Professional Documents
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Why are performance skills relevant to us? Probably more than any time, our
teaching is constantly being assessed either formally or informally (tutorials, course
evaluation feedback, observations etc). Far more importantly though, certain
‘performance skills’ are relevant because most of us genuinely want our learners to
share our passion for language and communication. We genuinely want to see our
learners make progress and be successful. So, certain ‘performance skills’ are
relevant because they help:
- make our lessons enjoyable – give our students a positive attitude towards the
subject and will hopefully make the learning experience more memorable
because anxiety is low
What skills do actors have that teachers can learn from in order to make a lesson a
memorable and enjoyable experience? Just as actors have stage or screen presence,
we as teachers can develop classroom presence by transforming certain skills for the
classroom:
• a broad smile
• relatively slow speech
• a long ‘er’ (compared to a short one!)
• keeping your head still when you speak
• eye contact
• any others?
Eye Contact
How important is making genuine eye contact with your students? How long should
you make eye contact with someone without making them feel uncomfortable? How
do you share eye contact? On stage, it is essential you make genuine eye contact
with your co-actors in order to provoke a spontaneous, natural reaction as well as to
convince your audience that the actor is “in the moment”. Occasionally, it is
necessary for an actor to speak directly to the audience, as with Shakespeare’s
soliloquies. With a small audience, making genuine eye contact does not pose too
much of a problem but with large audiences it is more difficult, but nevertheless still
possible to make people feel seen. Some actors divide up the auditorium and move
from one section to another giving the impression of making eye contact. Think of
- creative and spontaneous use of gesture and facial expression. Just before I
go into class, especially first thing in the morning, I briefly (and secretly) go
through the following routine:
Work in small groups. Perform a couple of the following facial expressions for
your partner to guess. Can you feel the different muscles in your face being used
to create these expressions?
frown gawp gaze glare grimace leer pout scowl smirk sneer wince
mouth shrug
- creative use of movement and space. If it’s difficult to reconfigure the layout
of your classroom, what can the teacher do to vary his/her movement and
position? In theatre, determining where an actor moves or stands on stage is
called blocking. Blocking is vital in establishing relationships between
characters, maintaining audience interest and controlling audience attention.
In the same way, teachers should vary the way space is used in the classroom
and how different positioning can help maintain interest and motivation
during the lesson.
• teaching from the back of the classroom making the back-row students the
front-row students and vice versa
• kneeling or crouching down between desks
• crouching down at the front of the room
• sitting behind a vacant desk amongst the students
• sitting on the teacher’s desk
• sitting on a student’s desk
• sitting on the floor
• leaning on a student’s desk entering his/her personal space
• weaving slowly between the students’ desks
• standing in the doorway
• standing on a chair or table
“Teachers continue to take their most precious asset, their voice, for granted”
“There is virtually no systematic training for teachers in the effective use of the
voice”
• Do you agree with the above? Is it true for you? Does it reflect your own
training?
• Do you use your voice to its full potential in your teaching ie. your full vocal
range? How?
Practising correct diaphragmatic breathing is a good place to start. Try the following:
Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and stand tall. Place your hands on your
lower ribs (the diaphragm is located underneath). Breathe in deeply through your
nose for four seconds, hold for four, then breathe out through your mouth for four (if
you are relaxed, your abdomen should expand)!
As above, but say the days of the week, the months of the year, then the alphabet –
all in one breath.
Now in small groups, choose one of the quotes below. Try modifying your voice while
saying them. You can modify your voice by …
… and vary the pace, pitch and volume. You can use pauses too for even more
dramatic effect!
So what effect did you achieve with each? How might these ideas be used in class?
This is just to demonstrate that we don’t realise how versatile our voices can be and
how this versatility can be put to effective use in our teaching
- pretending to faint
- pretending to have laryngitis
- feigning a heart attack
- blame the board pen
- an over-the-top wipe of your brow
- snoring
- quacking and popping
- pretending to get something out of your eye or wiping something off your
clothes
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