Suggestions for Language Learners: Creativity Development in EFL Classrooms 87 Suggestions for Language Learners: Creativity Development in EFL Classrooms (original) (raw)
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Creativity in EFL Teacher Training and Its Transfer to Language Teaching
There is a growing body of literature that recognizes the importance of creativity. This paper considers the necessity and implications of developing creativity in groups of pre-service teachers. Data for this study were collected using the content analysis - English as foreign language handouts created for the young learners at the elementary school created by two groups of students (primary school pre-service teachers (K1-4) and EFL pre-service English language teachers K5-13). It is my experience of working with those two groups for years that has driven this research that has confirmed our expectations about the ability to create interesting materials for their students with activities that are not ‘traditional’.
Creativity is creating clear and singular visions for the future in the mind of people. These visions act as incentive in order for the people to enhance their thinking process and hence stimulate their creativity. Good teachers can encourage their students' creativity. Among recent works on creativity and creative thinking, one profound study is the influential book, The Research for Satori and Creativity written by E. Paul Torrence. This research is underpinned mostly by this book. This study explores the extent to which whether different EFL classrooms at Kashan university are creative or not. Five teachers were selected randomly. An observational checklist was used based on intrinsic attitudes of E. Paul Torrence he had gathered in his book after twenty years of study on creativity. Two observers were selected beforehand. Each class was observed twice by each of these observers. Two observers were selected to increase the research credibility. We have adopted Cronbach's alpha consistency analysis to verify whether or not the observation checklist possesses good reliability. The data from two raters gathered to be analyzed. The results of two raters were correlated. This checklist was implemented as a yardstick to see the level of creativity in each class. In the result we can see that rigid approaches which stifled creativity in EFL classrooms were easily spotted. Then in conclusion as a result of these findings, we offered some recommendations to the teachers of each class in order to enhance creativity.
Creativity as a Key Component in Different National Settings for EFL Teaching
2019
The creativity that teachers and professors as well, exercise in a classroom, is an immeasurable potential for exploiting their student's opportunities and abilities to fully develop their language skills, as well as, their character and personality; it is the kind of driving force that impulse our pupils beyond their current capacities, and catapult them into new, higher and marvelous horizons. This exploratory research examines how creativity enhances the processes of learning and acquiring EFL in different national settings, where it was compared the different degrees of success attained by teachers and students as well, as a clear indicator of good practices in the classroom and in education in general. For doing so, we first analyzed on the lights of the great theories on the matter, that is a great discussion on the literature available was held, and on the light of the data gathered by scholars of different countries, and nations so distant that clearly defines them as antipodes, the whole picture was in that way completed. Despite the fact that this exploratory research completely focused on foreign language learning/acquisition, the findings and conclusions herein discussed applies to any field of education regardless the area and regardless the level. It is really hoped through this work, that the knowledge extracted from this pedagogical experience could serve as a guiding line for other nations that share common characteristics of the country of our region, and therefore, the experience could be assumed and assimilated by others as well.
Creativity as a key Component for Success in Different National Settings for EFL Teaching
2019
The creativity that teachers and professors as well, exercise in a classroom, is an immeasurable potential for exploiting their student's opportunities and abilities to fully develop their language skills, as well as, their character and personality; it is the kind of driving force that impulse our pupils beyond their current capacities, and catapult them into new, higher and marvelous horizons. This exploratory research examines how creativity enhances the processes of learning and acquiring EFL in different national settings, where it was compared the different degrees of success attained by teachers and students as well, as a clear indicator of good practices in the classroom and in education in general. For doing so, we first analyzed on the lights of the great theories on the matter, that is a great discussion on the literature available was held, and on the light of the data gathered by scholars of different countries, and nations so distant that clearly defines them as antipodes, the whole picture was in that way completed. Despite the fact that this exploratory research completely focused on foreign language learning/acquisition, the findings and conclusions herein discussed applies to any field of education regardless the area and regardless the level. It is really hoped through this work, that the knowledge extracted from this pedagogical experience could serve as a guiding line for other nations that share common characteristics of the country of our region, and therefore, the experience could be assumed and assimilated by others as well.
Creativity and Language Learning Strategies: Toward a More Successful Language Learning
The present study aimed at investigating the relationship between EFL learners’ creativity and language learning strategies. For this purpose 140 EFL students, ranging between 19 and 32 years old, majoring in English Translation and English Literature at Islamic Azad University, at Central Tehran, Iran were randomly selected and given two questionnaires: The Strategy Inventory for Language Learning and Creativity Questionnaire. The results of Pearson correlation indicated that there are significant relationships between EFL learners’ total use of language learning strategies and their creativity. Also, running multiple regressions showed that social strategy predicted 79 percent of creativity scores. The affective strategy added up the percentage of prediction to 82.6 percent, and finally the metacognitive strategy entered the model on the last step and increased prediction to 93.2 percent. Conclusion and pedagogical implications are presented and discussed.
2017
This thesis contributes to the field of Applied Linguistics by investigating the relationship between creativity, second language (L2) development, and the classroom curriculum in South Korea (Korea, hereafter). Despite curricular reforms since the 1990s calling for more communicative approaches to teaching English, and despite Korea's present interest in developing more creative citizens, an emphasis on creative learning in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom has been difficult to implement in practice. There are numerous reasons for this, but adherence to traditional methods of teaching is perhaps one of the most significant; therefore, for creativity to become part of the EFL curriculum in Korea, it must first be considered valuable for the learning process. Although a few studies have examined the correlation of these competencies by comparing assessments of creativity and language proficiency, this is the first longitudinal investigation of creativity in a classroom learning situation that uses an ethnographic, Case Study approach to explore creativity in a second language learning environment. The original analytical framework created for this study, derived at through the process of framework analysis, is an adaption of the Systems Model of Creativity proposed by Csikszentmihalyi (1999), which asserts that creativity depends not only on the person, but on environmental factors as well. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am exceptionally grateful to my main supervisor Dr. Tan Bee Tin for her guidance, insights, support, and patience. Things did not always go as planned during my study, but Dr. Tin's support never wavered and her optimism and understanding strengthened my resolve and helped me persist through the more challenging times. When I first proposed this topic idea, some suggested a yearlong study to qualitatively observe creativity in the language learning classroom was overly ambitious, however Dr. Tin was enthusiastic about its potential and helped ignite and maintain my excitement throughout the journey. I am also thankful for my secondary supervisor, Professor Lawrence Jun Zhang, who offered invaluable advice about how to bring clarity to my ideas and palpability to my findings. I also owe him a great deal of gratitude for being encouraging through the rough patches and for keeping me on track and passionate about my project. I also owe a word of appreciation to all my amazing colleagues at the University of Auckland for enduring my longwinded rants about the lack of creativity in education and for allowing me to sort my thoughts at their expense. In this regard, I am thankful to Pascal Matzler for our helpful conversations and feedback on early drafts, and to Xiaohua Liu and Jovan Cavor for listening to my ideas and offering their thoughts, opinions, and insights. On a more personal level, I would also like to thank my parents, Troy and Joyce Greenier, for their continued love and support and for understanding and assisting me with my educational pursuits throughout my entire life. I would also like to thank my siblings, Kelley, Heidi, and Nelson, for all their help along the way. As stated in my dedication, I am also forever indebted to my incredible wife Moon Ryang Jung, and her entire family-Gi Soon Lee (이기순), Sun Ye Jung (정선예), and Hae Pil Jung (정해필)-who's full-fledged support, unwavering confidence, and love, were instrumental in helping me complete my thesis. And last, but certainly not least, I owe my eternal appreciation and, more importantly, my passion for teaching, to Jonathan Jordahl. About a year and a half ago I came across the words of Shawn Hitchcock who said: "A mentor empowers a person to see a future, and believe it can be obtained." At first, I related this to the vision we shared for transforming education in Korea, but I soon realised it more aptly applied to the impact Jonathan has had on my career and life; had I never had him as a mentor, I cannot say with certainty that I would have pursued my doctoral degree or became the teacher I am today. For his inspiration, incredible wealth of knowledge, and friendship, I am forever grateful. iv
Writing Outside the Box: Creativity in the EFL Classroom
Japanese high school students rarely have the opportunity to express themselves through creative writing in their native language. There are even fewer opportunities for them to write creatively in English, and opportunities to engage in writing English poetry are almost unheard of. This paper discusses the results of a creative writing lesson that employed short poetry and prose writing tasks. The class consisted of 19 high English ability, 3rd-year students in an all-girls private high school and focused on facilitating individual expression. Data collected from pre- and post-lesson questionnaires suggest that second language learners can benefit from creative writing activities. Results from this lesson may provide impetus for language educators to consider incorporating creativity into their classrooms.
Creativity in the EFL Classroom: Exploring Teachers' Knowledge and Perceptions
As a response to the new requirements and needs of this fast-changing information era, higher education systems all over the world are focusing on developing learners' higher mental competences including creative thinking. The current study aims at exploring teachers' knowledge about the general concepts of creative thinking and its related skills. Moreover, the study attempts to investigate teachers' perceptions about creativity and its incorporation in the English foreign language (EFL) Classroom. To examine these issues, a questionnaire was administered to twenty-seven EFL teachers from the English department of Badji Mokhtar university, Algeria. The Findings reveal that although teachers hold positive perceptions about promoting creative thinking in the EFL classroom, they generally consider creativity as a quite confusing concept and have uncertain knowledge about its characteristics.