5 Strategies to Encourage Creativity in the TEFL Classroom
Use creativity to teach and engage language students.
Encouraging your students to be creative is fun.
Often ‘creativity’ becomes just a buzzword for teachers to add to a pile of things we should teach. So often we’re told to teach things like resilience, creativity, critical thinking, growth mindset, that we wonder how we’re ever meant to teach what we’re paid to teach - language.
I want to persuade you that with creativity, it’s possible to do both.
Start by playing with language
Think of a time when you’ve played with language.
Maybe you’ve made up new slang with your friends, rhymed words in unusual ways to make someone laugh, or mimicked speech patterns of a famous person. These are all ways we naturally use language in daily life. They’re also things you can do with students.
Sprinkling fun, creative activities into your lessons is the gateway to encouraging creativity.
Why encourage creativity?
There’s a lot of reasons to encourage creativity with your students, apart from that it makes teaching more enjoyable. A lot of folks have done studies to understand the impact that creativity has on learning
Creativity enhances language skills. Creative activities, such as creative writing and using folklore materials, improve vocabulary acquisition and grammatical understanding, making learning more engaging and enjoyable.
Creativity improves cognitive skill development. Engaging in creative writing helps develop essential cognitive skills, encouraging students to think imaginatively, express their thoughts creatively, and boost their confidence.
Creativity increases motivation and engagement. Creative language learning activities significantly increase student motivation and engagement by making lessons more interactive and fun.
Creativity improves social and emotional development. Creativity in language learning contributes to students' social and emotional development by promoting speculative thinking, intellectual exploration, and the creation of alternative worlds, enhancing their empathy and social skills.
Creativity strategies
1. Set the environment and emotional tone
We need to create a space where creativity can grow.
Creativity is hard to find in a teacher-directed lesson that is ‘run on rails’ by a teacher trying to ensure everything in their lesson plan is covered. Here are some ways we can make space for creativity:
Independent learning: encourage students to explore topics independently and take ownership of their learning process.
Cooperative teaching styles: facilitate group work and peer teaching to promote collaborative learning.
Delaying judgment: create an environment where all ideas are welcomed and evaluated without immediate criticism, making a ‘safe space’ for creative expression.
Show care: demonstrate genuine interest and concern for students' well-being.
Emotional support: Create an atmosphere where students feel safe expressing their ideas and taking risks.
2. Student-Centred Activities
Making the switch from teacher-led to student-centred activities can massively boost creativity. You could try:
Real-life connections: Relate lessons to real-world scenarios to make learning more relevant and engaging.
Open-ended questions: Use questions that do not have a single correct answer to encourage divergent thinking.
Technology and multimedia: Incorporate digital tools and multimedia resources to enhance interactive learning experiences.
4. Creative Teaching Strategies
Incorporate specific creative teaching strategies to stimulate creative thinking. Notable methods include:
SCAMPER technique: Alter existing ideas to generate new ones by asking questions related to Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse.
Six thinking hats: Look at a problem from six distinct perspectives to enhance critical and creative thinking skills. I use this one at work in meetings as well as in the classroom!
5. Visible Thinking Principles
I came across Harvard Project Zero's Visible Thinking principles a few years ago, and found that these provide a great framework for teaching. They can be highly effective in promoting creativity in the classroom. These principles include:
Routines for thinking: implement routines like "See-Think-Wonder" and "Think-Pair-Share" to structure classroom discussions and promote deeper understanding.
Documentation: encourage students to document their thought processes, ideas, and reflections through journals, visual maps, or digital portfolios.
Questioning: create a culture of asking questions by encouraging students to explore different perspectives.
Collaborative thinking: promote group activities that require group problem-solving and idea generation.
Reflective practices: integrate regular reflection sessions for students to think about their learning experiences and how their thinking has changed.
Conclusion
Give encouraging more creativity a try.
You’ll be able to spice up your lessons, make them more engaging for your learners, and hopefully improve their learning outcomes.
Remember, creativity is not just about artistic abilities; it's a life skill that crosses all subjects and prepares students for real-world challenges 6. As educators, our role is to provide the tools, support, and environment that allow students' creativity to flourish alongside their language skills.
If you liked this article, you’ll love my books:
📝 Lesson Planning for Language Teachers - Plan better, faster, and stress-free (4.5⭐, 184 ratings).
👩🎓 Essential Classroom Management - Develop calm students and a classroom full of learning (4.5⭐, 33 ratings).
🏰 Storytelling for Language Teachers - Use the power of storytelling to transform your lessons (4.5⭐, 11 ratings).
🤖 ChatGPT for Language Teachers - A collection of AI prompts and techniques to work better, faster (4.5⭐, 12 ratings).
💭 Reflective Teaching Practice Journal - Improve your teaching in five minutes daily (4.5⭐, 16 ratings).
Thanks for sharing with us.