TACON 2014

Whether you teach pre-school, young learners, teens or adults, the ability to make your classroom a place where creativity thrives is a crucial factor in motivating and engaging learners. This talk looks at the conditions necessary for learners to realize their creative potential and explores seven generic ways to promote creativity in the ELT classroom no matter what context you work in. Each way is briefly discussed in relation to learning theories and illustrated with a range of enjoyable and practical ideas which can be used with learners of different ages and levels. In the first part of the talk, we will explore the importance of building up positive self-esteem and modelling creativity yourself. We will then discuss the value of offering learners choice and using questions effectively in order to lead them from lower to higher order thinking skills and engage them in thinking creatively. Finally, we will look at strategies to make connections, explore ideas and get learners to reflect critically on their own ideas, performance, actions and outcomes.