Tellers, Makers, and Holders of Stories: A Micro-Analytic Understanding of Students’ Identity Work in Drama-based Adult ESL Classrooms

Won Kim

doi:10.37213/cjal.2021.31170

Abstract

Despite a wide-spread pedagogical interest and scholarly conviction in the possibilities of educational drama for creating more contextually-situated, engaging, and multi-modal L2 learning experiences (Piazzoli, 2018; Stinson & Winston, 2011), there is scarce empirical evidence concerning what is actually taking place interactionally in L2 classrooms for adults. This article presents a bottom-up microanalysis of classroom interaction in an ESL class in Canada with over 16 adult learners designed to explore the potential and actual impact of educational drama on classroom discourse and students’ L2 learning experiences. Using a discourse analytic approach (Antaki & Widdicombe, 1998; Goffman, 1981), I analyze the dynamic identity work of the class participants. The article presents empirically-grounded research findings that illustrate instances of interaction in and through which drama-based ESL pedagogy contributes to the development of dialogic and democratic classroom discourse and fosters a transformative empowering interpersonal space (Cummins, 2011).

Highlights

Cummins (2009), an influential educator in Canada, calls for an educational vision among teachers, researchers, and policy makers to transform L2 classrooms into an empowering “interpersonal space where minds and identities meet” and “within which the acquisition of knowledge and formation of identity is negotiated” (p. 45). In this educational vision echoed by many other scholars (Cummins & Early, 2015; Gibbons, 2004; Lean, 2013; Marshall & Toohey, 2010; Norton, 2013), such an educational space foregrounds the view that L2 learners should not be seen as passive information recipients, but rather as active meaning-makers or language users
I aim to empirically illustrate instances of interaction in and through which educational drama-based English as a Second Language (ESL) pedagogy contributes to the development of dialogic and democratic classroom discourse (Kao & O’Neill, 1998) and fosters a transformative empowering interpersonal space (Cummins, 2009, 2011) in the classroom
The bottom-up micro-analytic lenses have allowed a nuanced, empirically-grounded, and deeper insight into how the students were interactionally engaged in the meaning-making practices where they raised questions, made decisions, constructed a cohesive story, attempted to make purposeful and contextually situated lexicogrammatical choices, collaborated together to respond to an issue, questioned critically and creatively, and reflected on their decisions

Summary

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Sur les plans académique et pédagogique, l’art dramatique est reconnu comme offrant de nombreuses possibilités de créer des expériences d’apprentissage stimulantes, multimodales et appropriées au contexte (Piazzoli, 2018; Stinson & Winston, 2011). Peu d’études empiriques se sont penchées sur les dynamiques interactionnelles en langue seconde dans des cours pour adultes. Cet article présente donc une microanalyse inductive d’un cours d’anglais langue seconde (ALS) au Canada, dans une classe composée de 16 apprenants adultes. Ce cours visait l’exploration du potentiel et de l’impact réel de l’art dramatique sur les interactions et sur l’expérience d’apprentissage d’une langue seconde. Les résultats présentés dans cet article, basés sur des données empiriques d’interactions en classe, montrent comment une pédagogie de l’ALS fondée sur l’art dramatique contribue au développement d’un discours de classe démocratique et axé sur le dialogue. Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Makers, and Holders of Stories: A Micro-Analytic Understanding of Students’ Identity Work in Drama-based Adult ESL Classrooms

Identity as a Socially Accomplished Phenomenon

Analytical Framework

Context Description

Conclusion