Language learning stages: playing it by heart

Language learning stages: playing it by heart. Umberto CAPRA Università del Piemonte Orientale “Amedeo Avogadro” ABSTRACT Playing on a stage, improvising or enacting a script, “rewriting” or faithfully performing a piece of literary drama, daring to tread the wanly lit fringe boards or keeping to the limelight of centre stage, can be the lifelong career of a professional actor or actress or the adrenaline bursting experience of an amateur. Many teachers and students see it as a promising opportunity to boost language learning, to feed stamina to grammar paled and drills exhausted classes. Just another fake grail of the “learning by having fun” sect? On the contrary, it will be argued that drama and the performing arts in general do offer a peculiar combination of benefits to (modern) language learning: • a paradigmatic case of cooperative learning, with naturally inbuilt roles; • an authentic reason for repetition and memorization, grinding meaning and expression out of rote; • a memorable match of meaning, intention and intonation, directed, guided and forwarded by proper gesture and physical attitude; • a perfect setup to trigger empathic sparks running the circuits among mirror and motor neurons and the language areas of the brain; • a face saving protective mask lowering the ‘affective filter’; • a bright sun flooded or wan moonlit emotional reservoir, ready to soak and fertilize the dry land of cognition. Body, voice, motion, emotion acting into a different learning language for language learning.