Drama in Language Teaching Podcast: Recent Episodes
Stefanie Giebert
In this episode Erika Piazzoli and Fiona Dalziel, who are university teachers and drama in education researchers in Ireland and Italy, respectively, speak about the Sorgente project. Their joint research project focussed on performative language teaching and learning with several groups of migrants and asylum seekers. In this interview, Erika and Fiona talk for example about:
- who was involved in this project that took part in Dublin and Padova and included practitioners and researchers from several countries, focusing on various art forms, including drama, music and visual arts
- how the project came about, who the learners were and how the pandemic put it on hold for 18 months
- how the pandemic influenced the field work when the drama-based work could finally take place
- the three research topics and questions: motivation to belong, embodied research methods, ethical imagination
- several examples of arts-based teaching and learning, such as:
- working with language portraits as jumping-off points
- the process drama on the myth of the Simurgh, how it relates to the theme of migration and how the teachers approached sensitive questions raised by the story
- working with zines
- how the researchers documented the work and gathered research data
- ethical guidelines and practices in the project, such as aesthetic distancing, trauma-informed practice and brave spaces
- what brave spaces are
- the research report and the book
- how the 9 research themes of the project are summarized by a “data poem”
Shownotes
- https://erikapiazzoli.com/sorgente/
- Piazzoli, E., Brown, A., Dalziel, F., Jacobs, L., Scally, G., Stewart, M. (2023). Sorgente Research Report: The Irish Case Studies. School of Education, Trinity College Dublin, The University of Dublin. https://doi.org/10.25546/103910
- Piazzoli, E. & Dalziel, F. (Eds.). Performative language learning with refugees and migrants: Embodied research and practice in the Sorgente project. Routledge.
- Arao, B., & Clemens, K. (2013). From safe spaces to brave spaces: A new way to frame dialogue around diversity and social justice. In L. Landreman (Ed.), The art of effective facilitation: Reflections from social justice educators (pp. 135–150). Stylus. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003447580
In this episode I talk to Paul Leonard Murray, former actor and university teacher, long-time drama practitioner and educator, who has been based in Serbia for more than 20 years doing theatre in English with young people.
We talk about:
- Paul’s career and how he came to found a youth theatre company in Belgrade, who his drama students are and what kind of projects they do
- why young people enjoy doing drama and theatre in English and what they can learn through this experience
- how Paul came to writing comedic adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays for young actors in rhyming couplets and why he started with one of the least popular of Shakespeare’s plays
- Shakespearean language and accessibility of his plays
- which play Paul might adapt next and what his plans for his company are
Links:
Silly Shakespeare for Students!
In this episode I talk to Miriam Stewart, a teacher and teacher trainer from Ireland. We focus on the “Learning Out Loud”-project, an EU-funded Erasmus+ project in which teachers can explore how to use humor and comedy in the classroom to enrich their teaching skills.
We talk about:
- How did the “Learning Out Loud” project start?
- What did they do in the project, what were the outcomes and what was or is Miriam’s role in it?
- The different topics covered in the teacher training, such as stand-up comedy, the neuroscience of humor, dark humor, the connection of humor and drama techniques, etc.
- Miriam’s research on dark humor and how it might be used appropriately in a classroom environment
- how humor and what is perceived as funny varies across cultures
- the idea of teacher presence and about activities centering on becoming more aware of your own presence as a teacher
- how to make (adult) learners feel comfortable with humor in the classroom
- taking risks, perfectionism and comedy
- sensitive topics and humour in the classroom
Links
The Learning Out Loud Project:
Home
Meaghan Mobbs. (2018). “An awful joke can feel pretty good.” Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/intl/blog/the-debrief/201805/awful-joke-can-feel-pretty-good
In this episode I talk to Modesto Corderi Novoa, a teacher of Chinese, Spanish and English who lives in Northern Spain and has a long-standing interested in applying improv in his language classroom.
We talk about:
- Modesto’s journey to become the kind of language teacher and teacher trainer he is today
- his PhD research on the influence of drama-based teaching on students oral proficiency in the Chinese as a foreign language teaching classroom
- how he applies games from improvisational theatre, drama conventions and other elements in his performative classroom
- his advice to teachers who want to become more creative in designing their lessons with drama-based elements
Links
Articles on Modesto’s research and performative practice:
- The Impact of Performative Language Teaching on Oral Skills in the Classroom of Chinese as a Foreign Language: https://revpubli.unileon.es/index.php/sinologia/article/view/7381
- Performing El Camino (The Way) of Santiago de Compostela. An embodied performative language teaching practice (you can also find a description of the “loop” game in this article): https://journals.ucc.ie/index.php/scenario/article/view/scenario-17-1-8/pdf-en
- Performing Yuánfèn: An Exploration of Untranslatable Words in the Lacunae Project: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0752/13/1/2
Other Games mentioned in the podcast:
- https://improwiki.com/en/wiki/improv/i_am_a_tree
- https://improvencyclopedia.org/games//Gibberish_Expert.html
In this episode I talk to Carrie Klewin Lawrence. Carrie is a stage director of new and devised works, opera, musicals, and professor of theatre, personal branding, and film. Carrie has developed numerous new works virtually over the past decade. During the pandemic she led The Red Wolves Ensemble in a devised Zoom theatre laboratory and subsequent live video theatre performances. Which was something they also did at the DiE Days in 2021 and we will discuss this in some more detail. Carrie is also the author of Origin Story: Power of the Inciting Incident, a book about controlling your personal narrative through storytelling, which we will also briefly touch upon.
Links:
https://www.carrieklewin.com/
Carrie's chapter in the DiE Days 2021 proceedings: "Deconstructing the Red Wolves"
In this episode I talk to Nick Bilbrough and Haneen Jadallah about: The Hands Up Project, which started as an online storytelling venture targeted at teachers and children in Palestine
In this episode, Mona and Sarah talk about their research on “Fluchtpunkt Madgeburg”, a multilingual theater project. We talked about their research on a theater project that: offers multiple perspectives
In this candid conversation with Eva Göksel, Erika Piazzoli revisits her 2020 Keynote, which she gave online at the 2020 Drama in Education Days. Over the course of the interview
My two guests in this episode are Anke Stoever-Blahak from the University of Hannover in Germany and Silja Weber, from Columbia University in the US. Anke and Silja share their
In this episode I talk to Georgina Dragovic, a researcher and PhD candidate at Fribourg University in Switzerland. Amongst other things we talked about: the consequences of the conventional way
In this episode I talk to Georgina Dragovic, a researcher and PhD candidate at Fribourg University in Switzerland. Amongst other things we talked about: the consequences of the conventional way
On 21 and 22 September 2019 the Scenario Forum Symposium took place at Leibniz University in Hanover, Germany. This podcast is a collage of short interviews (thank you Eva for
Conference Website Scenario Website Justin Beard: Interact English Michaela Sambanis: Fremdsprachenunterricht und Neurowissenschaften Szenisches Lernen im Fremdsprachenunterricht: die Evaluation eines Schulversuchs Anke Stöver-Blahak: Lyrik für Ingenieure Subscribe: RSS | Stitcher |
In July 2018 my colleague Eva Göksel travelled all the way to Auckland, New Zealand to attend IDIERI 9, a big international drama in education conference. I was curious to
In July 2018 my colleague Eva Göksel travelled all the way to Auckland, New Zealand to attend IDIERI 9, a big international drama in education conference. I was curious to
Episode 3: For this episode I met up with Eva Göksel – we’re organising the Drama in Education Days (so far four conferences, in Reutlingen and Konstanz) together – and
Episode 3: For this episode I met up with Eva Göksel – we’re organising the Drama in Education Days (so far four conferences, in Reutlingen and Konstanz) together – and
Episode 2: Interview with Veronika Fröhlich from Heidelberg University of Education (Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg). In this interview Veronika talks for example about… how she finds learning and teaching with drama
Episode 2: Interview with Veronika Fröhlich from Heidelberg University of Education (Pädagogische Hochschule Heidelberg). In this interview Veronika talks for example about… how she finds learning and teaching with drama
Episode 1: interview with Jonathan Sharp (University of Tübingen) In this first episode I interview Jonathan, who describes his journey from Scotland via Vienna to Tübingen (Germany) and tells us…
Episode 1: interview with Jonathan Sharp (University of Tübingen) In this first episode I interview Jonathan, who describes his journey from Scotland via Vienna to Tübingen (Germany) and tells us…