Dramatic activities can bring the opportunity to the learners to communicate naturally in the classroom because it provides the language learners not only with meaningful context for speaking and listening, but also they foster learners’ socialization, critical thinking, problem solving and improve oral communication skills, by exploring different language styles.
Key words: dramatic activities, learning process, the English language, role-play, improvisation, simulation.
Dramatic activities develop learners’ motivation and create a joyful and pleasant atmosphere. Young learners find it familiar, because it is part of their lives from a very young age, when they used to play by acting out stories and scenes. Besides, dramatic activities are able to achieve the task successfully. Learners also lose their inhibitions, because, by playing a role, they are able to “escape from their everyday identity”. By giving them a special role, learners, especially the shyest ones, feel encouraged and tend to abandon their embarrassment and shyness. They include a wide range of activities such as: mime, role-play, simulation and improvisation that give learners the opportunity to use real-life language in the classroom.
A scripted play could be used for English language teaching, but the teacher should ensure that the language of the play is within the ability of the learners and relevant to their needs. The theme of the play should be interesting and humorous. The language of the play should be communicative. The scenes should be short and the characters should not be too many. It is suggested that to work on a play, it should be done in stages as indicated in the following guidelines proposed by Byrne [6].
Step 1: The learners should familiarize themselves with the text by reading it through on their own.
Step 2: They should listen to a recording of it.
Step 3: The teacher should discuss the text with the class before assigning roles.
Step 4: The teacher should play the recording the second time, pausing intermittently to draw their attention to particular utterances, attitudes, or emotions.
Step 5: The teacher should divide the class into groups and ask them to discuss the setting and the characters.
Step 6: In a later lesson the teacher should ask the students to choose their roles, and rehearse the play.
Step 7: The play should be performed.
Step 8: They should discuss the outcome of the performance. The discussion will help them to assess the performance, so as to know the aspects that need improvement.
Mime
It is a type of physical activity in which somebody acts out an idea or a story through gestures, bodily movement, and facial expressions without the use of words. Through action, the person communicates his/her ideas to his/her audience.
Many linguists support the use of mime in language teaching. For example, Savignon [7] stated that it mime helps learners to get used to the idea of acting. Other uses of mime in language learning are outline below:
- It can generate language use where explanation is required.
- It is a way of reinforcing memory and recalling language items, by means of visual association
- It can be used to learn and practice vocabulary items.
The example below illustrates how mime can be used to teach and practice vocabulary.
Step 1: The teacher writes a list of words on the chalkboard or whiteboard. Step 2: The teacher mimes the action associated with a word on the chalkboard and asked the learners to identify the word, out of the list of words on the chalkboard.
Step 3: The teacher calls out some of the students to mime their own words while others guess the correct words from the list. This activity continues until the list of words is exhausted.
Role-play
A role-play could be described as an activity in which learners are required to play imaginary role in an imaginary situation. The participants in a role-play are assigned certain roles which they act out in a given context. The context may be a situation in the school, family setting, scenes in the market or restaurant, etc. All these settings provide avenues for learners to engage in social interaction and discussion. Teachers can obtain ideas for roles-play from the learners’ experiences, books, stories, television programs, films, and daily interactions with people.
The main benefit of role-play in language teaching is that: It enables a teacher to teach language use that would be difficult to teach ordinary. It also helps to recreate the kind of language that is used in different natural contexts. Byrne as cited by Davies explained that teachers can guide the learners in carry out role-plays in the following ways:
– By providing open ended dialogues.
– By giving them mapped dialogues.
– By providing functional cues.
– By giving them role instructions.
– By providing scenarios.
A good role play is created according to learners demands, interests which is related to the real life and all learners can actively participate during limited time.
Improvisation
Improvisation can be described as a play without a script. Landy [8] defined it as an unscripted, unrehearsed, spontaneous set of actions in response to minimal directions from a teacher, usually including statements of whom one is, where one is and what one is doing. An improvisation involves a spontaneous response and the enactment of an unexpected situation. Davies identifies two types of improvisation: the spontaneous improvisation and the prepared improvisation. He explained that spontaneous improvisation is an open-ended process initiated by the teacher. The teacher presents students with a situation and challenges them to respond to it. The teacher does not give them direction on what to do. On the other hand, in prepared improvisation, the teacher and the students choose the theme, the situation. They select the relevant ideas and organize them. The class is then divided into small groups for the purpose of practicing the segments of the improvisation, after which the presentation is carried out. Improvisation is a useful technique in English language teaching and learning. It prepares the students to respond to impromptu situations in real-life settings. It provides students with opportunities to improve their language skills and build up their confidence. Spontaneous improvisation gives learners practice in language skills and helps them develop their emotional range by playing roles they are not familiar with. Prepared improvisation gives students practice in working together, sharing ideas and making decision.
Simulations
According to Jones [9] defined a simulation as “a reality of functions in a simulated and structured environment”. Simulation activity provides a specific situation within which students can practice specific communication skills. For example, the situation may be a parents-teachers meeting and the communicative skills may be expressing an opinion, complaining about something, arguing, convincing others, asserting oneself, eliciting opinions, group- problem solving, analyzing situations so. There are two types of simulation activities. The first has to do with dialogues for socializing, such as greeting, introducing people, expressing compliments, parting, proposing a toast, meeting new people, etc. Through simulation dialogues, learners can learn how to exchange pleasantries in specific social situations. For example, students can practice how to accept an invitation to a wedding or how to reject an invitation. The second type of simulation activity is a community oriented task. Here, the students learn how to participate in the community and execute specific tasks. For example, going to the market, buying things from a supermarket, buying a ticket at the railway station, posting a letter at the post office, and collecting money from the bank.
The role of simulation in English language is to help the students to practice specific roles, as in the situations mentioned above, so that when such situations occur in real-life, they will be able to function effectively.
As we can see from the points and discussions above, dramatic activities can be enormously beneficial in teaching English. However, as regards several dramatic activities or conventions, they are very flexible and can be used any time during the class in order to make the lessons more authentic. Learners are encouraged to speak and have the chance to communicate, even with limited language, by using non-verbal communication, such as body language, gestures and facial expressions. Besides, they can increase learners' self-esteem, language skills and their abilities to express themselves by using their own creativity.
References:
- Buckner, M. (1999). Simulation and role play: presentation skills and games. Alexandria, VA: ASTD.
- Dougill, J. (1987). Drama Activities for Language Learning. London: Macmillan.
- Livingstone, C. (1985). Role Play in Language Learning. Harlow: Longman.
- Maley, Alan, and Alan Duff. Drama techniques: a Resource Book of CommunicationActivities for Language Teachers. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1982. Print.
- Neelands, Jonothan, and Tony Goode. Structuring Drama Work. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press, 2000.Print.Onestopenglish.com. Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2000–2012. Web. March 15, 2011. www.onestopenglish.com
- Byrne, D. (1986). Teaching oral English. New Edition London: Longman
- Savingnon, S., (1983) Communicative competence. London: Addison-Wesley.
- Landy, R. S., (1982) Handbook of educational drama and theater. London: Greenwood press.
- Jones, K., (1982). Simulations in language teaching. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
