The Educational Interrelation of Narrative Creativity and Written Expression Dimensions as an Innovative and Didactic Process in Learning a Foreign Language

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to analyze the impact of narrative creativity on the subject of written foreign languages in secondary school students. A quasi-experimental longitudinal study was conducted with 117 students of 14–15 years of age in two secondary schools in Andalusia (Spain) with experimental and control groups. The tools used were a writing expression analysis tool designed by the authors and the Creative Imagination for Youngsters Test (Prueba de Imaginación Creativa para Jóvenes, PIC-J). The results showed that the participants of the experimental groups improved in terms of the originality and usage of variables of imaginary elements. We also found gender differences—in favor of female students—in the experimental groups in terms of foreign language improvement during the study. Finally, there was a slight interrelation of students with higher narrative creativity showing greater improvements in their written expression skills.

How Does the Optimism of Students Learning a Foreign Language Affect Their Creative Self-Efficacy? The Mediating Effects of Hope and Empathy

“…Creativity plays a key role in the process of learning a foreign language (FL), and successful FL learners (i.e., bilingual and multilingual learners) have to be highly creative because they must switch frequently between languages, and use reasoning skills and flexible thinking to make connections between the abstract and the symbolic ( Cummins, 1976 ; Adesope et al, 2010 ) and combine acquired expressions in creative ways ( Chomsky, 2002 ). Moreover, as a tool to increase cultural sustainability, creativity enhances cognitive flexibility and enables FL learners to better understand different cultures and values, thus contributing to improved competence in intercultural communication ( Portnova et al, 2020 ). In recent years, creative learning activities—represented by creative writing and group problem-solving tasks—have been increasingly promoted in modern FL teaching ( Tin, 2010 ; McDonough et al, 2015 ), thereby requiring FL learners to use their imagination and creative thinking.…”

“…In addition, it has been demonstrated that there is a positive correlation among many positive psychological factors in FL learners ( Chen et al, 2019 ), but their interactions still need to be clarified further ( Chen and Padilla, 2019 ). Given the important role of creativity in FLL ( Portnova et al, 2020 ), the present study takes positive emotions (optimism, hope, empathy) and CSE as the object of study and aims to present the interrelationship among these positive psychological factors.…”

Specific Domains of Creativity and Their Relationship with Intelligence: A Study in Primary Education

“…General creativity is the sum of creativity in its narrative and graphic domain [20]. Narrative creativity is the value of divergent thinking in the resolution of problems with verbal content, while graphic creativity is applied to non-verbal problems [21].…”