Sparking Creative Thinking in ELT
Divergent Thinking Foundations
Beyond the Right Answer
In most language classrooms, students are trained to find the one correct answer. This is called convergent thinking. It’s essential for mastering grammar rules and vocabulary definitions. For example, a fill-in-the-blank exercise asking for the correct past tense verb is a convergent task. There is only one right response.
However, to achieve real fluency, learners need to practice divergent thinking. This is the process of generating multiple, unique ideas from a single prompt. It’s about exploring possibilities, not just finding the pre-approved solution. Instead of asking “What’s the past tense of ‘go’?”, a divergent prompt might be “Describe three different places you could have gone yesterday if you had a time machine.”
Divergent thinking encourages cognitive flexibility and helps students use the language they already know in more creative and personal ways. It shifts the focus from accuracy alone to fluency and self-expression.
The Four Pillars of Creativity
To structure divergent tasks, we can adapt a framework from psychology. The (TTCT) were originally designed to measure creative potential. However, their core principles provide a perfect model for designing language activities that push B2 learners beyond simple repetition.
These principles can be broken down into four pillars. Each one helps build a different aspect of creative language use.
| Pillar | What It Measures | ELT Example Prompt |
|---|---|---|
| Fluency | The ability to produce a large number of ideas or solutions. | "In two minutes, list all the things you could do with a single brick." |
| Flexibility | The ability to generate ideas in many different categories. | "Now, group your ideas for the brick. How many are constructive? Destructive? Artistic?" |
| Originality | The ability to produce ideas that are uncommon or unique. | "Of all your ideas for the brick, which one would nobody else in the room think of?" |
| Elaboration | The ability to expand on an idea with details and specifics. | "Choose your most original idea for the brick and describe it in a full paragraph." |
Putting It into Practice
Designing divergent tasks for B2 learners isn’t about teaching new grammar. It’s about creating open-ended scenarios where they must apply the grammar they already know. The goal is to make the task challenging in its creativity, not its linguistic complexity.
A typical textbook exercise might ask students to use conditional clauses to complete sentences. This is a convergent task focused on form.
Convergent Task: Complete the sentence: If I had more free time, I would...
A divergent approach uses the same grammatical structure but opens up the possibilities. It gives the learner a problem to solve, not just a blank to fill.
Divergent Task: Your city has announced a new public holiday, but no one knows how to celebrate it. Brainstorm three original traditions for this new holiday. If you were the mayor, what would you recommend?
This prompt requires students to use conditional clauses, modals of suggestion (should, could), and future tenses, but it also engages their fluency (three ideas), originality (original traditions), and elaboration (describing them). The language becomes a tool for creative problem-solving, not just an academic exercise.
What is the primary goal of convergent thinking in language learning?
Which of the following prompts is designed to encourage divergent thinking?
By incorporating these kinds of tasks, you can help B2 learners transition from being competent users of English to being confident, creative communicators.