CELEBRATING

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CELEBRATING 75 YEARS OF CULTURAL RELATIONS 1934
2009
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Addressing Diversity Through Drama in ELT Henry
Robinson MA, MBA LCTL Dip TESOL
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Addressing Diversity Through Drama in ELT

• Content
• Discuss Diversity in ELT and addressing it.
• Experience a Drama and Diversity activity
• Identify advantages of addressing Diversity with
  Drama
• Developing own Drama and Diversity activities

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The Modern Stage Global English

• Interest in a wide range of subjects / issues
• Linguistic to communicative competence
• Shift from form to content

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What is Diversity?

• Differences in Ideas, belief, attitudes,
  behaviour
• Customs, values, laws, politics, religion,
  morals, stereotypes, language, dialects, family
  structures, rituals

• .Material productions
• Technology, art, literature, artifacts, food,
  architecture,

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What Can Be Dramatised?
Own stories Biographies Creative
textsPoemsSongsFilms

• A piece of creative thought of artistic value
  expressed by actors

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Diversity and Drama

• Objects unique to a society
• Proverbs, idioms
• Social structures, roles, relationships
• Customs, rituals, traditions, festivals
• Beliefs, values, superstitions, taboos

• Political, historical, economic background
• Institutions
• Metaphorical meanings
• Humour
• Genre
• Status

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Drama in the ELT For and Against

• Motivation (McKay 2000)
• Authentic cultural experience
• Exposure to real language
• Ability to relate to real needs
• Can support a creative approach to teaching /
  learning
• Widening perspectives (Stuart and Nocon 96)

• Mono-culturalism
• Stereotyping
• Difficult language level
• Idioms, deviant forms
• Culturally difficult

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Enhancing Diversity Awareness

• Culture is always in the backgroundchallenging
  the good language learners ability to make sense
  of the world around them

Kramsch, 1993 1
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Culture in the EFL Classroom

• ..Learning about the(target) as well as about
  ones own culture requires tools that assist
  language learners in understanding the cultural
  texts in which (languages) are used..

Stuart and Nocon, 1996 432
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Drama and the Human Brain

• ..Language teaching is still operating on a
  relatively narrow conception of language and
  culture..As a fixed system of formal
  structures.A neutral conduit for cultural
  knowledge..

Kramsch 1996
..the synchronicity between brain based learning
and ....learning through drama is clear and
evident... Norman, 1999
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Introducing Drama in ELT

• Set clear aims / objectives
• Begin with L experience
• Activity to have a clear purpose (selling points
  Cullen, Sato 2000)
• Cross-cultural approaches
• Appropriate level
• Learners interests / habits

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Levels of Achievement / Ability

• Identifying
• The content, story, plot, characters
• The authors viewpoint, attitude or opinion
• The work in its historical/ cultural context
• And
• Responding
• Answering the question does it work as
  literature?

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Diversity Awareness Skills

• Observing, identifying
• Comparing / contrasting
• Negotiating meaning
• Dealing with / tolerating ambiguity
• Interpreting messages
• Limiting misinterpretation
• Defending a point of view / understanding
  another's viewpoint
• Accepting difference

Rose, 2002
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The Third Space

• Shifting, changing cultures
• Cross cultural competence
• Learners as heteroglossic narrators

• Fixed stable culture
• Linguistic competence
• Learners as monoglossic receivers

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Contact Details

• henry_robinson_at_hotmail.com