Using Drama in ESP: The Interdepartmental Language Centre as a Learning Community

Abstract

This article seeks to illustrate how the Interdepartmental Language Centre of a university can come to represent a fertile and dynamic learning community. Its specific focus is the use of drama in two ESP courses run by the interdepartmental language centre at the University of Turin (CLA-UniTo). The first was a third-year workshop for trainee primary school teachers, the second a first-year module on a degree course in social work. Both of these courses might be said to bridge the rather ill-defined boundaries between CLIL and ESP, as in both cases language is taught through content and content through language. This cross-curricular focus disrupts the traditional verticalist hierarchy of the teacher-pupil relationship, since the course participants frequently have content-based knowledge and experience in which the ``teacher{''} is lacking. The use of dramatization proved particularly useful in engaging and empowering each individual student in these classes, transforming the learning process into a dynamic, collaborative enterprise.