Acting out Sketches as a Method to Address Conflict between Two People in an ESL Group

Inna Batorina-Bougoin, France

Inna Batorina-Bougoin, a teacher, teacher trainer, and researcher, served as Education director of the Language Centre SIB in Russia from 2007 to 2015. During that time, she became a certified TEFL teacher (Boston Language Institute), created her own 4-Level System of Intensive ESL learning, entered the Ed.D. program at Walden University, the USA and was invited to join the Golden Key International Honour Society, nominated for her outstanding academic achievement. She has also prepared a team of ESL instructors who took over her at the Centre and continue teaching English in Russia using her programs. She has now returned to France and is teaching English, working as a distant language program consultant, and doing research. Her areas of interest are teaching adult learners, intensive ESL learning, suggestopedia, materials development in language teaching and teacher training. E-mail: inna.batorinabougoin@waldenu.edu

Menu

Introduction
Background
Example
Problem description
Possible solution
Conclusion
References

Introduction

Conflict arises from differences between people. Participation in a language learning group represents an intense emotional experience for its members and might generate an interpersonal conflict that results in a decrease in students’ motivation, their absence from class, dropping out. It makes no sense to deal with conflict by trying to suppress emotions. Suppression causes tension and conflict comes back into the group. This paper will look at ways in which language instructors can use drama as an effective teaching strategy to handle conflict. A conflict situation that happened in a real ESL class will be described and analyzed. A referential model of possible teachers' actions provided.

Background

Schola Iness Bougoin in one of the main language centers for adult learners in Samara, Russia. The center is situated in the middle of a big Russian city with the population of 1,164,896 million people. Adults who wish to study overseas or to obtain a better job are the main foreign language learners in the center. A typical learning group consists of 10-12 students of different age, professional background, and interests. The center is specialized in intensive learning. During two months, each group meets 2-3 times a week and its members spend together 3-4 hours a day. Such intensive approach permits learners become immersed in the foreign language and increase learning results in a rather short period of time. However, an intense emotional experience that is related to the life of any group of people can represent an educational problem. Mostly, it deals with interpersonal conflicts.

Example

Observing an ESL group of adult learners, I noticed that two students avoided working together and each time their instructor asked them to talk to each other, they became worried and agitated. A conflict started to occur in the group beneath the awareness of all participants including the leader. Her teaching behavior was guided by the proposed lesson plan and not by the observation of the current emotional moment that happened between those two students. As a result, when the group instructor asked the conflicting parties to sit together and read a dialogue, one of them grumbled loudly: “No, I do not want to do any activities with her!” Happily, it was the end of the first part of the meeting and the group took a 15-minute break that allowed me to discuss the situation with the teacher in order to find a way to solve the problem.

Problem description

ESL teachers could not often identify a learning problem that was provoked by a strong emotional situation. It happened because they are not ready to analyze the group dynamics and reflect on group events in order to adapt teaching instructions to both the needs of students and the curriculum content applied for intensive ESL learning. Thus, the instructor of the observed group did not see tension between two of her students and, thinking only about the lesson plan, chose them to perform a task together that finally aggravated the conflict. During the mentioned 15-minute break, I asked the instructor what she would do next with the group. She proposed three possibilities: (a) not to pay attention and go on while trying to restore comfortable and positive atmosphere by some jokes, (b) to use her authority and ask the conflicting parties to apologize and forget, and (c) to ask the group for help and make them ‘punish’ students who disturbed. Here I would like to remind that any suppression liberates tension into the conflicting parties and hard feelings may come back into the group in other forms (Ringer, 2002). Therefore, I suggested to extend knowledge of group dynamics from the field of psychology to the field of adult group education and use drama as an effective teaching strategy to handle conflict.

Possible solution

Intensive group instructors need a referential model of possible actions to be taken in order to react and improve a conflict situation. Moreover, they need to adapt their teaching instructions to both the needs of students and the curriculum content applied for intensive ESL learning. According to the studies of Tooranposhti (2011), psychological role playing is very effective in anxiety and stress treatment. So, from the perspective of group dynamics, drama might give students opportunities to deal with conflicts indirectly. As to the classroom management, drama games are usually incorporated into the program and the only thing left is to choose some of them according to a current situation in a learning group.

Based on the above-stated reflection, I propose to use drama in an ESL class in order to handle conflict. Drama activities would sometimes have surprising and unexpected results (Boudreault, 2010). That is exactly what happened with the ESL group I observed. During the mentioned 15-minute break, I talked to their instructor and proposed to use drama as a possible way to solve the problem in her group. Looking at the lesson plan, we found a dialogue between a wife and a husband who quarreled and decided to ask the group to act it out. The group members could modify the dialogue according to their wish. The instructor also asked them to use her selection of vocabulary words while speaking. For the task, students had to choose their partners themselves. Much to our surprise, the conflicting pair of students chose each other and volunteered to act the dialogue out in front of their colleagues. They managed to put the studied material into direct oral practice and, in spite of having strong emotions, they could perform the task and express their feeling in English. They played roles and it helped them to give voice to their disagreement and, consequently, to handle their conflict and continue studying together.

Conclusion

Learning of a foreign language is based on its direct application into practice. An intensive study group lets its members put the studied material into such direct oral practice and, consequently, permits learners become immersed in the foreign language that increases learning results. However, participation into a group represents an intense emotional and cognitive experience that might generate conflicts. In order to deal with them, teachers, on the one hand, should adapt their instructions to the current needs of students and, on the other hand, they must transmit content described in already existing curriculum. Drama is a powerful teaching tool to be used in case an ESL intensive group faces a conflict. Using drama permits teachers to adapt their instructions to both the needs of students and the curriculum content applied for intensive ESL learning.

References

Anzieu, D. (1984).The Group and the Unconscious. Routledge & Kegan Paul.

Boudreault, C. (2010). The benefits of using drama in the ESL/EFL classroom. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. XVI (1).

Melles, G. (2010). Competing allegiances in ESL curriculum work. Ethnography and Education, 5 (1), pp. 33-47. doi: 10.1080/17457821003768430.

Ringer, T. M. (2002). Group action: The dynamics of groups in therapeutic, educational and corporate settings. London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers Ltd.

Tooranposhti, M. G. (2011). A new approach for test anxiety treatment, academic achievement and met cognition. International Journal of Information and Education Technology, 1 (3), pp. 221-230.

Please check the Teaching Difficult Learners course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the How to be a Teacher Trainer course at Pilgrims website.
Please check the Drama Techniques for the Classroom course at Pilgrims website.