Precarious repurposing: learning languages through the Seal Wife

Abstract

‘Je voudrais un café au lait’ you nervously utter to your classmate, who listens carefully while wearing his best haughty French expression. Role play has long been popular in Additional Language (AL) classes for practising and rehearsing daily conversations. Subsequently other forms of drama education have garnered interest from the Language learning community for their ability to provide purposeful and engaging contexts for learning. This paper critiques the work of two language educators, who have adapted Cecily O’Neill’s The Seal Wife for an AL learning context. It critically examines the two dramas focusing upon several key features of process drama and discusses potential issues which may arise from borrowing and altering existing drama works.

Keywords:

• Process drama
• additional language learning
• Seal Wife
• Cecily O’Neill, pretext, role, reflection