This paper presents how drama was used during a participatory action research project conducted with teachers at a Francophone school in Saskatchewan, Canada. Drawing on student interviews, ethnographic fieldnotes, photographs, and audio-recorded research conversations, the paper analyzes reader engagement when multimodal drama activities were used to teach children’s literature.
This paper presents findings from a participatory action research project (McIntyre, 2008; McTaggart, 1987) conducted with two Grade 5 teachers at a Francophone school in Saskatchewan, Canada. Drawing on student interviews, ethnographic fieldnotes, photographs, and audio-recorded research discussions, this paper examines how students engaged in reading and analyzing a children’s book when multimodal drama activities were used in the classroom. Research has shown that several sociolinguistic challenges characterize the teaching and learning of French in minority language contexts that are increasingly characterized by plurilingualism and ethnic, racial, and cultural diversity (Author 1, 2017; Prasad, 2012). For example, children growing up in an Anglo-dominant society may be inconsistently exposed to French at home (Dalley, 2006) and tend to view French as an “artificial language” (Cavanagh & Blain, 2009), wherein it is not perceived as an authentic mode of meaning making or social interaction. Furthermore, children in minority language schools often develop linguistic insecurities when communicating in the language of instruction (Levasseur, 2012; Murray & Vignola, 2018). Teachers working in these contexts must, therefore, develop pedagogical strategies to help students perceive French as a tool for communication (Blain & Lowe, 2009; Cormier, 2010). This project was developed to address some of these issues by turning to drama, as an aesthetic and multimodal (Author 1, 2017, 2019; Gallagher, 2007; Gallagher & Ntelioglou, 2011) pedagogical approach that is often underutilized in Francophone schools. During French class, students were lead through multimodal drama activities to read and analyze a children’s book. Our analysis centered on reader engagement by focusing on students’ behaviour, cognition, emotional connections, and social interactions. Findings suggest that drama was effective in helping students engage with reading on all the dimensions analysed and also for encouraging children to write and speak in the target language, in spite of linguistic insecurities or discomfort.
