English Noh Theater Workshop: Lessons from a Japanese University EFL Classroom

Recognizing the value of performing arts activities within EFL education, teachers have experimented with a wide variety of approaches in their teaching. This article draws broadly on one such project which took place at a prefectural university in Fukushima during late 2016 and early 2017. Here, English was embedded in a traditional Japanese dramatic form and students in a third-year elective course developed an English language Noh theatre set in cyberspace. While this work is discussed in detail elsewhere (Rockell, 2019), the current article focuses on some of the practical ways the project was carried out and uses these ways as a basis for a suggested English Noh Theatre workshop to be offered to language teachers in Japan in the near future.