Nudging for Creativity in Young Learners’ Classes: A Reflection on Practice

Creativity is one of the most important skills for students to develop in the modern world (Pink, 2011). For this reason, creativity has been included as a core objective in the Korean school curriculum (Lee, 2013), and commentators on foreign language education have called for more focus on creativity in language education (Richards, 2013). Unfortunately, it can be difficult for teachers to find space to encourage student creativity within a system focused on correct answers and standardised tests (Roh, 2011). This presentation details the efforts of two English teachers in Korea to promote creative/artistic expression as well as English practice. Working with a small, private class of elementary-age, beginner-level Korean EFL learners, the presenter and her partner teacher worked to create a class environment and structure that would give students space to be creative while using English, and also ‘nudge’ them to be ever more creative and use more English over time. In order to do this, the two teachers produced a literature-based, practical definition of creative expression for the EFL classroom with three criteria: (1) novelty (Stein, 1953), (2) value (Csikszentmihalyi, 1999) and (3) effectiveness/English use (Runco and Jaeger, 2012). With this 3-criteria definition in hand, the teachers then designed classes to help students achieve as well as possible in line with these criteria based on a input-output-feedback structure. Input for both English language and creative expression was provided through ‘extensive reading’ (Day and Bamford, 2002). Output took the form of student-produced class materials (comics, games, and pictures). Feedback involved a variety of assessment procedures (self-, peer-, and teacher-) to encourage students to reflect and improve on their work over time (Payne Young, 2009). Students attending these classes produced a wide variety of materials ranging from the very simple to the impressively creative, and used English while doing so. Attendees of this presentation will get an overview of the practical definition of creativity created and used by the presenter, and of the particular class and activity design and assessment procedures used, and of the results (successes, challenges, and shortcomings). These ideas may be directly useful to EFL teachers hoping to create space for creative expression in their own classes, or otherwise may provide the inspiration and supporting information needed for them to design unique classes of their own.