| Target-language theatre productions within the university foreign language curriculum offer undergraduate students a uniquely holistic and multifaceted learning environment. One of many possible models is a mixed-level course with undergraduate and graduate students, native speakers and second language learners, collaborating on a joint production.;In this dissertation I present the findings of a phenomenological investigation into the learning experience of undergraduate non-native speaker foreign language learners who participated in target-language theatre productions alongside graduate students and native speakers. I interviewed participants about their experiences in order to better understand how working collaboratively with peers of varying language proficiency impacted their learning. I followed Seidman’s (2006) methodology for conducting phenomenological interviews, and the theoretical lens I used to interpret the interview data draws on Bakhtin’s concepts of dialogized heteroglossia (1981, 1986) and carnival (1965/1968), and on the ecological framework for language learning articulated by van Lier (2000, 2004, 2010).;Important conclusions from this research include the finding that, although undergraduates are initially intimidated by the presence of graduate students and native speakers, they eventually come to value them greatly as role models, and they may begin to envision themselves also someday pursuing graduate study. The initial perception of hierarchy in the course is weakened and blurred when it moves into the production phase, echoing Bakhtin’s (1965/1968) observation that carnival creates a space of social equality and does away with the structures that normally govern social hierarchy. Participants enter into a dialogic relationship with the L2 text that facilitates their heteroglossic appropriation of the target language, and through their exploration of the text and the execution of their individuated responsibilities, they discover and make use of a wide variety of affordances in the learning environment. Through metaxis, they can temporarily suspend their identity and assume a fictitious target-language persona. |
