Drici Aicha
Université Kasdi Merbah à Ouargla
Laboratoire de Recherche: (English Language, Literature, Translation and Production of Knowledge)
Abstract: Theater is considered less placed in the didactics of the foreign language and limited to linguistic aims. It is of great value and deserves to be solicited because this art form requires exploiting its function and bringing out the student’s artistic potential which enables the students to acquire linguistic and cultural skills aiming at exploring artistic skills. So, the academic challenge is to reserve a place for drama from the early age of the learner since it opens the way to the joy of playing on stage in a foreign language. The theater is considered among the artistic practices that help to pose and solve some of the questions concerning interculturality. In this article we will investigate the role of art and culture, after we will see the characteristics of theater or dramatic play and why it has a positive impact on education and society as well.
Keywords: art, competence, competence, drama, foreign language, interculturality, linguistic, theater.
Introduction
Language of Art, like languages, „connects us to the world and to others through our senses“; it is a „place of emergence of individual and social identities„; a place of „encounter, creation, enjoyment and suffering“ „Jacques Demorgon“
We live in an age that marginalizes art and culture. However they play a crucial role in every society, and both of them play the role of mediation. Art would be perceived by the whole of society as a hobby, a luxury or a means of relaxation, while for the artists, art meets something important. Moreover, it often conveys a message by art and culture.
Art is a means of communication, through it we can express our happiness or sadness. A work of art is considered more than a speech. It provides a form of mediation to itself and to otherness. The dimension of Art carries forms of universality in which different people may share its forms but with different identities. For this reason, the language class is the ideal place to bring the art and culture to life, and to develop them alongside language. From the intercultural education perspective, the language class also has the privilege to provide the learners with all the art’s forms since the latter can give authenticity and weight to the words of both the learners and teachers as well. Artistic and cultural dimensions may contribute to the development of intercultural and emotional competences in which by Art, we do recognize Others and access their culture, their language and their history.
1. What is interculturalism?
Before defining the above concept, it should be useful to give a definition of the term „culture“. The English anthropologist Burnett Tylor used for the first time this term in this sense: for him, culture in its ethnographic and anthropological sense is „... is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals, law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society“ (Tylor, E. B, 1870, p.1).
While the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has defined interculturalism as „dynamic concept which ‚refers to evolving relations between cultural groups. Interculturality presupposes multiculturalism and results from intercultural exchange and dialogue on the local, regional, national or international level“ (UNESCO, 2006: 17 cited in Fiorucci, M and Catarci, M, 2016, p. 4).
2. What is art?
The activity of art, Tolstoy believes, is based on the fact that a man receiving through his sense of hearing or sight another man’s expression of feeling, is capable of experiencing the emotion which moved the man who expressed it.
Tolstoy preferred to express art in his book “ What is Art?“ as follows:
Art is a human activity consisting in this, that one man consciously, by means of certain external signs, hands on to others feelings he has lived through, and that other people are infected by these feelings and also experience them.
„To evoke in oneself a feeling one has once experienced, and having evoked it in oneself, then, by means of movements, lines, colors, sounds, or forms expressed in words, so to transmit that feeling that others may experience the same feeling — this is the activity of art.“ „Art, like speech,“ said Tolstoy, „is a means of communication. Tolstoy adds that „whereas by words a man transmits his thoughts to another, by means of art he transmits his feelings.“ (Elridge, R, 2003, p. 71, 72).
If art is considered a form of communication, Hall believed in a strong relationship between communication and culture and came to this conclusion. As consequence, an interesting definition for the concept of culture could be:
„culture is communication and communication is culture, culture not only dictates who talks to whom, about what, and how the communication proceeds, it also helps to determine how people encode messages, the meanings they have for messages, and the conditions and circumstances under which various messages may or may not be sent, noticed, or interpreted“
(Hall, 1959, p.186 ).
2.1 Theater as a Form of Art
Artistic practices such as (literature, theater, music, dance, comics, and visual arts…) are all cultural vectors. They convey culture at the same time, produce it, but also reflect it. It seems, therefore, that they aim to facilitate the academic success. If teachers have invested the fields of literature as theater as a support for learning a second or a foreign language, so it is. According to Heathcote, any text, tale… can be dramatized. Dramatizing a text is very motivating and it is fun. In addition, the same activity can be done at different levels at the same time, which means that all the children can do it successfully.
Play, Dramatizing means worthy of being solicited that the children become actively involved in a text. This personalization makes language more meaningful and memorable than drilling or mechanical repetition can. ( Phillips, S, 1999, p. 6,7).
2.1.1 What is drama?
The reference books on theater in education are related to the United Kingdom by Brian Way and Dorothy Heathcote who are also long-time practitioners. So, the two pioneers of drama defined this literary concept as the following:
Drama according to Dorothy Heathcote (1994) is a British pedagogical approach based on the experience nurtured by the senses and the sensitivity of the student, is a multisensory, playful approach, active and collective which constitutes transversal basic training in English primary schools. While Brian Way (1983, p. 3), claims that: the primary goal of drama is the experience of the participants and not the communication with the spectators; it is the fulfillment of the person who counts; it is a way of life that can as such, help other subjects; drama opposes theater, artistic discipline. The use of theatrical activities is often valued to develop the expression in a foreign language but also to bring a playful and creative character to the practice of language.
Dramatic play is a space where we communicate, where we modify behaviors, where we can find our place within a group, where we can learn to live in society. It is a time to release his imagination, to manipulate fiction and reality, to make his emotions speak, his artistic sensibility. It is also a way to develop know-how, it allows the subject to structure and build social bonds as and when work is done at each session.
3. Drama a Linguistic and an Intercultural Discovery
Theater or (drama) is an art of action and speech, of doing and saying in an imaginary situation. On the face of it, we can say that there is a strong kinship relationship between theatrical play and learning a foreign language. But a small place has been reserved to it in the active methodology of „saying“ and „doing“ in elementary school.
Peter Brook (1991 cited in Schmidt, 2006 ): warns „What blocks most people today is the word. So do not start with the word, with the ideas, but with the body. The free body is a first step.“ The priority mission of the teaching of foreign languages is the development of communication skills. The students learn a foreign language to be able to use it. Communication in a foreign language is not limited to the exchange of some stereotypical formulas imposed by social practices. We communicate because we have something to say or to hear in a given situation.
Theater is the art of speech, which manifests itself through dialogue. However it is often absent in the reality of the class. It consists of conversations including interlocutions which look like all conversations that we make in our daily life. In this context, C. Kerbrat-Orecchioni (1996, p. 23) points out that „Conversations are made of words, but also of silence and intonations, gestures, mimicry and postures„. The actor should exploit all these elements in order to interpret their role. In which he must make the right tone of the score heard which demands an effort of oral expression. The dramatic language represents relevant training to oral expression if one wishes to use a text of theater.
Dramatic play is a space where we communicate, where we modify behaviors, where we can find our place within a group, where we can learn to live in society. It is a time to release his imagination, to manipulate fiction and reality, to make his emotions speak his artistic sensibility. It is also a way to develop know-how (savoir-faire), it allows the subject to structure and build social bonds at the end of the work at each session.
Dramatic play is a multi-modal and multi-sensory learning device. It makes it possible to invite all the senses through several channels: hearing through music and voice, touch through the use of the body in the context of interactions and space management (proxemic and kinesthetic). All these senses facilitate the learning of languages of children in which Byram affirms that „Observation of children has taught us the most important basis for our teaching: they learn instinctively in a way which is best for them. They are highly specialized in processing what is new in the most appropriate way. They tirelessly imitate, they sing and dance; they paint; they think up and tell stories; they research matters without preconceptions and inhibitions.“(Byram, cited in Privas-Bréauté, V , 2015).
It is observed that in education in general, the body is the great absent. An immobile sitting, „decorated“ language is taught, while the body is an integral part of communication. We cannot imagine the latter without the support of gestures and mimicry. The use of gestures allows children to more easily access the meaning of the lexicon approached, and this, in a fun way.
There is another language which we cannot ignore and which is the first act of drama; it is called mime. To mime is a tool that enables the learner as an actor to understand better. It is an act of knowledge. The child mimes the world surrounding him so as to recognize it and prepare to live it. Theater is a game that continues this event. And it is also the poetic being in everyone who points foreign language encourages us to mime and look for the most expressive image. In this sense, Mime and drama are preferred teaching methods that allow children to better understand and memorize the language they are learning. (Schmidt, P, 2006) In this context, William Shakespeare claimed that:
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
(As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 139–143)
Theater is of big importance in education because it contributes to the development of language skills. It is also considered to be the most effective way to make students progress in all domains. A number of articles outline the benefits of drama in language teaching.
In her book „Drama for learning“ Dorothy Heathcote (1994) has generalized her research on theater pedagogy to the different subjects taught in primary schools, placing drama at the center of learning.
Sight, sound, smell, taste, and touch. These senses help to fix the input in the memory by soliciting it in several ways. « Learning by playing: learning foreign languages through the senses » : „Observation of children has taught us the most important basis for our teaching: they learn instinctively in a way which is best for them. They are highly specialized in processing what is new in the most appropriate way. They tirelessly imitate, they sing and dance; they paint; they think up and tell stories; they research matters without preconceptions and inhibitions.“ (Byram, cited in Privas-Bréauté, V , 2015 ).
3. 1 Drama or (theatre) an Intercultural Discovery for Otherness
In the perspective of intercultural education, interaction with art can give „authenticity and weight to the words of students and teachers“ to contribute to the development of intercultural and emotional competences, to increase one’s capacities to act on oneself and with the others and to contribute to the construction of the individual. (Aden, J. 2010).
Communication in the country where the language is spoken avoids producing situations of misunderstanding and actions that could shock the natives. From an intercultural perspective, learning these gestures seems fundamental.
It seems very essential to know about the proper gestures to any culture in developing the communicative competence in the foreign language. To be knowledgeable of cultural gestures enables the learner to establish communication with natives, particularly if the goal of foreign language teaching is bilingualism, this case requires from the learner to be „bi-kinetic“. (Schmidt, P, 2006)
„Learning a foreign language implies a degree of intercultural learning: students may be led to become more aware of their own culture in the process of learning about another and hence may be in a better position to develop intercultural skills.“ (Byram, cited in Privas-Bréauté, V , 2015 ).
Thus, integrating theatrical practices into language courses improves the overall expressiveness, intercultural competence of students by combining language learning with gestures. It was, therefore, a question of awakening all the senses of the students so as to allow them to remember the notions of the language taught.
According to (Martine Pretceille, 1998, cited in Privas-Bréauté, V, 2015 ) she affirms that in Intercultural Education, „Learning a foreign language also means learning to perceive the physical and human environment through a different perception grid. „Pretceille also advises us to understand the connection and the consideration of interactions between groups, individuals, and identities. Indeed, learning a foreign language through dramatic play makes it possible to meet each other. That is why we stress on the deployment of this type of games because that promote interaction between learners. This interaction prepares for the intercultural relationship since Pretceille states that „the concept of interaction is central to the definition of culture and cultural identity.
As a vital step before any intercultural encounter, we should gain access to knowledge of our culture, and this can be achieved through dramatic play in which, the game: „I play so I am“. Also, It is very important to know the rules of language, the place of the body in its own culture. Also, this work on the place of the body in language learning has motivated the choice of dramatic play because verbal communication is accompanied by non-verbal and extra-verbal communication in the construction of meaning. They are the key points of learning, and the dramatic play facilitates their articulation and complementarity. This for the aim of self-discovery and the discovery of the other. ( Privas-Bréauté, V , 2015 )
The Common European Framework of Reference drafters (whose subtitle is about: „Language learning and European citizenship“ (Council of Europe, 9) emphasize this competence in language learning. They explain: „In an intercultural approach, an essential objective of language teaching is to promote the harmonious development of the personality of the learner and his identity in response to the enriching experience of otherness in language and culture.“ (Council of Europe, 9)
Dramatic play or theater , this teaching device allows the learners first and foremost to discover themselves. Then, it makes possible the discovery of the existence of another, different from oneself, in a second time.
To know oneself before knowing the other is a first step for the learner to do: „To teach a foreign language to students is first and foremost to make them aware that their own culture, which manifests itself here in language, can be different from another. „culture, like language, is a place of staging of oneself and others.“ In their article „Drama for an intercultural approach to language teaching“ Joëlle Aden and Joël Anderson explain: „To enter a language and a foreign culture is above all to experience difference.“ (Aden and Anderson, 2005 cited in Privas-Bréauté, V , 2015 ). It means once students have learned about their identity, they can meet each other. In the introduction to Michael Byram’s book, he even observes that: „it is the comparison of own and other cultures difference. It provides them with the basis for successful interaction with members of another cultural group, not just the means of exchanging information.“ (ibid). This comparison facilitates learning and interaction and prepares the learners for the intercultural relationship, then, to the intercultural encounter. „We must therefore bring students from a young age, through the dramatic game, to discover the characteristics of their own culture before they can discover the other.“ (Aden, J cited in Privas-Bréauté, V , 2015), she concluded that „the interculturalism is a privileged space for theatrical practice“.
Thus, integrating theatrical practices into language courses improves the overall expressiveness and intercultural competence of students by combining language learning with gestures. As the Common European Framework of Reference underlines in one of its objectives, it is essential to develop the intercultural competence of the learners while promoting the discovery of the other. The acquisition of intercultural and artistic competence will enable learners to achieve the goals of the framework (CEFR) for learning languages. The latter listed three important competences that must be acquired by the learner (Knowledge, know-how and know-being) stressed on the know-how (savoir-faire) including intercultural know-how which is defined as: (CEFR, p. 84)
– the ability to relate the culture of origin to the foreign culture
– awareness of the notion of culture and the ability to recognize and use various strategies to make contact with people from another culture
– the capacity to play the role of cultural intermediary between one’s own culture and the foreign culture and effectively manage situations of misunderstanding and cultural conflicts
– the ability to go beyond stereotypical superficial relationships. (CEFR, p. 84)
Thus, Drama facilitates the development of the „savoir-être“ and it is fundamental in the acquisition of a foreign language.
4. The Impact of Drama
Using drama and drama activities has clear advantages in “language learning. It encourages children to speak and gives them the chance to communicate, even with limited language using non-verbal communication, such as body movements and facial expressions.” ( Philips, S, 1999, p. 6,7). Theater appeals to the senses and emotions. It has a profound impact on the memory of children. It contributes to the understanding of the language by anchoring it in the lived experience. Imaginative and action-based pretend play encourages students to project themselves into a variety of roles within a story built collectively from a tale or myth. The „play true“ empowers him and opens him to otherness by teaching him to manipulate the language and to understand how it works. The theatricalization of the lesson stimulates the imaginative ability and promotes the development of language, by activating the cognitive mechanisms of the child (Aden, J, 2010).
Conclusion
To conclude, the language class is the ideal place to bring culture and arts including all art forms (literature, theater, dance, music, visual arts…etc) to life. The aim behind learning a foreign language is not to make students bilingual, but the purpose is to sensitize them to the discovery of a foreign language, a foreign culture, through the awareness of their own culture and the existence of the other and (Otherness). Drama or dramatic theater is a teaching device and a track to explore. Integrating drama games in learning languages are of great benefits because they are aimed at putting students in a real situation and becoming social and intercultural actors. It is recommended to raise the learners‘ awareness of the language and its artistic and intercultural dimension through theater or dramatic play since artistic and cultural dimensions may contribute to the development of intercultural and emotional competences and aim at a better knowledge of a humanist dimension.
Bibliography
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