Abstract:

With the Generation Z’s learning needs as a focal point, recent pedagogical literature focus has shifted more significantly towards the communicative approach in teaching and towards learning by doing. These approaches have proven to be of the utmost significance in science and technology teaching, a context where the present practice and qualitative interview-based research have been carried out, alongside engineering students of the University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine (USAMV) Cluj-Napoca, Romania as part of complementary French and English language teaching sessions. The latter were centered on multilingual drama in French, English and Romanian as part of an ERASMUS+ project entitled Wins Laboratoires Juvenis guided by professional actors from theater companies in France, Italy as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina. The activities were also assisted by in-house English and French teachers over a period of 2 years (2022-2024). The sample groups initially targeted 50 students who benefited from this training, only to narrow the groups down to a maximum of 8-10 selected students who perfected their drama and multilingual training as part of a theater group that acted in multiple plays and one international theatre festival in Vichy, France, while drawing on the common historical memory of Europe and their respective country. The activities proved to be effective in improving speaking, fluency, musicality and pronunciation in both foreign languages towards meeting the needed communicative goals. What is more, drama has also dramatically improved students’ soft skills, such as communication and teamwork, intercultural competence, innovation and improvising ability, while also lowering their affective filter and improving their non-verbal expression skills.

Keywords:

Multilingual and intercultural communicative competence, drama language classes, higher-education students.