A Study of Adult English Learning and Intercultural Competence through Performance Practice

This thesis emerged from a question that has accompanied my work as an English language teacher for more than twenty-five years: how might language learning change if it were approached not primarily as the mastery of grammar, but as a creative, embodied and relational practice? Drawing on theories of adult learning, sociocultural approaches to second language acquisition, embodied cognition, translanguaging and drama-based education, my study investigates the potential of performative pedagogy to support adult English language learning and intercultural awareness. The research adopts a qualitative-dominant case study methodology informed by Action Research, Practice Research and Performative Inquiry. A six-week programme of performative workshops was designed and facilitated with fifteen adult learners of English employed by a company in Padua, Italy. Through improvisation, storytelling, role-play, movement and collaborative creation, participants were invited to engage with language through action and interaction. Data were collected through participant journals, facilitator reflections, observer reports and selected quantitative indicators. The findings suggest that performative practices can foster engagement, communicative confidence, expressive agency and intercultural awareness. Participants increasingly experienced English not as a system to be mastered, but as a means of communication, creativity and connection. My thesis argues for a more holistic understanding of adult language learning, one that recognises the interplay of cognition, emotion, embodiment and social interaction in the development of communicative competence.