Hello fellow ELTs!
My school’s owner would like to incorporate a drama approach to improve speaking outcomes for our students. I have no issue with this, just no explicit experience. So I have suggested how to treat it as a ‘functional language’ approach with embodied learning. So, using language items they already have and adding new items as appropriate (as per *i* + 1 model) all while keeping it level appropriate and making it fun with dramatising the dialogue.
So, my questions is, does anyone have any suggestions re: resources/ examples/ modelling – free to access if possible. All advice welcome 🙂
Thanks in advance!
9 comments
Check out JALT’s Performance In Education (PIE) special interest group. Quite active when they’re active, but always out there doing something. You can call up David Kluge out of the blue and get some ideas from there. They’ve been doing it for years and years.
I nabbed a minor in theater at college, did high-school theater projects, and some after-college projects. I’m over in Hyogo (Nishinomiya) teaching English. Hit me up if you’re nearby. Be nice to brainstorm with another foreigner.
For easier activities. I’d incorporate situations that they might find themselves in. Some situations could be:
>Helping someone lost at a train station
>Ordering food at a cafe
>Consoling someone who is upset
>Planning a trip
>Going camping
Etc. These are pretty mundane though. They might be useful for lower level students.
Spend a while getting familiar with ChatGPT and it’s prompts. I teach drama and often use it to make hyper specific scripts for specific student groups. The writing itself isn’t great obvs but can be tweaked. For example “Write a short one scene stage play for 4 students aged between 10 and 14. The setting is a zoo, and the characters are exploring the zoo through animal names and colors. ” you could add some extra prompts to make it more interesting ie “One character is an alien masquerading as a human who has never seen an earth animal before”
You could also replace words or even just use follow up commands such as “make all the animals mammals” or “simplify the language”
It’s a huuuuge time saver for any acting activities and is a lot of fun
Use traditional Japanese folk tales like Momotaro, it makes it easy because they are well known.
Might be useful – https://www.dramanotebook.com/plays-for-kids/easy-scripts-for-early-readers-2/
Bring the play to life. Props, costumes, sets, lights, songs, sound effects, dance moves, stage instructions.
If you’ve any understanding about Japanese theatre, Japanese acting or comedy, then build this in. They are likely to be radically different to your way of doing it. Consider even writing a story with them. That’s a lot more work but it can lead to something special if you’ve got time. ChatGPT can work wonders with time saving this!
Pull out phrases or vocab that are key and use them as the basis for games/tests (aka challenges). Adapt existing games to use these phrases. The ALT age old classic “eraser game” was one of my favorites due to the high level of student output. You can adapt this to “the finish my sentence game” and you’ve got a sure fire way to parrot sentences.
Lastly, maybe take a look at a certain existing eikaiwa that already uses this as their foundation. You know you are in the right place if a three letter acronym name comes up, or if Chris Broad’s Worst job in Japan video on YouTube gets you there!
As you mentioned Krashen’s I+1 I’m assuming you want to use the English your students are already familiar with plus some new English they can learn and use? If so, I’d keep that in mind. The other idea about using Japanese folk tales, or familiar ones like the big turnip, is great as students already know them and can expand on them. Best of luck.
I would also take a look at education relating to fluency in English. Anything by Timothy Rasinski. He uses weekly/monthly dramatic performances.
There’s a great TV show called Whose Line Is It Anyway? Adapt those activities.