Creating Contexts, Characters, and Communication: Foreign Language Teaching and Process Drama

Abstract

The foundational premise of communicatively-based foreign language teaching approaches is that the activities used in the classroom are 'communicative'; that the language learned is being used to 'communicate'. Genuine communication however is difficult to establish in a traditional classroom setting consisting of desks, chairs and textbooks. This project examines how a specific form of Drama in Education - process drama - can be used to create more authentic communicative situations and learning experiences in the foreign language classroom; experiences that are both intellectually and affectively engaging. It begins with a review of the literature pertaining to the three main areas that provide the backdrop to the project's central research proposition, namely second language acquisition, second language methodology and aesthetic education. The three main protagonists are then introduced, namely social interactionist theories of language acquisition, communicative language teaching approaches (the main focus being on task-based methodology), and process drama. The two supporting characters, change and motivation, also make their entrance.

The curtain is then raised to reveal a performance of various teaching and learning experiences of the use of process drama in first and second language settings. This illustrates how process drama operates on a practical level and explores the offered potential for more authentic communication when this approach comes into contact with second language task-based methodology. Literature surrounding unit and lesson planning frameworks from the fields of both second language acquisition and process drama is then examined before the spotlight falls on the proposed 'Foreign language and Process drama' Unit and Lesson planning Framework. Illustrative models of the innovative framework together with concrete examples of its use are provided to represent more clearly how it can facilitate the creation of characters and contexts through which to communicate more authentically in the FL classroom. The closing curtain falls on a reflection of the entire project, which includes recommendations and possibilities for further research.