The use of drama in elt - pros and cons

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THE USE OF DRAMA IN ELT - PROS AND CONS

Raluca Andronic



This article entitled The Use of Drama in ELT - Pros and Cons consists of a selection of extracts from the scientific paper with the same name written by Ms. Raluca Andronic - an English teacher from Tulcea-Romania. (Such scientific papers tackling methodological aspects in teaching represent an assessment instrument based on which a teacher may achieve the highest level in teaching and the above mentioned paper has reached its purpose with a maximum grade.)

The paper is 135 pages long, comprising an Argumentation and 4 chapters, conclusions, annexes and bibliography/ resources, while the article is 33 pages long and it contains 6 sections, the annexes and a selected bibliography. Each of these sections were subchapters from Chapter 1 and Chapter 4 in the initial paper. Section 1 is an Introduction presenting the role of drama in education, sections 2 and 3 highlight the compatibility between drama and teaching, section 4 is about the aims and objectives of the research underlying the scientific paper, section 5 is a set of 5 lesson plans which were employed in the experimental phase of the research and section 6 brings the conclusions of the research, followed by the annexes of the lesson plans.

Key words: ELT, drama activities, role-play, improvisation, mime, grammar, vocabulary.

garden drama english romania



Andronic R. Utilizarea drama оn elt -- pro si contra

Acest articol intitulat The Use of Drama in ELT - Pros and Cons este o selectie de fragmente extrase din lucrarea metodico-stiintificд cu acelasi nume elaboratд de d-na Raluca Andronic - profesor de limba englezд din Tulcea, Romвnia. (Astfel de lucrдri stiintifice privind aspect metodologice utilizate оn predare reprezintд un instrument de evaluare pe baza cдruia se poate obtine Gradul didactic I оn mvдtдmдntul romвnesc, iar lucrarea mai sus-mentionatд a primit nota maximд si si-a оndeplinit menirea.)

Lucrarea are 135 de pagini, cuprinzвnd un Argument si 4 capitole, apoi concluzii, anexe si bibliografia, оn timp ce articolulare 33 de pagini, continвnd 6 sectiuni, anexele si bibliografia selectivд. Aceste sectiuni sunt fragmente din Cap. 1 si Cap. 4 din lucrarea initialд. Sectiunea 1 este o Introducere ce prezintд rolul artei dramatice оn educatie, sectiunile 2 si 3 evidentiazд compatibilitatea dintre arta dramaticд si predare/ munca la catedrд, 4 este despre scopurile si obiectivele cercetдrii care a stat la baza lucrдrii stiintifice, sectiunea 5 cuprinde un set de 5 planuri de lectie care au fost folosite оn faza experimentalд, iar sectiunea 6 aduce concluziile cercetдrii, urmate de anexele planurilor de lectie.

Cuvinte-cheie: ELT, activitдti din arta dramatic, joc de rol, improvizatie, mimд, gramaticд, vocabulary, mvдtare interpersonalд.

SESSION 4

1. TOPIC: Kitchen and food related vocabulary

2. AIMS:

> To develop/ Revise vocabulary related to kitchen objects and food

> To practise giving instructions/ directions

> To practice the use of the imperative

> To develop writing skills - for creating a recipe

3. DRAMA ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES EMPLOYED: hot seating, teacher in the role, role-play, improvisation, interview

4. TIME; 50 min.

5. MATERIALS: picture projected on the screen, posters (created by students), (flash) cards, role-play cards, worksheets, and optionally - realia (toy or real kitchen tools brought by the teacher and/or students) - Annex 4

Step 1: (5 min.)

The teacher uses the hot seating strategy to impersonate a famous Romanian chef whom students should be familiar with from TV shows. The students ask questions until they guess who the character is. The students are engaged in short conversations about cooking and food.

Step 2: (10 min.)

The teacher uses the projector to show the students a picture of a kitchen with all the typical furniture and equipment. Students are asked to some of the items they see. Then they are grouped in teams of 7; each team is supposed to create a poster displaying a word-web/wheel on the following lexical fields: kitchen equipment, kitchen furniture, cutlery and crockery, and basic food(s). The groups exchange the lists of words, by passing their own list to the next team and while doing that, each team can add new words on the list, by using a pencil of a different colour. The posters are displayed in front of the classroom.

Step 3: (15 min.)

Students are organised in groups of 4. Their task is to imagine that one of them has a broken leg and must stay in bed, and the other three are friends who come to help him/her out by making breakfast/lunch/dinner for him/her. The three friends ask for directions to find the food/ ingredients and the kitchen tools they need. The injured one gives them the necessary directions. Based on a role-play card, the students must write the dialogue and then act it out. If necessary, the teacher provides/writes on the board the prepositions that are necessary for giving directions. Step 4: (20 min.)

If the previous activity is done in due time, the students are asked to work in pairs, to make an interview. Half of them will be the reporter and the others will pretend that they are a famous chef who talks about his/her favourite dish and offers the recipe for it. The students must improvise. The recipe must be simple. They only have a few support words and a model for a recipe projected on the screen. One recipe is voted for and is written by all the students on their notebook. Optionally, the teacher may reward the students' work by offering them cookies since the reward is thus concretely related to the topic of the lesson.

Observations Positive aspects:

Everyday life experiences and situations easily re-created in the classroom S The possibility of using numerous realia allowed kinaesthetic learning SIntrapersonal learning

Interpersonal learning due to efficient pair or team work SCreativity

A balanced combinationofspeaking and writingskills

Fair share of participation of every student

Negative aspects:

Activities involving more tasks tended to take more time than expected o Monitoring a large number of pairs of students is sometimes difficult oMonitoring itself may betime-consuming at times

Some students were still intimidated by the idea of improvising, of speaking without a material support

There was not enough time for writing the whole recipe in step 4

Conclusions

As in the previous activities, I noticed that the positive aspects resulting from the use of drama activities in my ELT research prevailed. It has become obvious once again that when used in ELT, drama allows real life experiences to be re-created in the classroom, and that the students' creativity is a great asset that is put into motion, stimulated and developed by such activities. Students seemed more and more involved and less intimidated by most of the tasks. They asked to be corrected whenever their task was ready and they were delighted to receive cookies as rewards after talking about food during the activity. My purpose was to help students associate these learning experiences with exciting, rewarding activities and fun, in order to change their old perception about learning and to raise their motivation for it.

SESSION 5

1. TOPIC: “Last week” - Past Tense Simple

2. AIMS:

> To practice/Revise the Simple Past

> To develop listening skills

> To develop speaking skills /fluency in telling a story using the Simple Past

3. DRAMA ACTIVITIES/STRATEGIES EMPLOYED: role-play, an information-gap /puzzle game, interview, (guided) improvisation

4. TIME: 50 min.

5. MATERIALS: diary cards, puzzle sheet, pictures, a poster with irregular verbs - Annex 8

Step 1: (10 min.)

The teacher initiates short conversations with a few of the students asking “how was your day yesterday? What did you do after school? Then the students are grouped into teams of 4. Before actually starting the activity, the teacher writes on the board and provides a model of a short conversational exchange and emphasises the use of the Past T. Simple in questions/ interrogative forms, positive and negative answers.

Step 2: (15 min)

Each student is given one of the four diary cards and, without showing the cards to the other members of the group, they must play the role of the character whose name is on the card. Each group is given a puzzle sheet. The purpose of the game is to complete the puzzle sheet by finding out where and when each member of the group met the other members last week. To learn all the necessary information, they need to ask and answer questions. Students are encouraged to add more questions to the puzzle so that everybody has the chance to participate and practice the past simple in questions and answers. They may ask for information related to each day of the week, for each of the 4 characters. The following are samples from a diary card and two questions from the puzzle sheet respectively (the 4 diary cards and the rest of the puzzle sheet are in Annex 4):

Mike's Diary Monday: basketball 2 pm Tuesday: lunch at The Mermaid 1 pm Wednesday: dentist's appointment 10 am Puzzle sheet

Talk to the other members of your group to find the answers for the questions.

1) When did Mike meet John? What did they do?

2) When did Mike meet Alice?

When students finish the task, they check their answers together and the teacher offers feedback.

Step 4: (5 min.)

Since the students discover that the characters they embody all “met at a party last Saturday”, they are given a listening comprehension task (a material about a party I selected from). This task is meant to prepare them for the next step of the lesson.

Step 5: (20 min.)

Students are asked to remain in character and the teacher announces then that the young lady whose party they all attended last Saturday is actually a star/ a famous actress/ a famous singer (Avril Lavigne, for instance) and that one member of each group must interview the others about how the party was. The teacher asks the students to improvise but offers the them some examples on the board and thus guides the students a little at the beginning. During each short interview the others are listening and writing down the information. Based on what they write, the members of each group must write a full diary entry about the party. If there is not enough time to do that in class, they must do it as home assignment.

Observations

Positive aspects:

Higher degree of familiarity with the drama approach in ELT

Dynamic aspect of most tasks, kinaesthetic learning

Abstract aspects of the learning experience easily connected with concrete experiences

Interpersonal learning

A good degree of active and constant participation of every student S Positive reactions to the idea of playing a character and of improvising

Better reactions to practising the use of Past T. Simple, of regular and irregular verbs, than students usually have

The balanced use of speaking, listening and writing.

Entertaining and stimulating tasks/activities

Negative aspects/ Limitations:

The time limit for some tasks was not always observed

Some students did not manage to write down the necessary or relevant information during the interviews

More noise than expected during the interviews

The conclusions after this activity coincide with the ones from the previous activities. The observations for the positive and negative aspects or limitations speak for themselves. The students worked efficiently, they seemed more familiarised with the drama methods and strategies employed. They quickly adjusted to the role/character assigned and they enjoyed the idea of becoming a character in a kind of a play. They seemed more self-confident when using irregular verbs for the Past T. Simple. And similarly to the previous situations, the positive aspects prevailed.

6. FINAL CONCLUSIONS

This study and research were intended to prove how efficient drama - as an approach, method and tool - can be in ELT in general, how beneficial it can be in teaching vocabulary and grammar in particular. As the title of the paper shows, the intention was to verify and ascertain the benefits of drama - the “pros”, but also the limitations - the “cons”.

The results of the research demonstrated that the hypothesis was supported by the observations and conclusions of each session on ELT through drama, the aim and the objectives of this study were accomplished. The following is a synthetic presentation of the conclusions that have arisen from this research:

> Drama is indeed a suitable and holistic approach for ELT. It allows students to develop foreign language skills and knowledge, but also social skills, emotional and behavioural skills.

> Drama creates a meaningful, enjoyable, low-stress atmosphere for learning.

> Drama provides a great variety of activities by which students may acquire knowledge and practise skills.

> Drama activities can be almost ideal tools for developing not only vocabulary and functional language but also grammar knowledge.

> Drama is an excellent frame for developing all skills and it enhances fluency.

> It is also a very powerful and suitable method and tool in creating realistic situations for communication.

> It is a dynamic approach that allows all types of learning, especially kinaesthetic learning which is usually less favoured by traditional teaching methods and approaches.

> Drama allows and encourages intrapersonal learning, since students have a great opportunity to use their personal experience and knowledge in order to participate actively and efficiently to the drama activities during the ELT sessions.

> Drama also stimulates interpersonal learning and teamwork. Students learn to cooperate and learn through cooperation in a natural manner.

> Motivation for learning and self-confidence are boosted due to drama activities in

ELT.

> Drama activities and techniques are both enjoyable and useful, and thus they overcome the academicism and the artificiality of conventional lessons and methods.

To observe the criterion of objectivity that a scientific paper must fulfil, it must be stated that there are also limitations when it comes to using drama in ELT. The most frequently encountered were the limitations related to time, due to the fact that students needed more time for certain drama activities which they were not yet used to, yet this aspect was gradually improved through practice. Also, there was the fact that not all students felt comfortable with certain typical drama activities because they were shy, introverted, they lacked self-confidence and the proper motivation. Yet my experience has proved to me that these problems affect students' performance at school regardless of the subject matter, the approach or the method.

What is very important is that the benefits of using drama in ELT prevail, therefore there are clearly more pros than cons. The existence of the limitations is actually what should make a teacher always re-adjust, refresh and improve the methods and tools employed for the benefit of the students' progress.

As a final conclusion, I consider drama is a very efficient way of improving the learningteaching process involved in ELT and I recommend it to all my fellow-teachers.

ANNEX 1



Example of riddles:

I have two wheels but no engine. You must use the force of your legs to travel with me.

CARDS

How do you go to London?

How do you go to the U.S.A.?

How do you go to the Danube Delta?

How do you go to the mountains if you take a trip? How do you go to school?

Dialogues:

	AT THE AIRPORT IN THE QUEUE
Penny	Oh, I am so excited. I've never flown before!
Woman	Where are you travelling to?
Penny	I'm going to Australia to see my cousin.
Woman	That is nice. How long is the flight?
Penny	I think it's about 20 hours. AT THE CHECK-IN DESK
Check-in girl	Good morning -can I see your ticket please?
Penny	Yes here you are.
Check-in girl	And can I take your passport?
Penny	Here it is.
Check-in girl	That's fine. Please put your luggage on here to be weighed. How many suitcases do you have?
Penny	Only the two.
Check-in girl	Sorry but your luggage is 3 kilos over the allowed weight.
Penny	Oh no! What happens now?
Check-in girl	You have to pay 20€ for each kilo.
Penny	60€! Oh, I'll have to pay, as I don't want to miss the plane. AT SECURITY
Security man	Is this your hand luggage Madam?
Penny	Yes, why is there a problem?
Security man	Can you open the bag please?
Penny	Just a minute.I have to find the key.
Security man	You do know that you are not allowed to take any sharp objects on the aircraft.
Penny	But I haven't got anything sharp!
Security man	You have some nail scissors and these are not permitted.I will have to confiscate them.
Penny	It seems that everything I do is wrong!
Security man	Well, you should have read the regulations beforehand. There are notices displayed everywhere in the airport on what you can take on-board. Please proceed to your gate number now Madam.
Penny	Gate number? I don't know it.
Security man	If you look at the departure board, you will find the information about your flight.
Penny	Thanks. AT GATE NUMBER 8
Air stewardess	We are ready for boarding now. Please have your boarding passes ready. Please proceed to the aircraft when we call your seat number.
Penny	Excuse me, where can I find my seat number?
Air stewardess	It's on your boarding pass Madam. Ah, your seat number is 68J. You will one of the last passengers we call.
Penny	Oh dear - am I ever going to get to Australia?

ANNEX2

Charts - daily activities vs. temporary activities Complete chart

name	usually	today/ at the moment	why
Sam	plays tennis	is doing the gardening	The tennis club is closed
Maisie	visits her parents	is having a party	It's her birthday
Will	goes for a walk	is staying home	It's raining
Alex	does the shopping	is driving to the airport	He's going on holiday
Kate	goes out for lunch with her daughter	is having lunch at home	Her daughter is away
Emma	does aerobics	is watching TV	has a broken leg
Tom	goes swimming	is staying in bed	has got the flu



Gapped info charts for each group

name	usually	today/ at the moment	why
Sam	plays tennis
Maisie		is having a party
Will			It's raining
Alex	does the shopping
Kate		is having lunch at home
Emma			has a broken leg
Tom	goes swimming

name	usually	today/ at the moment	why
Sam		is doing the gardening
Maisie	visits her parents
Will	goes for a walk		It's raining
Alex		is driving to the airport
Kate	goes out for lunch with her daughter
Emma		is watching TV
Tom			has got the flu

name	usually	today/ at the moment	why
Sam		is doing the gardening
Maisie			It's her birthday
Will		is staying home
Alex	does the shopping		He's going on holiday
Kate			Her daughter is away
Emma	does aerobics		has a broken leg
Tom	goes swimming	is staying in bed

name	usually	today/ at the moment	why

Sam	plays tennis		The tennis club is closed
Maisie	visits her parents	is having a party	It's her birthday
Will		is staying home
Alex
Kate	goes out for lunch with her daughter
Emma		is watching TV
Tom		is staying in bed

ANNEX 3 Gapped dialogues:

A. Dr.: `Good afternoon. How can Iyou today?'

Patient: `I don't feel very well.'

Dr.: `That's too bad. Whatdo you have?'

P.: ` I have a earache and'

Dr. `Let's see. You have a ear'

P.: `What do Ito do?'

Dr.: `You need to putin your ear twice a day.'

P.: `you, doctor!'

Dr.: `You're!'

• drops; welcome; help; need; infection; thank; drops

B. Patient: `Good, doctor! I have a terrible

Dr.:' Whichis it?'

P.: `It's the one on the lower jaw on the'

Dr.: `Open yourI see. You have a

P.: `WhatI need to do, doctor?'

Dr.: `You need aI can do that today.'

P.: `OK, doctor.'

• filling; left; do; morning; toothache; tooth; cavity; mouth; ANNEX4



KITCHEN FURNITURE AND EQUIPMENT



Model for dialogues;

A. `We want to cook breakfast/ lunch/dinner for you.'

B. `Oh, that's so kind of you, guys!'

C. `But we don't know where you keep your stuff in the kitchen.'

D. `Yeah, so how about some chicken soup/ pasta/vegetable salad?'

A. `Good idea! Would you like some?'

B. `Sure, that would be great! '

C. `Where do you keep the knives and cutting board and all the other kitchen tools?'

B. `The knives are in the first drawer in the cupboard. The cutting board is on the last shel

your right.'

D. `And the veggies?'

B. `They're in the fridge which is next to the sink.'

ANNEX 5 Mike's diary



Sue's diary

PUZZLE SHEET

1. When did Mike meet John?

When did Mike meet Julie?

When did Mike meet Sue?

When did John meet Alice?

When did John meet Sue?

When did Alice meet Sue?

When did all four friends meet?



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