Instructional Guidance for Promoting Creativity in English as a Foreign Language Writing Classrooms: A Korean Case Study

Abstract

As student creativity is increasingly emphasized in English as a Foreign Language education, it is necessary to consider instructional techniques to encourage it. This study examines the effectiveness of two instructional techniques on creative writing performance of English as a Foreign Language students in a South Korean university. These techniques are variations of brainstorming known as mind mapping and SCAMPER. Survey data from the participants ( n = 39) were analysed to determine which technique resulted in higher levels of perceived creative output (essays). Additionally, a creativity rubric was developed and used to assign analytic scores to the essays to examine the relative benefits of the two techniques for high and low creative ability students. Results show that SCAMPER produced statistically significantly higher levels of perceived creative output. The essays written using SCAMPER generally received higher creativity scores than those written using mind mapping, though this difference was not statistically significant. Finally, results suggest that both techniques may help to narrow the performance gap between high and low creative ability students.

The Role of Teacher-Generated, Learner-Generated, and Creative Content in Chinese EFL Students’ Narrative Writing: A Contextual Perspective

“…In addition to learner agency, the potential for creativity is another task feature that has been found to influence students' L2 performance (Albert and Kormos 2004;Kim et al 2021;Tin 2011). In applied linguistics, creativity can be defined "as the playful use of language to construct new/unknown meanings, transforming one's current linguistic and conceptual world and involving several types of creative thinking" (Tin 2011, p. 216).…”