most resonant toyou and write more about it, trying to be as
precise in your description of that object as
possible. Feel free to bring in any personal
memories which this object triggers.

2. Write about a personal possession/object
that you would most want to save in casethere was a fire in your house. Describe it
precisely and explain to your reader why thisobject is so important to you. (Do not write
about your mobile phone, since you alreadyhave that in your pocket!)

Procedure
An exercise like this will lead to an extraordinary
range of answers. Over the years, I have readloving and detailed descriptions of cars, stuffedanimals, personal diaries and a spectacular array ofkeepsakes. The students write in class. This means,that although dictionaries are provided, the teacher
is in constant action, walking through the classroom
and providing help with the necessary vocabulary
and phrases. The atmosphere in the class is highly
concentrated and the pupils are very absorbed inremembering and describing what they’re visualising.
Although theoretically such assignments could also
be done entirely as homework, it has become clear
to me that it is generally far more enjoyable andfruitful to have much of this kind of activity done
together in class. The pupils are invariably gratefulto have someone who can immediately help themin expressing something that is important to them.
Thus, both the presence and support of the teacher,as well as the atmosphere generated by the creative
energy of the other pupils, generally lead to a higher

138

quality of results than when such assignments are
only done as homework. Some exercises can befinished in class time, others will require a further‘finishing up’ at home. Particularly, if one also takes
the time to listen to each other’s work, it is evident
that one will often need more than one class hour tocomplete an assignment. This will then lead to either
a further extension of the work to be done at home,as was the case with ‘split lines’ or, in this case,finishing at home what was begun in the lesson.
An assignment such as this one I might collect
afterwards and then correct and comment on.
This would then lead to them having to rewrite theirtexts to correct language errors and possibly tohaving to rewrite the entire assignment so as to haveit in a corrected form to be put into their language
portfolio. Whether I choose to do this or not will often
depend on the amount of work that they had put into
it: if a number of them had invested significant
amounts of time, I feel that it is necessary to respondlikewise by taking the time to correct and comment
appreciatively on their work. However, in the context
of this unit there are also assignments such as thefollowing that I will choose to leave uncorrected,
as ‘workshop’ pieces.

Working with photographs of people
In the third lesson I like to offer a complete shift ofmodes. The following exercise, which I have adaptedfrom Maley and Duff’s Drama Techniques in Language
Learning (1982: 128–129), is the task which usually
generates both the most active discussions and themost laughter in the entire unit.

Procedure
The class is divided into an even number of groups offour. Each group will receive a large photograph of aperson. It is helpful to choose an interesting range ofdistinctive and striking photographs of people, noneof whom should be recognisable as someone thepupils know. Each group will have 15–20 minutes toanswer the following questions about the person.
■■ How old might the person be?
■■ What might their occupation be (or have been)?
■■ Family circumstances (married or not, children

or not, etc.)?
■■ What kind of a personality?
■■ Likes and dislikes?
■■ Where does the person come from?
■■ Life story.

Discuss your answers, and then have at least one
person write them down.

| Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes

Materials

After 15 minutes exchange pictures with anothergroup, and after only five minutes the two groups
meet and exchange their answers. First the ‘nonexperts’ (the group that only had five minutes) give
their answers and then the ‘experts’ tell the others
what they ‘know’.
The mixture of perception and imagination which thisassignment calls for can help prepare pupils to later
more clearly visualise and develop characters in theirown stories.

Write a descriptive piece in which the different
relationships between the figures in a painting,for example in Rembrandt’s ‘Jacob and his Sons’,
are described. What conclusions can you draw
about each of the characters and, in particular,
their relationships, through closely observing
and considering all the details that can be seen?

Procedure

LossesAfter the last humorous lesson it can be appropriate
to offer something completely different. The
following assignment is adapted from an exercise
devised by Rolaine Hochstein (1995: 44–49) andcan generate very moving pieces of writing.

Materials
What can be lost? Write about something/someone that you lost in your life that wasmeaningful to you.

ProcedureThis is an example of a writing assignment that I
might let the pupils work on for perhaps 30 minutes
in class and then ask if some of them would be willing
to read what they have written so far. A few pupils
may not be willing to do this since what they wrote
may be highly personal, for instance, the loss of afamily member. Other losses that I have heard aboutover the years, ranging from wallets to guinea pigs,
will provide fewer problems.

Working with paintingsOnce again a complete shift of modes can besatisfying. The following exercise was adaptedfrom Paul Matthews’ collection Sing Me the Creation(1994: 30) and requires the use of an overhead or
LCD projector.
There is a particular value in working intensively
with pictures in language classes. For some learners
whose visual sensibilities are more highly developed
than their verbal skills it is both more stimulating, anda chance to shine.

You can either show the picture and hand out the
instructions for students to work on, or start withstudents in pairs or groups to brainstorm ideas
before they start to write.

Working with newspaper articles
Over the years I have accumulated a collection ofunusual newspaper articles, most of which fit into
the category of ‘fact being stranger than fiction’; forinstance, the story about the missing canoeist who
was assumed to have drowned and then five years
later walked into a police station, or the man who
spent 30 years in jail wrongly accused of a crime
he didn’t commit, or the story about the woman
who bought a vase at a flea market for £20 thatturned out to be a rare antiquity worth tens of
thousands of pounds. Out of this collection I choose
extracts from four articles which I think would best
fit that particular class and then read them with theclass, in conjunction with the following assignment.
The following four extracts from articles weretaken from newspapers. Each of them could
provide the potential ‘seed’ for a short story
or film. Choose one of them and draft theoutline and/or storyboard for a short story
or a film. Think of whose perspective the story
or film would be told from and what possible
beginnings, middles and ends could be
developed. What potential highpoint could you
build towards? Feel free to think of different
alternatives. You are not drafting something you
then have to follow up on, but rather considering
different possibilities for treating a non-fiction
text in a literary or cinematic manner.

Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes |139

Procedure

Story openings

The possibility to turn one of these articles into
a film scenario and/or a visualised storyboard isusually taken up by more than half of the class. The
scenarios that are generated are often quite detailed,including possible camera shots and choices ofmusic. This is an assignment that I carry over into thenext lesson. (It takes a while just to go through thefour stories and for the pupils to make their choice.)
Depending on how intensively the class take up thistask and whether I ask them to continue working
on it at home, it often takes up a third lesson as well.
It is an assignment that can also be done fruitfully
as partner work – particularly in the context of thedraft of a screenplay or storyboard.

This might be the final exercise before they begin
their own stories.

Mr Death
This exercise once again provides a shift of pace.
It has been adapted from an exercise designed by
Meredith Sue Willis (1995: 44–49).

Materials
So Jamie began to think of Death. Death, thatstrange being with the huge square toes who
lived way in the West. The great one who lived
in the straight house like a platform without
sides to it, and without a roof. What need has
Death for a cover, and what winds can blow
against him? He stands in his high house thatoverlooks the world. Stands watchful andmotionless all day with his sword drawn back,waiting for the messenger to bid him come.
Been standing there before there was a where ora when or a then. She was liable to find a feather
from his wings lying in her yard any day now.
Zora Neale Huston. Their Eyes Were
Watching God.

Procedure
Ask students to write a paragraph in this mannerusing one of the following words: depression,
satisfaction, greed, embarrassment, fear, amazement,
excitement, love, jealousy, joy, hysteria, helplessness.

140

Materials
Choose one of these beginnings and either
continue writing the story from this point on
for at least another paragraph or two, and/or
develop different possible plots of different
stories that could be generated from thisbeginning.

Procedure
The first lines or opening paragraphs from about
ten different modern short stories are copied onto
one page.

Beginning their own short stories
At the end of this preparatory phase the pupils
will begin working at home on their own stories.
In class we will be doing something different: a unitthat requires little or no additional homework. They
have at least six weeks to finish their stories. I ask
them to bring their unfinished manuscripts to classat the end of each week so that I can see their work.
I’m interested in knowing where they are in theirstory, what form of narration they have chosen,
whether they have an idea of how the story will end,
etc. A dialogue between the ‘writer’ and the teacher
as an interested ‘encourager’ of the work begins
here and will continue and intensify in the courseof the project.

Six weeks later: handing in their stories
After receiving the short stories of each pupil, theteacher’s work begins. Depending on the size ofthe class, correcting and commenting on all thesestories will require a substantial investment of time.
With an average of 38 pupils I have generally needed
up to six weeks to complete this work. At the end
pupils receive both a fully corrected version and adetailed commentary on their work. It is crucial thatthe commentary presents a full recognition anddiscussion of what has been written and that thetone of the commentary not be that of a teacher‘correcting’ her pupils but of an interested reader
responding to a writer with constructive andrespectful feedback.

| Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes

Two months later: reading eachother’s stories
After getting back their stories the pupils reworkthem in light of the corrections and, in the end, havea complete and corrected version of their stories.
At this point a further highly satisfying phase begins.
Over a period of one or two weeks the pupils readeach other’s stories during class. They are generally
quite astounded at the originality and quality of
their classmates’ (corrected) work. If they don’t
understand something, they can easily ask the‘author’, who is sitting in the same classroom. At theend of reading a story they are asked to write apersonal response to it and to put this into the folder
in which the story is enclosed. This means that at theend of each class all the authors rush to their own
folders to see what their classmates have written.
For the teacher such hours usually involve just sitting
quietly and observing pupils appreciating the workof other pupils. I have often seen this as a deserved
reward for the untold hours I spent correcting thosesame stories.

Conclusions
It has been my experience that the stories the pupils
write are, almost without exception, the finest andmost extensive work that each pupil has ever done
up until that point. They become deeply involvedin writing their stories: imaginatively, cognitively,
emotionally and volitionally. In the course of these
six weeks, pupils invariably encounter difficulties,
resistance and unmotivated phases, as well as
periods of creative inspiration and flow. The reason
they are so willing to invest so much of their time andenergy in this project is that the work is experienced
as personally meaningful and it is exactly this senseof purpose that they most deeply seek. The personal
and aesthetic satisfaction which is thus gained byaccomplishing a task of this order must be seen
as a decisive factor in evaluating its value.
The pupils naturally also make significant steps ina wide range of language skills, particularly withrespect to vocabulary and grammar. However, it isessential to realise that this was neither their main
focus nor mine. The project is both intended andexperienced as a creative assignment, not as alanguage-learning task. Such artistic projects canhave long-term transformative effects on pupils,
both in terms of their relation to the foreign language
and in their perception of themselves. As language
teachers, we have a wide range of possibilities tooffer pupils such creative challenges and thus achance to develop through meeting them. If weoffer them such opportunities, they will seize them,sensing, as Greene writes, the possibility ‘to attend
mindfully to their own lives, to take their own
initiatives in interpreting them’ (op. cit.). This is a‘learning that goes beyond teaching’, rooted in thecreative potentials of our pupils, potentials that they,and only they, can develop – provided they are given
chances to do so.

References
Bichsel, P (1985) Schulmeistereien. Darmstadt:
Luchterhand.
Engel, S (1999) The Stories Children Tell: Making
Sense of the Narratives of Childhood. New York:W.H. Freeman.
Greene, M (2001) Variations on a Blue Guitar.
New York: Teachers College Press.
Hochstein, R (1995), in Edgar, C and Padgett R (eds)
Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite Writing
Assignments. New York: Teachers and Writers
Collaborative.
Maley, A and Duff, A (1982) Drama Techniquesin Language Learning. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
Maley, A and Duff, A (1990) Literature. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Maley, A (2006) ‘Creative Writing/Reading’, inMukundan, J (ed) Creative Writing in EFL/ESL
Classrooms II. Malaysia: Pearson Longman.
Matthews, P (1994) Sing Me the Creation. Stroud:
Hawthorne Press.
Willis, M (1995) in Edgar, C and Padgett, R (eds),
Old Faithful: 18 Writers Present Their Favorite
Writing Assignments. New York: Teachers andWriters Collaborative.
Peter Lutzker taught English in Steiner schools
in Germany for 25 years, as well as teaching
pre-service and in-service courses for teachers
throughout Europe. In the context of designing
different programmes for language teachers, he has
worked closely with actors, directors, clowns andstorytellers with the aim of enhancing the artistryof teachers throughout different forms of dramatictraining. This work was described in his book The Art
of Foreign Language Teaching: Improvisation andDrama in Teacher Development and Language
Learning (Tübingen: 2007). In 2010 he became a
Professor at the Freie Hochschule, Stuttgart.

Practising creative writing in high school foreign language classes |

141

15
Fostering learners’ voices in literatureclasses in an Asian context
Phuong thi Anh Le

Introduction

Practical suggestions and activities

Teaching literature in EFL/ESL classrooms is widely
advocated for its undoubted advantages both for
language and for personal development. However,many EFL students still find literature an inhibiting
subject, not only because the literary language isusually beyond their ability but because the literary
and cultural values are also unfamiliar to theirexperience (Baurain, 2000; Khatib et al., 2011).

At the start of the course, students were asked
about their expectations of it. On the basis of this,the teacher could point out the match of the course
and the students’ expectations. Specific details about
the course aims, organisation, methods of teaching
and learning, materials, and assessment were madeclear to them. Special attention was paid to ongoingassessment which was aimed at supporting rather
than evaluating students’ learning. The aim in doing
this was to drive away students’ fear of literature dueto the many challenges they face in the initial stagesof their learning. The description of the course below
covers four main aspects: aims, materials selection,
methods of teaching and assessment.

As well as this, teaching literature in the lecturingmode often turns students into passive receiversof knowledge, rather than active readers who cancontribute their own ideas (Dagnew, 2013). Even
worse, it can lead to rote learning and plagiarism instudents’ assessments (Nguyen, 2010). In this way,
students’ own voices are clearly underestimatedand ultimately unheard in literature classes.
In an attempt to reverse this situation, this chapter
aims to share practical experiences in making
literature more inspiring to students and in fostering
their contribution and creativity in literature classes.

Aims
The course was expected to achieve thefollowing aims:■■ to motivate students to read literary texts■■ to enrich their love of literature■■ to enhance their thinking skills.

Brief background
The activities described in this chapter have beenused in American literature courses for Vietnamesecollege students majoring in English. In our context,
the literature course occupied a very small part(three credits) in a three-year curriculum, andstudents had little aspiration to engage withliterature in English. Therefore, it was essential
for the teacher to create a motivational learning
atmosphere where students could play an active
and meaningful role in learning literature. In orderto achieve this, the course was designed specificallyfor them with their language, interests and maturity
levels in mind.

142

Materials
To make the contents more manageable within theallotted time, the course focused on 20th century
American literature. In particular, it concentrated onsome key authors whose poetry and short stories
were more relevant to students’ language levels,
maturity and interest.
Specifically, the following texts were chosen to bestudied in class, in addition to other texts provided
for extensive reading.

| Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context

Poems■■ ‘This Is Just To Say’ (William Carlos Williams)■■ ‘Grass’ (Carl Sandburg)■■ ‘The Road Not Taken’ and ‘Acquainted with

the Night’ (Robert Frost)■■ ‘My Brother Lives Too Far Away’ (Mark Van Doren)■■ ‘Dreams’ and ‘I, Too, Sing America’(Langston Hughes)

Short stories■■ ‘A Lamp in the Window’ (Truman Capote)■■ ‘The Cop and the Anthem’ and‘The Gift of the Magi’ (O Henry)■■ ‘Love of Life’ (Jack London)■■ ‘The Story of an Hour’ (Kate Chopin)■■ ‘In Another Country’ (Ernest Hemingway)■■ ‘Going Home’ (William Saroyan)■■ ‘Sorrow for a Midget’ (Langston Hughes)■■ ‘The Magic Barrel’ (Bernard Malamud)■■ ‘The Snow Goose’ (Paul Gallico)

Methods of teaching
Guided by the course objectives, the method ofteaching was based on a reader-response approach
where the focus was on students’ exploration andresponse to the texts (Amer, 2003, cited in Khatib
et al., 2011). Thus, students were not expected tospend time figuring out exactly what was meantby the authors by their works. Rather, they wereencouraged to think about what they read and how
it was relevant to their own life and experience.
Ultimately, they were expected to recreate themeanings of the works based on what they
understood and felt.

Realising that literary language was often challenging
for students, the teacher made considerable use of
pictures and guided questions to help them in theinitial stage of exploring the texts. Specifically, thesedevices were aimed to set students thinking about
what they read and to arouse their emotions as
triggered by the poem or story. By doing this, theteacher was able to motivate students to further
exploit what they had learned.
As a principle, the pictures were chosen on thebasis of key themes and images in a poem or a story.
These pictures were accompanied by questions
to orient students into thinking and finding themeanings of the texts. As a type of scaffolding andguidance (Liang, 2011), the questions fell into fourmain categories: lead-in, comprehension, analytical/
interpretation and evaluation.
The teacher made it clear to students that it wasmore important for them to justify their opinions
than to worry about whether they were right orwrong. Differences in students’ opinions were usedas the basis for their discussion. In this way, theteacher was able to promote students’ higher order
thinking skills, such as analytical, critical thinking
and creative thinking skills. The following section
exemplifies and illustrates a lesson on a famous
poem written by Robert Frost, ‘Acquainted with theNight’, in three main stages of ‘pre-lesson’, ‘whilelesson’, and ‘post-lesson’.

Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context |143

Pre-lesson stage
Prior to the class, students were asked to prepare
for the lesson by reading the poem and showing theirinitial understanding of it by writing their answers tosome general questions set by the teacher.

The second set of questions asked about
different impacts that the rain could have on
old or young people.
■■ In what way does the rain influence a person?
■■ Does the rain influence young people and oldpeople differently?

Example:■■ What was the poem about?
■■ What was/were the main theme(s) of the poem?
■■ Do you like the poem? Why/why not?
■■ Do you have/know any similar experience?
■■ What do you gain from this poem?
■■ What do you find hard to understand?

Students were encouraged to write as manyquestions as possible about what they did notunderstand or would like to know about the poem.

■■ What do you think about a person walking

in the street alone after midnight?
■■ Could this person be happy or sad? Why?

The third set of questions made them relate
the situation to their personal experiences
and perceptions.
■■ Have you ever been out in the rain?
■■ How did you feel?
■■ Have you ever been in the rain when you

were sad?

While-lesson stage■■ What was your experience?

At the start of the class, individuals were asked towrite down their questions about the poem on theboard. These questions would be answered by theclass during the lesson.

■■ How might you feel if you had to walk in theThen, via a PowerPoint presentation, the teacher
showed several pictures of different kinds of people
walking alone in the rain in different situations,accompanied by lead-in questions which invited
individual responses. All students were expected
to share their opinions. Easy questions were often
directed to less able students so that they could
have more opportunities to share their perspectives
and develop their self-esteem and confidence.
The first set of questions was aimed at drawing out
their feelings and thinking about a person walking
in the rain without a raincoat.
■■ What is the person doing?
■■ Where are they going?

street alone after midnight?
These questions were supposed to get students
mentally and affectively ready to explore the text
further. The pictures also aimed to set a suitable
atmosphere for this exploration and orient the class
towards the main theme of the poem, which was
loneliness. Via these questions, students were asked
to express their opinions first in pairs and then with
their class. Thus, students had more preparation andchances to show their perspectives. This lead-instage was followed by text exploration.

Text exploration
This was the step when students were formally
exposed to the poem, which was analysed in detail.
It began with setting the tone of the poem.
■■ Setting the tone: this was done by reading thepoem aloud, first by the teacher and then by thestudents so that they could feel and show the sad,lonely ambience of the text.

■■ How are they feeling?
■■ Why are they feeling that way?
■■ Why aren’t they wearing a raincoat or holding■■ Overall understanding: students worked in pairs

an umbrella?
■■ What do you think about a person walking

in the rain without a raincoat?

to discuss their initial understanding of the poemby answering the following questions:–– What was the poem about?
–– What was/were the main theme(s) of the poem?
–– Do you share similar or different opinions withyour friend?

144| Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context

While students shared their opinions, the teacher
identified the differences in students’ opinions if any,
and used these differences for further guidance forthe text exploration.

I have stood still and stopped the soundof feetWhen far away an interrupted cry
Came over houses from another street,■■ Deep analysis: in this part, a deeper analysis of

the poem was conducted part by part. To do this,a set of questions was posed for each part of thepoem and students worked first in pairs and thengroups to discuss the answers. The poem wasdivided into three parts, each with a different
set of questions:

But not to call me back or say good-bye;‘Acquainted with the night’ by Robert FrostI have been one acquainted with the night.

And further still at an unearthly height,
One luminary clock against the sky
Proclaimed the time was neither wrong
nor right.

I have been one acquainted with the night.

–– What did he hear in those nights out?

I have walked out in rain – and back in rain.

–– What did he do when he heard that cry?

I have outwalked the furthest city light.

–– How did that cry sound to him?
–– Was that cry meant to call him?

–– Was the poet an old or young person?
How can you know?

–– How did the poet feel when the cry
was not meant for him?

–– Had the poet been out at night many times?

–– What did he see in the sky?

–– Was he out alone or with someone else?

–– What does this thing signify?

–– Is it normal for an old person to walk a longway in the rain alone at night? Why?

–– Why did the poet say ‘The time was neither
wrong nor right?’–– Why did he walk a long way in the rain alone
at night? What could be the problems?

–– What is the tone of the poem?
–– What are the possible themes of the poem?

–– What do all these details tell you about thisold person?
Then, each group was responsible for facilitating thediscussion using the guided questions and the classresponded individually. The teacher joined in thediscussion when necessary to explain language
problems that arose, to settle conflicts between
ideas, and to clarify ideas or to share comments.
The same procedure was adopted for the otherparts of the poem until the whole poem was studied.
I have looked down the saddest city lane.
I have passed by the watchman on his beat.
And dropped my eyes, unwilling to explain.

At the end of this stage, all the questions raisedby students about the poem were answered by
the class with or without the teacher’s interference.
By this time, several students were asked to readthe poem aloud again as this helped them to show
their understanding of the poem even more throughtheir voices.

Evaluation
In this step, students shared their personal evaluationand experience related to the poem by answering
the questions below.
■■ Do you like the poem? Why/why not?
■■ What do you particularly like or dislike about–– What had he seen on those lonely walks?
–– Did the surroundings look happy or sadto him? How?
–– Why did he drop his eyes when he saw
the watchman?

the poem?
■■ Have you ever been in a similar mood or situation

as the poet?
■■ Do you know of anyone who has had a similar

experience as the poet?

–– What do the surroundings tell you about
his mood?

Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context |145

Post-lesson stage2009). Any poems or ‘creative’ responses of thestudents were acknowledged and encouragedby the teacher through feedback in their journals,
or shared with the class. This was important as
students knew that their efforts were appreciatedand valued. The poems written by the students
were often edited by the teacher, withencouragement.

After exploring the poem in depth, students
were required to write their journals and practised
creative writing, in addition to doing extensive
reading. This stage was done at home.
For these tasks, students were asked to write down
their refined responses to the poem. Specifically, in
100 words, they had to write about their thoughts orexperiences related to the poem, using the questionsin the evaluation part as a guide. Another option wasfor them to write a poem about a related experience.

The following is an example of students’ creative
writing after learning the poem by Robert Frost.

In addition, they were asked to find two other poems
either in English or Vietnamese related to the themesof the poem and to identify how they were relevant
to each other. Those who could not find such poems
were allowed to find and copy down two other poems
that they liked and state why and what they liked
about them. Evidence of this task was recorded intheir journals, which were read by the teacher a few
times without giving prior notice during the course,
so students knew that they were always expected to
do the tasks for each lesson.

I have been acquainted with the difficulties
I have walked those long roads to schools
I have ridden my old bicycle
In the boiling heat of the day
Or in the darkness of the night.
I have lived through such long days.
No rice, no money, and many more.
I have experienced endless nights

Assessment

When I found it impossible to sleep.

Various forms of assessment were used, includingclass participation, aiming to cater for students’
diverse abilities and interests. These included thefollowing activities.

I have gone through Tet holidays alone.

■■ Journal writing

Journal writing has been widely promoted inteaching literature (Khatib et al., 2011). It is thought
to be a beneficial way for students to express theirpersonal responses to literary works or to relatethem to their personal experience (Knoeller, 2003).
In our context, journals were used to record
students’ perceptions of the texts they had read.
These journals were expected to include threemain things: a) initial answers to the teacher’squestions about the text before the lesson, b)
about 100 words to relate it to their own
experience, after they had learned the poem inclass, and c) a record of their extensive readingof further poems or short stories.
■■ Creative writing

As creative writing can be a highly beneficial
vehicle for students to reflect on their inner life
creatively (Knoeller, 2003), students wereencouraged to write their own poems. To facilitate
the process, the teacher exposed them to poems
written in simple English taken from Life in Words
and Words in Life (Maley et al., 2009) and Asian
Poems for Young Readers (Maley and Mukundan,

146‘Acquainted with the Difficulties’
by Cao Thi Nhan

| Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context

No family, no relatives, no friends.
And no best wishes for me.
Only profound sadness and many tears
For me and my terrible Tet here.
I have lived through those sad rainy nights
When I missed my parents and siblings at home
Whom I haven’t met for four years or more.
My eyes were buried in full tears then.
I have dreamt of my skinny Mom.
Her smiling face and gentle voice.
‘My baby’, she called out to me,
Looking at me with those loving eyes.
But the dream was far too short.
In disappointment I woke up too soon.
I have hoped that in my learning of English
I can have good scores for writing and listening.
To feel happy and to have something to show.
I have made promises with my dear Mom,
That I’ll always live honestly and study well.
That I’ll pass the next graduation exam.
And come back home to see her again.

At the end of the course, the teacher created
opportunities for students to share their creative
works with other students and teachers to boost
their self-esteem. In reciting their poems, students
were encouraged to vary the ways they read, using
their voices in different ways, varying the speeds,
the voice volumes and adding gestures. In doing
this, students found that the different way of reading
could lend the poems some novelty and they were
happy with this discovery. Even those who chose
not to read their works were allowed to read otherpoems that they liked. This was a great success interms of motivation, self-esteem and confidence
enhancement.
■■ Extensive readingThis activity aimed to nurture reading habits andthinking skills among students (Rashid et al., 2010),
in addition to helping their English improvement(Knoeller, 2003). For poetry, students were often
expected to find other poems in English or in
Vietnamese on the same themes and to identify
what they liked or disliked about the poem and towrite them down in their journals. Regarding shortstories, they were encouraged to read stories from
1,000 to 5,000 words in the Graded Readers series
available in the college library. A summary of
100 to 150 words was expected for each story,
followed by about 100 words of their comments
on any aspects of the stories of their choice.
The student journals show that each of them readfrom eight to 14 additional stories of between
2,000 and 4,000 words each. In addition, they
were able to share their related experience orliterary appreciation by pointing out what they
identified as new or interesting to them. They alsojotted down questions about things that were notclear to them. Frequent feedback from the teacher
turned this into a dialogue between students andteacher about literature and personal experience.
■■ Storytelling

Storytelling was one of the two alternatives thatstudents had to show their response to the stories
they had read or studied. The storytelling task
required students to work in pairs to tell a storyof their choice. The story delivery was assessedon the basis of their language, acting ability (theuse of voice, facial expression, gestures) and thesettings (props, pictures and music). Prior to thisactivity, the teacher held one introductory session
on storytelling techniques with video illustrations
to clarify the expectations of storytelling activity.
Many fewer students chose storytelling than thedramatisation activity and only those students
who did not have much time to prepare for themini dramas chose to do storytelling. One reason
was that students found dramatisation much morefun − and working in bigger groups, rather thanpairs, enabled them to get more help from others.
■■ Dramatisation

Dramatisation is a useful activity for students both
intellectually and emotionally. It can develop theirthinking skills and creativity by means of theirexperiences of scripting, casting, setting anddialogue (Smith, 1993). It can enhance theirmotivation by fostering their self-esteem andconfidence (Maley and Duff, 2005).
Those students who decided on dramatisation
were expected to give a performance based on
one story they liked. In preparation, students
worked on selecting scenes, writing scripts andpreparing their own props for a performance
which lasted from 15 to 30 minutes. During thisprocess, the teacher was available for guidance
and advice.
Students were found to really enjoy acting,
dressing up and experimenting with theircreativity in building an image for a character,making up dialogue for them and preparing props
for setting up the scenes for their mini-drama.
There was a lot of discussion, negotiation anddecision-making in the process. Each performance
was done with their best efforts and harmonious
co-operation among the team. Peer feedback andteacher feedback was carried out to support,
rather than to judge their work. These
performances were a highlight of the course.

Conclusion
It is crucial to instil in EFL students the love and thedesire to learn literature in English so as to combat
the misunderstanding that only highly intellectual
people can appreciate and produce literary texts
like poetry or stories.
This chapter has shared some personal experienceof the author in teaching literature in a way thatwas not only enjoyable to the students but also
beneficial in enhancing their literary appreciationand developing their creativity. The course seemed
to be effective in changing the students’ thinking
and made them more comfortable with the subject.
The students did not seem to feel intimidated by
the lessons, as our teaching and assessment
promoted an open, exploratory and motivational
style of learning.

Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context |147

In addition, the course seemed to reinforce thebenefits of creative activities such as dramatisationand creative writing as they provided students witha passion for their learning (Rashid et al., 2010) anda desire to discover literature (DeBlase, 2005) – andthemselves. The course actually enriched students’
lives (Cope, 1998) as in the following poem produced
by one of the students in the course.
‘I like literature’ by Hoang thi Thuy DuongIn short, literary works selected for EFL/ESL teaching
and learning are valuable works of creativity. As
such, they should be introduced to the students insuch a way that they can feel inspired to explore thetexts themselves, to appreciate them, to relate themto, and to enrich, their life experience – and to unlock
their own creativity.

I like literature

References

It’s beautiful

Baurain, B (2000) Learning and enjoying literature
in English. Teacher’s Edition 3: 15–20.

and interesting
Literature is a teacher
who teaches me life skills.
Literature brings experience
That’s necessary for my life.
Literature leads to places
that I’ve never come before.
Literature is societythat is in miniature.
I like literature.
I love it.
I adore it.
As developing students’ creativity is consideredan essential part of the teaching job in modern
society, this was just one way to enhance students’creativity for a specific group for a specific subject
in a specific context. Therefore, any attempt to
replicate any aspects of this course need to takestudents’ language levels, interest and maturity
levels into consideration, because it is this which
decides the success of the course. Specifically,
students should be put at the centre in setting theaims of the course, which would serve as the basis
for materials selection and methods of teaching sothat the course could be relevant to students’ levels.
Another recommendation is to help students tocontribute their opinions to the course and increase
their autonomy in learning, as these are part of thelong-term goals in teaching. Furthermore, it is crucial
to remember that assessment is there to support,
rather than inhibit learning. Therefore, diverse tasks
should be offered, for students to choose the mostsuitable tasks for them to do, and in this way they
can maximise their abilities in fulfilling the tasks.

148

As a result, students’ different abilities, especially
their creativity, can be discovered and nurtured.

Cope, J (1998) Why I teach, promote, and love
adolescent literature: Confessions of a college
English professor. Voices from the Middle 5/2: 7–9.
Dagnew, T (2013) A model for integrating literatureand language teaching in Ethiopia. The EFL Journal
4/2: 21–33.
DeBlase, G (2005) Teaching literature and language
through guided discovery and informal classroom
drama. English Journal (High school edition) 95/1:
29–33.
Khatib, M, Rezaei, S and Derakhshan, A (2011)
Literature in EFL/ESL classroom. English Language
Teaching 4/1: 201–209.
Knoeller, C (2003) Imaginative response: Teaching
literature through creative writing. English Journal(High school edition) 92/5: 42–53.
Liang, L (2011) Scaffolding middle school students’comprehension and response to short stories.
RMLE Online 34/8: 1–16.
Maley, A and Duff, A (2005) Drama Techniques.
Cambridge University Press.
Maley, A and Mukundan, J (eds) (2009) Asian Poems
for Young Readers. Malaysia: Pearson.
Maley, A, Mukundan, J and Rai, V (eds) (2009)
Life in Words and Words in Life. Bagbazar, Kathmandu:
Bhundipuran Prakashan.
Nguyen, H (2010) Literature teaching and learning at
the department of English Linguistics and Literature
at the University of Social Sciences and Humanities.
Paper presented at the Seminar on American andBritish Culture and Literature from Vietnamese
Perspectives, University of Social Sciences andHumanities, November 2010, Ho Chi Minh City,
Vietnam.

| Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context

Rashid, R, Vethamani, M and Rahman, S (2010)
Approaches employed by teachers in teaching
literature to less proficient students in Form 1 andForm 2. English Language Teaching 3/4: 87–99.
Smith, P (1993) Interpreters theatre: A tool forteaching literature. English Journal (High school
edition) 82/7: 71–72.
Phuong thi Anh Le was educated mainly in Australia(Doctor of Education, MA in Applied Linguistics
and Diploma in TESOL). She has been in the USA
as a Fulbright Scholar doing research on teacher
educators’ feedback. She also received sometraining in teaching about British culture andliterature in England. Besides working as a TESOLTeacher Educator for over 35 years in Vietnam, she
has published and presented on various issues inteacher education and applied linguistics in manydifferent countries. Her current research interests
include teacher training, syllabus design andassessment. She joined the Asian Teacher-WriterGroup in 2010.

Fostering learners’ voices in literature classes in an Asian context |

149

16
A framework for learning creativity
Tessa Woodward

Introduction

Brief background questions

When we think of creative individuals, we have atendency perhaps to call to mind solitary, eminent
men in the Western high arts and sciences, names ofa well-known elite like Leonardo da Vinci, Beethoven
and Vincent van Gogh. We call these and others
like them ‘geniuses’ and, whether they are within
the field of music, painting, mathematics or science,
we imagine they were quite simply born thatway, with clever minds and destined for amazing
accomplishments. The rest must have come easy
to them, we may think.

To break away from the unfortunate thought
pattern mentioned above, we need to consider
some basic questions.

This way of thinking has a number of disadvantages.
It encourages us to concentrate on what happensin the mind of an individual person. It ignores theheart and emotions, the body, the environment,
and any creative collaboration between people.
It ignores too the work of those in the more populararts, people such as Ella Fitzgerald with her fabulous
vocal improvisation skills. And it ignores the everyday
creativity we see in our children, our students, ourfriends and family, and ourselves. Worse yet, it lets
us off the hook. After all, if we are not ourselves lone,creative men in the high arts, we must therefore not
be creative geniuses. So that’s it. We don’t have to do
anything. We don’t even have to try. In fact we may
be afraid to try.
My own view is different. I believe that we canredefine what it means to be creative. We can giveourselves permission to learn, sometimes withothers, to be even more creative in our everyday
lives than we are already. This way, we start a path
we can walk along. In this chapter then, I will suggest
ways that we language teachers can become morecreative in our own work with learners.

150| A framework for learning creativity

First, what does it mean to create?
To define a word we can go to outside or inside
sources. Here is a definition of creativity from‘outside’, spliced together from several dictionaries:‘Creativity is the bringing into existence, causing,developing of original ideas. It can involve a change
in the condition of something, the use of something
in a new way, or a novel combination of the known
that produces interesting and useful results.’
And if we ask fellow language teachers what theywould regard as a creative lesson, they might,
from ‘inside’ their own experience, say…
‘A creative lesson is one that involves one or moreof the following:■■ spontaneity■■ music■■ colour■■ variety■■ fun■■ humour■■ movement■■ personal meaning■■ unpredictability■■ a balance between challenge and security,

relaxation and tension.’
You will want to add ingredients of your own
to the list.

And if any of us is asked, a little more concretely,
what activities in our everyday lives make us feelcreative, we can all come up with an extremely wide
variety, such as ‘cleaning out cupboards’, ‘cooking
dinner’, ‘singing a new harmony to an old song on theradio’ or ‘making a new pump for the central heating
boiler’! These concrete examples usually fall within
the four modes of: doing, making, adapting andcreating (Sanders, 2005).
All this gives us a refreshing and optimistic viewof what we are aiming at.

By the way, does it feel good to create?
If asked, we might say without too much thoughtthat the act of creating feels wonderful, feels easy,
free as a breeze. However, when John Tusa, a
BBC radio and television journalist, interviewed
over 50 established actors, painters, sculptors,
musicians, architects, playwrights, film makers andchoreographers about how they felt when working
creatively, some said they felt worried, others thatthey couldn’t sleep, or felt they were building
something painstakingly slowly, pebble by pebble.
Others said they felt lonely, that it felt very, very risky.
(The Tusa interviews can be found at:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00nb1n3

Still, the product of creativity is always
welcomed, isn’t it?
Not really! We may as well assume that all babies arewelcomed, when we know that some are not, being
unexpected, unwanted, or coming too early or toolate. The world too has always been full of creative
people, who were, at least initially, ostracised orpersecuted for their ideas.
The German physicist, Röentgen, for example, who
first produced and detected in the lab the rays now
known as X-rays, freaked his wife out when heshowed her an X-ray of her hand! And his wholeendeavour was initially declared by the scientificcommunity to be an elaborate hoax.

Ignaz Semmelweis was a Hungarian physician
who suggested the outrageous practice of doctors
washing their hands before delivering babies, so as
to avoid the spread of purple fever. The reaction of
the medical community to his idea was so hostilethat he had a nervous breakdown and died in an
insane asylum.
So there are many different possible reactions to
a new idea. I once identified some twenty different
kinds of reactions. These range from changing the
subject of conversation, to immediately embracingor taking against an idea, to denial that the new idea
is even possible, to dismissing the idea for not being
new at all (Woodward, 2002).
So we need not expect to feel great while we create
nor, necessarily, to be lauded by our colleagues forour creations!

How can we and our students become
more creative?
But let’s suppose that we are still keen to become
more creative and to help our students become
creative too, believing that, though it may be hard
work, it will bring interesting and useful results.
How can we go about it? There follow some practicalprinciples widely agreed upon by many of thoseinterested in creativity.

Practical principles
Wake up!
At the start of class we all need to come together,settle and become mentally alert before muchthat is useful can happen. We can speed up thisreadying process by doing unusual things such as:■■ Listening to a recording of birdsong, doing some

gentle physical exercises, singing together or
enjoying the scent of pine oil.
■■ Asking students to count from one to eight and toclap as they say each number out loud. Next, theyclap eight times again but miss out actually saying
the number three. Once they can do that,challenge them to miss out saying two numbers(three and five). Then three numbers (two and six
and eight) while still clapping the eight times. It
takes concentration!

A framework for learning creativity |151

■■ Giving the students a puzzle that is easily solvable■■ Invite students to choose a colour. Give them fiveby just doing a little work. An example is ‘Think of
the English alphabet written in capital letters. How
many letters have curved lines in them?’ Students
are allowed to use pencil and paper to solve thispuzzle. It just gets them thinking (and visualising).

minutes to check their environment and to list as
many things they can see (and think of) that havethat colour. Then share the lists.

Be prolific!

letter B? Eight hobbies beginning with P? Twelve
things that make them happy?

Once we are all awake, we need to produce alarge number of ideas, to go for quantity and not
to worry at first about judging the ideas for quality.
This enables us to note down even the most obvious
ideas and also to include ideas that may at first seemweak or weird but which can later be improved orused to add a new angle. Anecdote reports that
Einstein, the physicist and philosopher, was once
asked: ‘What’s the difference between you and anormal person?’ He said in reply, ‘If you ask a normal
person to find a needle in a haystack, the person
would stop when they found the needle. I, on theother hand, would tear the haystack apart looking
for all the possible needles!’Naturally, when going for greater productivity like
this, you and the students will need to defer
judgement until later and refrain from too much selfand other correction. Once the pool of contributions
is in, then you can start to sort them out and decide
which ones you want to keep.

We don’t know how Einstein felt about the implicationthat he was not normal but he certainly shared animmense productivity with all kinds of creative people!

■■ Invite students to discuss how a text that theySo, the principle is to go for abundance ourselves
and to encourage our students to produce a fullquota of ideas. Some ideas follow on how to do this.
■■ Invite students to consider an everyday object

such as a sock and to dream up 20 things they
could use it for, apart from protecting a foot.
■■ Ask students to write ten true sentences about

what they did at the weekend. When they complain
about the number, put it up to 15.
–– ‘What? Fifteen!’–– ‘Oh, okay then. Twenty!’
When students realise that every time they
complain the number goes up, they usually stop
complaining!

152■■ Can students think of ten words beginning with the| A framework for learning creativity

Make unusual connections and combinations
A classic creativity principle is the idea ofconceptually blending two or more apparently
unrelated ideas or things. Juxtaposition of thenormally separated helps to jolt us out of ourthinking ruts. Or, to switch metaphors, it causes
mental sparks! So, in class, you might:
have got to know quite well can be compared andcontrasted to an apparently unrelated picture you
have chosen to show them. Ask students to comeup with as many ways as they can in which the text
and the picture are alike. Although at first glance
the text and the picture will seem unrelated, themind, being what it is, will search for some kindof connection, be it in terms of colour, shape,
number, emotion, topic or meaning. (See
Woodward 2011: 61).

■■ Ask students to come up with the similarities

and differences between themselves andsomething they are interested in, such as a tiger,a dinosaur, a princess, a skateboard or a tablet
computer. The comparisons can be expressedin the form of a Venn diagram as below:

I brush my teeth

goes barefoot
We’re bothmammals, likesleeping andswimming andcan make a lotof noise!

Me

I wear trainers

A tigerdoesn’t brushits teeth(See Woodward, 2011: 89–90)■■ Remind students of the main ingredients of any

story, e.g. place, time, characters, important
objects, theme, actions. Write these up on theboard. Under each of these main headings,
brainstorm and write up different possible
variations. For example, under ‘Place’ students
could offer: the moon, my dad’s garage, Beijing,or an armpit. Under ‘Time’ you might get:yesterday, in the ice age, in 3015, etc.

Here’s another simple generative framework forclass. It’s called an ‘alteration dictation’. Dictate
a simple sentence, true about yourself, to yourstudents. An example might be, ‘I like apples.’Students write this sentence down. Next, underneaththat sentence, they have to rewrite it so that it is trueof them not you. Thus they might write ‘I like apples
too’, or ‘I only like sweet apples’, or ‘I prefer bananas’and so on. Share the results.

■■ Each group of students then selects one

possibility from beneath each main heading
and sets to work to create a story combining,for example, a teenage girl, with a cat, in the Ice
Age, carrying out a robbery, in her dad’s garage.

Use simple generative frameworks
Some frameworks, though very simple and easy
to use, are incredibly productive. Take the maxim‘Find out what you usually do and then do something
different!’ If you followed it, you could go to work via
a different route and a different form of transport
every day, wearing unusual colours and with yourwatch on upside down and your jumper back to front.
And that is just for starters!

A framework for learning creativity |153

■■ The whole idea of novel combinations is itself asimple generative framework. So, to put it into
practice, you can give students two lists ofeveryday objects from home, school, the street
and so on. Something like these:
FridgePictureComputerHammock

BedroomMusic

Window

Bar of chocolate

TicketPillow

GardenA cup of coffee

Chair

A T-shirt

Sun cream

A camera

Pencil

A bottle of perfume

Dictionary

A doormat

Students choose one object from the list on the left
and one from the list on the right and combine themin any order. So, a student might come up with a‘Computer T-shirt’. If they wish, they can change it to‘A computerised T-shirt’. Next, they think what thisnew invention of theirs might look like and be able todo. So a wearer might be able to change the colourof a computerised T-shirt depending on what elsethey were wearing that day. Or they could type
different slogans onto the front and back of the
T-shirt in different font styles, colours and sizes, or
display a street view to a companion so they know
where they are, and so on. In pairs, each student
explains their new invention to a partner who has tohelp them to extend and refine the idea with them inorder to make it even better. They can even draw theinvention and put it in a class sales catalogue if you
like! (See Woodward 2011: 146–7).

Don’t forget the heart, and the body,and the environment
We have started off by looking at principles thatencourage mental creativity. It is true, however, thatcreativity is also profoundly affected by emotion. If
we and our students feel comfortable, and secure,and are having an enjoyable time, more and broader
ideas will tend to flow, whether we are waking up,
being prolific, making unusual connections or using
simple generative frameworks.

154| A framework for learning creativity

A positive state of mind and the permission and time
to be creative will encourage us to engage in thework. It helps if we can move around and express
ourselves physically too, and it helps if our work
environment is conducive to our doing, making,adapting and creating. So here are a few ideas
designed to work on these important areas.
■■ To improve the environment, can you adjust thetemperature, lighting and air flow in your classroom so it is more pleasant? Use coloured paper
sometimes? Bring in plants, posters, calming or
inspiring colours, smells and sounds, and physicalobjects? Can you use the walls for display? If not,can you import flip charts or cork boards? Can you
get a view from a window to somewhere orsomething natural?
■■ To break down feelings of isolation andcompetition among students, ask students to teamup with a partner and explore three things they
have in common with each other and three things
that are different. These six things must not be
visible! So, for example, noting your partner’s haircolour and whether they wear glasses or notdoesn’t count! Once the interviews are under way,
students write sentences about their pair using
starter phrases such as, ‘Both of us…’, ‘Neither ofus…’, ‘One of us… but the other…’ (See Woodward,
2011: 178).
■■ Give students a good reason to get up fromtheir desks and move around by asking them,for example, to give out handouts, clean theboard, open a window or do total physicalresponse exercises to learn vocabulary, suchas ‘Raise your left arm’, ‘Turn around once’,‘Tickle your chin’, and so on.

Collaborate and share
At the start, I suggested that our traditional view of acreative person as a lone genius ignores the role ofthe conversation and collaboration that undoubtedly
takes place between them and their colleagues.
Historians have discovered, for example, that 13
people collaborated with Michelangelo on the Sistine
Chapel and that 200 people assisted him with theLaurentian Library in Florence. So there goes ourmyth of the lone genius!

When people come together, the number ofassociations triggered multiplies. So, collective
creativity often gives us more than the sum of ourindividual offerings.

discussion for example, can be moved around sothat groups can see and comment on what othergroups have produced. This last idea is sometimes
known as a ‘pass the paper’ or ‘carousel’ activity.

So what tips are there for this aspect of creativity?

Make our thinking physical and visible■■ Foster a culture of participation in your classes.

This is our last principle, but it is an especially
important one if your class has been working
collaboratively on any of the other principles above.
This is because, using these principles, you are likely
to end up with lots of ideas. You therefore needrecording devices to capture, organise and capitaliseon all the ideas that come up. It is demotivating foranybody to see ideas emerge, especially their own,
and then see them shot down or ignored.

Allow yourself and students to work together, takerisks, create, fail and learn from this. So in a board
game where students try to come up with namesof capital cities starting with the letter ‘A’, you canreward the first person to come up with, say,
‘Amsterdam’ as long as they can spell it, thus
rewarding the usual speed and accuracy. But you
can also add incentives for those who come up
with more than one example (say, ‘Accra’ and‘Athens’), so rewarding the prolific. You can also
reward the student who comes up with a city that
nobody else thinks of (say ‘Asmara’) andencourage the student who comes up with otherunusual cities, even if they are not capitals or well
spelled. You can encourage the whole class towork together to gain a bigger and bigger total
together as well as to learn more about whatmakes a city a capital, which countries the cities
are in, and where these countries are.
■■ Encourage good conversations by discussing the

ground rules for a good conversation withstudents. They might come up with ideas such as:
say what you think honestly and also why you think
it. Accept that the other person has different
views. Refrain from arguing or trying to change
their mind even if they are very different from you.
Don’t interrupt; listen carefully; extend the ideasof others, etc.
■■ You can also discuss the social conditions

necessary for good collaboration, e.g. access toshared content, some privacy and quiet reflection,
mess-making, support for a range of moods suchas playful, serious, stimulating, formal and informal.
■■ Try different arrangements of people and spacedepending on what you are doing. So, for example,
brainstorming can be done as a whole class but
also in groups or teams. The solving of problems
can be done by having different problems at
different tables and asking groups of students towork on one problem at one table for a while
before moving to a new table and a new problem.
Instead of moving groups of students about,especially if your room is cramped, the student
groups can stay in the same places but the large
pieces of paper used to record their ideas, in a

As well as your normal note-taking methods, consider
the use of Venn diagrams, scales, steps, fishbone
diagrams, lists, mind maps, collages, sticky ormagnetic notes that can be moved around andclustered, posters displayed on walls, clay models,
photos, physical tableaux, Lego blocks, wikis andcolumns in good old-fashioned notebooks.
These flexible and adaptable means enable you
and the group to make your thinking visible andto consider what you have produced together.
You can then collaborate further to prioritise, refine
or extend ideas.

The three-phase creativity cycle
These seven principles will certainly help us and ourstudents to feel and be more creative, both alone
and together. Creativity takes time, however, so
finally I would like to offer the well-known idea ofa three-phase creativity cycle.
■■ The first phase is practice. We can practise being

creative by trying out the ideas above. Practicemeans doing it!
■■ The second phase is reflect. Reflection means

thinking about what we have done. Here we need:–– to allow wait-time after questions and afteranswers, allow thinking time and silent time–– time to review, to question, take notes andtalk things over so that we can decide on
selection, priorities, classifications, refinements
and applications of the ideas we have all comeup with.
■■ The final phase is relax. Once we have practised,

then reflected, we need to relax or ‘switch off’ by,for example, taking a break or doing something
different, or simply stopping trying so hard.

A framework for learning creativity |155

At the start of this chapter, I suggested that to define
a word or concept we can turn to ‘outside’ or ‘inside’
resources. So, first from the outside (a newspaper
report of a study in fact), I learned that researchers
have found that sleeping helps to stimulate creative
thinking, allowing people to find solutions to puzzles
that had eluded them before they slept.
One way of relaxing after a creative session then isby having a snooze. Well, our internal wisdom knewthat anyway, for we do advise anybody trying to
make a difficult decision to ‘Sleep on it!’, don’t we?
So, there we have it. In order to be more creative,
we can practise the seven principles describedin this chapter, reflect on what we have done, andthen relax. And if a colleague happens to find youin the staffroom with your head on your desk having
a nap, you can always murmur that you are merely
taking the time to complete your three-phasecreativity cycle!
When we are planning our lessons and thinking
on our feet in the classroom, we probably won’t
have this chapter with us to remind us of someclassic creativity techniques. So maybe a mnemonic
would help.
Let’s play! We can take the first letter of someof the ideas in this chapter, e.g.
W for wake up
P for prolific
M for make unusual combinations
U for use simple generative frameworks
C for collaborate
S for share
N for novel combinations
V for visible
P for physical movement
E for environment and emotions
Then we can make words that start with these lettersand then move the words around to make amemorable sentence.

The old way of thinking about creativity was that it
somehow only ‘belonged’ to lone, accomplishedgeniuses in the high status arts and pure sciences.
This may perhaps have led us to think that neither
we humble teachers nor our students can be creative
and that we need not even try.
If, however, we redefine creativity to include theeveryday doing, making, adapting and creatingthat is part of all of our lives – if we give ourselves
time and space and permission to play with this,
to work on this, we can create. A possible path togreater creativity exists. We can get to know theclassic principles of creativity above, work out
our own adaptations of them to our work, practise
these adaptations, reflect on what we have done,
and then relax.
If we remember to include collective creativity too
by working with other staff and by encouraging ourstudents to collaborate with each other, so ‘taking
their ideas for walks’, we may surprise ourselves at
how creative we all are and become!
Thanks to the editors of this collection for inviting
me to contribute a chapter. This gave me the‘permission’ and incentive to represent work I haveshared over the last twenty years with language
teachers and students all over the world. For manyof the principles and insights within the chapter,
however, I am most grateful to Michael Michalko
and Elizabeth Sanders. They have collaborated with
us all by sharing their thoughts in the publishedworks referred to below.

References
Michalko, M (1998) Cracking Creativity Berkeley.
California, USA: Ten Speed Press.
Sanders, E (2005) Information, Inspiration andCo-creation. Paper presented at the Proceedingsof the 6th International Conference of the European
Academy of Design, University of Arts, Bremen,
Germany.

We Produce More New Useful Cool Stuff if we Vary
Positions in English Exercises.

Sanders, E (2012) ‘Creativity in Strategic Thinking’,
Chapter 9 in Welters, H, Gnome, A and Hinds, R (ed)Enhancing the Army’s Strategic Thinking Capability:
Insights to Assess, Develop, and Retain Strategic
Thinkers. Available online at: www.maketools.com/
articles-papers/Sanders2012Creativity.pdf

But I’ll keep working on it and see if I can come up
with some better ones!

Tusa, J (2004) On creativity: Interviews exploring theprocess. London: Methuen.

The three phases of Practice, Reflect and Rest or
Relax are easy. They make us purr like a cat.
Prrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

Woodward, T (2002) Carrot ice cream: reactions to
the new and different. The Teacher Trainer Vol.16,
No. 13–14. Canterbury: Pilgrims.

I came up with this one:

156

Conclusion| A framework for learning creativity

Woodward, T (2011) Thinking in the EFL Class(pp 149–189, on creative thinking). Innsbruck,
Austria: Helbling Languages.
Tessa Woodward is a teacher, teacher trainer,
and the Professional Development Co-ordinator
at Hilderstone College, Broadstairs, Kent, UK.
She also edits The Teacher Trainer Journal for
Pilgrims, Canterbury, UK. She is a Past President
and International Ambassador of IATEFL and founded
the IATEFL Special Interest Group for Teacher
Trainers (now the SIG TT/Ed). She is the author ofmany books and articles for language teachersand for teacher trainers. Her latest book, with Seth
Lindstromberg, Something to Say (2014, Helbling
Languages), was short-listed for an English Speaking
Union prize. Tessa is also the founder of The Fair List:
www.thefairlist.org

A framework for learning creativity |

157

17
Drama and creative writing: a blended tool
Victoria Hlenschi-Stroie

Introduction
The digital age has brought state-of-the-art devices
and gadgets which are supposed to improve thelearning process, but it has also triggered an ongoingdebate as to whether this technology is killing or
boosting the creativity of our students. Used wisely,
it can naturally bring a lot of benefits to today’s
schools but unfortunately, in developing countries
like Romania, where I have been a teacher for 17
years, this is not always available and/or the teachers
are not fully prepared to make the best use of it. As
a result, we sometimes have to make do with very
few materials or little equipment, but we compensate
with a lot of energy, creative ideas and enthusiasm.
It is clear that educational drama and creative
writing can be applied in the educational systemsof developing and low-resourced countries (notnecessarily replacing the use of technology but
offering a cheaper, more available alternative) inorder to lead to both the linguistic and personal andsocial development of the students. Both drama andcreative writing bring a lot of resources and energy
to the English class and the main sources of all thisare the teacher’s and the students’ creative ideas.
Sometimes modern technology can be incorporated
as well, but without excluding those who may nothave access to it.
Why drama and creative writing, and how do theywork together? Drama is basically action, doing,
engaging and improvising, and so is creative writing.
Used together, drama and creative writing give
ample tools to teachers to develop their students’
receptive and productive skills as well as theircreativity and critical thinking. They can also offer
a deeper understanding of or reflection on theactivities students are involved in.
A brief background to the development ofeducational drama (and creative writing) in Romania
might prove useful in understanding how these two
approaches have developed and taken shape in acountry that was, and still is, struggling to introduce
modern and innovative ideas in an ex-communist,158| Drama and creative writing: A blended tool

low-resourced environment. Drama and creative
writing techniques and activities had already been
a component of many teacher training courses
and seminars in post-communist Romania, but theyear 2001 marked a real breakthrough in this area.
In a joint project which spanned three consecutive
years, The Ministry of Education in Romania, theBritish Council and Peace Corps started training
teachers of English from Romania and neighbouring
countries. For the first two years, educational drama
was the main focus of the training courses, while thelast year brought in the creative writing component
as a welcome addition. These courses – ‘Drama
without Tears’ (Călimăneşti, 2001), ‘Exploring throughDrama’ (Năvodari, 2002) and ‘Creative Writing andDrama Advanced Practicum Summer School’ (Braşov,2003) – were followed by local training offered by
the participants in these courses.
The year 2001 also marked the foundation of EDAR
(Educational Drama Association in Romania), which
has since worked to promote free, original thinking,creative writing, community pro-active attitudes
and performing arts. EDAR is a non-governmentalorganisation officially recognised by the Ministryof Education, which, above all, increases theopportunities of Romanian students to participate
in drama and creative writing activities, dramadays, drama camps, contests, festivals, workshops,
creative writing publications and much more. Its
members are teachers of English from Romania
who want to create an effective network of thoseinterested in using drama and creative writing inschools. Its latest project is the creativity contest‘Speak Out’, which has two sections: dramaticmonologues and short stories, thus blending
drama and creative writing.
Similar to other central and eastern European
countries, before 2001 Romania had basicallywitnessed drama work only as the result of individual
initiatives. But since the start of the 2001–03 project
and the foundation of EDAR, teachers of English
have been using drama in a more confident way.
At present, drama techniques are frequently used

in the regular English classes (drama and ELT), dramacan be proposed as an elective (drama as a subject)
and teachers employ drama in organising clubs,
workshops or festivals (drama as an event). However,in Romania, teachers of English interested in drama
activities still have a long way to go, especially intheir endeavour to standardise their work and finda place for drama in the curriculum.
Readers of this book will mostly be interested
in learning how drama and creative writing canbe used in ELT, so this will be the main rationale
behind the activities proposed here, which are theresult of ongoing activity over 13 years. Having theopportunity to participate in all three courses of theabove-mentioned project, being one of the foundersof EDAR, and dedicating a lot of my teaching andresearch time to drama and creative writing, I havecollected a number of useful activities, tips andresources which have either been offered by ourtrainers, especially Dr Peter Harrop and SeniorLecturer Jane Loudon from the University of Chester,or discovered through my reading of books andinternet websites. Using them together with mystudents, I have developed them, seeing whatworks and improving what doesn’t. This is one of thebeauties of drama and creative writing: continuous
reinvention and personalisation. I have reinvented
myself as a teacher and I have personalised theactivities to suit the groups of students I wasworking with.
I have found that, on the one hand, there are
activities that are guaranteed to work any time withany group of students, and there are others thatneed to be adapted according to the age, level andneeds of a specific group of students. Some activities
need practically no materials, while others need
minimal material resources. In either case, drama
and creative writing require a very clear purpose andcareful planning in order to be successful. It is up to
any individual teacher to select whatever activities
they think might work with their students and adapt
them in any way they think fit.

During my career I have mostly worked with teenage
students aged 14–19, whose level of English basicallyranged from pre-intermediate to upper-intermediate,with the occasional elementary or advanced student.
With lower level students I tried to simplify the
instructions for the activities, translating them into
their native language if necessary (but not too often),while with more advanced students I tried toempower them and even allow them to run drama
and creative writing activities themselves.
Trying to select and organise drama and creative
writing activities is no easy task. The following
suggestions for drama activities with creative writing
follow-ups should be regarded as just one resource
among the many others in existence. I hope they will
prove useful for both beginner and moreexperienced teachers.

Warm-ups and games
These can be used at the beginning of the lessonor school year or when the class starts to lose
concentration. They also help enrich vocabulary,practise grammar structures and improve
pronunciation.

Name game
This is a name/’getting to know each other’ andvocabulary game.

Procedure■■ Standing or sitting in a circle, the students

introduce themselves, adding to their name an
adjective beginning with the same letter as theirname and also something they like beginning withthe same letter.
Example:–– I’m victorious Victoria and I like victories.
–– I’m ambitious Alice and I like apples.
■■ This could be a good beginning for a descriptionof a friend/desk-mate. Starting from the given
sentence, students can write a description ofthat person.

Drama and creative writing: A blended tool |159

Truths and lies
This is a ‘getting to know each other’ game. It canalso be used to reinforce vocabulary and the present
simple, if sentences are used instead of notes, or in
the follow-up discussion.

Procedure■■ On a sticky note provided by the teacher, students

write some things about themselves (year of birth,
brothers/sisters, pets, hobbies, etc.), one of which
is a lie.
■■ Walking around the room they read each other’s

notes and try to figure out which one is the lie.

Personal advert

all fingers and the winners are the last students
to have any fingers showing.
■■ A possible follow-up would be asking students

to write a short paragraph/story starting withthe words: ‘Never have I ever’.

BlindfoldedThis is a trust game which also involves giving
instructions and following them.

Procedure■■ A group of students (the silent chorus) can move

but not talk. One student facing the group can talkbut not move.

At home or in class students write a shortpersonal advert.

■■ One student cannot see (he has been blindfolded)

Procedure■■ The teacher hides an object, the chorus can see■■ The teacher displays them or collects and reads

them out loud and the students have to guess
who the author is.
■■ On one occasion, I encouraged them to insert

one lie in the advert to make the guesses more
complicated.

Never have I everThis game is suitable for groups of around 15
students but if there are more students in the classthey can be divided into groups. This is a ‘getting
to know each other’ game, aimed at introducing
or practising the present perfect as well.

Procedure■■ Sitting in a circle, students take turns to saythings they have never done. The game begins
with students raising one hand so that the others
see five fingers (or both hands so as to showten fingers if you have more time to spend on
the activity).
■■ Then students take turns to say sentences

containing things they have never done in theirlife. It could be something like ‘Never have I
been to the seaside.’ If the other students havedone that (i.e. been to the seaside), they have todrop one finger, now having four fingers up and
one down.
■■ Students should be instructed that the sentences

have to be true and they should think of things
they haven’t done but the others might have done,
because their aim is to make the other students
drop their fingers while they keep theirs up so
as to stay in the game as much as possible.

160■■ The game ends when all students have dropped| Drama and creative writing: A blended tooland has to find an object, helped by the otherstudents.
where the object is and they make gestures todirect the student who can talk and who gives
instructions (e.g. straight ahead, to the left/right,
behind/under the table) to the blindfolded student
who has to find the object.
■■ A good follow-up would be to ask students to write

down instructions to find hidden objects in theclass (this could be a good preparation for setting
up a treasure hunt).

Grammar and vocabulary
Different drama activities, games and exercises
can be used to practise even the most unpopular
grammar structures, activate passive vocabulary
and lead to the acquisition of new vocabulary, thus
enlivening the English class and textbook.

Not doing what I’m doing
This activity is aimed at practising vocabulary andthe ‘present continuous’ tense. It can lead to a very
nice writing activity depending on the activities
chosen by the students.

Procedure■■ Students stand in a circle. One starts miming

a simple action (e.g. brushing their teeth) andthe person to their right asks them what they
are doing.
■■ They respond, giving any answer except what

it is they are actually doing (e.g. ‘I’m sweeping
the floor’). The student who asked the question
then starts miming this new action (i.e. sweeping
the floor).

■■ The person to the right asks what they are doing

and the process is repeated.

Variation■■ To make the game more difficult, the teacher gives

the students two letters of the alphabet, whichmust be the initials of whatever actions theychoose (e.g. R, L: reading a letter, riding a llama,rotating a lamp).

Hidden thoughts
The aim of this activity is to practise grammar
structures: conditional and subjunctive.

Procedure■■ The students stand in a designated area which

represents a platform at the railway station.
■■ They must stand completely still, forming a frozen

tableau representing people waiting for a train
which is delayed.
■■ When the teacher touches their shoulders, they

un-freeze and utter their hidden thoughts, firstusing a conditional, then a subjunctive (e.g. If
the train comes in five minutes, I can still make itto the meeting. I wish I had caught the other train.
If I had caught the other train…).
■■ The students can then choose a character(i.e. one person waiting on the platform) theyfind interesting and develop their story.
■■ Sitting in a circle with the chosen character inthe middle, students ask them questions such as‘Where are you going?’ ‘What kind of meeting do
you have to attend?’ ‘Are you in danger of losing
your job?’■■ The student-in-role will improvise the answers,

thus developing the character and adding details
to the story.
■■ The students can then write down the story

which has been sketched by adding other details
as they wish.
■■ An alternative (if your purpose, for example, isto practise if clauses) is to ask your students towrite sentences using if clauses, e.g. ‘If I don’t
make it to the meeting I’ll definitely lose my job.
If I lose my job…’

Snake pit
This activity helps students practise grammar
structures with a writing follow-up.

Procedure■■ Students stand in a circle (if there are more than

15 students in your class you may choose to form
more circles), with one student standing inside thecircle and relating the daily routine of someone
they know very well.
■■ Whenever they omit the –s ending of third person

singular verbs, the class should hiss like snakes,
while the teacher touches them, which means thatthey have been bitten; three bites are fatal.
■■ Each student chosen has two minutes to survive

the snake pit. The game can be played with otherstructures, like articles (a ‘bite’ for each article
omitted) and past-tense narratives (a ‘bite’ foreach incorrect verb).
■■ They can write up what they said as a follow-up

activity.

Improvisation and creative writingRole-play cards and/or improvisation situations canbe given to students to ensure a meaningful context
for communication. The students who are confident
enough in the language may go straight into theimprovisation in an effort to practise what they
already know. Those who are less skilled will haveto go through a complete process of reviewing andpreparing the language involved in the situation.
It is crucial in improvisation for the teacher tomake sure the students use only English during theimprovisation stage and do not resort to their mothertongue. The improvisation can be carried out in pairs
or in groups, the teacher can give the situation, thebeginning line(s) and also the ending, or they can end
it whenever appropriate.

Neutral script
This activity gives students the opportunity to put avariety of attitudes onto a particular script and add
meaning to it.

Procedure■■ Students are given a neutral script (any dialoguethat does not reveal too much about thecharacters or the situation) and they have to act itout after deciding who they are, where the action
takes place and what the circumstances are.
■■ The second time they perform it, they might

add some lines in order to develop thesituation further.

Drama and creative writing: A blended tool |161

■■ The activity can then be followed by a writing

activity (letters, diary pages, dialogues, stories).
See Maley and Duff (1979) Variations on a Theme.
■■ An example of such a neutral script that I use withmy students is the following:A.

Well….

B.

I want to talk to you!

A.

Not now!

B.

It’s time we did.

A.

Look, I’m trying!

B.

I’m not happy with the way things are going…

A.

Is this my fault?

B.

Let’s forget it!

A.

No, I don’t want to forget it!

Beginning line
This is an activity suitable for students who alreadyhave enough vocabulary to be able to have a freeconversation. The teacher should encourage
students to say whatever crosses their mind andnot be afraid to change the course of the dialogue.
If there are students who seem reluctant or unable
to start the conversation, the teacher can give thema context (e.g. a child who has been hiding fromtheir parents because of a bad mark) or provide
a new opening line – maybe an easier one.

Procedure■■ In pairs, the students receive an opening line tostart a conversation (e.g. ‘There you are! I’ve been
looking for you everywhere!’).
■■ The students then improvise a conversation basedaround the opening line.
■■ The teacher stops them when the conversation

slows down.
■■ This activity can also be followed by a writing

activity, depending on the needs of the students.

Situational cuesThis activity is suitable for pairs or groups,
depending on the number of characters involved.
The examples below are suitable for groups (for the
first one, groups of five to six, and for the second,groups of four). Apart from giving students thenecessary skills to cope in real-life situations, thisis a good activity to generate ideas for a story oreven a solution-to-problems essay, if the level ofthe students is higher and the situational clues
are formulated in such a way as to give them theopportunity to come up with such solutions.

162| Drama and creative writing: A blended tool

Procedure■■ Students receive a situation and they have toimprovise on it. The teacher can also give themthe end point.
Two tourists get lost in London and try to findtheir way by stopping different people (a busy
woman hurrying to work, a teenager going toschool, etc.) and asking for directions.
■■ The improvisation ends when they meet apoliceman.
■■ The teacher will send in different characters andin the end the policeman. If you have more groups
then the characters will be instructed to enter thescene in turns.
Four motorists arrive at the same parking
space at the same time and each declaresreasons why they should be allowed topark there. The improvisation ends after fiveminutes or when one of the motorists finds areason that is powerful enough to convince
the others.
■■ If no one is willing to concede, the improvisation

stops after five minutes and the students may
discuss out of character how such a situation
could be solved.
■■ This will give them both the subjective and theobjective perspectives on a certain problem that
requires a reasonable solution in life.

Role-play cards
Similar to the previous activity, this one can offer
a lot of material for stories, discursive essays or
letter writing (daughter writing to a friend – informal
letter; mother to manager – formal letter), an agonyaunt column or an article on the advantages anddisadvantages of becoming a fashion model, forexample.

Procedure■■ Each student receives a card and tries to act

accordingly, initiating a dialogue which will usually
end when a solution has been found.
Mother: your daughter wants to be a modeland goes for an interview with the manager ofa fashion agency. You insist on accompanying
her, because you are very suspicious of theworld of fashion. You don’t trust the manager
and you suspect his intentions.

Daughter: you want to be a model. You
have an interview with the manager of a
fashion agency, but your mother insists on
accompanying you. You are sure you could
get the job with this agency, if only yourmother didn’t interfere all the time!

Freeze frame
Here is an activity that can be used to follow up
a story reading.

Procedure■■ After reading the text, students work in groups totell the story in three to four still images (freeze
frames) and also add sounds (soundscapes).
Manager: you are the manager of a modellingand fashion agency. A young woman and hermother come in. The girl is very beautiful andyou have a job you could offer her. But you
need to take some photographs to see if she
is photogenic.

Chain story
Improvisation can be used in creating a story.
Different variations of the chain story can be used.

Procedure■■ Sitting in a circle, each student adds one sentence

to the story, which can be based on a beginninggiven by the teacher.
■■ Alternatively they can develop an alphabet story(first sentence beginning with A, second with B,
and so on), or a fortunately/unfortunately story(each sentence beginning alternately with thewords fortunately/unfortunately).
■■ One variation of the chain story which my students

really like involves flipping a coin. If the student
whose turn it is to continue the story gets heads,
they continue with their own ideas. If they get tails,
they have to pick a card previously prepared by
the teacher and try to include in the story thesuggestion given on the card. I try to include very
random suggestions to make the story moreinteresting and fun.

Drama conventions and storytelling
Stories are a very good way of introducing andfamiliarising students with drama conventions so
as to be able to use them later on in other classactivities. With younger students, fairy tales work
best, while with older ones any short story or short
literary text can be used. The students can read thestory at home or they can read it together with theirteacher in class. I found that reading in class first is
a powerful motivation for students to start readingin English at home as well.

■■ In the next step the teacher will touch eachcharacter in the frozen images and when touched
they have to say something that reveals who theyare (touch-and-tell), for example, ‘Oh, that apple
looks delicious’. The students then add movement,
transitions between the images and some dialogue
to make a one-minute scene.
■■ This can be further developed by bringing inother drama conventions such as narration,
hidden thoughts (asides) or captions (e.g. thenext day, in the morning).
■■ The text, drama conventions and the instructions

given will be chosen according to the aim of thelesson and what the teacher wants their students
to practise.
Once they are familiar with the drama conventions,students have the necessary tools to create theirown story. The same procedure explained above canbe used when creating a story starting from a variety
of stimuli.

Conclusion
Some teachers and especially head teachers
might see drama as a useless, noisy activity thatwould only interest students with artistic qualities.
But educational drama is not theatre and it has atremendous impact on the students’ development
as complex human beings. Detractors may also
state that drama is just playing, but children learn
by playing as it helps them make sense of theirexperiences. Drama can both celebrate andchallenge the values of a society; it is a wayof making sense of the world and, even more,questioning the world as it is and seeing how it
can be improved. Applying drama in education
helps students to understand themselves better,the part they are responsible for and the part they
can play in shaping the world.

Drama and creative writing: A blended tool |163

Educational drama and creative writing bringnumerous benefits to those who engage in them.
They lead to the personal and social development of
the students (self-confidence, freedom of expression,
co-operation, responsibility, independent opinion,
problem-solving skills and personal involvement) as
well as to the development of their linguistic skills.
Those teachers who have already tried them know
these things and have seen the benefits; those who
are willing to try them are guaranteed to see them intheir group of students. Good luck to those who findinspiration and useful resources in the inexhaustible
field of drama and creative writing!

Bibliography
Heathfield, D (2014) Storytelling with our Students.
Guildford: Delta Publishing.
Holden, S (1981) Drama in Language Teaching.
London: Longman.
Johnstone, K (1999) Impro for Storytellers.
London: Faber and Faber.
Maley, A and Duff, A (1979) Variations on a Theme.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Maley, A and Duff, A (2005) Drama Techniques:
A Resource Book of Communication Activities
for Language Teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press.
McCaslin, N (ed) (1981) Children and Drama.
New York: Longman.
McRae, J (1985) Using Drama in the Classroom.
Oxford: Pergamon Press.
O’Neill, C (1995) Drama Worlds: A Framework forProcess Drama. Portsmouth, New Hampshire:
Heinemann.
O’Neill, C and Lambert, A (1983) Drama Structures.
London: Hutchinson.
Owens, A and Barber, K (1997) Dramaworks.
Carlisle: Carel Press.

164| Drama and creative writing: A blended tool

Owens, A and Barber, K (2001) Mapping Drama.
Carlisle: Carel Press.
Philips, S (2003) Drama with children. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Spiro, J (2004) Creative Poetry Writing. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Spiro, J (2006) Storybuilding. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Wessels, C (1987) Drama. Oxford: Oxford
University Press.
Wilson, K (2008) Drama and Improvisation. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Wright, A (1997) Creating Stories with Children.
Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Wright, A (1997) Storytelling with Children. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Wright, A and Hill, D (2008) Writing Stories.
Innsbruck: Helbling.
Victoria Hlenschi-Stroie currently works at
Gheorghe Lazăr National College, Sibiu, Romania.
During her career as a teacher of English and teacher
trainer she has participated in numerous training
courses and conferences, many of which focused on
creativity and its use in the classroom. This has also
been the focus of some articles she has published:
Creative Ideas for Open-minded Teachers and Happy
Students (Euphoria, 2007); Actions Speak Louder
than Words (Creative Ideas with Teaching Flavour,2009); and Multimedia Resources in TEFL, Teaching
Responsible and Creative Use (RATE Issues, 2011).
She is also a founder member of EDAR (Educational
Drama Association in Romania).

18
A journey towards creativity: a case study ofthree primary classes in a Bulgarian state school
Zarina Markova

Introduction
In a 2014 British Council publication there is a grim
diagnosis by Anne Wiseman: ‘A number of studies
have been undertaken analysing the impact of thefall of communism and the subsequent introductionof a free market economy into former Soviet bloc
countries and all conclude that the totalitarianregimes stifled a generation in terms of creativity andthe ability to develop initiatives. The effect was to be
seen throughout Eastern and Central Europe in thefollowing decades’ (Wiseman, 2014: 301–302).
Had I read this observation ten years ago, I would
have vigorously objected. I would have given plentyof examples where the totalitarian restrictions andabsurdities pushed people to stretch their problemsolving capacities, which resulted in various formsof creative expression. I could have even argued
that, in many ways, those limitations provokedcreativity. More than a decade after the citedstudies, however, in a country that is experiencing
a severe demographic crisis and brain drain, andwhose intellectual capital is decreasing, Anne
Wiseman’s prognosis is sad, but true. Moreover, itsounds extremely topical for the education sector,
where recent analyses show a tendency towards
decline: Bulgaria’s score in the five-yearly Progressin International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
decreased in 2011 and 2006, and in the Programme
for International Student Assessment (PISA) 40 per
cent of students were classified as functionallyilliterate. This is a harrowing situation in which oldmeasures are ineffective, but new solutions have
not yet been found.
In such a context, raising the issue of creativity might
be considered rather irrelevant. It could be argued
that there are more basic, more pressing issues thandealing with an ‘elitist’ construct like creativity. Thereis even evidence that creative thinking is negatively
correlated with test results. However, a closer look at
the analyses shows that Bulgarian students generally
struggle with open-ended questions, interpretation
and reasoning – areas that are closely connectedwith creative thinking. Creativity involves discovering

patterns, using analogy and metaphor, andbrainstorming. It includes self-reflection, empathy
and playful engagement with ideas. All these cancreate a better climate for changing the attitudes
and behaviours of students, and also of teachers.

The project
If a stance towards teaching creativity is adopted,
creative linguistic expression will be among thenaturally expected outcomes. In the foreign language
classroom, such expression will have to be in thetarget language. Is this achievable with primary
students, with their beginner level in the foreign
language? On the one hand, we have all witnessedchildren’s creative use of limited language resources
to convey meaning. We also know that a child’s worldis rich in fantasy and this can lead to the emergenceof creativity.
On the other hand, there have been warnings,
from Vygotsky (1967) among others, thatchildren’s insufficient command of their language
and experience and knowledge of the world caninhibit their creative processes and deter them fromimaginative writing. In the primary school context,
where students have not yet mastered creative
expression in their mother tongue, is it realistic to
expect them to do it in a foreign language?
These were the questions arising at the beginningof a one-year project which attempted to understand
if consistent focus on creative thinking processes
while teaching English could enable young learners
to produce creative pieces of writing. The project
started in 2010, and involved two classes of nineyear-olds (grade 3 in the Bulgarian school system)and one class of ten-year-olds (grade 4). It took placein Blagoevgrad, an administrative centre anduniversity town in south-western Bulgaria, with apopulation of about 70,000. The three classes wereat a school where foreign language instruction was
more intensive than that in other schools, and which
had formerly been considered elitist and preferredby families of middle to upper socio-economic status.

A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state school |165

Latterly, due to demographic changes and theschool’s proximity to a district with Roma inhabitants,
the school has become only slightly different froman average, non-elite Bulgarian state school (theonly difference being the bigger number of foreign
language lessons). The children involved in the
project were from a range of socio-economic status
backgrounds, with about 20 per cent of them ofRoma origin. At the beginning of the school year, the
3rd graders had had approximately 200 lessons ofEnglish, whereas the 4th graders had already had
approximately 360 lessons of English, of 35 minutes
in the first and second years and 40 minutes fromthe third year onwards.

Project activities
There follows a description of the project activities
used to create conditions for ‘pedagogised’ creativity(Carlile and Jordan, 2012), i.e. personal and social
creativity that can emerge, and be enhanced, in thecontext of effective and meaningful English language
teaching. They involve the creative processes ofbrainstorming, guided imagery, associations, multiple
uses, expanding and multiplying sentences, andcreating metaphors. Most of these activities arefamiliar to the experienced ELT reader. What is newis their function in the context described above –to lead Bulgarian young learners step-by-step intocreative processes, which could result in more
confidence and skill at a later, product-oriented stageof creative writing. Some of the activities could be
repeated throughout the school year with a different
language focus. There is always a linguistic outcome
which could be supported by drawing and thus offer
one more mode of creative expression. During the
project, creative thinking activities were done at least
once a week.

166| A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state school

What’s in a picture?
This is a brainstorming activity where the teacher covers an image in such a waythat the visible part is both small enough to prevent guessing and big enough topresent an idea and stimulate imagination.

Materials
Images should be expressive, give room for interpretations and stimulate young
learners’ imaginations. My personal choice would be a modern art painting or afractal art image, but plenty of alternatives can be found on the internet.
Here are some possible sources:■■ www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/search/collection■■ http://fractalexperience.com/fe/galleries.php■■ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_art

Procedure■■ The students brainstorm the content of the image and then each of themdraws what they think the image is about.
■■ Their drawings are then displayed on the wall, compared to the original image

and the students are encouraged to make sentences explaining how they are
similar/different.
■■ Depending on the chosen image, the teacher may need to provide a little

help with vocabulary and structure, for example ‘There is/are…’, ‘I can see…’,‘I have…’ in my picture.
■■ Alternatively, stories can be set around the students’ pictures and the chosen

image, then written and displayed together.
This is an adaptation of the popular ‘guess the image’ activity. Unlike the original,
however, the focus here is not on guessing the right image content, but on
developing tolerance of cases with more than one correct answer. It is important
to help the students with a plan or guiding questions and vocabulary support if
they do not have experience of such activities.

Multiple uses
In this activity the students suggest all the uses an object can have. For example,
a pen is a writing tool, but it can also be used as a pointer, a bookmark, a fork or
knife, or a stick for stirring… Alternatively, they brainstorm objects suitable for aparticular use. For example: what objects can be used as a vehicle? How? Whenand where?

Materials
Simple objects such as pens/pencils, coins, pegs, forks or fruit (lemons, oranges).

Procedure■■ An object is chosen by either the teacher or the students.
■■ The students brainstorm its possible uses.
■■ The teacher stops the activities when they feel satisfied with the number andthe variety of the answers.

A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state school |167

Part of this activity will inevitably involve mother-tongue use, but at the same time
it can generate interest in the acquisition of new vocabulary. It is valuable in itself
for its creative potential, but it is better to extend it with examples of how this new
vocabulary works and with subsequent practice. With young learners, it can
include drills of the following type: ‘A pen can be (used as) a knife because you
can sometimes cut with it’ (or as a pointer/point, etc.).

Surprise me!
This is a vocabulary practice activity in which the students have fun while making
surprising sentences with given words.

Materials
Cards with vocabulary that needs practice; a bag.

Procedure■■ The cards are put in a bag.
■■ Each student picks a word and makes a surprising sentence.
■■ Alternatively, the students can discuss their words in groups and create

surprising sentences together.
■■ In a variation of the activity, each student incorporates the chosen word

in a picture and then describes the picture.

Snap – variation
The teacher prepares two sets of cards with the vocabulary that needs practice.
The cards from the first set are put in a box and shuffled.

Preparation
The cards from the second set are randomly distributed among the students,
each student receiving one card. If there are some cards left over, they are putin the box.

Procedure■■ The class is divided into teams, each team consisting of four to six students.
■■ Each student shows their card to their teammates and says the word aloud.
■■ A dice is thrown to decide in what order the teams will play.
■■ The teacher draws a card from the box and the first team has to make anassociation between the word from the box and any of the words they haveon their cards.
■■ An association is considered good as long as the students can justify theirchoice. For example, a kite can be associated with a bird because they both
can fly, or because both words contain four letters; a dog can be associatedwith a table because it has four legs, or because it can be found in people’s
homes, etc.
■■ If the association is accepted, the team receives a point, the used cards are

put aside, the child whose card was used draws a new one, and the gamecontinues with the next team.
■■ The game stops when all the cards have been used.
■■ It is important that all teams have an equal number of turns − the teacher

should calculate this in advance.

168| A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state schoolVariations■■ Instead of teams, students can make associations individually, each of them

being responsible for their own word, while the competitive element remains.
This variation makes more demands on students and was not considered
suitable for the purposes of the project.
■■ Instead of associations, students can make unusual/funny sentences. This canbe done in a special ‘time for fun’ slot. It should be carefully explained that theaim of the activity is to stimulate imagination and that normally some of thesentences can sound meaningless. This variation of the game may be more
appropriate for grammar drills, when students play around with a certain
grammar structure. Gradually, more poetic expression can be encouraged,
and students can come up with suggestions like: ‘Autumn is wearing a cloudy
dress.’ ‘Autumn is drinking fog milk.’ ‘The sun is eating rainbow drops.’ ‘Springis wearing a cherry dress.’ ‘Birds are drinking flower juice.’

Expanding sentences
Procedure■■ The teacher gives a sentence framework and illustrates it with a few examples.

Framework:
Who (or what)
is doing what
wherewith who (or with what)
why (give as many explanations as possible)
Examples:–– The bird is flying in the sky because… it wants food, and because it is hungry,
and because it is happy, and because the weather is sunny and because it is
not raining and because it is not cold.
–– My cat is playing with a ball because… she likes balls/it is interesting/I am at
school/she is not hungry.
–– My friend is reading with his mum because… he has homework/he can’t
read/she is at home/she is not busy.
■■ The students follow the framework and make their own sentences.

Adding adjectives■■ A similar activity is to expand the sentence by adding adjectives. The students

still need a framework and help with the kinds of adjectives they could add.
Framework:
The adjective 1 adjective 2 adjective 3 adjective 4 bird is flying in the sky.
adjective 1 – describing opinion
adjective 2 – describing a fact: how big?
adjective 3 – describing a fact: how old?
adjective 4 – describing a fact: what colour?
Examples:–– The scary big black bird is flying in the sky.
–– The beautiful young bird is flying in the sky.

A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state school |169

Variations on a sentence
Procedure■■ The teacher writes a sentence on the board.
■■ The students play with the given sentence by changing only one word

at a time.
■■ For example, if the original sentence is ‘There is a big vase on the table’,a possible path to follow can be:
There is a big book on the table.
There is a big book under the table.
There is a big book under the chair.
There is a new book under the chair.
There was a new book under the chair, etc.

Guided imagery
In this activity the students close their eyes and visualise a place, following theteacher’s guidelines.

Procedure■■ The teacher reads or asks a sequence of questions.
■■ The students draw pictures of their mental images, compare them and discuss

the differences and similarities.
Example 1:
Imagine the room of your dreams.
Is it big or small?
Is it noisy or quiet?
How many windows does it have?
How many doors?
What can you see through the windows?
What is there inside the room?
Who is with you in the room?
What are you doing?
What is the other person doing?
Example 2:
Imagine you are a parent.
Are you tall or short?
What colour is your hair?
What are you wearing?
What is your job?
How many children have you got?
Are they boys or girls?
How old are they?
How do they look?

170| A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state schoolSome learners at this age may find it difficult to reproduce what they haveimagined during the guided imagery process. Therefore, the teacher may decide
to limit the instructions to five or six sentences. For the same reason, you may
provide your students with a structure to follow while drawing and describing.
■■ For example: The room of my dreams is… (adjective 1 – size). It is… (adjective 2– level of noise). It has… (number) windows, and so on.

Final task
At the end of the school year students were given creative writing tasks.
The 3rd graders had to imagine they were an object or an animal and write
a story about ‘themselves’. The 4th graders had to write a story involving
emotions or human traits.
The second task is an adaptation of Deborah Fraser’s metaphorical writing
lesson in the literacy classroom (Fraser, 2006).
In both cases, the children had freedom to choose the main characters in theirstories. To provide them with a sense of security a text format was suggested,
and for the 3rd grade this included a description of the appearance of the object
or the animal, its place, daily routine, likes, dislikes and feelings. In the 4th grade
the writing task was carried out in two lessons.
During the first lesson, the following questions were discussed:■■ What feelings do people show? When? How?
■■ What character traits do people possess? How do they show them?
■■ Can these feelings and traits be personified? How?

Then two opposite character features were chosen. Students then discussed
how they would appear if they were people. The chosen traits were Patienceand Impatience, and the children had to describe them in a whole-class activity.
The description followed the questions:■■ Where does Patience/Impatience live?
■■ What does she look like? Her face? Her body?
■■ What clothes does she wear?
■■ What does she do?
■■ What things does she like?
■■ Does she have friends? Who are her friends?

The stories were written during the second lesson. Part of the discussion
was conducted in Bulgarian to allow more variety and depth of explorationof the topic.

A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state school |171

Conclusion

References

The more experienced readers of this chapter
would be well aware of the virtuous circle where
the investment of thought and energy on the partof the teacher increases students’ motivation andinvolvement in the learning process, which in turnboosts teachers’ devotion and commitment. In ourcase, the first steps were difficult as the children
seemed to lack ideas, willingness to experiment, andconfidence to tolerate ambiguities and take risks. The
teachers had to spend time and effort to draw themout. Gradually, the students gained self-assurance
and began to engage more enthusiastically andimaginatively in the activities. This was accompanied
by more signs of appreciation of their English lessons
and their teachers, who, in turn, were stimulated to
introduce more creative activities in their teaching.
They started adapting their coursebook to provide
more open-ended activities for their students andwere rewarded accordingly. It is with an instance ofsuch a reward that I would like to conclude thisproject description:

Carlile, O and Jordan, A (2012) Approaches toCreativity: A Guide for Teachers. Maidenhead:Open University Press.

You, Mrs Bundova
You are mango juice
You are sunny
You are flower
You are bird
You are happiness

Fraser, D (2006) The creative potential of
metaphorical writing in the literacy classroom.
English Teaching: Practice and Critique 5/2: 93–108.
Vygotsky, L (1967) Voobrazhenie i tvorchestvo v
detskom vozraste [Imagination and Creativity inChildhood]. Moscow: Prosveshchenie.
Wiseman, A (2014) ‘My life changed when I saw that
notice’, in Hayes, D (ed), Innovations in the continuing
professional development of English language
teachers. London: British Council.
Zarina Markova is a Language Teacher Educator
at the South-West University, Bulgaria, where
she teaches courses in Language Acquisition andForeign Language Teaching Methodology, supervises
teaching practice and master’s dissertations, andconducts state teacher certification examinations.
She also does teacher training for the British Council,
both online and face-to-face, and co-edits, with Sylvia
Velikova, the electronic newsletter of the BulgarianEnglish Teachers’ Association (BETA-IATEFL).
Currently, she is one of the project collaborators on
the SEETA Small-scale Teacher-led Research Project(with Anna Parisi and Desmond Thomas).

Love, Simeon (9 years)(Given to the teacher on 8 March,
International Women’s Day)
This project started as an attempt to create
conditions for fostering primary students’ creative
thinking and expression and turned into a rewarding,joyful experience for everybody involved. It would
be difficult to predict whether and how the teachersand students would be able to sustain their creative
engagement in the teaching/learning process.
It would be even more difficult to say if theirexperience would be transferred to other subjects,
classes and schools. There are rays of optimism,
though. The project attracted the attention of
the foreign language experts in two regional
inspectorates, and they, helped by the British Council
in Sofia, organised teacher training seminars on
creativity in ELT for some 120 teachers of English.
No one can know how effective such training canbe, and experience warns us to be modest in our
expectations. Yet, I would like to believe that evensmall steps can sometimes have disproportionately
larger effects.

172

Acknowledgements
I am indebted to Ellie Bundova, Rumyana Velichkova
and Eleonora Lazarova for their active participationin this project, and to Lyubka Kirilova, Fatme
Osmanova and Tsvetanka Panova for organising theteacher training seminars.

| A journey towards creativity: A case study of three primary classes in a Bulgarian state school

The focus of this book is on practical classroom activities which can help to nurtureand develop our students’ creativity. The activities will help you to explore the role ofcreativity in the classroom both in the sense of helping students to express their uniquecreative identity and also by helping them to think about and use language in a creative
way. The activities are suitable for a broad range of students from young to old andfrom low to higher levels and can be used alongside your existing syllabus and course
materials to enhance your students’ experience of learning English.
Alan Maley, co-editor of this publication, has been involved with English language
teaching for over 50 years. He worked with the British Council in Yugoslavia, Ghana,
Italy, France, China and India (1962–88) before taking over as Director-General of
the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge (1988–93). He then worked in university postsin Singapore (1993–98), Thailand (1999–2004), Malaysia and Vietnam (2004–11).
He is now a freelance consultant and writer. He has published over 50 books andnumerous articles. He is a past President of IATEFL, and recipient of the ELTons
Lifetime Achievement Award in 2012. He is a co-founder of The C Group(http://thecreativitygroup.weebly.com).
Nik Peachey, co-editor of this publication, is an author, blogger, teacher trainer andeducational technology expert. He has worked as editor and consultant on many
major web-based language learning initiatives around the world and has more than
20 years’ experience in the field of English language teaching. At present he works
as Head of Learning for a web-based language school and is a frequent presenter
at ELT conferences.

9 780863 557675

ISBN 978-0-86355-767-5

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www.britishcouncil.org© British Council 2015/F004
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