MY TEACHING APPROACH
CREATIVITY AND MOTIVATION IN A FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOM
THE ROL OF SOCIAL MEDIA
By Paz Cabo
How do second language learners approach the creativity which is so natural in everyday language? This paper will look at the connection between creativity and motivation in foreign language acquisition and the rol of social media in learning languages.
But let´s speak first about teaching principles and approaches, and methodologies. For centuries learning foreign languages was synonymous with learning classical languages, Latin, Greek or Hebrew. The Grammar Translation Method (GTM) which emphasis falls on reading and writing is hardly communicative, doesn’t use listening or speaking and consider grammar first. Although boring, is quite effective, over all for shy people.
From the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries other languages began to be taught, with a strong influence of Latin. Berlitz seeks to develop active oral interaction in the target language. It has a French origin, and the students learn faster than usual. This methodology focuses on conversation, vocabulary and grammar. Some objections against are the size of groups (too big) and difficult for shy people.
Later, World War II demanded the need for a rapid learning of languages and thus the American military forces received the help of expert structuralist linguists, such as Charles Fries, whose method came to be known as audiolingual method. Some of its characteristics were an emphasis on the oral aspect, dialogues, and learning of contextualized structures. Although competitive, was very specific target.
The generative-transformational school questioned the audiolingual method because of its emphasis on mechanical practice and, despite not offering any method of innovative character, the Chomsky´s theory together with the theory of cognitive learning gave a great boost to the studies of psycholinguistics, the acquisition of languages, semantics and a basis for pragmatics.
The silent way in which the teacher is in silent and student speak and use self-correction, is an approach focused on phonemes and pronunciation.
In 1979 the psychologist Georgi Lozanovi develops sugestopedia, based on the theory that the human brain could process a large amount of information if certain conditions of learning were given, one of which would be the state of relaxation and suggestion stimulated by the teacher. Music is the main resource used, in addition to the ambience of the place (decoration, lighting), and the presentation of dialogues, vocabulary, readings, roles and dramatization. Some features can be used in our creative classroom. We can use jazz music and a relaxed atmosphere if the right conditions are given (unfortunately it does not always happen) and we need to adapt our classes to our resources.
And finally, the school called PPR and based on body language had the problem of being not attractive for some people who is unable to connect properly, however is very positive if the teacher works with kids.
The behaviorism was born in the 1950s and stated that people learn by modifying behaviour patterns (this is where Paulov´s dog come in). This method doesn’t work for everybody.
In the 1960s the predominant approach was Cognitivism focused on inner mental activities (thinking, memory, problem-solving), which works well and better with kids.
The following and last theory is Constructivism already practiced by Socrates and Kant. It has been massively influenced by Jean Piaget and Lev Vigotsky and has found a wide acceptance since the early 1980s.This theory places emphasis on prior knowledge, skills, beliefs or concepts. Learning would be an active process of constructing knowledge more than acquiring it. It is a good method for adult students.
There are many factors to learning, such as emotional states and personality (the main one! great communication, sociability, confidence); the environment (the country, place, bar, school, office); motivation (debates for teenagers and competitions for adults or games for both); opportunity (incomes, wealthy people…).
I would like to mention the interlanguage (between two languages), so important in learning because the teacher can anticipate to student´s issues.
Teachers should adapt their approach to teaching different levels, ages and specific proposes. In my case, I am focused on adults and specific purposes under a creative focus based on Arts, emotional inputs and approaches such as Suggestopedia.
Working with a strict syllabus can be a challenge for some teachers but applying imagination and creativity can be effective and fun. For long time language teachers have looked for the quickest, best and efficient way to teach languages. There is not a best method. But creativity can be a good way towards making the teaching practice more effective and enjoyable.
Creativity can be defined as a bunch of skills for creating new and useful ideas. When thinking of creativity, some genius come to our memory, such as Leonardo, Hawkings or Einstein but creativity can be found in our everyday life.
Why is creativity so important in the classroom? Creativity is appreciated by the students. They appreciate an original, and creative teacher. Some of us conceive the language class as a work of art because implies a creative process. Of course there are different learning experiences, backgrounds, different degrees of motivation, intelligences and cognitive processes. And many times different creative approaches fail to engage students precisely by the diverse cognitive and emotional student´s needs. However, a good creative teacher knows how motívate them and get them closer to the creative teaching.
It is not something easy to be creative in class. You need to be extremely patient. Being creative means to go out of the box and to think that there is no success without failing. So keep going!
One of the obstacles that teachers can find is the lack of communication with students. Not the lack of linguistic understanding, but the lack of motivation. When the student stops enjoying learning the teacher usually stops enjoying teaching, which worsens the learning process, becoming a vicious circle since the student immediately realizes it. Sometimes this situation is determined by the materials that we use - inaccurate, boring - or the lack of connection between them and their own reality. The problem is that each student and each group of students are different so the teacher should have a resource cabinet to deal with all these situations. In this sense, there are many and varied materials on which we can base our creative classes: music, poetic or literary texts, theater or advertising itself, without forgetting the social networks as we can be aware of.
Creativity is associated with other values to empower us as human beings, such as resilience, motivation, empathy, sociability, assertiveness, etc. Creativity is closely linked to emotions. In this sense Howard Gardner's theory of multiple intelligences has given rise to a new pedagogical paradigm. And in this point I would like to mention to the great Sir Ken Robinson and his new educational paradigm based on talents and creativity. The Howard Gardner´s theory of multiple intelligences (linguistic-verbal, logical-mathematical, spatial-visual, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal, and existential), has numerous benefits. Some of them would be to respond to new educational needs, address the diversity of students, assess the different skills, and openness to creativity, art and cultural competencies.
Many of our students are digital natives, that´s why social media is a great tool for language teaching. From my view there is a huge potential of webs for language learning and online resources can be a viable and great alternative to textbooks or at least a great help. Many webs use self-study materials accessible on mobile and tablet to let learners to get involved in a spoken language environment. But there is still one area that remains virtually untouched by teachers: social media. Some teachers have used them but we should use better the opportunities that social media gives for sharing experiences, tips, games or practicing language skills. Sometimes we cannot appreciate the power of social media and we are probably missing a lot of opportunities. Many of our institutions are provided with good computers, Power point, electronic whiteboards and iPads. But do we realize about its potential as a language learning tool?
In order to implement social media strategies in a creative language classroom and as an important part of my creative and motivational class, I would engage my students on these social media steps:
