MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY of EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature

MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO FACULTY OF EDUCATION Department of English Language and Literature

Experiential Learning and its Impact on Students of English

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2016

Supervisor: Author: Ailsa Marion Randall, M.A. Kateřina Špačková

Declaration: Prohlašuji, že jsem závěrečnou bakalářskou práci vypracovala samostatně, s využitím pouze citovaných pramenů, dalších informací a zdrojů v souladu s Disciplinárním řádem pro studenty Pedagogické fakulty Masarykovy univerzity a se zákonem č. 121/2000 Sb., o právu autorském, o právechsouvisejících s právem autorským a o změně některých zákonů (autorský zákon), ve znění pozdějších předpisů.

I hereby declare that I worked on my thesis independently, using only the sources listed in the bibliography. I agree with storing of this work in the library of the Faculty of Education at the Masaryk University Brno and making it accessible for study purposes.

Brno, 20 March 2016 …………………………………. Kateřina Špačková

Acknowledgements: I would like to thank to my supervisor Ailsa Randall for all her kind help and valuable advice which she provided throughout the whole process of my writing.

I would also like to thank all those who participated in the intensive language course in autumn 2013, when I first went to Fryšták, as it was the first time I was introduced to experiential learning. Even more so I wish to give my thanks to those who participated in the course in Fryšták in spring 2015, as they inspired me to write this thesis.

Last but not least, I would like to thank all my classmates and other students of the faculty for their help with my research.

Annotation

This bachelor thesis deals with experiential learning and intensive learning courses in English and its title is “Experiential Learning and its Impact on Students of English”. The aim of this thesis is to focus on experiential learning and courses related to this kind of learning as well as on the consequences and the impact it has on students of combined and daily studies. Furthermore, the thesis is focused on various activities and methods taught in a course in Fryšták as well as similar courses and the increase of students’ usage of these activities in their own teaching. In the theoretical part, experiential learning and intensive learning courses are thoroughly examined and subsequently described with a focus on activities and methods. The practical part is based on the research which was done via questionnaire and interviews with students of English language within Masaryk University in Brno.

Key words: experiential learning, intensive learning courses, Fryšták, activities, teaching and learning methods

Anotace

Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá zážitkovou výukou a intenzivními jazykovými kurzy v anglickém jazyce a její název je „Zážitková výuka a její vliv na studenty anglického jazyka”. Cílem této práce je podrobně popsat a rozebrat experimentální výuku a intenzivní zážitkové kurzy a jejich vliv na studenty. Dále se práce zabývá metodami a aktivitami používanými v rámci kurzu ve Fryštáku a v rámci podobných jazykových kurzů. Zároveň se práce zabývá nárůstem použití těchto metod a aktivit ve výukách studentů, kteří kurz ve Fryštáku absolvovali. V teoretické části jsou zážitková výuka a intenzivní jazykové kurzy důkladně prozkoumány a následně popsány. Praktická část je založena na výzkumu, který byl vykonán na základě kvalitativního dotazníku a rozhovorů se studenty anglického jazyka na Masarykově Univerzitě v Brně.

Klíčová slova: zážitková výuka, intenzivní jazykové kurzy, Fryšták, aktivity, výukové metody

Content

Introduction ...... 8

THEORETICAL PART ...... 10

1 Communicative Approach ...... 11

2 Experiential Learning ...... 13

2.1 Role of Experiential Learning ...... 15

2.2 Foundations of Experiential Learning ...... 15

2.2.1 Kolb’s Learning Cycle ...... 16

2.3 Aspects of Experiential Learning ...... 17

2.3.1 The Learning Environment ...... 17

2.3.2 Learning Activities ...... 17

2.3.3 Reflection and Motivation in Experiential Learning ...... 18

2.3.4 Senses ...... 19

2.3.5 Emotions ...... 19

2.3.6 Intelligence ...... 19

2.3.7 Learning and Change ...... 20

2.3.8 Personalized Learning ...... 20

2.3.9 Creative Teaching and Learning ...... 20

2.3.10 Comfort Zone ...... 21

2.4 Experience and Intelligence ...... 22

2.5 Experiential Learning and LARP ...... 22

3 Experiential Education in our Country ...... 24

3.1 Historical and Political Background ...... 24

3.2 Vacation School Lipnice ...... 25

4 Experiential Courses ...... 26

4.1 Characteristic ...... 26

4.2 Aims ...... 27

4.3 Dramaturgy ...... 28

4.3.1 The Five Stages of Dramaturgy ...... 28

PRACTICAL PART ...... 30

1 Introduction to Research ...... 31

2 Intensive Language Course in Fryšták ...... 33

2.1 Description of the Course ...... 33

2.2 Aims of the Course ...... 33

2.3 Venue ...... 34

2.4 Participants ...... 35

2.5 Topic of the course ...... 35

3 Programme of the Course ...... 37

3.1 Before the Course and an Invitation Letter ...... 37

3.2 Arrival and beginning of the course ...... 37

3.2.1 Press Conference and First Evening ...... 38

3.2.2 Ice-breakers ...... 38

3.2.3 Guardian Angel ...... 39

3.3 Regular Activities ...... 39

3.3.1 Morning Circles ...... 39

3.3.2 Morning and Afternoon Programme ...... 40

3.4 Optional Activities ...... 42

3.4.1 Literature ...... 42

3.4.2 Crafts ...... 43

3.4.3 Art ...... 43

3.4.4 Drama ...... 43

3.5 End of the Course Activities ...... 44

3.5.1 Burning Page ...... 44

3.5.2 Final Evaluation ...... 44

4 Final Evaluation of the Research ...... 46

4.1 Questions ...... 47

Conclusion ...... 57

List of References ...... 59

List of Graphs ...... 60

List of Appendices ...... 61

Introduction

This bachelor thesis deals with experiential learning and with experiential courses in specific and its title is Experiential Learning and its Impact on Students of English. Apart from school courses or summer camps both as a participant and an organizer I also had the opportunity to be involved in the experiential course in Fryšták, where I was twice; first time as a regular participant, second time as an assistant. As I was positively influenced by this course, I decided to incorporate features of experiential learning into my own teaching and later I was even encouraged to write my thesis on this interesting topic.

In the theoretical part of this thesis I focus on the theory behind experiential learning methods and subsequently on the history of second language acquisition that preceded these methods. In the first chapter I briefly present the communicative approach in order to create a bases for the second chapter, which deals with experiential learning, its foundations, rules and all of its aspects. Moreover, this chapter offers a quick overview of the connection of experience and intelligence as well as it presents another part of experiential courses, Live Action Role-Playing also known as LARP. In the third chapter I present experiential education in the Czech Republic, in this part I also introduce examples of associations connected to learning through experience. Furthermore, this part contains the history and development of experiential education here in the Czech Republic. The last chapter of the theoretical part deals with experiential courses, which are described here in details. The main focus is brought on their aims, characteristics and usual dramaturgy.

The practical part, on the other hand, starts with a specific description of the research and it shows its intentions and my personal assumptions. In the second chapter, experiential course in Fryšták is introduced. The focus is on the course’s aims, characteristic and also the venue, which is described as well. Subsequently, this part deals with individual activities and parts of the course’s programme. The division is following. Firstly, there is the arrival part, after the arrival there come regular activities, lastly the final evaluation of the course. Some of the results from the research are also incorporated into this part.

Last chapter of the practical part of the thesis deals with the actual results of the research based on questions done via a questionnaire and personal meetings and interviews. This part contains numbers and concrete statements concerning the course, as my intention was to find out whether the experiential course in Fryšták was beneficial for its’ participants and whether it had an impact on them, regarding their own teaching.

To me, as one of the former participant, the course gave a lot of experience and a motivation towards future teaching. I myself use activities from Fryšták in my lessons very often, therefore I was curious whether the course had similar impact on others, too. To conclude, via this bachelor thesis I would like to bring attention to experiential learning and experiential courses in specific, as I believe that if it is well handled and done properly, it can be very influential not only for teachers and future educators, but also for learners.

THEORETICAL PART

1 Communicative Approach

Communicative Approach is based on communication, which is “an exchange between people, of knowledge, of information, of ideas, of opinions, of feelings” (Revell, 1). There are several purposes of language and communication. “When we communicate, we use the language to accomplish some function, such as arguing, persuading or promising” (Larsen-Freeman, 123). Larsen-Freeman also suggests that, as opposed to other approaches, in Communicative Approach the use of authentic materials and giving the students the opportunity to develop strategies for understanding language, as it is actually used by native speakers, is desirable (132). According to Richard and Rodgers, the origins of Communicative Approach in foreign language teaching lay in changes in linguistics as well as in teaching approaches happening in the 1960s (64):

This was partly a response to the sorts of criticism the prominent American linguist Noam Chomsky had levelled at structural linguist theory on his now classic book Syntactic Structures (1957). Chomsky had demonstrated that the current standard structural theories of language were incapable of accounting for the fundamental characteristic of language – the creativity and uniqueness of individual sentences. (Richards and Rodgers, 64)

Before this change, Situational Language teaching, where “language was taught by practising basic structures in meaningful situation-based activities” (Richards and Rodgers, 64), was common. As the authors Brumfit and Johnson say, linguists as well as British language teachers were focusing themselves on grammar and form rather than on the meaning (2). Eventually, British applied linguists “saw the need to focus the language teaching on communicative proficiency rather than on mere mastery of structures“ (Richards and Rodgers, 64). As opposed to Situational Language teaching, Communicative Approach is based on development of communicative competences, such as “the overall underlying knowledge and ability for language use which the speaker- listener possesses“ (Brumfit and Johnson 15). “Teaching communicative competence means a reassessment of our attitude towards error” (Revell, 7). Later on, there had been

11 attempts to “describe theories of language learning processes that are compatible with the communicative approach” (Richards and Rodgers, 72). According to Littlewood, learners should consider not only the structure of language, but also its communicative functions (17). This way learners are being introduced to real purposes of language, i.e. the communicative ones. Furthermore, Jeremy Harmer emphasizes real purposes on real purposes of languages too, “if students are involved in meaning-focused communicative tasks, then ‘language learning will take care of itself’, and that plentiful exposure to language in use and plenty of opportunities to use it are vitally important for a student’s development of knowledge and skill.” (Harmer 69).

As for usage of communicative functions of language in practise, there are, as Littlewood suggests, many communicative activities possible in the classroom. Littlewood claims that such activities “provide whole-task practice, improve motivation, allow natural learning, and are able to create a context which supports learning” (Plocková, 2012). Furthermore, if the learners had been provided thorough practice in the part-skills, communicative activities can then serve as a tool helping them with using the language in the real world, which is the main aim in foreign language acquisition. According to Littlewood, there are two main types of communicative activities. First one is functional communication and the other is social interaction. Activities based on functional communication are designed for the learners to use “whatever language they have at their disposal” (Littlewood, 20). Thus the aim is not to measure the grammatical accuracy, but rather to measure their ability to process the given task and to cope with it. Social interaction activities, on the other hand, deal with the choice of language and whether it is acceptable in a given situation, this is also known as language appropriateness.

Finally, it is important to mention, that in terms of Communicative Approach, the learners’ role is more significant than the teacher’s one. It is the learners who bear the responsibility of fulfilling the tasks given by the teacher, who in this case, plays a role of a mentor or a guide. As Larsen-Freeman says, the goal of teachers who use the Communicative Approach is to have one’s students become communicatively competent (131). That being stated, Communicative Approach is one of the approaches that focuses on students rather than on teachers.

2 Experiential Learning

According to Honey and Mumford there are two parts in human learning process. People learn via teaching and experience (qtd. in Beard and Wilson, 33). When defining experiential learning, we must first look at its basics, which is experience. Reaching for the Oxford dictionary, experience is being described as “The fact of being consciously the subject of a state or condition viewed subjectively; an event by which one is affected; and, knowledge resulting from actual observation or from what one has undergone.” Nevertheless, the meaning of the word experience is not so straightforward to be described in one and only possible way. Mostly, it is so because each person can experience the same event differently, focus on a different part or even remember different bit of a particular moment whilst forget what other can see as the crucial point. By experiencing, learners gain more than knowledge. Luckmann offers short but comprehensive definition in which he states that “experiential education is a process through which a learner constructs knowledge, skill and value from direct experiences” (qtd. in Martin, Franc and Zounková 11). However, the experiential education process is more complex, according to Martin, it involves “an holictic process which combines experience, perception, cognition and behaviour, and it aims to encompass emotions, imagination and physical being as well as intellect” (12).

Another elements of experiential learning which need to be considered, are theory and practice. As Beard and Wilson explain in their figure picturing the relationship between theory and practice, they are depending on one another, they go in a loop:

If our practical experience does not match our theory of how we think things should be, then we often revise our theories or sometimes revisit the experience in order to see if it can be fitted into our Weltanschauung – our way of seeing the world. (Beard and Wilson, 18)

In addition, there is a theory that experience and learning are closely related. “Learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience” (Kolb, 38). In other words, this theory claims that the terms experience and learning should not be separated, as the mean the same thing. We first experience a certain

13 event; and this event is turned into our new knowledge through the process of learning. To clarify this theory, Kolb suggests that we first experience a certain event, we then process this event and transform it into our newly gained knowledge (38). The whole process is then known as learning. Beard and Wilson even claim that the two are almost inseparable (19). As a consequence, “experiential learning is a tautology or repetition of the same idea” (Beard and Wilson, 19). An advantage of experiential learning might also be the fact that it goes hand in hand with natural life flow, in fact, it does not need to be pushed because experiences come as we proceed with our life and most of the time unnoticed. “It does not require vast amounts of technological hardware and software to support the learning process” (Beard and Wilson, 15).

Experiential learning involves both observing the phenomenon and doing something meaningful with it through an active participation. It thus refers to learning in which learner is directly in touch with the phenomenon being studied, rather than just hearing, reading or thinking about it. (Keeton and Tate, 1978)

In spite of its simplicity, in experiential learning we may sometimes come across some obstacles. Those can, according to Beard and Wilson, be found in form of lack of time, a lack of awareness of other modes of thinking or even in a form of inability to assess and evaluate our prior experiences (15). Despite of this, “experiential learning provides new perspectives for the fundamental process of redesigning foreign language education” (Kohonen, 8). Another author focusing on experiential education was Radek Pelánek, who says that we can influence at least three main sources through education. Those are knowledge, skills and attitudes. These three sources then influence human behaviour (19). Pelánek also emphasizes the fact that as there are many ways of how to explain experiential education, the terminology is not that important. On the other hand, he claims the importance lays in skills gaining, attitudes, learning through experience and expanding one’s comfort zone. “The more energy and effort a person puts into an experience, the more intensive it is and thus the more valuable the experience becomes” (Pelánek, 21).

2.1 Role of Experiential Learning The very basic role of Experiential learning, as Kohonen suggests, is its significant role in learning. Since formal learning and practical work along with informal learning are all integrated in experiential learning, the combination provides a wide range of approaches in education. Most of the various interactive practices included in experiential learning techniques, such as portfolios, role plays, personal stories and journals, visualisation and other imaginative activities, are crucial for the term learning from immediate experience. These activities engage the learners and provide them with sharing of experience (22).

2.2 Foundations of Experiential Learning The origins of experiential learning lay in “John Dewey’s progressive pedagogy, Kurt Lewin’s social psychology, Jean Piaget’s work on developmental cognitive psychology, George Kelly’s cognitive theory of personality, and to humanistic psychology, notably the work of Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers” (Kohonen, 24). When working on developmental psychology, Piaget made a discovery, that regularities in children’s reasoning processes are related to age, and that “intelligence is gradually shaped by experience” (Kohonen, 24). Another one of the founders, Lewis, suggested the basic model of experiential learning which he divided into four parts. “In Lewis’s model, (1) immediate concrete experience is the basis for observation and reflection. It is accompanied by (2) reflective observation that leads to the (3) formation of abstract concepts and further to (4) testing the implications in new situations.” (Kohonen, 24). These parts were later on elaborated by David Kolb (1984). According to Kohonen, Kelly focused on personal experience. He states that everyone views reality differently, through his unique point of view (25). “Reality is thus a subjective interpretation of the events, based on the individual’s past experiences and history of life” (Kohonen, 25).

2.2.1 Kolb’s Learning Cycle

Figure 1 Kolb’s Learning cycle

Source: Mark K. Smith, “David A. Kolb on experiential learning“, Vox Magister, International Facilitators Society, 18 Dec. 2007, Web, 18 March 2010.

Kolb’s learning cycle represents experiential learning, which, as evident in Fig.1, consists of four stages. In fact, “simple everyday experience is not sufficient for learning” (Kohonen, 29). Kohonen also says that the experience must be observed as well as reflected on, new hypothesis must be tested, in order to obtain further experience (29). What Kolb’s learning cycle presents is that to achieve effective learning the learner has to go through four stages. Firstly, the learner has a concrete experience in a particular situation. Secondly, this experience is observed and reflected on. Thirdly, this leads to forming abstract concepts and forming new idea and/or modifying already existing one. Lastly, the cycle is completed with active experimentation and with testing in a new situation, where the learner applies the newly gained experience to the world around him or her, and this last part is also connected with testing hypothesis in future situations. The theory of Kolb’s learning cycle was supported by Martin, Franc and Zounková “just having an experience does not necessarily mean learning will have occurred” and “it is the reflection process that turns the experience into experiential education” (12). Last but not least, it is possible to enter the cycle at any stage and follow the logical order from that stage on.

2.3 Aspects of Experiential Learning There are many aspects which are important for such a kind of learning. Individual elements of it are vital in terms of understanding the whole concept of learning via experience.

2.3.1 The Learning Environment

The environment of learning is an essential part of learning process. When discussing the final experience, the place where we anticipate the transfer of the knowledge may be very influential:

The learning experience will depend in many environmental features. For example, involving the participants in an orienteering or treasure hunt exercise over windswept moorland in winter will produce a very different atmosphere from one that involves people sitting and watching the sun setting from the comfort of a warm beach. (Beard and Wilson, 6)

The learning environment should be as much realistic as possible, it should reflect features of the aim of the lesson.

2.3.2 Learning Activities

The point of learning activities connected to experiential learning is to provide and experience leading to gaining knowledge. However, not every activity needs to be simple and easy. Sometimes an obstacle might be added to make the activity harder to go through and thus even more didactic. “Most, if not all, activities involve obstacles and problems that must be overcome by the participants.” (Beard and Wilson, 6). Activities are a wide mixture of many factors, there is potentially infinite range of experiential activities. “Issues such as sequencing the type of introduction, the degree of reality, and the combination of people, places, materials, rules and restrictions all add to the milieu.” (Beard and Wilson, 107). Moreover, learning activities can be further divided into planned and unplanned, so called emergent activities, where we differentiate between 17 activities to which a dramaturgy preceded and those where the activity was invented on the spot. As Beard and Wilson also suggest, the activities may be real or imaginary, they also require the participants to follow a set of rules or principles (6). Needless to say that to follow a set of rules or principles, it is necessary that teacher motivates the learners.

2.3.3 Reflection and Motivation in Experiential Learning

“Experiential learning is centrally concerned with the role of experience and reflection in learning which is understood as the process of extracting personal meanings from experience through reflection.” (Kohonen, 32). Reflection holds another importance. We should never skip time for reflection on any activity because it is the time when people process the activity, think about it thoroughly and give themselves the necessary time to absorb every idea and meaning behind the activity. Furthermore, if we rush from one activity to another, Pelánek says it can lead to a loss of the significance of the activity. The same happens when learners are exposed to too many games and individual experiences start to blend into the other (24). That being said, it is crucial to reflect critically on the experience. Kohonen says that learning is a potential threat for the learner, who is entering an unknown territory (32). In order to help the learners to overcome this fear of unknown situation, the teacher must come up with an appropriate motivation. To find the right motivation means the teacher and the learner must ask following questions: “Why the learning fails to take place, what kind of factors may impede and block learning” (Kohonen, 32). All of these depend on the learner, his beliefs and expectations. Any low expectation, such as fear, comparison with others, or even negative self-attributions, are bound to cause the learner to fail in the process of learning, make the learner feel helpless and consequently to abandon his or her jobs. Kohonen says that, in some cases, this causes the loss of interest and curiosity for learning (33). If a learner finds the learning motivating “to the extent that is satisfies their needs”, it gives him “feelings of belonging, sharing, power, importance and freedom regarding what to do, and it is also fun. If they feel no belonging to school and no sense of commitment, caring and concern, they lose their interest in learning” (Kohonen, 33). This suggests that the school or any place where the experiential learning takes place need to be aware of the necessity of appropriate motivation in order to succeed in engaging their students. That way the learners will feel safe in taking risks connected to the experience.

2.3.4 Senses

It is inevitable to engage senses whilst performing an activity connected to learning. Furthermore, “the more senses we use in an activity the more memorable the learning experience will become because it increases the neutral connections in our brains and therefore will be more accessible” (Beard and Wilson, 7). It is important to include activities with the focus on various senses, as every learner is different and may learn through different senses. Including senses oriented activities is desirable in experiential learning, as it multiplies the chances to learn.

2.3.5 Emotions

Emotions are not only something natural for people, but they are also important elements in learning as well as in teaching. Teachers use emotions to show better educational performance, students, on the other hand, can use emotions when being taught. They serve for better understanding, “emotional baggage is brought into many learning experience, and emotions continually emerge as the learning experience progresses” (Beard and Wilson, 7). Altogether, emotions are basic tool in experiential learning.

2.3.6 Intelligence

Howard Gardner proposes many types of intelligences in his book Frames of Mind. These are linguistic, logical/mathematical/scientific, visual/spatial, musical, bodily/physical/kinaesthetic, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence. Despite this division, he also suggests that people should care less about ranking each other and devote more time trying to identify their natural competencies and gifts as well as putting an effort into cultivating them. Experiential learning usually focuses on more than one type of intelligence at a time. For instance, musical intelligence practised via signing songs can be supported by adding movements into the performance and thus bodily-kinaesthetic intelligence is also involved.

2.3.7 Learning and Change

The very last aspect of experiential learning is the fact that most of us differ regarding the time and way of learning. “Some of us learn better in the morning, others in the dark hours of the night.” (Beard and Wilson, 8). Moreover, we can affect the final outcome of learning process only by realizing our preferences and thus helping ourselves to become a better learner. That being said, the teacher must be aware of the necessity of change in his or her teaching. The teacher must be prepared to change the style of teaching if needed and thus help the learner. Learners might see the change as a benefit as well. A little change in learning habits may help greatly.

2.3.8 Personalized Learning

Learning is one of the many processes in life that is usually personalized. It is essential that every learner finds their favourite way of learning, a style, which helps him or her to succeed in the attempt to learn. That being said, people rarely share the same preferred approach in learning, they fairly differ. Furthermore, people also tend to have different experiences and knowledge: No one else sees the event in exactly the same way as we do ourselves; no one possesses the same experiences that influence our interaction with the event; and no one else perceives and processes the information in quite the same way. (Beard and Wilson, 21).

2.3.9 Creative Teaching and Learning

Creativity is a big part of experiential learning, as the teachers likewise the learners need to enhance their ability to be creative, inventive and inspired:

Creative teaching is when you appeal to the creative side of pupil’s brains. (…) Creative teaching can take many forms. Pupils may be in or out of their seats, they may be talking or working in silence, they may be working with you, in teams or by themselves. (…) The idea behind creative teaching is to enhance the learning process (…). (Starbuck, 2). 20

Starbuck also states that being creative is a fact, we all have this quality which is said to be a skill than can be learned, rather than it being a gift (9). That being said, we can discover our creativity later in our life and furthermore, we can train ourselves to be more creative. This particular kind of teaching and learning aims to move both teacher’s and learners’ boundaries, in other words to put them out of their comfort zone. As this corresponds with experiential learning, teachers providing their students with learning through experience very often include patterns of creative teaching into their lesson plans, too. To conclude, if a teacher decides to make the lesson an experiential learning lesson, he or she should take into consideration the necessity of creativity. As a reward, creative learning makes learning more enjoyable and it also enables students to perform better work.

2.3.10 Comfort Zone

In Outdoor and Experiential Learning: An Holistic and Creative Approach to Programme Design Martin, Franc and Zounková state that “the comfort zone is safe, known, familiar, secure, comfortable, competent or predictable” (19). Pelánek says it is a place where we feel good and safe (22). To overcome this barrier, we need to extend our comfort zone, break through the edge and move ourselves into a new zone, which can be described as unknown and risky territory. Comfort zones tend to differ depending on a person. They are unique in terms of shape, size and they even change depending on life stage. The learning zone is the part beyond one’s comfort zone, it is the territory where learning takes place if one steps out of their comfort zone and thus overcomes stress and anxiety. As a result, the comfort zone extends via this process. The border of comfort and learning is also called ‚the edge‘. The reason for this is that this is the line which one must step over to extend the comfort zone. Nevertheless, in some cases a learner can step too far beyond this line and it may result in a failure, moreover this can cause narrowing the original comfort zone. The limit of personal abilities differs from person to person. However, reaching our personal limits means using our whole potential.

2.4 Experience and Intelligence The process of learning and going through experiences require numerous things. One of those things is intelligence. There are several types of intelligence, each of which is connected to a specific kind of learners’ knowledge, talent and the ability to learn:

Learning experiences should allow people to reveal, explore and develop their ability: to be word smart (Linguistic intelligence), to be number smart (Logical/mathematical/scientific intelligence), to be spatially smart (Visual/spatial intelligence), to be sound smart (Musical intelligence), to be body smart (Bodily/physical/kinaesthetic intelligence), to be people smart (Interpersonal intelligence), to be self-smart (Intra-personal intelligence), to be emotionally smart (Emotional intelligence), to be nature smart (Naturalistic intelligence), to be innovative and creative (Creatively smart) and to be life smart (Spiritual, moral and existential intelligence). (Beard and Wilson, 219).

Beard and Wilson also suggest that intelligence is connected to so-called cognitive skills, such as the learner’s ability to solve a problem, judgement, analysis, comprehension and so forth (214). To establish one’s abilities we use the term intelligence quotient and in order to test it a person has to undergo a series of tests connected to measuring individual differences in particular abilities. Although the list of intelligences mentioned above is rather wide, the author of the book Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences, Howard Gardner, drives attention to the importance of realizing that “there is not, and there can never be, a single irrefutable and universally accepted list of human intelligences” (64).

2.5 Experiential Learning and LARP If we want to define experiential learning, we must certainly mention role-playing. This term can be described in many ways, Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, however, describes role-playing as ”an exercise in which you pretend to be in a particular situation, especially to help you learn a language or deal with problems”. The concept of

22 pretending to be in a particular situation is a foundation for experiential learning, as we learn from experiencing various situations. Hence, role-playing can serve as an effective tool. To point out to the connection between experiential education and LARP, Falk and Davenport provide an explanation of what LARP, Live Action Role-Playing, is:

A live role-playing game is a dramatic and narrative game form that takes place in a physical environment. It is a story-telling system in which players assume character roles that they portray in person, through action and interaction. The game world is an agreed upon environment located in both space and time, and governed by a set of rules – some of which must be formal and quantifiable. (128)

That being said, LARP and experiential education share the same base behind the idea.

3 Experiential Education in our Country

Experiential learning was also influenced and practices John Amos Comenius, well-known as the Teacher of Nations, who had a great impact on experiential education himself. “Comenius believed in educating the whole person, similar to today’s holistic education concepts. According to Comenius, it is necessary to educate the mind, the tongue, the heart and the hand.” (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 4). Comenius saw a great potential in travelling, he viewed it as a necessary part of one’s education, and he supported it to the same degree as he supported inclusion of games and playing into learning process. In his extensive study, The Great Didactic, Comenius emphasizes the “interconnection of theory and experience, the interrelationship between school subjects and on encouraging self-directed and self-motivated study and problem solving” (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 4).

Apart from Comenius and his activity in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, outdoor and experiential education flourished especially in the nineteenth and twentieth century, when our lands got under the influence of surrounding countries, including England and its water sports. First of all, in 1862 Sokol was established. Couple of years later, in 1888, a club named Turistický klub was founded. All of these establishments, according to Martin, Franc and Zounková, caused the boom of outside activities, mostly connected to sport as such. For instance, travelling by bike or foot, skiing, canoeing and so forth were seen as the headstone. Moreover, all these activities were completed by learning about nature, history, etc. (4). Later on, outdoor education “was adopted by scouting movement in 1920s” (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 4). Scouting movement was inspired by American culture full of adventures such as camping; this along with tramping was popular mostly because of its inclination towards freedom and liberalism. All of the above mentioned institutions inspired what is later called “summer camps, educational courses and experimental schools” (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 5).

3.1 Historical and Political Background According to Martin, Franc and Zounková this development was, however, interrupted by the Nazi occupation and during Second World War. After the war, the Communist Party censored these activities even more during the political normalisation, 24 when “opinions which did not correspond with socialist views were suppressed” (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 5). Although the totalitarian vision differed in terms of liberalism and freedom of movement in nature, it did not discontinue outdoor education completely. According to Outdoor and Experiential Learning: An Holistic and Creative Approach to Programme Design, school curricula were supplemented with sport, ‘school in nature’ programme, summer courses and even winter ski trips (5). Organizations based on outdoor education and experimental learning continued existing even after the Velvet revolution, which changed the face of the whole society as such. This dramatic twist in political sphere led to an attempt to restore Czech traditions which were flourishing before the 1948. However, there are some traditions which were born during the Communist era, for instance, tramping and cycling are a good example of positive activities brought in this era.

3.2 Vacation School Lipnice Vacation school Lipnice is, according to Martin, Franc and Zounková, a non-profit organization founded in 1977, originally established under ‘Socialist Youth Organization’ (6). Not only did it hold 96 courses and 3000 participants during the 12 years of its existence under the Communist Party, but it remained open even after 1989. As stated in Martin, Franc and Zounková, according to Václav Břicháček, the Czech Scout Organization’s Chairman, [VLS] was educationally valuable and acceptable despite it being operated under the Socialist Youth Organization (6). Břicháček stated:

I am sure that at Vacation School Lipnice they created a small university in very difficult circumstanced and in opposition to the Party power. It was a school of versatile and comprehensive education, different from established pedagogical theory and official schools. It was the place where young people, under the guidance of young instructors, gathered to seek the truth primarily about themselves. (qtd. in Martin, Franc and Zounková, 7)

4 Experiential Courses

Experiential courses can be described in a big variety of ways. Some of the descriptions may be very complex, providing a number of details. If we were to give a short explanation of what learners or other people should imagine under this term, we can mention Pelánek, who says that experiential courses mean mainly spending time actively, the learners themselves should be active, they should not be only passive recipients of entertainment (11).

4.1 Characteristic If we want to go in further details of experiential courses, Pelánek’s characteristics can provide us with reasonable amount of information. To call a course an experiential one it should correspond with at least some, if not all, following attributes. First of all, Pelánek says that experiential course is a course with some kind of action which is not interrupted for a given amount of time. Whether it is a couple of hours or a number of days depends on each and every course. Secondly, an important part of a course is experience, an adventure or any unusual activity. These are usually followed by reflecting on them after the whole course. Thirdly, the course is led by instructors who provide the course with activities. Fourthly, these activities are then performed by participants of the course; those create a group of people who then experience prepared activities. The number of participants can vary depending on the range and length of each course. Fifthly, the course needs to be set in a particular environment, preferably a place connected to the aim or theme of the course. Sixthly, activities or a content of the course is thoroughly prepared by instructors. The programme of an experiential course needs to be prepared to lead the participants to reach their goals within the course. Another, seventh, attribute is the variety of activities. Any course should contain some creative activities, motion activities, such as sports etc., educational activities and so forth. Last but certainly not least attribute of experiential course is the atmosphere during the course. This is a very crucial point, a good atmosphere can influence not only the mood of participants as well as instructors, but also the final outcome of the course, whether the participants reached their set goals, fulfilled the aim of the course and even whether they will carry this experience further in their lives as valuable practice (11).

Another book which discusses the crucial meaning of courses’ atmosphere is Outdoor and experiential learning: an holictic and creative approach to programme design by Martin, Franc and Zounková. They argue that the atmosphere is connected to group dynamics between participants of the course:

The instructors, along with the development of trust and the group dynamics among participants, are important factors in the creation of a positive, friendly atmosphere and supportive learning environment that is physically and emotionally safe. The use of a variety of activities aims to challenge participants mentally, physically and emotionally (mind, body and soul). Outdoor activities, creative workshops and structured and non-structured games are effectively linked to produce experiential education activities that result in aspects of personal and interpersonal development. (15)

Even though individual characteristics may appear to be different, books aiming on education via experience tend to share the opinion of basic characteristic, aims and even its valuable position in education.

4.2 Aims The basic aim of experiential courses can be seen in active time spending. More concrete aim is said to be prevention. Experiential courses can radically influence individual learners through their content and through the fact that participants usually spend their time more effectively. For instance, instead of vandalism and being actively involved in criminal acts, people spend time on experiential course and thus they keep themselves from committing crimes. Apart from these facts, experiential courses can be beneficial in other spheres. For example, Pelánek offers a list of many advantages connected to it. Participants make a contact with many people who may even become their friends. They work on skills such as communicative abilities, cooperation, leadership and so on. Participants also improve their physical condition, enhance their creativity and imagination. If nothing else, experiential courses can help people to find

27 themselves, keep them from mundane routines, and they inspire people in many ways (12).

4.3 Dramaturgy Dramaturgy is a special tool helping any course arrange its activities in correct order, and it is a plan into which the authors select individual activities. Martin, Franc and Zounková explain dramaturgy as “the art of theatrical production, the main task of which is to examine the links between the world and the stage” (15). Using dramaturgy may help with the structure of the course and with reaching goals. Moreover, dramaturgy “maximises the final course effects“ (qtd. in Martin, Franc and Zounková, 16). Another crucial aspect of dramaturgy is its flexibility. Not only does it allow change, it even encourages it. Not exceptionally a need for a change in activities or even goals appear. When this happens, the authors are free to alter their previous plans and re-examine what is necessary.

As for the aims of dramaturgy, Martin, Franc and Zounková say that these all regard self-development, rather than fulfilling prescribed course objectives (18). However, dramaturgy does not seek only benefits for the learner, it also helps the instructors in terms of understanding the process of experiential education.

4.3.1 The Five Stages of Dramaturgy

There are five complete stages of dramaturgy of any experiential course. These are, according to Martin, Franc and Zounková, following: development of the main course theme, development of the scenario, the practical dramaturgy which includes game creation and selection, the completion of the scenario and lastly the dramaturgy of the course. Based on this division we can separate the whole dramaturgy into two parts. First part includes the first four stages and it is so called pre-course planning. This part connects both theoretical and practical dramaturgy. It is the part where choosing the theme happens, games and activities are selected and where the scenario is composed. The second part includes only the fifth stage and it is the part which takes place in the actual course. If necessary, the scenario might be changed by the instructors based on the needs of the participants (22).

The first stage is the most abstract part of the course dramaturgy. A main theme and/or sub-themes are established in this stage. It is necessary for the theme to be well set, as other parts of the dramaturgy are based on the main topic. For instance, the theme gives the instructors an idea of environment, content and participants of the whole course. After setting the theme, the scenario must be created. Martin, Franc and Zounková offer two main rules for creating a scenario. These are, first, the scenario will change anyway; and second, the only certainty in life is change (23). That being said, the scenario may be created, however, the instructors will be able to change it during the planning period. “The scenario gets rewritten and changed continuously.“ (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 23). Sometimes the plan may be changed due to weather conditions, another time for missing facilities. Nonetheless, it is important to keep in mind that flexibility and adaptability are very important. The second stage includes the development of the scenario. The third stage is about “the development of the different types of activities and games or the selection of existing activities to fulfil specific dramaturgy needs“ (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 24). This type of development involves a complex and holistic thinking, too. Next stage is the completion of the scenario, where the vital parts, such as logistics and materials should be decided on. As this is the last part of the planning, instructors should check whether everything goes together well, gaps are filled and everyone knows their responsibility. The very last part is the one that happens during the course, includes “observing and reacting to participants’ needs, which requires considerable facilitation skills“ (Martin, Franc and Zounková, 24).

PRACTICAL PART

1 Introduction to Research

In my research I would like to focus on experiential education done via intensive learning courses in Dům Ignáce Stuchlého in Fryšták, organized by the Department of English Language and Literature at the Masaryk University Faculty of Education in Brno. I myself have been to this course twice, first time as a student and a participant in my first semester, the second time as an assistant of the teachers organising this course. Having seen both sides of the course I can give my opinion on the course and experiential learning as such. I can tell its benefits as well as its down sides. Nevertheless, I would like to explore whether this course has similar impact on other participants, my classmates, co- learners of English and future teachers.

To me, this course was beneficial in various ways. First of all, it gave me the opportunity to meet my new classmates in the first term of my studies. In my opinion, there is a great opportunity in the course to build a good team of classmates and to introduce them to their teachers from the faculty. This corresponds well with Pelánek’s view on experiential courses, in which he states that they serve as teambuilding courses, too. Second of all, I defeated my fear of speaking to others in English. Every activity brought some effect, whether it was extending of my comfort zone or learning new teaching methods. With this experience my assumptions were following. Firstly, I assumed that the participants would be affected by the language and thus they will widen their vocabulary and their ability to speak amongst others. Secondly, I believed that all the games included into this experiential course will help them to overcome their fears and help them to step out of their comfort zone. Thirdly, I assumed that they will understand such games and tasks as possible future activities for their own teaching practice. Based on these assumptions, I created a questionnaire comprised of ten questions concerning experiential learning, experiential learning courses and especially focusing on course in Fryšták. Furthermore, the questionnaire asks about one’s teaching practice and whether it shows features of Fryšták course.

Subsequently, I selected a group of my classmates whom I went to Fryšták with and who are already teaching themselves, later on I asked students from combined studies of the same programme to share their opinion as well. I asked them to do the interview with me in order to answers my questions and to share their experience with this course for the

31 purpose of this bachelor thesis. In the following chapters I would like to create a bases for upcoming research outcome. I will describe the course in Fryšták, its concept, aim, participants, games, tasks, etc. The summary of the research, its outcome and validity or invalidity of my assumptions can be found in the conclusion of the practical part.

2 Intensive Language Course in Fryšták

Intensive language course in Fryšták is an event organised twice a year by the Department of English Language and Literature at the Masaryk University Faculty of Education in Brno. A team of teachers and their assistants organize games, tasks and the whole programme for a group of students of English language at the faculty.

2.1 Description of the Course As it is stated above, Fryšták’s course is a traditional event for students of English within the Masaryk University in Brno. Any student of the faculty with a study programme concerning English, whether it is a daily form of studies or a combined form, is obliged to attend this course once during his or her studies. This course takes place twice a year, in spring and in autumn, each time for four to five days. In spring students of combined studies are usually those who come to the course. Autumn course, on the other hand, is reserved for students of daily programme. Just as each term is reserved for a different group of learners, both terms are also organized by a different team of teachers from the faculty. The teachers coming to autumn term of Fryšták course are also free to take their children to the course, and they usually incorporate them into the programme of the course. The programme for the participants is always prepared by a group of organisers, teachers from the faculty. There is always a topic the course is set in, therefore all the activities are then themed as well. This topic is created by the teachers and is done twice. First group which experience new topic is the group of adult students from combined studies. After this course, autumn term repeats this topic for a group of students from daily studies.

2.2 Aims of the Course The course aims to develop or extend various abilities and skills. First of all, there is an only English policy within the whole course, therefore the participants are forced to speak to everyone only in English. This leads to learning new vocabulary and most importantly learning the ability to talk in front of strangers, giving one’s opinion and also understanding various accents. This can be especially beneficial for learners if they are at

33 their first semester. Second of all, the course aims to show the participants, future teachers, alternatives in teaching English. In an attempt to show a wide range of methods of how to teach second language the instructors have to come up with numerous activities, games and plays for the participants, each of the game with different length, aim, focus and level of difficulty. These activities usually repeat each year, only with certain adjustment to the particular theme. Another aim is the topic of the course. For instance, my first encounter with Fryšták was via the topic of Native Americans, tribes such as Cherokee, Haida, Iroqua, etc. This theme was clearly meant to introduce the learners to the history of Native Americans. The second course I participated in was in the theme of hippie culture. Again, this topic was well chosen to present the issue of freedom and liberty in English speaking countries. These themes are very straightforward in terms of history, they provide the participants with thorough background of the particular issue, and thus letting the learner to experience couple of days in a closed company of people experiencing the very same. Nonetheless, those are only the general aims of this course, the aims all courses in Fryšták have in common. Apart from these, there are individual aims which can be found in every course, they are connected to a particular theme or a particular activity. These aims are the basic themes necessary for any experiential learning done via course, such as summer camps, “školy v přírodě” etc. In addition, students who responded to my questions mentioned the same aims in their answers. When I asked them in what ways the course had been beneficial to them, I was told that it was good for their English, it extended their comfort zone and also that it was a good means for teambuilding.

2.3 Venue Fryšták course takes place in Dům Ignáce Stuchlého, which is a big building in Fryšták, a small town next to Zlín. This building is very well situated, too. It is in the very centre of Fryšták which is close to the main square. On the other hand, it is very close to the forest, where some activities take place. Moreover, the whole area of Dům Ignáce Stuchlého is also equipped with a big yard and thus give the participants the opportunity to spend some activities outside. For instance, there is a playground or a place for a bonfire. As for the inside of the building, apart from individual rooms for visitors and a bar in the lobby, it also has a big central hall for bigger gatherings, which is very convenient for such events. Another important rooms also contain equipment worth to

34 mention. These are a music room with a piano, a craft room for creative activities such as drawing, creating costumes and so on, there is also a climbing wall for sportive activities, and there is also a chapel available for the participants. Last but not least, Dům Ignáce Stuchlého has a big dining room for all meals throughout the day.

2.4 Participants The participants of the intensive course in Fryšták are students of English language within the Department of English Language and Literature at the Faculty of Education of Masaryk University, no matter whether they are students of daily or combined studies of English. Students can apply to this course anytime during their six semesters at the faculty, nonetheless, the course is compulsory, therefore it is necessary to attend this course. Regarding this information, in my research I found out that this fact was very problematic, especially for the part of my respondents who attend combined form of studies. They saw this as unnecessary and to them even useless school subject. As for the number of participants, because of the limited number of organisers and their assistants, there is a limit of students as well. Participants are divided into several groups, each of the group is given a leader, one of the instructors. Subsequently, the group is also given an assistant, a former participant of the course. Another special group of participants are children, however, they attend the course only in autumn. Even though their programme is separated from others’, they join the students in case of some activities.

2.5 Topic of the course Every year is specific in terms of the topic of the two terms of the course. Individual topics are inspired by historical events or periods of time within English speaking countries. Moreover, they are well chosen to develop various competences and subsequently they are adjusted to purposes of the course. The courses I have been at followed this pattern, too. My first course, Native Americans and their history showed participants the interesting history of the very beginnings of American nations, introduced various tribes and gave the learners the opportunity to find out more about individual groups via short lessons devoted to history, literature, video making or theatre. My second experience with the experiential course in Fryšták was spring 2015 and it was the theme of Hippie culture in the United States of America. Apart from history and literature

35 lessons, the students had the opportunity to create their own piece of writing, make a video, be part of a night game or learn through music of the hippie times.

3 Programme of the Course

In this section I would like to briefly present the programme of the course in spring 2015, where-in I participated as an assistant. For starters, the general concept of every Fryšták course is the same every year, in other words, there are certain patterns the instructors follow every term. For example, there is an invitation letter the participants receive every year. Nonetheless, the specific programme is created by the group of teachers. The group of teachers meet several weeks before to decide on individual activities, their order, and leaders of every activity. Furthermore, the instructors divide the students into groups and they assign a leader / teacher and an assistant to each group. This concept of organisational meetings can be seen both in Pelánek and in Martin, Franc and Zounková. Purpose of these meetings is to establish basic rules of the course, divide competencies amongst teachers and assistants and most importantly to decide on the specific features of the general topic of the course.

3.1 Before the Course and an Invitation Letter To prepare future participants of the course to its topic and other necessities the teachers prepare a so-called invitation letter, a piece of writing including basic instructions such as the dates, the venue, transport details and cost. The letter also states a list of things the students should bring to the course. Last but not least, the letter gives the participant the name of his or her group, this can be stated via colour, name of the group or any other specific detail. Having this letter in advance gives the participants time to prepare for the course and also it gives the learner an idea of what he or she should expect.

3.2 Arrival and beginning of the course Students are responsible to arrive to Fryšták on time themselves. After their arrival, participants are welcomed by the teachers and assistants in the main corridor, thus they get introduced to the topic very soon, as the teachers are wearing their thematic costumes. As for this, I was informed by my respondents that this was a bit of a shock. Once the students arrived to Fryšták, they were suddenly surrounded by the thematic features such

37 as costumes or decorations. After the first check in, the students are invited to play an introductory game to get to know the place. As Pelánek and Martin claim, it is important to explore new environment. With this game, the participants walk around the building and its surroundings to find individual rooms for future needs.

3.2.1 Press Conference and First Evening

In order to introduce the rules of the course the students are gathered in the big hall where they attend so-called press conference. This is a drama activity which introduces not only the rules, but also all teachers, assistants and other people responsible for the course. Its goal is to make the students leave their regular identity behind and help them to get into their new roles. A common part of this activity is introducing the only English policy. The teachers drive attention to this fact, as one of the main goals of the course is to practise English.

3.2.2 Ice-breakers

The first evening is usually devoted to introducing to one another, coping with the new environment and meeting new people and also to taking first little steps out of participants’ comfort zones. This is done via activities called ice-breakers. Pelánek and Martin say that these activities are crucial if we want the people attending the course to cooperate later on. To quote Ice Breakers, they are “interactive and often fun sessions run before the main proceedings”, in this case before the main programme of the course, and they should “help people get to know each other and buy into the purpose of the event”. Ice-breakers can take forms of various activities and these activities can have various intentions. One of the first ice-breaker is called “Line” or “Chain”. This is a game which can be varied in many ways. In the case of Fryšták variation, the participants are asked to stand on a chair, each person on one chair. The chairs are in a circle and the participants are asked to create an alphabetical line with their names, however, they cannot touch the ground. This forces the participants to cooperate, help each other to overcome the obstacles in form of other people standing in their way. As this activity involves physical contact, it is a very intensive activity which can help to move the overall atmosphere further. In addition, this was an activity which was mentioned the most frequently in my questionnaire. 38

As it was showed in the research, icebreakers is the only kind of activity everyone I asked uses in his or her teaching. Every person I asked told me that they perceived icebreakers as a very useful way of teambuilding, especially if they teach a new class full of people who do not know each other. Furthermore, the respondents use some of the Fryšták’s ice-breakers as a warm-up activity at the very beginning of the lesson.

3.2.3 Guardian Angel

To expand the mutual trust of the participants, there is a great game called Guardian angel. Students are provided with toilet paper roles and lots of coloured papers, newspapers, pencils and so forth. They are told to create a mail box out of these supplies, sign it and put it by the window. The first evening the participants blindly chose a name of another participant. This person then becomes the student’s “protectee” to whom he or she should from that moment on leave short messages, pictures or even gifts such as sweets. In return, every student also has a person who looks after him or her, who leaves messages and gifts, the so-called guardian angel. These are all anonymous and will be revealed at the very end of the course. The purpose of this activity is to create a feeling of belonging, to provide the atmosphere of friendship and safe place.

3.3 Regular Activities There are certain activities that are a part of every term of this intensive language course. One of the reason why these activities are added to the programme repeatedly is that these activities have aims and thus they are educative. When I asked my respondents to tell me what they thought about the course and about how it was prepared, two people answered that they were pleasantly surprised to see the big variety of activities and how detailed they were. They reckoned the instructors spent a lot of time preparing for the course.

3.3.1 Morning Circles

Morning circle is a process repeated every morning, every group within the course meets in their officially assigned gathering room, group members reflect on previous activities, give each other feedback and discuss the purpose, aim and impact of the 39 particular activity. Furthermore, students tend to share their own opinion on individual activities, which can be helpful to the instructors in terms of later evaluation of the course. Another reason why groups meet each morning is to update all members of the group about the day’s programme. This seemed to be a success as far as my respondents’ opinions go, because I was told this was a brilliant way to inform the participants and also a good way to give them space for feedback.

3.3.2 Morning and Afternoon Programme

Every group has different programme each day, groups circulate along the stations with activities. This is a common form of any experiential course, to have a set of activities which the groups are switching. The traditional pattern is then that one group has a programme such as drama class in the morning, whereas other groups have different classes, e.g. musical activities, crafts, etc. In the afternoon this order changes and groups move to another activity.

3.3.2.1 Musical Activities Pelánek lists musical activities as one of the basic ones, therefore we may say that activities involving music or dancing are a crucial part of experiential learning. In Fryšták, music is a big part of the course, it is usually the thing the course starts with, each night there is a lullaby everyone sings in the gathering hall and there is also one lecture dedicated to music. In addition, music is also a part of a bonfire. Songs are naturally well chosen regarding to the theme of the course. Moreover, games are also added to lessons via music and lyrics. Music seems to have the biggest success amongst students, as my respondents informed me. They saw a big potential in music incorporated into their own lessons and so they started adding music related to individual topics, too. For instance, I was told that class of teenagers which is a class of one of the people answering my questionnaire love competing with music. The teacher brings them a song and also printed lyrics cut into individual lines. Then he plays the song and the students divided into two groups, each one with a different set of lines, compete which team is first to finish with no lyrics in their hands. Another personal story was about bringing bongo drum into the lesson to show the students that there are many ways of learning. To conclude music activities, they seem to be very appealing to learners of any age, therefore it is not a

40 surprise that so many activities in Fryšták or any other experiential course are related to music.

3.3.2.2 Video Making Interactive multimedia activities and learning have been a big part of education lately, whether it is through online courses, forums or social sites. To incorporate this trend into experiential course, a video might seem as a good idea. It gives the participants a space to express themselves, share ideas worth spreading and to perform a little bit of drama. These videos, however, need to be connected to the main topic of the course. Whether it is a short movie, a story that says a legend or a myth about the topic, a fairy tale of for example a music video, it always stirs up participants’ imagination and their inventiveness. The concept of video making is affordable and easy to implement into regular lessons and thus make the lesson experiential.

3.3.2.3 Sharing and Caring This activity is very important for the course for various reasons. First of all, it is a very intimate activity which requires the participants to be able to open up. The rules are simple, the teacher offers a list of questions, some more or less personal. Each group stays in one room for a certain period of time, approximately for an hour and half. The best time for such an activity is when it is dark, hence an evening devoted to this activity is the most suitable. The reason for this is that the dark makes the activity more intimate. By sharing the group moves forward to another level of mutual trust, those who are participating in this activity promise each other to keep the secret. Apart from mutual trust amongst participants, this can develop deeper friendships and also trust between students and their teachers, which can lead to better relationships during following years at school. Nevertheless, according to my research there might be some problems that can appear when we decide to use this technique to improve the atmosphere in the group. Some of the respondents told me they felt very uncomfortable about sharing their private thoughts or even secrets. Even though they had the possibility not to answer, they saw this activity as a step too far and even called this as an inappropriate activity.

3.3.2.4 Night Game Night game is one of the best activities instructors can add into a course’s programme. It has features of adventure, real life tasks, overcoming obstacles and also cooperating amongst participants. In Fryšták, individual parts of any night game are connected to the topic. Players are divided into groups with a task to go through every check point, overcome their obstacles such as solve a riddle, write a short poem on the topic of the course, go through a net which is created in the garden, while holding hands and not to touch the string and so forth. As usual, this game is meant to enhance the cooperation between participants, it gives them the opportunity to experience some real life adventure, find both their strong and weak spots and also to strengthen their relationships. This was also an activity of which the former participants had only the fondest memories. People remember the feeling of an adventure, excitement or how enthusiastic everyone was.

I had the opportunity to organise this activity myself when I was an assistant in Fryšták, therefore thanks to this experience I am aware of the fact that it is not easy to organise such a big activity. Not only it is time consuming, but it also requires a wide range of activities so that the students want to participate and will not get bored during the game. It is also necessary to create an activity focusing on each of our senses. Moreover, it also requires many people to help the main organiser with the individual check points.

3.4 Optional Activities To complete the variety of activities offered in Fryšták’s experiential course the instructors added a couple of optional activities. Each of these activities are supervised by a teacher and one or more assistants.

3.4.1 Literature

First of the activities on the list was a literature class, the students were able to get closer to a specific part of literature. In the case of course with the topic of Native Americans, this was a writing of a story describing the creation of the student’s surname. This was connected to the fact that in Indian tribes each name meant a certain thing,

42 whether it was an animal, a personality feature or a place of the person’s origin. On the other hand, in the case of the course about hippies the literature class was focused on writing a powerful speech, inspired by Martin Luther King Jr. and his speech “I have a dream”. Another possibility was creating a Haiku poem. Both of the courses offered a literature activity which broadened participants’ knowledge about literature concerning the era as well as it was engaging and educative.

3.4.2 Crafts

Another option was a craft lesson. This lesson’s purpose is to make the students engage in manual work, get them to create things. For instance, the participants of the course devoted to hippies had the opportunity to tie-dye their t-shirts, make bracelets out of yarn and beads and also make amulets with the peace symbol. As for the course dealing with Indians, students were creating their own dream catchers. These lessons have multiple purposes, it does not only mean creating things, but it also shows the participants pieces of the particular culture.

3.4.3 Art

Art is incorporated into the options in order to present another kind of learning. Students are able to express themselves on paper and with paint. My respondents saw art as one of the basic elements that should be added to any course or lesson as it helps with imagination and provides learners with some time free of mental work.

3.4.4 Drama

Another important part, perhaps the one with the biggest effect of learners in terms of educational impact. Drama is a crucial part of experiential education; role plays can be beneficial for the learner, because it creates an illusion of a real life moment. In the first Fryšták I went to drama was perceived as evening theatre performance in a form of “eveningers” for children. The second term I experienced was an activity called Berger’s Destiny, which was inspired by the musical Hair (1979). Each participant was a part of the play, felt the powerful moments of the movie’s scenes and its ending especially.

Drama usually enhances participants’ emotions, it is not an exception to see both laughter and tears in these sessions.

Regarding the questionnaire’s results, drama is another popular feature copied from this course. Teachers who had the opportunity to be a part of Fryšták claim that they use role playing more often than before the course or that their students enjoy such activities, because they see it as a relaxation and even though, in fact, it is actually a kind of learning. One of the respondents even mentioned that after Fryšták she applied to another course concerning drama in teaching.

3.5 End of the Course Activities As there are activities with specific purpose at the beginning of this experiential course, there are activities for the end of the course as well. Amongst these we can find a special “goodbye notes”, revelation of the guardian angel and so forth. The reason for these activities is obvious, they serve as concluding activities, to summarize all the events and to evaluate the days of the course.

3.5.1 Burning Page

This is a very special activity which can be very emotional to some participants. At the end of the course, usually on the last day, the students are given a blank paper. On this paper all the other members of the particular group can write a short note or a brief feedback. Burning pages usually contain nice words, such as praising the person on his or her English, behaviour, cooperating and so on. There is a nice way to end up the event, mainly because it gives the students a good feeling about themselves and about the days he or she spent in Fryšták. Thus participants leave the place with a nice memory and with a good feeling about the past several days.

3.5.2 Final Evaluation

Another and indispensable part of final stage of the course is final evaluation. Participants are asked to provide the instructors and organisers of the course with honest evaluation, they can write it down and then present it as a group. These comments are

44 very valuable for the instructors in terms of future terms of the course, as changes can be made based upon possible complaints. Apart from participants’ evaluation, which was generally found useful and appreciated amongst the learners, there is final evaluation of the course from the teachers and assistants. This takes form of a discussion done immediately after students’ departure. Instructors reflect on the course, on the possible down sides of it or even on some problems that occurred during the course, and they also reflect on the feedback from students. As it was stated above, this is a vital part, as it can influence following courses.

4 Final Evaluation of the Research

My research was done via a questionnaire consisting of ten questions related to experiential learning and experiential courses. Altogether I asked sixteen people to share their opinion. In order to describe my respondents, I offer diagrams.

Graph 1. Attributes of the respondents

Gender Age Form of study

Men Women <25 >25 Daily Combined

Twelve of my respondents were women, four were men (see Graph 1 - Gender). The age was separated evenly, as half of the people who answered my questions were below twenty-five years, the other half was older than that (see Graph 1 - Age). As for their field of studies, all of them study English. Eight of the people attend daily form of studies. To see whether there are differences between the people from combined form of studies, I asked eight more students who attend combined form and attend school only twice a month (see Graph 1 – Form of study).

In order to gather the necessary information, I created a questionnaire containing ten questions regarding experiential learning, respondents’ attitude and knowledge towards it and more. Altogether I met in person with all sixteen people and asked them to share these information with me during an interview which usually lasted about fifteen minutes. That being said, those respondents were telling me their answers, which I recorded and later on wrote down on my computer. All my respondents are people who not only study English, but also went to Fryšták any time during their studies. Furthermore, they all teach, whether they teach individual lessons or bigger groups at schools. Regarding this information, it was very relevant to my research, as I was interested in whether the respondents who teach themselves use the activities from the experiential course.

4.1 Questions The questions I asked can be found in the appendices of this thesis. Nevertheless, I will mention them throughout this chapter to provide a basis for upcoming evaluation of their answers.

Graph 2.What do you know about experiential learning?

Combined Daily

Nothing

Little

Personal experience

My very first question was asked to find out whether the respondents are familiar with the term experiential learning. The results of a simple question, what do you know about experiential learning, were following (see Chyba! Nenalezen zdroj odkazů. 2). One espondent from the combined studies (here and after as the first group) told me she has personal experience with learning via this method from her teaching in England. She also mentioned that “learning things through doing and experiencing is very important for the young learners especially”. Twelve people mentioned concrete features of experiential learning, such as “knowledge gained via experiential learning should last longer” or “unconventional type of learning”, they claimed it is “fun and the learners love it but it is also time consuming”, they describe it as “learning by experience, by actual living through things”. Some of them mentioned that “frequent usage of games or even drama methods” are connected to it. One person from daily studies (here and after as the second group) told me that though he is familiar with the theory, he is not experienced in it. Other respondent from the second group believes that this is the kind of learning “in which the students do not notice them actually being taught”. Many of these ideas were very similar to the actual theory, for instance one person from mentioned “stepping out of comfort zone” or “engaging different senses and emotions”. When asked this question, I also heard opinions such as that it is “hands-on studying”. Only three people out of sixteen told me

Graph 3.What do you think about experiential learning?

Combined Daily

Negative Positive Neutral

they do not know. Even though there were many concrete features mentioned in the answers and the respondents felt very positive about it, this changed when they were asked to share their honest opinion about experiential learning (see Graph 3). Six respondents, three from each group, answered that it is not very suitable for every day learning, but more for intensive events such as “škola v přírodě”, or Fryšták. Moreover, they thought that it works only when done properly and when it is done only once in a while. For example, they suggested days like “projektové dny”, “courses” and so on. The reason for this is that these people did share the opinion that this is not the way to teach English language, or at least that it should be added to traditional learning, as experiential learning “cannot teach grammar” and that “only experiential learning methods would not be much helpful in terms of studying, methods need to be combined to work out properly”. Despite this opinion, they still see experiential learning as motivating, yet “demanding”, “challenging to prepare” and “time consuming”. In addition, they see experiential learning as a good way of teambuilding. Another seven respondents think that experiential learning is great and they “like it a lot”, as it is “important to enable students to participate actively during the lessons”. Two respondents who answered positively were from the first group, two from the second group. One person even mentioned that she “would be happy to add this method to traditional methods”. According to another respondent, these lessons are “fun”, “adventurous” and “very different from what is usually done at schools”. Moreover, “both students and teacher enjoy it”. Yet, one respondent told me that there is an obstacle, because “the Czech education system does not allow for experiential learning yet” and also that according to her “our education system more or less stops with experiential learning in kindergartens”.

Only three people out of sixteen could not answer this question clearly, as they cannot decide whether they see it as a positive thing or a negative one. All three were from the first group.

Graph 4. Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school? Combined Daily

University Do not remember Never

Third question dealt with the education connected to experiential learning, the respondents were asked “Have you ever been taught about Experiential learning at school?” (see Graph 4). Nine people answered that they had attended methodology classes within the Faculty of Education at Masaryk University. Most of these people, six, belonged to the second group, they also mentioned Fryšták as a concrete experience where they learnt about it. One of these nine added that though she was taught about learning via experience at school, the reality is “completely different out of the university” when she connects the real state with her memories from primary and secondary school. She also mentioned alternative schools as a place where it might work properly. One people of both groups answered that they probably were taught about it, yet they do not remember it. Last group consisting of five people claim that they have never been taught about experiential learning, four from the first group, one from the second group. Not in “any former school”, not about experiential learning “explicitly and the methodology of this approach”. In addition, one person mentioned she would appreciate “knowing a little bit of theory about it”.

My fourth question dealt with the respondents’ experience with experiential English courses (see Graph 5). Twelve people, six out of each group, answered that they had only been participants of the course in Fryšták. Two of the six people from the second group mentioned they were there twice, once as learners and the second time as assistants. One person from both groups informed me that were the course not obligatory, they would not go. One of the two even mentioned that she did not enjoy it at all, as she had a child at home and had to leave her family.

Graph 5. Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Combined Daily

Fryšták Fryšták + other

Another four people had been to Fryšták too, but they also mentioned other courses. These were people from both groups, two from the first group and two from the second group. One person mentioned an intensive course in Germany, where there was “only English policy”, other person went to “Intensive course of Drama techniques at the faculty”, other mentioned “Youth exchange programme with other participants from other countries” and one mentioned Erasmus stay in Sweden.

Graph 6. Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

Combined Daily

No Yes

When asked about experiential learning activities and their usage in their own teaching before Fryšták course, my respondents answered in the following way (see Graph 6). Ten of the sixteen people told me they never used these activities before they returned back from Fryšták. Six were from the first group, four from the second group Other six, two from the first group and four from the other group, answered that they sometimes used similar activities, but only very little of it. Roleplaying and songs were mentioned most often, also “energizers” and icebreakers. Other than that, the results of this question is rather negative, it seems my respondents never used identical activities in their lessons.

Graph 7. Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Combined Daily

No Tried Yes

Sixth question’s intention was to find out whether the respondents use activities from the course in Fryšták, since they all participated in the course (see Graph 7). Five people answered that they have never tried to add activities from Fryšták into their own lessons. Three people belonged to the first group, two to the second group. Four people, one 51 person from the first group and three from the second group, informed me that they have at least tried, yet they also added that “there’s normally not much time” to do time consuming activities, therefore one respondent uses only introductory activities. Another person from the first group mentioned that she was adding most activities right after her return from the course and that her lessons “were so different, full of activities from Fryšták”. However, as the time passes, she is getting back to her old habits. Four people from the first group and three people from the second group were inspired by Fryšták course and started using these activities often. “Speaking activities, songs, crafts” or “drama, art”. Also roleplaying activities were popular, as well were icebreakers. During one interview I was told that one person from the second group uses many of the activities. First of all, he included final feedback activity to the end of any course. “I asked people to write some nice things about their classmates and about me, it was the burning page activity I took from Fryšták”. On the other hand, the same person mentioned that he adjusted some of the activities, for example, he does icebreakers, but he connects them with the content of the lesson. In other words, he “rarely does solid icebreakers”, but he includes them to normal activities.

Graph 6. Was the course beneficial for you?

Combined Daily

Yes No

In addition, I asked the people to share whether the course was beneficial to them (see Graph 8). Only one person out of sixteen answered that the course did not benefit her at all, on the contrary, it was a waste of time which she does not have plenty of. This person belonged to the first group. The rest, fifteen people, answered positively. The reasons were various, some mentioned it helped them to “explore other methods”, said that the course was “interesting, helpful and full of new ideas”, also “inspiring”. For some people, the course was beneficial as it helped them with improvising. One respondent,

52 who also became an assistant mentioned meeting new people, also teambuilding was mentioned by many. People also seemed to appreciate the amount of activities, for instance, “what I liked the most was that we really had to work hard. All the time, we were engaged in so many activities that we did not have the time to get bored”. Another benefit seemed to be “stepping out of comfort zone”, which was necessary as the people had to spend a lot of time in groups, so it “required a lot of enthusiasm and self- motivation”. Though “it was exhausting”, people enjoyed it. Furthermore, my respondents mentioned meeting the teachers and getting to know them better as one of the benefits.

Graph 7. What kind of activities do you remember from the course in Fryšták?

Burning page Masks

Music Video

Drama Roleplays

Sharing&caring Movies

Dances Night game

Chairs Forest wisdom

Morning circle Jumping

Poems Art

Guardian angel

As for the next question, which was “What kind of activities do you remember from the course?”, there were many activities my respondents remembered (see Graph 9). The most frequently mentioned ones were definitely musical activities. Second most frequently mentioned was night time sharing & caring, which is a very emotional activity based on sharing one’s secrets. Also creating masks and other items seems to be remembered, and so is video making and then morning circle, night game, icebreakers on chairs, forest wisdom game, eveningers for children, painting, guardian angel, jumping, poems and also burning page, dances and watching movies. The frequency of these can be seen in the diagram.

Graph 8. Which activities you usually use in your lessons (regardless the course)? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Combined Daily

Book Games Individual Conversation

To compare activities from Fryšták to these that are considered to be traditional and common in regular lessons, I also asked my respondents to share their regular activities used in their lessons and consequently what seems effective and favourite amongst their students (see Graph 10). The range of various activities here was enormous. Three respondents prefer work with a book or worksheets, two were from the first group, one from the second group. Six people, two from the first group and four from the second group, are fond of communicative approach and for this reason they do mostly speaking activities, “something in which the students can express their own attitudes and opinions”, where they also “can create their own sentences, speak or write about themselves instead of simple translations”. Nevertheless, even these people mentioned work with a book if the client requires it. Interestingly enough, one respondent from the second group provided me with a list of games she uses but she did not mention work with a book at all. The last group, four respondents from the first group and two from the second group, answered with a mixture of approaches. The outcome was usually that they adjust each lesson to a particular student, “as long as the students are engaged in the lesson, it works and brings results”. One respondent pointed out that she creates lesson plans according to the age of her students. She said that “Children love to be active, so anything that requires walking, seeking something, also competitions are very popular. Adult students, on the other hand, seem to be more conservative and prefer working with a book”.

Graph 9. What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities?

Combined Daily

Positive

Not specified

No experience

Some

My very last question was whether learners like experiential learning activities and what do they think about it, provided that my respondents use these activities (see Graph 11). Two respondents, one of each group, have never tried the above mentioned activities, therefore they could not share their students’ opinion. Two other respondents from the first group answered that “students usually do not care about the names of processes, they only want to see results and have to be entertained during the lesson”, therefore it is hard to tell whether they like specifically experiential learning. Another two people, one of each group, answered that they would have to divide their students into two groups, in order to give me clear answer. The reason for this is that young learners usually love games and other experiential learning features, but adults, on the other hand, tend to be shy and unwilling to participate in such activities. The rest of my respondents, four from the first group and six from the second group, answered that for the most part, students enjoy experiential learning activities very much and that they are always a great success. “Students are excited that they do not have to open their books in such lesson” and also that “they appreciate certain playfulness because it is different from what they are used to”.

To conclude, I would like to draw attention to my original assumptions I mentioned previously and connect them to the results of the research. First of all, I assumed the course in Fryšták was helpful in terms of participants’ language. This hypothesis was in fact proven correct, as the majority of people mentioned vocabulary, fluency and language as such as one of the benefits taken from the course. My second assumption was that the intensive language course in Fryšták also helped the students to get to know their

55 classmates and teachers and thus that the course also served as a teambuilding event. According to the research, this is also true, at least from the bigger part. My respondents consider Fryšták as a nice opportunity to meet people, they even suggested that the course “should be compulsory in the first year of a bachelor programme, not in any of the semesters”, so that the people would meet earlier and thus get to know each other sooner. Regarding this assumption, there is a difference between students from combined studies and daily studies. As the research shows, the first group is more reserved and unwilling to participate in the activities and the course as such. The second group, on the other hand, seems to be more open towards experiential education. Nevertheless, the research shows that even participants from the first group benefit from the course, as the answers included positive features and comments.

Last but not least, I wanted to know whether my respondents understood the course as an opportunity to get inspired and learn new method or even new activities within the method. This assumption was also partially correct, for the majority of my respondents answered that they now use some of the activities introduced in Fryšták. “I have all the activities filed and saved for the future references” was a response from one of the students from the combined form of the studies. Moreover, fifteen people out of sixteen claim the course was beneficial for them for many reasons, mainly for those connected to inspiration with activities and also those connected to learning skills. To sum it up, I would say the research proved most of my assumptions, mainly those connected to the positive impact on students who teach themselves.

Conclusion

This bachelor thesis dealt with experiential education, experiential learning activities and furthermore with experiential course, mostly with intensive experiential English language course in Fryšták. The bachelor thesis was divided into two parts, into theoretical part providing general background for the second part, which deals with research done one experiential learning and the impact it have on students of English.

The first part, the theory, is divided into four chapters. First chapter deals with communicative approach, as it is the basic feature in any language course. The theory of this approach corresponds with the essential need of language courses to practise purposeful and meaningful speaking. The second chapter focuses on experiential learning, the roles, foundations and individual aspects. Third chapter looks closely to experiential education in our country, which is highly relevant to the practical part, as it deals with the actual course. The last chapter of the theoretical part deals with experiential courses, which is again the theoretical base for practical part.

The practical part starts with an introduction to my research done via questionnaire and interviews with former participants of intensive language course in Fryšták, who are now either proper teachers or they are beginning their teaching career. Another chapter in this section is a chapter where the course in Fryšták is described, including the venue, participants and organisers. Subsequently, aims and individual games and activities are included in the third chapter, which deals with the overall programme of the course. In order to prove my assumptions either correct or false, last chapter of the practical part deals with the evaluation of the research.

As for the results, my assumptions were partially correct. The sixteen respondents answered in a way which corresponded with my own ideas and views on the course. The vast majority recall many activities used in the course, which they also added into their teaching. Furthermore, they see the course as a beneficial event which helped them to overcome their fears, step out of their comfort zone, to introduce them to experiential learning method and its features. Moreover, the course helped the people to get to know their classmates more and also to meet their teachers. Overall, with some minor exceptions, the course was a success and so was the outcome of this research. To be more specific, the results of the research showed that intensive language courses are useful in

57 terms of language, teambuilding and personal development. In addition, experiential learning seems to be effective even if it is added to regular lessons on every day basis, which is a positive result. As for the preparation of the participants to their future teaching, the course seems to have a big impact, students claim they filed many notes and activities for future references.

To conclude, experiential courses have a great potential. Students enjoy such lessons and teachers perceive this method as an interesting one to follow, too.

List of References

Beard, Wilson C. Experiential Learning. London and Philadelphia: Kogan Page, 2007. Print. Brumfit, Christopher J. and Keith Johnson, eds. The Communicative Approach to Language Teaching. 1979. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1983. Print. Falk, J., Davenport, G. „Live Role-Playing Games: Implications for Pervasive Gaming. [electronic version]. 2004 from http://mf.media.mit.edu/pubs/conference/RolePlayingImp.pdf

Harmer, Jeremy. How to Teach English. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2007. Print.

Kohonen, Viljo, et al. Experiential Learning in Foreign Language Education. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited, 2001. Print.

Kolb, David A. Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and Development. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1984. Print. Larsen-Freeman, Diane. Techniques and principles in language teaching. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986. Print. Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. Pearson ELT. Web. 8 April 2013 from http://www.ldoceonline.com/dictionary/

Littlewood, William. Communicative Language Teaching. 1981. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1994. Print. Martin, Andy, Dan Franc, and Daniela Zounková. Outdoor and experiential learning: an holistic and creative approach to programme design. London: Gower, 2004. Print. Pelánek, Radek. Příručka instruktora zážitkových akcí. Praha: Portál, 2008. Print. Revell, Jane. Teaching Techniques for Communicative English. London: MacMillan Press, 1979. Print. Richards, Jack C., and Theodore S. Rodgers. Approaches and Methods in Language Teaching. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2005. Print.

Starbuck, David. Creative Teaching Getting It Right. Bodmin: MPG Books Ltd, 2006. Print.

List of Graphs

Graph 1. Attributes of the respondents ...... 46 Graph 2.What do you know about experiential learning? ...... 47 Graph 3.What do you think about experiential learning? ...... 48 Graph 4. Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?...... 49 Graph 5. Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one? ...... 50 Graph 6. Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták? ...... 51 Graph 7. Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták? ...... 51 Graph 8. Was the course beneficial for you? ...... 52 Graph 9. What kind of activities do you remember from the course in Fryšták? ...... 53 Graph 10. Which activities you usually use in your lessons (regardless the course)? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students? ...... 54 Graph 11. What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? 55

List of Appendices

Questionnaire – the list of questions

1) What do you know about experiential learning? 2) What do you think about experiential learning? 3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school? 4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one? 5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták? 6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták? 7) Was the course beneficial for you? 8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course? 9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students? 10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

Questionnaire n.1

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

I have personal experience with it as a learner, I have taken some courses during my Erasmus stay in Sweden which were based on experiential learning.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I like it a lot, I think it is important to enable learners to participate actively during the lessons. What is only said by a teacher is easily forgotten but what one can try or touch may stimulate children emotionally, therefore it is remembered naturally.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

I have never been taught about it explicitly (e.g. the methodology of this approach), however, I have participated in Fryšták course and when I look back on it, I now am able to classify it as an experiential course.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Yes, in Sweden (Erasmus), I enrolled in a course concerning Swedish culture during which we participated in two one-week experiential courses. Winter one in the mountains and a summer one in a national park by the sea. We learned about the area, weather, history, local people, their relationship to nature, etc. And then of course in Fryšták.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

No, I do not.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

No, I don’t think it is possible to do such activities in this kind of traditional environment which is in our state schools nowadays. I was not allowed to do such activities during my teaching practice. And I also did not try such activities with the students whom I teach individually as many of these activities are based on learner- learner cooperation so it does not really make sense.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Yes, I liked it a lot. It was great to get to know other students and teachers this way. It was very personal and intensive experience. I think it should be compulsory in the first year of a bachelor programme, not in any of the semesters. I even wanted to participate for the second time now in my master studies because I am sure I would experience it from a different perspective (from a perspective of a teacher, not a learner) but unfortunately it was not possible to enrol for the second time. I would appreciate such intensive course during master studies as well, as it enables you to experience something which cannot be achieved during weekly ninety minutes sessions.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Singing and writing songs with Mr.Suchý, jumping a skipping rope while reciting poems/rhymes with Mr.Collier, painting a picture with Mrs.Buchtová, very personal and emotional session with Ms.Malášková when we shared our dreams and ambitions, and I also enjoyed morning sessions of “practical language” with Rita (a native- speaker tutor). It affected me as a learner, I was in Fryšták in the first year of my studies when I did not know much about teaching, so it influenced me as a language learner and also on a personal level, it was like a summer camp for adults and I liked that.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

It is impossible to name them all, I employ a wide range of activities, they are usually based on the learning style, preferences and needs of a particular learner. But generally speaking, I like communicative approach (natural information gap, emphasis on fluency rather than accuracy, I avoid using textbooks). Favourite are activities based on competitiveness, games, stories with elements of mystery, tasks where they can choose from more options according to their preferences, topics which are relatable to them (they can talk about themselves, their hobbies, family, friends, or something they are interested in), learning something which they are intrinsically motivated for (e.g. they are aware they will need it in the future).

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

I do not think they know what it is. Generally, students have very poor knowledge of methodology – they do not know various approaches towards learning English, strategies they can use, they do not know their learning style, or how to guide their own learning.

Questionnaire n.2

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

Almost nothing, unfortunately.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I cannot really decide whether it is good or bad. It cannot be only beneficial or only useless, I think that probably it is a way how to find more effective attitude among learners.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

No, never. Which is a shame.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

I went to Fryšták, but I was one of those who did not enjoy it so much, as I have a child at home, a job in which I had to take days off and so on.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

No, never, I always followed the traditional teaching methods. When I teach and I always create lessons to fit the demands of the client (student). I teach adults only so each student is able to define their motivation, needs, goals, and their favourite ways.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Not many, perhaps only some activities for speaking, such as roleplaying.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

In a way, yes. I like to explore other methods, I do not always use them later on, though.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Roleplays, musical activities, night game

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students? 65

I always try to create the lesson plan according to the students level of knowledge, their goals within the year (or period I will teach them) and use all accessible sources on the internet, usually for listening and reading (mostly). They enjoy me showing them the possibilities, and when let them choose the topics on their own. To make student a part of the decision process in lesson plan creation.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

Students usually do not care about the names of processes. They want to see the results and have to be entertained during the lessons. They have to look forward the next lesson. To make them part of the process they feel steps in their improvement. That is what the student pays for!

Questionnaire n.3

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

I can think of improvising, something new, where a person shares his inner thoughts and feelings.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I think that every person is different and thus I cannot say that only experiential learning is good. But certainly it is good to add this into lessons.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Maybe in one of my methodology lessons?

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Only Fryšták, which was a little bit of a shock. The first day we were shocked, we did not like it. Later on, we loved it!

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

Not before Fryšták, no.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

After I got back from Fryšták, I was so full of enthusiasm. Couple of weeks after Fryšták my lessons were so different, full of activities form Fryšták. It has been almost a year since I went to the course and I can already see my lessons going back into the old habits. Traditional ways of teaching. Perhaps if we were taught this way ourselves at school, I would be used to it and use it too. I would be happy to have the course each 6 months to keep myself in it.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

It helped me with improvising, for certain. Before that I could not imagine a lesson which is not prepared beforehand. After the course I realized that sometimes it can be better to share immediate emotions. The lesson can be a whole lot different based on emotions which thrive from the activity.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Drama, music, night game and making t-shirts

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Traditional work with textbooks, some roleplays and so on. Students prefer fun activities, songs and storytelling. At the beginning of a school year, I have always done lessons full of icebreakers and “get-to-know-each-others” activities.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

Young students are excited to see these activities. Older students, though, look scared when I bring a new activity into my class.

Questionnaire n.4

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

It is a learning via experience, so not sitting in the classroom, looking in the textbook while listening to the teacher, it means rather doing things, e.g. a group of students of English language get a task and while working on it they are practising listening and speaking skill, learning vocabulary and expressions that apply to the specific task and also practising their interpersonal skills. It also means e.g. learning to cook while actually cooking, rather than just listening about it from the teacher and taking notes. Basically „HANDS-ON“ studying.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I think it is much better to actually try out what you are learning, see it, touch itrather than to sit by the desk, listen to the teacher and try to memorize information. Unfortunately I think the Czech education system does not allow for experiential learning yet. Even though we did study at the faculty about different types of learners and for many students the experiential way would be much more beneficial, our education system more or less stops with it at the kindergarten. Apart from some lessons at the lower secondary school like cooking, gardening and „dílny“ which are wonderful subjects, but students that go to the 8year Grammar school miss out on these (as I did).

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

No, not really. At the Uni I attended Drama lessons that could be classified as experiential learning, so I did try it, but I did not have any theory about experiential learning, as to how to use it in the lessons, how to manage it with the Czech RVP and the time within the lessons etc. I think the main problem is the TIME. It is time consuming, so the whole education system would have to change first for the teachers to be able to use the experiential learning. I would like to have a little bit of theory about it, and I want this learning to be used in the Czech education system!

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Yes, at the Intensive course in Fryšták in the first semester of Uni.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

No I did not. I was not teaching before I went to Fryšták.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

I do teach, but mostly I teach beginners or one-to-one lessons so I have not yet been able to try any of the suggestions from Fryšták, but what I do, I use real life objects. Pictures are great but real life objects are even better. So I usually take many toys to the lessons (I cannot take a car with me, but I can take a toy car)

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Yes. It showed me some activities I could do with students in the class or outside it, while still teaching them English. Yet I also learnt what to use in Dida lessons and the Drama lessons, so not just in Fryšták.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Making a video. I liked it because the group had to come up with a story, make/play it, record it (for this we were shown how to use the camera, some of us for the first time), we could then include subtitles or sounds/music, which again was very new to me. (I have forgotten by now, since I have not used it since, but I think it was a great was how to teach something any teacher can use even for school trips or so). Also the Bedtime story was a wonderful task. Our team was given a task to perform a bedtime story for children. Again we had to learn to work together (a skill that is a lot overlooked in the process of learning and yet everybody needs it for the rest of their lives in most work places). We made up the story, we learn to play it, we did the costumes and then we played it. (btw we were never given the video which is the only thing I regret from Fryšták ) Here again we could learn vocabulary and expression from each other or from the dictionaries if we really wanted to include something and we did not know it in English. Definitely better than to memorise 10 words each day.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Games! I love any type of games and I believe that when the students enjoy themselves they learn easier a “nenásilnou formou”. My beginners in Kindergarden love the game

Molecules ( a game I learnt in Dida lessons, and they are learning to count both in Czech and English, as the little ones do not really count yet. Even Simon says is a great game for beginners, they are playing while learning commands, which again is enhancing their vocabulary. With one of the younger student that I teach one-to-one we play pexeso, but she has to tell the word in English or Czech before turning the second card. If she gets it wrong she is not allowed to turn the card. It helped her a lot with vocabulary learning. These are just examples. I would also love to use videos and story reading but I have not yet found a suitable material for my students.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

My students love games, which is the reason I use them. But as a student I like also watching serials. I never believed how it would make me to guess the spelling of words and check in dictionary if I got the meaning from the context, but yes it does make me do it

Questionnaire n.5

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

I know little about experiential learning. What I do know is from using it in my previous work – I worked in pre-schools and nurseries in England and learning things through doing and experiencing is very important for the young learners especially.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

It is important and fun for any learners and there should be more of it in our schools.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Never, not really.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták only.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

Yes, but only into certain extend. Never as it was done in Fryšták.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

I have used some games. Question time is brilliant when getting to know a new classroom or 2 min speech on a certain topic and so on.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

It was. It was very interesting, helpful, full of new ideas and mainly fun. I enjoyed my experience at Fryšták very much. I would like there to be more similar things for the students in our schools, unfortunately there is no space for it in our teaching plans.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

I have them all filed and saved for the future references.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

I teach mainly conversational classes, so it would be anything with talking and expressing feelings and thoughts. Favourite stuff are anything but work with a book or work sheet.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

They enjoy experiential learning activities more once they get used to it.

Questionnaire n.6

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

I am aware of the main principles, however I would not be able to provide much theory from the top of my head. It is about stepping out of a comfort zone, experiencing the language and engaging different senses, emotions of all kinds included.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

It works well with learners because it is fun, it is an adventure, it is different from what they usually do/did at schools. Actually, both student and teacher enjoy it, I would say. However, the teacher has slightly more work preparing the lessons. But it pays off. Also, I believe that by experiencing the language, people remember more and are likely to use the language more than if they were reading a textbook.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Yes I have. In didactics/methodology lessons and in a course dedicated to experiential learning specifically.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Yes I have, Fryšták. Twice. As a learner and as an assistant.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

No, but I had not used many other teaching techniques that I do now before I started teaching.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

I have tried to incorporate experiential learning activities into ma lessons. Unfortunately, there´s normally not much time to do something as big as I described above but I do some other things that I experienced in Fryšták (e.g. the activities connected to music)

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

It was very inspiring to see that English can be learnt in a fun way

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Activities connected to music (work with lyrics, placing it in correct order or catching words from a certain song), lots of running around and mingling activities, having a chance to talk to people, having sticky papers on our forehead and guessing who we are, big “night” game when we had to do certain tasks, emotional activities of a “yes-no Qs” kind.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

I have been teaching in a language school about a year and a half. I think it affects my teaching mostly in a way that I try to arrange as many activities as possible in a fun and useful way. The other day, I was supposed to have a lesson on a healthy lifestyle and to cover an article from F2F intermediate about somebody who did a juice cleanse. Because this is an issue I feel strongly about and I do juice a lot as well, I considered preparing different kinds of juices and bringing it in for the students to try it out themselves. Unfortunately, somebody else got that page to cover so eventually I did not do it. But I´m sure the students would have remembered this lesson for a long time if I had done it. And the point of me saying this is that I think that if I had not known about experiential learning, I would not have thought about doing this sort of activity, perhaps because I would not be sure whether it is appropriate. To sum up, yes, I was affected.

I am fond of communicative approach so I try to make my students talk as much as possible and I try to make it as real as possible so that they see the usefulness of what we are doing. I make students get up and mingle and talk to people and I also like to implement little games which are not only fun but students also benefit from these. As for the effectiveness, personalised speaking practice, when they can speak about themselves, and the games, because they are not used to playing games at school, are the most effective and favourite. Also, I like board races (these are applicable to everything), it makes even the non-competitive ones want to win. Students are excited that they do not have to open their books in such lessons.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

Students are excited that they do not have to open their books in such lessons. As I said above, they appreciate certain playfulness because it is different from what they are used to.

Questionnaire n.7

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

Well, I guess it is a lot about experimenting with various methods. Also it is this kind where students do not sit behind their desks all the time.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I think it is a kind of learning which you cannot use in every single lesson, on the other hand, it should be added to lessons once in a while, to make them more interesting.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Not so much at my former schools, I went to a grammar school and it was all about drilling and hard studies that about enjoying and experimenting with various experiences. There was so much pressure on the pupils, from the teachers, parents and so on. In a consequence, the children were so competitive that they refused any sorts of funny lessons other than obligatory lectures about drugs prevention etc. On the other hand, I believe that nowadays this trend changes into more fun lessons, students are supposed to enjoy the learning as well as to learn something. For instance, extensive reading, journals, portfolio and so on.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták only, then one summer courses, but it was very poorly organized so I do not remember much.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your learning before the course in Fryšák?

Not really, I usually sticked with the book which was assigned to the class according to the syllabus.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

I used this activity once, at primary school, where my pupils were told to create a magazine. I was surprised, though, that the lesson was so time consuming. When I was creating my lesson plan for the lesson, it was set for 30 minutes only. In reality, however,

77 it took nearly two hours! The children spent so much time on cutting out individual pictures from newspaper and also they spoke Czech all the time, which was not what I wanted. Nevertheless, they finished the work and in the end there was a nice final product. This is why I believe that the purpose of experiential learning is not in straightforward language learning but in other things.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Truth to be told, I was not very happy about the obligation to go on the course. I already had a job so I had to take few days off and because of these reasons I did not like the idea. Also I am not really this type of person who enjoys spending the whole day with a large group, doing various activities which are sometimes very childish. Although there were many people who loved this concept of having fun activities all the time. Usually they became assistants. Nevertheless, I should tell that I used some of these activities, even though I personally didn’t enjoy it myself back then. For example “on the spot speech”. One teacher in Fryšták told us to give a speech without a preparation, for instance on selling a vacuum cleaner. So this is what I use in my lessons and the students enjoy it, most of the time. Overall, the course gave me a lot of inspiration.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Video or perhaps theatre performance for children

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

I prefer conversation, having various types of exercises which provoke conversation. And form books, I like New English File, as there are many useful exercises. My secret activity is activity in which I tell the students to work in a group and discuss what they would bring to a deserted island. They need to cooperate and usually they are excited to speak about this, rather than about a reading about rainforests and similar articles from text books.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

They seem to be happy that it is funny, but other than that I am not sure.

Questionnaire n.8

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

I do not know much about it, but I can imagine it has a lot to do with the course we all had been in Fryšták. Also I suppose it is this special kind of learning in which students do not notice them actually being taught.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I think it should be added from once in a while, yet not all the time. Also I believe that it should be done via an intensive course for a certain period of time, or only added to regular lessons. Because it the students had this experiential activities in their lessons all the time, they would be bored. The language is not taught only via people being surrounded by the language, but also via studying, and it is, I think, what experiential learning is. In other words, only experiential learning methods would not be much helpful in terms of studying, methods need to be combined to work out properly. Especially when you attend language course once in a week, for example in language schools, the students would not appreciate only experiential learning activities, they would complain that it is only playing around and not proper studying. On the other hand, this can be very efficient for teambuilding and for this purposes it can be useful

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

I think that the most I have ever learnt about this teaching was in methodology classes here at the university. How it should look like, that it should be fun etc. Nonetheless, it is completely different out of the university, from what I remember from my primary and secondary school, the closest we got to experiential learning was experimenting with magazines (when we created them ourselves). But I think that it would help it the students were used to these lessons from the very first grade. If the schools incorporated experiential learning to the syllabi from the beginning, the pupils would be used to it and would react better. Maybe it is a different case with alternative schools.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták and also a ten days intensive course in Germany where it was five of us from the Czech republic, also students from Spain, Germany and so on. We were all mixed up in

79 the groups, there was only English policy and we were not only sightseeing, but also doing activities such as cooking, learning some things and so on. It was focused on cooperation a lot. This was in ninth grade, from what I remember. Even the journey was adventurous, we had an old truck we all sat in…it was dangerous a little bit. And then of course summer courses where we did similar activities, only not in English.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

Only very few, for example I knew and I sometimes used sorting activities or energizers, but not very often. From some summer camps or from “škola v přírodě” I know this activity called “chleba-máslo”, where the children stand up on a bench and boys are chleba and girls are máslo and you should stand one by one, always in the order chleba- máslo but also in alphabetical order. Plus you cannot touch the ground. Also building pyramids which builds mutual trust, as the people below you must hold you. Or standing in a circle and you let the people around you to catch you when you fall on purpose. I use there at the beginning of a school year.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Certainly anything connected to drama, usually roleplays. And icebreakers as well, I use these often, most of the time with new groups I teach.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Before I went to Fryšták, I was afraid. But it seemed to me that this is the best opportunity to overcome my fears and step out of my comfort zone. Being with the people 24/7 required a lot of enthusiasm and self-motivation. It was exhausting, each day was full of activities. In the end, when we had the choice with optional activities, I did not have to choose any, but I did, I was so motivated to do things. I did not necessarily have to be together with my room mates, as they were not so enthusiastic, but there were others who were happy to be there so I got to choose with whom I spend the time. So I choose those people. As for stepping out of my comfort zone, I remember how I was chosen to act a priest in the chapel in Fryšták. Me? A priest? Speaking in front of others? Well, I had to do something at least, so I just spoke. Also I loved the activity when we shared our secrets, I think it was a good way of bonding. However, some people told me it was too personal.

My friend told me she hated it and that it would be better if this activity came later on, when people know each other more.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Masks that we made, dancing

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Conversation, something in which the students can express their own attitudes and opinions.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

Even though I use very little of it, they like it.

Questionnaire n.9

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

Not much actually, but I assume it is an unconventional type of learning (or teaching). Something that is more interesting and more ‘fun’ for learners. Other than that, nothing.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I think experiential learning might be quite challenging to prepare. The lesson must be well organized and full of activities which might be very demanding for the teacher. It is better to do it as a course than separate lessons.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

I might have. The term sounds a little familiar to me but I confess I do not remember any details.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

I have been in Fryšták during my studies at the Uni. Were it not obligatory, I would not go.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

No, I did not.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

I teach adults or children individually so I have not had the opportunity to try these activities yet. I hope to be able to use experiential learning in the future in my practice.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Definitely. I enjoyed the course very much, it was great. Once I have the chance to teach a group of children, I am looking forward to doing more activities from the course.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Not an easy question, it has been a long time. I remember standing on chairs, but I cannot recall what it was about any more. We were playing some kind of a western game; we

82 had to fulfil many tasks working as a group. I also remember making a mask to my classmate and a discussion in a circle about various topics. I remember night games, fill- in-the-gap in songs, guardian angel, which I would definitely use. Also sharing our secrets at night with candles.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Online exercises, role playing, exercises in the textbook, flashcards, matching pictures. Children love to be active, so anything that requires walking, seeking something, also competitions are very popular among young learners. Adult students on the hand seem to be more conservative and prefer working with the textbook.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

I have not had the opportunity to try these activities yet.

Questionnaire n.10

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

Very little in fact, because I have been teaching for years, but mostly, I have been teaching in a sort of traditional way. Possibly with some features of experiential learning, but I am not a huge fan of it. It is mostly a new field for me. My biggest and also first experience with experiential learning was Fryšták. I know the theory, I am not super experienced.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

Useful as long as it is not in core of English teaching. It is not that great for teaching the language but it is a good addition to traditional teaching. It is a great way to motivate the learners, but it is not solely meant for learning the language. Also, it is so demanding, time consuming etc.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

It is a part of methodology here at the faculty, so I guess I must have heard about it in my earlier years. But it has not been since Fryšták, only then I found out what it is about.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

I have been to Fryšták twice, once as a student and the second time as an assistant. Apart from this, I took part in one course concerning FRE/CAE preparation, but it was not experiential. And here at the faculty, can mention FAME and Impro, if these count. Regardless English, I was a participant and an assistant at couple of summer camps, the activities were similar, only it was not in English. Similar icebreakers and so on.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

Not very often, rarely I could say.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Yes, in fact I do use some activities. I recall two examples. I use end of course feedback. When I was giving lessons here in Brno, it was a course on communication (high school). At the end, I did the same thing. I asked the people to write some nice things about their

84 classmates and about me, it was the burning page activity I took from Fryšták. And the other thing is different layout of the classroom, sitting on the ground, horse shoe etc. As for icebreakers, I think there are needed, but not in the traditional way. I rarely do solid icebreakers. I usually add them to normal lesson and connect them to the content of the lesson, to include them into normal activities, such as pair work or group work. Therefore I am not a big fan of traditional icebreakers. Another thing I use is music. I bring new things such as bongo drums into the lesson. If I player violin, I would bring violin It does not matter what you use as long as you make the lessons different.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Absolutely. Honestly, I do not think Fryšták as an experiential course is that good as for English language. The language itself that it taught there does not have that big impact. If it supposed to teach English, it does not. Or a very little. What it does teach, however, is the experiential learning methods (for us as future teachers). And the society of students and teachers. That being said, it was beneficial for me as a teacher, not for my English, though.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Burning page, masks, singing, dream catchers etc.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Anything that is interesting, music, art. As long as the students are engaged in the lesson, it works and brings results.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

If I were to guess, I think they like it! It is fun, it is new, it is interesting.

Questionnaire n.11

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

What I imagine when I think about experiential learning is a frequent usage of games or even drama methods used in teaching. Something connected to experience, that is why I see drama behind it. And also courses.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

From what I know about the matter, schools usually use these activities for so-called “projektové dny”, when it is very popular to use it and also when there is the time for it. However, in regular lessons there is not so much time for such activities. You have a syllabus to follow and a book that you should finish, this lack of time can cause teachers skipping fun educative activities. This is mainly for state schools. Moreover, I think that it is necessary to have a lot of practice with this kind of teaching, as there is a big difference between what the teacher thinks it is going to look like and what it actually looks like.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Unfortunately, what my former teacher of English did was to follow the textbook. Nothing else, no journals, no portfolios, no movies, no outdoor activities or any other kind of learning from experience. Which was awful, when I think about it now, but back then it was perfectly find by use, as we did not know anything else. The first time I learnt about it was here at the faculty.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták, but I also went to Intensive course of drama techniques here at the faculty. It was a voluntary four days course, one teacher from the Charles University and one teacher from Vienna. They teach drama all the time, drama in their lessons and also theatrical features in their lessons. However, this is not very suitable for everyday lessons, it is better if the teacher chooses one day each month to have this kind of lesson based on experience.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták? 86

Roleplays and also strong stories to help the students get into the character / learning from experience. I knew these activities mainly from summer camps I participated in many times. There were many fun games, but these are sometimes hard to add to English lessons, but I use some of them, for certain.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Many of them. Drama, art, music! Music is a great tool in teaching/learning English, playing well known English songs helps to get the students engaged in the learning process.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Yes. What I like the most was that we really had to work hard. All the time, we were engaged in so many activities that we did not have the time to get bored. Making a video, playing games, literature classes, history classes. Any things and many results. Plus I liked the fact that since we were in a group, it was very easy to develop an idea. One person had a little suggestion, others started to add other ideas and sooner or later a great concept was developed. I appreciated such a kind of brainstorming.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Night game, musical activities

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Anything in which the children can create their own sentences, speak or write about themselves, instead of simple translating.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

Certainly, music, for sure is by far the most favourite. And then roleplays.

Questionnaire n.12

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

Not much, I have never been taught about it, I only experienced it in Fryšták. I am not familiar with experiential learning what so ever.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I do not have much knowledge there, no opinion what so ever (so far).

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

If yes, than I have already forgotten all about it.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

I went to Fryšták and that is it, nothing else. Do summer camps from my childhood count? Probably not, it was not in English…then no, nothing else.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your learning before the course n Fryšták?

No, never. I am used to normal ways of teaching, and it is what I used all my life.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

I added only the introductory ones, because they repeat all the time. The rest of it is too much time consuming, I don‘t have time for it.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

It was not so much, as I said, I took only some parts of it, the rest is too difficult for me to do, so as far as my teaching goes it did not benefit me. Maybe as a person, for I had to do the stuff, too. In this way it did, I had to push myself to do it. I went to Fryšták with my son and a different group than my own. I got to meet young students instead of my peers. My son absolutely enjoyed it. For me it was quite a waste of time that I don’t have.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

A lot, the introductory ones, most of the day activities. Options such as music, painting, the one in the woods. Also evening activities, I remember the one that made most of the people uncomfortable. The one with telling secrets.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Classical things from books such as Project, Headway, NEF etc.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

I do not use a lot of EL, so I do not know.

Questionnaire n.13

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

Almost nothing. At least about the theory

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

According to what I saw in Fryšták, it is very good, as the learners learn from it better than from normal studying.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Here at the Uni, plus practical learning in Fryšták.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

Perhaps. I usually teach conversation, so I have always used roleplays.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Roleplays, songs, giving speeches on the spot (on various topics).

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Yes, language was one of the things and then of course I made new friends and also got to know my teachers more.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Something to build truest and use senses, such as being blind and others help you. Then watching westerns and then their analysis. Roleplays and songs.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Conversation, this is the most effective and I use it most of the time.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

I only use roleplays but they like it.

Questionnaire n.14

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

It is learning by experience, by actual living through things. And learn from it.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

It is good, the students can remember things more easily. They can recall memories better this way than from learning traditionally.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Here at the University.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

No, never. I always taught with books such as Headway and so on.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Conversation and songs. Maybe more, I do not remember now.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Definitely. Especially for teambuilding, we made some friends there. We also spoke English all the time, so language as well.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Songs! Video making. Lullabies. Chairs. Something with sheep.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

Roleplays and songs, but for older students I must say they prefer typical book exercises.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

They like songs, but most of them don’t like roleplays, they are shy. Especially older students.

Questionnaire n.15

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

It a lot of fun, it is time consuming but the learners love it. Except for adult learners, they are shy.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I think it is great, I would be happy to add this method to traditional methods, to have one day in a week devoted to this learning.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Yes, in methodology with Mrs. Hrozková and Mrs. Dobrovolná.

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták and also a youth exchange programme with other participants from other countries, such as Slovakia, Bosna, Serbia, Poland. All in English, we did activities such as cooking, sightseeing, workshops, roleplays, crafts where we made jewellery, lectures etc. The topic was “our roots” and all the activities were connected to it.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

No, I have never had the courage to do it. I think that it is very complex and difficult to do it properly, especially with adults, and I teach mostly adults. When I became an assistant in Fryšták last year, I could see that it is not easy to engage adults in this kind of learning. They are more reserved, more shy and most of all they do not like to feel like they are treated as children. But maybe after studying a theory background I could try it out. Also students prefer to learn with a book. Preferably a conventional one. They feel good about themselves it they finish an exercise.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Speaking activities, songs and also crafts (in summer camps).

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Yes, and this is why I went there again a year after as an assistant. I met so many people and learnt very much of new language. Also it showed me many activities I can now use.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Masks, wisdom in forest, eveningers, morning circle and many others.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

If I teach conversation, then roleplays and speeches on the spot. If it is not conversation, then typical book. Students prefer it and I can see results. Plus they demand it. I also use lots of worksheets and flip charts. One of my student is absolutely unable to learn vocabulary at home. Therefore to teach her vocabulary I need to do it in the lesson. So cards with words.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

I do not use it often, but when I do, it is appreciated, because it is out of the routine.

Questionnaire n.16

1) What do you know about experiential learning?

The knowledge gained via experiential learning should last longer than the one gained in the typical way of learning in a classroom. Also that it depends on the age of learners and perhaps a theory preparation should be done before the actual teaching.

2) What do you think about experiential learning?

I think it is not very suitable for every day learning, but for events such as “škola v přírodě” or courses such as Fryšták it is perfect.

3) Have you ever been taught about experiential learning at school?

Yes, in Fryšták and maybe in methodology classes?

4) Have you ever been to any experiential English course? Which one?

Fryšták only.

5) Did you use experiential learning activities in your teaching before the course in Fryšták?

I do not think so. I always do roleplays and play songs, but nothing else. I have never had the opportunity to take my students to a field trip lasting more than one day.

6) Are there any activities you use that are taken from Fryšták?

Songs and anything with music that is my favourite. I teach specific students, such as students with ADHD, autistic students etc. So if I want to do something else than work with the book, I need to be prepared very well to do it.

7) Was the course beneficial for you?

Yes, especially to meet new people. I went to Fryšták in my second year and I went with students from combined studies. I met them there and became friends with them the very first evening. I think this should be compulsory in the first year, though. To get the people together and introduce them to each other and to teachers. Also it showed me how experiential learning could and should look like.

8) What kind of activities do you remember from the course?

Video, roleplays, songs, something done in dark with candles. It was a very personal activity.

9) Which activities you usually use in your lessons, regardless the course? Which activities are the most favourite amongst you students?

As I said, I teach very specific students. One is very interested in music, so I use songs, we sing a lot and practise pronunciation. Another student likes reading, so I do most activities based on reading. And if it is a lesson on conversation, I still start with reading, to motivate him. Also I do journals – they write in past tense or other tense, I check it once in a while.

10) What do your students think about experiential learning and its activities? (if you teach EL)

I think they appreciate anything different from regular classes.