In my article, I examine the moments of gaps or pauses in improvisational scenes used in a Finnish language as a foreign language class. In my research I use different improvisational exercises and techniques (e.g. Johnstone 1981; 1999) when teaching Finnish as a second language. My pedagogical aim is to improve Finnish students’ communicational skills in different kind of improvised settings. My research focuses on teaching Finnish as a foreign language in a Romanian university using improvisation theatre as a method in language teaching. I start from some values of Finnish educational system, such as equity, flexibility, creativity, teacher professionalism and trust (Sahlberg 2007). I compare how these values are conformed within an improvisational frame in a second language class. I present three examples from two different drama courses and I show through these examples how students contemplate with delicate, shameful and radical moments or pauses within their improvisational interaction in the classroom. My aim is to show how the teachers repeatedly accept the students’ ideas based on the rules of improvisation (Johnstone 1981; 1999) and how this positive freedom of improvisation (Peters 2009) shows similarity with the values of the Finnish educational system.
This conversation analytic article focuses on changes in footing in improvisational conversations. The analytic focus is on the verbal and embodied means that signal a change of footing. The data consists of approximately nine hours of interaction videorecorded in the ‘language through drama’ classroom with Finnish language students in Romania during a period of three months. The analysis concentrates on three samples showing the changes in students’ gesture, gaze, body posture and other means of communication in addition to speech when returning to the improvisational role and to the frames of improvisation from their roles as students. The data show how the postures of students change during the change in footing and how the dynamism of embodied interaction changes simultaneously.
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