Process Drama for intercultural language learning at an advanced level of proficiency Presentation given by Erika Piazzoli at AFMLTA conference Sydney 2009

1. PROCESS DRAMA
for intercultural language learning
at an advanced level of proficiency
Erika C. Piazzoli
Honours in Applied Theatre
In collaboration with the School of Languages & Linguistics
Griffith University, Brisbane

2. OVERVIEW OF PRESENTATION
 Introduce process drama pedagogy and theoretical framework
of the study
 Discuss research design
 Findings:
1. Intercultural awareness
2. Spontaneous communication
3. Process drama for FL teachers
 Present conclusions from research
 Q&A

3. WHAT IS PROCESS DRAMA?
 An improvised dramatic form based on the ‘ongoing
negotiation of meaning’ (O’Toole, 1992)
 Students and teacher co-create a story, developed
through a sequence of scenarios, interwoven in ‘a
web of meaning’ (Kao & O’Neill, 1998)
 Intercultural language learning: interpretation and
meaning-making (Byram, 1999); teachers of
meaning (Kramsch, 2008)

4. PROCESS DRAMA AS A PEDAGOGY
 1960: drama as a tool for self-development and creativity
(Slade, 1954; Way, 1959)
 1970: drama in education pedagogy (Bolton, 1979;
Heathcote, 1984) embraced to teach other disciplines. Cecily
O’Neill coins the term ‘process drama’ (1995)
 1998: process drama is applied to FLT (Kao & O’Neill)
Empirical study ESL Cheng Kung University, Taiwan. Other
studies (Araki-Metcalfe 2001, 2007; Marschke 2004; Stinson,
2006, 2007)
PROCESS DRAMA → COMMUNICATIVE COMPETENCE

5. INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS MODEL
“Awareness of experiencing otherness...
Fleming: process
drama
as tool for
intercultural
awareness
(1998, 2003)
... to de-centre from one’s cultural codes, resulting in a
transformation of consciousness” (Alred, Byram & Fleming, 2003)

6. STRUCTURE OF PROCESS DRAMA
IMPROVISED CONTENT vs STRUCTURED FRAMEWORK
picture, a story,
scene from a movie,
discussion
poem...
linguistic
reflection
build on pre-
text to get in role
within context
PD conventions to
explore the reality of
the context
... TO ACHIEVE AN EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE

7. OVERVIEW OF THE COURSE
Objective: reflect on some socio-cultural issues of contemporary Italy
Theme (chosen by students ) Pretext
Protesting as collective action in Opening paragraph of “Sotto
Italy paga” play (Fo & Rame, 2008)
Italian sense of humour embedded A catalogue from an Italian
in sarcasm supermarket
Issues of integration of Roma Photo of a Roma child
people in Italy
Temporary worker as collective Card with a poem of St Precarious
identity for Italian youth
Cycles of politics and corruption: A scene from the film: “Il Caimano”
Italian collective pessimism by N. Moretti (2006)
The stereotype of bigotry A current affair article

8. OVERVIEW of MY RESEARCH (PIAZZOLI 2008)
 Objective: identify strategies to enhance intercultural
awareness in a FL classroom using process drama
 Course: 3rd year Italian FL Griffith University / Aim: reflect on
socio-cultural issues of contemporary Italy. Reading: “Sotto
paga! Non si paga” (Fo & Rame, 2008)
 Participants: 12 students /18 to 65 years old
 Structure: 2hr weekly process drama on a socio-cultural
theme emerging from the play. After the workshop:
communicative forum to choose next theme
 Action research tools: video recordings, teacher/researcher
reflective journal, transcripts of communicative forums, 10
individual interviews, concept mapping diagrams, focus group

9. MANIPULATION OF DISTANCE AS A STRATEGY
 Distance: the perception between student and
character
 Distance as a continuum (Eriksson, 2007)
 Manipulating distance: increasing to de-centre and
decreasing to empathise with a character / situation
EMPATHY DETACHMENT
- +

10. 1. DECREASING DISTANCE: EMPATHISING
 Teacher In Role: the child
 Relaxation & narration
 Freeze Frame of life in camp
 ...
“That just broke my heart...
[emotional] you were so
tiny and so like... the way
that I could... really feel
what this people have to go
through...” (Sarah)

11. 2. INCREASING DISTANCE: DE-CENTRING
Distancing strategy: introducing an EXTERNAL CULTURAL
MODEL, not related to students’ culture, nor to the target
culture (Heathcote & Bolton, 1998)
Example:
Japanese
journalists
In Italy

12. INCREASING DISTANCE: WORKSHOP EXAMPLE
ROLE CARDS  Pretext: ‘Sotto paga’ opening
NAME: Eiko Arai passage: the protest
AGE: 41  Establishing context: Japanese
PERSONALITY: gossip-prone
journalists. Cultural value system
EXPERIENCE: 23 years as janitor
in an Italo-Japanese school in  Hand out cards / hot-seat
Tokyo; 3 months as assistant  Teacher In Role: magazine director
writer for an Italian magazine addressing employees
NAME: Norichika Aoki  Prepare the interview in groups
AGE: 68
PERSONALITY: shy, quiet
 ...
EXPERIENCE: 30 years as
plastic surgeon for Japanese VIP
in Rome; 1 year as writer for ‘Italia
qui’.

13. PARTICIPANTS’ COMMENTS
“I guess, as an Italian student I’m… biased... because I really like
Italy so I don’t see the faults so much, maybe... but when you’re kind
of forced to look at it from an outsider’s perspective...” (Emi)
“I think I’ve glamorized Italian culture and [this course] has taken a
little bit of the glamour out of Italy for me... but... I feel like I’m better
equipped...” (Sarah)
“This subject helped me to have that broader understanding of Italy as
a culture, as a nation… as a… group of people! (Tina)

14. FINDING I: INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS
Through strategies of
manipulation of distance
some of the participants
experienced:

15. FINDING II: PROCESS DRAMA & FLUENCY

16. FINDING III: TEACHING PROCESS DRAMA
DRAMA-TEACHING vs. FL TEACHING: UNDERSTANDING
and OPERATING through the AESTHETIC DIMENSION

17. CONCLUSIONS
 PD pedagogy generates high MOTIVATION TO
COMMUNICATE in the target language
 Combination of distancing strategies can be an
effective approach for INTERCULTURAL
LANGUAGE LEARNING (advanced proficiency)
 MORE RESEARCH needed to enable FL teachers
to understand and intuitively operate within the
AESTHETIC DIMENSION of drama teaching

18. THANK YOU