Barbara Schmenk (Bochum) p.7-23
2004 Issue 1
Abstract
This article examines possible implications of the Common European Framework of Reference (CEF) for the fields of language learning and teaching, focusing on the potential role of drama pedagogy. The introductory part focuses on the role of drama pedagogy in language teaching, followed by a brief outline of the main objectives of the CEF and the standards it sets for language learning. The following section discusses some of the underlying assumptions of the CEF regarding language learning and teaching. I argue that the predominant focus in the CEF on pragmatic and strategic components of language learning and its ‘output-orientedness’ may pose a problem for language educators who conceive of language learning as a personal experience which cannot adequately be conceptualised in terms of scaled competences and strategic behaviours, and which may often lead to rather unforeseeable results. Subsequently, I discuss potential impacts of the CEF on the role of drama pedagogy in the foreign language classroom. Since the use of drama techniques may be considerably reduced and marginalised within a framework of standardised objectives and descriptors of language competences, I conclude that it is paramount for language educators to take subjective and aesthetic dimensions of language learning seriously. They should therefore be given a major role in the language classroom, and not consigned to the margins.