Scenario: A Journal for Performative Teaching, Learning, Research. Vol. IX Issue 01

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https://hdl.handle.net/10468/12727

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    Improving learners’ oral skills through two types of role-play
    (Department of German, University College Cork, 2015) Cho, Bokja; Schewe, Manfred; Even, Susanne
    Role-play is commonly regarded as a useful activity for developing oral skills (Livingstone 1983; Maley 1987; Magos and Politi 2008). However, there is little research on different types of role-play and on its use in English for Occupational Purposes (EOP) contexts, which is what the present study seeks to redress. This study reports on research investigating the effectiveness of two types of role-play, SSRP (Semi-scripted Role-play) and SSRP-NSRP (Semi-scripted Role-play followed by Non-scripted Role-play), in the teaching of Tourism English (TE) at a university in Korea. The study used an action research approach (Kemmis and McTaggart 1988) with the aim to improve TE learners' oral skills. In Study I students practised SSRP, while in Study II they engaged in SSRP-NSRP. The results of a two-way statistical test (ANOVA) show that there is a significant difference between the means of the pretests and post-tests of both Studies I and II.
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    Creative writing and performance in EFL teacher training: A preliminary case study
    (Department of German, University College Cork, 2015) Crutchfield, John; Schewe, Manfred; Even, Susanne
    The following case study was conducted in 2014 in the Department of Didactics of the Institute for English Language and Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin. It was conceived as a preliminary investigation for an ongoing qualitative research project called The Experience of Theatrical Performance in EFL Teacher Education. The purpose of this larger project is to study the effects of the experience of theatrical performance (i.e. live performance before an audience) on EFL teachers-in-training. For this preliminary study, qualitative data were obtained from a group of seven undergraduate English Education students in conjunction with a course focused on the use of creative writing in the EFL classroom. As part of the course work, the students produced a small number of original creative texts in traditional literary genres: a personal essay, two short stories (using 1st and 3rd person point-of-view), a poem and a short play. Each student also kept a Course Journal, in which he or she wrote daily in-class creative writing exercises as well as critical and personal reflections. The course ended with a Public Reading: the students presented their creative work before an audience comprised of peers, faculty, and members of the general public. The following paper considers in particular the students' personal reflections both before and after this Public Reading. What emerges is a coherent emotional and cognitive trajectory, determined in all of its moments by the theatrical event (as future, present, and past experience) of performing original creative work before a live audience. Because the investigation was conducted by a participant in the course (i.e. the teacher himself, a native English speaker born in the United States), the report also includes thick description of the intersubjective and intercultural contexts of the study, as well as ethnographic reflections on its limitations.
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    Foreword
    (Department of German, University College Cork, 2015) Schewe, Manfred; Even, Susanne; Schewe, Manfred; Even, Susanne
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    Producing knowledge in self-organized artistic settings through performative research and artistic intervention
    (Department of German, University College Cork, 2015) Seitz, Hanne; Schewe, Manfred; Even, Susanne
    The following article presents the Young Tenants, a project that gave young Berlin adults the opportunity to use vacant spaces for art and culture­related purposes. Through organizing and participating in activities in these spaces they discovered their artistic creativity and craftsmanship, practiced cultural participation and engaged with the community. In contrast to what they typically experienced in school or in out-of-school education, the project emphasized self­organization and an environmental approach towards learning. The accompanying research called for a different logic of enquiry than in the usual discursive mode of qualitative social research. The tenants were regarded as co­researchers, capable of finding creative solutions for the problems that arose while working towards the goals they had set for themselves. They produced knowledge through their art making, which was expanded, transformed and renewed through a practice-based action research process. At the same time, since understanding is not always reducible to language, we focused on their actions as expressions of embedded knowledge and considered the project to be a practice-led performative research. Additionally, we unlocked further potential though artistic interventions that served to enrich their activities, deepen reflection, and challenge the knowledge generated.
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    Theatre as a place of self-empowerment
    (Department of German, University College Cork, 2015) Westphal, Kristin; Schewe, Manfred; Even, Susanne
    This article examines the theatre as a place of empowerment, with a focus on the post-dramatic collective Gob Squad and their performance of Before Your Very Eyes. What is unique about this study is that it addresses the issue of the classic relationship between the generations and its reversal – here, it is not the adults acting out theatre pieces for the children, but rather children act out how they see the world as children, with the audience made up of adults. The piece plays with notions of time and space, closeness and distance and the interweaving of the theatre and media spaces. The aim of the following reflections is not so much to engage with the various theoretical perspectives on “self-empowerment”, but rather take as their starting and reference point an example of performance practice which created an exceptional event and a community whose peculiar experiences are seen in the context of an understanding of the theatre as a place of self-empowerment which allows for deviation from social norms and rules.