Saying and Writing in Multilingual Drama Workshops: Some Teachings in Theatrical or Performative Experiences

Abstract

Mainly used to teach a second language or internationally valued language in an academic curriculum, drama workshops are also used to improve the language spoken in a new country. On many occasions, students are academic pupils who are also first or second-generation migrants settled in a new country with a multilingual profile. This is often the case for students of the UPEC, Université de Paris Est- Créteil, in France. This is a 6-year long experience of multilingual workshops developed in the UPEC, producing more than twenty original 20-minute performances and written plays. This performative pedagogy is Francisco Varela’s enaction paradigm (1993). Also known as embodied cognition or situated cognition, enaction deals with human productions—even specific ones, such as language—by studying the neurological and biological basis of subjective and individual phenomena in an ecological context. Held in a multilingual context, the workshops explore sensitive experiences. In fact, through theater, we uncovered or rediscovered biological tracks as the neurological basis of communication. Our expression involved both individuals and cultural trends: by sharing stories during the multilingual and multicultural workshops.