Learner creativity in presentation and writing
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Transcript of Learner creativity in presentation and writing
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.