| dc.description.abstract | Abstract
This small-scale qualitative participatory study examines the potential of Image Theatre to facilitate 6th grade EFL students' interrogation of multiple viewpoints. Image Theatre (Boal, 1995) is a drama convention that consists of a series of embodied three-dimensional frozen images (tableaux) created by participants to represent a situation or event, which in this study has been inspired by the wordless graphic migration novel The Arrival by Shaun Tan (2006). The data was collected through video and audio recordings of 6th grade EFL students' creation and performance of Image Theatre and through ensuing semi-open-group interviews during which the 6th graders analysed their own tableaux. The data was further analysed using thematic and multimodal discourse analysis. The main research questions of the study were:
• Does Image Theatre facilitate EFL 6th-graders' interrogation of multiple viewpoints? If so, in which ways?
• How do the EFL 6th-graders interrogate multiple viewpoints through Image Theatre and which viewpoints do they interrogate?
The study's results indicate that Image Theatre facilitated the students' interrogation of multiple viewpoints, including those of fictional characters, themselves, the audience, and their peers. During the Image Theatre process students employed external systems of enactment, including body language, props and costumes, that resulted in empathy development and active attempts to understand the characters through the creation of backstories and by considering the characters' dynamic. The results also indicate that students experienced metaxis, where they expressed themselves as both themselves and their fictional characters' simultaneously. Furthermore, the ensuing critical conversations and students' own analyses indicate that the students, through group work, were able to interrogate the perspectives of their peers and the audience by considering how their tableaux communicated. This thesis contributes to filling the gap within the research field regarding Image Theatre's potential to facilitate 6th grade EFL students' interrogation of multiple viewpoints. Additionally, the thesis aims to provide a foundation for teachers and theatre practitioners who wish to employ Image Theatre in a school context with young EFL learners and concludes by arguing for the benefits of using Image Theatre to facilitate young EFL learners' ability to consider the perspectives of others. | |
