 I will pass you over to her, enjoy. Thank you very much. Okay, thank you very much Nick for your kind words. It was exaggeration as you can guess, but I will try to do my best. I, like Finns, try to be too clever and have the latest PowerPoint version with me. They didn't have it so that's why they're delaying here. So, as I said earlier, I come from Finland. I don't know how much you know about Finns. Maybe you know the stereotypes. We drink too much. We don't like to speak in public. We don't like to speak foreign languages. We don't like to speak. So, one might start to wonder that using grammar to teach languages, foreign languages in Finland, that's not very clever or is it? Well, students say it's not clever. It's stupid. It's simply a waste of time. I'm glad to say most of them think it's quite nice, even great, even the best lessons they've ever had. So, this gives me confidence in continuing doing this. So, what I try to do today, I will explain a bit about my background and my school because I don't think you are very familiar with Finnish education system. I will talk a bit about using drama in education and using drama in language teaching. I'll try to concentrate on process drama because that's what I mostly do. I'll try to give you some practical hints on how to get started if you want to start using process drama and how to continue, what kind of a role does a teacher have there, how to assess that kind of work, and how we use drama, process drama on our courses at the University of Applied Sciences. Oh, great. Let's see if it works now. This is almost like drama, so you have to improvise and be ready for anything, so I'm used to it. Let's see the pointer here. Okay. Actually, Nick, you missed my title. I have a new job. I work as a manager now, so I'm not teaching so much. I've had this post for one week and a half, and half of that time I've been in London, so I can't really say a lot about that yet. I work as a lecturer in foreign languages, so I teach English and Swedish, as you mentioned earlier, and I'm working on my PhD. It should be ready by the year 2012, so there's still a lot of work to be done. I've also done some studies on multiculturalism, and I've studied this drama at the University of Wales with that. You'll know if I dare to touch it now. Can I see the pointer here? Okay, these ones. So I work at NKUAS, which is the University of Applied Sciences. It's situated in Joensel, which is in the eastern part of Finland, quite near to the Russian border. We have seven different fields in this education, and we give bachelor and master level education. The personnel is around 400, and we have 4,000 students there, so it's not a big university. It's a regional university where I work. This is the centre where I work now, so the centre is new as well. It's combined with three different departments that used to be their own departments earlier. We have this language department, which is called Language Services. We have the International Relations Office and Adult Education. In language services we have around 30 teachers, and we teach mostly European languages like English and Swedish, Finnish, French, German, Russian, which is a very important language in our region, Italian, Spanish, some Japanese and Chinese. So a few courses a year together with the academic university. Well, why did I get interested in drama then, and processed drama? Firstly, I think I got a bit bored with my own teaching. So like you said, you wanted to find something more interesting for the students. I wanted to do that, but also to find something more interesting and motivating for me. So that was a very personal thing there. As I said earlier, we Finns are not very good or very confident in speaking foreign languages. So that is really a big problem in Finland. We study languages for maybe 10 years, 11 years, and still students say they can't speak. And they can be very, very quiet in these situations. So that was a very important reason behind my choice. And then we had an ever-increasing need to integrate intercultural communication into our courses. So previously, when we were studying languages, studying to become language teachers, I don't think we heard anything about intercultural communication. So it was just linguistics and different teaching methods. But this was totally a new area, if I think about my education. So I really had a need to find different methods to do this. I think I couldn't use the methods I was used to using any longer. Well, the teaching at the universities of applied sciences in Finland is based on four cornerstones in a way. We talk about our own pedagogical approach. Because we give vocational training, we are very much centre to LSB and wall methods. We also think that language learning is more than learning a language. It is more like learner education that takes account to many different things, not just language acquisition, and of course common European framework of reference. I will briefly discuss these areas. So if we think about the pedagogical approaches in our university, we are very focused on working life. We want to provide our students with authentic learning environments, even in language classes, higher education pedagogy, and of course internationalisation. Learner centredness is also a very important aspect. Learners are seen as independent actors who take responsibility over their own learning. So learner autonomy refers to the same thing, I think. Since we things can't manage with Finnish very well abroad, it is a problem, we have to study foreign languages. That's why we are also quite motivated to study other languages. The law in Finland says that all Finnish civil servants need to know at least one foreign language, which is usually English, and then the second official language in Finland, which is Swedish. So we have actually two official languages. So those are the languages that are studied even in the vocational education. Well, I think you have all heard LSB and Wall mentioned several times. What is important in LSB is that language learning is seen as a medium. It's one way of building up your identity, as you mentioned earlier, and also building up your professional identity. The aim is to create language skills for work and also for studies, and intercultural communicative competence is very important here as well. Well, I think Wall is approximately the same thing. I think they talk about similar issues. It's also comprehensive, student-centred, functional, co-operational and reflective. And there's a lot of focus on content, working with projects, again intercultural communication and student autonomy. I don't know if this is the right term I'm using here because I've been used to reading literature mostly in Finnish and they talk about language education. Language education means a different thing here, I think. So I found this term that I thought might be suitable. So what does it mean that during the past decade maybe, a bit later already, there has been a shift from developing purely linguistic competence into developing also other skills, while teaching languages. And in a way, the aim is to educate intercultural speakers. And it aims at holistic learning and personal development. It should be meaningful, often experiential and based on individual experiences. Of course, learning is guided by what we already know and how we experience ourselves as language learners. And this is the thing I think we need to pay a lot of attention to. So how do you learn a language? What style suits you better? What do you already know that you can utilise in your language learning? So in a way, emphasis is both on educational goals and goals that are related to linguistic competence. So it's in a way a lot more comprehensive approach. I think David Little talks a bit about the same thing when he talks about learner autonomy, which includes learner empowerment, learner reflection and use of appropriate target language already from the beginning of your studies. And all these things are really important in drama. So it is important to keep the students, the learners, the power to make the choices and use the language. Also, to reflect on your learning and your experiences. And then, of course, using the language from the beginning. I think this is also something that you are certainly familiar with. So Common European Framework of Reference for Languages, which was published by the European Council in 2001. It aims at developing a person's plurilingual and pluricultural competence. It also emphasises learning activity, motivation and lifelong learning. And in framework, they divide the competencies, skills and competencies into two different parts or groups. We talk about general competencies like knowledge of the culture everyday life, intercultural knowledge, social skills, attitudes, motivation and learning abilities. But of course, there's the other side, linguistic competence and they are both a part of the learning process or a part of the confidence you acquire. So I think, in a way, we are talking about similar things the whole time, but looking at the matter from different angles. So I don't think, I think all of them maybe form a comprehensive thing and they are just looking at the things from different perspectives. Framework talks about communicative language competence as consisting of three parts. So they talk about linguistic competence again, social linguistic competence and then pragmatic competence. So that was my background. Keeping all that in mind, I started to think more and more, feel more and more that my traditional methods were no longer enough. I needed to have something new, something that would allow me to integrate vocational learning into learning language. Also these other educational aspects, how to bring them into my language classrooms. I think most language teachers have noticed that language is a very personal thing. So it is very closely linked to your own identity and in our training to the professional identity. For example, when your students write your essays, I feel that they write very personal things in their essays, very private things sometimes. And I think they wouldn't necessarily do that using their own mother tongue. So somehow it feels that when you use a foreign language, it's liberating in a way. Maybe you can put on ideas that you wouldn't present otherwise. So I think it has been always very personal, but teaching hasn't always paid attention to that need. Well, then something general about drama teaching. I think it's really important that drama gives us an opportunity to look at things from another person's perspective. It may help us understand ourselves why we act the way we do, why do we react the way we do by putting ourselves in these drama situations. It is also a very shared thing. So the feeling of group is really important there. And it offers also many possibilities, opportunities to be creative, to think something really. So it is, in a way, very motivating, I think. And if we think about teaching intercultural communication in Finland, and especially in Joensu, where I live, we didn't have very many foreigners maybe 10 years ago. We have more immigrants and refugees nowadays, but it's still quite a homogeneous society. So I think if you want to teach this aspect, this aspect of living together, and aspect of being multicultural citizens and all this, it is really hard to do that by just reading something. You have to be able to experience it, do it somehow together. And if it's only things, it doesn't always work that well. So we need that other viewpoint. And I think drama is one way of getting something, some idea of that into the classroom. Well, then about languages through drama. There has been quite a lot of debate if the focus in language learning should be on form or in meaning. Llyw argues, and there's my mistake there. I told you I have a few mistakes, I noticed it later. So Llyw argues that the focus should be on form in a meaningful context. So one doesn't eliminate the other. They can both be there and several aspects can be learned. What is important here is that the study of the form, the language is set in a meaningful context. So sometimes these textbooks we have in our language classes, they can be sometimes very decontextualised and predetermined. Sometimes we find dialogues that are meant for spoken interaction and then it's really about translation, but you don't write it, you speak it. And it doesn't always offer possibilities for open communication. Llywistic elements are still there, but they are often dealt with as they arise. So when there's a problem, when students need assistance, if you want to focus on something, you can take it up. But it does have to be related to the situation. And Llyw argues also that language and drama have at least three functions in the classroom. So we can talk about cognitive function, social function and effective function. A bit about those. If we think about the cognitive side of things, because it's creative, you have to make the situations yourself. It challenges you into creative thinking. You have to be actively involved in the action, otherwise there's not going to be any drama. So you have the meaningful context and you have the challenge to produce the language. Well, of course social function is really important and I think that's the function we first think about when we think about drama. So there's a lot of collaboration and collaboration going on. It is supportive interaction. It is peers working together. And this is a very important aspect there. It does prepare them for real-life communication situations. It builds up social skills. It gives the opportunity to have diverse linguistic backgrounds and cultural backgrounds present. You can manage even with quite heterogeneous linguistic groups because all of them are using the language the way they can. They don't have to necessarily have the same level. So you can do what you can yourself do with the language. It helps them to become more sensitive listeners, I believe. More sensitive to cultural, intercultural encounters. Also better in discussions. And of course it does develop several capacities to send even very complex messages. Active function is also very important. I think you all have read that when emotions are involved in learning and as Nick pointed out earlier, it is easier to remember things if they have some meaning for you personally. Effective side of drama involves motivation and active involvement. You have to be willing to take risks. There's tension in the action because the outcome is not determined by the teacher that students do it themselves. This involves a lot of concentration. The learners have to use language very strategically. They have to perform different functions by using that language. It is also challenging, sometimes very hard and difficult. Mostly it's very rewarding also because when you get the outcome, when you have the solution maybe to the problem it is clearly rewarding. And again group support network is very important aspect here as well. Well, if we think about drama exercises Crams argues that they can be gripped into three different categories. We can talk about controlled drama exercises like ready-made scripts for example. There are also semi-controlled drama exercises. Many improvisation exercises are like that. Simulations are semi-controlled. And then there's open communication and process drama is one example of this. And they also have different purposes. I don't think we can say that one is better than another. There are different purposes. For example for you, learning vocabulary or information. Very controlled drama exercises can be very difficult. Very useful. If you want to concentrate on communicative competence like I wanted to concentrate I think then this open communication is the thing I need. And some people still argue that many drama exercises are still quite exercise based short term and teacher oriented. So if we think about process drama, open communication the power is given to the students. They have the power to determine the outcome. Also it encourages open communication. You can't know the end result in the beginning. And sometimes it's quite hard for the teacher I think. It's not always easy because you have to be flexible. You have to be able to change the action quite suddenly. You have to be able to improvise. Well then about process drama. I think in UK you call it drama in education or educational drama more than process drama if I understood it right. So it's a method that is used to study a problem a situation, a theme or a series of themes by using unscripted drama. Aim here is not to create a play but instead to analyse the action and the situation from different perspectives by using various drama techniques. So in a way we make a chain of events by using different drama techniques all based on one problem for example. And in the end we try to find a solution for example. So the end result is not the play now. It is the action itself, the experience and the reflection that follows it. So the reflection part is very important. And I will come to that a bit more later. I don't know how familiar you are with drama. So there are some examples of the drama techniques used. So hot seating, that's quite an easy way of organising drama. So you leave an empty seat in a circle and everybody can go there on their own terms. For example to express their thoughts, give advice, experience emotions or something like that. We can use pantomime. And I think pantomime is a good way to start because sometimes students feel that they can't act. I remember when I started to study drama I told Nick this probably already. So when I went to my first drama course at the university I was prepared with a notebook and I thought I was going to hear a lecture and make notes and learn about the history of drama and famous researchers and so on. And then we had to start to make noises in the beginning. So we were there and they said that imitates a duck or something. So that was really really hard in the beginning I think. So for my students I tend to start with something easy. So pantomime is a lot easier than speaking I think. So it is a good way. And it also emphasises the importance of non-verbal communication. So that's also another aspect there. We use improvisation, speaking thoughts aloud. That means if two persons are having a conversation we might freeze the situation in the middle. And then anybody could go and stand behind those persons and tell what they really think in that situation. So they might be speaking something aloud but thoughts might be totally different. Conscience alley is an alley you have to go past and you can hear all these opposing voices they are giving you various different advice for example and it's quite a powerful experience I think. Mantle of the expert might be teacher's part. So you could ask him or her for advice. Tableau or freeze frame they can also be used to analyse situations and they can sometimes evoke a lot of debating and conversation. Interviews of course so various drama methods can be used. What is special about process drama? Well, aim is of course to create a fictional world. As I said, starting point can be a theme, situation or a text that learners find interesting. So I think that's an interesting or important issue there. It might also be related to the themes you are going to study anyway. Rhoes are not predetermined so the students can decide the roles themselves and activity is controlled by the group, not the teacher. Of course the teacher has a great role there if nothing happens for example or if there's a very loud argument or something like that. The teacher needs to step in and move the action to the right direction. There are certainly very, very many opportunities to communicate in drama. What is important is that the whole group is willing to take part in the action. We always make a drama contract in the beginning which means that we ask the students that are you willing to take part in this and if you do you really have to be active. So there can't be any bystanders in any way because it affects the situation so you really have to be active. And I think this is true for all experiential learning methods that you have to be active yourself. If the students refuse to take part I will give them another assignment. It's happened only once but that was enough I think. It emphasises spontaneity, participation, learner independence and also teacher activity. So although I said the students themselves create the situations I have to be there to guide them, help them. Well, when you start planning process drama there are some things you need to consider. Firstly, how much foreign language, target language do your students know? I think you can do process drama at any stages but you have to know that so you can plan appropriate activities. Content of teaching might or will affect the pretext you choose for your drama. There are some time limits, time constraints. I think this demands quite a lot of time. I wouldn't try using process drama in less than two hours. So usually we have three or four hours to use when we do this. Two hours I think would almost be the minimum. And of course the syllabus. What can you do with drama that's still effective? So I think you can integrate a lot of reading here if you want to. You can have articles or newspaper articles to be read. So certainly there can be reading, there can be writing, there can be speaking. So I think you really can integrate many elements there if you just think about it. Well then, how to get started? Well, I think it's important to know your group. I wouldn't do this on my first lesson with any class. So I need to know my group. I need to know something about their backgrounds, something about their linguistic skills. They have to also be able to trust me and the others in the group. So there has to be some familiarity in the beginning. Then when you know your group a bit, you can start by creating a pretext for as a starting point. Pretext is not necessarily a text. It can be a text. It can be a story. It can be a photo. It might be a video clip, maybe an object, even gesture, a piece of news. So many things can act as pretext. It can be a realistic situation like first day at school. It might be a job interview. So something very realistic. It might be an aspirational theme like some TV programme, reality TV programme, survival maybe. It might be imaginary scene, a trip to Mars, return of a lost friend. So almost anything might work as a pretext. What is important here is that it is so interesting and clear that it initiates the action. So it gives you clear clues on how to continue. And I think this is the hardest part in creating process grammar lessons is to create a good pretext. So when you have a pretext, students know automatically how to get started in a way. There are already some roles present in the pretext. There's a location, situation that you can see from the pretext. I like this O'Neill's description of a pretext. So it can be a will to be read, a task to be undertaken, a decision to be made, a puzzle to be solved, a wrongdoer to be discovered, a haunted house to be explored. Well, what do you do then? Then you think about the roles you can find based on the pretext. Maybe you want to take a role yourself. Maybe you don't. I don't always do that because I'm still not so comfortable with acting, which is a bit of a drawback for me in this situation. Maybe I won't get there one day. Then you build different levels of tension to create activities. You encourage students to use both verbal and nonverbal communication. So now you can use all the skills and knowledge you have to communicate something. Because the emphasis is on communication, it doesn't matter in a way what sort of methods you use. Of course, we are language teachers. We want to focus on language, but there are also other aspects in communication that we can't really ignore. Then you reflect on the experiences you can introduce, reinforce, explain linguistic elements, usage and pragmatics. So at points or in the end, you can take up these various linguistic things. What is important in process drama is that there's an element of conflict or excitement or information gap or anticipation. So you need something to get going. There has to be an information gap maybe so that the students really need to work to find out the information. If there's a conflict, the students need to work out the conflict, how to solve the problem. So students, what they do, they can use different techniques to obtain information, interviews, exchange ideas, argument, persuade. So there are very, very many linguistic functions present here actually. The teacher can have several functions. He or she can be a participant. He can be a model. If you like to act, I think it's a great asset here. You can function as an example, a model. You can support the action. You can function as a resource. So they might ask you something. You might help them with the language, for example. It might also be a role of a challenger. So if the activity doesn't move anyway, you might need to challenge the students by doing something, by making questions or something. As I said earlier, reflection is one of the most important parts in process drama. It follows the cycle of experiential learning. So you do something, you experience it, and then you reflect, and then you can do it again. Reflection can be done by using several methods. We use group reflection quite often. You can use individual reflection. Students might be writing a learning diary, for example. And I think that's a good way to reflect on issues. What is important here is that it aims at making students aware of their learning, because like my student in the beginning said it was a waste of time. I think we didn't, I wasn't able, or we weren't able to reflect on the learning together, because he thought it was useful, because I believe there are always several things that are learned. So students sometimes need help there. And I don't mean that the help can only come from the teacher. I think the other group members have a very important role in this reflection part. There are in a way two types of reflection if we think about languages and drama. You can reflect on the experience. So what did you do? What happened? What kind of roles did you have? What kind of relationships were there? And so on. And then linguistic reflection. So what has been learned? What should we study more so that next time we will manage better? So there's a lot of linguistic elements present also in reflection. And I think it needs to be emphasised. Just a few words about assessment. Authentic assessment is used there mostly, which means that the students are assessed according to course goals, but also their own personal goals and the situation they are in at the moment. So what's their previous level and what kind of progress do they make? Because it's only a part of the classes I do. This is easier for me. I don't have to do my assessment based on drama only. So I have various methods to do that. We use self-assessment here. We use quite a lot of peer assessment. And language portfolios are also used as tools of assessment as well as learning diaries. Well, if I think about my teaching, why do I then use drama? What kind of aims do I have? I want to develop my learner's fluency and self-confidence in using the language. When they are in situations where they manage, well, when they can manage in a process drama sessions, I think they get a lot of confidence. They can try out different roles already that might be ahead when they go to the working life. In sculpture, communicative competence is a very clear code here. Also having this authentic communication situation because there's now a real need to communicate. I think it's authentic in a very different way. And I am a true believer of experiential learning. So you learn by doing things, experiencing things. I can also integrate my teaching into these professional contents. So, for example, when I work with nurses, we do different nurse, client nurse patient situations. It is motivating for the students because they feel they are learning something they will do in the future. And in that way, I think we can support them in developing their educational and professional identity. Okay, then quickly I have an example. So this class is about English as a foreign language and intercultural communication. So those two topics combined. We always start by doing a few warm-up exercises. So, for example, a name game, maybe a pantomime. We do these pantomimes, for example, with national stereotypes. So how do you act a Finn? If it's sauna or when it's drinking. So I know we all have these. So a few warm-up exercises first. Quite easy ones. Then in this drama, I've used pictures, photos as a starting point. So there are different photos of different kinds of people, different ages, different sexes, different nationalities. And the idea is that the students choose one. They can work alone or in pairs. And they choose one and they create him or her a background. So who is he? Where does he come from? What is his family like? What does he do for work? Do you know anything about his or her religion? Or things like that? Then these situations are acted out. Sorry, I was too fast. So first they create a character. Then we combine two or three characters together. So, for example, if they have planned them alone, then we put them in pairs. And then they have to present their character to another person, telling that I am this and this. I do this and this. Then these pairs create a situation together and they act it out for the whole group. Then the next step is creating a conflict. So we choose one of the scenes. It's easier to work with one scene. So students can choose one scene. They found interesting. We take that scene and those characters as a starting point. And then in the next stage, the students plan another situation, maybe the next meeting where there's a conflict of some kind. Then these situations are acted out. They might also be frozen frames or tableaus. It doesn't always have to be acting. Then the situations are analyzed by using different drama techniques. We might use this hot seat. So people might go and tell what was the problem there. Maybe give advice. We might use news reports, interviews and so on. Then we try to find a solution to the problem. We might use a team dialogue where all the person A's work together, all the person B's work together and they plan together what kind of things would they like to say to the other person to make the situation better. So then they go one by one, present a part of the dialogue, go back and then the other one follows. Again, hot seating. They might do an extremely happy ending, an extremely unhappy ending, mantle of the expert maybe. And then we try to wrap it up with some kind of ending. So it might be a frozen frame, a picture taken five years after five years. Usually these endings are happy ones, so it's a good way to end the work. Once there was one person who died and it was quite difficult because he committed suicide in this ending. Luckily that wasn't the last one, so we had some happy endings after that. But so anything can happen. Reflection on action, participation, stereotypes, culture clashes, communication problems, roles. Linguistic reflection, what was easy, difficult. What kind of words did we use? What kind of language functions? Barra phrasing. Things affecting communication. What can they already do? So the positive side, and then what needs to be revised. I'm blaming the computer problems now because I'm running late. So negative comments. There are always some who don't like it. I think I have to accept that. Not everybody likes using drama. I think they may learn to like it maybe a bit, but it's not a thing for everyone. Usually I feel that reflection part hasn't worked so well if I get these comments. Well, mostly I have positive comments. So it's fun, it's different. I like this, it stopped me to think. So there are things we know maybe, but we don't always stop to think and realise and reflect on them. I spoke more English than ever. I noticed I can use English quite well. It's good for the class period. I think this feeling of peer group support is really important there. Lessons went fast. Well, what do I feel then? Some students enjoy it, others don't. As I said earlier, I just have to learn to accept that. There are more problems usually in the beginning. So if we do it a few times, it becomes easier. And this drama contract helps a lot. If they are not forced to do that, it's easier. They really, really use all their skills to communicate. So it is very strategic. It's very authentic. They are very motivated. They use non-verbal communication. There are various linguistic elements present. I really believe we learn languages this way. What is important? It is all related to context. So it's meaningful. And they have the support of the whole teacher. What do I feel about grammar now? I think it's motivating. It's frustrating sometimes. It's exhausting. It's inspiring. It's rewarding. So it's all, it's a combination of all things. Sometimes you do well. Sometimes you don't. So it's not a success story all the way. It requires careful planning. I think there's a lot of work for teachers there. You have to be flexible. You have to be able to improvise. I think I learn something new every time. I learn a lot from my students. And I like that element. It is really authentic, as I've said maybe ten times already. And it gives an opportunity to take a wide of view on language learning. And I like this one as well. So it's not just languages. It is people as human beings, comprehensiveness. And this is my ending, my conclusion. It's not the only method. It's not the only method I use. But I encourage to try it out. It's fun.