创新思维练习在英语写作教学中的实践.doc

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1、创新思维练习在英语写作教学中的实践(2011-05-17 17:36:39)自动刷新创新思维练习在英语写作教学中的实践* 张在新 北京外国语大学英语学院 本文只集中探讨一个题目什么是创新思维？及其在英语写作教学中的实践。这一教学实践依据的蓝本是积累、试用过多年的英语写作教程从创新思维到批判思维（张在新主编，共四册），中的第一册创新思维与写前技巧（张在新编著），其重点是创新思维/写前构思技巧的运用及作文练习。 什么是创新思维？1 这个题目可以从创新思维的特点和创新思维方法这两个方面进行分析： 1. 创新思维的特点 创新思维的主要特点具有三个基本要素：（1）流畅性（fluency），即思维的广阔性

2、；（2）灵活性（flexibility），即思维种类的多样性；（3）独特性（originality），即思维的新奇性。这三个要素可简单回纳为思维的广阔、多样和新奇（Adams, 1979；Halpern，1984）。2 创新能力（creativity）是创新思维（creative thinking）的能力体现，培养创新思维即是培养创新能力。 由于创新思维讲求从多通道、多视角横向看题目，因此它也叫横向思维（lateral thinking）（De Bono，1970）。用横向思维的方法往解决题目体现在绕过常规方法、突破一成不变的思维定式往寻找答案的能力。以下面的故事为例：古时候一位商人债务缠身，

3、为了免往债务，不得不同意年老的债主提出的苛刻要求，即娶商人的年轻女儿为妻。债主假借天意，让商人的女儿从装有一黑一白两个石子的钱袋里取出一颗石子，假如拿到白石子，她可以不嫁给债主；相反，就必须成婚。但是债主趁商人不留意的时候，从地上抓起两颗黑石子扔进空的钱袋里，这一切都被商人的女儿看到了。假如按常规，她可以直接揭穿债主的骗局，但是她运用了横向思维，将计就计从钱袋里拿出石子后，假装不小心把它掉在展满黑白石子的地上，这时由于分辨不出拿出来的石子颜色，只好通过看钱袋里剩下石子的颜色（玄色），来推断刚才拿出的石子是白色。这样，商人的女儿聪明地绕过了困难，用完全不同的思路找到了解决题目的方案（Halper

4、n，1984）。小女子运用了创新思维往解决具体题目，这体现了她的创新能力。 2. 创新思维方法 为了培养学生养成从多角度和不同侧面横向思考题目的习惯，教材第一册先容了十几种创新思维/写前构思技巧和方法，帮助学生进步创新能力、开阔思路和挖掘题材的水平，下面简单先容其中三种。3 (1) 大脑风暴（brainstorming） 创新思维的流畅性、灵活性和独特性等特点是建立在大量素材的基础上的，以最快的方式搜索信息对于成功拓展创新思维尤为重要，直接影响到解决题目和挖掘题材内容的质量。大脑风暴法就是针对这一目的由Alex Oorn在1963年首次设计的，主要用于小组创意活动，个人使用也有较好的效果。具体

5、做法是先把要解决的题目或主题写下来，然后小组成员轮流把随意想到的思路不加任何思考地写下来。每人在前一个想法的基础上任意发挥，对任何想法的好坏不作任何思考、判定和议论。最重要的是在最短的时间内尽可能穷尽所有思路的可能性，最后才回过头来（运用批判思维）判定哪些想法更具公道性。 (2) 反转法（the reversal method） 反转法包含逆向思维，即从事情或人物的反面进行思考，寻求横向思维完全不同于常规的答案。例如，有一位贵夫人由于身体超重而雇佣了很多医生为她减肥，但体重丝尽不减，由于她不愿采纳医生给她制定的近乎于忍饥受饿的严格饮食标准。最后，有一位医生采用反转法打破了思维定式，他的逆向思维

6、是不让病人采取饥饿性节食不是少吃，而是多吃，即在每次吃饭前喝一杯加糖牛奶并吃水果，这自然影响了她吃正餐的食欲而达到节食的目的。结果节食成功了。再如在一次考试中学生做了这样一道创新思维题：在一家儿童医院里，由于年幼的小病人极其喜爱供他们在病房里玩耍的玩具熊，以至于在出院时把玩具熊带回了家。医院怎样运用创新思维解决这一题目呢？多数答案只停留在纵向思维的层面上，如收取玩具费以弥补丢失的玩具的损失；在玩具里嵌进报警装置（一旦玩具离开病房就报警）；敦促家长教育孩子等等。这些方法不仅不尽切合实际，而且还把小病人当作“小偷”来定性，让人难以接受。只有反转法的对策把小病人看成富有同情心的“好人”最有创意：建议

7、医院用纱布将玩具熊包扎起来，并对小病人说小熊也在住院，未治愈之前不能出院，从此病房里的玩具熊就不再不知往向了。 (3) 切进点的选择（choice of entry point） 切进点是指对题目的第一关注点。Colorful Beautiful 对切进点的非常规性选择也是创新思维的方法之一（与反转法有一定的重叠，但切进点的选择不一定都是逆向思维），重点是在思考题目时要经常改变切进点。假如在一个网球邀请赛里，有111人参加单打循环淘汰赛，我们怎样计算出整个比赛的总场次呢？假如按常规将切进点选择在胜出的球员身上，由于是循环淘汰赛，就必须一直算到该球员赢完决赛之后才是比赛的总场次。要是把切进点改变

8、一下，选择在被淘汰的球员身上，解决题目就轻易多了。111人的单循环淘汰赛只能有一位赢荚冬有110个人输球，而每人只要输一次就被淘汰，因此整个邀请赛总共要有110场次的比赛。 英语写作教学离不开英语作文和练习。固然创新思维跟写前构思技巧一样，以开阔思路、Phoenix Rage 拓展写作内容为教学目的，但两者本身又与英语写作相结合，成为作文和练习的组成部分。Taylor（1982:71）以为最佳的语言习得/学习状态不是从语言直接学习而来，而是在使用它往获取知识才是最有效的。换言之，通过使用英语书面表达来进行创新思维的练习可以到达既练习思维又同时学习英语写作的目的。下面是创新思维/写前构思的练习和

9、作文的几个实例。 （一）创新思维/写前构思练习实例 1. Associative Powers4 The Royal Wizard Write ten suitable titles for the following tale and a statement to explain what each title means. Developing a focus on different aspects of the tale (i.e. the wizard, the king, and the lock) is crucial to this exercise. There once l

10、ived a king who depended greatly on his wise man. But, through one circumstance and another, he grew to doubt the powers and perceptions of his chosen adviser. So, to test him, he had him tossed into a rather comfortable dungeon with a huge door secured by a combination lock. The king promised that

11、if the wise man could free himimmolation, he would be restored to his former exalted post. The wise man examined the combination lock and calculated that there were 288,000 possible combinations. He further calculated that, at the rate of trying one combination per minute, working an eight-hour day,

12、 he would be free in 600 days at the latest. He made an elaborate chart to keep track of the combinations he tried, hung up his calendar, and buckled down to business as 599 days passed. Before noon of the last day, he twirled half of his quota of combinations and then had a light lunch. After lunch

13、, he took down his calendar and returned to his job whistling happily. At 4:59 p.m., he had only one more combination to go, so he placed the rolled-up calendar under his arm and smiling confidently, twisted the final combination into place. Nothing happened! His mouth hung open in shock. He beat on

14、 the lock, but it stood firm. In frustration, he threw himimmolation against the heavy door. Slowly, it swung open. It was then that he found that when he had first been imprisoned, the king had ordered that the cell bolt not be thrown. 参考答案 The Royal Wizard (1) 600 Days Too Late Sometimes the cost

15、is too high if you fail to locate a problem in time. (2) A Lesson Learned the Hard Way One may learn a lesson the hard way. (3) A Solution Made Complex Sometimes there may be a *r solution to a problem. (4) A Test of Talent Tests of true talent have to do with solving problems in real-life situation

16、s. (5) Misplaced Patience Patience can be misplaced. (If the old man had been impatient with the numerous combinations of the lock, he would have turned to another, perhaps *r, solution to the problem.) (6) Performance under Pressure People, even smart people, may perform badly under pressure. (7) L

17、ack of a Questioning Attitude A questioning attitude may help you to realize there is a problem. (If the old man had had a questioning attitude, like the king, who doubted his powers and perceptions, he would have sensed there might be a problem with his solution to the problem at hand.) (8) Self-Im

18、prisonment People sometimes limit themselves to fixed ways of thinkingvertical thinkingas if they lock themselves up in a immolation-constructed prison. (9) Limits of Wisdom Even the wisest person may slip and fall due to lack of constant application of creative thinking. (10) The Shrewd King A pers

19、on in power should not always act on the advice of others. (11) Unfortunate Calculations It may be unfortunate for you to be so good at a certain skill that you may be over-confident about it and refuse to try anything new. 2. Means-Ends Analysis Crossing the Gorge Engineers were trying to build a s

20、uspension bridge over a deep and wide gorge. The whitewater at the bottom of the gorge was too violent for any boat to cross. How would you get the heavy cables from one side of the gorge to the other? (Hint: For a means-ends analysis, you need to think about subgoals before you can reach your final

21、 goal in solving the problem.) 参考答案 Crossing the Gorge Subgoal 1: Taking a detour in solving the problem, the engineers sent very light fibers across the gorge by attaching them to a kite when the wind was right, of course. Subgoal 2: These fibers were then used to pull strings across. Subgoal 3: Th

22、e strings were used to pull ropes across. Final Goal: The ropes were used to pull heavy cables that were stretched across the gorge. 3. Random Word Stimulation The teacher randomly opens the dictionary three times for three sets of nouns from the selected pages, and for each option writes down the n

23、ouns on the board for the students to choose from. Each student can use any set of the nouns as random stimuli to generate information for a topic of his/her own choice. 参考答案 Random Word Stimulation Topic: Writers Block Dictionary: Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English Randomly selected page: P

24、age 926 Selected nouns in the left-hand column: maple, maraca, marathon, marble Definitions (it will be stimulation enough just to copy from the dictionary the English definitions of the words): maple: a tree with many-pointed leaves which grows in the northern half of the world, one kind of which g

25、ives a sugary liquid (maple syrup) maraca: either of a pair of hollow shells with small objects, such as stones, inside them that are shaken to provide a strong beat in Latin American music marathon: a running race of about 26 miles; an activity that tests ones power over a long time marble: a sort

26、of white or irregularly colored limestone that is hard, cold to touch, smooth when polished, and used for buildings, statues, gravestones, etc. Stimuli: the shaded words in the definitions (not limited to those words) have provided stimuli for the following ideas about the topic, writers block: “The

27、 northern half of the world”: The two hemispheres of the brain Writers block because of overuse of only one part of the brain? The verbal left-brain? How about switching to the non-verbal right-brain to overcome writers block? Using images to help me think? Forming mental pictures? Try some other cr

28、eative strategies? “A sugary liquid,” “maple syrup”: Ideas dry up in writers block I once watched a TV program on how to make maple syrup from the sugary liquid or sap of maple trees in Canada. When the sap stops dripping into the small bucket, does it mean the tree is too old, the weather condition

29、s are not right (i.e. there isnt much sunshine), or theres been a shortage of rainfall? Im not too old for writing yet (as one may say, “You havent lost all the juices of youth yet.”), then age is not a factor. But probably Im not in the right mood for writing on this topic, so Im stuck here? Or bec

30、ause I dont know enough or I havent read enough about the topic; thats why I cant write another word? How can I get my creative juices flowing again? “Hollow shells”: Empty words in my writing With writers block, I just feel like the hollow shells of a pair of maracas, without the stones inside them

31、 to make a sound. Just empty words, no vivid specific details. Ive run dry, out of ideas. I feel empty; I feel shallow. I cant produce quality work anymore. Ive lost it. Or maybe thats the problem with my writing Im too concerned with quality work, even before I start. I need to let it go; try some

32、more creative strategies in prewriting to escape from it all, to escape for a while from this obsession with the right thing to say in my writing. Maybe my problem is I havent paid enough attention to specific details in writing. Then I need to show more than tell. But where? How? I definitely need

33、the stones in the maracas to produce a strong beat for my music, but how? More prewriting. “Marathon,” “an activity that tests ones power over a long time”: Maybe, the whole writing process is like a marathon. You may feel excited in the beginning. Or maybe its not like this in some cases when I nev

34、er have the passion to write anything, depending on the topics. And sometimes you may feel exhausted on the way, just like in a marathon, like when youre experiencing writers block. In times like this, you want to quit, you want to drop out of the race. Yes, writing is like a race in the sense that

35、youre taking dictation from your brain sometimes and you want to write as fast as you can to keep up with it. But you know you can get there to the finish line if you hang in there. Have some patience, develop your pacing, and slow down a little bit. Its only a temporary phase thing, your writers bl

36、ock. Like a test of ones endurance in a marathon, writers block is only a test of your ability to generate more ideas when you get stuck in your writing. You can eventually ride out this difficulty if you hang in there. “Irregularly colored limestone,” “smooth when polished”: Irregularly colored mar

37、ble may be used as an analogue to show how prewriting as a process to overcome writers block can be done with creative methods. In prewriting, you dont have to follow regular patterns; instead, you need to ignore logic, correctness of grammar, or any clear organizational patterns, in order to escape

38、 from old habits or fixed ways of thinking. Irregularly colored marble is what youre looking for, not pure white, but irregularly colored. We can settle for irregular streaks of gray, or a combination of brown and white; anything goes in prewriting. This is what prewriting is about, to experiment, t

39、o explore. Of course, after prewriting, you need to go over what youve come up with and decide on what to use to develop a main point, one color, so to speak, in your writing. And then you smooth out the edges and polish the su*ces to make everything smooth in the revising stage before you hand in y

40、our writing. （二）创新思维作文实例 1. Creative Strategy Report A Game of Table Tennis Solve the following puzzle in groups of three, with Student A responsible for taking notes on brainstorming, Student B for an outline (on different pathways), and Student C for the final report. The whole report is expected

41、to show fluency, flexibility, and originality in creative thinking. A man challenged a table tennis champion to a game of table tennis on the condition that he be allowed to choose the time and place of the match. The champion accepted the challenge but was defeated by the challenger. Why was the ch

42、ampion defeated? 参考答案 A Game of Table Tennis Brainstorming (1) The challenger chose to play at night. The champion was night-blind. (2) The match was set in a space shuttle. The challenger was an astronaut, but the champion was not. (3) The champion had won his title at a local university, but the c

43、hallenger was one of the best table tennis professional players of the nation. (4) The challenger chose to play on a slope, and the champion had to play at the bottom of the slope, thus giving the challenger an advantage in the game. (5) The game was played in the challengers hometown, a plateau lik

44、e in Tibet. The champion was in bad shape because of the shortage of oxygen, so he was defeated. (6) The match took place in a lions cage. The challenger was the lion tamer. (7) The champion had a psychological problem, and he was scared of knives. The challenger wanted to play the game in a room fu

45、ll of knives. (8) At the match, a spotlight following the champion dazzled him, so he lost the game. (9) The match took place in the Arctic. The champion couldnt stand the cold, but the challenger was an Eskimo. (10) In the match room, there were a lot of attractive girls in shirts open nearly to th

46、e waist, so the champion couldnt concentrate. And the challenger was gay. (11) The champion was challenged to the game when he came down with the flu and was running a temperature. So he would be too weak to win the match. (12) The challenger wanted to play in a boat, and the champion couldnt keep h

47、is balance and got seasick, but the challenger was a seaman and quite used to the rocking of the boat on the waves. (13) It was a game on the Internet. The challenger was good at online games while the champion was a rookie. (14) The challenger was the boss, and in order to avoid hurting his huge ego, the champion lost the game on purpose. (15) They both would have to walk on stilts and play. Only the challenger could manage it well, because he was an acrobat. (16) The champion was a woman. She was challenged