How to Train Students to Think Creatively

罗露缘

Abstract:The ability of thinking creatively is the obvious mark of the successful people．This demands teachers to train the students to think creatively and arouse them to learn more so that they can develop their abilities of thinking．The relationship between the teachers and the students should become friendly, equal and relax so that the students try to think creatively．The training of thinking indirectly or differently should be often applied in class．It is necessary to change the traditional teaching methods in English class．

Keywords:students; thinking;English teaching

中圖分类号：G632.0 文献标识码：A 文章编号：1992-7711(2014)06-0022

John Naisbitt said，“At the time of great knowledge and economic．We mostly need inventive power and spirit．”Doing differently is national soul．It is very necessary to use the new teaching method to improve the teaching quality．Now China has entered the WTO．It makesteachers train the students to suit all kinds of situations，They should think creatively，think in English not in Chinese．They can speak English freely in everyday English．So it is important to train the studentsability of thinking creatively in Junior English teaching．The teachers should pay attention to the following fields：

I.Plan all kinds of situations to train the students ability of thinking creatively

Its said by the psychologist that the study motive and seeking knowledge of the students cant appear naturely．They decide the teaching planning．So the teachers should often plan all kinds of situations for teaching．

1. Ask the students good questions to make them think activitily．Good questions can show teachersmeaning well，attract the studentsattention and push the students to learn more．As a result, the students are developed well in thinking.

2. Change the parts between teachers and students．The students try to be a“teacher”in English class.

The success can push the students to learn more．The teacher can arouse the students to be a teacher in front of the class．and help the others with their English．Many students want a go and they get into the part quickly The“little teacher”can improve their knowledge from the special part and their spoken English is more and more fluent．The others can catch the meaning easily for they are at the same age。Many“little teachers”ask the questions differently from their teachers and a lot of students ask the new questions．The little teachers give the new answers．By this way,they practice their thinking ways-which is differcnt from the adults．

3．Use the multi-computerto show the true things or picturesin English class．

The famous linguist，Kelum，said：”The successful teaching in a foreign class is to plan many situations for the students to use their language knowledge．”So the teachers should teach English in simple English so that the students hear more English and want to speak in mind。This also requires the teachers to use more teaching tools such as teaching pictures，flashcards，simple drawings，actions and multi-computer and internet to let the students watch，listen，understand well or attract their attention

II. Good relationship between teachers and students is a good teaching situation

Make students contest each other in English class．In fact．making students contest is enjoying students or make students feel important before public．There are many good ways to contest students in class，1．For example，who is the best in the game? Teachers often hold different kinds of games．tests．matches or competitions．Such as how many new words can the students write in a minute?Who is the best?Give a three-minutes talk before class．English diary and so on。These ways can arouse students to learn English activity and think openly．2．Make students be interested in English．Most of the students dont like English because they arent interested in English．The famous physicist Albert Eintein said：Interest is the mother of study.So it is very important to cause students to feel interested in English．Teachers can change thetext into the activity play,make the difficult words into poem so that students can remember easily．Tell students the fashion thing connected with the text、Talk about the foreign custom about the text．Play games．And these can make students show interested in English and hope to learn it well．For example，when teachers give Lesson Twenty．three in Book II“who has the coin?”Teachers can teach it by playing games．First．ask six students to stand in a row in front of the students．Then give one of them a coin and ask them pass it from one student to another．The other student keep their eye closed．Then six students put their hands before them．The others give guesses．Every student has only three guess．While 6 students are playing games，the other students in class can hear their teachers speaking English．and feel how the game is going on．They can remember it very quickly and keep the memory long．

All students are equal in English class．What is the equality in class? It includes two sides．One side is the teacher and students are equal．The other is all the students are equal before teacher．In America，people are used to squat down their children when they talk with children．They seldom order them“You should do this．not do that．”They respected their childrens wishes．This is why American people always are confident．dependent on themselves．and be good at how to do things with hands though they couldnt get the high mark at school．But in China teachers are always respected by students, or their knowledge is authority.No doubt．Children who live and study in this air,can not think by themselves and can not live by themselves．They never have a chance to think hard．How can they think creatively? So I think the first step is to dare to doubt the teachersauthority．In fact, the teachersauthority is not very important in todays economy of knowledge．It is not useful to use their right to make students believe．Teachers getting the high belief must depend on their plentiful knowledge．The second step is to respect the students and respect their character. The third step is to treat students equally．Make students feel relax in English class. The educational psychologist pointed out：The pleasure air in English class is assure for the high result of study,and a good soil for thinking creatively．How can the teachers make the air relax in English class?They can praise the students good deeds．enjoy their strong points and let them feel successful，It stresses the teachers teach happily and humorously and studentslearn happily and freely．This needs the teachers must give some effect emotion lesson and get on well with the students.“Xueji”said,The students agree with the teachers because they get on well with their teachers．Second, the leachers must teach with full spirit．They must be good at guiding students feel happy，sad，exciting，sorry,pity and so on. Third , he teachers must teach with smile．They must serve students patiently and kindly，At any time,they can face the students with smile、face the difficult problems palmly．They must keep peace and cool all the time. Fourth，the teachers must try to touch the students closely and know what they feel.

III. Make students try to think creatively

Students are the center of listening and speaking in English class. In China teachers always stress reading and writing．not take care of the listening and speaking for a long time．They didnt wake up until fail．Now the importance of speaking and listening was resumd in teaching program．Thinking creatively is based on speaking and 1istening．More listening leads to more speaking．Listening well cause speaking well.Thinking differently doesnt come out until English becomes one part of the knowledge.If we dont put the students in the center of speaking and listening．we could not train their thinking creatively．We will train the students into the no-sound English students.

English is different from Chinese．In English students are the centers of thinking about．It reflects in two sides．thinking and custom．Thinking in English shows you master English．or not．These days．Chinese English is very comment．This reflects our English teaching was failure before．Why? Because the students are not the centers of thinking．Stress the training of thinking is the best way to settle it.

IV． Ask students questions to guide them to think differently and newly

For example，when we give the lesson twenty-six in Junior Three，we can plan the following questions：Edison began to work when he was sixteen．How old are you now? What do you do?what do you think he should do? The students quickly reply：We must work hard and go to the countries to study more and more knowledge．By this way, the students think and talk hard．They use their head to join the action and get the knowledge，improve the expression and train their ability of getting on with the others．They get the good result．The question is the center of teaching activity．If there is no question in teaching，teaching activity cant go on.What kind of questions decides what action and what to think．Teachers should be good at asking questions during the teaching process．The questions can cause the students to think over to find out and to get the answers．Making students find the knowledge is to make them think over，find out and get the answers.For example, when we have a lesson of“whats the weather like?”Teachers can show students three group words in pictures．Such as SUN—SUNNYWINDY—WINDY CLOUD—CLOUDY Then ask them，“Can you make a rule out of three words?It guides the students to watch carefully, analysis，and find out the rule．After the students find out the rule，teachers show the other new words．Such as snowy，foggy, rainy．Then ask them,“Can you guess the Chinese meanings of them?” This makes students use their old knowledge of making phrases to learn these new words．This teaching method improve the truth“Teach students how to fish、not fish how many fishes．”

1. The questions about thinking．Teachers ask the questions about the text or about things connected the text．The answers must be a lot so that studentsthinking is trained and different．It is a good way to train students to thinking differently. 2. The questions about the life．Connecting life and times is the character of knowledge,not studentsability．In class the students have to think and do according to the teacher from the beginning to the end．They mustnt think in different ways or they will be called different people．Today China carries out the quality teaching．It stresses how to learn．how to study English so that the studentsabilities were improved high and they can thinkin their own ways-different from their elders．If the students always used to the eldersthinking ways．step by step they will become ones of elders．It is harmful for the youth because it limits their own thinking,limits their inventive ability．Teachers should break through this conclusion in todays teaching and train the students thinking indirectly or differently．They should also guide the students to find out the answers in many ways．

V． Change the teaching methods in class to improve students to think more differently or more newly

Training students inventive abilities needs to explore and do a teaching experiment in earnest．It isnt the same as the teaching of inventive skills．It can change the students in mind so that they try their best to find any ways to settle the problems．Today English teacher must change their old teaching ways in class .They should pay attention to the studentsthinking process，not only show the students the eldersconclusions．This requires English teachers must be good at planning the opening situations to push students to think activity and think freely．English teachers also approve the studentsdifferent thinking and thinking well．They should protect the studentscuriosity,thirst for knowledge. Imaginative power so that the student inventive consciousness is aroused, their inventive spirit is trained and their inventive quailty is improved.

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who helped me during the writing of this thesis．A special acknowledgement should be shown to Professor Bao,from whose lecture I benefited greatly．I am particularly indebted to Mr Zhou,who gave me kind encouragement and useful instructions all through my writing. Finally I wish to extend my thanks to the library assistants who supplied me with reference materials of great value.