The concept of creativity casts a long shadow across the world of EFL. All too often, from the moment we first set foot in the classroom, we are encouraged to become more creative as teachers and to creatively adapt classroom material; we are urged to foster creativity in our learners and told not to let our correction interfere with their creative communication.
In this talk, I shall be critiquing the peculiar construct of creativity that we seem to be so in thrall to. I shall suggest that in all areas of human endeavor it is actually the routine, the formulaic, the predictable and the mundane that underpin the creative process. This is as true for classroom practice as it for language use and thus has serious implications for teachers, trainers and materials writers.
I will consider through relevant anecdotes and personal experiences - the chaos that the pursuit of creativity can wreak on classes, making particular reference to activity and exercise types, language goals and error correction.
I will then move on to counter such well-intentioned waywardness by reasserting the importance of repetition and of the everyday. I believe that both should be central pillars in any methodology that aims to help teachers prepare students for the real world. Indeed, I also aim to persuade those in attendance that true creativity is impossible without this.
The talk will be rooted in my own classroom work and will be illustrated with plenty of practical examples.
