ESOL Research Community
Exploring the effect of rehearsal-room approaches and Shakespeare text on 16–19 year old ESOL learners
Date: Thursday 12th June 2025
Time: 16:00- 17:30
Location: Online via Teams
Speakers: Esther Wilkey, Bradford College and Matthew Collins, Royal Shakespeare Company
In 2022, the Royal Shakespeare Company appointed a group of Teacher Researchers to lead action research into the impact that its rehearsal-room teaching approaches has on learners. This presentation will discuss the impacts seen in an ESOL context. It will detail how researchers used observation and performance to examine how the pedagogy builds resilience, confidence, collaboration and positive behaviour, accelerates language learning, and promotes inclusion. Drawing on teacher reflection, the research also asks how this approach supports teaching practice, counters the preconceptions about 'messing around' in class when teenagers learn through play, and captures students’ creative responses to this pedagogy.
This event is organised by the ESOL Research Community which is convened by:
Dr Kathryn Sidaway - Learning and Teaching Research Fellow (University of Bedfordshire)
Cathy Clarkson - Lecturer in PCET (ESOL) (Bradford College) & EdD researcher (University of Huddersfield)