Synectics and Personal Analogy for Young Learners’ Creative Writing in English

Abstract

This study examines how differently the characteristics of two 5 year old (pre-operational stage of development) and three 9 and 11 year old children (concrete operational stage of development) were reflected in their synectics based written products (SBWPs) and personal analogy based written products (PABWPs) while also discussing the learners’ perceptions of using synectics and personal analogy in their English lessons. The written products of each learner were analysed. The SBWPs were analyzed using Gentner and Namy’s (1999) similarity type comparison criteria, as they reflect specific characteristics of the pre-operational and concrete operational stages of development (Piaget), while the PABWPs were analysed using a creativity assessment rubric developed by Kang (2017). All of the learners’ products were evaluated by two raters individually and the average scores of the two raters for each product was used for this paper. (3) The results showed that there were no significant differences found between the children in the two stages of development in terms of their SBWPs and PABWPs. Rather topic familiarity and interests, personal characteristics, and social norms and the role of English affected the children’s performance and perceptions, with many of the children perceiving the creativity-based lessons positively. The results of this study therefore support the possibility of using a creative approach for developing young learners’ English language abilities and developing their creativity. (Sookmyung Women’s University)