acting in the esl classroom

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?)