Science of Creatology and Verbal Creativity

Research on creativity in target language (TL) studies 1) focuses on the issues of learners’ cognitive creativity in relation to the language learning process (Carter and McCarthy, 2004), which involve rather insights of pedagogy or psychology than linguistics, 2) investigates various kinds of language play in L1 (Cook, Lantolf, Bateson, Goffman, Warner). This dissertation explores creativity in TL use from the linguistic point of view by asking 1) is there creativity in TL use (oral or written)?, 2) what are the levels of creativity in TL use?, in what language layers does it appear?, what creative characteristics describe TL speech (oral or written)?, 3) what are TL learners’ and TL teachers’ beliefs on or opinion of (a) the difference between the L1 user and the TL user; (b) creative TL use?, 4) is creativity included in TLS course books; is it taught directly, systematically, what goals are put to learners in this connection, what kind of creative activities are used in TL course books, what kind of creative methods are applied there?