How to Teach Creatively in College EFL Classroom

Creativity is always regarded as “thinking out of the box” and is integrated into educational curriculums in nearly all disciplines. However, studies related with creativity in English course still didn’t receive enough attention, especially in college EFL (English as a Foreign Language) class, compared with creativity in science and arts fields. In EFL class, creativity teaching should have its focus not only on big “C”, such as poetry, novel, and other eminent productions using English, but also on little “c”, the improvised speaking or spontaneous creative communicative performance in English. In addition, creativity does not happen in a vacuum, so teachers’ creative behaviors and strategies adopted in teaching process are of vital importance in developing learners’ creativity in language class. This paper first introduced the characteristics of creative behavior of EFL teachers as well as the features of creative activities. In foreign language teaching, teachers need strategies to provide a creative learning atmosphere in which students are motivated and original and critical thinking is generated. Specific creative teaching strategies are described with examples in this paper hoping to offer more insights for creative teaching in college EFL class.