This document discusses creativity in English language teaching. It provides principles and examples of creative teaching methods, including doing the opposite of typical routines, reversing the order of activities, expanding or reducing aspects of lessons, using random elements or associations, and imposing constraints. The document also discusses integrating different learning styles such as auditory, visual, and kinesthetic into lessons. Overall, the document promotes trying new approaches to engage students and avoid getting stuck in routines.

1. LONDON 3rd -7th OCTOBER 2016
LANGUAGE LINK SCHOOL OF ENGLISH

2. The Class

8. Problems with methodologies 
sharing experiences
The questions below are only dumb at first sight an attempt to answer them
may make you go ‘hmmm’
• Do most methodologies address teaching or learning? What’s your
understanding?
• Is it possible that teachers are involved in Professional Development activities
for the wrong reasons, and they don’t necessarily have their students in mind as
the ultimate reason why they want to be better teachers?
• Do you choose/plan activities to demonstrate your knowledge/teaching skills or
do you plan activities with your students in mind?
• Detailed attention to the teaching going on in the teacher as opposed to the
learning going on in the learner- which option should be our priority?
• Should we be theorising about methods or theorising about learning?
• When planning a lesson do you fall victim to the infinite choice of resources? Or
do you start with thinking about your learners and what they need? How do you
choose your activities knowing that every choice we make has the ‘opportunity
cost’ of the myriad of other options not taken?

9. • Teaching differently means loss of identity and wish
for failure. Do you agree?
• How often do you do something new?
• Do you sometimes feel stuck? Are you in a rut?
What do you do to get out of it?
• What keeps us from trying out new ideas?
Bored teacher
=
Bored students

10. Creativity Principles

11. Creativity Principles
• Do the opposite
• Reverse the order
• Expand or reduce something
• Use the random principle
• Use the association principle
• Use the constraints principle

12. DO THE OPPOSITE
• Essentially it involves observing the routines and
activities we consciously or unconsciously follow,
doing the opposite and then observing what
happens. Examples would be: if you always stand up
to teach, sit down; if you teach from the front of the
class, teach from the back; if you usually talk a lot,
try silence.

13. REVERSE THE ORDER
• Here you would do things backwards. For example: in
dictation, instead of giving out the text at the end,
you would give it out at the beginning, allow
students to read it then take it away, then give the
dictation. If you normally read texts from beginning
to end, try reading them starting 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.

14. EXPAND OR REDUCE
• For example increase (or decrease) the lenght of a
text in various way; increase (or decrease) the time
allotted to a task; increase the number of questions
on a text; increase or decrease the number of times
you do a particular activity.
• (Maley’s books Short and Sweet suggest 12 different
generic procedures including this to develop more
interesting materials).

15. 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
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. When they have ten new
phrases they combine them into a text.

16. USE THE RANDOM PRINCIPLE
• Students are given
pictures of five people
taken from magazines.
They have to write a
story involving all five
characters.

17. USE THE ASSOCIATION PRINCIPLE
This involves using evocative stimuli for students to
react to. For example:
• Students listen to a sequence of sounds, then
describe their feelings or tell a story suggested by
the sound.
• Students are given a set of character descriptions
and a set of fragments of dialogue-they match the
characters with what they might have said.
• Students are given a natural object ( a stone, a leaf
etc.). They then write a text as if they were their
object.

18. USE THE CONSTRAINS PRINCIPLE
The idea is to impose tight constrains on whatever
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 in just
50 words.
• Limit the amount of time allowed to complete a
task-as when students are given exactly one minute
to give instructions

19. Neuro-Linguistic Programming

20. ‘There is no such
thing as failure.
There is only
feedback.’
‘Our ‘successes’ and ‘failures’ are
determined by the thought and
behaviour patterns we use
subconsciously all of the time.
By recognising our own patterns, we
can change the ones which are not
getting us the outcomes we want.’
‘There isn’t a student who can’t
learn but there are teachers
who can’t teach.’

21. How to integrate different learning styles into
your lesson...
AUDITORY LEARNERS
 Solve problems by talking about them. Allow students to work
in groups or pairs (group discussions, brainstorming activities,
role plays, dialogues).
 Like verbal instructions, explanation of what is coming
(sign posting the lesson) and a summary of what has been learnt.
 Like music; use music to set up the mood, signal a change introduce
a theme, as energisers, background music, language generator,
relaxation, guided fantasy.
 Oral summary of a written text.
 Telling stories, songs, audiotapes and videos, memorisation. Use sound
and rhythm to memorise.
 Drilling

22. How to integrate different learning styles into
your lesson...
VISUAL LEARNERS
 Recognise words by sight, like looking at wall displays.
Use many wall displays and posters.
 Bring in realia. Use graphs, chart illustrations and photographs.
 Mind maps and/or lists to organise thoughts (brainstorming ideas as a pre-
task; lesson plan for the day/week/term).
 Video based lessons
 Look at the teacher’s face intently. Gestures and visualisation.
 Writing in different colours and sizes.
 Overhead projector.

23. How to integrate different learning styles
into your lesson...
KINESTHETIC LEARNERS
 Like to move around while learning and work in different
groups/pairs. Intersperse activities which require students to sit
quietly with activities that allow them to move around.
 Plan energising activities that serve as punctuations not language- learning
activities in their own right (stand up, change partners, come up to the board,
mingles, write our name in the air, mime a word that someone calls out).
 Bring in realia to hold or touch.
 Use demonstrations, mime, act things out.
 Learn best when involved and active; use physical activities, competitions,
board games, role plays, questionnaires, surveys.

24. ‘C’ Group:
Creativity for Change in Language
Education
http://thecreativitygroup.weebly.com/
CREATIVITY IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING
edited by Daniel Xerri and Odette Vassallo.