Finnish Language Teaching through Improvisation – Conforming the Educational Values within an Improvisational Frame

Abstract

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.