DEVELOPMENT STUDENTS' CREATIVE THINKING IN ASPECTS OF TEACHING A FOREIGN LANGUAGE
Abstract
Do you think you are creative? Do you think your students are creative? Do you think you can call yourself lucky if you have one or two creative students in a lifetime? Do you think the younger the students are the more creative they are? Some think they aren’t creative at all and it is only the privileged and artistically talented, who can be considered creative. Others think that to cook a good dinner is already a clear sign of creativity.\n\n\nWhy is creativity important?\n\n\nBefore we set out and look at some theories and practice for introducing creativity into the language classroom, let’s see why it is worth making all this effort. Why is creativity important in language classrooms?\n\n\n• Language use is a creative act: we transform thoughts into language that can be heard or seen. We are capable of producing sentences and even long texts that we have never heard or seen before. By giving learners creative exercises, we get them to practice an important sub-skill of using a language: thinking creatively.\n\n\n• Compensation strategies (methods used for making up for lack of language in a communicative situation e.g. miming, drawing, paraphrasing used for getting meaning across) use creative and often imaginative ways of expression. Our learners will need these until they master the language.