Using Readers' Theatre to Promote Intercultural Language Teaching and Learning

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to explore the use of Readers' Theatre for enhancing intercultural language teaching and learning (ILTL) with a group of international students preparing to study at an Australian university. ILTL is gaining increasing recognition as a powerful orientation to second languages education. It emphasises the need for learners to look beyond their own worldviews and to develop the capacity to negotiate meaning across and between languages and cultures in order to participate successfully within a multicultural and globalised world. ILTL also underpins the 'Australian Curriculum: Languages', consistent with the nationally agreed goals of education, and is a core curriculum priority across all subjects in the Australian Curriculum. Readers' Theatre (RT) is a type of process drama that assists learners in exploring language and culture through engagement with authentic texts in performances that help them to understand other worldviews. Sometimes referred to as 'Theatre of the Imagination', it makes minimal use of sets, props and costumes; the performers act their parts while holding their scripts, thus embodying the script through vocal expression and physical movements. Learning occurs through participation in, and observation of, verbal and non-verbal behaviour. A key affordance of RT lies in use of whole class discussions in relation to ideas and themes presented in performances, which provide important opportunities for intercultural language teaching and learning.