Creative thinking and language learning inside the box

• Morning Plenary

We are all familiar with the idea that creative thinking means thinking ‘outside the box’.  However, there is an alternative viewpoint that real innovation occurs by working ‘inside the box’ (Boyd and Goldenberg, 2013). In this presentation we’ll consider the place of creativity in the classroom and challenge the notion that we want our learners to use language with complete freedom. Instead, by providing them with frameworks and templates to work within, your students can use language more creatively resulting in relevant, authentic and motivating communication. This session will demonstrate a variety of practical ‘inside the box’ activities which you can use with your students tomorrow.