Drama & Language Learning Day @ Languages of the Wider World CETL

On Friday I attended the Drama and Language Learning Day at one of our many sister CETLs, Languages of the Wider World, down at the School of Oriental and African Studies. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect, but being (co-)project coordinator of IBL project theatre two point oh # (alongside outgoing SAN coordinator Laura), and being student ambassador for French, I figured that there was some kind of synergy here worth checking out. I certainly wasn’t wrong. Finding myself shouting “What’s the bloody time!!!” at a frightened looking Chinese lady in front of 50-odd delegates was not how I expected to be spending any part of my last official day as a student, but then life since joining the SAN just hasn’t been the same.

What I took away from Friday was not necessarily what I had expected; my experience of drama as a mode of language learning has been far more focused on activities outside the classroom, such as performing in a foreign language play. The University of Sheffield’s School of Modern Languages and Linguistics already has well developed programme of French and Spanish plays, performed annually at the University Drama Studio, and the same venue saw an operatic collaboration between the Departments of Music and Hispanic Studies earlier this year (see right). These activities clearly aid participants both with their confidence and level of spoken language, but are optional side-projects rather than integrated parts of undergraduate study programmes; what about bringing drama into the classroom?

Two papers and five workshops gave attendees plenty of ideas for use of drama in teaching and learning, and it was interesting to note commonalities between the experiences outlined here and those we had gained during theatre two point oh #. A speaker who stood out for me was Ken Wilson, an English language teacher and theatre practitioner who has both taught and performed around the world. His paper, provocatively entitled ‘Don’t waste time on Drama’, was both entertaining and gave participants much to think about.

With a highly engaging manner, Ken was able to win a diverse “classroom” of attendees around to what he had to say, arguably before he’d even opened his mouth. His paper involved taking us through what was effectively a lesson plan involving a range of activities and exercises with names such as ‘Be someone else’ and ‘Fish bowl’. Role play is of course used to great extent in many oral classes at the University and beyond, but I felt Ken’s argument was more to encourage the learner to create their own ‘character’ - to ‘be someone else’ rather than put their actual self in the given situation. This leaves less room for self-consciousness and shyness, and encourages learners to be more adventurous with the language they explore. When I reflect on my experiences of speaking French, I do feel that when in conversation I am in some way a slightly different character from my anglophone self, and it would perhaps be beneficial for teachers to encourage learners to explore this element of language practice.

What is certain is that drama techniques deserve greater attention within teaching of languages, particularly in oral contexts. Such techniques can encourage confidence, increase participation, enable repetition without leaving students bored, and increase concentration levels of a class that may be flagging 20 or 30 minutes into the lesson. It might also be that use of drama encourages an increase in attendance of spoken classes: this tends to be lower than in more formal lectures and seminars, perhaps because of a lack of confidence or even fear in the learner’s spoken ability.

Next up will be some musings on my second conference in as many weeks, the CETL Student Network Event, and following that there’s the LTEA Conference 2008, so stay tuned…