Our 13th issue of SCENARIO begins with an excerpt from Jens-Ulrich David’s theatre novel Frankensteins Erben (“Frankenstein’s Heirs”) in our rubric Texts Around Theatre. The excerpt strikingly describes the atmosphere just before a theatre show, when the anxious and excited actors, through a gap in the curtain, watch the auditorium filling up. They are students of English at the University of Oldenburg in Germany who, together with their directing lecturer, have conceived the play on the basis of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. The roller coaster of coming to terms with the play and with each other during the rehearsal process as well as in the final performance is the essence of the novel. Further details are given in Stefanie Beckmann’s review of Frankensteins Erben at the end of this issue.
In his article Taking Stock and Looking Ahead: Drama Pedagogy as a Gateway to a Performative Teaching and Learning Culture, Manfred Schewe (University College Cork) first presents an overview over the history of drama in combination with life, teaching and learning in former centuries. He then outlines the genesis of drama as subject, method, and educational discipline, in particular the field of ‘drama pedagogy for foreign language education.’ The article offers further considerations about a future concept of ‘Performative Foreign Language Pedagogy.’
A performative short form for teachers with relatively little experience with drama pedagogy is introduced by Karel Zdarek (Charles University Prague) in his article Radio Role Play: The Use of a Simulated Radio Studio in EFL. He shows in detail how radio role plays can be effectively used within a single lesson or a short lesson sequence, and offers concrete examples from English as a Foreign Language in a Czech secondary school. First research shows that the framing of the lesson as a radio station provides a safe space for learners and motivates them to participate and be engaged.
The action research project by Theresa Birnbaum (Instituto de Eseñanza Superior en Lenguas Vivas‚ Juan Ramón Fernández, Buenos Aires), Die Rolle von kooperativem Lernen und Dramapädagogik in Bezug auf das fremdsprachliche Handeln: Aktionsforschung zum DaF-Theaterprojekt ‘Entre Bastidores mit den Physikern’ an der Universidad de Salamanca revolves around the question how much the combination of cooperative learning and drama pedagogy can facilitate foreign language learning. This ethnographic study culminates in 17 hypotheses about cooperative learning and drama pedagogy in the context of a theater project at the University of Salamanca.
We are delighted to be able to offer our readers in this issue a new contribution in our rubric Window of Practice. Michaela Sambanis (Free University Berlin) and her students of English have put together a collection of performative activities with the title Drama to go! This collection offers teachers of foreign languages practical hints for their teaching practice. We are also glad to have been able to obtain an interview with Antú Romero Nunes, standing director at the Gorki Theatre Berlin, downloadable as podcast.
Nils Bernstein and Charlotte Lerchner report on a congress at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma (UNAM) in Mexico City (March 11-13, 2013) with the title Ästhetisches Lernen im DaF-Unterricht: Musik – Kunst – Film – Theater – Literatur.
This issue also contains four book reviews, of Jens-Ulrich David’s theatre novel Frankensteins Erben, Fischerhude: Atelier im Bauernhaus, 2012 (by Stefanie Beckmann), Anke Stöver-Blahaks’s Sprachen und Vortragen lernen im Fremdsprachenunterricht. Interpretativ und ganzheitlich lernen mit Gedichten, Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 2012 (by Gerlinde Kempendorff), Ludger Hoffmann’s Deutsche Grammatik. Grundlagen für Lehrerausbildung, Schule, Deutsch als Zweitsprache und Deutsch als Fremdsprache. Berlin: Schmidt, 2013 (by (Maik Walter), and Jessica Nowoczien’s Dramenarbeit im Englischunterricht der Sekundarstufe I im Hinblick auf Gendersensibilisierung und interkulturelle Kommunikation. Frankfurt M.: Peter Lang, 2012 (by Stefanie Johns).
We wish our readers a wonderful summer and would like to remind them of the 8th Drama and Education IDEA World Congress in Paris (July 8-13, 2013) that, for the first time, features a section on foreign language teaching and learning. We would also like to announce the International Conference on Performative Teaching and Learning at University College Cork, Ireland, in May 2014. Further details will follow in the next issue.
Cork/Bloomington, June 2013
The editorial team
Manfred Schewe / Susanne Even