Abstract
The last few decades have seen growing interest in what are recognised as key competences for lifelong learning, competences which foster appropriate knowledge, skills and attitudes to encourage flexibility, adaptability, satisfaction and motivation. Two of these competences are communication in the mother tongue and communication in foreign languages. Social competence, which in general terms refers to behaviour and knowledge that equips individuals to participate effectively and constructively in social and working life, and cultural awareness and expression, are two more. The use of drama and theatre techniques in education can have innumerable positive consequences for the development of the skills involved in these competences and bringing these techniques to the foreign language classroom offers many further benefits for language acquisition; not least that of enhancing the more enjoyable and entertaining dimensions of learning as well as making it more meaningful, leading to greater long-term retention and creative language use. What, after all, can be more entertaining than being creative whilst having a firmly grounded goal to learning? This presentation will focus on how these elements were developed in two courses delivered in Valencia (Spain), one for learners of English as a foreign language and the other for Erasmus exchange students from several European countries learning Spanish. Both courses were based on the Glottodrama method, a methodology that uses theatre to support language learning. After describing the learning contexts, we discuss how the film Monty Python's Life of Brian was adapted as a stage play for the final performance and comment on some of the implications the whole process had for the language learning of the participants.