Lessons from the actor: developing teacher presence and classroom as community

Based on my own research and work as a teacher trainer, this practical talk will look beyond mainstream language teaching methodology and enquire how and why teachers can apply a number of principles found in certain other practices and theories and adopt a more multi-disciplinary approach in the classroom: I will give a brief overview of fields such as Flow Theory (Csikszentmihalyi), Politeness and Face Theory (Brown and Levinson; Goffman), Neuro Linguistic Programming (Grinder), Blink Theory (Gladwell), Social Psychology and non-verbal communication (Cuddy) and group and interpersonal communication (Haydn). I will then consider how educators working in any sector can practically apply these to the art of teaching, thereby helping them to improve classroom climate, group dynamics, presence and rapport.

I will suggest that this crucial area could and should be part of any pre- or in-service training programme. The practical application I will offer derives directly from actor and improvisation training, drawing extensively from acting and voice practitioners such as Keith Johnstone, Augusto Boal, Constantin Stanislavski, Patsy Rodenburg and Cicely Berry.