Examining the Effectiveness of Some Creative Teaching Techniques Used at the Language Center, South East European University

Abstract

Creative teaching techniques enhance student motivation and promote students’ performance. Teachers and researchers are investigating the impact of different creative teaching techniques and methods towards improving the students’ final results. This paper explores the effectiveness of some creative teaching techniques and activities used in a University EFL classroom. The participants in this study were 20 first year students, attending Intermediate Basic English Skills (BSE) at South East European University in Tetovo, Macedonia. A qualitative approach was used for the data collection. The instruments used in this study were: a lesson plan, student paragraph samples, classroom observation and teacher evaluation of the lesson. The findings indicate that creative techniques prove to be very effective in the classroom. Moreover, it was evident that teacher motivation is of a high importance if we want our students to give better output. Additionally, using interesting, motivating and creative techniques and activities in the classroom had a very positive effect on creating an encouraging classroom atmosphere. The teacher becomes a guide and classes are more student-centered. It can be suggested that creativity and motivation have an important role for improving the quality of teaching and learning and therefore should be applied regularly by Foreign Language teachers (EFL in this case).

Keywords: creative, techniques, methods, lesson plan, students