PhD grants : Creativity in language teaching: history, epistemologies and perspectives (H&L)

• Keywords

language teaching, creativity, history, epistemology

• Profile and skills required

Master's degree in Language Sciences (language didactics, sociolinguistics)

Autonomy

Teamwork

• Project description

Creativity is a subject that inhabits many fields of study in the humanities and social sciences. From the arts to literature, psychology and linguistics, this notion is of undeniable interest and raises many questions. This is also true for language didactics, which has recently seen a growing number of works on this subject, notably through a body of writings based on cognitive sciences as well as various artistic approaches characterized as 'creative', such as theatrical practices. In spite of the obvious interest in language teaching, creativity seems to be little discussed as a historically and epistemologically situated notion. With this in mind, this thesis proposes to take a critical look at the theorization and dissemination of this didactic idea and notion. This project will thus contribute to defining, questioning and putting into perspective the notion of creativity in the diversity of its mobilizations and exploitations in language didactics. What are its origins and its different meanings? What issues and interests does it represent? What implications does it have for research and didactic engineering? In this sense, a recourse to the historical-epistemological dimension will have the effect of exploring various conceptions that underlie the possible meanings of creativity: conception(s) of language, arts and literature, language teaching/learning, research or even more broadly of science. This theoretical dimension will be complemented and supported by a series of interviews, involving the interpretation of a set of observables.

The above-mentioned approaches have contributed to defining creativity according to the criteria of innovation, adaptation and production: the language learner must adapt to new situations and requirements that are constantly renewed, thereby producing new and original content. Therefore, to question the origins of creativity is also to open the way to other avenues of reflection, to think about alternatives to think about creativity beyond the dominant models. This work will therefore be based on works in philosophy requested by the Dynadiv research team, whose orientations engage an existential reflection on our relationship to the world and to others, thus constituting a relevant contribution to thinking about creativity and languages in other terms. According to this perspective, creativity would indeed be considered above all in the mode of reception - by questioning the mechanisms of comprehension and interpretation - and no longer primarily in the mode of production. Taking the example mentioned earlier of artistic practices, the use of a work of art would thus have the advantage of enhancing polysemy, engaging in a dialogue between the work and those who receive it. To be creative would thus be to make sense in a language that echoes what one already is, which does not reduce creativity to the mere doing and the production of a tangible result. It is no longer a question of speaking but of 'being in language', thus underlining the existential dimension inherent in languages and the way in which we can welcome them, inhabit them, and embody them.

• References

Aden, J. (2009). La créativité artistique à l’école : refonder l’acte d’apprendre. Synergies Europe 4, 173-180.

Aden, J., 2012. « La médiation linguistique au fondement du sens partagé : Vers un paradigme de l’enaction en didactique des langues ». 167, 267-284.

Caré, J.-M., & Debyser, F., 1978, Jeu, langage et créativité : Les jeux dans la classe de français, Hachette.

Castellotti, V., Debono, M., & Huver, E., 2017, « Une « tradition de l’innovation » ? Réflexion à partir du corrélat innovation/créativité en DDL », TRANEL, n°65, 113-130.

De Certeau, M.., 2002, L’écriture de l’histoire, Gallimard.

Eschenauer, S., 2018, « Créativité et empathie dans les apprentissages performatifs : vivre et encorporer ses langues », Recherches & éducations [En ligne].

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