Intercultural Recognitions Through Performative Inquiry (Fels & McGivern, 2002)

This journal article was really amazing and came close the A-ha! Moment I am trying to investigate. The authors discuss performative inquiry – a research and learning mode that invites students to explore imaginary world. In this imaginary world, there are “space-moments of interstanding and intercultural recognitions.”  This is explored through the larger context of critical applied linguistics which recognises the language classroom as the site of struggle with social issues and cultural values.  They talk about how the dominant culture in the classroom is the culture of the target language and this can limit the expression and understanding of the learners if not considered in the learning environment.

Other ways the A-ha moment is expressed by these authors include, embodied presence, the third space of presence and exploration, intertextural realm of social responsibility and intercultural learning, concurrent shared participation and reflection, edge of chaos, endless dance of co-emergence and even simply, “the stop.” (Applebaum, 1995, 15, 16). Applebaum suggests students seek entry to this new linguistic space – a betweenness that is a hinge that belongs to neither one nor the other. Approaching the chaos, or restabilising requires new ways of moving within an embodied language of discontinuity, unfamiliarity, the not yet-known.

Two key activities in process drama that enable performative enquiry are the collective sharing and reflection by the participants following the performative exploration and embodied play. This offers students opportunities for intercultural awareness, dialogue and understanding.

“Performative inquiry is a research methodology that explores possible journey-landscapes, charting space-moments of learning realised through performance” (Fels, 1998)

Understanding Drama Based Education (Wagner 2002)

This article expresses how drama can have a positive influence on the development of all four language skills – reading, listening, writing and speaking. Wagner cites many different studies done that show a greater increase in these four skills when compared to classrooms that don’t use drama. The concept of “undergo” – when we allow our encounters to modify our established conceptions. When we undergo an experience, we ultimately have to change ourselves and our way of looking at the world. This is what true learning  is – a modification of our very selves. Development of community in learning is an important part of creation of this new self. Drama, specifically improvisational drama, by its very nature and use of symbols, icons and creating an urgency to build community, encourages this development of self.

The importance of creating a role that is slightly greater or more experienced than the current level of the student is highlighted in the process drama technique of mantel of the expert. This is exhibited in the language development and imaginative play of children, where they take on a role of an adult or doctor and are forced through the drama to adopt language and vocabulary that is more advanced than their own. This corresponds to Kraschen’s i+1 theory of language input.

Drama improves cognitive growth, such as language skills, problem solving, critical thinking and the effect is lasting. For writing specifically, there is research showing that writing in role and preparing for writing through art, drawing or drama creates empathy and greater awareness of audience and purpose.

Wagner suggests that dramatic inventing is one of the most basic skills – in facts should be included as the fifth skill in language learning after reading, writing, speaking and listening. How bold! This is the matrix through which the other skills emerge.

Drama in education aligns with constructivist theory – that is the notion that humans actively create their own models as to how the world works by dialogue with the world in which they live. Learners are active, goal oriented, hypothesis-generating symbol manipulators.

Drama has a strong emotional component. Participants are more vividly alive at the time of learning and alert to what is expected of them. This is due to the immediacy of the dramatic present and the pressure to respond aptly.

The importance of the use of gesture and body in language learning is highlighted. Gesture is a basic human communication form that allows learners to participate in activities and scenarios that are at higher target level than their current. Gesture leads to drawing and drawing leads to drama. Drama then leads to language. Wagner has labelled these three stages as enactive, iconic and symbolic, suggesting learning move through the stages, and this is heightened in effective drama.

“Drama aids thinking because it has the same goal as that of all cognition – to understand, to gain a larger perspective on, and to engage more profoundly with the world.” P15