The purpose of this paper is to describe the third phase of a process drama project, which focused thematically on the social issue of homelessness. Two classes of the elective English Communication ...course took part in this project twice weekly for ten weeks, in which the students examined homelessness from the perspectives of Japanese-Americans incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. The goal of the project was for students to develop an understanding of homelessness, while simultaneously losing awareness of English as a dreaded examination subject, and using the target language as a viable communicative tool instead. The techniques used in this project were manifold: tableau, family role-play, class role-play, writing-in-role, reaction-writing, research online in both Japanese and English to examine the nature of propaganda, online class discussions, as well as a guest lecturer session with a refugee speaker1. The trajectory of this discussion moves along a traditional Japanese Noh theater three-part narrative arc, called Jo-Ha-Kyu , “Enticement・Crux・Consolidation”.
The purpose of this paper is to describe the third phase of a process drama project, which focused thematically on the social issue of homelessness. Two classes of the elective English Communication ...course took part in this project twice weekly for ten weeks, in which the students examined homelessness from the perspectives of Japanese-Americans incarcerated in internment camps during World War II. The goal of the project was for students to develop an understanding of homelessness, while simultaneously losing awareness of English as a dreaded examination subject, and using the target language as a viable communicative tool instead. The techniques used in this project were manifold: tableau, family role-play, class role-play, writing-in-role, reaction-writing, research online in both Japanese and English to examine the nature of propaganda, online class discussions, as well as a guest lecturer session with a refugee speaker . The trajectory of this discussion moves along a traditional Japanese Noh theater three-part narrative arc, called Jo-HaKyu, “EnticementU+30FBCruxU+30FBConsolidation”.
The purpose of this paper is to describe how drama-based pedagogies can meet Japanese university EFL students learner-needs within a short time-frame. It first describes the cultural and educational ...contexts of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in Japan in general terms, before specifically outlining the aims and methodology of the 2014 and 2015 summer drama camps. The paper then moves into the crux, that of the aims, student profiles, methodology and results of the 2016 summer drama camp, which focused on the theme of homelessness. The paper concludes by arguing the validity for the more widespread adoption of drama-based pedagogies in the Japanese university EFL context.
This paper examines the impact of using a process drama project in a Japanese university EFL class focusing on the social issue of emigration from a historical perspective while simultaneously ...developing English communicative skills. Speaking in English is a skill that many Japanese people find challenging. There are a number of cultural reasons for this, for example the enormous linguistic gap between Japanese and English communicative patterns in terms of explicitness/implicitness, hierarchy, gender, and the role of silence. Therefore, the overt aim was to help students develop English language skills while learning about Japanese historical emigration through the medium of English with Japanese scaffolding. This is in keeping with the needs of the average Japanese university EFL student, who has had six years of accuracy-based study for the short-term target of the university entrance examination and who sees English in terms of mathematical code, rather than as a communicative tool. The narrative arc of the paper follows the Noh theatre JO-HA-KYU, Enticement- Elaboration-Consolidation trajectory to take the reader through the emigration process drama project held in the spring semester of 2009 at the School of Human Welfare Studies (HWS), Kwansei Gakuin University (KGU), Japan. The research approach was a mixed-method one and data was collected through digital recording of role-plays, student self-critical reflection by writing-in-role and writing out-of-role in an online class group, qualitative and quantitative questionnaires and teacher observation. Results indicated that process drama projects can have a positive influence on Japanese university EFL learners from the perspective of both linguistic and intercultural communicative competence.
The purpose of this paper is to describe how drama-based pedagogies can meet Japanese university EFL students learner-needs within a short timeframe. It first describes the cultural and educational ...contexts of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) in Japan in general terms, before specifically outlining the aims and methodology of the 2014 and 2015 summer drama camps. The paper then moves into the crux, that of the aims, student profiles, methodology and results of the 2016 summer drama camp, which focused on the theme of homelessness. The paper concludes by arguing the validity for the more widespread adoption of drama-based pedagogies in the Japanese university EFL context.
Although steps have been taken to address the issue of ijime or bullying, it remains is a serious social problem within the Japanese educational system. The main focus of this pilot study was to ...ascertain how beneficial process drama could be in developing oral communicative skills in the target language of English as well as to build social awareness through the deconstruction of the bully and victim dichotomy. Process drama in language acquisition is unique in its aim to fuse language learning and personal development. The average Japanese university student has had six years of compulsory English education, with an emphasis on grammar-translation and accuracy. This means that, while the average student excels at translation and test-taking, s/he has had little experience with communicative English and has no sense of ownership of the language. Because of this lack of oral communicative skills, process drama is an ideal means to build the bridge to communicative competence. This paper is part of a larger tri-semester process drama project and the data accumulated from all three will be used as evidence in a final PhD dissertation. Although steps have been taken to address the issue of ijime or bullying, it remains is a serious social problem within the Japanese educational system. The main focus of this pilot study was to ascertain how beneficial process drama could be in developing oral communicative skills in the target language of English as well as to build social awareness through the deconstruction of the bully and victim dichotomy. Process drama in language acquisition is unique in its aim to fuse language learning and personal development. The average Japanese university student has had six years of compulsory English education, with an emphasis on grammar-translation and accuracy. This means that, while the average student excels at translation and test-taking, s/he has had little experience with communicative English and has no sense of ownership of the language. Because of this lack of oral communicative skills, process drama is an ideal means to build the bridge to communicative competence. This paper is part of a larger tri-semester process drama project and the data accumulated from all three will be used as evidence in a final PhD dissertation.
PDF