Andrew Wright

Why is creativity important?
Creativity is a fundamental means of survival as well as a bringer of joy.
Some teachers and students can only really harness all their brain power if they are invited to be creative.

My definition of creativity
Making something new or a new version of something. ‘Something’ might be how you respond to a situation in class or how you manage to do many things at the same time or when you see the funny side of something and tell someone else. Of course, it is also when you devise activities and make materials. Everybody is creative but the concept is often used to divide people into those that are creative and those that are not. This is plain wrong. Education must cultivate not stifle the creativity which lies within all of us.

Aim of this article
In this short article, I will concentrate on what I find helps me to be more creative and will hope that it might be of some interest and even of use to other colleagues. Inspiration will not figure in any of the ideas below. I can’t, sensibly, tell myself , Be inspired! There are more practical ideas available.

Making new connections
I suppose, making new connections is what creativity is!
Wandering and wondering without clear goals is more important than linear thinking if you want to make new connections and to discover new things.
There are times when I do not want to be clear about what I want except to be open to experiencing something that I have not experienced before.
Sometimes right/wrong assumptions and ‘proper’ ways of doing things prevent you from seeing things freshly.

Activities in the classroom

1. Brainstorm associations as an individual or as a class and do not introduce the idea of right and wrong as you do so. You can always put things through the right wrong sieve later.
2. Imaginative descriptions based on finding a large variety of connections between two pictures chosen at random.
3. Chain association in which one student says a word and the next student says a word which he or she associates with the first word.
4. Opposites and reversals. Describe many aspects of an everyday object eg a book. Then agree on the opposite of each aspect (it has pages/it has no pages) Then conceive of a new object inspired by these reversals.

Being silly

‘Don’t be silly!’ is a phrase normally used by people in authority who are irritated by behaviour which is inconvenient to them. However, a willingness to ‘be silly’ is a key characteristic of creative people. What is silly for one generation is often normal in the next.
I find so many things in my daily life which require me to be sensible and to do the expected thing but actually I would benefit by being silly much more often.

Activities in the classroom

1. Instead of teaching and practicing prepositions related to ‘book on the table’ choose silly examples, ‘cow on the table’, etc. Either by imagination or represented by sketches…done by the students not by you.
2. Take a traditional sentence pattern table and make as many silly combinations as you can.
3. Retelling a story with silly changes…Little Red Riding Hood who is so greedy that she ate the cakes intended for Grandma before she ever arrived.
4. Comparing and contrasting things, for example, a pencil and an elephant
5. Why have you got a monkey in your bag? An opportunity for silly answers.
6. Questions about a statement. The moon is made of green cheese. Does it smell? What sort of green? etc. (Five Minute Activities page 65)

Redefining

Cezanne said, ‘Go back to nature.’ Constable said, ‘I try to forget that I have even seen a picture before.’
Push assumptions to one side. Take a fresh look. Carefully examine the situation. A fresh description might lead to a fresh answer.

Activities related to ideas and materials development

1. Example from thinking about teaching
Thinking about ‘learning’ instead of thinking about ‘teaching’. ‘Classroom’ can be ‘room’. ‘Teacher’ can be ‘helper’. ‘Student’ can be ‘person’. ‘Teacher training’ can be ‘teacher development’. What effect do these changes have on the way we perceive our work?
2. Example from my writing books:
Spell binders with OUP: I first of all thought of how useful it would be if my little story books could be easily dramatised and what do the children need in order to dramatise the story well. Having defined the needs in detail it seemed obvious how to design the pages. For example, knowing that children often do not put enough expression into the drama I have used faces with expressions on them instead of the names of the speakers. (Spellbinders, Oxford University Press) In this way the children are guided how to say their lines with feeling.
3. Example from Dictation
My favourite example of the potential of redefining a concept is manifested in the book, Dictation by Paul Davis and Mario Rinvolucri and published by Cambridge University Press. The authors defined dictation as students receiving a text and writing it down. They then challenged the assumptions about what that means in practice:
Who chooses the text? Could be the teacher or the student.
The text? Could be single words or discreet sentences or longer texts.
Who communicates the text: the teacher or another student?
How is the text communicated: spoken or written, spoken and written, in short sections or as a continuously spoken text, loudly or muttered?
How do the students write it down: as it is delivered or do they place it in a different sequence or location? Do they write all of it or a selection?
Based on this redefining of the traditional activity of dictation they came up with 120 communicative activities for their brilliant book.

Particularising

One of the hallmarks of creative work is the feeling that it is both universal and highly particular at the same time. It is a little bit like the previous idea but not quite.

Activities in the classroom

From the early stages encourage the students to create characters, places and situations in stories which are highly specific.
For beginners: Is the frog, little, very little or very, very little?
For more advanced students: Is she slim or thin? How does she sit when she is in the café with her friends?

Not getting too precious

When I was at art school I wanted to do my best and felt that each picture I was working on was going to be special. And I felt I had no excuse for not making it into a masterpiece. This made me feel so nervous and so self-critical that I could hardly get myself to paint at all in case I didn’t produce a masterpiece.
Activities in the classroom
Instead of writing a complete short story the students can write 3 alternative first paragraphs and ask 10 other students to read all 3 and put them in order of interest.

Responding positively to a restricted context

The notion that artists must be free is a relativity new idea. Artists from the beginning of time have been employed by other people and have been asked to work within narrow restrictions of form, content, style, location, etc. Piero della Francesca was told which blue to use in his pictures and Mozart was told to have a new and amusing composition ready by Sunday. Furthermore, any medium you use has its restrictions. (If you have a black pencil then you can’t show colour)
Restrictions of content, medium, time, length, etc. can often give a creative stimulus to the students (and indeed their teachers)
I have always felt stimulated and even liberated by restrictions.

Activities in the classroom

1 Expanding texts starting with a single word: Go. Go to bed. Go to bed….
2 Show 3 pictures, each for only a few seconds and ask the students to write for exactly 4 minutes about each to make a story.

Working in an ambiance of creativity

‘Flowers are red, young man,
Green leaves are green,
There’s no need to see flowers any other way
Than the way they’ve always been seen.’
Verse from a poem posted by Malgosia on the YL SIG discussion list from a poem entitled, What colour are flowers? (Writer’s name not given)
It is a big help if you can work with people who think and feel that making new things is important. They respond to your ideas and feelings much more strongly than to the accuracy or conventionality of the forms you have used.

Activities in the classroom

1 You are a key person in creating a creative ambiance. Make it clear that there are times when you love the students to take risks and to be as creative as possible and that this is far more important than accuracy at those times.
2 Share creative works…see Publish and Perform

Using art makes little big

We learn and use our mother tongue in conjunction with so many other media and yet we learn and use a foreign language in isolation in the classroom to a much greater extent.
Use all the arts. This principle can be applied from the first day of language learning and most of the examples below are given for beginner/elementary students. Obviously, for more advanced students the full richness of orchestration can take place.

Activities in the classroom

Vocal arts:
1. Say a phrase or word in different ways. ‘I love you’. ‘Hello’. ‘Goodbye’.
2. Tell a story only with the word ‘seven’.
2. Musical arts:
1. Singing a song or reciting a rhyme or poem.
2. Play with the sound of words together, for example, words for food and building up a communal chant poem. Bread and cheese. Bread and cheese. Soup!
3. Visual arts:
1. Draw a picture and adding a title. For example, My grandma’s dog.
2. Make a book.
4. Dramatic arts:
A puppet or mask play with minimum phrases.
5. Body arts
Mime
6. Poetic arts:
A poem of five lines each with the same sentence beginning. I like…I don’t like…I used to like…but now I like…
7. Three dimensional arts:
1. Matchbox with word cards in it.
2. Fold paper, for example, A fortune teller.

Knowing when right and wrong are relevant

We must have clearly signalled times when right and wrong have little or no place in an activity if we are to encourage students and ourselves to be creative.
My publishers never comment on my spelling, punctuation, syntax and grammar in my first draft! Furthermore, they never publish a text just because it is perfect in these respects. At the same time they do not want any errors to be found in the text. There is a time and a place for right and wrong in ‘real’ writing contexts but often not in school contexts. Worrying about right and wrong or conventional acceptability can kill creativity.
My son told me, at the age of eleven, ‘There is something you learn at school, the less you do the less mistakes you can make.’

Activities in the classroom

1 Consider setting two homeworks for writing a story. You respond to the first homework in terms of your ability to understand it and whether it is well told and has a fresh quality. You ask the students to spend a second homework improving the text according to your suggestions and then going over one part of it (or the whole lot) and trying to make the text formally accurate.

Seeing your cup as half full

Is your cup half full or half empty?
Responding positively to life around you is a great encouragement to creativity. It is deflating and/or irritating to be faced with negativity all the time, however reasonable.

Activities in the classroom

1 Rejoice in achievement and welcome ‘failure’ as a useful stimulus and guide.
2 Rejoice in the advantages of a large class rather than a small class (more interesting dramatized choral work, more examples of individual responses, more experiences to draw on). If you have a class of children who are not great achievers you can rejoice more justifiably in small steps made.

Further reading

1. I am publishing a fuller version of this article on creativity in HLT, Humanising Language Teaching. If you want to see this fuller article please see http://www.hltmag.com.uk . Alternatively, see my own website: www.teachertraining.hu for this longer article and for other related articles.
2. For a range of short activities see: Ur P. & Wright A. (1992) Five Minute Activities Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
3. For ideas for the use of stories see: Wright A. (1995) Storytelling with Children Oxford: Oxford University Press and Wright A. (1997) Creating Stories with Children Oxford: Oxford University Press
4. For the wonderful example of creative activities arrived at by creativity see: Davis P. & Rinvolucri M. (1990) Dictation Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

Andrew Wright is an author, illustrator, storyteller and teacher trainer. He has published ‘Creating Stories with Children’ with Oxford University Press, ‘1000 Pictures for Teachers to Copy’ with Longman and his most recent publication is the third edition of ‘Games for Language Learning’ published by Cambridge University Press.

Mabindra Regmi

Introduction
One of the ways to really familiarize learners of  English (or any second or foreign language) is by describing what our senses perceive. Instead of mixing perceptions of all senses, each sensory perception can be divided into different exercise or activity so that the concentration is given to one of them at one time. Sight is the primary sense and easiest to describe, therefore the exercise should start here. Then the teacher can deal with the sound, smell, taste and touch. When the students have a relative comprehension and command over all the sensory perceptions, then exercises to integrate more or all of them can be carried out.

The Inspiration
My personal experience on teaching sensory perception by indulging students in one sense organ at a time dates back to my teaching days in Rato Bangla School. It was there that I found students writing about the smell of food being cooked at home during the festival season and how it made their mouth water. It was just a small assignment given by another teacher, but it opened up a whole vista of dedicating creative writing to describing sensory perception. As Macpherson, A and Stevens, A have compiled in their article, there are multiple intelligences and learning can be more effective if all these intelligences are integrated through various activities (Macpherson and Stevens. 2009). Senses definitely resulted in use of intelligences like visual, spatial, aural, etc. This inspiration led to an experimentation with interesting results.
The Experiment
In the winter months of 1995, when all schools were closed I decided to do some experimentations on describing senses. I had a few students living near to the place where I stayed who attended the school where I used to teach. They were from second, fifth and eighth standards.
I called these students everyday for about two weeks and we discussed about things that we see, hear, smell, taste and touch. In Copeland’s words “students learn to communicate and describe things through the five senses” (Copeland 2007) and I made it a point to have the students communicating within the peripherals of what our senses perceived. We discussed about various words that might be related while talking about such senses. We made a list of words as per the standard of the students and set about describing sensory perceptions.
I began with the sense of sight because I felt that would be the easiest one to describe. It was a simple task all they had to do was to describe what they saw. I asked them to use shapes and colours while describing.
Then we went onwards to the sense of hearing. I asked them to close their eyes and concentrate only on the sounds they could hear. It could be anything: a dog barking, the sound of the electric saw or even the wind whistling past. I asked them to write paragraphs where they could only make use of ‘sound’ words.
Then we went on to the sense of smell. For this I told them to describe the aroma that they could smell in their kitchen while their mother cooked the meal. It was done as a home work and I got fascinating results in the morning. Some descriptions were apt, but some were wildly imaginative. Nonetheless, I had made the students think on that line.
Now it was the sense of taste. Surprisingly I found it difficult to find many words to describe taste. And the students could fare no better. But still we trudged on. I had asked them to describe the taste of one thing that they liked best and one thing that they likes the least. In order to make the writing more comprehensive, I also asked them to integrate their feeling associated with the food items that they liked or disliked.
After that we went along similarly with the sense of touch. We began by simple sentences describing how objects around them felt. Then we went on to write paragraphs on describing the sense of touch.
The last component that I did with these students was to integrate all senses while describing people. It was an amusing and interesting exercise. They came up with all those funny adjectives for describing the smell and taste of people. When I look back now, I think that was a little too ridiculous thing to do: describing how people taste. I wonder how those children came up with the idea in the first place. They were logically supposed to omit that part and concentrate on sight, sound and smell. But I was inexperienced and they were young without any explicit directions.
The Outcome
The students started using more of other sensory perceptions apart from the sense of sight while describing from that moment onwards. Effective descriptive writing works well when it refers to things that relate to the senses such as sounds and sights (from Englishbiz).
I was impressed with the change in their writing and thought that this exercise may be an important aspect to be taught to the children.
The textbooks that we had did not integrate this aspect of describing sensory perception, so I made my own exercises and started carrying them out in the classrooms too. The changes that it brought about may not have been a significant one, but I feel that the children were aware of more than just sight when they were describing or answering about descriptions. I feel that my effort and inputs have been justified.

The Implications
I was away from teaching for many years after that and could not implement further exercises. And when I did start teaching, it was to the A level students and they were too advanced to discuss in detail about the sensory perceptions.
But nonetheless, I got an opportunity to co-compile a series of textbook for schoolchildren in Nepal. When I was writing the Step by Step series for Pragya Publication and Distributor, I included the exercises on sensory perception in the grade 5 coursebook.
Please refer to Annex 1 for the text included in the book.

The Activity
Both the teachers and learners can have effective activities that will have a positive impact in learning as well as provide the learners with more skilled aptitude for writing creatively.
An example of activity that can be followed is given in Annex 2.

Conclusion
There are some advantages of familiarizing students with reading and writing on sensory perception. First, they will isolate perception made by each sense and be able to distinguish between the descriptions on perception of each sense organ. Second, this exercise will form an interesting base for the students and will be able to describe perceptions made by each sense organ more comprehensibly. Third, The overall writing of students will be more comprehensive as they will start to integrate multiple perceptions in their descriptions. And finally, the students will familiarize themselves with vocabulary items associated with each sensory perception.

Annex 1
Sensory perception: Sight
When we talk about the things we see, we talk about the size, shape and colour of the object.
To describe the size we use words like big, small, tiny, huge fat, thin, and so on.
To describe the shape we use words like round, square, surly, straight, curved, and so on.
Of course you know about colours.
Let us describe this glass.
The glass I see is a small one. It is transparent. It is cylindrical in shape and it is hollow inside. The Bottom part is sealed and the top part is open. It looks a little greenish. It can be used to keep some liquid. it is generally used to serve tea.
Sensory perception: Sound
We hear many sounds all around us all the time. Some sounds are loud, some are soft. Some are sounds we like and some are sounds we don’t like. Here are some words that we can use to describe sounds.

loud, growl, rumble, roar, screech, squeak, soft, soothing, melodious, thud, bang, purr

Write a sentence for each of the word above to clarify who or what makes these kinds of sounds.
Read this small paragraph and circle all the words that describe sound.
As I am going to school from home, I can hear the murmur of people talking. Motorcycles pass me by roaring in the street. There is the soft tinkle of bells near the temple. The dogs are usually growling and barking at each other. When the wind blows, the trees are swooshing along with the wind. When the cars honk their horns, I hate that. I do love the soft music being played in people’s homes.
Write down ten sentences describing many sounds that you can hear when you go to the market. Use as many sounds words as possible.
Here are some sounds and what they made them. Can you match them?

moan, band, crash, patter, tinkle, thunder, drum, bell, rain, wind, dry, leaf

It is very noisy in the farm. Write down sound that each animal makes.

cow, chicken, cat, pig, donkey, dog

Sensory perception: Smell
We smell many things all around us. Some smells are pleasant while others are revolting. Let us look at these words which are related to smell.

pleasant, flowery, revolting, pungent, sweet, scent, aroma, stink, rotten, sniff, foul, perfume, whiff, odour

We can separate most of the words given above into good smell and bad smell. Make a table and separate the good and the bad smell. Are there some words remaining? What do you think they mean?
Read the text below and see how it talks about smell.
I like going to the kitchen. There is always a lingering smell of the good food my mum cooks for the whole family. There is mouth watering smell of fish being fried, especially when she cooks my favorite curry- cauliflower. The sweet perfume of freshly baked buns and the whiff of pulau when my mum takes off the lid simply drive me crazy.
Can you write a similar paragraph using words which indicate bad smell?
Sensory perception: Taste
We can mainly taste four different tastes.

sweet, sour, salty, bitter

But every food that we have has a mixture of different tastes that makes it unique. Even the thought of food that we like makes our mouth water.
Here are some words that can be used when we are talking about taste.

spicy, hot, tangy, sharp, bland, plain, weak, tasteless, tart, sugary, syrupy

Timur Golbhedako Achar
I love the taste of spicy pickle made from tomatoes and timur. The green chilies give it a hot taste and adding a pinch of salt will work wonder for my taste buds. The ‘timur’ makes the whole thing a little tangy and it excites by tongue and whole body. But the pickle has to be ground on a ‘silauto’ or a stone grind otherwise it won’t taste as good. Now, have a spoonful of this mixture with rice, daal and curry…yummy!
Write a similar piece on one food item that you really, really like.
Did you know…. .
that cats can not taste sweet things.
that flies taste with their paws.
that snakes smell with their tongue.
Sensory perception: Touch
Look at these words. They tell us about touch or about what we feel when we touch.

smooth, silky, rough, grainy, coarse, fine, metallic, glassy, leathery, furry, warm, cool, cold, hot, icy

Let’s divide the words into different boxes. In one box write down all the soft and comfortable touch words and in the other one put all the hard and uncomfortable touch words.
I got a teddy bear for my birthday. It is soft and cuddly. It has soft brown fur and it feels warm when I carry it. The eyes are also soft brown and glassy to touch. It has beads inside and I can feel the hard round objects from outside. I t also has a collar which is very silky and smooth. I love my teddy bear very much.
Write a paragraph describing an imaginary or real event when you first touched water under a fall. Describe how you felt using touch words.

Annex 2
Teaching Sensory perception: Taste

Student’s Copy
Exercise 1
Read the passage below carefully. Make a list of words that are related to taste. Match with the list of taste words that you have written. Do they match?
Timur Golbhedako Achar
I love the taste of spicy pickle made from tomatoes and timur. The green chilies give it a hot taste and adding a pinch of salt will work wonder for my taste buds. The ‘timur’ makes the whole thing a little tangy and it excites by tongue and whole body. But the pickle has to be ground on a ‘silauto’ or a stone grind otherwise it won’t taste as good. Now, have a spoonful of this mixture with rice, daal and curry…yummy!
Exercise 2
Here are some words that can be used when we are talking about taste.

spicy, hot, tangy, sharp, bland, plain, weak, tasteless, tart, sugary, syrupy

Divide the words into groups “I like” and “I don’t like”
Did you know…. .
that cats can not taste sweet things.
that flies taste with their paws.
that snakes smell with their tongue.

Teacher’s Copy

Sensory perception: Taste
Task A
Set Scene
Taste:
Talk about how you had a wonderful or a horrible meal recently
Use words related to taste and write few of them on the board
Ask the students to recall something really tasty that they had eaten
Ask them to prepare a list of taste words related to the food that they ate

Task B
Preteach vocabulary/prediction
Discuss and preteach the following vocabulary:
spicy tangy yummy
hot taste pinch of salt
Exercise 1
Exercise 2

Task C
Follow up
The students are to explain about a memorable eating experience that they really enjoyed. It can be in a restaurant, a relative’s house or at a party. They should include answers to the following questions.
What did they eat?
How did they like it?
What words can you use to describe the incredible taste?
The students can share with each other a memorable eating experience that they have had.

Task D
Homework idea
Write a similar piece on one food item that you really, really like.

References
Copeland, L. (2007). Creative Writing: Painting Pictures with Words. Journal of NELTA Vol. 1 2 No. 1 & 2 December 2007
Macpherson, A and Stevens, A. (2009) Multiple Ways to Motivate & Support Activity and Learning: An Introduction to the Imaginative use of Multiple Intelligences. Kwantlen Polytechnic University
Regmi, M and Sajnani M. (2009). Step By Step: Grade 5. Kathmandu, Nepal: Pragya Publication and Distributor.
Unknown Author. Englishbiz – Descriptive Writing

Suresh Shrestha
sureshkrshrestha@gmail.com

Introduction

It is generally felt and agreed that a humour tickles away tensions and  is just like a panacea to the most frequent ailments caused by nonstop brain-racking jobs in today’s complex world. In Grenville Kleiser’s words, “a good humor is a tonic for mind and body. It is the best antidote for anxiety and depression. It is a business asset. It attracts and keeps friends. It lightens human burdens. It is the direct route to serenity and contentment.” Furthermore, when HUMOUR is defined with a CREATIVE flavour, it gives rise to the idea of something in some shape that we can see and share constructively to make our mental burden less severe, after all it is CREATIVE! Creative humours may appear in diverse faces simply aiming at how to drive away mental tiredness and launch a hilariously rejuvenating environment for better performance ahead, no matter what we are at. And, of course, teaching learning process cannot remain as an exception.

Laughter to Learning: MR or RM?

What has been mentioned above as a sub-topic is pseudo, yet it would signify what is being presented here, giving some jerk to our thought setting it in a motion. This is supposed to be an unfeigned intention, just to let our curiosity germinate and then to grow it up to a blooming creativity. As declared by Einstein “Creativity is contagious, pass it on”, it is being passed on here under the guise of MR versus RM.

To our simple understanding, MR is seemingly in sharp contrast to RM. To our curiosity, MR may stand for Medical Representative or Medical Research or something else we may feel comfortable with, and RM for Resource Management or Resource Manager or something different. Anyway, it is quite natural to seek the full forms of any abbreviated words – the preliminary step to creativity in or out of the classroom! To our amusing surprise, what about daring relate how at some angle of our perception the two short forms (MR and RM) could be justified similar or almost identical? It is interestingly puzzling, isn’t it? It is all right! Let us pick out the sense this way. There may be no doubt that a child is a true speaker. He or she tells the truth without corrupting it because a child’s mind is not impure with cunningness. And, he or she speaks out his or her mind straight. So, if a child from the community of the Arabic language, and just learning to recognize the English alphabets, is asked to read the combination M-R will certainly read it out as R-M, for the innocent child is accustomed to the right-to-left reading style in the Arabic language against the left-to-right reading style in English. That is why it would be justifiable to claim that MR is of course similar to RM, wouldn’t it?

Secondly, no matter what the phrases MR and RM may refer to, an attempt could be made to explain their full forms on the common ground so as to make them sound similar. And, they are: MR stands for Motivational Recharge and RM for Recharging Motivation. Yes, it is about time we felt the necessity to modify motivation in some interestingly creative way that is how it would be worth making a simple effort to demonstrate how a language teacher could spell the magic of Learn with Fun among  learners. This indicates that the abbreviated forms may be used as to strengthen vocabulary of learner.

Etymologically, creativity appears with different meanings such as ‘having the ability or power to create’, ‘productive’, ‘imaginative’, ‘designed to or tending to stimulate the imagination’, etc and, humour refers to ‘the quality of being funny’, ‘sense of humour the ability to appreciate or express that which is humorous’, ‘situations, speech, or writings that are thought to be humorous’ and so on. We cannot easily guess how broad the scope of CREATIVE HUMOUR is until and unless we are dehumanized. To be straight, it prevails in each and every field and is a must to get ourselves refreshed with or even to get our memory revitalized. In this regard, Grace McGartland, the founder and president of Thunderbolt Thinking, Inc. and the author of thinking management book, Thunderbolt Thinking: Electrifying Ideas for Building an Innovative Workplace ,has highlighted laughter as a creative tool at the meeting with humour. Since it occurs in almost all the fields, it may not only be hilarious but also offensive. It may sail from sex to soul. We cannot exactly say its types and number, yet what is obvious is that it appears with fun in the centre with thoughts and imaginations rippling away. Anyway, we could manage to present some types or categories of it, such as

• Slapstick: It is a type of humour in which the actors behave in a silly way just by throwing things at each other or falling over each other aiming to amuse the viewers.
• Sarcastic: A sarcastic humour is connected with sarcasm, i.e. what remarks the actors make mean the opposite of what they say and such remarks are made in order to hurt someone’s feelings or to criticize someone’s action in a very amusing style. Such humours appear as GAI JATRA in our country yearly as a satirical celebration.
• Witty: A witty humour contains words in a funny or clever way. Let me serve one witty humour that could be supposed to occur in HINDI among Indians. It goes this way:

A humorous husband  receives his wife;s phone call while he was going on a long drive. And, the talk goes this way:

Hubby: Hi sweetheart! So happy now. Enjoying a lot for over an hour.
Wife: Wow! What is going on? Where are you now?
Hubby: Well, well….. (He could not say that he was driving alone
because she had warned him not to)
Wife: what is the matter? Hiding something from me? Are you alone?
Hubby: (Thinking that he had been caught red-handed) No, no, dear! I
am here with one special…
Wife: One special? What do you mean? Is it he or she? (The question
came out of her mouth abruptly casting a doubt)
Hubby: (Answering abruptly) It is she. (In fact, car, i.e. GADI, in Hindi, is supposed to be feminine in gender)
Wife: What? You cheat! Come back soon. I will see at the court!

• Biting: A biting humour is made with critical words in a clever but unkind way. A strict teacher may make such a humour- a combination of pain and pleasure. For example:

A teacher who wants strictly disciplined students is teaching on and on causing students bored, then one of the students couldn’t stop saying-
“Sir, it’s getting too long. Let’s leave drop it here.” The angry old man replied- “Keep holding lest I should drop you to the junior class.”

• Tongue-in-cheek: Tongue-in-cheek homours are amusing and may appear in some kind of advertisement.
• Obnoxious: An obnoxious humour is very unpleasant or rude. College ragging would be its good example. It may please the sufferer when he or she becomes a senior student and talks to other friends about it.
• Off-colour: Off-colour humours are linked with sex and they are slightly shocking.

Humours are sweet and also sour. But it is up to us how we make a right choice in the right situation and how we can change their offensiveness and indecency into softness and decency respectively. However, they are invaluably crucial to keep the audience upbeat  that removes boredom even after a long session. That is the real art that each and every speaker yearns to possess as their best asset. As a sorrowful matter, it does not seem to be so common in our educational contexts, except in certain conferences. But it is so popular and has established itself in the era of internet. We can use humours  to boost up our talent with better thinking and better speaking as it was it done in Creative Humour Writing Contest under HUMOR POWER conducted by John Kinde, a professional speaker and humour specialist from Las Vegas NV. There is no end of such a topic to write or speak about. But no doubt it is about time we made the most of it in the field of teaching and learning. We must have something special to share with each other to take our pedagogical campaign ahead to a majestic attainment, but we should not forget that we should share the ideas and techniques available and we must be serious about creating our own materials as creative humours. There are countless events and evidences scattered around us; we simply need to understand them, collect them systematically and relay them to others.  I am just placing something I have come across as a learning with creative humour as a technique to motivate learners to better vocabulary command. It is all about our self-made abbreviated forms that could be used to help learners to do some brainstorming. It is as follows:

Create your Combinations!

Give your own full forms (phrases and / or sentences) to
the following short forms made with the initials:

AB; ABC; ABCD; PQ; PQR.

(The possible answers would be: AB=Angry Boys; ABC= A Bad Carpenter; ABCD= Angelina’s Babies Coo Daily; PQ= Private Quarter; PQR=Poor Queens’ Regrets)

Conclusion

To laugh is an art and to make people laugh is a bigger art. Humour is naturally a well-perceived social phenomenon that may prove to be an infallible weapon to combat negative emotions, and a good dose to make the listeners or audience feel relaxed keeping depression at bay. Humour is our inborn quality. Whenever it is creative, it adds an additional flavour to something which is already tasty. Moreover, when it comes to language teaching and learning, it becomes a valuable  tool so as to establish a natural and joyful classroom environment for a meaningful learning. This, of course,  maximizes educational activities as a bridge between positive emotions and learning. It will no doubt open all our feelings to strengthen our socio-cultural understandings and ties in the classroom. Sometimes to some students, humours may turn to be dreadful because of lack of self-confidence, difficulty in perceiving the materials in a proper way or previous negative experience in the certain contexts. Yet, a  well-chosen humour in the classroom at the right time could foster mutual openness,  and respect and make a considerable contribution to the effectiveness of overall teaching of English. And, humours are made with the help of actions and/ or words. If we take a solid action in a body, and make our words bold for its pedagogical implementation, maybe as a part of course, language and literature will no longer have to remain confined to a subject just to pass an  exam or secure higher marks, and will turn to be a lively support to our everyday living. So, it would not go in vain if there is a hearty request to share creative humours for our healthy and happy society governed by heart-to-heart communication. We, teachers of English, can initiate first?

References:

Eckert, Bob. Creative Growth through Innovation. Available online at http://www.creativity-portal.com/articles/bob-eckert/
Mcgartland, Grace. Meeting with Humor: Laughter is a creative tool. Aiabale online at http://www.thunderboltthinking.com/humor.htm
Some use links

www.humorpower.com
www.quotationpage.com
www.uncommon-knowledge.co.uk

–Mukunda Kumar Giri
SOS Hermann Gmeiner School Surkhet

According to Piagetian theory, humans cannot be ‘given’ information which they immediately understand and use; they must ‘construct’ their own knowledge through experience. To this end, they need to have interactions with other people and social factors. In the Vedic teaching method, teachers deliver lectures on a topic standing at the front where students are considered as passive listeners. But as the time passed, people developed different concepts regarding teaching learning theories. Now it is believed, “there is no lesson [which] can be done without an interaction in the classroom.” An old Chinese proverb resonates the importance of interaction: if you listen you forget; if you see, you remember; and if you do, you learn. Hence the modern academic world has introduced constructivism – inquiry based learning – which believes in the learner-centeredness in education. With the assumption, students or learners have become a prime focus of all the teaching learning activities in the classroom.

Now learners play the role of active participant in the teaching learning process and teachers  conduct classes based on experiment and practice using simulation, role-play, dramatization, strip story, group work, pair work, elicitation and project work, instead of simply giving speeches (Subedi, 2005). Therefore, teachers are more popularly known as facilitators, managers, and inspirers rather than a mere classroom teacher.

Teaching and learning in the old paradigm was considered as a task in which instructors were assumes as an expert and they were supposed to transfer knowledge to students. But at present, it is considered differently; teaching/learning is a complex job (Cooper, 1994). Now a teacher is not a source of knowledge, but a facilitator. These days, an instructor is also considered as an inspirer who is supposed to inspire learners by creating a favorable environment. Now as it is believed that knowledge is constructed by learners from experience, the instructor needs to “be a guide on the side, rather than a sage on the stage.” If teaching is a professional job, facilitating is the role of the teacher.

According to constructivists, who believe in the Vygotsky’s Social Development Theory, learners play an active role in learning. It indicates that now the focus of teaching has been shifted from a teacher-centered environment of “transmitting” to a more collaborative student-centered learning environment where discovery and inquiry are key strategies for learning. Teachers’ role is to help students to construct meaning rather than provide the meaning they know or familiar with. As there are students having mixed ability in a single classroom, interaction is essential, especially in EFL classroom, where one can help others learn. For this purpose, cooperative learning, constructivism, collaborative learning and learning community are some essential theories proved to be applicable.

In cooperative learning (CL) students work together in small groups to achieve a common goal of learning. It has become increasingly popular as a feature of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) due to its focus on cooperative tasks, critical thinking ability, and providing opportunity to practice both the productive and receptive skills in a natural context. The studies have shown that the benefits of CL extends beyond increased language learning to increased self-esteem and tolerance of diverse points of view (Johnson and Johnson 1989; Kagan 1995; McCafferty, Jacobs, and Iddings 2006; Slavin 1995). Although CL has numerous variations, Johnson and Johnson (1999) provide five features fpr successful CL activity: (1) Students learn that their success depends upon working together interdependently; (2) students are individually accountable while achieving group goals; (3) students support and assist one another’s success through face-to-face interaction; (4) students develop social skills by cooperative and working together effectively; and (5) students as a group have the opportunity to reflect on the effectiveness of working together.

Moreover, in CL, cooperative groups work face-to-face and learn to work as a team; they are individually accountable for their work, and the work of the group as a whole is also assessed. Mickel (1993) says that “Each group operates as a team and the teammates are responsible for their own learning as well as that of their teammates…. Everyone has a task and is actively involved…. students must feel that they need each other in order to carry out the group’s task” (p. 659). On the other hand, CL is also a method of teaching and learning in which students learn together by exploring a significant questions or creating a meaningful project. These two theories are widely implied in EFL classroom as teaching English is more concerned with t application and use rather than knowledge of content unlike other subjects. It clearly indicates that the more students interact, the better they learn the English language through a dynamic process of discovery, inquiry, investigation, discussion, and reflection. On the contrary, the more teachers talk, the less will the students be given the opportunity of expressing themselves.  Hence, teachers should, ideally, be stimulator who gets their students to talk. They need to  provide learners with opportunities for a naturalistic second language acquisition through the use of interactive pair and group activities. The  goal  of teaching English, in this sense, is to enable focused attention to particular lexical items, language structures, and communicative function through use of interactive tasks which enhance learner motivation and reduce stress and create a positive classroom climate. (Richards and Rodgers 1986:193)

In this regards, both theories have great implications as these take interactions as the best technique for language learning. According to these theories, interaction is the authentic communication because “the language used in the classroom when giving instructions is very similar to real life, basic everyday English”(Willis, 1981, p. 30). It gives students the opportunity to “notice the gap” between their comprehension of input and their ability to produce comprehensible output. This helps students be familiarize with using English and helps them feel comfortable interacting in English. It also motivates them to learn English to communicate more effectively and builds students’ confidence in using English in everyday communication. Cooperative efforts result in participants striving for mutual benefit so that all group members learn from each other’s efforts, recognize that all group members share a common fate, know that one’s performance is mutually caused by oneself and one’s team members, and jointly celebrate when a group members are recognized for their achievement. This theory follows some Classroom Interaction Techniques, for example KWL, JIGSAW, TPS, TPR, PD/Debate and Four Corners. KWL provides a defined structure for recalling and stating; what the students know regarding a concept or a topic; what the student wants to know, and finally lists what has been learned and what is yet to be learned. In JIGSAW, everyone becomes an “expert” about a topic or sub-topic, and shares his or her learning within a group setting so that eventually all members learn the content. TPS helps students develop their own ideas as well as build on ideas that originated from co-learners. After reflecting on a topic, students form pairs and discuss, review, and revise their ideas, and eventually share them with the class. In TPR, teachers interact with students by delivering commands, and students demonstrate comprehension through physical response. Four Corners is also a cooperative learning strategy, designed to optimize the learning of the assigned task, and sharing that learning with other students. The teacher needs to assign small groups of students to different corners of the classroom. They discuss various solutions, perspectives and points of view concerning a pre-selected issue, and decide on a presentation format. Finally, small groups present to the class.

In a constructivist classroom, Students’ autonomy and initiative are accepted and encouraged. By respecting students’ ideas and encouraging independent thinking, teachers help students attain their own intellectual identity. The teacher asks open-ended questions and allows wait time for responses. This encourages higher-level thinking. The constructivist teacher challenges students to reach beyond the simple factual response. He encourages students to connect and summarize concepts by analyzing, predicting, justifying, and defending their ideas. For this, students are engaged in dialogue with the teacher and with each other. Social discourse helps students change or reinforce their ideas. Moreover, students are engaged in sharing experiences that challenge hypotheses and encourage discussions. The constructivist teacher provides ample opportunities for students to test their hypotheses, especially through group discussions by using raw data, primary sources, manipulatives, physical, and interactive materials. The constructivist approach involves students in real-world possibilities, and then helps them generate the abstractions that bind phenomena together. (Alexandria,  1993)

In such a class, do you think a teacher simply imparts knowledge? No, certainly not. He rather provides authentic language situations and materials; he creates a non-threatening environment; he makes sure each student has the opportunity to interact during class; he “pushes” students into producing output that is concise, coherent and appropriate; and he provides students with feedback on their output. On the other hand, students also participate and cooperate with others in classroom activities; interact in each class. They risk making mistakes; try out experiment, and create with the language. They learn to use language learning strategies that enable them to continue learning English outside of the classroom. They ask for help and correction and they also provide feedback to teacher about progress.

Therefore, it is true that if teaching is meant for imparting knowledge or skill to learners through instruction or to provide  content of  a subject, learning or to learn is meant for acquiring knowledge. In this sense, teachers and facilitators are different concepts. Teachers  impart knowledge or skill through instruction while facilitators create an environment where students acquire knowledge by doing activities themselves.

References:

Haycraft, John (1997). Some Basic Principles in An Introduction to English Language Teaching. (Revised Impression): Longman

Johnson, D. W., and R. T. Johnson. 1989. Cooperation and competition: Theory and research. Edina, MN: Interaction Book Co.
Kagan, S. (1995).We can talk: Cooperative learning in the elementary ESL Classroom. Washington, DC: ERIC Clearinghouse on Languages and Linguistics. ERIC Digest ED 382035.
McCafferty, S.G., G. M. Jacobs, and A. C. D. Iddings, eds. (2006). Cooperative learning and second language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Richards, J. Rodgers, T.S. (1986). Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching: Cambridge University Press.
Salivin, R. E. (1995). Cooperative learning: Theory, research, and practice. 2nd ed. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Subedi Hira Lal (2005). English Language Teaching Method: Pradhan Book House

Ashok Raj Khati

NELTA Ramechap Branch

He gets up at 5 am, rushes to the college at 6 am and starts his lesson at 6.30. He gives lectures till 10.30, and then comes to have a meal in hurry. He has to take several classes in a school from 11 am to 4 pm where he is a permanent teacher. He has been working as an English teacher for 15 years. Every year he enters into the same classrooms with the same walls, writes on the same blackboard, opens the same textbooks, gives the same notes that he had prepared many years ago.  He finds that his students are always passive listeners every year except in the first month of an academic year. He usually uses chalk, duster, blackboard, and sometime cassette recorder for listening activities.

He reads the  texts, than explains them in his own words. Very often he over explains as well as translates difficult sentences into students’ mother tongue. He also writes the answers of questions given in the texts. He himself writes essays on the board, and tells his student to copy that. He gives rules, and explains them followed by some selected exercises while teaching grammar. Moreover, he writes the summary or central ideas of literary texts for students. He does not forget to remind students some important questions for exam in every lesson.

I think he is making his job easy. At the same time, he finds his job boring and to some extent he is not satisfied with his own teaching. He sits in the same office on the same chairs in front of the same pictures of national heroes hanging on the same wall for 15 years. Most of his colleagues are those who have been teaching in the same school for more than 7 to10 years. At the end of the month, he collects his salary and pays out for his all expenses of the whole month. From the next day, he is again penniless.

He is doing the same job for 14 years. No more innovations, no more materials, no more fun, and no more variety in the classroom. In nutshell, he is having a Lifeless Life.

It is the story of an English teacher, my colleague for last two years. I have observed similar kind of story of high school teachers in this particular part (Ramechap district- a remote part of Nepal) of the country. May be this situation is different from that of urban areas where teachers grow professionally. They may have completed required degree from university in their respective subjects. They may be trained. But in this part of the country trainings are taken only as a tool for promotion and financial attainment. Teachers never pay for trainings. But they grumble: Our job is monotonous.                    

How can an English teacher enjoy his profession particularly in under resourced context of Nepal? In response to my query, Aneta Naumoska, an English teacher for Macedonia commented as follows via e-mail:

 Hi Ashok, by writing this text that sincerely touched my heart and raised an issue in the context of teaching English that appears not only in Nepal, but in many other places worldwide! Honestly, I have several examples to add to yours that I don’t even know how and where to start! You made an excellent point by exemplifying what I am avoiding at all costs to become in the future as an EFL teacher!

One of the factors that according to me hinders teachers thoroughly enjoying their profession and finding satisfaction in it is their lack of eagerness to become an active part of the worldwide ELT community, to share experiences with their colleagues from all around the world by attending (or presenting at) seminars, conferences, workshops and the like. From such passive colleagues I have noticed that their absence and non-involvement in such places makes them lose interest in the fact that the English language is constantly changing and speeding in the fast track! Such involvement with other colleagues surely opens your horizons on a number of ELT issues!

My experience in teaching (as well as attending many ELT classes as a passive observer) has shown me that being innovative, resourceful, and many other things, comes from the teacher himself/herself … not from the textbooks they use in class or other external materials (like handouts). Use every single source of knowledge and materials that is available to you and adapt it to the teaching situation, and to the different students and their various learning styles.

 This way, we teachers not only bring novelty to the classroom, but we also stay young at heart!

All the best,

Aneta Naumoska,

An English teacher, Macedonia

Ganga Ram Gautam
President, NELTA

Rt. Honourable Chair of Constituent Assembly Mr. Subash Chandra Nembang,
Honourable Member of National Planning Commission and Founding President of NELTA Prof. Tirth Raj Khaniya,
Past President, Current Advisor and Chief Editor of NELTA Journal Prof. Jai Raj Awasthi,
Prof. Abhi Subedi sir,
Secretary, Ministry of Education,
Paula Middleton and Ewan Davies British Council,
Amanda Jacobson, the US Embassy,
Founder Principal, Little Angels’ School,
Distinguished Guests on the dais,
Key speakers, Presenters, participants from home and abroad, publishers,
NELTA colleagues, media persons, ladies and gentlemen,

Good morning and a very warm welcome to you all. This morning I feel very honoured and privileged to be here as the President of an association which we co-founded with my seniors 16 years ago. On this occasion, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to all my seniors and all NELTA members for entrusting the current team to lead this wonderful association.

NELTA now serves through its 26 branches across the country with over 1300 life members and thousands of general members. Our members include English teachers of all levels of education, materials writers, ELT practitioners and experts working both in government and non-government sectors.

Now NELTA has established itself a truly voluntary professional organisation. NELTA members contribute to the framing of ELT curriculum, training packages preparation, their delivery and trainers’ preparation.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
NELTA operates through its strategic plan and in the last one year we have achieved a lot. The details of the accomplishments have been presented in the conference booklet and it will also come in the General Secretary’s report at the AGM tomorrow. To highlight the key achievements, we have made some progress in the ELT survey in which NELTA works with the National Planning Commission, Ministry of Education, British Council and the US Embassy. We have done the preliminary work and detailed discussion is being carried out on its size and modality. David Graddol, a world renowned expert in this kind of research, has kindly accepted our request to contribute to the design of this survey and we have him here at this conference as one of the key speakers. NELTA and other key stakeholders will have a detailed discussion with David on this ELT survey.

Secondly, B. Ed. and M.Ed. courses at Tribhuvan university have been recently revised. In order to make our teacher education system compatible with the global ELT framework, NELTA and TU requested the US Embassy to make an international expert available to review these courses. As a result, we have Dr. Numa Markee with us here who kindly accepted the request and contributed to the standardisation of the courses.
When we asked Numa to give us his impression about our courses he said, “Overall, I think that the quality of the curriculum you have devised is certainly comparable to that of British, American and Australian universities with which I am familiar”. Numa will also be giving a key speech, plenary session and workshop both in Kathmandu and Surkhet conference. We are very grateful to both David and Numa for their important contributions to NELTA.

Thirdly, we have two key partners working with us since NELTA was born. Currently, we partner with British Council to implement the English for Teaching and Teaching for English (ETTE) project at the branch level. Similarly, with the support of the US embassy, we plan to run a new program called Access in which we will teach English to the youths of the disadvantaged communities and this program will be implemented by the NELTA branch locally. Also, the US embassy has been very kind to supply the ELT Forum magazine to all the life members of all the NELTA branches. NELTA has collaborated with Radio Sagarmatha in the English by Radio program supported by the Embassy and it is very popular.

One of the significant achievements of this year is the outreach program. We have two highly dedicated friends with us who have reached the unreached in the NELTA network. Gretchen Coppege, the English Language Fellow sponsored by the US embassy travelled with NELTA trainers to eight different branches and reached more than one thousand teachers. Similarly, another untiring friend Kate Miller from the UK who has been with us for the last four five years at different times voluntarily travels to the very remote branches and trains the teachers. This year she conducted teacher training in Baitadi, Dhangadh and Chitwan and she also conducted TOT in Lalitpur. After the conference in Kathmandu and Surkhet, she will conduct another TOT in Surkhet. Gretchen and Kate, thank you both of you for your great contributions.

Capacity building of the NELTA leaders has always been our priority. With the support from the British Council and the US embassy, NELTA members have participated in different international courses and events. We are very pleased with the Bell Centre in the UK for providing NELTA with the scholarships to attend trainer’s development course in the UK. Our warm welcome to Jim Scrivener from Bell who will be presenting here and in Surkhet.

Decentrilisation is yet another key strategy NELTA has included in the current plan. We would like to build regional hubs regionally so that sustainable growth can be observed at the branch level. NELTA Birgunj successfully organised a regional conference and NELTA Surkhet is undertaking a responsibility of organising international conference immediately after this conference. This shows that the branches have built up their capacity to function independently and NELTA Dhangadhi branch has acquired land and they are soon constructing building. I am happy to report that most of the branches have been very active and vibrant and with some support from the centre and the collaborating agencies. We have also had some discussion with the Fulbright Commission in Nepal and we have planned to have six ETAs to work with NELTA next year. We thank Fulbright for their willingness to partner with NELTA in this program.
The present NELTA journal is a historic one as it was peer reviewed and got registered with the ISSN number. The credit for this goes to the highly dedicated editorial team led by Prof. Awasthi. Along with him, Prem Phyak, Ghanshyam Sharma and Bal Krishna Sharma were behind this Herculean task and they have worked day and night to bring the journal in time.

Similarly, the online discussion forum moderated by the journal team along with Sajan Karna and Kamal Poudel and yahoogroups have been excellent forums for our members to connect themselves with the global ELT. Please log on to these sites and enrich yourself through mutual sharing.

In the next couple of years, NELTA should continue the projects that it has initiated and we need to create more space for collaboration with the key ELT stakeholders. Consolidation and capacity building of the branches should remain the top priority and the implementation of the ELT survey project should be our main target for next year. In order to accomplish these ambitious targets, we need your active participation and cooperation from all the sectors including the government. I am sure if we are together we can achieve what we aim.

Nepal at present in undergoing a big political shift. We are going to have a new constitution in a couple of months and the language issue is one of the hot topics. As an association of English teachers, we feel that the new constitution should also talk about the role of English in new Nepal. Since English is now a global language and language of education and business, a systematic positioning of English would certainly benefit our country to keep ourselves abreast with the rest of the world. In this context, I would like to request the Chief Guest of the ceremony Rt. Hon’ble Chair of the CA, to bring this discourse in the constitution framing process. NELTA shall be happy to contribute to this and we will be ever ready to collaborate with the CA for the appropriate positioning of English in the new constitution.

This conference marks the historic one with more than 100 speakers from different countries. I would like to welcome the two key speakers, all the presenters including the representative of our neighbouring ELT organisations like SPELT, BELTA, SLELTA, ELTAI and all the participants from home and abroad. On behalf of NELTA, I would like to express my gratitude to you all for accepting our invitation. I wish all the participants and experts to have fruitful deliberations. I also wish the foreign and out of valley participants a pleasant stay in Kathmandu. Please bear with us the very humble arrangements we, as a voluntary association, have been able to make.

Finally, in order to make this conference happen, Little Angels’ School System has given us a great support without which we would not have been able to carry it out so smoothly. Thank you LAS team. Similarly, for the last few months, NELTA colleagues have worked day and night. I sincerely acknowledge their voluntary contributions and I truly feel that they deserve the credit of the success of this conference.

Thank you very much indeed.