Creativity in materials development

According to Tomlinson's chapter in Dat Bao (2018), a key way to make typical coursebook activities more beneficial for the learner is to:

• Ensure the activities are completed as quickly as possible.

• Make the activities more personalized and engaging for the individual learner.

• Strictly follow the instructions provided in the teacher's book

• Focus on activities that require rote memorization.

Dat Bao (2018) argues that from a constructivist perspective, creativity in materials development is primarily about:

• Using aesthetically pleasing and colorful images.

• Encouraging learners to construct their own understanding and meaning from the materials.

• Providing a large number of grammatical drills.

• Creating materials that are only used in a very specific cultural context.

Tomlinson's suggestions for adapting coursebook activities often involve moving from a more controlled activity to a more:

• Unstructured, free-flowing activity.

• Repetitive, drill-based activity.

• Teacher-led, lecture-based activity.

• Test-focused, high-stakes activity.

According to Dat Bao (2018), a "constructivist perspective" on creativity in ELT materials suggests that creativity is not just about the final product, but also about:

• The teacher's personal artistic skills.

• The learners' cognitive and social processes in making meaning.

• The amount of time spent on the activity.

• The financial cost of the materials.

A teacher adapts a gap-fill activity by having students first brainstorm their own ideas to fill the gaps before they look at the options. This is a clear example of applying which principle from Tomlinson (2018)?

•  Focusing on grammar rules.

• Moving from closed to more open-ended activities.

• Limiting the learners' creative input.

• Removing the element of communicative interaction.

Dat Bao (2018) suggests that materials that foster creativity should encourage learners to:

• Find the single correct answer to a problem.

• Mimic the teacher's language without deviation.

• Make choices, take risks, and generate new connections.

• Only use language that they have already seen in the textbook.

A teacher uses an authentic photo from a news website and asks students to create a backstory for the people in the picture. This activity is a strong example of materials for creativity because it:

• Focuses on a single correct answer.

• Encourages learners to engage in a shared, social construction of meaning.

• Is an activity that is only for advanced learners.

• Is purely focused on grammatical accuracy.

Tomlinson (2018) provides a critique of many traditional coursebook activities, suggesting they often:

• Encourage too much free expression.

• Are too short to be effective.

• Are repetitive, mechanical, and fail to provide opportunities for personal engagement.

• Require too much creative effort from the teacher.

A key implication of Dat Bao's (2018) constructivist perspective on materials is that they should be:

• Rigid and unchangeable.

• Seen as tools that facilitate learning, rather than as fixed content to be delivered.

• Replaced every year with a new version.

• Designed to be used in a highly structured, teacher-centered environment.

A teacher takes a traditional reading comprehension passage and asks students to rewrite the ending from a different character's perspective. What pedagogical rationale from Tomlinson (2018) best justifies this adaptation?

• It ensures that students will be tested on the content of the original passage.

• It moves beyond a passive, receptive activity to an active, creative one.

• It makes the reading passage longer and more complex.

•  It removes the need for any discussion or group work.