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Lesson 9: Drama techniques.
The amusing way: songs, plays, games.
I. Introduction II. Animation and expression techniques as a resource for L2 learning. A. Drama games B. Role-playing and improvisation C. Simulation D. Puppetry E. Mime F. Songs III. Dramatisation of everyday situations and representations of stories, characters, jokes, etc. A. Dramatisation of everyday situations. B. Representation of stories, characters, jokes, etc. IV. Group work for creative activities. Teacher’s role. VI. Conclusion. VII. Bibliography
I. INTRODUCTION
Drama is not a new theory of language teaching, but rather a technique which can be used to develop certain language skills. Its use in the classroom derives from the recognised need to have some experience with language in a context as similar as possible to real life. Therefore, drama cannot be restricted to certain areas of the language teaching curriculum, but it must be present at every stage of the learning process. At any moment in our teaching, we can be confronted with situations in which dramatised action can help our pupils produce and understand the new language, before being able to use it in real life. Drama is a flexible technique that can be used in several ways. We next see what we achieve by using it:
- Drama is a technique of communicative language teaching. Drama, therefore, emphasises the role of the pupils as active participants, rather than passive receptors. With this technique, our pupils can acquire fluent interaction in the target language.
- In drama, we can see some factors of genuine communication, such as relationships between characters, emotional involvement or body language. In fact, the interaction between the participants gives rise to a set of linguistic and emotional reactions very similar to those which would occur in a real communication act.
Thus, using drama in the classroom will help our students assimilate a whole range of pronunciation features, and acquire new vocabulary and grammar in a contextualised manner. It can also be used to teach new structures and new vocabulary in a meaningful way.
B. Role-playing and improvisation: Role-playing describes a type of activity in which the students play a particular role in an imaginary situation taken from real life, fairy tales, jokes, etc. As for the language to be used, the students are normally told more or less what they have to say but, at the same time, the students are free to express themselves as they like.
The basic indications are:
- The ROLES that the students will play.
- The SETTING where the dialogue takes place.
- The FUNCTIONS that each of the participants are going to communicate in the dialogue.
There are various types of role-play. The simplest one consists of making the students create short dialogues, using the language and gestures that their role requires. If there are students who have never done role playing before, we should begin with a demonstration about how to perform it. After the demonstration for the whole class, the teacher will hand out role cards to students in pairs. These cards contain similar cues about different objects, actions and roles, so that the learners’ dialogues are not all the same. As the students get better at this type of activity, they will gradually create their own language models. In fact, the real value of acting out is a first stage towards improvisation, as a memorised dialogue is of doubtful value, except on formalised occasions, such as introductions, asking for the things in a shop, polite refusals, etc. The important thing, then, is to provide a framework which encourages improvisation by way of a situation. At more elementary levels, it is important to link this with some structures, vocabulary or expressions of English that we want our students to practise. At more advanced stages, we can give more freedom to our students. The starting point is often something which seems naive but, when transformed by the students’ imagination, it can be amusing and a good rehearsal for English outside the classroom.
C. Simulation: Simulation is a “problem solving” activity, in which the students generally involve the discussion of a problem that is presented by the teacher, using various forms of realia: maps, recorded interviews, newspaper cuttings, etc. Each student is then given the essential information about the problem and they act out taking part as themselves. During the simulation, students are asked to bring their own experience into the portrayal.
D. Puppetry: Puppetry is another drama technique. Puppets are an excellent vehicle for language practice and their manipulation in an improvised stage may provide a good opportunity for the more timid students. Certain shy pupils may talk more using puppets than standing in front of the class.
C. Mime: Mime is another different way of understanding dramatisation. Pupils can use mime to demonstrate comprehension of what they have heard or read. But mime can also be used as a stimulus for speech or writing: one pupil mimes an activity and the rest of the class have to say or write what it is.
D. Songs: Songs are one of the most interesting resources that can be introduced in the English classroom. Students are exposed to authentic material in an enjoyable way. Through songs, we can integrate all the skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), and develop discourse competence while fostering our students’ motivation towards the learning of the Foreign Language. Therefore, let’s summarise some of the reasons for the use of songs as an important part of our methodological plan in the teaching of English as a Foreign Language:
- They are an excellent source of MOTIVATION. Songs make foreign language learning more fun and attractive, and they create a pleasant atmosphere.
D. 1. THE CLASSIFICATION OF SONGS:
When choosing a song, we must take into account several aspects: our didactic aims and objectives; our students’ characteristics (age, likes and dislikes, their level of English, etc.); but also the fact that there is a great variety of different songs and rhymes available for teachers. Here there is a brief classification of these different songs and rhymes:
- Songs for occasions: Songs that make reference to things that happen in the students’ daily life: “Happy birthday” or “Auld Lang Syne” (New Year’s Eve).
- Topic songs : Songs that deal with a specific topic. We must bear in mind that these topics must be interesting for the children. For example: Colours (“The colours”) or animals (“Old Mc Donald”).
- Songs with actions : Action songs and rhymes were used before the arrival of Total Physical Response. However, since then, they have become more popular because they are very effective and pupils can move and do what is said in the lyrics. Action songs and rhymes are useful if children are feeling particularly restless. Finger rhymes can be used with the children sitting in their seats, while other songs require more vigorous actions with the children standing up or moving around: “If you’re happy” or “This is the way”.
- Round songs : A round is a circular song. We divide the students into three groups, and each group sings a part of the song, or they join in the singing of the song after one group has sung a line or a paragraph. When the singers get to the end of the last line, they continue singing from the beginning again, so the song becomes circular. For example: “Three blind mice” or “I hear thunder”.
- Dialogues songs : This type of songs is very useful. They are very easy to sing and at the same time they require more attention on the part of the children. For example: “I spy” or “I am a music man”.
- Traditional songs : These songs will not be probably known by the students, but they must learn them because they belong to the new culture they are
studying. For example: “Oh, Susanna”, “London Bridge” or “Yankee Doodle”. Furthermore, there are songs that we sing at a specific time of the year, such as Christmas Carols: “Merry Christmas” or “Jingle Bells”.
- Other songs : There are other songs for children that are more difficult, but that are also good to work with them in class. For example, songs in all Walt Disney’s films. A good idea to work with these songs is to watch the film at the same time we sing the song. For example: “Hakuna Matata” or “Fly, fly” (Peter Pan). Or we can also use pop songs that are trendy at present, or they were in the past, such as the songs by the Beatles.
- Traditional rhymes : Rhymes can be used in the same way as songs. This could be easier for those students that are a bit shy. Some traditional rhymes to be mentioned are: “One Potato” or “Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter”.
Although it is the teacher’s responsibility to choose the most suitable song for each group of students, it is also very advisable to contribute to our students’ choice of music and songs as much as possible, since this choice has some important advantages:
- Choosing some of the didactic materials gives our pupils some sense of responsibility in their own process of learning.
- It breaks the barrier between students and teacher, creating a warmer atmosphere.
- Ear training: Our pupils need also to have some ear training to help them distinguish between different aspects of English pronunciation. To do this, we can ask pupils to listen and count how may times an individual sound or word appears in a song. Songs can be used to learn vocabulary, perhaps action songs are the most common type of songs used to learn vocabulary, specially the parts of the body (“Hokey Cokey”, “If you’re happy...”, “Head and shoulders”, etc.).
Sociocultural competence is part of communicative competence. We must enable our pupils to discover details of lifestyle, eating habits, sports, festivals and traditions. Songs may serve a dual purpose: teach traditional English songs and convey sociocultural elements.
Finally, there are many different activities that we can do working with songs, depending on what we want our students to practise and to learn. It is extremely important to take into account that any listening activity must follow three stages: pre-listening, while-listening and post-listening. Some while- listening activities include:
- Listen and fill in the blanks.
- Listen and sequence sentences and paragraphs.
- Listen and sort (two songs mixed up together).
- Match paragraphs with pictures.
- Arrange the pictures in the right order, according to the content of the song.
- etc.
III. DRAMATISATION OF EVERYDAY SITUATIONS AND
REPRESENTATION OF STORIES, CHARACTERS, JOKES, ETC.
Having dealt with the different drama techniques, we will now go on to consider the dramatisation of everyday situations and the representation of stories, characters, jokes and so on.
A. Dramatisation of everyday situations: The features of the oral communication come as a shock to most learners when they are in an English speaking environment for the first time, because they have learnt English in the overprotected world of the classroom and are unprepared to contact with the real English speakers. So, it is necessary that we prepare them for this contact and, as we shall see, this can often be done through “Drama”, specially through simulations and role playing. The idea underlying both simulation and role playing is to create the pretence of a real life situation in the classroom, that’s to say, to bring the outside world into the classroom. As we have seen, a simulation is a drama technique where the pupils take part as themselves. A role play, on the other hand, is based on real acting, as our pupils play a role. As there are few possibilities to practise English in their daily life, we have to design situation simulations. A situation simulation deals with situations that are likely to occur to our pupils in their daily life. Most situation simulations are prepared in accordance with the needs of the group. For example, “An English family has moved in next door to your family” is an activity with several alternatives, so we can use it at different levels of proficiency:
- Invite the English speaking family to dinner
- Tell them about the nearest bakery
- Ask them for some salt
IV. Group work for creative activities. The teacher’s role.
There are many ways of approaching the different drama exercises. First of all, we can refer to the language needed so that the role can be practised. It is important to adjust the level of difficulty. By carefully adjusting the level of difficulty, language can be made more accessible to our pupils and, as they can do things with English, their confidence in their ability to learn English will be bigger and bigger. Indeed, too difficult activities may not motivate our pupils. Moreover, the level of motivation can be maintained by explaining our pupils the situation in depth, making them feel empathy with the characters, slowing down the experience and so on. Secondly, it is important to consider the students’ grouping, that is, individually, the whole class or in groups, with only a few members actually taking roles. With reference to group work, is it better to have mixed ability groups or is it better to put students of equal ability together? Each teacher must decide for him/herself, but it is advisable to vary the group organisation from time to time. This should include letting the students choose their own groups. As we all know, group work is efficient and advisable in foreign language learning. For this reason, it is important not to emphasise accuracy or precision in conversation and to be more concerned about the rich abundant set of relationships that originate from small group interactions. This allows for the creative and personalised development of conversation. On the other hand, even though the students will normally work in groups or pairs during a drama session, this doesn’t mean, however, that there is no place for the teacher in the activities. Far from that, we must present the scene or idea clearly and organise any preliminary work, ensuring that each student understands what he/she has to do. While the scenes are being worked on, we should move from group to group, perhaps joining in the preparatory discussion when necessary, helping when asked. We also have an important role in the discussion which normally follows each scene.
When the simulation or role play has finished, we must conduct feedback with our pupils. We must discuss with them whether the activity was successful, why certain decisions were made, etc. It is important to discuss not only about the use of English, but also about the content of it. We do not want our pupils to think that the object of the exercise is grammatical accuracy. They must realise that the main aim of the role play and simulation and, in fact, of any drama technique is the acquisition of communicative competence. To sum up, we must decide on the aim of the lesson and the steps we will follow, so the first role we play is that of manager. But we must be able to adopt many different roles as the lesson goes on to help maintain a high degree of interest. We must be a resource, a prompter, a monitor, that’s to say, we must adopt any role that helps to bring real life into the classroom.
