DEVELOPING CREATIVE WRITING:BENEFITS AND TECHNIQUES

Lyudmyla  Lysenko ( Kirovohrad, Ukraine )

Creative writing is an important element in students overall learning experience. It is also a part of our professional development as educators and teachers. Creativity, be it in writing or in any other project, does not come from the void and we are not born  creative minds. There are mechanisms for developing creativity and fostering imagination. Creative writing normally refers to the production of texts which have an aesthetic rather than a purely informative, instrumental or pragmatic purpose. Most often, such texts take the form of poems or stories, though they are not confined to these genres. (Letters, journal entries, blogs, essays, travelogues, etc. can also be more or less creative.) In fact, the line between creative writing (CW) and expository writing (ER) is not carved in stone. In general, however CW texts draw more heavily on intuition, close observation, imagination, and personal memories than ER texts.  

One of the chief distinguishing characteristics of CW texts is a playful engagement with language, stretching and testing its rules to the limit in a guilt-free atmosphere, where risk is encouraged. Such writing combines cognitive with affective modes of thinking. The playful element in CW should not, however be confused with a lax and unregulated use of language. On the contrary, CW requires a willing submission on the part of the writer to the ‘rules’ of the sub-genre being undertaken. If you want to write a Limerick, then you have to follow the rules governing limericks. If not, what you produce will be something other than a limerick: obvious, perhaps, but important too. The interesting thing is that the very constraints which the rules impose seem to foster rather than restrict the creativity of the writer. This apparent paradox is explained partly by the deeper processing of thought and language which the rules require [3].

What are the benefits of CW for learners? 

• CW aids language development at all levels: grammar, vocabulary, phonology and discourse. It requires learners to manipulate the language in interesting and demanding ways in attempting to express uniquely personal meanings. In doing so, they necessarily engage with the language at a deeper level of processing than with most expository texts. [4, p.671-675]
• As mentioned above, a key characteristic of CW is a willingness to play with the language. Such playfulness survives into adulthood, so that many social encounters are characterized by language play (punning, spontaneous jokes, ‘funny voices’, metathesis, and a discourse which is shaped by quasi-poetic repetition [5]. These are precisely the kinds of things learners are encouraged to do in CW activities. This playful element encourages them to play creatively with the language, and in so doing, to take the risks without which learning cannot take place in any profound sense. 
• Much of the teaching we do tends to focus on the left side of the brain, where our logical faculties are said to reside. CW puts the emphasis on the right side of the brain, with a focus on feelings, physical sensations, intuition and musicality. This is a healthy restoration of the balance between logical and intuitive faculties. It also affords scope for learners whose hemisphere dominance or learning-style preferences may not be intellectual or left brain dominant, and who, in the normal process of teaching are therefore at a disadvantage. 
• Learners also tend to discover things for themselves about the language… and about themselves too, thus promoting personal as well as linguistic growth. Inevitably, these gains are reflected in a corresponding growth in positive motivation. Among the conditions for promoting motivation, Dornyei cites:
•  Create a pleasant and supportive atmosphere.
•   Promote the development of group cohesiveness.
• Increase the students’ expectation of success in particular tasks and in learning in general. 
•  Make learning more stimulating and enjoyable by breaking the monotony of classroom events.
•  Make learning stimulating and enjoyable by increasing the attractiveness of tasks.
• Make learning stimulating and enjoyable for learners by enlisting them as active task participants.
• Present and administer tasks in a motivating way.
•  Provide students with regular experiences of success.
• Build your learners’ confidence by providing regular encouragement.
• Increase student motivation by promoting cooperation among the learners.
• Increase student motivation by actively promoting learner autonomy.
• Increase learner satisfaction.[6]

All these conditions are met in a well-run CW class. The exponential increase in motivation is certainly supported by my own experience in teaching CW. Learners suddenly realize that they can write something in a foreign language that has never been written by anyone else before, and which others find interesting to read.

Finally, CW feeds into more creative reading. It is as if, by getting inside the process of creating the texts, learners come to understand intuitively how such texts function, and this makes similar texts easier to read.  Likewise, the development of aesthetic reading skills provides the learner with a better understanding of textual construction, and this feeds into their writing.

To sum up, we conclude that, developing creative skills should be ignored in modern English classroom. Its benefits are myriad, its results often a pleasant surprise. Creative writing opens the door to exploring the world around students. Through creative writing we may find stronger English speakers, and Ukrainian students eager to challenge themselves and their role and place in society.

References

1. Carter, Ronald.  (2004)  Language and creativity: the art of common talk.  London: Routledge.
2. New York: Harper Perennial.
3.  Cook, Guy (2000)  Language Play: Language Learning.  Oxford: Oxford University Press.
4. Craik, F.I.M  and R.S Lockhart   (1972)  ‘Levels of processing: a framework for memory research’  Journal of  Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour.  .
5. Crystal, David (1998) Language Play. London: Penguin
6. Dornyei, Zoltan (2001)  Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press