Developing creative thinking skills in english language teaching
By Marisa Constantinides It has been suggested that creativity (or, as it is also termed, divergent production) is not a single unifying ability but is viewed as a composite of intellectual abilities. The four main facets I will be looking at are: FLUENCY Ability to produce large numbers of ideas FLEXIBILITY Ability to produce diverse ideas (not the same kind) ELABORATION Ability to add on to and embellish an already existing idea ORIGINALITY Ability to produce uncommon, ‘clever’ ideas Creative thinking, or divergent production, facilitates problem solving, and in a problem solving approach oriented classroom, enhancing creative thinking potential can facilitate discovery learning as well as enhance language production. This talk will outline the thinking and relationship of divergent versus convergent production relating them to specific language activities encouraging one or the other kind. I will be suggesting a range of activities which can develop aspects of creative thin...