Читать книгу The Art of Foreign Language Teaching - Peter Lutzker - Страница 64

The atmosphere which is present through this entire phase of ‘games and play’ is one of lightness and humour. This can take very different forms. In its most chaotic and energized form it can involve participants running through the room trying to catch each other – very much like children. One game which invariably evokes this type of playfulness is the game of Cat and Mouse. In this game, pairs are spread out throughout the entire room, facing each with their arms outstretched and their palms touching over their heads. At the same time there is one person who is the ‘cat’ running through the room and chasing another person who is the ‘mouse’. If the cat manages to catch the mouse by touching it on its back they immediately reverse their roles -, the cat then becomes the mouse and the mouse becomes the cat. The only safe place for the mouse to hide is to run to one of the pairs standing around the room and stand between them. At this moment, the mouse immediately becomes one of the people standing, while the person whose place he has taken suddenly becomes the cat who then chases the person who was previously the cat and who is now transformed from the cat into the mouse. Exactly that last immediate transformation from ‘hunter to the hunted’ can often be a source of utter confusion.

He explains the rationale for such a form of ‘child’s play’:

This game belongs to a small range of games we use to create an atmosphere of playful confusion. It isn’t very central to our pedagogy, but I like this game because it says something about how we lose and win and about our flexibility in changing our identity. You say that there is a lot of running but it is actually more interesting to do this game in slow motion …I n slow motion it becomes about how you are going to play at being the cat and the mouse, how you are going to change from one to the other and how you play at losing, at being caught. The game is totally stress-free because by being caught, you win and become the cat. By losing you win, which is great for clowning. (Interview 3)