drama activities

SUBMITTED BYMISS. UNYARUT RORNSUK

TESOL/7 NO.17

Using Drama Activities and Techniques for

Teaching English

What is Drama ?

Drama is a unique tool to explore and express human feeling.

Drama is an essential form of behavior in all cultures, it is a fundamental human activity.

Drama is a discrete skill in itself (acting,theatre, refined skill).

There are many points of using drama activities and techniques

Entertaining and fun.

It can provide motivation to learn.

It can provide varied opportunities for different uses of language.

It can provide rich experience of language for the participants.

Drama is a highly valued teaching method

In dramatic activities, students use and examine their present knowledge in order to induce new knowledge. Bolton (1985)

James Hoetker (1969) contends that drama increases creativity, originality, sensitivity,

fluency, flexibility, emotional stability, cooperation, and examination of moral attitudes, while developing communication skills and appreciation of literature.

Drama assists in the development of :

The use of imaginationPowers of creative self expressionDecision making and problem solving skillsUnderstanding of self and the worldSelf confidence, a sense of worth and respect

and consideration for others.

Why using drama in EFL classroom?

To make language learning an active, motivating

Experience.

To help learners gain the confidence and self

esteem needed to use the language spontaneously.

To bring the real world into the classroom (problem

solving, research, consulting dictionaries, real time and space, cross-curricular content).

Helps learners acquire language by focusing on the message they are conveying, not the form of their utterance.

To stimulate learners' intellect and imagination.

To develop students' ability to empathize with others and thus become better communicators.

How can drama or dramatic activities be used in ELT ?

There are several type of Drama. Here is a list with a simple explanation are as follows :

1. Improvisation / Let's Pretend

A scene is set, either by the teacher or the students, and then with little or no time to

prepare a script the students perform before the class.

It helps actors learn : to listen to the other characters. to think on their feet. to use props and move on stage. to use an “outside voice” with enough volume to be heard. to stay in character, to concentrate on the scene. to discover the meaning of the scene they

are doing.

2. Role Plays

Students are given a particular role in a scripted

play. After rehearsal the play is performed forthe class, school or parents.

3. Mime Students use only facial expressions and

body language to pass on a message script to the rest of the class.

4. Masked Drama

The main props are masks. Students then feel less inhibited to perform and overact while participating in this form of drama.

Students are given specific parts to play with a formal script. Using only their voices they must create the full picture for the rest of the class.

5. Puppet Plays

Students use puppets to say and do things that they may feel too inhibited to say or do themselves.

6. Performance Poetry

While reciting a poem the students are encourage to act out the story from the poem.

7. Radio Drama

Similar to script reading with the addition of other sound affects, The painting of the mental picture is important.

8. Simulation

A simulation as case study where students become participants in an event and shape the course of the event.

The students have roles, functions, duties , and responsibilities within a structured situation involving problem solving.

ConclusionsDrama is an appealing teaching strategy

which promotes cooperation, collaboration, as well as emotional intelligence skills.

Drama connect the gap between course-book dialogues and natural usage.

Drama can also help to connect a similar gap between the classroom and real life.