What happens when What happens when students do creative students do creative

writing?writing?

What happens when What happens when students do creative students do creative

writing?writing?Tan Bee TinTan Bee Tin

Dept of Applied Language Studies and LinguisticsDept of Applied Language Studies and LinguisticsThe University of Auckland, New ZealandThe University of Auckland, New Zealand

Email: Email: tb.tin@auckland.ac.nztb.tin@auckland.ac.nz8th Asian Teacher-Writers conference on creative writing8th Asian Teacher-Writers conference on creative writing, , PPPPTK PPPPTK

Bahasa, Jarkata, IndonesiaBahasa, Jarkata, Indonesia, , 6-7 November6-7 November, , 20092009 .  . 

Background

A project in Indonesia: ‘Investigating the language

learning opportunities created through creative writing tasks in EFL classrooms’

ParticipantsA group of Indonesian students (with the

help of local teachers)

DataCreative writing tasks (short poems)Recordings of their performance

(discussions, think aloud)Post-writing interviews

Two poetry writing tasks:

Acrostics Similes

Task 1: Acrostics

RICE

Task 1: Acrostics

RICE

Really ImportantCrop toEat

(Alan)

Task for you!JOY

Rules1. every line must start with the letter2. the whole poem must be related to

the key word ‘Joy’

JOY

JumpOut ofYour sorrow

Just thinkingOfYou

Jar of amazing feelingOvercoming sadnessYou should get it

Jingle bells of the ringOpening the Christmas day and Your life has begun

Jovial andOutstanding feeling inYour life

Jump for itOr singing for itYet before you lose

JustOpenYour eyes

Phase 2- June 2008

1. Writing acrostic poems (pair work)

SCHOOL, TEACHER, HOLIDAY, JOY

Task 2: similes

Writing similes (pair work)

‘Our teacher is like ……’ ‘Our friend is like …….’

Task 2: SimilesMy little brother is like the pepper flower.He makes me laugh.He jumps out at me, in the field, with a red hat.

Spiro (2004: 52)

My father is like a rock.His chin is sharp.He looks at me from the top of a

mountain.He is very old.

Spiro (2004: 52)

Task for you!Our teacher is like ………………………………………………………………….………………………………………………….………………………………………………….

Our friend is like …………………………………………………………………….……………………………………………………………………………………………………

Tree Flower (rose, jasmine, etc) Lake River Stone Mountain Ice Sand A leaf Fruit: an orange, a mango, etc Road Rock (or any other words related to ‘nature’)

Qs for you!

What do you think are the differences between the acrostic task and the simile task in terms of:

1. the quality of language (product) students produce?

2. the process students go through?

Nature of tasksAcrosticsRule-based task

Formal constraintSemantic constraint

SimilesImagination-foregrounded

Fore-grounds the imaginary situation (Imagine A is B) Fore-grounds discourse (give two reasons)

Q1: The quality of language (product)

Happy day in Our Life andImportant DayAfter testYes! It’s holiday!

Holiday is anOccasional day to Look for a new Idea that makes ourDay brighter than theActivity that we didYesterday

Our friend is like an orangeShe always freshes usShe is stubborn when unripeBut wiser when ripe

Our friend is like fruitsShe can be sweet like a mangoShe can be ‘asam’ like a strawberryBut she is very kind

Interpretations:Which shows more complex

language (complexity of language)? Acrostics or Similes?

Which shows more surprising/novel ideas (transformation of ideas)?

Acrostics or Similes?

My interpretations:Which shows more complex

language (complexity of language)? Acrostics

Which shows more surprising/novel ideas (transformation of ideas)?

Acrostics

Different approaches to creativity

The product approach (characteristics of creative products)

The process approach (thinking involved in creative tasks)

The linguistic approach (language play)

The product approach• ‘the ability to come up with new ideas that are

surprising yet intelligible, and also valuable in some way’ (Boden 2001)

• transformation, surprise (Amabile 1996)

Torrance and colleagues:• fluency (quantity of ideas produced), • flexibility (variety or number of different responses), • originality (uniqueness or statistical infrequency of

ideas produced), • elaboration (refining or adding details to ideas to make

them richer or more complete) (Ball and Torrance 1984).

The linguistic approach

Creativity as a form of language play (Carter 2004)

Two levels: form, meaning (Cook 2000).

Language play at the formal level

• involves manipulating textual features such as words, syntactic patterns

e.g. ‘jar of amazing feeling’e.g. ‘Our teacher is like a loud

speaker.’

Language play at the semantic level

• combines different units of meaning in unfamiliar ways to construct an imaginary world (Cook 2000), to transform our current conceptual world.

The process approachExamines the process experienced in a creative task. Two thinking types (Finke 1996) Chaotic thinking:• Spontaneous and divergent, focusing mainly on

occurrences of the moment and exploring novel alternatives without specific plans or goals.

• involves the natural emergence of structure from complexities.

Ordered thinking:• generates new ideas through purposefully analysing

and extending existing ideas. • The structure is imposed and complexity is reduced.

Language play language learning

Playful creative language helps to stretch and destabilize learners’ interlanguage (Tarone 2000)

  

Q2: The process (types of thinking)

An acrostic (SCHOOL) written by Susan (female) and Dita (female) in pair. The task takes about 6 minutes.

Study hard andCompetition with other student to getHigh grade are ourObligation to makeOur parentsLove us

*S: S ..C .. H ..O .. O .. L …*D: S ... S nya apa ya? {what does ‘S’ stand for?} ..(….)*S: study hard*D: study or study hard? *S: study hard ….study hard …C ..*D: C … *S: competitive …eh…competitive …*D: C nya? {what about the ‘C’}*S: ni coba kompetisi {what about using competition?} ((sound of

flipping through pages, checking the word in the dictionary))*D: kompetisi {competition} …. hmm …ya wis lah kompetisi. {okay,

competition is okay} (….)*S: competition .. H ..*D: high ...*S: high grade …*D: high quality or high grade?*S: high quality? … high? ...*D: terserah kamu aja lah {it is all up to you} …ya grade … O

Study hardCompetitionHigh GradeOOL

{ } = translation addedaaa = L1 (Indonesian)aaa = L1 (Javanese)aaa = L2 (English)

*S: O ….*D: O ((flipping through the dictionary)) …… obligation … kewajiban {obligation} *S: obligation itu apa sih? {what is obligation?}*D: kewajiban ((laugh)) ...*S: obligation ya ndak papa lah {obligation is okay} ((laugh)) … obligation … study hard … competition ... study hard .. disambungke bisa loh {they can be connected} … study hard and competition with ..each other.. to get high grade.. that is our obligation ((laugh))…eh…bisa nggak sih? {is it possible?} *D: mhm nggak papa {yes,it’s okay}*S: study hard …and competition …with …other students …to get ..high grade … are ..our.. obligation ((reading as writing)) *S: jadi kalo diartike belajar giat dan berkompetisi dengan murid lain untuk mendapat nilai yang lebih tinggi adalah kewajiban kita, terus O-ne lagi apa? {it can be translated as studying hard and competing with other students is our obligation, what about the other O?} (….)*S: study hard and competition with other students to get high grade .. are .. our ..obligation ((reading out))…

Study hard andCompetition with other student to getHigh grade are ourObligationOL

*D: ((flipping through pages)) apa yah? {what is it?} *S: ini aja, apa namane {this one} hard competition with other students to get high grade are our obligation ((reading out the lines written so far)) …errr… to ..make.. our.. parent ((reading as writing)) …*D: L e opo? {what about the ‘L’?} ...*S: mhm happy ((laugh)) happy kok ..L {how can happy start with an L?}

*D: L kok {it is L} L…L…L ….. L nya {the L} ….. tak bukakin {let me open the dictionary} ((laugh)) … *S: ((laugh)) … ini loh {here it is} ((laugh)) L ... Oh! Oh! ((sounds excited)) to make our parents love … us ((laugh)) … *D: ((laugh)) <x>*S: study hard and competition with other students to get high grade are our obligation to make our parents love us ((reading out)) … terus apa? {what is next?} .. ‘teacher’? ...

Study hard andCompetition with other student to getHigh grade are ourObligation to makeOur parentsLove us

A simile about ‘our teacher’ written by Susan and Dita in pair. It takes about 3 minutes to write this simile.

Our teacher is like stoneBecause they haveHard heart andBig soul

*S: our teacher…it’s your turn ... giliranmu {your turn} *D: ((laugh)) our teacher is like …*S: tree or flower, lake, river, stone, mountain ((reading the list of

objects provided)) *D: mountain *S: why? …*D: because … it’s huge ((laugh)) ..*S: not everyone…not every teacher …*D: not every teacher … like mountain … mhm … *S: don’t have idea ((laugh)) …*D: apa toh? apa toh?{what is it? what is it?}… or any other words

related to teacher? …*S: we can choose another word …*D: our teacher is like apa {what}…flower? …*S: why?... flower…flower …*D: flowers*S: flowers mhm ….. skip it … our friend first ((the pair skip to the

second smile))

*D: our teacher is like …*S: like what? like tree.. flower? …*D: stone *S: stone? … because it’s hard ((laugh))… our teacher is like a stone because … *D: melambangkan guru itu kaku {symbolizing that teacher is stiff} *S: our teacher …because…mhm...but it kaku {stiff} ((laugh)) ...*D: our teacher is like a stone gitu aja lah {just like that} because .. because…every … every teacher …. have ….heart .. apa {what} memiliki hati yang keras {has hard heart} ((laugh)) *S: ((laugh)) have a hard heart ((laugh)) … it is difficult to say… because they have hard [heart] *D: [hard heart]*S: ((laugh)) and .. they are … jiwa {soul}*D: jiwa {soul} …what the meaning? …*S: hard soul ….. is like a stone … because .. they have ..hard heart ..and ((reading as writing)) …*D: jiwa yang besar gitu aja lah {big soul, that’s it} *S: big soul ..

Our teacher is like stoneBecause they haveHard heart andBig soul

Emergentist perspectives of language learning

Language is dynamic, changing as we use it (Larsen-Freeman 2006).

Linguistic signs are ‘continually created to meet new needs and circumstances’ (Toolan 2003).

InterpretationsWhich involves more chaotic thinking?Which involves more language play

(playing with words, sentence structure, shaping and transforming L2)?

Which would be more useful for language learning?

Acrostics or similes?

My interpretations:Which involves more chaotic thinking?Which involves more language play

(playing with words, sentence structure, shaping and transforming L2)?

Which would be more useful for language learning?

Acrostics

Acrostics vs SimilesConceptual systems (ideas) are activated through L2 directly, then translated into L1.

Concepts are first retrieved in L1 then translated into L2.

*S: study hard …and competition …with …other students …to get ..high grade … are ..our.. obligation

*S: jadi kalo diartike belajar giat dan berkompetisi dengan murid lain untuk mendapat nilai yang lebih tinggi adalah kewajiban kita, terus O-ne lagi apa? {it can be translated as studying hard and competing with other students is our obligation, what about the other O?}

------------------------------vs.----------------------------------

*D: our teacher is like a stone gitu aja lah {just like that} because .. because…every … every teacher …. have ….heart .. apa {what} memiliki hati yang keras {has hard heart} ((laugh))

*S: ((laugh)) have a hard heart

Acrostics vs SimilesConceptual systems (ideas) are activated through L2 directly, then translated into L1.

Concepts are first retrieved in L1 then translated into L2.

L2 forms co-evolve with meaning. Collision of form, meaning and mind

L2 forms lag behind meaning.

Excessive L1 use may hinder opportunities for the destabilisation of learners’ L2.

Acrostics create more opportunities for L2 making and L2 creativity, requiring learners to construct meaning through L2 directly.

Not all play tasks may promote language play and modification and stretching of learner language.

While acrostics (rule-foregrounded tasks) lead students into uncharted waters, shaping and reshaping language in dispreferred, unprecedented ways, similes lead to stepping in well-trodden waters, shaping language in more preferred, predictable ways.

The formal constraints in acrostics contribute to the emergence of more complex language while similes, possessing looser formal rules, result in less complex language.

constraints rather than freedom more chaotic thinking and creativity.

‘creative thinking is made possible by constraints’ (Boden 2004: 233)

‘the ‘freedom’ of creative thought is not the absence of constraints, but their imaginative – yet disciplined – development.’ (Boden 2001: 102).

Better understanding of the processes learners encounter and the language they produce in different play tasks will help teachers to design more effective play tasks.

More research is needed to understand the nature of affordances offered by various play tasks.

More investigations are needed which analyse the transcripts of learners’ interaction in play tasks and the language they produce.

AcknowledgmentsThe study is part of a project funded by

the University of Auckland. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to students who participated in the study. My special thanks to Dra Ristiyanti Prasctijo, Debora Tri Ragawanti, Christine Manara and all the other teachers for their help during my data collection in Indonesia.