This study was conducted at the Department of English at Bejaia University, Algeria. 23 EFL students from both Bachelors and Masters Degrees participated. I designed an exploratory course which lasted for two months comprising ten sessions of reflective writing and theatrical performance. I adopted interpretive phenomenology as an approach for both data collection and analysis (see Frost, 2011; Smith, 2008).
I conducted in-depth interviews with the participants to support the research findings. I also designed drama and narrative tasks in each session to allow the students to write about their experiences, to write theatrical scripts collectively, and to perform them onstage. These scripts and stories were collected to enhance the findings of this study.
Analysis and initial findings
In this paper, I have selected the interview transcripts of three participants that I named cases, and excerpts from their scripts. One of these scripts included some French sentences, while;
the other ones were written just in English. I gave to each case a pseudonym to ensure anonymity and confidentiality. To analyse the data gathered from these three cases, I adopted Kleiman’s (2004) phenomenological strategy of data analysis. Kleiman (2004) states that phenomenological analysis goes through global reading of the data to achieve a general meaning about the transcripts. Then, the researcher should do secondary reading and extract
units of meaning. Each unit of meaning should be clustered with those that convey similar sense. However, units of meaning that seems useless to the research should be deleted. Once clusters of meaning are formed, the researcher should start a description making a link to his study, and this is called ‘imaginative variation’. The researcher will then create essential units of meaning and start reciprocity, or reflection on his participants speech, behaviour and any point that was mentioned in his data. The final step is going back to the raw data and make a general structure which will be then an interpretation for the final results.
The table below provides a description for the three cases’ in-depth interviews:
Figure 1: Description of passages from the in-depth interviews Cases Description
Sali
Sali is a 24 years old student of English at Bejaia University, based in the school of education. She grew up in a small Berber region at Bejaia. Her native language is Kabyle. However, she speaks French fluently since her childhood as her mother was an Algerian migrant in France for 17 years. She also speaks Arabic, which she acquired at school. My interview with Sali, which lasted for an hour, revealed several issues in relation to her experiences and dreams as an EFL student and other elements that are tied to her participation in the theatrical sessions. Sali reported that using English fluently became one of her objectives since she studied English. Her desire is to achieve native-like-accent in learning.
As she reported:
I can say that being a student of English means a lot for me, it means dreams and objectives in life that I started to realise one by one. Before I study English at University I used to listen to my cousins who live in America when they visit us at home I just say to their English wow and I dream to speak like them. Now I am a student of English so I am trying my best to achieve this dream of speaking like native speakers.I want to speak English fluently but I find difficulties, so I just switch to French or Kabyle…but when I came to theatre play on stage and sharing my thoughts with others and learning from them I even developed my accent from some students who speak very well. It let me play roles I never played in society such as being a man, being a mother, a teacher…
This transcript revealed a challenge that Sali experienced in the EFL setting to reach language mastery. It shows how Sali enhanced her English accent compared to how it was before attending the sessions. It also shows that she developed new identities she did not experience before, but the theatrical course fostered their emergence.
Loundja
Loundja is a 23 ELF student at Bejaia University, based in the School of Literature and British Civilization. She spent her life in a Kabyle speaking city, while she was speaking mostly Arabic because of her parents who were originally from an Arabic region. Similarly, she claims that English is used just inside the academic setting, while she does not use it in the society, and this hindered her from achieving language mastery. She reported in her interview the following:
I sometimes wish and try to use English as often as possible because we do not use it outside this academic context which then hinders us from improving our speaking though we try that but the context where we live pushes us to use Kabyle or Arabic…
She also added:
I feel I did develop myself and my speaking skill in those sessions like last time when we did the play of somebody in the bus reading a novel and others mocking at him… I said oh my god if I am like this in reality I felt I am ugly, exactly I could see myself in reality and out of my comfort zone looking being a different person.
Loundja wanted to develop her speaking ability and to become able to use English fluently inside and outside the classroom. The theatrical course helped her to achieve this desire up to a point. Most importantly, the plays she wrote and performed onstage with other participants let her discover new characters in herself as it made her experience other characters that she did not expect to live.
This may have developed in her an awareness of new identities she can develop in language learning.
Bilal
Bilal, who is 22 years old, is a first year Master student of English at Bejaia University, based in the Linguistic school. He has a mixed ethnicity. His father is Palestinian, while; his mother is Algerian. Both of his parents speak Arabic, but Bilal lived for 15 years in Bejaia city where he learned Kabyle. Being an English student let him have the desire to master English, and he reported in the interview the following:
… um English, I use it at university and outside as well with few friends because I want to master English especially British one… so I watch TV in English, I listen to radio in English I write in English all what I do at home I try to do it in English to be able to become a linguist …
He added:
I had some fear to act onstage, but it was helpful that I could develop myself and to express my ideas and my personality to the spectators watching me. This let them know me who I am and my personality. I played many roles: sometimes a worker in supermarket, sometimes a father and sometimes a son. It let me be different person each time. I also practiced my English like when I wrote and perform in English I felt I was adapting myself to British culture I was forcing myself to be an English person. But when I wrote in Arabic it was totally different why because in Arabic does not change me I am always same person exploring the experience in the same language like repetition of what I did but no development in my personality compared to performance in English.
Even last year I got a scholarship to study for six months in France, and I went there with two other students so it was really difficult when I arrived to the residence I was like found that I should speak in French everywhere even outside but at that time I only want to tell people there I want to speak English and I used to ask them in English like when I look for streets and shops…I really I really wished that time if France speaks English and I just felt that English is my native language or second not French…so I mean that that I speak more freely in English I am not productive in French compared to English. Even you know what I cannot write a sentence in Arabic this will take me hours I now just become attracted by English…
Bilal discussed his objective, which is achieving fluency in English learning.
Thus, he took the challenge of learning English inside and outside the academic setting. In the course, he could develop his speaking skill through the practice of the language during performances onstage. He also could develop his character and experienced new ones. However, his talk on comparing his performance in English and Arabic/French revealed that he developed new identities in English.
while he felt that when he writes and performs in Arabic/French, he does not increase chances of building a new identity. English influenced his linguistic competence. In other words, he feels less productive in other languages while he can freely use English. His last sentences on the experience he lived in France made him realise his need to speak in English. Additionally, a linguistic struggle emerged in his story. He found himself obliged to use French to communicate with others, while; he had no desire to use it and he switches to English all the time. This complexity and struggle can be the result of becoming aware of his new identity as an EFL student.
Further to the interviews, the following excerpts were taken from the theatrical scripts that the above three participants wrote in the course: