DOI: 10.1002/tesj.

416

SPECIAL ISSUE

Promoting creativity through language play in EFL

classrooms

Hyunhee Cho1 | Hoe Kyeung Kim2

1
Daegu National University of Education
2
Teaching creativity in second language (L2) education has
State University of New York at
Binghamton recently received increasing attention. Despite its central
role in language creativity, language play in L2 class-
Correspondence
rooms has not been fully explored. This article revisits the
Hoe Kyeung Kim, State University of New
York at Binghamton, New York, United theoretical grounding of creativity in language education,
States. particularly focusing on language play, and provides peda-
Email: hoekim@binghamton.edu
gogical suggestions for its implementation in L2 class-
rooms. We propose five different types of language play
with example activities to help language teachers under-
stand and integrate them in their instruction. We argue that
language play can promote L2 learners’ creativity by mo-
tivating students to communicate their ideas and raising
their metalinguistic awareness. Especially in an English as
a foreign language (EFL) setting where teachers face chal-
lenges in implementing the principles of communicative
language teaching (CLT) and creativity, language play can
be a good tool for teachers to foster students’ communica-
tive competence and build a space that encourages them to
be creative and explorative. As a conclusion, we provide
guidelines for teachers on how to integrate language play
in their classrooms.

1 | IN T RO D U C T ION

There has been a growing interest in teaching creativity in language education in recent years (Ely &
McCabe, 1994; Han, Kim, & Oh, 2013; Kim, 2014; Maybin & Swann, 2007; No, 2013). Creativity
often refers to novel ways of perceiving things and divergent thinking. Creativity is inherent in all
people and observable in everyday language use (Carter, 2016; Cook, 1997, 2000; Crystal, 1998).

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On this account, it is essential for language teachers to integrate language creativity in their teaching.
Language creativity includes playful use of language in ordinary settings from jokes to literary styles
and metaphors (Maybin & Swann, 2007). As a central part of language creativity, language play is de-
fined as any manipulation of sound, meaning, and form of the language for the purpose of enjoyment
(Cook, 1997; Crystal, 1998; Tarone, 2000).
Compared to extensive discussions on the role of creativity in first language (L1) development,
teaching creativity in second language (L2) education has recently received increasing attention (e.g.,
Han et al., 2013; Kim, 2014; Maybin & Swann, 2007; No, 2013; Szerencsi, 2010). Several scholars
(Bell, 2012; Cekaite & Aronsson, 2005; Pomerantz & Bell, 2011) have recognized the benefit of cre-
ative language play in promoting L2 learners’ awareness of language forms. L2 learners’ collaborative
participation in language play can further advance their communicative competence and lead them
to identify themselves as active members of the classroom community (Cekaite & Aronsson, 2005).
The idea of creativity with language may provide L2 teachers with new directions to raise learners’
language awareness and level of engagement in learning the target language.
Given the benefit of language play and the need to implement creativity in L2 classrooms, we
revisit the theoretical grounding of creativity in language education and language play to offer a ra-
tionale for its implementation. We select five types of language play and present them as a tool for
teachers to integrate creativity in L2 classrooms. Using an example of South Korean English as a
foreign language (EFL) context, we provide practical suggestions for teachers who find it challenging
and difficult to integrate creativity into their test-­driven and standardized instructional settings (Sung
& Kang, 2012). This article aims to open up discourses about promoting creativity through language
play and contribute to enriching resources for teachers’ creative practices in L2 classrooms.

2 | C R E AT IV IT Y, LA NG UAG E CREATIVIT Y, AND

LA NG UAG E PLAY

With a shift from understanding creativity as an inherent quality to viewing it as something to be

nurtured, creativity is considered as a mental process or a skill that can be explained and taught (Craft,
2001). Creativity is characterized by learners’ exhibiting fluency, flexibility, originality, and elabora-
tion, and it pertains to divergent rather than convergent thinking skills (Guilford, 1957). In educa-
tion, teaching creatively, which implies effective teaching, leads to teaching for creativity, which has
learner empowerment as its main focus (Jeffrey & Craft, 2004). Thus, diverse methods and tools for
teaching creatively are needed to assist teachers to promote their teaching for creativity.
Moving beyond the Chomskyan notion of linguistic creativity, which is limited to the language
system, language creativity includes diverse language uses in everyday contexts. It extends to less
familiar and novel language uses such as recreating, refashioning, and recontextualizing linguistic and
cultural resources in the process of communication (Maybin & Swann, 2007). Playing a central role in
language creativity, language play occurs in situations and instances when the shape of the message is
the focus of attention and the form is exploited for the purpose (Hymes, 1964; Kirshenblatt-­Gimblett,
1976). Language play refers to any maneuver of language that is done in a nonserious manner for the
purpose of fun and enjoyment (Bell & Pomerantz, 2016; Crystal, 1998).
Language play can appear at different linguistic levels. At the phonetic level, sound play refers
to a repetitive, rhythmic, melodic phonation or sound effect (Garvey, 1977), which includes rhyme,
rhythm, assonance, consonance, alliteration, and so on. Among them, rhyme and alliteration are prom-
inent and easily discernible types in children’s language play (Crystal, 1998). At the semantic level,
language play involves units of meaning, combining them in a way that does not have a reference in the
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real world (Cook, 2000). The metaphor is a representative type of semantic play (Littlemore, 2001).
Semantic play also appears in the form of blending words (Carter, 2016) or riddles or verbal humor
(Ely & McCabe, 1994). Considering the large scope of language play occurring at several levels in
the language, language teachers need to be knowledgeable about language play in order to help their
students engage in creative use of the language.
Studies on language play demonstrate its benefits on children’s language development when used
in classroom discourse (e.g., Crystal, 1998; Ely & McCabe, 1994). Classroom discourse which in-
cludes a fair amount of spontaneous language play supports students’ language development. For
example, playing riddles is a strong predictor of students’ reading ability (Ely & McCabe, 1994).
Drawing on the rich discussion of the benefits of language play in L1 development, several L2 schol-
ars propose language play as a potential tool for L2 learning (Bell, 2012; Cook, 2000; Pomerantz &
Bell, 2011; Tarone, 2000). Bell (2012) demonstrated that playing with formulaic language allowed L2
learners to practice, analyze, and experiment with the target language, which in turn induced creative
language exploration. Cekaite and Aronsson (2005) illustrated how collaborative language play in a
Swedish immersion classroom entailed L2 learners’ attention to phonological, semantic, and syntactic
levels. They argued that the language play improved their communicative competence by enhancing
linguistic knowledge and discourse skills.
Language play encourages students’ collaborative learning through participating in joint construc-
tion of meaning. It supports meaningful interaction by allowing L2 learners to use the target language
in a playful manner. Learners jointly create a discourse that reflects their own interest and peer culture
where they feel safe from anxieties in learning L2 (Bell, 2012; Cekaite & Aronsson, 2005; Pomerantz
& Bell, 2011). In a study conducted by Pomerantz and Bell (2011), learners of Spanish demonstrated
how they used language play to negotiate language norms, classroom identities, and power relations.
Their study suggested how to provide L2 learners with an opportunity to expand their linguistic
knowledge and safely break free from the scripted classroom discourse. Recognizing the benefits of
language play on the cognitive and the social aspects of learning, teachers can implement language
play in their classes to facilitate students’ language learning in a creative way, which contributes to
enhancing students’ creative ability.

3 | LA NG UAGE P LAY IN T H E EFL CLASSROOM : THE

S O U T H KO R EA N CA SE

L2 teachers, especially in the EFL setting, have been constrained by students’ limited exposure to
the target language, decontextualized and inauthentic teaching materials, and test-­driven curriculum.
Implementation of communicative language teaching (CLT) has posed challenges to EFL teachers in
such settings, which results in the gaps between the principles and the practices of CLT (e.g., Chang &
Goswami, 2011; Hiep, 2007; Sung & Kang, 2012). In the case of South Korea, CLT has been the core
principle in English education since 1997. Whereas CLT addresses the balancing of forms, functions,
and meanings in language instruction, EFL instruction has heavily focused on language forms, not
paying enough attention to language functions in meaningful contexts. In addition to CLT, teachers
are expected to integrate creativity education in their classrooms based on the 2015 revision of the
English curriculum. Due to the challenges, teachers feel overwhelmed to integrate creativity enhanced
instruction (Chung, 2013). There is a need for guiding and supporting teachers in integrating creativity
in their classrooms (Han et al., 2013; Kim, 2014).
In the English curriculum in Korea, teachers are required to comply with the CLT curriculum and
promote students’ creativity. Below are excerpts from the newly revised Korean textbooks. Example
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1 uses repetition of words (e.g., cap, ball, bag), phrases (e.g., oh, my cap, on the desk), and sentences
(e.g., it’s on the desk), which gives a highly rhythmic effect. In addition to the repetition of phrases
and sentences, Example 2 provides a dialogue format to explicitly address its communicative focus.
Example 1 Example 2
Cap, cap. Oh, my cap. Drawing a picture. I’m drawing a picture.
On the desk. It’s on the desk. What are you doing?
Ball, ball. Oh, my ball. Reading a book. I’m reading a book.
On the bed. It’s on the bed. Watching TV. I’m watching TV.
Bag, bag. Oh, my bag. (Choi et al., 2017)
In the box. It’s in the box.
(Ham et al., 2017)

Both examples show how language play is introduced for beginning learners in the form-­focused
instruction where playful repetitions of formulaic expressions can be beneficial in promoting students’
communicative skills (Bell, 2012). Teachers’ use of language play can be a good tool for raising
students’ awareness of the forms and motivating them to use the forms in explorative ways. Adding
more language play such as rhyme, alliteration, word play, and metaphor will highlight authentic and
creative features of language in the instruction.

4 | S U G G EST ION S FO R C LA S SROOM LANGUAGE PLAY

We provide practical suggestions for teachers to implement language play in L2 classrooms. Without
guidelines, resources, and support, teachers face challenges in adopting creativity instruction due to
additional burdens (Chung, 2013) and the unfamiliarity of the form and style (Cho, 2017). In this
article, five types of language play are presented to assist teachers in integrating language play with
CLT approaches. They are adapted from the classifications offered by Cook (1997) and Cekaite and
Aronsson (2005) and include rhymes and alliterations, blending words, riddles, metaphors, and varied
text structures. The first four types refer to language play on the phonological level and semantic level.
The last one involves the text arrangement with visual effects. Each language play is presented with a
brief explanation, its creativity feature, and an example activity.

4.1 | Rhymes and Alliterations

Children’s play with phonetic and phonological aspects of language, represented by rhymes and alliter-
ations, appear at early years of L1 development (Crystal, 1998). In classrooms, rhymes and alliterations
can be used to raise students’ phonemic awareness. Using the minimal pair, which stresses two contrast
phonemes, is a good way to teach rhymes and alliterations. For example, Rub-­a Dub Dub, one of the
popular children’s rhymes, shows how the phoneme /r/ is playfully contrasted by /d/ in the minimal
pair made by the two words. As an example of alliteration, a sentence in Dr. Seuss’s ABC (1996), “Silly
Sammy Slick / sipped six sodas / and got sick sick sick,” includes a series of words starting with S.
In teaching sounds and letters of English in L2 classrooms, we suggest teachers encourage
students to play with alliterations and rhymes. Teachers should guide students to appreciate and
enjoy rhymes and alliterations using various texts such as chants, songs, or story books, and to ex-
periment with them in group activities. These form-­focused activities facilitate verbal interaction
and contribute to developing students’ communicative ability when creating their own phrases and
sentences.
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Example activity: Making your own rhyme/alliteration book

The teacher reads a rhyme book (e.g., Dr. Seuss’s Hop on Pop [1963]) aloud with students,
emphasizing the rhymes and pointing to the pictures of the phrases such as “mouse on
house” from the book. Then the teacher has students swap the two noun words in the phrase
and then draw “house on mouse” on paper. When students feel playful to create more
phrases, they may produce a funny sentence like “house in mouse.” Through recognizing
and rearranging the minimal pairs and rhymes, students can expand their basic phonolog-
ical skills. At the same time, students will be encouraged to verbalize their imagination,
which in turn promotes their creative ability. As a wrap-­up of the activity, the teacher as-
signs each student to make a minibook using rhyme or alliteration and publish a classbook.
To assist beginning learners, flashcards can be used for a more explicit phonics instruction.

4.2 | Blending Words

Blending words refers to semantic play (Carter, 2016) which displaces syllables or phonemes in words
and remolds them for particular expressive purposes. This word-­blending occurs in everyday conver-
sations frequently in the form of jokes. Among various reformations of words and phrases, humorous
word blending such as Pencil-vania—in response to the question where pencils go for vacation—is a
good example for application. Blending words and phrases helps students develop the awareness of
standard and formulaic use of words and phrases (Carter, 2016). Word blending can also be formed
through mixing words from different languages. The bilingual or multilingual word blending proves
L2 learners are aware of the similarities and differences between the semantic and morphological
systems in their L1 and L2 (Tarone, 2000).
When teachers integrate word blending into their instruction, they can use a nonsense word, for
instance, eletelephony, in the poem by Richards (1988), which is made by the two words elephant and
telephone. We encourage teachers to use a relevant illustration or a picture to alleviate students’ lin-
guistic burden that is caused by the unfamiliar form and style of the text. With the visual aid, students
can comprehend how the word eletelephony was created—elephant, telephone, and the morpheme y
and visualize their imagined objects. Students gain awareness of phonemic and phonological compo-
nents in words and enjoy segmenting and blending them in a novel way to make new meanings.

Example activity: Creating an imaginary hybrid

In vocabulary teaching, the teacher asks groups of students to think of an imaginary
hybrid animal (or plant) and draw it on paper. Each group is asked to combine the names
of the animal (or the plant) they think of and create a new word (e.g., Tyrannosaurus +
falcon = Tyrannocon). After creating hybrids, each group shares only the picture with the
other groups to guess its hybrid names. By sharing and explaining how they blended two
words to name their imaginary creatures, students can develop metalinguistic knowledge
about word formation and skills for negotiation of meaning.

4.3 | Riddles
Riddles are a part of young children’s spontaneous classroom discourse (Ely & McCabe, 1994). With
the distinctively interactive feature, riddles promote students’ creativity by linking decontextualized
phrases with another context and at the same time referring them to a fantasy and a real world (Cook,
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2000). Riddles can be challenging for L2 learners to comprehend and enjoy because they are full of
homonyms, rhymes, metaphors, and cultural meanings as well as idiomatic expressions. For example,
a question like “Something that falls and never breaks, and something that breaks but never falls?” re-
quires students to know the expressions day breaks and night falls and homonyms of the words break
and fall. Despite its cognitive load in solving problems, using riddles develops L2 learners’ ability to
use words and formulaic expressions in a creative and unconventional way.
Using riddles, teachers can show how the manipulation of phonemes in words creates a reference
to a fantasy world. For example, teachers can pose a question, “What do ghosts use to dry their hair?”
and encourage students to come up with the word scare that rhymes with hair. Teachers can use rid-
dles as a class routine and invite students to create their own. Learning riddles builds creativity both
in language and cognition because it prompts L2 learners to see things in a different perspective based
on careful listening and critical analysis of the question (Buchoff, 1996).

Example activity: Riddles for guessing words

The teacher introduces a list of homonyms which have different meanings with the same
spelling to the class. After discussing the meanings and usages, the teacher gives stu-
dents riddles containing homonyms. Students work together to solve them and share
their answers with other group. This kind of activity can be used as a part of vocabulary
instruction or as a minilesson. Providing visual aids supports students’ word knowledge
and their solving the riddle.

4.4 | Metaphors
Making and using metaphors is a creative process in its nature because it defamiliarizes commonplace
objects and organizes thoughts and words in a new way (Miall, 1979). To develop students’ communi-
cative competence, L2 learners need to comprehend and make an appropriate guess of the metaphoric
expressions of the target language (Littlemore, 2001). It is important for teachers to support students
to be aware of the similarities and differences of the culture and language systems in their L1 and
L2. Raising students’ consciousness of diversity in linguistic and cultural practices in the language-­
learning process can enhance their creative exploration of language.
An example of the metaphoric uses is found in the phrases, “A very BROWN idea. A very
BIG, BROWN, BAG idea” and “A very spiky idea. A very cool, spiky, MEGA-­HOLD GEL
idea” in Baghead (Krosoczka, 2004). By infusing senses to a concept, the expressions use novel
metaphors as figurative speech (Littlemore, 2001). One way to teach metaphor is to use forced
combinations, which puts heterogeneous objects or ideas together to make a new meaning. In
L2 classrooms, teachers can encourage students to express emotions or images using the forced
combination strategy.
Example activity: Creating your own metaphor
The teacher gives students a list of adjectives and nouns that are not normally collocated,
for example sunny and cold with friends and homework. After making a descriptive
phrase by pairing adjective and noun such as sunny friends or cold homework, students
draw a picture illustrating the phrases, and explain what it means to other students. Later,
the teacher introduces idiomatic expressions containing the words, such as cold shoulder
and the sunny side. The activity stimulates students’ creativity by having them explore
new associations of words.
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4.5 | Varied Text Structures

Manipulating the structure of a text is another type of creative language use. Varied structures com-
monly found in poems allow students to use their linguistic repertoire creativity in writing. The pat-
tern poem is a verse with text alignment in a shape that illustrates the content of the poem. There are
several types of pattern poems (e.g., diamante poem, concrete poem, rebus poem) that can be used for
L2 learners without demanding high language skills. For example, a diamante poem is a well known
pattern poem in which words are associated with one another in the shape of diamonds. Use of the
pattern poem can motivate L2 learners to express their ideas and feelings without the burden of writ-
ing the whole paragraph.
The teacher can employ various pattern poems to guide L2 learners to deliver their messages,
making the best of their English skills. Writing a pattern poem can stimulate students’ imagination
and expand their verbal repertoire by allowing them to visualize their ideas in text. It also provides
each student with the opportunity to express his or her unique way of conceptualizing things around
themselves in their own words.

Example activity: Writing a pattern poem

The teacher integrates pattern poems in their writing class. Students can compose their
writing in a variety of forms, instead of following a conventional writing style. For ex-
ample, the teacher uses the form of equations that appear in This Plus That (Rosenthal,
2011), such as Laughter + keeping secrets + sharing = best friend and Wishes + frosting
= birthday. The teacher has students make different formulas of words. Students develop
their own forms and shapes to express their ideas, which leads to ownership of their L2
writing.

5 | CO NC LUSION

Given EFL teaching contexts, teachers are expected to meet various requirements of the curriculum
which influence their everyday teaching practices. In spite of the value of creativity and its potential
role of stimulating communicative competence, the feasibility of language play in L2 classrooms has
been underexplored. We argue that language play benefits L2 learning because it enhances students’
metalinguistic awareness and motivates students to use L2 in a safe and explorative setting. Playful
and creative language use leads to the development of students’ creative ability.
General guidelines for integrating language play into classroom activities are as follows: 1) Plan
language play as a part of form-­focused instruction so that students can freely explore the target form.
Language play should not be learning goals where students’ performances are assessed and judged.
It should encourage students to stumble, fall, and continue exploring in the target language. 2) Stress
meaningful and authentic language use which leads to communicative language learning during the
instruction. Teachers need to expand their use of language play to include various language skills such
as reading and writing. Teachers are encouraged to use pair or group work in language play instruction
so that students can develop their communicative competence. 3) Draw on students’ personal experi-
ences and linguistic repertoire for a successful integration. Teachers should acknowledge and integrate
students’ needs, interests, imaginative thoughts, and multiple voices (Kinloch, 2005). To accommodate
students’ levels, teachers need to provide visual aids to reduce L2 learners’ linguistic burden and facil-
itate their understanding of the text. 4) Create a supportive environment where unfamiliar forms are
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allowed and accepted in classrooms. It is critical for teachers to allow language play as part of legitimate
classroom talks. During language play, teachers need to remind students that they can explore the L2
without being afraid of making errors. 5) Aim at self-­directed learning (Jeffrey & Craft, 2004), in which
students take the responsibility of their own learning and have ownership of their target language use.
We argue that the integration of language play in L2 classrooms will support the development of
students’ communicative competence. The role of teachers is critical in creating active and participatory
classroom environments where students engage in playful and creative language learning. Especially in
EFL settings where teaching creativity meets contextual constraints such as in South Korea, we suggest
that teachers integrate language play with existing standardized curriculums and provide students with
a space for creative use of language. To achieve this goal of integrating creativity, more future research
and teacher education on language play in English classrooms are strongly recommended.

6 | T H E AU T HOR S

Hyunhee Cho is a professor in the Department of English Education in Daegu National University of
Education, South Korea. Dr. Cho teaches qualitative research methodology and literature-­based instruc-
tion for young English learners. Her research interests include teacher talk for dialogic English class-
rooms and language creativity and language play in English language teaching.
Hoe Kyeung Kim is an associate professor of the Department of Teaching, Learning and Educational
Leadership at the State University of New York at Binghamton. Dr. Kim teaches second language
acquisition, TESOL methods and assessment, global contexts for TESOL, and content-­based curricu-
lum and instruction. Her research interests include teacher education, second language acquisition, and
classroom interaction.

ORCID
Hoe Kyeung Kim http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9318-5168

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How to cite this article: Cho H, Kim HK. Promoting creativity through language play in EFL
classrooms. TESOL J. 2018;9:e416. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.416
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