Date Approved
5-27-2025
Embargo Period
5-27-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Ph.D. Art
Department
Art
College
Ric Edelman College of Communication & Creative Arts
Advisor
Jonathan Fineberg, Ph.D.
Committee Member 1
Deniz Ortactepe Hart, Ph.D.
Committee Member 2
Fadi Skeiker, Ph.D.
Committee Member 3
Pratyusha Tummala-Narra, Ph.D.
Keywords
applied comedy;ESL;healing;psychology;social justice;TESOL
Abstract
I set out to examine the history and current structure of the English-learning classroom, with a strong focus on adult learners in community-based classrooms, of immigrants, refugees, and more who arrive and make their home in the U.S. as well those born in the U.S. to multilingual homes. I incorporate elements of therapy and theatre, particularly improvisational comedy and Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed, as points of comparison to the teachers and students of the classroom by way of Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed. I use the concept of rehearsal to compare the three disciplines of psychology, language education, and theatre to an ideal classroom tailored to individual learning objectives, mental health support, and practice for real life, including self- and civic-empowerment. I interviewed English language teachers and learners from various backgrounds and observed select classrooms, utilizing their responses to frame the trial rehearsals I conducted with several groups of learners: a community-based conversational class with adult learners from different countries, university student sports players from mostly South America and southern portions of the U.S., and adult language learners from mostly Brazil in a class at the local library. Using the participants’ feedback post-rehearsal and my own self-reflections and research, I have discovered that while theatre is not a new tool for language education, it is a tool a teacher can learn to use more consistently for therapeutic support and practical empowerment in the learners’ lives.
Recommended Citation
Schaupp, Jennifer, "CONVERSATIONAL THEATRE REHEARSALS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE EDUCATION, EMPOWERMENT, AND HEALING" (2025). Theses and Dissertations. 3359.
https://rdw.rowan.edu/etd/3359
