Determinación funcional de sitios: categorías de asentamiento y variables conductuales

The power of performance and the tension associated with it appears to be a contributing element to dramatic engagement. Harnessing this tension during process drama and determining how it might affect language learning is worthy of note here. The way tension enthused with narrative and role was highlighted as a synergy in this process drama. Participants described an additional tension they experienced during the process drama that may have aided dramatic engagement. Watching a performance within the process drama was reported as providing an elevation of engagement. Performing in front of each other may have contributed to this. This tension may have created an environment in the classroom for heightened tension conducive to greater understanding and manipulation of tension and therefore dramatic engagement. The facilitator discussed with the participants how they felt after the performance in the following excerpt.

Facilitator Give them a clap, that was very good. You guys certainly created a character relationship. Definitely. Very nice. So that's why Kang's character wanted to come as well. To the goldfields.

Mateo Beautiful! (Laughs)

I want to laugh. At the end I start to cry, yeah?

Facilitator It was beautiful. Very nice. And I liked the way you threw the gold. The stone that was shiny, away. It was very nice. And then the gold came. What did you guys think? Did you want to say anything?

Hiro Happy ending.

Facilitator Yes, it was a very happy ending. Yes. It was nice. I like the way you threw the gold - the stone that was shiny - away. It was very nice. And then the gold came. What did you guys think? Do you want to say anything?

Mee I just really enjoyed.

Mateo I enjoyed the acting. It was really good acting. I think they laughing in their eyes. Facilitator So it was very authentic. Yes, OK. Nice. Did you guys want to say anything about

that?

Facilitator Sure, sure. We can reflect later if you like. He lead you? He's in the scene. No, it was a good idea. I liked the way you changed it there. That was nice (KMW3, 96- 142, Activity 30).

The tension generated by the act of rehearsal for performance is palpable in this video recall and reported to occur at the same time as engagement. This added credibility to the literature that argues the importance of process drama being both process and product (Haseman and Winston 2010). Careful scaffolding of the performance through rehearsal, facilitator-led direction and consideration of the dramatic tensions seemed to have built in this workshop a compounded dramatic experience for the participants. This finding reinforces the importance of providing opportunities for both process and performance. One of the key defining characteristics of process drama is that there is no formal audience (Liu 2002). However, this data suggests inserting opportunities for performance in process drama in a more formalised manner, even if only for the eyes of the drama participants, may allow for the associated tension that comes with performing. In this analysis of counts of tension, the tension of performance scored highly in the transcripts of the key moments. This may indicate that the participants view the nature of performance in process drama the same as other kinds of performance insofar as activating a moderate level of tension. It also indicates that with the increased level of scaffolding that process drama provides, this tension is not necessarily inhibitive.

In analysing the transcripts of the key moments, participants reported wanting more of the drama. They seemed excited about what they had just seen and eager to continue. Mateo reports being ‘on a high’ and the data shows increased eye contact, open gestures and emotive language. The scene in the gold fields elicited greater facilitator feedback and encouragement, which in turn may have elicited greater engagement from the participants as they were praised for performing well by both the facilitator and the participants. The participants reported complex emotions and stated explicitly their enjoyment. Kang stated he retained his character even after he had finished acting. The participants’ language became more eloquent, as is indicated by Mateo’s metaphor as he describes his fellow participants’ performance – “I think they laughing in their eyes.” (KMW3, 96-142, Activity 30).

The tensions of intimacy, culture and performance are complex tensions that may have contributed to enhancing dramatic engagement in this study. Combined with agility in role and strong aligning narratives, the right type of tension in the right amounts may be able to compound dramatic engagement, building on connection, heightened awareness and animation.

Conclusion

Role, narrative and tension contributed in this study to dramatic engagement in process drama for language education as fundamental elements. Understanding of dramatic engagement was deepened by exploration of the synergy between narrative, role and tension. At the initial stages of this research in searching for a framework, dramatic engagement was thought to be a discrete and linear process. To

experience aesthetic engagement, the percipient must also experience connection and heightened awareness (Bundy 2003: 180). The participants in this study reported experiencing narrative, role and tension in a compounded manner – all three components were utilised by the participants. The participants experienced one or more tensions simultaneously in five roles in narrative contexts with themselves, group members, the drama or the facilitator. Analysing the relationships between external tension and participant roles formed a matrix that can be used to further describe aesthetic engagement. For example, the participant in the role of actor experienced the tension of surprise. Simultaneously, the same participant experienced the tension of relationship with another participant in the role of teacher and learner as they learnt something new about themselves or their relationship in the drama. This in turn created more tension, in an exponential manner.

Initially this was observed on two levels: (a) between facilitator and participant and, (b) between participant and participant. It was then discovered that group dynamics were also occurring across the roles the participants were playing. This complicated shifting system of participants acting in different roles and changing the way they interacted needed to be understood and effectively managed by the facilitator, both through reflection-on-action and reflection-in-action. Thus, participants were dramatically engaged when they understood dramatic form and had an appreciation of its pedagogy. Through effective and multilayered manipulation of tension and role, they exhibited animation and connection to the narrative. Heightened awareness was achieved, perhaps leading to aesthetic engagement. However narrative, role and tension seemed to be more indicators of a complex state of dramatic engagement.

Phenomenographic methods were used to extend the current understanding of dramatic engagement, looking for variations in the participants’ definitions of engagement and using spectrum and matrix analysis to more fully define the concept of dramatic engagement. This contributed towards a definition of dramatic engagement within the context of other forms of engagement including the inputs and outputs of such engagement as demonstrated within the context of the process drama workshops. Participants in this study demonstrated a foundation of understanding of the art form and an understanding of learning. They accepted the core tenants of the art form of process drama and were able to make use of language learning strategies and techniques that the form allowed them. There were inputs to their engagement that included narrative, role and most notably tension. These elements affected the output, the quantity and quality of verbal and non-verbal interaction.

Participants demonstrated dramatic engagement with the language from multiple perspectives. From a language learning perspective, they engaged with the content of the language. Participants reported enjoying playing with words. Some participants engaged with the language task or form. Some participants tuned in to the instruction of the facilitator. Others noticed attraction to different modes of the language used in the process drama. From an art form perspective, participants also responded to the various narratives occurring the classroom. This could be a simple exchange with another participant in character about the activity they were engaged in. Other participants reported heightened emotions

when considering each other’s situation as real international participants in a classroom at the university learning English. As they listened to each other’s real and imagined, acted and felt stories, they responded at both a linguistic and artistic level and reported being engaged. The language outcomes signal that participants displayed a willingness to talk more and focus less on correcting their mistakes. The number of utterances that were coherent increased. There was no data at this stage that highlighted there was a direct correlation between the language outcome and their depth of understanding about the drama. It was determined that further analysis about the dramatic processes that the participants were engaged in was needed.

Finally, there were various forms of engagement reported with specific tasks. Participants were excited when preparing for roleplaying in the process drama. They were anxious during the heightened moments of dramatic climax. They were surprised and elated when presented with unexpected surprises. The roles participants played within the microcosm of the classroom effected tension as well. They played roles such as actor, teacher, director, learner and audience and experienced tensions within these roles such as surprise, task, intimacy, culture and performance, and multiple combinations thereof.

Initial exploration for the participants’ reported engaged moments during the workshops revealed they could be dramatically engaged through role, narrative and tension. This chapter has demonstrated that there are measurable communicative and linguistic outputs that occurred during process drama and when the participants were reportedly dramatically engaged. This chapter has explored role, narrative and tension in process drama and elaborated on how they relate to one another. They are present throughout process drama but have a greater intensity during dramatic engagement. This has been shown through quantitative counts of role-switching, talk-turns and referencing. Asking the research question “How do role, narrative and tension contribute to dramatic engagement in process drama for language education?” has revealed in this phenomenographic research that there is a relationship between role, narrative, tension and dramatic engagement. During dramatic engagement, participants engaged in more narrative tangents than during other times in the process drama. They functioned in more roles and switched roles more than during other times in the process drama. Participants also experienced more types of tension than in other times in the process drama. The participants in this study did not report dramatic engagement as suddenly happening, as either being on or off. It seemed to be for them a process, that was escalated at specific moments. To gain a deeper understanding of dramatic engagement, the following chapters analyse further how these elements are utilised in the specific processes of roleplaying, playbuilding and sensemaking.