In our article (Hofweber & Graham, 2017) for the Scottish Languages Review (2017), we outline the design of our study and describe how we tried out two different teaching approaches, each used with poems and factual, magazine-type texts.

Before you read about the study, make sure you understand the difference between the two different approaches we tried.

The 'creative' approach:

Learners engage primarily with the text on the level of personal, emotional and imaginative response. Activities are chosen with the aim of developing original and flexible thinking, curiosity, imagination, stimulation and independent thinking, as well as openness and tolerance (towards ambiguity, a range of experiences, emotions and perspectives).

The 'functional' approach:

The text is used principally to teach vocabulary, grammar, and phonics. and for developing the skill of identifying key information in a text on a factual level.

Now read the section entitled 'Methods' on pages 23-24 from our article. Compare what we did in the study to the notes you made about how one would explore which teaching approach and text type might work the best.

What did we find out in our project?

To learn a bit more about what we did in our project and what we discovered about its impact on learners, listen to this short podcast:

Languages are in crisis in our schools – could creativity help save the subject?

For further details about our project findings, please read pages 165-166 of our chapter "Getting creative in the languages classroom" in Creative Multilingualism: A Manifesto (2020).