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Enhancing Teaching English as an Additional Language Through Playfulness: Seniors (Ethno)Drama Club in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside
Abstract
This article describes the process of using an ethnodrama while working with older adults learning English as an additional language. By examining a 4-month-long period of Seniors Drama Club, created to offer theatre-based language learning experiences for Vancouver's immigrant senior population, the authors draw attention to the complex learning that occurs at the intersection of drama education and additional language learning. The aim of the article is twofold. First, the authors show the benefits of using adaptable and “living” texts—such as an ethnodrama—in language teaching. Second, the authors argue that framing of language learning as a collaborative theatre project empowers learners to take agency of their language learning and future use. In conclusion, the authors elaborate on some of the promising practices developed as the outcome of this community-based project.
... Through drama, multilingual learners can engage in language play, supported by the collective. A playful, safe classroom for drama/theater arts helps multilingual learners reduce anxiety (Piazzoli, 2011) and increase self-confidence (Balyasnikova, Higgins, & Hume, 2018). Collective play supports co-constructing of stories and grasping narrative as essential to human experience. ...
All disciplines have particular ways of knowing, common practices, and
means of using language that mediate and potentially support engagement with the discipline. For multilingual learners, language demands of a discipline can be a closed door or a facilitated entryway. Drama and theater arts, the focus of our article, are often marginalized in curricula across the grades and therefore receive less attention to relevant disciplinary activities and language demands. In response to this pattern, our paper has several aims. We highlight ways language demands are embedded in drama and theater arts curricula and activities. Second, we describe and analyze ways instruction can attend to these demands and support multilingual learners’ engagements with them. Third, we distill a set of principles that can guide teachers, guest artists, and teacher educators in their work on drama and theater arts with multilingual student populations. To accomplish these aims, we draw upon our own and others’ teaching and research to frame instructional practices that support multilingual students’ engagements with drama and theater activities. Engagements we describe span early childhood through high school years. Tapping our own work in several US states (Illinois, North Carolina, California), as well as in Argentina and the
UK, we present data and themes from a high school study featuring drama and theater arts practices used with multilingual learners. We examine how principles from our framework are illustrated in data of the study. We also identify challenges and critical adaptations that may be needed to realize the potential of drama in work with multilingual students. Principles we identify may aid teachers, guest artists, and teacher educators in shaping drama and theater arts activities that spotlight language demands of the discipline(s) of drama and theater and provide supportive and meaningful instruction.
... In addition to a larger program evaluation that drew on a variety of more traditional quantitative and qualitative methods and a mixture of data sources, from semi-structured interviews to attendance sheets (Leyland, 2016), we initiated a theatre-based evaluation project. The Learning Exchange had previously explored ethnotheatre as a means of capturing program participants' voices (Balyasnikova, Higgins, & Hume, 2017;Gillard & Balyasnikova, 2015), and the Learning Lab had facilitated several collaborative art-making projects. Drawing on these experiences, and rooting the work in participatory evaluation approaches (Chouinard, 2013;Cousins & Earl, 1992;Cousins & Whitmore, 2007), we began creating a play called Voices UP!. ...
Voices UP!, a play developed and performed collectively with participants from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, illustrates the use of theatre as an innovative evaluation method for data collection, analysis, and knowledge translation. Th is artful process can convey complex, experiential evaluation findings and create engaging opportunities for learning, while building relationships and skills among participants. In this article we describe the creation process utilized for this theatre-based evaluation project, as well as guiding principles and lessons learned for evaluators who may want to engage in similar theatre-based participatory work.
Playfulness is a critical term for the study of games, simulations, mental health. In addition to formal characteristics of games, how players perceive, experience those games has shown effect on the outcomes of interventions. One experience that is critically connected to games is playfulness. Simultaneously playfulness has recently been studied in psychology for its benefits on adult mental health, as a state of mind and a personality trait. This makes playfulness a highly valuable term to study in the context of game-based interventions that aim to affect mental health symptoms. Addresses empirical literature connecting playfulness and mental health using a new model of playfulness as engagement seeking. By analyzing past works two primary pathways for how playfulness affects mental health emerge. Based upon these pathways and how past studies have methodologically used them.KeywordsMental HealthPlayfulnessLiterature Review
This scoping review aims to describe the range of research studies using arts-based data collection methods with immigrant and racialized older adults. A secondary aim is to identify challenges and strengths of using these approaches with this population. This review uses Arksey and O'Malley’s five-stage scoping review framework with a final number of 16 references included for the study. Enhanced social connectedness, increased transparency and quality of findings, and self-empowerment were key strengths of using arts-based approaches for data collection. Challenges identified included resource limitations, cultural and language barriers, and barriers to meaningful engagement. Only a small number of studies have utilized arts-based methods with immigrant and racialized older adults. Arts-based approaches require unique methodological adaptations with this population but have the potential to increase engagement in research activities, authenticity of research findings and empowerment of older adults.
In this thesis, I theoretically and empirically examine the dominant learning philosophies in older age. Three statements of principles of educational gerontology coalesce into two notorious learning philosophies in older age: humanist and critical. They formulate answers to vital questions about the education of older people. Written in 1990 from a political economy perspective that heavily draws on Freirean pedagogy, the first statement provides a moral and philosophical backing for the practices and aims of a (then) flourishing field by examining the marginalisation of older people in societies. In the same year, the second statement responds to the first with a humanist individualist perspective on the education of older people. It provides a different view on why they choose to learn, the goals for their education, and the role of teachers in enacting said educational goals. Two decades later, the third statement is born. This time, it invigorated a critical but culturalist-leaning perspective. It engages with the focal points in the previous statements and remains loyal to Freirean ideals in the face of an increasingly individualistic and globalised world. Over time, the three statements of principles fuelled a polarising debate around central questions in the education of older people.
In this methodologically rich thesis composed of four articles, I recommend and draft a fourth and late modern statement of the principles of educational gerontology, which overcomes agency/structure dualisms characterising the debate surrounding the current principles. First, this thesis confirms that leisure and liberal arts education empowers older people. Second, it attributes to the motives for learning in older age a reflexive ontological security nature that may go hand in hand with that of non-conscious class struggles. Third, it challenges the logic of emancipation embedded in critical educational gerontology and refutes the assumption that older learners are naïve. Finally, it envisages the teachers’ role as emancipators from a less coercive departure point.
Through the case of Jacqui, this article describes a community-based project called Seniors Thrive, which was intended to help immigrant seniors learn English, build social connections, and strengthen their leadership in order to support their health and well-being. The programming merged language learning and leadership opportunities through arts-based programming. Multiple classes offered through Seniors Thrive brought together individuals from all walks of life to learn together and from each other. As a result, many learners, including Jacqui, demonstrated heightened confidence in their English speaking abilities and increased their social connections. The arts-based program enabled the voices of older learners to be heard beyond their closed communities. We pose that arts-based activities have the potential to transform language learning in later life, if arts-based programs follow a flexible and community-driven design.
This article closely examines research literature from the last two decades that focuses on the use of drama in L2 learning and teaching. L2 (second language) is used as an umbrella term that refers to any language learned in addition to one’s first language. The authors review on-line teaching resources, position papers, scholarly articles and existing research findings on the impact of implementing drama in L2 learning that were published in English. This review of literature suggests that despite a wide-spread pedagogical interest and scholarly conviction in the possibilities of educational drama in creating a more contextually-situated, engaging, multi-modal, and empowering L2 learning experience, there is still little empirical evidence concerning what is actually taking place in L2 classrooms and how students perceive and react to their learning experiences when drama is introduced. More systematic, long-term research studies are needed to deepen our understanding of the impact of using drama in L2 classrooms on a range of aspects of teaching and learning.
The application of drama strategies which focus more on meaning than on form can provide an impetus for learners to be more confident about speaking, thereby increasing the quantity of their spoken English. This paper discusses existing research and the author's own experiences in an attempt to highlight the positive effects of improvisations, playwriting and rehearsals on the oral output of learners inrelation to communicative English
Editorial for special edition on drama and second language learning.
This paper presents the results of an investigation into the value of using drama in a Brazilian university classroom. Drawing on Di Pietro (1987) and Via (1976) on the advantages of using drama in language learning, from Mezirow (1990) and Schön (1991) on the importance of reflection for promoting meaningful learning, and from Donato and McCormick (1994) and Lukinsky (1990) on the effectiveness of portfolios as a tool to promote reflection, the paper presents a case study of the use of drama in an oral skill class, describing the course structure and classroom procedures. It includes learners' voices as taken from their portfolios, and evaluates results, presenting setbacks and possible solutions. Finally, it encourages the use of drama and portfolios for transformative and emancipatory learning.
This essay aims to examine the use of drama and dramatic activities in English Language Teaching CELT). Its opening part looks at some of the theories behind the use of drama with learners of English, and tries to answer questions such as what is drama, who needs it, and when should it be used. The essay then takes a look at some practical procedural strategies such as lesson preparation, students' language needs, how to present and integrate drama into the lesson, and overall classroom organization. The next section tackles the question of how dramatic activities can be employed in the language classroom. The possibilities considered include mime, simulation, role-play, scripted plays, improvisation, and coursebook dialogue. Some concluding remarks finish off the main body of the essay.
We are a lucky group of older adults, ranging in age from sixty to ninety-two, who participate in an intergenerational arts program at our local senior center in Flushing, Queens, one of New York City's most culturally diverse communities. In our living history theater program, run by Elders Share the Arts (ESTA) and facilitated by ESTA teaching artist Marsha Gildin, we are joined weekly by fifth graders from PS 24, a public elementary school located around the corner. Some of our senior members joined just last year, while others have been involved for more than a decade. Our relationship with the children is very special and mutually nourishing. ESTA guides us in sessions based on sharing stories from life experience and in transforming memories into art. We explore our ideas through theater exercises and devise an original piece rooted in what we have learned from one another. Rehearsals are an ensemble learning process. With forty-five people on stage during our performances at the senior center and s...
James Thompson’s 2004 article ‘Digging Up Stories’ suggests Theatre for Development’s focus has mostly been on epistemic concerns. Projects emphasize participants learning techniques or exercises to be applied in various contexts. Thompson proposes Theatre for
Development should draw back from epistemic concerns to work with the ontic concerns of communities. In light of Thompson’s analysis, I can see my time-planning process and performance have placed ontic considerations as primary and epistemic concerns as secondary. Working as assistant
director of GeriActors and Friends (G&F), an intergenerational theatre company based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and while consulting towards the creation of an intergenerational theatre company in Tamil Nadu, India, I have employed playfulness as the primary state of being for the theatrical
processes. Playfulness can be utilized in intergenerational theatre and Theatre for Development projects to embrace Thompson’s proposed focus on the ontic approach.
This article builds on existing definitions and classification systems of research-based theatre to offer a way to define subgenres within the field. In order to identify similarities and particularities of theatrical performances based on research, the authors first consider definitions from practitioners working within the academy and those creating theatre for the general public. After reviewing these existing traditions and definitions, the authors delineate a spectrum of research-based theatre. This spectrum is based on two defining continua: the research continuum, which distinguishes among many types of research used to inform research-based theatre, and the performance continuum, which distinguishes among different kinds of performances, audiences, and purposes of a given research-based theatre piece. The spectrum of research-based theatre formed by combining these continua may assist practitioners in determining and honoring the goals and outcomes of their own work, while not making unnecessary comparisons with those working toward different goals and outcomes.
For more than 30 years drama has been promoted as a valuable teaching tool for language learning. Recent research results have reinforced this position. However, these and other earlier studies reveal that the overall success of the work is dependent, at least in part, upon the artistry of the teacher and the quality of the pretext materials used to drive the dramatic action. This article interrogates the notion of artistry in relation to drama pedagogy and second/additional language learning. It argues that where the application of drama strategies takes place in isolation, in an ad hoc manner or without a keen understanding of how dramatic forms, conventions and elements interact with one another, the work can become purely functional. In these situations the teaching becomes artless, resulting in approaches that do little to add value to existing practices or to the depth and quality of the experience for learners.
Discusses the use of improvisational acting exercises as a productive tool for overcoming reticence in English-as-a-Second-Language students. The approach stresses participation rather than accuracy of production. (Author/VWL)
This article seeks to understand the role of drama pedagogy in second/additional language learning with data drawn from a school-based ethnographic study of English language learners taking a drama-English as a Second Language (ESL) course. Being aware that all drama teaching does not automatically lead into improvement in language learning, it carefully explores the experiences of a group of English language learners taking a mandatory drama-ESL class after having passed a proficiency exam. Drawing from her data and from theoretical work in drama education, second language education and postcolonial discourse, the author proceeds to examine two aspects of multiliteracies pedagogy: situated practice and multimodality. One key finding is that, despite initial resistance from the majority of the English language learners about taking this mandatory class, the drama pedagogy used in this classroom drew on students’ personal and cultural experiences in the creation of identity texts and thereby provided room for a situated practice as well as multimodal representations of meaning. This process of creating performance-based identity texts, the author argues, cognitively engaged students, provided room for identity investment and, therefore, despite initial challenges, helped many students with their linguistic and social performances.
The purpose of this mixed methods study was to evaluate the effect of participation in the “Seasoned Arts At the Samford for You” (SAASY) programme, which included a 6-week acting class and four public performances, on the psychological well-being and health-related quality of life of older adults. Twelve older adults with chronic conditions from a low-income senior apartment and a senior living community participated in the programme. The acting class, led by two professional artists, met for a 2-hour class weekly for six weeks. Participants completed the General Well-being Schedule (GWBS) and the 36-Item Short-Form Health Survey (SF-36) both at the beginning of the programme and one month after the programme ended. In addition, participants were individually interviewed to explore the perceived impact of the theatre programme on their well-being. Participants reported a significantly higher score in the GWBS and on the physical but not on the mental component summary of the SF-36 at post-SAASY programme. Content analysis of the interview transcripts revealed that participants attained an improved sense of self-worth and self-advocacy and overcame self-imposed limitations. Results showed improvement in psychological well-being and health-related quality of life, most notably in the physical health component of SF-36 after participating in the programme. Practice implications for occupational therapists using drama as a creative leisure occupation to promote health among older adults with chronic conditions may involve analysis of participants' occupational profile, identification of deficit areas and adaptation of the acting programme content to meet specific needs and goals.
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