Combining foreign, native and national languages through theater in schools: an “enactive approach“ to education. (original) (raw)

At a time when our societies are becoming more and more hybrid as they interrelate and are enhanced thanks to the new media, this paper stresses the need to take a step back to consider the ever growing use of ICTE (Information and Communication Technology for Education) in standardized evaluation system. In this article, we are looking at the contribution of aesthetic and languaging (Varela) [1] dimensions of the arts, and in particular of theater, to the teaching of foreign languages. In this respect we are considering the skills of mediation, which are neglected in French curricula. Neurosciences have shown that aesthetic responses are based on the activation of physiologically universal embodied mechanisms, which integrate actions, emotions and sensory perception (Freedberg & Gallese) [2]. Creative emergence would therefore be right at the root of human language as put forward by Lecoq, Brook and many other theatrical artists who have shown an interest in education. In this context we suggest that the socio-biological roots of learning and language should be taken into account through transversal skills, such as creativity, emotional competence and mediation or “relational intelligence” skills in language curricula.