The teaching of English has been marred by pedantic approaches involving rote memorisation of grammatical rules and endless filling up of those repulsively tedious grammar exercise books. The process of writing is stifled by an overemphasis on mechanics and dry, purely functional expository writing. In this way, students learn to despise reading and writing, and language acquisition is severely stunted.

Introducing a creative writing workshop into the English language classroom offers an attractive alternative to these medieval approaches that have bored many generations of students and stood firmly in the way of effective language instruction.

The focus of creative writing is a playful engagement with language which feeds on intuition, personal experience and imagination. In doing so, it gives students the opportunity to create meaning in their work and develop a strong personal attachment with writing. The opportunity for creative expression and the freedom to explore a diverse range of subject matter and genres inevitably excites students to the point where writing is no longer a chore but an activity they eagerly look forward to. They begin to feel a sense of ownership and pride over their work and also take joy in the flow of the process.

Students learn to manipulate language in interesting and demanding ways as well as test its rules and take risks without which learning cannot take place in any profound sense. In this way, creative writing allows students to engage with the language at a deeper level of processing than they would with most expository forms of writing.

Creative writing in the classroom usually takes the form of a writing workshop. The students are treated as young writers while the teacher acts as a mentor writer, sharing his or her own work and writing process with the students and providing feedback for their work. The workshop may touch upon various genres including poetry, fiction, drama and memoirs and is designed so that students have the time and opportunity to write extensively and fully explore these forms. Various writing techniques are explored and the class engages in meaningful discussion on the craft of writing and storytelling.

In such an approach to teaching, there are no tedious exercise books and the skills of grammar, sentence structure and effective use of vocabulary are not taught in isolation but develop organically through the writing process. Indeed there are countless studies that have shown that rote memorisation of rules and endless practice without context and meaning are thoroughly ineffective methods for language acquisition.

Another advantage of creative writing is that it encourages more creative reading. Young writers become more attracted to reading as their interest for writing grows. More importantly, through an engagement with the writing process, students are better able to understand how literary texts function and this makes reading them easier as well as more engaging.

Perhaps most important is the striking increase in self confidence and self esteem that creative expression tends to engender. Through their writing, students are able to discover many new things about the language and about themselves leading to personal as well as linguistic growth. Finally, exposure to a creative atmosphere which values personal expression and individual voice tends to foster a sense of tolerance and harmony that is much needed in our society.

Teachers are urged to break free from their archaic and oppressive teaching methods and try out these newer approaches that are now widely practiced throughout the world. By introducing the spark of creativity, we can reinvigorate the teaching and learning process and bring our classrooms to life.

 The writer is a teacher of English language arts at a private school in Karachi.