Non-formal drama training for in-service language teachers

Research on the connections between drama and language learning is not new, and interest in the potential collaboration between these fields has increased in the last four decades. However, studies have mostly focused on students’ experiences and the type of drama activities that could be incorporated in their language class, neglecting key aspects of the specific skills language teachers might need and how these could be developed. Most language teachers have no training in drama, and often the inclusion of drama activities in the language classroom is dependent on the specific interest and experience of the individual teacher, rather than an expected component of the foreign language training programme. This paper will be reporting on an experimental approach to training in-service language teachers through drama for professional and personal development. As part of a Grundtvig Lifelong Learning European project entitled “Performing languages”, experienced language teachers at Higher Education were invited to engage in a series of non-formal activities, including visits to three European countries where they engaged in drama workshops for local amateur groups, reflective methods, and open educational practices. 1 Drama in the language classroom Particularly since the1970s, therehasbeenan increasing interest in thepotential links between drama and foreign language teaching. To date, research on the connections between these fields have mostly focused on students’ experiences and on methodological approaches and drama activities that could be integrated into the more traditional language lesson (see, for instance, Ballman 2006, 2008; Barnes 1966; Bernal 2007; Bräuer 2002; Dickson 1989; Maley and Duff 1978; Nofri 2011; Ong 2011; Schewe and Shaw 1993). Common examples of what has been understood as drama-based teaching in this context are the role-plays, simulations and retelling of stories of different kinds into which every language learner is almost inevitably initiated from the very first stages of their learning process. These are mostly set as communicative tasks that aim at facilitating realistic interaction in secondary, and to a lesser Copyright © 2015 Scenario · All rights reserved · Alle Rechte vorbehalten Ana Beaven & Inma Alvarez Non-Formal Drama Training For In-Service Language Teachers Scenario Volume 2014 · Issue 1 extent in primary or tertiary education. These drama activities have been used to support the development of all the language macro-skills: reading, listening, writing, speaking and spoken interaction (see, for instance, Faranda 2009). There have also been more properly ‘theatrical’ integrations of drama in the language classroom based on the use of actual plays as well as of drama techniques which have given rise to drama pedagogy for language teaching. Plays have been exploited for the purpose of either a performance or for text analysis (Aita 2010; Felske 2005). Techniques have been utilised with the purpose of encouraging an active embodiment of language, which include development of memorisation and improvisation techniques as well as elocution and critical thinking skills (Bernal 2007; Burke and O’Sullivan 2002; McNeece 1983). Other scholars have also noted, especially since the 1990s, the importance of drama in languageeducation to raise the learners’ awarenessof cultural contexts and values as well as for developing interculturality (Bräuer 2002). Several of these scholars have suggested the usefulness of an ethnographic approach to language learning with drama at its core. Michael Byram and Michael Fleming (1998) argued that drama in the language classroom has the power to trigger an emotional and reflective approach to the exploration of a foreign culture within a fictional world. More recently, Sonia Cunico (2005) has complained about the lack of an intercultural dimension in language textbooks as well as the invisibility of drama activities to enhance foreign language learning, suggestingthat “dramacanbeapproachedethnographically todevelopstudents’ intercultural sensitivity and competence” (Cunico 2005: 21). Drawing from the literary tradition, she defends in particular the use of dramatic dialogues from plays because they represent characters from all walks of life in natural conversation and in challenging situations which can be safely replicated in the control context of the classroom. These conversations, she points out, “offer language learning opportunities by widening the range of emotions and experiences students are exposed to in the target language” (Cunico 2005: 28). This means that drama fosters the link between other people’s experiences and feelings and one’s own. Along a similar line, Katja Frimberger (2009) subsequently argued for the use of a “pedagogy of strangeness” as an ethnographic approach to language education focusing not only on emotions but also on a critical questioning of those emotions via theatre and drama. Drama in the language classroom has also been considered as an important tool to increase the students’ self-confidence, enjoyment, creativity, motivation, empathy and collaborative learning. In addition, experimental research has highlighted that “drama can create community with a group of multicultural and multilingual learners” (Wager et al. 2009: 56). While ideas for introducing drama in the language classroom and the evidence we have gathered so far about the benefits of doing so are of great interest for educators, in this paper we focus on the language teachers themselves, specifically on the role drama can play in their professional and personal development. This is an area we believe to be of crucial importance in order to