DRAMATIC TEXTS IN TANDEM LEARNING: READING, TRANSLATION, AND EXPERIENCING THE TEXT

Abstract

The article substantiates and evaluates an approach to the use of contemporary dramatic texts in teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language. The research was carried out within the framework of an international educational collaboration between Ternopil Ivan Puluj National Technical University and Dartmouth College (USA). The aim of the study is to demonstrate the effectiveness of performative practices in working with plays for the development of students’ communicative and intercultural competences. The focus of the research is the process of learning Ukrainian as a foreign language and deepening intercultural exchange through tandem learning. The study examines an integrated methodology for working with contemporary drama that combines reading, translation, interpretation, and staged performance. In this approach, Artem Lebediev’s Vertep. Chronicles of War and Maryna Smilianets’s Prayer for Elvis become a platform for intercultural interaction and mutual language enrichment. The research is based on the concepts of performative pedagogy and embodied cognition. The study applies linguocultural, hermeneutic, comparative-typological, and translation analysis. Through pedagogical observation and the action research method, the authors tested a six-stage tandem-learning model aimed at developing connected speech and lowering students’ affective filter (speech anxiety). The study demonstrates that dramatic texts, functioning as a kind of “protective mask” for the character, create a safe environment for empathetic engagement with the difficult realities of war. The practical value of the research lies in the possibility of adapting the proposed algorithm to teaching Ukrainian as a foreign language at different proficiency levels. Prospects for further research include expanding the corpus of dramatic texts and integrating digital tools into performative learning practices.