Title text with logos for Creative Multilingualism, University of Oxford, and University of Reading

From 2016-2020 we worked with approximately 600 French and German learners in year 9, and, of course, their teachers, from 16 secondary schools across England. We collaborated on a classroom-based research project to explore the impact of using poems and authentic texts (on such themes as love, death, migration) and different teaching approaches (‘creative’ versus ‘functional’) on learners’ language development and attitudes towards languages.

Classes were allocated to a text type (literary or factual) and a teaching approach (creative or functional) for use in their year 9 language lessons, using materials that we designed in collaboration with teachers. Broadly speaking, the creative teaching approach involved activities that asked learners to respond imaginatively and emotionally to the texts, while in the functional approach they focused on learning grammar and vocabulary and gaining factual information from the texts. We found that our materials helped learners' vocabulary knowledge and their general creativity, but that how they were used was important. To find out more, read on!

Since then, we've been busy sharing the findings and resources that arose from that project. If you:

are interested in learning about how creativity can be developed through language lessons
would like to get some new ideas and innovative resources for working with authentic materials
would like to find out more about the latest research findings in this area

– then read the learning modules below are for you!

The three modules will take you through a set of materials to help you understand what creativity is, how it is related to language learning, and how to plan lessons and materials to develop learners' general and linguistic creativity through some practical activities. You can also find out more about our research project and what we discovered about creativity and language learning.

1. What is creativity and why does it matter?

This module will introduce you to the concept of creativity.

2. Developing creativity in the languages classroom – teaching strategies

This module covers teaching strategies for planning language lessons and resources to develop learners' general and linguistic creativity.

3. Hands-on activities for creativity and languages

In this module, you will work your way through a set of practical examples and hands-on activities so that you can plan your own lessons and resources to develop learners' general and linguistic creativity.

The modules and resources were designed by the Strand 7 – Language Learning team for Creative Multilingualism: Suzanne Graham, Linda Fisher, Julia Hofweber, Heike Kruesemann. These modules were developed for Canvas by Laura Ludtke, Web and Social Media Support for Creative Multilingualism.