Abstract:

Creativity is a quality that has a key role in the foreign language classroom since it not only increases learners’ motivation and engagement in the different tasks and activities, but it also develops their cognitive skills and ability to think in a flexible way by playing with the language spontaneously. But creativity is not only an essential aspect of learners’ approach to the target language; it is an opportunity that is created by teachers who encourage school children to be curious, open to challenges and ready to take ownership of their learning. While the opportunities that creativity presents to foreign language learners and the benefits that it has to the acquisition of a target language are discussed in a rich spectrum of theoretical and empirical works, the research studies that discuss teachers’ creativity remain limited in number. This paper, therefore, focuses on the perception of creativity by a sample of pre- and in-service English language teachers to young learners in Bulgaria and presents data from an empirical study that tackles the issue of teaching creatively vs. teaching for creativity. The analysis shows that both groups of teachers consider creative thinking an essential asset of the professional profile of a language teacher and highlight the need for consistent teacher training that equips them with the skills and competences for giving learners space to try out different tasks, to communicate in the target language and to participate in learning experiences that foster their self-esteem and confidence. The implications of the study can trigger a debate or future research on national and international level on the implications of the teaching for creativity approach in teacher training programmes.

Keywords:

Creativity, teaching for creativity, in-service and pre-service teachers, English language training to young learners.