Glottodrama and EAP: enhancing students’ Interaction Skills

Moreno Stracci
Novacultur, Italy

The Glottodrama method was employed in a six-week pre-sessional EAP (English for Academic Purposes)
course at the University of Bristol in July-August 2014. The course was delivered to a group of Asian
postgraduate students (aged 21) intending to enroll in master programmes in the field of Economics and
Finance and covered the area of Academic Presentation Skills. The employment of the Glottodrama method
and alternative holistic techniques, such as meditation and multi-sensory experiences created an opportunity
for students to develop their linguistic, social and metalearning skills, and led them to successfully pass their
examinations, avoiding any unnecessary pressures and uneasiness. After giving information on the context
in which the experiment was performed, the paper illustrates the different stages of the programme and
outlines a number of considerations, based on students feedback. This paper is a contribution towards the
opportunity to humanise higher education, by highlighting some of its potentials and benefits.

Background

The Glottodrama method was employed in a six-week pre-sessional EAP (English for Academic Purposes)
course at the University of Bristol in July-August 2014. The course was delivered to a group of Asian
postgraduate students (aged 21) intending to enroll in master programmes in the field of Economics and
Finance. The course included the following areas: Academic Reading and Listening, Academic Grammar and
Vocabulary, Academic Writing and Speaking. The Speaking area included: Academic presentation (with
PowerPoint) and Seminar skills.
The Academic Presentation Skills class was chosen to experiment the application of the Glottodrama method
in the context of Higher Education. The outcome of the course was for students to prepare and deliver an oral
presentation, based on PowerPoint, of a chosen topic within their field of expertise.

1. The “Chinese Stereotype”

Before the course started a major issue was to be considered: students’ cultural background and learning
habits. Until recent years Asian students have been stereotyped as “rote, passive, unimaginative,
hierarchical, collectivist.” ([1] p. 3): in other words, not willing to actively participate in class or take initiative,
not able to take responsibility for their own learning, not used to critical thinking and playful methods, and
conditioned by cultural biases, which supposedly result in an unwillingness to experiment unusual ways of
learning. This, certainly, created a strong concern, which, however, was partially dissolved by reading [1]. In
this edited volume the authors deconstruct the negative “Chinese Stereotype”, which has been created in
Western countries, as a consequent of lack of information and understanding of Asian cultures and education
systems. As soon as the course started, it was clear that the initial reluctance of the students, which was
inevitable, could not be considered a consequence of their cultural background, for different reasons. Apart
from the usual issues that arise when moving to a new country, considering that for the majority of students
that was the first time outside their home country, the same reluctance has been detected in other drama-
based courses I have conducted. Moreover, it seemed to be inappropriate to hypothesise, in the students, a
total unawareness of Western cultures. It is sufficient to observe the process of westernization which has
taken place in Asia in the last few decades, especially through a growing influence of the American model, to
consider the above definition of Chinese students strongly hyperbolised: students, in fact, showed a degree of
American behaviour patterns, such as taking to class thermos flasks, filled up with hot drinks purchased from
Starbucks and mp3 players full of American and British music.
In addition, if the reluctance had to be attributed to cultural factors, it would have been practically impossible
in such short time (six weeks) to modify student’s behavioural and learning habits, without threatening the
course outcome. From the first lesson it was clear that a different factor had to be considered: the “emotional
disposition” of the students, in other words, the individual and group psychological disposition in accepting an
unexpected teaching style, and the necessity to trust the tutor and follow him through a journey which, due
to its newness for the students, can not clearly show its long-term benefits. Having established the real
situation, another issue arose: the necessity for the teacher to unmistakably act as a behavioural model. Even
if this is what teachers usually/are supposed to do, the use of drama approaches in class requires a stronger
emotional participation of the teacher. This means that teachers must be ready to reflect on their “emotional
availability” [2]. This is a concept borrowed from Social Sciences (Psychology) which can be defined as a
factor that “…provides emotional security (…) and promotes (…) exploration in situations of uncertainty.” (p.
125). In other words, the teacher, especially when a method such as Glottodrama is employed, must show a
tenacious nonintrusive disposition towards establishing a secure environment and provide support for
students who are exploring the self through learning a foreign language using dramatic techniques, in a
holistic perspective which not only aims at the acquisition of linguistic abilities but also at personal growth.
With the aim to facilitate students’ holistic participation, and to ensure that learning would take place
successfully, a number of decisions were made, which find their natural frame within humanistic approaches:

- Avoiding any lecture-style approach.

- Focusing on communication (both verbal and non-verbal) and strategic interaction [3] rather than
structures, thus focusing and communication effectiveness rather than language mistakes.
- Employing an inductive guided discovery approach to the language, exploiting and enhancing
students’ critical thinking abilities.
- Adopting a workshop teaching style and conducting lessons in a performance-like manner.
- Exploiting subconscious learning through the employment of suggestopaedic techniques, such as
meditation and background music.
- Enhancing students’ self-esteem and self-perception in order to ensure metalearning.
- Taking lessons outside the classroom.
- Using student’s personal knowledge to activate learning personalization.

2. Main Unit

2.1 Warm up activities

The aim of the first few lessons was to establish a relaxed atmosphere in class and test students’ oral and
social skills. Employing an inductive approach, the lesson was started by playing music in the background and
engaging students into a conversation on music and typical young adults’ pastimes in Asia. As predicted,
students mentioned Karaoke as one of the most popular social activities in their country. This offered the
opportunity to naturally move to the second stage of the lesson, in which students were invited to listen to
pop songs and sing along. Two songs were chosen: “Do you want to know a secret” (The Beatles) and “C’est
l’amour” (R. Golan). The two songs seemed to be appropriate for students, in terms of grammar and lexis
complexity, rhythm and clarity in pronunciation. Students, after an initial embarrassment, due to the context
in which Karaoke was taking place (the classroom), began to participate enthusiastically. The activity ended
with a discussion on the two songs, conducted in a relaxed and playful manner.
After understanding that students had not minded the activity and showed enthusiasm, in the subsequent
lesson, a number of activities were introduced with the aim to investigate on students’ perception of body
language and use of voice. Students were invited to stand up and move apart desks and chairs. They were
then invited to walk and perform random tasks, in order to make them familiar with the classroom space and
promote the use of all senses. This activity was supported by the use of background music, different types of
incense and blindfolds. While walking, students were invited to perform a series of relaxation techniques,
such as deep breathing and tension release, and guided towards a series of visualizations, which led to the
creation of an “emotional back-up point”, a mental image to be used by students during presentations in case
of emotional vulnerability. A series of drama activities were then presented to the students: Pass the
emotion, Yes, Let’s, HASH (Happy-Angry-Sad-Happy), Ewy Chewy Toffee, Magic Mirror and Tongue Twisters.
These exercises were subsequently used at the beginning of each lesson as a warm-up activity.

2.2 Observation and first performance

In the input stage, students were shown two videos of academic presentations (based on PowerPoint slides),
one poorly delivered by a students and the other one well structured and delivered by a professional speaker.
In both cases students were invited to take notes and subsequently compare the two presentations. In small
groups students discussed the results of the observation. Eventually, the groups gathered all together and
worked as a whole class with the aim to formulate general principles for good presentations.
Students were then divided into smaller groups (two to three people) and assigned a number of slides from
the poorly delivered presentation. The task involved a discussion on how to improve the oral performance of
the speaker by applying the principles established by the whole class. As a result each group presented their
slides in front of the entire class, while the other students took notes on the performance. Each performance
was followed by a short discussion and peer feedback session.
2.3 Linguistic reflection (Grammar Corner)

Students were given worksheets with useful language and expressions to employ during oral presentations
and invited to work in groups to self-study the material. They were monitored and supported as needed.

2.4 Actor Studio

Students were invited to reflect on the use of non-verbal communication. After the initial warm-up activities, a
conversation on differences between non-verbal communication in Asia and the UK was performed. This was
an opportunity to introduce basic features of non-verbal communication in public speaking, including an
analysis of the use of proxemic communication strategies.
In order to put into practice the theoretical concepts introduced in class, students were taken to a park to
perform a number of activities. The first activity was a Tai Chi workshop conducted by two students from the
group who had practised the discipline since childhood. Afterwards, students were given some simple poems
and monologues to improvise in front of the other students who were sitting in circles.
In order to enhance their self-confidence and interaction skills, students were assigned the following
additional task: to create in small groups a survey on western people perception of Asia. Once the survey had
been prepared, students were invited to interview people in the university campus. At the end of the activity,
a discussion on the results was performed, followed by a reflection on students’ own approach to other
cultures, in terms of verbal and non-verbal interaction.

2.5 Back to performance

Once back in the classroom, students were invited to perform again their presentation from stage 2 and
received additional feedback from students and the teacher.

3. Satellite unit.

3.1 Input material and first performance

Students were invited to prepare at home their final presentation (including a 10 slides PowerPoint
Presentation, for which they had received training) for their final examination. Once in class, each student
was allowed 5 minutes to deliver the presentation, with additional 5 minutes for peer-feedback. The peer-
feedback was based on criteria such as: use of voice (articulation, enunciation, volume, and pace), body
language and use of space (facial expressions, gestures, movement, etc), interaction between the oral
presentation and visual input. In turns, students recorded their peers’ performances, by using their smart
phones, which were then shared online in a closed group.

3.2 Linguistic reflection

The subsequent task (to be completed at home) was for students to amend their PowerPoint presentation
(font, font size, background, transitions and animation, colours, etc.) and critically reflect on the suggestions
received by their peers. Moreover, students received from their teacher comments on their recorded
performances via the closed group and individual meetings.

3.3 Final performance

Two days before their examination, students gave their final performance in class, which was set for the
occasion as a theatre. The other students were invited to prepare questions to ask at the end of each
presentation, in order to simulate real examination conditions, in which both the examiners and the audience
would ask examinees questions and clarifications.

3.4 Examination

Students delivered their performance during their oral examination and received from the external examiners
scores in the range of 60 to 70, which was above the minimum requirement necessary to enter the master
programme.

4. Final considerations

During the last lesson of the course, students were invited to reflect on their learning experience through the
Glottodrama method, and the points that arose during the feedback session were:

- Students felt at the beginning of the course perplexed about the way the lessons were conducted,
due to the fact that they had never experienced such a way of learning, and that they were expecting
a more “academic” style. However, as the course developed, they became aware of the powerfulness
of the method.
- Students felt at first embarrassed for the fact that they had to actively participate in class, rather
than passively listening to their tutor. However, they subsequently appreciated the involvement
offered.
- Students also confessed that at first they felt intimidated by understanding that the lesson would not
proceed without their participation. After a few lessons, students showed a clear intention to build
their own learning process.
- At first, students tended to stigmatise their teacher’s behaviour as “weird”, However, after a few
lessons they considered their teacher’s active participation in the activities in class supportive,
encouraging and helpful to remove emotional filters and reluctance.
- Once the initial discomfort and perplexity were overcome, students found the method very useful to
improve their communication skills, and appreciated the fact that the lessons did not focus on
grammar and lexis but embraced a more holistic and realistic approach to communicating in a foreign
language.
- Students felt for the first time the responsibility for their own learning and a degree of learning
autonomy.
- Students stated that the experience had been pleasant, rewarding and entertaining.
- Students felt that the experience had gone beyond the mere teaching of language skills and had
created metaskills which could be employed in other situations.
- Students would like to experience the drama-based learning method (Glottodrama) again in the
future.

References and bibliography

[1] Ryan, J. (2010) “The Chinese learner”: misconceptions and realities, in Orange, D. M. & Slethaug, G. (eds.)
(2010) International education and the Chinese learner. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press.
[2] Orange, D. M. (1995) Emotional understanding: studies in psychoanalytic epistemiology. New York:
Guildford Press
[3] Di Pietro, R. J. (1987) Strategic interaction: Learning languages through scenarios. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press
Liu, J. (2002) Process-Drama in Second- and Foreign-Language Classrooms, in Brauer, G.(ed.) Body and
language: intercultural learning through drama. Westport: Ablex Publishing (pp. 51 – 70).
Moreno, J.L. (1959) Psychodrama: Volume II, Foundations of psychotherapy. Beacon, NJ: Beacon House
Nofri, C. (2009) Guide to Glottodrama Method. Rome: Novacultur
Spolin, V. (1983) Improvisation for the Theatre. Originator of Theatre Games. Evanston: Northwestern
University Press.
Tomlinson, B. (2008) Humanising an EAP Textbook, Available from: http://www.hltmag.co.uk/apr08/sart01.htm
[Accessed: 10/09/2014]
Wagner, B. J. (1990) Dramatic improvisation in the classroom, in Hynds, S. & Rubin, D.L. (Eds) Perspectives on
Talk and Learning. Urbana IL: NCTE

From: Performing Arts in Language Learning (pp. 213-220)

ISBN 978-88-96875-01-8

published by Edizioni Novacultur

Rome, October 2014-10-15

1st Electronic Edition

Edited by: Moreno Stracci and Carlo Nofri

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