Kevin's Blog - 4th March 2010

Making a drama out of a crisis – or any other situation for that matter...

Using drama to teach English.

Mention the word drama and many people shudder; acting, learning lines, directing, making a fool of yourself! It’s not everyone’s idea of a fun lesson. However, if you think what ‘drama’ can achieve, then there are several benefits for you and your students.

Elements of drama and its use are covered in the Chichester College TESOL course in Bangkok, but given the nature of the course, fully exploring the many possibilities drama has to offer is not always possible. That’s up to you once you get into the classroom.

Drama can work with any age group – obviously you’re not going to have a class of 5-year olds spouting Shakespeare word-for-word but any use of the English language is the aim. Remember – we want our students to speak English naturally as a communication tool.

Any role-play situation is ‘drama’ and most course books have role-play exercises built in to each unit. Six lines of dialogue, A+B ‘Introducing yourself’. Simple. Moving away from the course book, allowing students to script dialogue, direct and act, can be a fun process. Within the classroom this can be a simple task of having small groups come up with a 5-minute play based on a theme. Thai students in particular relish the idea of dressing up and acting. I don’t know why, but very few students in my experience are shy of performing in front of others.

At the end of every academic year, my colleagues and I hand over the reins to three year groups at our secondary school, who have to produce the annual school show. This is a showcase piece where they perform in front of the staff and their parents. The whole show is conducted in English. We (the teachers) are mere facilitators; we prompt ideas, set the ball rolling whilst the students do the rest. It’s very rewarding to watch the creative process unfold. The students come up with some brilliant and often very funny performances which have us in stitches.

Of course managing anything up to 300 students through a 3-hour show is a challenge. But not to worry there is always plenty of help on hand from the local teachers. And just think how much English language is used over the course of 3 hours. Tonnes! As far as I and my colleagues are concerned, that’s ‘job done’.

27th November 2009

Getting involved and staying sane

31st October 2009

Get our your scissors and glue - it's time to get creative

13th September 2009

What to do when I've got a few hours respite from teacher training

6th June 2009

The show isn't over 'till the class bell rings