Lee Arnold

Seigakuin University

Hue University College of

Foreign Languages

Workshop on English Language

Teaching 2016

Learner

creativity in

presentation

and writing

Why

creativity?

Let’s hear

your ideas!

What could possibly be

important about it to

language learning and

acquisition?

Creativity and language

• L2 communicative functions sometimes call for spontaneity

and creativity in both planned and real-time use

• Most standardized L2 instruction nonetheless tends to avoid

creative language use

• Learners nonetheless wish to express their personalities

whenever possible within what language they have

• Such wishes lead learners to express with creative flair

wherever opportunities in tasks arise

Kramsch on L2 creativity

• Creativity tied to subjective side of language learning and acquisition

• Kramsch (2006, 2009) sees language learners in “third place” transitional stage of identity re-creation

Language learning is “filled with memories of other

languages, fantasies of other identities” and

“linguistic anxieties and communicative joys…

symbolic gamble and subjective power”

(2006, pp. 98-99)

• Language learning tied in with one’s whole being

Rationale for classroom• Builds learner

motivation

• Taps latent

abilities

• Fosters intrinsic

love of learning

• Places learners

at center

Presentation

What approaches can

teachers take to

promote creativity?

What might learners achieve within certain

approaches?

Questions

Task contextualization

• Contextualizing writing assignments or presentation tasks

create potential peer reader- and viewership

• Collecting learner writing or documenting presentation

displays into digital or hard copy form one way to create

contextualization

• Such collections can also serve as examples of Murphey’s

(1996a, 1996c) concept of near peer role models

• Online upload on homepage or blogs especially effective in

immediate publication and contextualization of learner work

Paul Kei Matsuda on contextualization (2013)

Personalization & characterization

• Learner personalization and characterization of tasks and

assignments create stakes for learners

• Such personalization and characterization may nonetheless

break from strict academic standards

• Tradeoff in greater motivation and involvement by learners

brought about

• Such involvement may still serve as better platform to then

bring in stricter academic standards

PresentationPresentations can showcase creative

display to illustrate oral delivery

For novice presenters creative displays

for oral presentation can engage

learners more fully in task involvement

Creative displays can relieve pressure of

presentation and aid oral delivery

Presentation

WritingWriting through learner characterization

on socio-political issues & blog-

published

As a staff working with refugees, I think helping refugees is not just a matter of just help them buy an airline ticket. They need almost everything when they came to Japan. First, they need a house to live. Our refugee agency is sending stoves, fuel, blankets and warm clothing to them. We will help refugees pay rent and pre-fabricated shelters are also being considered for all of them. But we just want to say it has huge concerns for the estimated at least 1 million people displaced inside their own country –many without food or shelter. Our aid agencies are managing to try our best to help them. We expect that figure to double to 700,000 by the end of this year. Most of those fleeing arrive with nothing more than their clothes, many are young children, and now winter is coming. Winter is the hardest season for refugees.

It is awful to be a refugee, it's awful to live in a tent, imagine if you have to live in a tent when it's freezing and windy and cold and wet outside, so we want to make sure that at least the situation is livable for people who have no other choice. Survival is their only option. Our agency are also sending medical supplies, equipment and basic emergency supplies, water, sanitation, and education for refugees to help them live better in Japan. We have also fed more refugees in Japan. Their hope is to provide food assistance to 6 and a half million by the end of the year. You can help us achieve this goal with an online donation and thank you for supporting our work. It’s our moral duty to help them to start a new life in Japan. They are homeless and often with just the clothes on their backs. Giving a helping hand to people in need is encouraged and welcomed in our society all the time.

I’m 76 years old now. That story is when I was 40 years old.

My wife is gone, because my wife was dead by war. I’m so

sad and I can’t live without the wife. But I have to live. So I

escaped my country seven years ago. I saving money now,

because I’m hoping to go to Japan, and I want to have

private business. I have two children, who is one boy and

one girl. My job is making traditional things. So I want to

know a lot of people that what kind of my job and what is

the traditional things. My country’s traditional things are

textile and ceramic ware. It is my pride to make traditional

things. I go to unknown country called Japan and want to

spread this traditional quality.

When I was 40 years old, I got a visa to go to Japan at last.

Children were delight with me, but we were full of

uneasiness. We thanked people who were taken care of so

far and on the day to go to Japan, went to the airport. We

boarded an airplane. When we arrived at Japan at the first

time, it was very cold and it snowed in winter. We were so

surprised because we saw snow for the first time. There

was our house in the place called Azabu. There was the

town which was quiet and seemed to be safe. When we

opened the shop, Japanese people were interested in and

they saw it. Five years later, I thought Japanese people is

so kind but introverted and so negative. Some people is

positive but almost negative. But now, we are used to life

in Japan and live happily. We love Japan. My job and life is

success!!

Such approach may spur empathetic

identification in socio-political issues

Writing (from Words on Music)

(…) In a small town in Austria, there was the calm lake floating some red

lotuses. It was in the park far from any buildings, and it was near the

forests. The silence controlled the all-time in the park. The place was not

warm but little bit cold. The season was early spring. No one was there

but a crying young girl sitting on the bench in front of the lake. She

looked twelve or thirteen. Her face was pain badly because she lost her

favorite clarinet given by her grandmother. She would often play the

clarinet in the park and she loved the time passed so slowly.

She knew that she had to go home and tell her grandmother the truth. But

she was reluctant to do so then. She did not want to see the sad face of

her grandmother and did not have any courage confessing her mistakes.

So she wanted to stay in the place any one was not. Only stars knew

where she was and what made her cry and stars were shining for her for a

long time.

Conclusion

• Creativity can add motivational and personalized stake for

learners

• Presentation tasks and compositional writing ideal for

exploring learner creative flair

• Such learner engagement may lead to development of L2

identity

• Such identification may allow L2 acquisition to track to L1

identity

Thank you for

listening!

Check out my blogs!

The Daily Sekaijin

www.dailysekaijin.blogspot.jp

Sekaijin’s Learning Pages

www.thelearningpages.blogspot.jp

References

Kramsch, C. (2006). Preview article: The multilingual subject. International Journal of Applied Linguistics, 16(1), 97-110.

Kramsch, C. (2009). The multilingual subject. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Matsuda, P.K. (2013). Teaching writing in context. Paper presented at Tokyo JALT, Tokyo, Japan, 13 June 2013.

Murphey, T. (1996a). Near peer role models. Teachers Talking to Teachers: JALT Teacher Education SIG Newsletter, 4(3), 21-22.

Murphey, T. (1996c). Proactive adjusting to the zone of proximal development: Learner and teacher strategies. Paper presented at the IIndConference for Socio-cultural Research Vygotsky-Piaget, Geneva, Switzerland.