Teaching Drama to ESL students

All the world's a stage,And all the men and women merely players;They have their exits and their entrances,And one man in his time plays many parts,His acts being seven ages.As You Like It Act 2, scene 7, 13914 (Shakespeare la)

Why it difficult to teach drama?Because it is very time consuming and it takes a lot of the time to be taught in just 60 min. It is very interesting but hardly can be taught effectively in that short time.

Drama and Real lifeWe are all participants in life performances without rehearsals. We play our roles with other characters on different life stages. We act with emotions and communicate our messages through words and body language.We do it every day, in different situations, in different roles, in different moods, in different places, with different people who are also in different moods and in different roles.

To give the learners a real life situation just like look at me I am not a teacher but a presentation mean some one who acts like a teacher an actor a player a character of the drama.

Drama Teacher.Drama teacher is a kind of actor for that 1 hour and he has to make the class interesting for getting the attention of the students by different thing like appropriate communication, knowledge of the subject matter, presentation skill both by verbal and non-verbal communication and appropriate intonation.

Drama teaching.What drama is and what it definitely is not about.Techniques of drama teaching are perceived as an efficient teaching and learning tool that motivate both learners and teachers, break communication barriers and make learning more enjoyable and efficient for visual, auditory, tactile and kinesthetic learners.

Classroom for Drama class.Arrange a classroom for drama:move freely and express meanings with body positions.practice face-to-face communication, not face-to-back communication;divide the performance area from the audience area;create a scene setting; monitor the work of all students, not only of those sitting in the front rows.

The easiest way to get a classroom prepared is to put all desks and chairs aside creating enough space in the middle. (Must be done before the class).

Objectives and Role of the Teacher.Objectives showing what learners will be able to do by the end of the lesson

Clearly stated objectives like linguistic, social, personal, cultural.Roles of teacher drama classroom: an initiator, a counsellor, an encourager, a supporter, a monitor, a participant, a prompter, a co-communicator, a cooperator and so on.Facilitative role listen, accept, respect, encourage, help, laugh, participate.

Solo actor vs traditional teacher.Stage vs the space in front of the whiteboard ina language classroom.Audience vs Learners.

Lesson PlanObjectives:You must first know what are your objectives because at the end you have to look for that either you have got the objectives or not.To know about the different elements of drama.Students will explain when in their daily lives they are using elements of drama.To know the use of language according to different situation.Students will describe how formal drama can be used to express feelings about world events.

FramingBegin the class with the students seated at desks. Begin to talk about drama, what forms they are familiar with, and what sorts of terms are associated with drama.Ask the students to move the desks back to create a working space in the center of the room. Warm UPIce Breaker Activities: Interview your neighbor, about the topic (info)To Remove Anxiety or fear on the part of the students and to create a friendly environment in which every student will be able to express themselves.To have student work in group through encouraging greater connections between studentsTo know about the present level of the student, what they know about the drama or about the author of the drama.

Pre-TeachingTeaching difficult words that are present in the text.

Predicting. Give students some words from the extract and ask them to predict what happens next. If it is a play, give them a couple of lines of dialogue and ask them to make predictions about the play.

Extract will be an important passage from the text.

Classroom Division into GroupsClass should be divided into pairs and a part of the drama (some chapter)should be given to them to be read at home and the next day in the class, give them some time and ask them to explain the significance of some lines that are present in that chapters. (Drama; 40 chapters, class= 10 groups (5 person), first 8 chapters to every group).

ActivityRole Play:Ask students to act out a part of the scene in groups.Simulation: They respond to the task, solve the problem, analyze it, speculate, discuss, judge and evaluate it.

Why SimulationWhy simulation:It increases students talking time and decreases teachers talking time (teacher is in the role of a facilitator or occasionally participates directly in the simulation);It practices all language skills.It brings reality of characters, setting, problems, and a real need to communicate.It encourages thinking, creativity and motivation

TableauTo begin, the teacher gives each group a text or text excerpt, and the groups are charged with creating a frozen image that somehow captures the essence of what is going on in the reading. Teachers might choose to assign all groups the same text, or give each group different but related texts.It gives a better understanding of the text, characters and situation to the students.

ProcessIn the circle, discuss what tableau is. Talk about the types of images we might see looking at a typical moment in life. What values can we express with our bodies? What emotions? What attitudes? Working with the team teacher, possibly model some of these. What might an angry person look like? Someone in love?Ask the students to find their own space, and then to find a partner. In place, all pairs working simultaneously, have the students begin to form two person tableaus. When forming these, students should think about what each scene means to them. During these, allow half the room to break the pose and see what the other half is doing.ExamplesA romantic relationship breaking up

Two people who don't like each other passing on the street.

Long lost friends meeting after many years

EvaluationAsk the students to rewrite the scenes in their own words.