PEDAGOGY AND PERFORMANCE IN AN ONLINE TASK-BASED INTERMEDIATE SPANISH CONTEXT: DEVELOPING EMBODIED THINKING ABOUT LATINA CULTURE VIA DRAMA AND FILM

Within a university-based intermediate Spanish online context, the purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the ways in which varied 'dramatic conventions' used within a film-based, task-based online context can contribute to the creation of a performance space, 'a third space', where students experience intercultural development and enhanced cultural understanding. Specifically, this paper discusses performance-based contexts, film texts, and drama-related tasks in which students learn to embody and experience varied Latina standpoints toward race, class, and gender issues in ways that foster intercultural development and growth in learners' social identities. Online drama-related tasks to be discussed include use of character inventories; interviewing classmates' to learn about their experiences with gender, race, class issues and then presenting their classmates' experience in role as if they were that person; script writing prior to and after viewing of a film; researching topics to more fully embody a role; engaging in dramatic monologues, dialogues, and group debate tasks in role; and critiques of student productions. As a result of this session, participants will learn ways to structure film-based, drama- based strategies of embodiment into an experientially-based learning sequence, a sequence that can be adapted to a variety of online, blended, or face-to-face learning environments that explore the development of language competence and intercultural understanding through film and drama. The presenter will discuss challenges involved in this type of instructional design, include samples of student work across different components of the sequence, demonstrate the transformative impact of this performance-based pedagogical approach on Spanish students’ discourse and intercultural growth and, time permitting, also suggest ideas for using this approach in more advanced Spanish literature classes.