The Performativity of the Intercultural Speaker: Promoting Savoir Agir through Improvisational Tasks

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Whilst the promotion of Intercultural Communicative Competence (ICC) is described as the main aim of foreign language pedagogy in Germany, its development from a performative-linguistic perspective lacks in research. To address this issue, this book argues that an extension of Byram’s model of ICC to encompass a further newly-developed savoir is necessary. Savoir agir makes explicit the interplay of intercultural and communicative competences present in the model and foregrounds its embodiment in ad-hoc oral interaction. Furthermore, the book emphasises the potential of methods derived from Improvisational Theatre for developing savoir agir in the language classroom. The second part of the book presents a longitudinal, two-year mixed-methods action-research study in which improvisational tasks were designed and implemented on a regular basis in four English classes with the aim of promoting savoir agir.