Resumen de Creativity and Narrative Writing in L2 Classrooms: Comparing Individual and Paired Task Performance

Reza Zabihi, Mohsen Rezazadeh, Hossein Vahid Dastjerdi

• The study reported in this paper aimed at examining the role of creativity in L2 learners’ individual and collaborative written narrative task performance, with the sociocultural theory of mind as a frame of reference. To this end, a sample of 92 intermediate university EFL learners in Isfahan, Iran, participated in this study. The participants were homogenized and divided into two groups: one group performing individually and the other group performing collaboratively. The study involved the measurement of the learners’ creativity using the Abbreviated Torrance Test for Adults (ATTA) in terms of features of fluency, elaboration, flexibility and originality as well as the elicitation of learners’ individual and collaborative written narrative task performance in terms of three measures of task performance, i.e. Complexity, Accuracy, and Fluency (CAF). The results showed (a) significant advantages regarding the CAF of collaborative writings in comparison with that of individual writers in terms of accuracy; (b) significant correlations between creative fluency and learners’ fluent performance in individual, but not paired, task performance; and (c) negative relationships between creative originality and learners’ fluent performance in both individual and paired task performance. The implications of the study are discussed.