Affective learning for effective communication

This paper presents an ongoing pedagogical project concerning the role of body and voice work in second language learning, in particular with regards to prosody and its importance for effective communication. We examine the relationship between emotion, prosody and the corporal and vocal aspects of speech, all of which have proved to be problematic areas for language teachers in the standard classroom. We have developed an approach into body and voice in the language classroom that is structured around two praxes, the Silent Experience and the Engaged Body, and a frame of reference known as AFEEL, the latter to be used as a classroom checklist for teachers. The two praxes and the frame of reference put centre stage the importance of self and spatial awareness in the corporality of oral production. In our research group’s ongoing teacher training workshops and other communications, body and voice work find a natural home in theatre activities, which use enacted emotion in improvisation and text work to explore oral communication in the pursuit of more appropriate prosody in the target language.