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Creative Teaching of English

Beulah Catherine Assist. Prof. of English, Infant Jesus College of Engineering Tuticorin • This paper was presented at the International Seminar on Humanistic Language and Literature Teaching on February 18th & 19th 2011, organized by Anna University, Chennai. Great teachers have certain traits and attributes that leave gratitude and endearing moments in their students. They have many essential virtues and the most important one being creativity. An English language teacher should possess the ability of creative teaching. A creative teacher will not be afraid to take risks. He / she will be willing to experiment and will try to be innovative by attempting new things. A creative teacher “thinks out of the box”. The creative teacher uses numerous activities which include experiments, role-plays, simulations, cooperative learning activities, group projects, technology (internet research and PowerPoint presentations). He / she does not stick to the Syllabus. But would rather prefer teaching for the betterment of the student’s life. This type of teacher would consider himself/herself as a facilitator who facilitates and makes English a fun to learn. As a facilitator the creative teacher propagates learner autonomy. He / she helps the student to explore and learn new things. For example, in an ESL class when a student asks a question like-“What is a blind person?” an ordinary teacher would reply, “A person who cannot see”. But a teacher who facilitates learning and believes that creativity develops multi-sensory approaches of the student, closes his/her eyes and tries to find a piece of chalk or pencil on the table. This actually helps the student feel the situation emotionally and intellectually. The learner would have been put into a real blind situation and would have derived the meaning of the word ‘blind’ from a direct experience. Through this the teacher would have helped the student to explore the hidden meaning of a given word. A...