1.1 Attend a PDL Language Course in a Foreign Language (five days or two weekends) Each participant in the basic training attends a language course in a language that is unknown or little known to them before, during, or after the basic training. This allows them to experience the effect of the PDL from the inside, better understand the course of the exercises and their structure, experience a different leadership style, and better grasp the expectations of a future trainer. At the end of the language course, a certificate of participation is issued.

1.2 Basic Training to Become a PDL Trainer Training Objective Participants should be able to independently lead courses with the PDL alone or in a team of two and transfer their methods to other teaching contexts by the end of the training.

Training Concept The training includes at least 120 teaching units. Between the weekends, participants practice the acquired techniques to maintain the practical orientation of the training and increase its effectiveness.

Application Areas The acquired skills enable the application of the PDL both as a unified teaching concept within an intensive course and the incorporation of individual elements into other teaching contexts. The PDL methods allow trainers to work without a textbook, enrich their previous work with the textbook with new exercises and techniques, and discover new ways to use the textbook.

Training Content

• Teaching the main exercises and techniques of language psychodramaturgy (doubling, mirroring, first encounters, role reversal, displacement, relay, sequence technique…), which stimulate the participants’ desire for individual expression and specifically promote and facilitate language acquisition at all levels.
• Exercises that support the development of essential attitudes, skills, and abilities relevant to language acquisition and learning (receptivity, concentration, attentive listening, presence, flexibility, expressiveness…).
• Relaxation exercises, breathing techniques, and voice exercises to promote receptivity and expressiveness.
• Warm-up exercises for the main methods of language psychodramaturgy.
• Varied intermediate exercises that specifically train the basic skills important for language acquisition (receptivity, concentration, attentive listening, presence, flexibility, expressiveness…).
• Techniques that support participants’ linguistic expression, expand their expressive possibilities (‘charging techniques’), and promote the immediate reuse of new language material without repetition (‘recovery techniques’).
• Projection, association, and identification methods that lead to the symbolic expression of group themes, as well as dramatization techniques for their pedagogical use.
• Methods that reduce speaking inhibitions.
• Methods for precise perception and mastery of foreign pronunciation.
• Exercises that make the specificity of foreign pronunciation physically tangible and thus more comprehensible.
• Use of selected poems for better perception and reproduction of pronunciation.
• Methods that stimulate participants’ imagination and creativity.
• Use of fairy tales, myths, and literary texts in language teaching.
• Teaching criteria for the appropriate selection of texts and other materials in teaching and methods for their use.
• Methods that lead to the dramatization of texts and group themes.
• Written exercises that arise directly from group activities and stimulate the desire to write.
• Techniques and exercises for lively teaching of grammar.
• Perception of group dynamic aspects of a learning group and self-perception in the teaching and learning process.

At the end of the basic training, a certificate of participation is issued.

Co-Training Newly trained trainers are recommended to conduct their first PDL courses with another, preferably experienced, trainer to gain experience and confidence before working independently.

1.3 Course Supervision: Supervision of a five-day language course or two weekends After the trainer has independently led several PDL courses, course supervision can take place. The following criteria are particularly considered during supervision:

• Relational Competence: Handling participants and the group, behavior towards participants and their wishes or problems, handling critical feedback, and, if applicable, the form of cooperation between the two trainers.
• Methodological Competence: Coherence in the progression and selection of exercises, targeted presentation of the theoretical foundations of the PDL, knowledgeable answering of questions about the foundations and practice of the PDL.
• Technical Competence: Presentation of exercises (instructions and explanations), execution of exercises.

Recognition and Qualification as a PDL Course Trainer If the qualification criteria (1.1 to 1.3) are met, official recognition as a PDL course trainer is granted.

Additional Offers: Special seminars and training weekends on specific topics are offered to deepen the relational, methodological, theoretical, and technical aspects of the PDL and to convey new developments in psychodramaturgy to the trainers.