Everyone loves the word “creative” and most people cringe at the word “grammar.” So it always surprises me that in Japan the word “English” is most often attached to “grammar” but only rarely to “creative.” Look at the titles of books on the shelves and you’ll see the connection—grammar, grammar, grammar. A google search got 5 million hits for “English grammar” but only 35 thousands hits for “creative English.” I’m sure in Japanese the disparity is even greater! Something is terribly wrong.
Language has two sides to it: one side is structure, grammar, patterns, rules; and the other side is application, use, combinations, and creativity. There are rigid rules in language but a tremendously free and open use of those rules. Both sides are essential to being able to learn and use a language. The creative side is dynamic, providing energy and motivation to speak and read and write. The grammar side is more static, providing structures and patterns that must be followed. These two sides of language exist together in tension, like a see-saw.
However, in Japan, the grammar side is always the heaviest, so the creative side never gets enough emphasis. The belief that grammar is the way to learn English means that most students know the rules, but are not very creative in how to use those rules. It’s like having a house, a structure with nothing, no people, furniture, paintings or activity, inside it.
I wonder what studying English would be like if the creative side had been the dominant one? There would be fewer tests, and more activities; less attention to correctness and more attention to ideas; no repetition of patterns and more playing with possibilities; little correction and lots of trying; less certainty and more openness. If creativity were the basic principle followed in English education, students would be able to speak, write and think much better. They would learn a very different set of values altogether.
Creativity has been ignored too long in English teaching. Without creativity, the level of English for most Japanese will never go beyond the set, practiced patterns. What bothers me more than anything about the way English is taught in Japan is how completely grammar squeezes out the creative side of language. Even when classes are sometimes planned in creative ways, which happens more and more these days, students are not taught how to be creative with the language.
Mostly this is a change of point of view, like flipping a coin to see the other side. Instead of looking at static grammar rules, English can be seen as a dynamic method of intercommunication and creative expression. The very definition of English study in Japan misses out on half of the nature of language, the creative half. It is easy to guess why: grammar is safe, easy and clear; creativity is hard-to-test, confusing and challenging. Grammar should not be ignored, but a better balance is needed. The current balance is like trying to drive a car with only two wheels on one side and nothing on the other.
Creative does not simply mean just that the teacher is creative or the class is organized in a fun and exciting way. That is important, and can help a lot to learn, but learning how to be creative involves something more. Teaching creative skills means teaching students how to use the language creatively themselves. It means doing something actively with the language, not receiving something passively. Creativity has two key components, the ability to get into what is called “flow” and the ability to enter larger and larger communicative patterns.
“Flow” is a recently studied experience that is basic to all creative activity. Flow means losing yourself in doing something. For example, when you are exercising, at a certain point you forget about yourself and your surroundings and totally focus on running, playing basketball or hitting the tennis ball back. Flow also happens when talking with a good friend or playing the piano or just staring at a sunset. Flow is the constructive channeling of mental energy into a concentrated activity. You cannot create without it.
To have a creative class, then, means setting up activities that help students get into flow. That could be listening, writing, talking or even possibly grammar but always an activity that flows without worries like, “Am I making a mistake?” The creative conditions can be set up by the teacher, and encouraged, explained and practiced. Students can do this on their own, too, inside or outside of class. Any artist or craftsperson knows the importance of flow to their work. If English classes had more flow, motivation and persistence would increase immediately. Flow involves following curiosity without stopping or worrying. It is a pleasure, too.
Secondly, creativity involves an awareness of larger patterns. Grammar is one way to think of patterns, but as students learn, other patterns become important. Students have to think in abstract ways, make connections, accept complexity, untangle paradoxes and find new ways to solve problems. All of these activities are not at the level of grammar rules, but far above them. What happens too often is the grammar pattern becomes the final end of the class, not the means to another end such as communication, expression, or understanding. English grammar patterns should lead to other larger patterns of thinking.
Larger patterns are creative because they involve thinking about issues outside of language itself by using language in new and interesting ways. Someone making pottery on a wheel must know the basic rules and techniques to get the clay to even stand up, but from there, the basic pattern is used, and not used, to form new and interesting shapes. Creativity uses structures as input, but does not aim for structure as output. You learn a grammar rule not to just have it, but to do something else with it.
A creative attitude is also important. Helping students to develop a creative mindset allows students to be more comfortable with uncertainty and more dynamic with language. Perfection is possible with grammar, but never with creativity. So, students need to be curious and bold to follow new, fresh directions. They should be allowed to try out English in different ways and to ask lots of questions. Uncertainty should not be avoided, but explored with confidence. Room to make mistakes and support to find solutions to those mistakes lies at the heart of the creative mindset. Little by little, the creative mindset helps to create creative minds.
The creative attitude is actually very practical, because there is no easy way to change textbooks, curriculums, entrance exam system and educational structures. However, there is a way to change the priorities of any classroom. By creating conditions that encourage creativity, English classrooms will help students learn English more broadly and more deeply. The creative mind is one that will keep learning on its own, long after the bell has rung, the test is over and schooling has finished. Creativity is what carries English out into the world where it lives and breathes.
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