Scott Thornbury - Teaching grammar creatively

Ever since languages were first taught there has been a tension between conformity, on the one hand, and creativity, on the other. That is to say, learners need to conform to the systems of the language that they are learning - the grammar and phonology, etc. At the same time, they need to be able to use these systems as a resource to express original meanings: they need to be creative. In this talk, Scott aims to show - with practical examples - how it is possible to resolve the tension, and how these two strands - conformity and creativity - can be interwoven into the curriculum, the one supporting the other.