Description
When a foreign language (FL) teacher announces to her class that it is time to do a speaking activity, learners often want to crawl under their desks (or turn off their cameras and microphones). Yet perhaps a bit of hiding is exactly what the learner needs. Improvisational drama techniques (IDTs), such as role-plays and other theatre games, allow learners to hide behind the safety of a character mask while they practice using the language—and possibly even have some fun. Studies from six continents in FL classrooms ranging from kindergarten to university have shown that such techniques can foster affective responses conducive to spoken interaction, such as decreased anxiety (Atas, 2015), motivation (Ntelioglu, 2012), group bonding (Reed & Seong, 2013) and creativity (Even, 2011). The presenter will share both a theoretical foundation for IDTs as tools to create the positive affective conditions that can in turn stimulate willingness to communicate (MacIntyre et al., 1998), as well as her experiences as a researcher and teacher educator that have shown that time and again even reluctant FL speakers or those who profess not to be ‘drama people’ can find their voices as space travellers or eccentric hotel guests, and eventually, as themselves.| Period | 4 Jun 2021 |
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| Event title | Language Learning Resource Center Studiedag: Language, teaching: The interplay between practice, theory and research |
| Event type | Conference |