Performance Archive

Results in BLC Posts

Workshop by A. Bellezza & N. Euba, February 11, 2016

Niko Euba, Lecturer, German Dept Anna Bellezza, Lecturer, Italian Studies Performative Competence in Language Teaching: A Practical Workshop Living in highly performative and connected societies, an important goal of foreign language education is to develop not only students’ communicative but also their symbolic competencies, helping them to become self-aware, reflective ‘performers on the world stage’.…

Special Event: Words in Action!, April 24, 2015

Words in Action: A Multilingual Student Performance Come and celebrate an afternoon of linguistic diversity as UC Berkeley students perform scenes, songs and poems in Arabic, Armenian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Chinese, Czech, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, Swahili, Turkish, Urdu. April 24, 20154:00 - 8:00 PMThe Osher Studio2055 Center Street https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfw_auLuIbrzgWANXCibcPWid-T4HN_bo

Italian in Performance: Opera as a Holistic Framework for Language Pedagogy

From musical references woven into urban landscapes to the use of arias in films, opera has forged a certain idea of Italianness, whether ironic, serious or stereotypical. Because of its powerful cultural reach and multimedial and collaborative dimensions, opera is a gateway to approaching specific aspects of the Italian language. My project investigates the potential…

Words in Action, April 23, 3 – 6:30 pm, Chevron Auditorium, International House

Come and celebrate an afternoon of linguistic diversity as UC Berkeley students perform scenes, songs, and poems in American Sign Language (ASL), Armenian, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Chinese, Czech, Farsi, Filipino, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Irish, Japanese, Latin, Polish, Portuguese, Punjabi, Spanish, Swahili, Telugu, Urdu. Directed by Annamaria Bellezza, Italian Studies. Sponsored by the Berkeley Language Center…

Words In Action, Thursday, April 25, 3-6:30 pm, Chevron Auditorium, International House

Don’t miss this celebration of linguistic diversity as UC Berkeley students perform scenes, songs, and poems in Arabic, Armenian, Bitonga, Bosnian/Croatian/Serbian, Chinese, Danish, Farsi, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Portuguese, Punjabi, Romanian, Ronga, Russian, Slovenian, Spanish, Swahili, Tagalog, Telugu, Xangana, Xitswa. Directed by Annamaria Bellezza, Department of Italian Studies WORDS_IN_ACTION_FLYER_2013.pdf https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2XaWq11Efk&list=PLOyuQaVrp4qrnSYpiZhMeuHQM5zhKz4Fp

Words in Action – Video now available

The videos from the marvelous presentation “Words in Action - A Multilingual Student Performance” are now available here. Again, kudos to Annamaria Bellezza for organizing this event, to Rossella Carbotti for her assistance with the production, and to all the students who worked so hard to bring Annamaria’s concept to life. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5Qj5eLqZUM&list=PL278AEF3B07CF1ED7

Results in L2 Journal Articles

Performing Deafness: Symbolic Power as Embodied by Deaf and Hearing Preschoolers

Symbolic competence, “the ability to actively manipulate and shape one’s environment on multiple scales of time and space” (Kramsch & Whiteside, 2008, p. 667), offers researchers and educators the ability to understand how learners position themselves. This positioning involves a vying for semiotic resources as a means to question established constructs and re-signify or reframe them (Kramsch, 2011). Theorizations of symbolic competence have thus far given limited attention to the multimodal dimensions of intercultural communication in action, that is, during the process of positioning. In this study, I utilize the operating principles of symbolic competence (positioning, historicity, reframing, and transgressions) to explore the embodied uses of symbolic power (Bourdieu, 1982) in multimodal interactions between deaf and hearing preschoolers. Specifically, this project asks: ...

Le Pouvoir du Théâtre: Foreign Languages, Higher Education, and Capturing the Notion of Symbolic Competence

The study of foreign languages has historically been a cornerstone in higher education for a variety of very good reasons, one being that it will help students develop a sensitivity to diversity. This rationale is compelling in theory, but requires a practical approach for instruction that actually guides students towards such a learning outcome. Current research (e.g., Byrnes, 2006; Kramsch, 2006; Swaffar, 2006) has argued that the traditional focus on the development of communicative competence often promotes a functional understanding of the target language and dominant cultural values, thereby obscuring ...