Using drama techniques in English lesson to improve reading, writing, listening and speaking skills
Drama is a specific fiction that is represented by a person in places like performances. This term is derived from the Greek word that means action that is also in other words ‘to do’ in theatre for instance, drama is performed on stage with an actor or a group of actors before an audience. Drama is a very powerful mode of indirect communication that sends directly the message from the actor’s artistically portrayed performance directly to the recipient’s eyes, then transferred to the brain. Drama not only amuses the recipient, but also educates them. Dramas are very famous and helpful especially in learning institutions and in fact, dramas employ individuals whereby they get their daily bread from it apart from the fact that it is a powerful mode of communication. In schools as an example, drama is fictionally used to as a learning mode to convey some educational knowledge to learners.
According to Duquette (1995) many theorists for the last twenty five years have been trying to specialize on a possible alternative communication tool or in other words a second language which more effective in all aspects as far as the positive communicative approach is concerned. Convincingly, both their contributions and arguments have been readily accepted by the majority except for most teachers and school boards who are still not sure as to how and where to commence from in the approach of classroom implementation since they don’t know the specific skills that they should develop, what strategies they should apply as well as the levels in which they should take effective leaps from. Duquette argues that experts have to see more continuity among their programs so as to relate their strategies and outcome expectations in order to observe and verify an increase in competence with time among their students so that they can be able to understand how an element in a program can relate to one another. Due to the fact that teachers are naturally more practical people, they require the publication that will feed them with ideas of how they can develop second language strategy in their students who are at different levels of development in competency. A good example of such publications is drama-teaching English as a second language.
Almonds (1995) strongly recommend that teachers should embrace the drama approach completely through staging plays with their learners because; Drama is a whole-individual approach towards language teaching and it requires someone to look holistically at communication. He also reiterates that creating characters to act in plays may be intellectual, visceral and an emotional experience that makes the learning session more meaningful and more memorable since it is more transferable to the original world. Also, acting helps a lot in confidence building since irrespective of the performance fact, as well as the rapturous applause from the audience, it is absolutely collaborative and also, mutually supportive since they rely on each other to produce something of quality and value successfully. Therefore as a group, students share mutual objectives by putting on plays that provide achievable target that is tangible to work towards. The production of plays allows learners to explore as well as develop the character of their lives that hardly see the part of the stage. As a result, they are provided with enormous scope for the improvising of scenes that are not in the play therefore generating discussions of thoughts, characters, words and actions. Almond, M. (1995)
Brauer (2002) explains that the interplay between the language and the body...
References:
Almond, M. (1995), ‘Teaching English with Drama’ United Kingdom, Collin
Duquette, G. (1995), ‘Second language practice: classroom strategies for developing communicative’. New York.
