Creativity in English as a Foreign Language Teaching to Young Learners in Georgian Public Schools

Abstract

Creativity is increasingly becoming an important part in the field of education. Creative teaching is crucial both in life and in teaching and learning a language. This paper sheds light on the significance of integrating creativity in English as a Foreign Language Teaching, as it develops learners’ creative thinking skills, which are so valued in the 21^st century. Comparing to private schools in Georgia, public schools lack creativity in English Language Teaching. Both teachers and students are not sufficiently encouraged to be creative in their learning and teaching. Therefore, the goal of the paper is to raise awareness among ELT teachers concerning the significance of creativity in EFL classroom. A survey was carried out in Georgian public schools in Tbilisi among EFL teachers. The quantitative study reveals the current situation in Georgian public schools in terms of creativity. Namely, 75% of teachers agree that creativity plays a crucial role in EFL teaching, which reveals that theoretically they are aware of this notion but the picture of practical application of it in their teaching is different as only 41.67% of them sometimes engage their students in the creative activities that leads learners to be less engaged in creative activities. Moreover, 20.83% of participants are aware of the significance of creating autonomous learning environment and exploring unusual uses of objects to turn them into effective teaching material in order to implement creativity in their teaching. Besides that, there are some factors which restrain teachers’ creativity. The study shows that some changes are needed to encourage, English as a foreign language, teachers to be creative in order to make both teaching and learning more effective, interesting and engaging.

Key words: English as a Foreign Language Teaching, creativity, supporting factors, suppressing factors

The research results

The primary objective of this research was to explore the notion of creativity in public schools of Tbilisi, Georgia. As it is more or less new in the field of Education in Georgian context, especially in public schools, the research aimed to increase the awareness among ELT teachers on the effectiveness of creativity in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teaching in Georgian Public Schools. Comparing to private schools, teachers engage their students in creative activities and the students are more often encouraged to be creative, as the private schools provide more opportunities and better environment to bring creativity into reality. Georgian public schools lack creativity in EFL teaching and this quantitative study reveals the current situation in Georgian public schools in terms of creativity.

How do you perceive creativity in English as a Foreign Language Teaching? (you can tick more than one) Creativity in English as a Foreign Language Teaching is:

Figure 1. Perception of creativity in EFL teaching

 More than half of the respondents,54.17%,perceived creativity in EFL teaching as designing teaching methodology by teachers themselves, adapting the course book materials in order to present it in a new way and preparing students as a whole person for outside the classroom. On the other hand, 50% believed that creativity means being engaged in mental processes to produce creative methods of teaching. For 41.67% responders, it is associatedwith implementing some activities which promote creativity and an imaginative activity to produce outcomes that are both original and valuable.37.50% of them thought that this is a skill which can be learnt.Only 33.33% of the responders perceived creativity as teaching beyond the curriculum and  20.83% believed that being involved in the change of current curriculum is creativity, which could mean that only minority of the teachers value making some necessary changes in the curriculum by themselves. For 12.50%  it is  a rare talent.According to this result, it could be concluded that the teachers in Georgian public schools are aware of the notion of creativity and the perception of it differs from teachers to teachers.

Which factors suppress/discourage the English language teachers' creativity in your context? (You can tick more than one applicable choice):

Figure 2.Teachers’ opinions about EFL teacher suppressing/discouraging factors

There are a number of factors which suppress/discourage creativity in EFL teachers in Georgian public schools. These factors are analyzed based on the collected data. According to 75% of the research participants, negative relationship with learners restrains their creativity. Another suppressing factor for 62.50% of the respondents is the students’ negative feedback to teacher’s methods. In the third place according to 41.67% of the teachers, the suppressing factors are lack of the appreciation by the head teacher or the principal and lack of teaching aids as well. 33.33% of the respondents consider the teacher’s fear of mistakes in the language use and in the teaching methods used as one of the discouraging factors to their creativity. Only 29.17% think that setting some limitations to teachers in terms of implementing something new, self-motivation and curriculum limitations are factors which suppress their creativity in their context. 20.83% of the teachers responded that extra tasks outside the classroom restrain their creativity. Supportive learning environment is considered to be one of the suppressing factors by 16.67%. Other factors such as challenging working environment, cooperative relationship with other teachers and students’ academic achievement in English language learning are chosen as the discouraging factors by 8.33%.Only minority, 4.17% of the respondents, consider the teachers’ confidence in the language teaching method he/she is using, the teachers’ self-development purposes, the suitable curriculum and availability of teaching aids as the factors which discourages them to be creative.

How often do you engage your students in the creative activities in English Language Classroom?

Figure 3. The frequency of students’ engagement in the creative activities 

Teachers were asked about the frequency of creative activities they implemented in their classrooms and consequently engaged the learners. This chart shows the lack of practical application of creativity in their teaching by EFL teachers in Georgian public schools. Only 41.67% of the respondents sometimes engaged their students in the creative activities in English Language classroom that leads learners to be less engaged in creative activities. On the other hand, 33.33% of them often involve learners in the creative activities. The number of teachers who regularly engage their students in such activities are really low, as merely 16.67% of the participants attempt to be creative in their everyday classroom practice in order to involve students in the creative activities. 8.33% of the teachers responded that they engaged their learners in the creative activities once a month. Less engagement in the creative activities could be caused by those suppressing factors which teachers named above. The result shows that awareness among ELT teachers on the effectiveness of implementing creativity in EFL teaching should be increased in order to make them apply the creative activities more often in their teaching practice.

Conclusion

  The paper discussed how creativity facilitates the young learners to master the target language. There were discussions about the young learners learning preferences in the language acquisition process, as they favor the physical activities and natural learning environment. Furthermore, the paper outlined those key factors which promote creativity in EFL classroom. They were presented and discussed with their importance. Teaching materials as one of the promoting factors should be viewed as the product that can be modified in accordance with the learners’ needs and interests. Besides, it presented other necessary factors promoting creativity; these were the focus on learners, personal traits, environment, freedom and clarity. As stated in the paper, if we want to develop a good learning environment in the classroom, we need to establish an appropriate relationship with our students, as creating a positive rapport is a good foundation for both teachers’ and students’ creativity. The paper also suggested several essential personal traits of a creative ELT professional. Being spontaneous, self-confident, determined and having the sense of belonging are the characteristics of the creative individual. The absence of those personal traits discourages creativity. One of the promoting factors to creativity in EFL classroom, discussed in this paper was environment. There were discussions concerning the types of environment, the physical and the relational. Both were considered as the important elements in supporting the teachers’ and the learners’ creativity. Moreover, giving a freedom or autonomy and making clear to ELT teachers what is required from them to do were pointed out to have the impact on the teachers’ creativity. As discussed in the paper, some restrictions create a barrier to the teachers’ creativity that is why the teachers input in designing the plans and curriculum were considered as necessary elements. To sum up, the primary goal of this paper was to raise awareness in ELT teachers concerning the importance of creativity in EFL classroom and to provide some promoting factors as well as practical ideas how this could be achieved, in order to facilitate ELT teachers to establish EFL classroom environment in which creativity flourishes.

Recommendations

Based on the research result, it is recommended for English language teachers in Georgian public schools to apply more creative activities in their teaching in order to assist their students to master the language in more interesting and engaging way. It is also advisable for the head teachers or the principals to encourage their English language teachers to be creative through providing them with all necessary teaching aids/materials. Since creativity has become a significant not only in art or music but also in educational domain, much focus should be given by the Ministry of Education of Georgia if both teachers and students are encouraged to be creative in public schools. The training for ELT teachers in public schools would be helpful in order to gain knowledge about various new approaches and methods of teaching as well as to practice the implementation of teaching materials in a new way. The training could be held even by private school teachers, which will help public school teachers to raise their awareness on the effectiveness of creativity in teaching through sharing their experiences and creative ideas.

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