Faces

50 Photocopyable Faces
50 Characters Looking for Authors
50 Detachable Pages
5 Sets of 10 different people

These faces invite invention. This book provides plenty of suggestions, gives detailed notes on creating and building characters inspired by these faces, and provides ideas for role plays, improvised dramas, storytelling and short stories, games and other interactive activities, and explorations of specific cultures and cultural identity.

This Book leads to:

• • The Imagination

 

Using the faces as inspiration, learners create imaginary biographies and breathe life into the characters. Using their powers of imagination, learners develop a detailed life history for their characters, and conjure up stories of their trials, troubles, successes, failures, hopes and dreams – just as authors create characters in stories.

• • Meaningful Interaction

 

Once learners have created characters, they take on the identities of their characters and interact – through dialogues, conversations, discussions, and role plays. Role playing allows learners to explore new ways of self-expression in the language and the culture.

• • Language Development

 

To create characters, learners need language – lots of language. Each chapter in a character’s story leads to new vocabulary areas, new phrases, expressions, or slang. Stories move in time as well, from present to past to future, to real and unreal conditions, to possibilities, probabilities, obligations, and the like – all requiring language. And when learners role play their characters, all the language of social interaction and appropriateness enters the picture.

• • Cultural Exploration

 

Characters are products of culture. To develop a character’s identity, learners need to situate characters in concrete cultural circumstances – in families, places, social groups – with specific cultural practices, cultural products, and specific cultural perspectives. This calls for cultural research and analysis, and comparison with the learners’ cultures.

• • Play

 

Building characters, unlocking imagination, and unleashing creativity capture the powerful force of play in learning. When learners can engage a playful spirit with humor, laughter, and a shared sense of simple fun, learning language can become a pleasant, effortless experience.