Language education scholars have attested to the ways in which drama allows learners to explore the relation of self and society (e.g., Medina & Campano, 2006), promotes intercultural dialogue and understanding (e.g., Kramsch, 1998), and offers a host of affordances for language learning (e.g., Belliveau & Kim, 2013; Schewe, 2017). However, scholars have also noted the ethical risks of engaging multilingual learners in performative pedagogies centering on learners sharing their own stories and experiences through performance (Piazzoli & Cullen, 2021), asserting that even if such projects have social justice oriented goals, in practice they can run the risk of tokenizing and disempowering learners (Cañas, 2015, para 5).
Exploring these issues, this action research study explores how performative storytelling positioned adult immigrant and refugee English learners in the US. The study took place at a nonprofit center for adult English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) learners in the northeastern US. Fifteen recently immigrated learners (originally from Haiti, Thailand, China, Cape Verde, and Brazil) worked with a professional theatre artist, ESOL teacher, and TESOL professor to create a play based on the learners' experiences, which students then performed at a nationally recognized US theatre. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clark, 2006) of data from the 2-month project (over 30 hours of field notes, photographs, audio recordings, and 30 minute interviews with participants) and poststructural theories of second language and identity development (e.g., Norton, 2000) illustrated how drama created a space for students to transcend the identity category of "ESL learner," positioning them the role of "creative performer" by engaging students intentionally in intercultural dialogue with one another and with the audience.
References
Belliveau, George, and Won Kim. 2013. "Drama in L2 Learning: A Research Synthesis." Edited by Manfred Schewe and Susanne Even. Scenario: A Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning, Research 7 (2): 7–27. doi:10.33178/scenario.7.2.2.
Braun, Virginia, and Victoria Clarke. 2006. "Using Thematic Analysis in Psychology." Qualitative Research in Psychology 3 (2): 77–101. doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa.
Cañas, T. 2015. "10 Things You Need to Consider if You are an Artist." RISE.
Kramsch, Claire. 1998. "The Privilege of the Intercultural Speaker." In M. Byram & M. Fleming (Eds.), Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective: Approaches through Drama and Ethnography. New York, NY: Cambdrige University Press.
Medina, Carmen L., and Gerald Campano. 2006. "Performing Identities through Drama and Teatro Practices in Multilingual Contexts." Language Arts, 83 (4): 332-341. https://hdl.handle.net/2022/23025
Norton, Bonny. 2000. "Identity and language learning: Gender, ethnicity, and educational change." Harlow, UK: Longman.
Piazzoli, Erika., & Kir Cullen, Elif. (2021). "The Double-Edged Sword of Storytelling: Performative Language Pedagogy with Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Migrants." Scenario: A Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning, XV(2): 1-26.
Schewe, Manfred. 2013. "Taking Stock and Looking Ahead: Drama Pedagogy as a Gateway to a Performative Teaching and Learning Culture." Edited by Manfred Schewe and Susanne Even. Scenario: A Journal of Performative Teaching, Learning, Research VII (1): 5–23. doi:10.33178/scenario.7.1.2.
