Milli mála - 01.01.2010, Síða 159

aspects ‘oral expression’ and how to involve ‘creative writing tech -
niques and reflective practice’ through portfolios within theatre proj -
ects in foreign language teaching. We agree with Moody9 and think
that an open learning environment which uses different approaches
that might either fall under a theatre-based (product-oriented) or pro-
cess-oriented category might be most suitable.
In order to actively engage students with experiences that are
otherwise denied to us in real life teachers need to create a specific
‘space’ in which they are able to stimulate the students’ interest in
developing and realising their own ideas and engaging with their
own learning. In such a ‘space’, the group dynamics are different
from a usual classroom, and according to Boillot and Le Du10 the
relationships among students and between students and teachers
are different as these experiences are ‘direct’ and ‘lived’ experi -
ences. Drama is also different as it “operates in the realm of the
unreal”11, and according to Fleming that fact “is essential to the
way it works as art”12. What is interesting and useful about “the
realm of the unreal” is not that it replicates experience, but that it
opens up various possibilities for the exploration of situations
which otherwise could not be explored in real life. a student study-
ing german might not necessarily be interested in becoming a top
manager at a leading german airline, but within drama it might be
an interesting experience to explore what that manager’s life is
about within a particular context. rehearsals can be affected by
what kind of rehearsal space (and also performance space) is avail -
able in one’s institution, and can at times become a challenge.13
anDrEa MILDE anD ÁSTa IngIBJarTSDÓTTIr
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Janet Hegman Shier, “The arts and the Foreign-/Second-Language Curriculum: an
Interdisciplinary approach to actively Engage Students in Their Own Learning”, Body and
Language, p. 184; Dorothy Heathcote and gavin Bolton, “Teaching Culture through
Drama”, Language Learning in Intercultural Perspective: Approaches through Drama and
Ethnography, pp. 158–177; David Hornbrook, Education in Drama: Casting the Dramatic
Curriculum.
9 Douglas J. Moody, “undergoing a Process and achieving a Product”, p. 139.
10 Hervé Boillot and Michel Le Du, La pédagogie du vide. Critique du discours pédagogique
contemporain, Paris: Presses universitaires de France, 1993.
11 Fleming “Cultural awareness and Dramatic art Forms”, p. 149.
12 Fleming, The Art of Drama Teaching, p. 4–5.
13 Having to teach a drama course in Háskólabío (the university Cinema) with its (at the time
unadjustable) dimmed light and comfortable seats does not help anyone. Surprisingly, the
university of Iceland, in spite of their new building (Háskólatorg), did not include a small
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