Benefits of drama-based activities for public speaking skills development of high school students

Размещено на http://www.allbest.ru/

Тернопільський національний педагогічний університет імені Володимира Гнатюка

Переваги вправ і завдань з використанням драматизації для розвитку вмінь публічного мовлення старшокласників

Ольга Дацків

Анотація

Повномасштабна війна, яка триває в Україні, впливає на всіх учасників освітнього процесу. Незважаючи на численні виклики, країна продовжує освітню реформу з метою становлення Нової української школи. У статті досліджуються переваги вправ і завдань з використанням драматизації для розвитку вмінь публічного мовлення старшокласників. Огляд літератури підкреслює необхідність інноваційних методів навчання в умовах освітньої реформи. Проаналізовані емпіричні дослідження демонструють позитивний вплив вправ і завдань з використанням драматизації на розвиток вмінь говоріння учнів старших класів у багатьох країнах. Для контекстуалізації дослідження визначено такі ключові терміни, як «драма», «драматизація», «вправи і завдання з використанням драматизації» та «публічне мовлення» в контексті вивчення іноземної мови в Україні. Драматизація визначається як взаємодія вчителя та учнів у драматичних іграх, рольових іграх, імпровізаціях, симуляціях та театральних проектах, спрямованих на формування комунікативної компетентності учнів. Вміння публічного мовлення позиціонуються як важлива складова ширшої комунікативної компетентності. Стаття пропонує способи інтеграції вправ і завдань з використанням драматизації в уроки, факультативні курси та позакласні заходи з іноземної мови у старших класах середньої школи. Синтез результатів дослідження розкриває три основні категорії переваг вправ і завдань з використанням драматизації для розвитку вмінь публічного мовлення старшокласників: переваги, що стосуються навчання говоріння іноземною мовою, особистісні та соціальні. Покращена вимова, збільшений словниковий запас і сформовані граматичні навички, підвищена залученість у навчальний процес, креативність і розвинуті вміння міжособистісного спілкування визначені як основні переваги. Перспектива для подальших досліджень вбачається у вивченні інтеграції технологій, включаючи штучний інтелект, для покращення публічних виступів старшокласників.

Ключові слова: драматизація; вправи і завдання на основі драматизації; вміння говоріння; вміння монологічного мовлення; публічне мовлення; вміння публічного мовлення; старшокласники.

Olha Datskiv

Ternopil Volodymyr Hnatiuk National Pedagogical University

Benefits of drama-based activities for public speaking skills development of high school students

Abstract

dramatization educational teacher student

The ongoing full-scale war in Ukraine has disrupted education, affecting both students and teachers. Despite numerous challenges, the country continues to pursue its educational reform. This paper investigates the role of drama-based activities in developing public speaking skills of high school students. The literature review emphasizes the need for innovative teaching methods in the face of educational reform. Empirical studies analyzed showcase positive impact of drama-based activities on speaking skills development of high school students worldwide. To contextualize the research within Ukrainian educational policy, the study defines key terms such as "drama," "dramatization", "drama-based activities", and "public speaking" in the foreign language learning context. The study defines dramatization as the interaction of a teacher and students in drama games, role plays, improvisations, simulations and theatre projects aimed at forming the students' communicative competence. Public speaking is positioned as a crucial component of broader communicative competence, as outlined in educational standards. The paper proposes pedagogical implications for integrating drama-based activities into language lessons, elective courses, and extracurricular activities at the upper-secondary level. The synthesis of research findings reveals three overarching categories of benefits of drama-based activities for public speaking skills development of high school students: language learning, personal, and social. Improved pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar skills, increased engagement, creativity, and enhanced interpersonal skills are reported outcomes. The study concludes with a call for further research, particularly exploring the integration of technology, including artificial intelligence, to enhance public speaking of high school students.

Keywords: dramatization; drama-based activities; speaking skills; production skills; public speaking; public speaking skills; high school students.

Problem statement

The full-scale war in Ukraine has negatively affected the quality of the education process and the students' progress, and has impacted the mental and emotional state of students and teachers [17]. However, despite these challenging conditions the country consistently implements its educational reform initiated in 2017. The start of the reform at the upper-secondary level of education is planned for 2027.

In line with the new educational standards and curricula, as well as Framework for 21st Century Learning [3], the reform will continue in the direction of providing individualized and differentiated learning. Its basic ideas are the education of students in grades 10-12 according to their interests, competencies, plans for selfrealization. The necessary conditions that will ensure the transition to specialized training in general educational institutions are being created by pre-professional training of students (in particular, in the 8th and 9th grade), their psychological and pedagogical preparation for high school which entails introduction of new required and elective subjects in the school curricula, revising and updating existing subjects, eliminating excessive students' load by reducing the number of subjects they study, forming of study interest groups, holding competitions, organizing school scientific societies [15]. In addition, high school students will be provided with wider autonomy in choosing educational subjects and levels of subject complexity.

Communication in foreign languages as the ability to understand adequately concepts expressed in a foreign language, to express both in speech and in writing the ideas, thoughts, feelings, facts and views by listening, speaking, reading and writing in a broad range of societal and cultural contexts and the skills of direct activity and intercultural communication has been specified as one of 10 key competences students acquire when studying different subjects at every stage of education [15]. Equally important are cross-disciplinary skills, including speaking skills in a foreign language, listed in foreign language curricula [22], for without those skills the formidable task of key competences formation cannot be achieved.

Public speaking skills in a native and foreign language are integral to the holistic development of high school students, equipping them with the ability to articulate thoughts, convey ideas persuasively, and engage effectively in various social and academic settings. Private schools understand the importance of public speaking skills revising their curricula to include public speaking courses [23]. The part "Expected results of educational and cognitive activity of students at the end of the 11th grade" of the foreign language curricula among the productive types of speech activity specifies a speech in front of an audience, for the implementation of which a student "makes a sufficiently clear, short, prepared presentation on a familiar topic from the field of their interests", explains the main points quite clearly; answers clarifying questions, but may ask to repeat if the pace of speech was fast" [22]. Analysis of the terms used in the curricula shows that 'public speaking' is not used in these documents, instead the terms 'speech' and 'presentation' are used, which together relate to communicating with an audience.

Recognizing the multifaceted advantages of drama-based activities in nurturing these essential skills, this research endeavors to present a comprehensive and adaptable overview of the confirmed benefits for high school students. Through a qualitative approach encompassing theoretical analysis and the synthesis of pertinent studies,we will investigate the use of drama-based activities in the foreign language learning process, specifically focusing on the development of public speaking skills.

Analysis of previous studies and publications

Educational reform in our country necessitates the use of innovative organizational forms and teaching methods. Among many teaching methods available, foreign language educators have long recognized the value of drama in their work [7; 13; 18]. A copious amount of research has been conducted to examine the use of drama in developing speaking competence in different contexts: kindergarten [1], primary [6], middle [8; 19], high [4; 6; 10; 11; 14; 16] school, and college [9]. In this paper, we will focus on previous research on benefits of drama for high school students, in particular on benefits of drama-based activities for development speaking skills.

An empirical study by M. Stinson and K. Freebody in Singapore investigated whether the use of drama activities during the learning process at high schools improved students' English speaking skills. The data were collected using speaking tests and interviews. The results revealed that the intervention group made more significant progress than the comparison group in terms of clarity, vocabulary, relevance to the topic, interaction with the examiner and the need for prompting [14].

Two studies by I. Prisana, K. Sakon and P. Iamsaard, S. Kerdpol researched the effects of dramatic activities on improving English communicative speaking skills of high school students in Thailand. The researchers used speaking tests and questionnaires to collect data. The results indicated that after using dramatic activities to teach speaking skills students made considerable language learning progress and demonstrated highly positive attitudes to drama-based techniques [11; 4].

Similarly, a recent quasi-experimental research in Vietnam on effects of applying drama-based activities in speaking classes on EFL students' speaking performance by C.T. Nguyen demonstrated positive effects of drama-based activities on students' speaking performance, specifically on their discourse management. Also, it has established that students had positive perceptions on implementing drama-based activities in speaking lessons [10].

J. Casteleyn's research explores the potential of an improvisation training for the development of public speaking in first language in secondary education in Belgium. The study detected a significant but moderate impact of the improvisation training that focuses on eye-contact, body language and voice on the public speaking competence of students in secondary education [2]. The researchers's remark that research seems to neglect L1 (first language, mother tongue) public speaking in adolescents may not be completely accurate as a lot of studies are published in languages other than English. Our search yilded numerous results and led us to conclude that studies on teaching high school students public speaking in Ukrainian are present in research. However, studies aimed at improving L2 (second language, foreign language) public speaking of secondary education students is still an emerging domain. At the same time, we agree with J. Casteleyn that most educational systems explicitly refer to public speaking as a learning objective for adolescents [2]. This objective is expressed, albeit implicitly, in the foreign language curricula for high school in Ukraine [22]. Hence the need to employ drama-based activities for facilitating the learning objective's achievement.

The purpose of the study is: 1) to define the terms “drama”, “drama-based activities”, and “public speaking” in the context of learning a foreign language at upper-secondary level; 2) to suggest pedagogical implications of the problem under study for Ukrainian education in the transformative period of New Ukrainian school reform; 3) to provide an overview of benefits drama-based activities possess for public speaking skills development of high school students.

Research methods

A narrative review was selected for this research project based on the assumption that the narrative review can stimulate new ideas and insights from educators working with upper-secondary students. For this narrative review, we defined our topic and scope, searched for and selected the literature, summarized the literature, identified and discussed the themes and gaps, and reported the results. Qualitative methods have been used to analyze and interpret the findings.

Summary of the main research material. To discuss benefits of drama-based activities for public speaking skills development of high school students, it is useful to first clarify what we mean by “drama”, “dramatization”, “drama-based activities” and “public speaking”.

Drama in Greek means "an action," and is derived from the verb drao, "to do." In foreign languages learning, drama has emerged as an effective method that provides involvement of both the teachers and students during the learning process and presenting the target language to the learners in an interactive, communicative and contextualized way. Involvement in drama-based activities can be regarded as dramatization, where interaction plays the pivotal role. We define dramatization as the interaction of a teacher and students in drama games, role plays, improvisations, simulations and theatre projects aimed at forming the students' communicative competence [20]. The aforementioned definition gives a comprehensive list of drama-based activities or forms of dramatizations, namely drama games, role plays, improvisations, simulations and theatre projects which are used in a foreign language classroom to develop four language skills but, as research and practice suggest, are mostly aimed at developing speaking skills.

Educational policy in Ukraine maintains that the content of foreign language learning in high school should be adequate its goals: to teach speaking through speaking (by performing actions aimed at mastering this type of speech activity), teach reading through reading, teach listening through listening, teach writing through writing [21], and stresses the importance of motivation in mastering communication skills. According to the foreign languages curricula for general educational institutions, spheres for communication are defined as personal, public, educational [22]. Teaching speaking to high school students is based on authentic (or close to authentic) communication situations at school, at home, in public places. At the same time, considerable attention is paid to the development of communication ethics at interpersonal and intercultural levels [21]. Although foreign language curricula for high school do not have explicit mention of public speaking, we believe it falls within learning objectives for high students as a component of speaking competence and a broader communicative competence. Cambridge dictionary explains public speaking as the activity of speaking on a subject to a group of people [12].

Drawing on the Council of Europe recommendations, J. Casteleyn describes competence in public speaking as a communicative language competence that is the sum of knowledge, skills and characteristics that empowers a person to act using specifically linguistic means [2]. According to the researcher, public speaking has a similar status as other specific language competences. For the purposes of this research we refer to public speaking as a component of a broader communicative competence.

Our next step is to recommend how dramatization exercises and tasks aimed at improvement public speaking can be incorporated in the English language lessons, elective courses and extracurricular activities at general secondary educational institutions at upper-secondary level. For this purpose, we will first suggest drama-based activities to be used at each stage of the foreign language lesson. In traditional PPP (presentation, practice, production), ESA (engage, study, activate), and CAP (context, analysis, practice) lesson structures there are three stages where drama-based activities can be included.

At the first (presentation, engage, context) stage the language is introduced, or 'presented' to the learners, usually by introducing a context or situation. The teacher elicits ideas or suggestions from students, gets them to talk to each other about what they know or think about the situation, etc. This stage also helps them to remember the language and vocabulary they already know about the topic. The English lessons incorporating public speaking can, at this stage, include drama games or improvisation exercises which would get students ready for drama-based speaking activities in the main part of the lesson. These exercises may focus on a specific aspect of public speaking, e.g. eye-contact, body language, voice. They will allow students to feel comfortable, overcome their fear of mistakes or looking the audience in the eyes, boost the students' confidence and allow them to watch the audience more directly, which should increase the quality of their speaking. Exercises on body language, during which students mime objects, teach them to use their body as a communication tool. Finally, the voice exercises focus on bringing variation in pitch and volume.

The second (practice, study, analysis) part of the lesson may contain intonation drills of sentences, role plays for controlled and freer practice, short improvisations, guided simulations. Since the aim of this stage is accuracy, error correction is important. The teacher monitors the students closely and takes time to correct errors. At this stage a delayed error correction section after the drama-based activity would be useful for eliminating common errors.

At the third (production, activate, practice) stage a public speaking task, a 1-minute public speaking exercise in the form of a monologue can be employed. The student chooses a statement, e.g. “climate change is our common concern”, “emotions are important”, ''cryptocurrency should be regulated”, “digital tablets are better than books”, etc. These statements have to correspond with the general topic under study as well as be relevant and interesting. After reading the statement, the student is given 10 seconds to collect their thoughts, and then to share their opinion about the statement with the rest of the class for one minute. The speaking time is gradually extended to 5 minutes, but the preparation time stays the same for ensuring spontaneity of the utterance. The abovementioned speaking activity can be implemented as a “Hot Seat” activity with the students assuming the roles of celebrities, e.g. climate justice activist Greta Thunberg, singer and producer Ariana Grande. At this stage, the teacher plans and implements reflection and assessment, involving students into meaningful discourse about the results of their learning.

Drama-based activities can be utilized in extracurricular activities at secondary schools, such as drama and public speaking clubs, school TEDtalks, speaking competitions, performances etc. The findings of a longitudinal study by Y.J. Lee and Y.-T. Liu suggest that drama-mediated pedagogy effectively enhanced the experimental participants' presentation performance and became more effective than the traditional approach only after a real-life audience was involved [6].

Finally, we will generalize information from pertinent research on benefits of using drama-based activities for developing the students' speaking skills and extrapolate these findings on teaching public speaking in a foreign language. Our analysis of perceived benefits of using drama-based activities for speaking skills improvement revealed three broad categories of benefits, namely foreign language learning, personal, and social. Language learning benefits include, but are not limited to, improved pronunciation, vocabulary and grammar skills, discourse management, task completion. Personal benefits are increased engagement and motivation, creativity, reduced anxiety. Social benefits reported in research are improved collaboration (both teacher-student and peer), developed interpersonal skills. Overall, researchers agree on a big potential of drama-based activities as a teaching and developmental tool.

Conclusions and prospects for further research

The research project navigated its aim - conducting a narrative review of relevant literature, defining key terms, suggesting pedagogical implications within the transformative context of the New Ukrainian school reform, and providing an overview of benefits drama-based activities possess for public speaking skills development of high school students. Using a narrative review methodology we offered a comprehensive analysis of relevant literature and provided insights for the enhancement of foreign language learning and public speaking skills among high school students in the context of the New Ukrainian school reform.

The contemporary educational landscape is marked by the increasing integration of technology. Exploring how digital platforms, virtual reality, artificial intelligence can enhance the implementation and effectiveness of drama-based activities for foreign language learning and public speaking skills development represents a promising area for further investigation.

References

1. Barakat, A.M.M.A.R. The effects of digital drama-based instruction on developing receptive and expressive language among kindergarten children. International Journal of Instruction. 2023. Vol. 16, no. 1. P. 103-118. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2023.1616a.

2. Casteleyn J. Improving public speaking in secondary education - Exploring the potential of an improvisation training. L1-Educational Studies in Language and Literature. 2019. Vol. 19. P. 1-18. https://doi.org/10.17239/L1ESLL-2019.19.03.04.

3. Framework for 21st Century Learning. URL: https://static.battelleforkids.org/documents/p21/p21_framework_brief.pdf.

4. Iamsaard P., Kerdpol S. A Study of Effect of Dramatic Activities on Improving English Communicative Speaking Skill of Grade 11th Students. English Language Teaching. 2015. Vol. 8, no. 11. P. 69-78. http://dx.doi.org/10.5539/elt.v8n11p69.

5. Lee Y.J., Liu Y.-T. Promoting oral presentation skills through drama-based tasks with an authentic audience: a longitudinal study. Asia-Pacific Educational Research. 2022. Vol. 31, no. 3. P. 253-267. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40299-021-00557-x.

6. Lopez Oterino L. Drama activities for the development of students' oral skills in English. Human Review. 2022. P. 2-9.

7. Maley A., Duff A. Drama techniques: A resource book of communication activities for language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006. 246 p.

8. Man C.F., May A.L.J., Sharif S., Singh, S.S.B. Exploring the use of drama-based activities as a learning tool in English oral proficiency development among students from non-Malay-medium nation schools: A preliminary study. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences. 2019. Vol. 9, no. 6. P. 1202-1215.

9. Miccoli L. English through drama for oral skills development. ELT Journal. 2003. Vol. 57, no. 2. P. 122-129. https://doi.org/10.1093/ELT/57.2.122.

10. Nguyen C.T. Effects of applying drama-based activities in speaking classes on EFL students' speaking performance. International Journal of Instruction. 2023. Vol. 16, no. 3. P. 991-1012. https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2023.16353a.

11. Prisana I. and Sakon K. A study of effect of dramatic activities on improving English communicative speaking skill of grade 11th students. English Teaching. 2015. Vol. 8, no. 11. P. 69-78.

12. Public speaking. Cambridge dictionary. Cambridge. URL: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/public-speaking.

13. Rahmawati Astiandani F., Mustofa A. Drama in fostering students' speaking skills: A systematic review on benefits and problems. Vivid: Journal of Language and Literature. 2021. Vol. 10, no. 1. P. 18-22. http://dx.doi.org/10.25077/vj.10.1.18-22.2021.

14. Stinson M., Freebody K. The DOL project: The contributions of process drama to improved results in English oral communication. Youth Theatre Journal. 2006. Vol. 20, no.1. P. 27-41.

15. The New Ukrainian School. Conceptual principles of secondary school reform. Ministry of Education and Science. 2016. 40 p. URL: https://nushub.org.ua/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/concept_nus_eng-yuliya-romanenko.pdf.

16. Tseng, C.-T.H. Developing communicative competence through drama-based projects in an EFL classroom. International Journal of English Language Teaching. 2018. Vol. 6, no. 8. P. 60-71.

17. War & Education. How a year of the full-scale invasion affected Ukrainian schools. Cedos research report, 2023. URL: https://cedos.org.ua/en/researches/war-and-education-how-a-year-of-the-full-scale-invasion-influenced-ukrainian-schools/.

18. Wilson K. Drama and improvisation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012. 125 p.

19. Wongsa M., Son, J.-B. Enhancing Thai secondary school students' English speaking skills, attitudes and motivation with drama-based activities and Facebook. Innovation in Language Learning and Teaching. 2022. Vol. 16, no. 1. P. 41-52. https://doi.org/10.1080/17501229.2020.1853134.

20. Datskiv O.P. Metodyka formuvannia vmin hovorinnia u maibutnikh uchyteliv anhliiskoi movy zasobamy dramatyzatsii [Methods of forming future English teachers' speaking skills by means of dramatization]: dys. ... kand. ped. nauk: 13.00.02. Kyiv, 2012. 321 s.

21. Linhvodydaktychni zasady navchannia inozemnoi movy uchniv starshykh klasiv zahalnoosvitnikh navchalnykh zakladiv: navchalno-metodychnyi posibnyk [Linguodidactic bases of teaching foreign language to senior pupils of secondary schools: a study guide] / Redko V.H., Polonska T.K., Basai N.P. (2013). Kyiv: Pedahohichna dumka.

22. Navchal'ni prohramy dlia 10-11 klasiv [Curricula for grades 10-11]. URL: https://mon.gov.ua/ua/osvita/zagalna-serednya-osvita/navchalni-programi/navchalni-programi-dlya-10-11-klasiv.

23. «Slukhaty pidlitkiv - nadvazhlyvo». Yak innovatsiina shkola u Lvovi hotuie starshoklasnykiv do publichnykh vystupiv. ["Listening to teenagers is very important." How an innovative school in Lviv prepares high school students for public speaking]. URL: https://tvoemisto.tv.

Размещено на Allbest.ru