acting in the esl classroom
DESCRIPTION
A presentation given at the 2008 South Atlantic Modern Language Association Convention held in Louisville, Kentucky.TRANSCRIPT
Drama, Language, and Thought:
Vygotsky, Stanislavski, and You
by Gary Carkin, Ph.D.
Graduate Professor of TESOL
The Institute for Language Education
Southern New Hampshire University
Manchester, NH USA
No Words, No Voice, No Language – Just Compassion
By Martha Epperson
The Essential Teacher
March, 2008
• TESOL-Drama• EVO_Drama
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EVO_Drama_2008/
Gary’s Research Website
http://garycarkin.tripod.com/garycarkinseslefldramalog/
Dr. Daniela Bacova
Slovakia
Torun Teacher Training CollegeTorun, Poland
Anita Debska
Joanna Ciechanowska (Przewiezlikowski)
London School of Language and Drama
• Actor training through English as a second language
• Concentration exercises• Mime• Improvisation• Poetry reading• Scene study
Nicole KupferZurich, Switzerland
•Students create original texts•Students play their own musical instruments•Students dance•Students prepare lighting, sound, costumes, and properties•Students rehearse using the target language on and off stage
Julie O’SullivanNew York University
SystemNew Paltz, New York
•Uses mime•Movement•Scene study
Alexis FingerDrexel UniversityPhiladelphia, PA
• Uses contemporary drama• Students read plays• Students see plays• Students discuss plays• Students re-write plays• Students perform their rewritten plays
George PlautzEnglish Language Institute
University of Utah
Theatrical Production Course•Students rehearse play•Students work on props, set, sound, and costumes•Study all aspects of production
Second Language Acquisition Theorists
Krashen – Affective filter
Krashen – Comprehensible input
Hatch, Pica, and Long – Task based and natural approach
Boulton, Heathcote, Freire, Kao, O’Neill – Learner centered
Lev Semenovitch Vygotsky
•Zone of Proximal Development – Mind and Society (1978)•Thought and Language (1976)
Thought and LanguageA person starts with a MOTIVE to speak.
The motive generates INNERSPEECH/SUBTEXT.
The inner speech/subtext generates a THOUGHT/IMAGE.
The thought/image generates a FEELING.
The thought/image/feeling is communicated through the MEDIUM of (L2) SPEECH.
Motive or Intention
•State motivating desire in specific terms•Words are tools to achieving an objective •Intentions must be expressed in active terms•Doing, not being
Inner speech or Subtext
•Abbreviation of syntax•Predicates•The thought behind the text•The meaning based upon context•Sense and meaning combine
Image
Create flow of images based upon motive/subtext/inner speech
Wait for feeling
Link to text
Link to inner monologue
Feeling
• Created through work with motive/inner speech/subtext/ and image
• The thought creates the feeling• Thought/feeling support the meaning of the
text
ConclusionLanguage acquisition/production occurs when a learner moves from motivation to inner speech or subtext to a flow of images that excite a flow of feeling. The feeling leads to selection of L2 words and syntax related to the context/circumstance for which they are used. A written text can help the process of language acquisition because it supplies vocabulary/grammar in context.
Using drama for life
Drama trains learners to control their thought processes.
Thought can be directed to envision positive results
Such constant imaging of positive results produces the results desired.
The Secret
By Rhonda Byrne
The End
(and a beginning?)