A CREATIVE APPROACH TO LANGUAGE TEACHING. A WAY TO RECOGNISE, ENCOURAGE AND APPRECIATE STUDENTS' CONTRIBUTIONS TO LANGUAGE CLASSES

Аннотация

This article explores the Creative Approach to Language Teaching (CALT), a methodology developed and successfully implemented at Masaryk University Language Centre. The approach recognizes students’ existing knowledge and diverse skills, encouraging their active contributions to language learning. By emphasizing creativity as an innate skill, it engages learners in real- life communication scenarios, fostering problem-solving, collaboration, and self- expression. The article also discusses the advantages of student-generated sources, highlighting how students can select learning materials, improve autonomy, and enhance critical thinking skills. This approach redefines the teacher’s role as a facilitator rather than a provider of knowledge, creating a dynamic and interactive learning environment. Key Words:Creative Approach to Language Teaching (CALT), student- generated materials, problem-solving in language learning, creativity in ELT, collaborative learning, real-life communication, autonomous learning. In this extract, Libor Stepanek presents 'The creative approach to language teaching', which has been developed, tested and successfully implemented at Masaryk University Language Centre. https://scientific-jl.com/luch/ 4 4 0 Часть-41_ Том-21_ Март-2025 Here is the fourth extract from the latest British Council publication 'Creativity in the English Language classroom' edited by Alan Maley and Nik Peachey. In this chapter, Libor Stepanek presents an approach which has been developed, tested and successfully implemented at Masaryk University Language Centre. 'The approach is primarily used by university teachers but it could also be used by teachers and teacher trainers in all types of schools for all levels of language learners. Its main aim is to invite teachers to recognise and value the existing knowledge and the diverse skills language learners bring with them, and to encourage learners’ contributions to language classes. Theoretical background Creativity is a complex field studied and discussed from many different perspectives. This is one of the reasons why there is no generally accepted definition and we always have to be aware of the point of view we take in defining creativity. The Creative Approach to Language Teaching is an approach that presents creativity as one of our many innate skills, a talent that every person, and every language learner has. This approach focuses on the idea that we all can enjoy the potential to be creative under certain conditions; that we all abound with many different forms and levels of creativity and that it is the teacher’s task to stimulate the creative potential in students. https://scientific-jl.com/luch/ 4 4 1 Часть-41_ Том-21_ Март-2025 Language teachers have three advantages that can help stimulate creativity in students. First, language is creative in its very nature. We can express or communicate one idea in many different ways. Furthermore, every expressed or communicated idea can provoke many different reactions. Every single sentence, phrase or word we say or write is created in a unique moment of communication and can be re- created, re-formulated, paraphrased or changed according to the goals of the speaker or writer. Second, language classes are not limited by any specialised subject or knowledge. Language teachers can, therefore, build their lessons on topics related to sport, management, law or philosophy and still focus on language. This is why a community-of-practice setting, where students and teachers share their individual types of expertise and knowledge, can be more easily established. And third, language classes can easily engage students in creative situations. By creative situations we mean close-to-reality situations in which students do not use well-known and practised steps that can be applied almost automatically in order to achieve one correct solution to a problem. In creative situations, students have to produce one or more answers to a series of inter-connected problems. They do not know what steps can be used to solve a problem, they may not be sure if the problem has one solution, a wide range of possible solutions or if it has any solution at all. Students simply do not encounter clear-cut situations that can result only in “succeed-fail” or “correct-incorrect” solutions, rather they face unclear situations with unclear and tentative solutions. Sometimes, even the setting of a situation or instructions can require a certain level of interpretation. Since language usage represents a form of communication that can be used in almost every situation, authenticity or reality-close situations can be created more easily than in classes of chemistry or history, for example. https://scientific-jl.com/luch/ 4 4 2 Часть-41_ Том-21_ Март-2025 To sum up, the Creative Approach to Language Teaching, which is based on the idea that any student can be creative when they are engaged in creative situations, shows students the complexity of a lang