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26Экспериментальный подход в обучении английскому для увеличения вовлеченности изучающих английский язык: драма
Липина Анна Алексеевна,
кандидат филологических наук, доцент, ФГБОУ ВО «Российская академия народного хозяйства и государственной службы при Президенте Российской Федерации»
E-mail: lipina-aa@ranepa.ru
Рассматриваемая тема посвящена обучению английскому языку через драму. Причины выбора данного подхода разнообразны. Первая причина связана с личным убеждением и практикой преподавания, что учащиеся лучше усваивают и воспринимают новую информацию и знания, если они погружены в ситуацию, в которой испытывают положительные эмоции [1]. Кроме того, доказано, что пребывание в дружеской обстановке может помочь учащимся стать более устойчивыми к языковым неудачам и улучшить общее отношение к изучению языка [3]. Во-вторых, важно экспериментировать с этим подходом, так как он представлен не только разыгрыванием сценариев по ролям в качестве отработки различных коммуникативных навыков.
Со стороны студентов данный подход поможет проанализировать языковой эталон, затем применить полученные навыки знания в похожих коммуникативных ситуациях, а после осмыслить, что получилось хорошо, а что пошло не так, и над какими областями следует поработать. После этапа рефлексии, студенты могут усовершенствовать навыки, применяя их на практике на последующих занятиях.
Ключевые слова: драма как образовательный подход, оценка, культурное разнообразие, ролевая игра, профессиональное развитие.
Drama is something that we cannot put separately from our day-to-day life because drama is what is happening around us, what we feel, how we react. All this requires not only the knowledge of "civilized masks" we have to wear on a daily basis, but also how it should be applied in our lives [6]. Even W. Somerset Maugham in his novel 'Theatre' repeated Shakespeare's words that "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players." The following quote represents the essence of the question under consideration to its full extent and proves the fact that drama should be integrated into the English language teaching. In this respect drama activities can be as follows: mime, role-play, extended role-play (or improvisation), simulation, communication activities, for instance: different types of dialogues or dramatized story-telling. According to multiple pieces of research, there are a lot of advantages of this approach. McCaslin claims that it helps students forget their context [5], develops the understanding of the concept 'empathy', and introduces new social behavioral patterns. Moreover, drama activities develop spatial/visual perception and increase kinesthetic self-awareness. If students are involved in a role-play, then they can even boost their leadership skills and become more willing to take responsibilities [2]. Students lose the fear to make mistakes and foster the newly acquired knowledge of the target language. With the help of the 'drama' approach, students can easily master 4 skills.
Drama frees the students from time and place and makes it possible to 'walk in the shoes' of another [5]. Therefore, it is a great opportunity to develop empathy and build social awareness. Drama is dynamic in nature; it recycles new vocabulary constantly and appeals to different bits of intelligence, including visual/spatial and bodily/kinaesthetic intelligence. The learners show empathy, take turns, make decisions and work in a team. It encourages taking responsibility and leadership roles [2]. It also improves their self-confidence in learning the target language in the classroom activities [6]. In classrooms, where the teachers do not create a repressive atmosphere, the learners feel that they are respected and valued and that they can contribute to the whole. 'Drama demands enthusiasm not only for the lesson but also for the students.
And this, in turn, depends on the formation of a relationship of mutual trust in which neither teacher nor student feels 'at risk', but they willingly change roles and status to achieve the aims of the lesson" [6].
Therefore, it is a great opportunity to develop empathy and build social awareness.
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Procedure and techniques
Teaching Context and Learners
The procedures of drama approach implementation may vary because a lot depends on the stage of the lesson, the aim, and the length of the activity. The only thing that cannot be argued is that drama implementation should always be carefully planned, properly controlled, and timed accordingly. There are certain prerequisites in order to achieve success using this approach. Firstly, a teacher should be enthusiastic to show students that 'this is a safe area' for them. Secondly, a teacher must understand what he/she wants to achieve by using this approach and why he is doing it, for example: it is relevant to the course, it will increase students' language awareness, it will increase students' extrinsic motivation, etc. Thirdly, students should be ready to cooperate and have friendly relationships with each other. The classroom itself should be appealing and pleasant for studies [4]. Last but not least, at the beginning of the lesson, students should be morally and physically prepared to step out of their comfort zone by doing specific warm-up activities. At the end of the lesson, a teacher needs to evaluate the success of the chosen drama activity either by looking at the outcome of the lesson or by asking students to fill in the questionnaire.
Let us look at typical stages of a lesson where this approach can take place:
- warm-up activities or 'ice-breakers'. The aim
of these activities is to relax students, to establish a friendly atmosphere. For example, to present yourself in a memorable way by saying your name and an adjective that can describe you. The first letter of an adjective should be the same as the first letter of your name.
- presentation stage. New target language could be presented in a dramatized video or listening passage.
- practice stage. After new lexis has been introduced, a student may work in pairs or in groups doing role-play exercises being controlled by the teacher.
- free stage. At this stage, students may work on their speaking fluency by using new linguistic knowledge in new communicative situations. Here students can freely experiment with the language.
Alternatively, an entire lesson can be devoted to teaching communication skills through drama or even several lessons can be dedicated to a drama project. Students may get a script of a play, get their roles, and by the end of several weeks present this project to the audience.
Material
As far as material is concerned, the abundance of alternatives is tremendous. For weak students teaches „ can prepare in-house graded materials, for advanced c= students authentic materials can be easily used, for ~ example, plays, poems, or other literary masterpiece. == Also, communicative situations can be taken from all life situations.
During the experimental week, a dramatization teaching approach was chosen because as it has been already written earlier it fully corresponds to one of my teaching beliefs. It is by no means certain that if you get positive emotions during a lesson, language acquisition will be more efficient. Secondly, the class that I am teaching is pre-advanced. It means that they have an extensive English language learning experience and it can be hard to surprise them with new teaching approaches. That is why the dramatization method could be that approach that can not only bring positive emotions but also improve students' language skills. Thirdly, the class is multicultural, and no matter what language level you have your L1 and culture will have a great influence on the English language. What is more, through interaction and collaboration at the preparation stage students may notice how intonation, sentence stress, and pauses can change the meaning of utterances and how it can influence comprehension. The preparation stage will also increase learners' automaticity level as they are going to learn keys script chunks and simultaneously drill sentences stresses. Moreover, students will be exposed to an extended amount of listening and responding.
Talking about learners it should be mentioned that cultural diversity within the class may create certain challenges that will be an advantage for them. For example, representatives of Asian culture during the dramatization stage will struggle with their non-verbal means of communication (they will be closed), during conversations they may avoid direct eye contact, they are going to speak quietly and smile no matter what kind of feelings they have to present. If during the lesson they manage to notice the cultural difference, it will be their first attempt to improve it.
Post-Lesson Evaluation: Experiment Evaluation
In general, looking at the questionnaire results it could be assumed that the overall students' impression towards the drama approach is positive. Firstly, a lot of students noted how interactive and practical the lesson was. During the warm-up activity, students managed to cooperate with almost all group members.
As far as different stages of the lesson are concerned, the students emphasized the dramatization of the script itself as the one they liked most of all. This part of the lesson seemed to be both rewarding and challenging at the same time. The students pointed out the following positive sides of this activity:
- they learned new lexis;
- they used newly acquired vocabulary while preparing for the dramatization stage as well as during the acting stage transferring it from a passive memory to an active one;
- students used a new way of working with a text (they focused on key chunks and the rest of the script was rephrased);
- this stage of the lesson was intensive because students were limited in time, they had to learn some
parts of the script by heart (a comment from stronger students);
- when students forgot their words, they had to act spontaneously;
- during the preparation stage students helped each other by correcting mistakes;
- students worked on their emotions (it is particularly hard for Asian students);
Talking about weaknesses of this stage, they are:
- for some students the preparation time was not enough (a comment from weaker students);
- some of the students found it difficult to remember the script.
Finally, the aim of the lesson was achieved, because, in the end, the students understood what areas they should work on. They are:
- speaking fluency;
- intonation (to make the speech more expressive);
- pronunciation.
Post-Lesson Evaluation: Action Plan for Future Professional Development
Teachers who mainly use role-plays and do not pay enough attention to larger scripts taken from different literature works, for example, plays, should look into the concept of drama. Students' feedback and their reflection on the experimental lessons prove that the drama approach in teaching English should be implemented at all levels. Through dramatization, students may learn how to express their emotions verbally, improve their vocabulary knowledge, how to paraphrase ideas successfully, how to build communication, etc. This approach can be adjusted to any communicative situation. In order to achieve better results, prior to the dramatization stage, sufficient time should be allocated to vocabulary work. This point was mentioned by some of the students in their feedback. Moreover, extra discussions dedicated to the characters should take place. Also, additional meanings should be extracted from the script lines.
This approach would work well for Russian students who have problems with intonational patterns. Apart from that, through the dramatization approach students may develop their presentational and ad-libbing skills, which are in great demand now.
AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHING TO INCREASE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNER ENGAGEMENT: DRAMA
Lipina A.A.
Russian Academy of National Economy and Public Administration
The topic under consideration is dedicated to teaching English through drama. The reasons for the selection of this approach are manifold. The initial reason deals with my personal belief and teaching practice that students learn and perceive new information and knowledge better if they are immersed in a situation where they experience positive emotions [1]. Additionally, it is a proven fact that being in a friendly environment can help learners become more resilient to linguistic failures and improve the overall attitude towards language studying [3].
Secondly, experimenting with this approach by extending the understanding of what it is like to teach English through drama is essential because it typically boils down to role-play as a free practice to the specific skill that was the aim of the lesson. Looking at this approach from the students' side, it can be said that they can also learn how to behave linguistically in different life situations and after reflect what worked out well and what went wrong and what areas should be worked on. After the reflection stage students may improve their weak areas, and put it into practice in consecutive lessons.
Keywords: drama approach, evaluation, cultural diversity, role-play, professional development.
References
1. Ashby FG, Isen AM, Turken AU. 1999. A neuropsychological theory of positive affect and its influence on cognition. Psychological Review.106:529-550.
2. Boudreault, C. 2010. The benefits of using drama in the ESL/ EFL classroom. The Internet TESL Journal. Available: http:// iteslj.org/Articles/Boudreault-Drama.html.
3. Folkman S, Moskowitz JT, 2000. Positive affect and the other side of coping. American Psychologist. 55:647-654.
4. Maley, A., Duff, A. 1990. Drama techniques in language learning. CUP
5. McCaslin, N. 1996. Creative drama in the classroom and beyond. Pearson.
6. Wessels, C., 1987. Drama. Resource books for teachers. Oxford English
