There is currently an increasing amount of research that shows how embodied learning and arts-based approaches can enhance language learning and provide emotional and motivational benefits to learning processes (Jusslin et al., review; Korpinen & Anttila, in press; Porto & Houghton, 2021). However, research-based knowledge about how embodied learning and arts-based approaches can contribute specifically to upper secondary school students' language learning is still scarce.
Conducted within the research project Embodied Language Learning through the Arts (2021–2024), this study explores the combination of dance and learning Swedish as L2 in the dance course "Dance with language", initiated and held by a dance teacher at a Finnish upper secondary school. A total of 19 upper secondary school students with various previous experiences of both Swedish and dancing participated in the dance course. The analytical focus lies on spoken word choreographies created during the course. The spoken word choreographies are word- and dance-based performances, in which the students drew inspiration from a dance documentary to/and express issues of femininity and bodies.
Drawing on a new materialist approach (Barad, 2007) to language learning, the study understands knowledge/knowing and language/languaging as embodied, relational, and entangled processes (Pennycook, 2016; Toohey, 2019). The guiding question is: How do entanglements between dance and language produce performative differences in students' creation of spoken word choreographies?The research materials for the diffractive analysis include video observations, group interviews, reflective diaries, and video recordings of the spoken word performances.
Preliminary analyses suggest dance and language become entangled when exploring movements with sentences from the dance documentary, re-working the sentences with/in dancing, co-creating with the audio-recordings, and negotiating with spaces and materials. Entanglements between language/dance include iterative movements between dance and language that involve explorations, re-workings, co-creations, and re-negotiations. More specifically, choreographing of languaging/dancing happens in relations with multiple humans and materialities. Thus, the study proposes spoken word choreographies as a valuable way to teach language, moving beyond restrictions in language to emphasize creative and embodied explorations and inductive approaches in upper secondary level language education.
References
Barad, K. (2007). Meeting the universe halfway: Quantum physics and the entanglement of matter and meaning. Duke University Press.
Jusslin, S., Korpinen, K., Lilja, N., Martin, R. M., Lehtinen-Schnabel, J., & Anttila, E. (review). Embodied learning and teaching approaches in language education: A mixed studies review.
Korpinen, K., & Anttila, E. (in press). Strange encounters in times of distancing: Sustaining dialogue through integrating language and dance in primary education. Journal for Research in Arts and Sports Education.
Pennycook, A. (2016). Posthumanist Applied Linguistics. Applied Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amw016
Porto, M., & Houghton, S. A. (2021). Introduction: Arts integration and community engagement for intercultural dialogue through language education. Language Teaching Research. Advance online publication.
Toohey, K. (2019). The Onto-Epistemologies of New Materialism: Implications for Applied Linguistics Pedagogies and Research. Applied Linguistics, 40(6), 937–956. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amy046
