Teaching Czech through Theatre












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            * Teaching Czech through Theatre
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            Foreign students taking part in the theatre class at the Institute for Language and Prepar

            (ILPS) Albertov centre, gathered on June 5, 2010 to share the results of their semester-lo
            Students from Japan, Russia, Germany, the United States and Belarus chose to learn Czech i
            course, in which the language is not being taught in classrooms the regular way, but inste

            The performance had been rehearsed under the guidance of the institute's instructor, Ms. M
            Can you introduce the so-called theatre course to our readers?
            Czech for foreigners can be taught in many ways, not only in the classrooms, but also usin

            other cultural activities. The Albertov centre specializes in courses like this, and there
            literature club, a film club, walks through the culture of Prague etc. Our theatre club st

            summer semester of 2008 and we do a short theatre performance at the end of each semester.
            Who attends these courses?
            I've worked with all kinds of nationalities. Each nationality has its own specifics, and y

            sensitive to cultural differences and customs. Thinking back, I've never worked with stude
            counties. On the other hand, I teach Russians and Americans quite often.
            How did you choose the play for this year's performance?

            I usually don't go for finished plays. I rely on improvisation techniques devised by the C
            Improvisation League. Using these procedures, I learn to know my students quite fast. I ke
            roles they spontaneously adopt, which roles they are powerful in, what is difficult for th

            I've learnt this, I start looking for a subject matter that the whole group could  find in
            on methods from drama and education theory, we come up with the structure of the story. Th
            this year's play evolved.

            As for the script, I'm observing which language functions the students need to use, what t
            their utterances is, and so on. Then I write the script. I believe that in the end, it is 
            has to write the script, because he or she takes care of the grammar and also of the progr

            language training of particular students. We have to use sentences that the students thems
            to construct, but tend to fail at them. The purpose of the training is to eliminate these 
            automatizing the grammatically correct text from the script. I think it makes no sense to 

            that the student can handle well, because then we are forgetting the ultimate goal, which 
            foreign language skills.
            Who takes care of directing and costumes?

            In a way, I'm the director. I'm saying “in a way”, because many of my students offer very 
            make a significant contribution to my work.
            As for costumes, that's a funny question. In this respect, I've gone a long way. The first

            theatre with foreigners was in 2006 and during the first performances, we had lots and lot
            props and set pieces. It took a lot of effort, and looking back, I see it as ineffective, 
            counterproductive. These days, I try to be as minimalist as possible. I find pantomimic re

            of reality much more interesting, and students find it more fun. As for costumes, I like i
            the actors wear casual clothes, maybe with some sort of functional prop. That's enough. Th
            performance doesn't even include props and the students wear dark trousers and white or so

            shirts.
            How do students approach this non-traditional form of teaching?
            This course is optional, e.g. only the students who are truly interested sign up. I'm grat

            centre decided this way, because this way I only work with students who prefer theatre or 
            curious how it works. Taking and finishing the course is each student's personal decision.
            hand, any one can drop the course without suffering any kind of penalty – this can mean a 

            risk for the final product.
            I have my own internal rule while teaching this course. Each student has the right to deci
            will take part in the final phase of the rehearsals or not. Each semester, we get at least

            who chooses not to perform. There may be many reasons behind this decision, but it's very 
            group to know who can be counted on, and who cannot. That's why I appreciate both positive
            decisions, even though they can make my work more difficult. Once, I had 15 people on the 

            finished with four. This year, it's quite the opposite – twelve out of fourteen stayed til
            What's the most difficult thing for the participants?
            What I find most difficult is the fact that each student is on a different level. It is ha

            level students to endure among the more advanced. For the advanced students, the most comp
            the final one, during which language precision is being trained. That's when the never end
            pronunciation and automatization of grammatical structures come into play.

            Do students take the course repeatedly?
            Our centre focuses on language training and preparatory courses for students who are going
            universities. This means that most of them either leave or enroll at a university after th

            semester. This year I was lucky and three students from the winter semester continued in t
            that's quite an exception.
            (Lucie Kettnerová)