Teacher presence in EFL-learners’ (re-)creation of text for literary text comprehension

Abstract

In anglophone countries, creative writing as an established university course of studies aims at preparing budding authors for their future profession. Creative writing in the context of teaching English as a foreign language at school in Germany is related to the methodological principles of action- and production-orientation. The latter focus on the learners’ response to literary texts thereby allowing them to combine literary text analysis and creative alternations of the texts under discussion. The question arises as to what aspects of a teacher’s presence in an EFL-classroom facilitate pupils’ creating imaginative texts of their own. Moreover, if the texts created by EFL-learners are designed to be performed, the teacher’s presence directing their pupils from written productions to oral performances needs further substantiating. In this paper, it is claimed that the success of creative writing and performing the texts pro­duced largely depends upon the English language teacher’s presence vis-à-vis subject matter knowledge, classroom management, and rapport to their pupils. In this way, teachers make their learners experience creative writing not only as a form of com­prehending literary texts, but also as a way to help students reflect upon their roles as writers, learners, and performers of English as a foreign language.