Teacher creativity in materials writing

Abstract

Materials writing is most often seen as an activity that involves a high level of creativity. Certain professionals make a living out of it and their services are sought whenever publishers want to issue new course books, photocopiable and online resources, digital media, and other language learning and teaching materials. Their creativity enables them to produce materials for teachers and learners to use in the classroom. However, writing materials is not an activity strictly confined to such professionals. Most language teachers have to regularly write materials or adapt existent ones in order to address the needs of their learners. When they do so, they are still deploying their creativity, despite the fact that some of them might not consider themselves as creative professionals. This article explores the idea that, if teachers were to reconceptualise, creativity they would be able to see what they do with materials (including adaptation) as a creative act. Moreover, the article considers how familiarity with certain language acquisition principles might be helpful for teachers wishing to hone their creativity skills for the purpose of engaging in materials writing.