Abstract
This study investigates the impact of a theatre-based vocal empowerment program on the vocal and language characteristics and the self-perceptions of young bilingual Egyptian women. The program used applied theatre, a dramatic practice that promotes civic action by utilizing improvisational techniques to engage participants in exploring solutions to self-identified community concerns. These techniques supported participants’ pursuit of vocal empowerment: the ability to comfortably express their intended content with a clear audible voice, accompanied by the belief that what they had to say was worthwhile. The program was implemented in Alexandria and Aswan, two Egyptian cities in different regions of the country, with distinct socio-economic profiles. Thirty-six young women from Aswan and nineteen from Alexandria participated. The program was facilitated in Arabic, for 90 minutes per day over twelve consecutive days in 2018. Participants in both groups spoke Arabic as a home language and studied English in school settings but differed in their educational experiences and English proficiency. The vocal and language characteristics of each participant were tested in Arabic and English pre- and post- program using a spontaneous speech task and a reading aloud task. Their self-perceptions were evaluated through a vocal self-perception survey. Results indicated that participants responded differently in each city. In Alexandria, participants showed significant improvement in language skills (e.g., mean length of utterance). In contrast, participants in Aswan showed a significant change in fundamental frequency. Overall, the self-surveys indicated that all participants experienced an increased sense of confidence, a stronger belief in self-authorship, and an increased desire to voice their opinions clearly in public; however, there were subtle differences between the groups. In analyzing these results, we conclude that to design effective vocal empowerment outreach programs internationally, it is necessary to consider participants’ cultural backgrounds, language diversity, and socio-economic status.
Highlights
Young women who have an increased understanding and awareness of their voices, have an increased ability to positively impact their self-advocacy to express themselves, and contribute to their communities [1]
We examined whether participants from Alexandria and Aswan, with different socio-economic and linguistic backgrounds, respond to the theatre-based vocal empowerment program differently
The results suggest that participants had longer mean length of utterance (MLU)-w, more total words, greater lexical diversity, and more words per minute in the spontaneous speech after the program
Summary
Young women who have an increased understanding and awareness of their voices, have an increased ability to positively impact their self-advocacy to express themselves, and contribute to their communities [1]. The program was conducted with young women, residents of Alexandria and Aswan, Egypt. These two major cities lie in different geographical regions of the country and demonstrate distinct socio-economic profiles; the residents of the two cities vary in their exposure to globalization, and in their use of Arabic dialects (L1) and English (L2) in daily life. These are important considerations to assess the impact of a theatre-based vocal empowerment program
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