Abstract
This paper tackles the use of creative writing in teaching English as second language to different levels of learners. The principles and methodology of Developmental Education will be used in the discussion. This includes respecting the learner’s core belief and utilizing his strength and potential. Different genres such as comic writing, alphabet and number book making, poetry, etc. for different levels will be presented. Some suggestions on how to conduct writing activities will be offered. The role of ESL teachers as motivators will be advanced in this paper. Mainly, the thesis that this paper will adhere into is that writing activities should be a fun-filled activities for ESL learners and should not be a heavy task or burden to complete.
Introduction
I want to tell you a story. My story. I grew up with a penchant for creative writing. Even at an early age I knew that writing was what I wanted to do. But I stopped writing for more than fifteen years. For fifteen devastating years.
It started when I was first year in college. I attended a creative writing workshop conducted by an organization of poets in the Philippines. I was asked to read my poem in that workshop. At first, I was proud or happy with my work. I was excited to read it in front of renowned Filipino poets. Yes, I was nervous but I was also excited.
I started reading my poem after giving each participant a copy of it. However, when I finished reading my poem Virgilio Almario who was really famous in Philippine literary circle crampled the copy of my poem which I gave him and threw it in the waste bin saying, “That is not a poem.”
It was very demoralizing for me. I dreaded that incident. In that moment, I formed an idea about myself. An idea that I cannot write. That my writings suck. That I will never be good at it. And so I vowed to myself I will never write again. I was convinced that I should never write again if I don’t want to be scorned.
Now, that incident gave me the idea that the reason why teachers are having difficulty teaching writing to some students is because the latter believes with their whole heart that they cannot write. Students have the tendency to focus on the negative. They have this preconceived notion that they cannot write. Writing is a gargantuan task for them.
Therefore, the role of the teacher here should be of a motivator. An encourager who encourages students to enjoy writing. To tell students that writing is for everyone. Kenneth Bear made a very appropriate statement for this. He said, “Most importantly, by choosing the correct means of correction the teacher can encourage rather discourage students.” (Beare, 1997)
Mostly, ESL students have negative feelings about writing. They have this idea of negativism when it comes to writing task. The first idea that they have when they came upon a writing task is that they cannot do it. Lorch describes this situation of a student writer vividly in his book Basic Writing: A Practical Approach. He said, ´The feeling here are of hopelessness, helplessness, and resignation – in a word, despair. The person feels totally unable to write; he or she views the task of writing impossible. The static that this feeling produces is so loud that the person who has it can barely hear the music.” (Lorch, page 7)
Lorch analyzes the dilemma by positing, “Why do people feel that they can’t write? Perhaps because they had a number of unhappy experiences with writing. A series of unsatisfactory grade on writing assignments can go a long way to convince someone that he or she simply cannot write” (Lorch, page 7)
The aim of this paper is to empower all students in the field of writing through positive reinforcement or encouragement. The a-priori notion that we must have is that writing is for everyone and not only for those who have mastery of that particular tongue. Gill James refutes the notion that Creative Writing is only for people who mastered that particular language. He said, “A learner can be creative with their language when they only have a little to play with. If they do that at the start, when they know more they will also make better use of that. We only have to think of how a child plays more imaginatively with a cardboard box than they do with the latest computer toy to realize this. Less can be in fact become more.” (James, 2007)
Theoretical Framework of Developmental Education
To attain the above objective, it is strategic for us to use the theory of Developmental Education.
What is Developmental Education?
“The National Association for Developmental Education (NADE) has established a working definition for Developmental Education which includes a holistic focus on cognitive and affective development of students, acknowledges a spectrum of learning styles and needs, and promotes an interdisciplinary range of approaches and student services.” (Lundell, page 51)
Developmental Education“…conceives education in the broadest terms, are student-centered, and display ultimate respect for student capabilities and contributions. It focuses on enhancing student skills and potential; fostering creative, flexible, and diverse teaching methods; and elevating the intellectual discussion in the classroom.” (Ghere, page 104)
In Developmental Education we have to see an ESL student-writer as a unique individual capable of being creative in his own way. We look at him and think of his positive traits and make it a starting point in helping him in his holistic development. We focus not on what he cannot do but on what he can do. As Dana Lundell puts it, “Emphasizing a more positive framework for viewing students in their full complexities, not as ‘deficient’”. (Lundell, page 51)
Though Developmental Education does not deny or disregard the vulnerabilities of each ESL Learner. As Ghere said, “…developmental education recognizes the mixture of strengths and vulnerabilities that each student exhibits.”(Ghere, page 104) However, we do not focus on it. We just have to be cognizant of each vulnerability which will help us in understanding the need of each ESL learner.
As we approach each ESL learner we have to see him as a distinct persona with his own experiences, capabilities and meaning. As Lundell puts it, “Developmental Education evolved from “the increasing awareness of the diversity of the students’ educational needs and personal backgrounds” (Lundell, page 50) For that reason, we have to see an ESL learner with his own lens in which he views his world. It is our task to help him describe and express his worldview.
The Idea of Discourse
Proponents of Developmental Education believe that we live through, use and operate from our Discourse. Discourse as defined by James Paul Gee is:
“…a socially accepted association among ways of using language, other symbolic expressions, and “artifacts”, of thinking, feeling, believing, valuing, and acting that can be used to identify oneself as a member of a socially meaningful group or social network, or to signal (that one is playing) a socially meaningful role.” (Lundell, page 55)
For Example, Cambodian believes that it is a no-no for him to show disrespect to a monk. In fact, he has a different way of addressing a monk. If he wants to invite a monk for a meal, he has to say chan bai instead of a customary nyam bai which he uses to invite his friends for a meal.
This comes from his Discourse that each individual has different status. One must show respect to someone with a higher status. He cannot just say nyam bai to an older person or to a teacher. For him the appropriate word to use for an older person is hop bai.
Basically, all of us have our own Discourse. We unconsciously adopt or inherit our Discourse from people who influenced us when we were young. “Our primary Discourse, most typically is the one we acquire at home as children, forms our language, uses and defines for us the basic terms of human interactions”(Lundell, page 55)
We use it in expressing ourselves. It governs our way of speaking, interacting or relating. When an ESL student writes, he operates around his own Discourse. This Discourse is very important for a person. “This primary Discourse gives us, according to Gee, “our initial and often enduring sense of self” (Lundell, page 55) Therefore, as ESL teachers we should respect each ESL student’s Discourse and not impose our own belief and standard.
Developmental Education as Explained Through Constructivist Theory
Developmental Education believes in the capacity of each learner. In fact, the supposition regarding the capability of learners is so concrete that developmental educators believe that teachers can also learn from the learners. This idea is similar with the Constructivist Theory. As Ghere explained, “Constructivist theory posits a much more balanced interaction with knowledge passing from teacher to student, from student to student, and from student to teacher. Likewise, students as well as teachers can be the sources of perspective and analysis.” (Ghere, page 102)
The implication of this is that we as teachers should encourage ESL learners to express and be proud of their ideas, feelings and opinions. We should encourage them to express their thoughts. Our classroom activities should be geared towards students’ participation and these activities should elicit ideas from ESL learners. “Thus, in a constructivist classroom, student experiences and perspectives are valued and teachers specifically develop lessons to elicit and challenge student suppositions.” (Ghere, page 102)
Developmental Education, just like Constructivist Theory, also believes that we must gauge the learning of students not thru exams or tests but thru class dynamics or activities. As each learner progress thru varied class activities his progress is measured not in comparison with his classmates or in a set of test papers but it is measured against his day-to-day progress. Teachers must affirm the progress of students even if the progress is so small. Renowned developmental educator Brooks capsulizes what teachers must do in the classroom. To quote:
“Brooks and Brooks (1993) have identified five central tenets of the constructivist teacher’s role in the classroom. First, the students’ points of view are valued and sought by the teacher, who then designs and modifies instruction based on that knowledge. Second, students’ suppositions based on their life experience are challenged through class activities or discussion. Students are afforded the opportunity to reassess their suppositions and either confirm, recant, or modify them. Third, constructivist teachers convey the relevance of classroom activities and knowledge to the students’ lives. Fourth, lessons address major concepts promoting a deeper understanding of the whole rather than the memorization of small factual data. Fifth, assessment of student knowledge and understanding is conducted in the context of daily classroom activities, not as a scheduled paper-and-pencil test at the end of a unit of study.” (Ghere, page 103)
We have to keep in mind the principles of Developmental Education as we discuss how to use Creative Writing for different levels of ESL learners.
Using Creative Writing in Teaching Pre-School Children (2 to 7 years old)
The question that people might ask or usually asks is if very young learners can already write creatively. The answer is unarguably yes.
In fact, we can use creative writing in teaching pre-elementary ESL students. Though it should not be as complicated as what adult learners use in the classroom. It can be as simple as a drawing with short captions on it. It can be as simple as Number Book and Alphabet Book which we will discuss later. This suits with the theory of Developmental Education about the uniqueness and the belief in the capacity of every learner.
Children’s creativeness starts from their visual conception of things. As they receive messages thru their senses they analyze, process and store it in their mind. They later creatively express these stored messages thru various means of which drawing is the most obvious. They communicate their joy, desires, wants, hurts, etc. thru simple drawings. Consequently, their creativeness stems from these range of emotions.
Each young ESL learner has his or her own story to tell. Their emotional banks are so rich and so real. They might not express their sentiments verbally because they might be having difficulty using verbal communication skills but most often they express it thru drawings. They convey their own Discourse thru drawings.
How To Draw Out Young Learner’s Feelings
It is our task as ESL teachers to young learners to encourage them to try to express their feelings thru written words. One way to do this is to let them draw their ideas and ask them to write captions on it. We can give each of them a blank paper and we can ask them to draw anything they want to draw. We can also suggest some topics that they can draw like their families, their favorite games, their vacation, or happy moments.
We can talk to them and discuss their drawings as they do their work. We can use open-ended questions to bring out information from them. Questions like What happened next? Why is that boy sad?
We can also describe what we are seeing in their sketches. One guideline that we can use here is that we must avoid guessing what they are drawing. For example, if a child is drawing a square we must not say, “I can see that you are drawing a box.” It is because we might be wrong with our guess and the feeling of the child will be that we don’t understand him or her. The child might be thinking You don’t understand me. We have to keep in mind that rapport is very important if we want to encourage them in expressing their thoughts. This child’s negative feeling will hinder us to encourage him to write more of what is in his mind. If we are seeing a blue square we can just say, “I can see that you are drawing a blue square at the upper part of the paper.” Commenting like this will help young learners to express themselves thru words.
As the student speaks more about what he is drawing we have to attentively listen to him. We can relay to the student that we are listening to him thru different means. We can paraphrase his statements. For example, if the student says, “I am sad because my granny left the other day and I miss her so much.” we can respond “What I am getting is that you are not happy because you want granny to go back. Am I getting it right?” We can also relay to the student that we are listening by asking questions. For example, if the student says, “I really enjoyed my weekend!” we can respond “What did you do during the weekend?”
It is also very important to encourage students to write captions and bubbles in their drawings. Bubbles are what we see in comics in which we can see and read what the characters in the comics or drawings are saying.
Wikipedia defines bubbles as “a graphic convention used in comic books, strips, and cartoons to allow words (and much less often, pictures) to be understood as representing the speech or thoughts of a given character in a comic.” (Wikepedia, 2007)
ESL teachers must try to refrain from writing for the kids their descriptions or ideas about their drawings. Instead, students should be the one to write their ideas. We can only write for them if they are asking for help with regards to spelling or how to write a particular word.
As young ESL learners write their ideas we have to keep in mind that it is their own ideas. This is one of the principles of Developmental Education. Seeing a child with his own unique ideas and respect and faith in his capacity as a creative person.
Invented Spelling
Concurrently, this brings us to the idea about Invented Spelling. Invented spelling is "an attempt by beginning writers to spell a word when the standard spelling is unknown"; it involves using "whatever knowledge of sounds or visual patterns the writer has," (North Central Regional Education Laboratory, 2007)
Lutz said that “(i)nvented spelling refers to young children's attempts to use their best judgments about spelling.” (Lutz, 1986)
Because a child is an individual with his own experiences and with his own way of interpreting these experiences we have to accept his own way of writing things and spelling words. Moreover, Invented Spelling has a positive implication to the moral of a young ESL learner who is beginning to write.
It is necessary for the student to like the process of writing. And, for a young ESL learner it is discouraging if he will receive negative feedbacks right away. He will have the idea that he is incapable of writing. This is what we are trying to evade. Developmental Education believes that we must focus and enhance what the students have by positive feedbacks.
When we accept Invented Spelling we are encouraging young learners to write and grow more in their writing skills. It is said that:
"It is important for parents and teachers to understand that invented spelling is not in conflict with correct spelling. On the contrary, it plays an important role in helping children learn how to write. When children use invented spelling, they are in fact exercising their growing knowledge of phonemes, the letters of the alphabet, and their confidence in the alphabetic principle. A child's 'iz' for the conventional 'is' can be celebrated as quite a breakthrough! It is the kind of error that shows you that the child is thinking independently and quite analytically about the sounds of words and the logic of spelling." (North Central Regional Education Laboratory, 2007)
Lutz supports this idea when he said:
“In teaching students to write, teachers should avoid overemphasis on absolute correctness, mechanics, and memorization. Early emphasis on mechanical aspects of spelling inhibits developmental growth. When frequent purposeful writing takes precedence, adherence to the rules is secondary. The teacher in no sense abandons expectations for correctness. Rather, correctness is nurtured more effectively through knowledge of the pupils' level of development.” (Lutz, 1986)
Number Book and Alphabet Book
One of the creative activities that young ESL learners can do is book-making. They can write number book or alphabet book. Thru book-making young learners can develop their love for books and can harness their creativity. Number Book and Alphabet Book should be simple and need not be complicated
How To Make Number Book and Alphabet Booth
The materials that we need in book-making are 5 to 10 sheets of bond papers, crayons and pencils. Teachers need to prepare bond papers before coming to class. It is advisable to fold ten sheets of bond papers and staple them together at the middle to form it like a book or booklet.
Students can draw the cover page by writing Number Book or Alphabet Book depending on what they want to do. They can write their names at the lower part of the cover page to signify authorship.
They can start drawing pictures inside and writing captions under it. For example, they can draw apple on page 1 and writing the word apple under it. They can draw picture of a basket or banana on the second page and writing the name of the object under it. They can do it until letter Z.
Students can also do the same in the cover page in writing Number Book. Inside, they can draw objects representing numbers. They can write the numerical 1 and write the word one wherever he wants to write in on the first page. Then, he can draw one object like one house or one apple representing number 1. He can write the numerical 2 and write the word two wherever he wants to write it on the second page. Then, he can draw two objects that represent number 2.
It is advisable to display students’ work inside the classroom to motivate them to write more. Possibly, the class can have a mini-library showcasing students’ works.
Using Creative Writing in Primary or Elementary Students (8 to 13 years old)
For elementary level or grade school ESL learners we can use comics writing as an activity. Here, it is important for learners to write about things that they really want. They will be more excited to write if they will write about what they are interested in. For example, if they are interested in superheroes they should write about superheroes.
It is advisable for students to make a rough draft of their stories first before writing a comic-style book. They can arrange and conceptualize the plot first because it will be easier for them to write it in a comic-form if they have an overview of their stories. Though, this is just suggestive and not a strict rule to be followed. If they feel they want to make a comic strip directly without writing a rough draft then so be it.
In the same way, finished works should be displayed too. This will give students a sense of worthiness. They will learn to be proud of their work and thereby learn to love writing.
Using Creative Writing in Teaching Adults
ESL teachers often think adult students are easier to teach in the area of writing as compared to young learners. On the other hand, I find it easier to teach young and very young learners more than adults. I think it is because adults have a calcified belief that their way of writing is problematic. Their negative beliefs already calcified as a result of damaging comments they received and are receiving from their early years up to their adult lives. Adult ESL learners feel inadequate when it comes to writing. James said, “The language learner sometimes feels constrained by a lack of knowledge. They emphasize what they don’t know rather than celebrating what they do know.” (James, 2007)
But there is still hope. ESL teachers’ task is to empower Adult ESL learners and help them believe in themselves that they can in fact write. One way to do this is thru Free Writing.
Free Writing
Lorch defines free writing as “a writing with no restrictions on it. A free writing does not have to conform to the rules of spelling, grammar or punctuation. Most important, a free writing will not be graded in anyway.” (Lorch, page 11)
I’ve been using free writing every first day of the school term. I give my students pieces of papers and I ask them to write whatever they want to write and express whatever they want to express. I tell them that they can even write their deepest feelings: fear, apprehension and even hatred. I tell them that they can trust me with regards to the confidentiality of what they will write.
Of course, one of my goals in this activity is for me to know my students because I believe that I can teach them better if I know them individually. Their interests, fears, plans, etc. But my primary goal is for them to experience joy in writing. I want our school term to start with them having the idea that they can write without apprehensions. That means that their teacher will not condemn them for wrong grammar or for lack of knowledge of the English language.
Lorch presented the process of conducting free writing by saying:
“The only rule for free writing places a restriction on writer is it says nothing at all about the content or form of what is written. To do a free writing, you must begin to write immediately and keep writing through the period allotted for the writing, usually five or ten minutes . This is not as difficult as it may sound at first because there are no restrictions at all on what you write or how you write it. The important thing is to write . If your mind is blank, write “My mind is blank.” If you despise what your doing , write “I hate this.” Just follow your thoughts on paper. Write down what you’re thinking without worrying about its making sense of following the last thought or being in a correct form.” (Lorch, page 11)
Self-editing
One may ask then if ESL teachers can edit or correct the writings of ESL students. I strongly believe that it will be helpful for students to self-edit their work. Why self-editing?
Let me tell you again another story. I was a staffer of our school organ when I was in college. There was a time when I was cramming for final exams, research works, term papers, and other school works. Added to this is my obligation to submit articles to our weekly students’ organ. So, I haphazardly wrote an article. I have to admit that it was a half-baked article. After submitting it to my editor I focused my time and attention reviewing for my exams and writing term papers. In short, I did not show up in the student’s publication office after handing my article to my editor. After few weeks, I picked up a copy of our school organ and looked for my article. I was aghast by what I saw. I saw the title of my article and my name under it. But the whole article has been revised. It was totally overhauled. I could no longer recognize it as my article. I felt that it was not mine. I felt bad because they wrote my name as the author of the said article but I really did not write it. I was hoping that they should have just shelved my article and reprinted other articles.
Again, we have to remind ourselves that our goal should be to help ESL students be proud of their written works. They will be proud of what they wrote if they can claim ownership of it.
Moreover, we have to train ESL learners to edit their own work because we won’t be with them always. There will come a time that they have to edit their own work without any outside help. Thus, Cogie said, “However, the ultimate goal for our students is not error-free drafts, since that is not a realistic expectation even for native speakers, but rather the ability to edit their own work.” (Cogie, et al, page 20)
Furthermore, editing should focus more on the content rather than grammar. Grammar, I believe, should be secondary to the content. If we focus more on the content rather than grammar ESL learners will be more encouraged to express their thoughts. Homstad and Thorson agree with this when they say, “(T)eachers look at writing as a process, or a series of drafts, including prewriting, writing, and rewriting. Less attention to correction of grammatical errors, together with real attention to content, leads ultimately to better student compositions.” (Homstad, T & Thorson, H. page 5)
Hence, we should guard ourselves from being too critical of student’s grammatical constructions. Homstad and Thorson again said, “(S)tudents may become more involved in editing their own work if the teacher does less correcting.” (Homstad, T. & Thorson, H. page 4)
What should we do then with submitted works of students?
Annotating
What I always do with my students’ submitted works is I write comments or annotate them. You see, their works are their thoughts and therefore we can interact with them. When we interact with them through their works they will have the idea that someone understands them. Their thoughts, feelings, fears and etc. This is in consonance with the idea of Developmental Education that sees a learner as a unique individual with his own Discourse.
For example, my student wrote about his funny experience in a writing assignments in one of my ESL classes. His composition was about when he was caught by his father cutting his classes. I made a note at the end saying, “You know when I was in high school I also did silly things like cutting classes. But that was then. I never do that anymore. I also noticed that you’ve never been absent in our ESL class. J I know that you are a good student and you are always excited to attend our English class.” I even wrote a smiley in my annotation to convey to him that I am really communicating with him.
As much as possible, our comments should be realistic and should express authentic feelings. We should refrain from mechanical comments like Very good, Excellent and etc. Comments like “You really made me laugh!” or “I hope we can do something about the garbage problem in our city.” are effective.
Grading The Work
I deem it necessary for us not to give any percentile, numerical or letter marks or grades to their works. We earlier discussed that each learner writes using his own Discourse. We also discussed that our attention should focus on the content not on grammar. How can we grade his work then if he is just presenting his feelings, core beliefs or ideas? Should we fail him because his ideas differ from ours? Surely not!
Poems and Haikus
James, in his article Writing Creatively In Another Language suggested the use of haikus in Beginner’s class (James, 2007). His supposition is that even ESL learners who have very limited vocabulary words can already creatively write and he cited haiku as a good tool for creative writing for beginners. He said that that students can already write haikus even after just a few lessons. He suggested that teachers can give students five minutes to write down all the words they can think of about a certain topic that was discussed. Students can arrange these words in five-seven-five words pattern to form a haiku. He gave this haiku with simple words as an example:
From Norway, in Wales,
Blond hair, blue eyes, tall and slim,
My name is Sandra (James, 2007)
The words in the above haiku are simple words that ESL learners usually learn in their first few sessions.
James (2007) also suggested an activity in which students will form an acrostic poem using their names. Students can search dictionaries for words that can form their names. For example:
S – sultry, sagacious, simple
A – amiable, alluring
M – magnificent, magnanimous
N – naive, narcissistic, natural
A – absurd, accommodating
N – nefarious, nocturnal
G – gracious
Conclusion
As a conclusion, we need to think if we want to have a positive impact in the lives of our ESL students. We also have to remember that we can help make or break our student’s love for writing. As Hoke said, “Teachers have such fun powerful impact on our lives. This came back to me as I listened to Alec Klein, author of
"A Class Apart: Prodigies, Pressure, and Passion Inside One of America's Best High Schools," on Diane Rehm (with Steve Roberts) this morning. He shared this lovely tidbit: I'm reminded of another teacher I had, Dr. Binman, who returned a creative writing assignment to me when I was about 15 years old and on it he said, 'Become a writer one day!' I actually still have that paper because it meant so much to me as a 15-year-old to be told that I was good at something. Sometimes that's all you need is some positive reinforcement." (Hoke, 2007)
Should we be an encourager to our ESL learners and help them love writing or should we be a strict traditional teachers who routinely correct all mistakes of students that may eventually contribute to their feeling of inadequacy?
The choice is ours.
Biodata
Pablo D. Gravoso was a kindergarten and elementary school teacher in the Philippines. He also taught ESL to Koreans in the Philippines. He came to Cambodia in 2005 as a volunteer ESL
teacher in a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO). He left the said in NGO in February 2007 to work as an ESL teacher in Phnom Penh.
Bibliography
Beare, Kenneth. (1997). About.Com: English As Second Language. Retrieved December 16, 2007, from
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Cogie, J., Strain, K., & Lorinskas, S. (1999) Avoiding the Proofreeding Trap: The Value of the Error Correction Process. WCJ, volume 19, number 2. 7-32.
Ghere, David L. (2001) Constructivist Perspective and Classroom Simulation in Developmental Education. CDREUL, 101 – 107
Hoke, Wendy (2007). Tuesday Tidbits. Retrieved December 27, 2007 from
www.creative_ink.blogspot.com
Homstad, T. & Thorson, H. (1994) Writing Theory and Practice in the Second Language Classroom: A Selected Annotated Bibliography. The Center For Interdisciplinary Studies Of Writing. Technical Series Report No. 8.
James, Gill. (2007). Writing Creatively in Another Language. Retrieved November 21, 2007, from
www.tefl.net
Lorch, S. (1984) Basic Writing: A practical Approach (2nd ed.). Toronto: Little, Brown and Company.
Lundell, Dana Britt. (2001) Toward a Theory Developmental Education: The Centrality of Discourse. CRDEUL, 49-64.
Lutz, Elaine (1986). Invented Spelling and Spelling Development. Retrieved December 29, 2007 from
www.readingrockets.org
North Central Regional Education Laboratory. Invented Spelling. Retrieved December 29, 2007 from
www.ncrel.org
Speech Balloon. Retrieved January 5, 2007 from
http://wikepedia.org/wiki/Comics_vocabulary
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