Review: Stinson, M. (Ed.). (2020). Dramatic encounters: Artistry, community and scholarship in drama teaching. Drama Queensland.

The views and opinions expressed in the book reviews are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position of SCENARIO.

The Literature-Enactment-Process

This project promotes reading literature for students through a new approach termed the Literature-Enactment-Process (LEP) where students can gain access to and comprehend narratives and associated topics of inquiry through a range of phases, with drama-based conventions as a pivotal point. As a pedagogical tool, these performative strategies are embedded in a larger approach that combines individual and collaborative comprehension processes. The LEP seeks to explore literature interactively, in that the student’s individual views, the perceptions of others, and the text details are equally taken into account. Teaching literature should not remain restricted to correctly answering interpretative questions. If teachers demand only one “right” interpretation, learners are deprived of the enrichment and multiple meanings texts can generate. Students must be motivated to think and learn for themselves and for a world which is constantly changing, often to the detriment of our natural environment. For this purpose, the Literature and Ecology (LITECO) workshop was designed to fuse the study of literature and ecological learning using and exemplifying the LEP. At the University of Graz, the Literature-Enactment-Process was tested with current and future teachers as well as language arts students and positively evaluated as an interdisciplinary teaching approach for the (foreign) language classroom in secondary education.

Process drama in the classroom

This paper reports on a study of the use of process drama in an international primary school in the Netherlands. The research investigated the extent to which using process drama could develop participation for advanced EAL learners. In addition, we sought to understand pupils’ perspectives. Using a qualitative methodology, we undertook a case study approach focusing on six advanced EAL learner pupils (9-10-year-olds). We implemented the process drama approach during a series of nine science lessons. We collated and analysed Video recording of lessons, the class teacher’s written observations, a research journal, two interviews and a focus group with the case study participants using an arts-based framework of participation, previously employed by Pérez-Moreno (2018). We deployed embodied research methods. The findings suggest that using process drama as a teaching methodology increased participation, but not immediately. In addition, pupils who had not previously spoken out in lessons began to volunteer their ideas. All case study pupils reported that they considered that their participation increased.

(No) drama with grammar

This Window-of-Practice contribution is based on my Master’s thesis written in the Department of Foreign Language Education in Innsbruck, Austria. It discusses a performative approach to teaching grammar in EfL contexts. “Performative” is used as an umbrella term to describe different forms of language teaching that derive from the performing arts (Schewe, 2013). The motivation behind this topic lies in my enthusiasm for drama and the conviction that a drama-based approach applied to language learning is efficient, motivating and sustainable. The contribution provides insights into the methodology and procedure of a case study that investigates effects of drama-based teaching. The case study was performed in 2017 at an upper secondary school in Austria, where English learners were taught English conditional clauses via a drama-based approach. The study, including a control group, a mixed-method, pre-and post-test design, yields quantitative and qualitative data on effects of drama-based teaching. Despite the lack of significant differences in test results between treatment and control groups, the study provides evidence that a performative approach applied to grammar teaching is successful and related to fun, increased motivation and positive group dynamics.

Shared Experiences

During the academic year 2018-2019, the Department of Languages and Literatures at the University of the North Carolina – Asheville (UNCA) launched a pilot curriculum in Intercultural Education for intermediate-level foreign language students in French, Spanish and German. It was decided early on to adopt a performative/experiential approach, and to accompany the project with an empirical study based on qualitative data. This article lays out the parameters, contexts and challenges of the project itself and summarizes the findings of the accompanying study, including an articulation of questions that remain for future exploration.

Meine neue Stimme

Die Stimme einer Lehrperson ist ein zentrales pädagogisches Instrument. Fremdsprachenlehrende sind – zumindest im klassischen Unterricht – zudem Sprachvorbilder im kommunikativen und auch ästhetischen Sinne. Jede Stimme hat einen individuellen Klang, der plastizierbar ist und zielgerichtet eingesetzt werden kann, um ein konstruktives Lernklima zu schaffen. In diesem Beitrag wird ein Seminarmodul für auszubildende DaF-Lehrende vorgestellt, das auf performativ-ästhetischen Arbeitsansätzen basiert. Die Arbeitsform des chorischen Sprechens fand bisher vor allem in der muttersprachlichen und fremdsprachlichen Schulbildung zur Stärkung sprachlich-ästhetischer und persönlichkeitsbildender Kompetenzen Anwendung. Mit ähnlicher Zielsetzung soll im vorliegenden Beitrag aufgezeigt werden, dass der persönliche stimmliche Ausdruck, unter Einbezug des Körperlichen, ein ernstzunehmendes Arbeitsfeld in der fremdsprachlichen Lehrer:innenbildung ist.

Perfect disguises

Dutch secondary school pupils seldom speak the foreign language in class, citing anxiety as a primary factor (Haijma, 2013). Implementing improvisational drama techniques (IDTs), however, could help ameliorate this situation by generating positive affective reactions, such as confidence and joy, and in turn stimulate pupils to speak. The concept IDT in this study contains two key elements. Firstly, participants take on roles in fictitious situations. Secondly, the activities must elicit spontaneous speech as to offer language learners opportunities to practice real-life communication, which is central to the goal of this research. The question driving this study was: What types of IDTs induce positive affective reactions among pupils and, as such, have the potential to stimulate spoken interaction in FL classrooms? The study yielded 77 IDTs associated with positive affective reactions through a literature review and an analysis of student teacher reflections on their IDT use in their English classrooms. This combined evidence lends credence to the conception that it could be the essence of improvisational drama that generates positive reactions, rather than the type of activity—the essence being an invitation to enter a fictional world, combined with the improvisational element that readies learners for spontaneous interactions.

Rezension: Hensel, A. (2020). Fremdsprachenunterricht als Ereignis. Zur Fundierung einer performativ-ästhetischen Praxis. Schibri-Verlag.

Die in Buchrezensionen vertretenen Ansichten und Meinungen sind die der jeweiligen Rezensent:innen und reflektieren nicht notwendigerweise die Position von SCENARIO.

Report: 8th Scenario Forum Symposium

In this conference report, I reflect from a student’s perspective on my experience as a participant in the 8th Scenario Forum Symposium ‘Sore Back, Square Eyes? Going Performative in Digital Teaching and Learning Spaces.