In the 21st Century, perhaps more than ever before, we can observe the growing willingness of educational stakeholders to identify increasingly diverse ways of linking theoretical education with practical learning. This is achieved through the extensive use of active and participatory teaching methods that guide both students and teachers towards innovation in education, while stimulating interest in the teaching–learning process.
Why should we use drama education in foreign language teaching?
Because it:
- helps create authentic contexts by engaging students in real conversations, teaching them how to express their feelings, listen to others’ opinions, and, most importantly, become aware of how they convey thoughts, emotions, and feelings;
- combines meaning with understanding words and communication contexts;
- contributes to the development of intrinsic memory, as students are required to repeat lines several times when preparing for a theatrical performance;
- helps build confidence and self-esteem, especially for shy students who can “hide” behind a role;
- encourages public speaking;
- integrates all learning styles – visual, auditory, and tactile-kinesthetic.
Mime, role-play, improvisation, simulations, and forum theatre are just a few active-participatory methods that support the development of personality, interpersonal and intrapersonal skills, as well as communication skills. Such dramatic techniques facilitate creative and spontaneous expression in various communication contexts. Being student-centered techniques, they encourage oral expression and active involvement in the learning process, fostering initiative and engagement.
Mime
Mime is a dramatic learning technique that focuses on understanding and describing gestural behavior. It helps raise awareness of the importance of non-verbal language in conveying messages. Mime activities can be carried out individually or in groups.
For example, a student must express a word or phrase through gestures, while the other classmates ask closed-ended questions requiring “yes” or “no” answers in order to guess what it is. Examples of actions that can be mimed include daily routines, sports activities, or everyday life situations.
Students can be divided into groups and asked to prepare a short scenario illustrating a real-life situation, an idiomatic expression, or a proverb. The other students must observe carefully and describe the sequences of the scenario performed by their peers.
To make the activity even more engaging, five students can be selected and asked to line up in a single row and close their eyes. A sixth student receives a scenario and has a few minutes to think about how to interpret it. Then, they tap the first student on the shoulder, who turns around and observes the gestural interpretation of the scenario. This second student then turns to the next student, taps them on the shoulder, and reenacts what they observed. Each student proceeds in the same way until the fifth student in the original line is reached. This student must then describe verbally what the previous colleague mimed.
The rest of the class observes all the actions and expresses their opinions regarding how messages are transmitted from one person to another. Connections can be made with real-life situations in which messages undergo transformations, as well as analogies related to how each person communicates, including the tendency to exaggerate information.
Role-play
Role-play is an active-participatory method that recreates real social contexts, helping students develop communication and interaction skills in a dynamic and enjoyable way, by engaging cognitive and sensory psychological processes.
Through micro-dialogues, students can learn how to ask for directions, buy a product, behave appropriately in a medical office, and more. In doing so, they learn how to communicate, interact, become aware of other people’s feelings, and develop empathy and social skills. This method significantly contributes to the development of oral communication skills.
Improvisations and simulations help students connect theoretical knowledge with real-life situations, raising awareness of the usefulness and relevance of what they have learned.
Forum theatre
The concept of forum theatre, also known as the theatre of the oppressed, emerged in 1973 in Peru at the initiative of Brazilian director Augusto Boal. As its name suggests, this form of theatre encourages audience participation in debate and interaction. Very often, forum theatre is used as a tool for social intervention because it relies on the idea of a “forum” that allows the audience to express themselves.
We are often passive witnesses to social problems that affect us all. This method helps us realize that silently observing injustices makes us complicit in creating and perpetuating unfavorable situations.
A group of students performs a real-life situation, while the rest of the class forms the audience, observing passively what happens on stage. The audience may intervene at any time by replacing a character or offering a concrete example of how a conflict can be resolved or an unfavorable situation can be improved. The central idea is to invite the audience to take action, to say, “STOP! I do not agree with such behavior, and I can make a change.” In this way, students are encouraged to react to social conflicts, believe in their own ideas, and learn from one another.
Conclusion
The use of drama education in foreign language teaching appeals to the natural love of play in order to develop communicative competence, personality, and self-expression. It encourages spontaneity, creativity, motivation, empathy, and teamwork. The successful implementation of these methods depends on correlating the needs of the target group with openness to innovation.
References
Vernon, Shelley Ann, ESL Games: 176 English Language Games for Children: Make Your Teaching Easy and Fun
Spolin, Viola, Improvisation for the Theater: A Handbook of Teaching and Directing Techniques. Northwestern University Press.