Workshop: 'Performance-Based Activities for the World Language Classroom'

Join us and Melanie Mello as she presents: "Performance-Based Activities for the World Language Classroom" as part of the 2023 Language Teacher Symposium!

In this workshop, participants will be introduced to several performance-based activities and concepts connecting improv, neuroscience, film and language acquisition in theory and practice. After a couple of warm-up activities through which participants will learn how to control their voice and use their body to convey status and express feelings, we will try out several proven improv activities to explore firsthand how students’ communication and collaboration skills can be further developed through improv.

During the second half of the workshop, participants will be introduced to two drama-based pedagogical concepts that can be used in a variety of classroom activities. In this presentation, we will connect these ideas to a lesson focused on the study of a film. Both methods focus on the actor’s dramatic interpretation of the behavior patterns, feelings, and experiences of the character they represent based on their own personal feelings, thoughts, and experiences. In small groups participants will come up with their own dramatic interpretations of a "challenging" situation as presented in the movie "Sachertorte" (2022); a Vienna-based rom-com. After each group's performance, we will watch the film scenes to compare our versions to the original.