Using Language Creatively
Literacy involves using language to communicate effectively and to make meaning and sense of the world. Sometimes we are required to interpret and use language creatively, where words and phrases might be used in unexpected and unfamiliar ways.
There are many ideas you can try to encourage your child to use language creatively. These include:
- describing people, places, events and objects in unusual and unexpected ways, as is done in poetry, plays, cartoons and videos.
- locating ways in which other speakers and writers use language in creative ways, for example, puns and word plays in TV and magazine advertisements, rhyming and repeated sounds in picture books and reading the by-lines and captions in newspapers.
- discussing favourite sayings and creating new ones together.
- sharing a love of language by talking about how language is used in different contexts and situations.
- Talk about your favourite poems, plays and stories and discuss with your child what you like about the author’s style.
