PAInt – Performative Approaches to Language and Intercultural Learning

Testo in italiano

PAInt – Performative Approaches to Language and Intercultural Learning – organised by the Universities of Perugia and Padova

International Summer School – 28-30 July 2026, CLA, University of Perugia

Creativity, courage and care in performative language learning

The fourth edition of the PAInt Summer School is aimed at students, scholars and practitioners in the area of second language teaching who wish to start out on a new journey or develop their experiences in the area of drama-based approaches to teaching and learning. Participants will explore and share practices rooted in the work of those scholars who have attempted “to establish the legitimacy of drama as a tool in foreign language teaching workshops/classrooms” (Fonio 2011: 75). Attention will be given to the value of drama as a means of developing learners’ and teachers’ imagination and creativity, in the belief that “Imagining other possibilities and something of another’s experience means we are not limited by our own lenses and experiences” (Saunders and Ewing 2022: 442). The Summer School will also address the “ethical imagination” (Edmiston 1998), with discussion of drama, inclusion, identity, care, and the need to establish safe/brave spaces in the classroom in order “to balance the relationship between creativity and fear, openness and defensiveness” (Piazzoli 2024: 59). The Summer School will not focus on the learning of one particular language, but will explore how drama techniques can be applied to the learning of any modern language: workshops will be offered in both English and Italian.

Draft programme

Tuesday 28 July:

2.30pm Opening

3-6pm Workshop with Erika Piazzoli, Trinty College Dublin (En/It)

Negotiating Creativity, Courage and Care in Process Drama: The Legend of the Brave Snails

Wednesday 29 July:

9am Voice warm up

9.30-12.30 Workshop with Jean-Rémi Lapaire, Université Bordeaux-Montaigne (En)

Appeasing the anxious learner: the soothing properties of breath control, mental imaging and vocal engagement in language education

2-5pm Two parallel workshops

Filippo Fonio, Université Grenoble Alpes-Università di Perugia and Anna Taglietti, Université Grenoble Alpes (En/It)

Approcci didattico-performativi alla memoria femminile translingue. Identità, disempowerment, re-empowerment

Vittoria Corallo, performer and drama facilitator (En/It)

Within the choral body: the inner communication between bodies and space, at the roots of relational intelligence

Thursday 30 July:

9-12 Workshop with Fiona Dalziel, Università di Padova (En/It)

The Quilt: giving voice to language learners through verbatim theatre and devising

12.15 Closing.

A maximum of 50 participants will be able to sign up for the Summer School. There will be no fee, but participants will be expected to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.

If you are interested in participating, could you please fill in this form no later than Monday 18 May 2026. We will inform you by 25 May 2026 of your place on the Summer School:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/17d3Rk3w2hbf9cYPceZt82SYbLW67XKFv086WrHmcO-U/edit?ts=69e8d69a

For further information please contact:

Fiona Dalziel: fionaclare.dalziel@unipd.it

Filippo Fonio: filippo.fonio@univ-grenoble-alpes.fr

Diana Peppoloni: diana.peppoloni@unipg.it