Editorial
The text was first published in IATEFL Issues (now Voices) 191 July 2006
Lateral Thinking and Language Learning Activity Design
Simon Mumford, Turkey
Simon Mumford teaches EAP at Izmir University of Economics, Turkey. He has written on using stories, visuals, drilling, reading aloud, and is especially interested in the creative teaching of grammar. simon.mumford@ieu.edu.tr
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Introduction
Random connections
Nonsense sentences
Simple games
Closing thoughts
Reference
Lateral thinking is a concept invented by Dr. Edward de Bono. He sees creativity as ‘the behaviour of information in a self-organising information system, such as the neural networks in the brain’. His message, simply put, seems to be that creativity is a habit produced by thinking about things in different ways, using thinking tools such as ‘lateral thinking’, rather than some innate quality. This kind of creativity can be useful in producing innovative and motivating language learning activities. Here I very briefly describe three of de Bono’s techniques and suggest some activities generated by them.
One of de Bono’s techniques involves making random connections. He suggests opening a dictionary at random and relating the first word you see to the problem you are working on. However, it also works with random objects. Here are some connections I have made:
A ball of string and a dictation
Have six or seven students sit in a circle. Give one of them the end of a ball of string. Now unravelling the string connect all the students, crossing it over in the middle of the circle, making a star shape with everyone holding a piece. Tell them that this is a telephone wire and give the students holding the beginning of the string a text. Tell them to pass the message down the wire, two or three words at a time, as fast as they can, and give a time limit, which ensures that they all speak at the same time. The person at the other end writes down the text as he receives it. Then it is compared with the original.
A fridge and spelling
Draw a square on the board and tell the students it is a fridge. Now write ten common letters of the alphabet in the ‘fridge’. Get students to ask you such questions as ‘Is there any icecream in the fridge?’ ‘ Are there any apples in the fridge?’ Answer ‘yes’ or ‘no’ depending on whether the items can be spelled with the letters on the ‘fridge’. When the students have worked this out, let them play in pairs.
A pair of scissors and the present perfect tense
Hold the scissors towards the class, pointing up, with one hand on each handle. Keep the right hand still and move the left handle back and forward. The movement of the blade represents the time between the present (the upright, motionless blade) and the past. Thus you can illustrate concepts such as: ‘ I have always lived here.’ (open the blade 90 degrees and quickly close it); ‘I have been living here for 3 months.’ (close slowly to emphasise duration);’ I have been to London three times.’ (pause three times on the way); ‘I have just finished eating’ (put the blades close together and snap them shut).
A cup and a drill
Write a long sentence on the board and drill it: for example ‘The man with the black and green hat has only just finished eating his cheese and tomato sandwich on the seafront.’ Clean it off the board and challenge the students to remember it. They will protest, but tell them you have a magic cup that will help them remember it. Each student should say the sentence into the cup, which is passed round the class. Students will be amazed when the first student says the sentence word perfect into the cup. How? The sentence is written on a piece of paper stuck to the inside! If he does not give the game away, ask him to pass the cup to the next student, and so on.
Another of de Bono’s techniques is to use a nonsensical sentence. Thinking about such a sentence can bring fresh ideas. Take the sentence ‘This computer works without electricity’. It is impossible, yet it led me to develop three activities.
Manual mouse clicks
Write words that you want students to revise on the board. Put a cross in the middle of the board. Ask a student to hold the pen over the cross, and then direct him to a word using instructions ‘up, down, left, and right’. When the the pen is over a word, say ‘click’. The student then has to rub out the word and write its definition in the same place. The pen represents the cursor, the instructions represent moving the mouse, and clicking on a word changes it into its definition (or from the definition back into the word). This can also be played with paper, pencil and erasers.
Manual chat
Students ‘chat’ simultaneously in groups by passing pieces of paper. This can be done as very short, quick questions and answers. You need six pieces of paper for each group of four so that each student can chat with three others at the same time.
Paper keyboard
Students use a diagram of a keyboard to spell words. One student points to letters on the diagram and spells words; the other watches and says the words when they are finished. As well as practcing spelling, learners can familiarise themselves with the layout of an Englsh keyboard.
De Bono likes games for two players with very few rules that are simple to learn and play, but require skill, such as a board games with very few positions and pieces, but lots of permutations. Bearing all this in mind, here are three games I have invented for language learners:
Which letter?
The first player chooses a letter of the alphabet which the second player has to find. He does this by saying English words. The first player writes each word in one of two lists, words that contain the letter he is thinking of, and words that do not. After a certain number of words, say seven, the game stops and the second player tries to guess the letter using the lists.
Mend the sentence
One student makes a sentence of about nine words. Each word is written on a separate piece of paper. He mixes up the papers, lays them in a line and challenges another student to put them in the right order. There are only two rules: rule one, the words must be swapped in pairs; that is, the player chooses any two words each time and puts one in the place of the other. Rule two: ony six swaps are allowed.
Letter moves
This is based on five positions: two letters and three blanks. The players take it in turn to move a letter. The aim is to reposition one letter each turn so it does not make an English word. For example, supposing the starting position is ‘H, C, blank, blank, blank’. The first player moves the ‘C’: ‘H, blank, C, blank, blank.’ The second player moves ‘H’: ‘blank, blank, C, blank, H’. The first player then moves the ‘C’: ‘C, blank, blank ,blank, H’. The second player sees that this could make the word ‘CATCH’, and so is the winner. The only rule is that letters cannot be put in the exact same relative positions twice. Vary the number of positions/letters as required.
De Bono’s ideas of randomness, conisdering apparently nonsensical ideas and simplicity may be able to help us to design interesting learning activities, but do not worry if you do not come up with great ideas straight away. As he says, by thinking in this way ‘you build up in your mind a reservoir of concepts and possibilities that can then be applied to different situations.’ Surely that is enough encoragement to start thinking laterally!
Edward de Bono’s website: www.edwdebono.com
Please check the Creative Methodology for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.
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