STRATEGIC INTERACTION / SCENARIOS

STRATEGIC INTERACTION

Learning Language through Scenarios

Presented by Joe Matterer

• First of all, I’d like to say that this workshop was one of the amazing workshops I have ever attended.
  
  The presenter started his workshop by giving a brief summary about the history of the strategic interaction/demonstrating scenarios approach which emphasizes students’ interaction or competence.
  There are many definitions for the scenario; the scenario is an open-ended strategic interplay of roles functioning to fulfill personal agendas within a shared context. It is also a key device in making foreign-language discourse strategic in the classroom where the main objective is to use the language in an appropriate way in different situations and different people with different roles (boss - employee), (mother - daughter).
  
  Students are assigned roles in scenarios that oblige them to work out and implement personal game plans through dialogs where they are always themselves providing the input for the content of language instruction.
  
  The strategic interaction approach contains six essential components:
  -strategic interplay
  -non-complementary roles
  -personal agendas relevant to participant’s lives
  -shared context
  -dramatic tension
  -physical involvement
  
  The characteristics of the strategic interaction approach:
  -interactive
  -student-centered class
  -task-based
  -students are themselves
  -develops BICS (basic interpersonal communicative skills).
  -emphasize communication and intelligibility.
  -utilize group-work
  
  The role of the teacher in this approach:
  -model
  -facilitator
  -reference
  -counselor
  
  The Scenario Directions:
  -rehearsal
  -performance
  -debriefing

The language itself is not enough to say that someone is good in it. It should involve the full knowledge of human behaviors. It is not only the cognitive aspect of it but the social and personal one as well. Human beings are concerned with accomplishing their purposes through the tool of language.