INTRODUCTION
The mind is not a vessel to be filled
but and fire to be kindled.
Plutarch
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 practise an important sub-skill of using a language: thinking creatively.
Topicality
Today in our society there is an urgent requirement in creative, active, gifted, intellectually and spiritually developed citizens. Therefore the task of a teacher is not only to discover, to develop such students but also bring them to attention of research workers, psychologists, teachers and parents.
It is very important to develop creative skills and it is necessary to start it in primary school. Children are good at creating and different stereotypes do not influence on them.
The object are methods and ways of process of teaching a foreign language.
The subject is development of skills of independent creative activity in the course of teaching a foreign language.
The problems are:
1) To consider concept - «creative activity in the course of teaching a foreign language»;
2) To analyze the notion “project work” as means of formation and development of creative language abilities;
3) To consider practical application of games as highly motivating of development of creative activity at the English lessons;
4) To consider practical application of role-play and the teaching forms, promoting development of skills of independent activity of schoolchildren in the course of training.
Theoretical background
Creating an effective system of teaching a foreign language has been a challenge for foreign language teachers and researchers for years. Academics such as E. Paul Torrance, dedicated an entire lifetime to the advancement of creativity in education. He faced much opposition in his day about the nature of creativity.
Creativity was considered to be an immeasurable, natural ability. Torrance called for explicit teaching of creativity. He advocated that it was skill-specific, requiring intentional instruction. His life’s work ultimately led to the development of the Torrance tests and gifted programs throughout the world.
In recent times, there has been a shift towards the increased acceptance of valuing creativity for all learners. A 2003 TED talk by Sir Ken Robinson discussing this subject reached over 5 million viewers. It discusses how school systems suppress creativity. He proposes that the current model leaves little room for divergent thinking.
It relies on teaching to the correct answer. An innovative thinking model is needed. Robinson recently tweeted an article about a new study that suggested 80% of educators surveyed preferred creativity to be included as part of learning standards.
In the same way, David Hughes, founder of Decision Labs and professor at UNC Chapel Hill, argues that innovation is an essential skill for our global economy. In talking about creativity in schools he says, much of the blame for a lack of creativity, and therefore innovation, can be traced to the traditional educational systems.
Most of the practice of creative methods is being done outside the traditional educational institutions by consulting firms and by persons in companies who have been trained in creative problem solving methods. In universities not much has changed since 1950, when the distinguished psychologist J. P. Guilford in his inaugural address as president of the American Psychological Association stated that education’s neglect of the subject of creativity was appalling.
Thus, I see that educational institutions need a strong dose of creative problem solving.
The aim To develop cognitive creative activity I try to follow some purposes:
• to develop vivid and logical thoughts and imagination;
• to form skills of planning, analysis, self-control;
• to create conditions for the development of pupils’ skills;
• to encourage pupils to carry on educational creative activity;
• to educate a persistence, will and confidence;
• to extend the world view of students, teach to be attentive and to analyse;
• to improve the level of pupils’ development.
The practical value
I try to organize the lessons thus, to provide the comfort conditions for educational process and pick up the various and interesting types of work at the English lessons. It helps me attain the best results and practice shows that the most productive knowledge students obtain when they are engaged in creative activities.
Language learning is hard work ... Effort is required at every moment and must be maintained over a long period of time.
The ways to develop creative abilities of pupils
at English lessons
PROJECT WORK
Project method is one of the modern methods of teaching. A project is a list of real life that has been imparted into the school. It is an extended task which usually integrates language skills work through a number of activities.
At the school level, project work encourages imagination and creativity, self-discipline and responsibility, collaboration, research and study skills, and cross-curricular work through exploitation of knowledge gained in other subjects.
In my classroom students have done a great deal of projects. These projects involved:
collecting information;
drawing pictures, maps, diagrams, and charts;
cutting out pictures;
arranging texts and visuals;
colouring;
presenting information in poster format or preparing Power Point
presentations;
giving presentations.
The form of presentation is offered by a teacher or pupils can choose it by themselves.
In project method the teacher is not a dictator or a commander but a friend, guide and a working partner. He encourages his students to work collectively, and co-operatively. He also helps his students to avoid mistakes and makes it a point that each member of the group contributed something to the completion of the project.
Projects based learning has a lot of advantages. Working on projects students had an opportunity to practice and learn English language and at the same time they gained a lot of new information and developed various important skills.
GAMES
Many experienced textbook and methodology manuals writers have argued that games are not just time-filling activities but have a great educational value.
Games help and encourage my pupils to sustain their interest and work. They also help me to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want to take part and in order to do so must understand what others are saying or have written, and they must speak or write in order to express their own point of view or give information.
Games are highly motivating because they are amusing and interesting. They can be used to give practice in all language skills and be used to practice many types of communication.
There are many advantages of using games in the classroom:
1. Games are a welcome break from the usual routine of the language class.
2. They are motivating and challenging.
3. Learning a language requires a great deal of effort.
4. Games provide language practice in the various skills- speaking, writing, listening and reading.
5. They encourage students to interact and communicate.
6. They create a meaningful context for language use.'
Therefore, the role of games in teaching and learning vocabulary cannot be denied. However, in order to achieve the most from vocabulary games, it is essential that suitable games are chosen. Whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students, proficiency level, cultural context, timing, learning topic, and the classroom settings are factors that should be taken into account.
In conclusion, I think learning vocabulary through games is one effective and interesting way that can be applied in any classrooms. The results of the research suggest that games are used not only for mere fun, but more importantly, for the useful practice and review of language lessons, thus leading toward the goal of improving learners' communicative competence.
ROLE-PLAY
Incorporating role-play into the classroom adds variety, a change of pace and opportunities for a lot of language production and also a lot of fun! It can be an integral part of the class and not a 'one-off' event.
Role-play is a speaking activity when you either put yourself into somebody else's shoes, or when you stay in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation.
The joy of role-play is that pupils can 'become' anyone they like for a short time: The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star... the choice is endless! Students can also take on the opinions of someone else. 'For and Against' debates can be used and the class can be split into those who are expressing views in favour and those who are against the theme.
Functional language for a multitude of scenarios can be activated and practised through role-play. 'At the restaurant', 'Checking in at the airport', 'Looking for lost property' are all possible role-plays. It is widely agreed that learning takes place when activities are engaging and memorable.
Pupils who will at some point travel to an English-speaking country are given a chance to rehearse their English in a safe environment. Real situations can be created and students can benefit from the practice. Mistakes can be made with no drastic consequences.
Role-play is possible at elementary levels providing the students have been thoroughly prepared. I try to think through the language the pupils will need and make sure this language has been presented. Pupils may need the extra support of having the language on the board.
Some of the possible teacher roles are:
• Facilitator - students may need new language to be 'fed' in by the teacher. If rehearsal time is appropriate the feeding in of new language should take place at this stage.
• Spectator - The teacher watches the role-play and offers comments and advice at the end.
• Participant - It is sometimes appropriate to get involved and take part in the role-play yourself.
There are many ways to correct mistakes when using role-play. It is rarely appropriate for the teacher to jump in and correct every mistake. This could be incredibly demotivating! Some students like to be corrected straight after a role-play activity, while the language is still fresh in their minds. Sentences with errors can be written on the board for the group to correct together.
I make notes of common mistakes and deal with them in future classes. It ensures that my students don't lose motivation by being corrected on the spot or straight after the role-play. I try to negotiate with students and ask them how they would like to be corrected.
The learners may not be confident about their English, or may think that role-play is just fun and games. As teachers I am aware that the main aim of this method is to develop students’ language skills – not produce actors or actresses. For this reason I try to plan my lessons so that they have clear linguistic and skills-development aims, and to communicate these aims clearly to students so that are clear on what is expected of them.
CONCLUSION
Creative work in the language classroom can lead to genuine communication and co-operation. Learners use the language to do the creative task, so they use it as a tool, in its original function. Creative tasks enrich classroom work, and they make it more varied and more enjoyable by tapping into individual talents, ideas and thoughts - both the learners’ and the teacher’s.
In my experience, some pupils cannot learn at all if they are not allowed to be creative. They do not understand the point in doing a language activity for its own sake, for only practising the language without a real content, purpose, outcome or even a product.
My experience also taught me that most pupils become more motivated, inspired or challenged if they can create something of value, if they feel that in some ways what they do and how they do it reflect who they are.
Teaching a foreign language promotes development of children. However in order to carry out more effective development of pupils during training to any subject, it is necessary to include pupils in such kinds of activity which develop at them touch perceptions, impellent, intellectual, strong-willed, emotional and motivational spheres. So, it is underlined that for intensive development of thinking it is necessary to provide teaching at a high level of difficulty in fast time, comprehension by the pupil of the educational actions. Development is connected not only with thinking, but also with emotions and other spheres of a person.
Creative thinking is an important skill in real life. It is part of our survival strategies and it is a force behind personal growth and the development of culture and society.
So, the pupil is not a vessel to be filled but and fire to be kindled.
References
1. Alan Maley and Nik Peachey «Creativity in the English language classroom» - 2010.
2. Altshuller G.S. «Development of creative imagination» - 1997.
3. Mishneva Е.К. About one of development ways of school abilities of pupils in a course of mastering a foreign language at an average grade level//Foreign languages at school. - 2005.
4. Andrew Wright, David Betteridge and Michael Buckby 'Games for Language Learning' Cambridge University Press, 1984.
5. Aydan Ersoz «Six Games for the EFL/ESL Classroom» The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. VI, No. 6, June 2000.
6. Lee Su Kim 'Creative Games for the Language Class''Forum' Vol. 33 No 1, January - March 1995.
7. 'The Use of Games For Vocabulary Presentation and Revision'
8. Agnieszka Uberman 'Forum' Vol. 36 No 1, January - March 1998.
9. http://www.learnenglish.de/teachers/roleplays.html
10. http://www.innovationexcellence.com/blog/2013/01/10/30-ways-to-promote-creativity-in-your-classroom/
11. http://www.slideshare.net/mandeepgill1/project-method-of-teaching
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