Tell me and I will forget.Show me and I will remember.Involve me and I will understand.

(CHINESE PROVERB)

Chapter - 1IntroductionBackgroundLanguage teachers have too often resorted to new ways to get their classes involving, interactive and, at the same time, interesting. They require to build up a repertoire of concrete activities which appeal to students, engross them and, at the same time, avoid chaos and boredom. For this function, one of the most efficient instruments that can be employed in the teaching of a foreign language like English can be striking. Equally it is indicated that an efficacious way to speak in English is to think in English. Nevertheless, the non-native speakers of English often think in L1 (mother tongue) and transform it into the alien terminology. In this respect, the use of drama, as a teaching tool, can not alone cause the classes interesting, but also facilitate the language learners to begin calling back in English. With the role of drama in the EFL classroom, when the students begin working on plot development, hand writing and finally enacting the play, they get soaked up in the bodily processes and language learning becomes quite a sport. In due course of time, as and when they are submitted to different tasks of drama classes, chances are bright that they may set off calling back in English and give their performances using English. Incorporating drama in the language classrooms helps and eases teaching and learning the linguistic communication skills- Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing in a more effective manner. These sciences play a very significant function in a foreign language teaching and learning as they constitute Language Learning Pedagogy. A well-known Chinese proverb- tell me and I will forget; teach me and I will remember; involve me and I will learn summarizes this gist of whatever foreign language teaching and learning teaching method. And. The role of drama, as a teaching model, plays as a outburst of clean air for the students in this connector. As Asher (1988) notes, dramatic play activities are more like play, and less like work. The pupils generate an chance to give extensions to their creativity, nurture their talent and bring out something significant. With such supportive arguments, the present paper aims at exploring the benefits of the use of drama in the EFL classroom for instruction and learning language. It also discusses potential ways, techniques and methods for integrating drama in the language classroom for effective, affecting and motivating teaching and learning process.RATIONALEIt is a long-held opinion that the arts promote and enrich the academic and societal growth of immature people. Professional knowledge shared among educators in the areas of creative dramatics/drama-in-education and child development tell us that interpersonal, verbal, and reading comprehension skills can be taught, or at least enhanced, through arts experiences and preparation. Often supporting voices claim that students exposed to arts learning, develop critical and creative thinking skills and problem-figuring out strategies that are assignable to other academic areas. Yet, in this age of assessment and accountability, what answer we know specifically, empirically about arts learning, successful teaching, and the characteristics that define arts processes and settings? Farther, what research and measures support the observed or anecdotal claims, rich as those claims may be, so much made by advocates of arts training?Better addresses these critical questions and looks to current and historical scholarship to support a variety of propositions in various ways. First, documenting cognitive and affective issues related to effective arts instruction and learning, vetbettert Practice in Theatre Education, offers practical and theoretical arguments for arts integration using evidence drawn from a range of researchers inside and outside of the field. Second, better explores the potential of arts learning in differing populations (including at-risk and disabled pupils) and builds connections between theatre, literacy, cognition, and communication sciences. Ultimately, better supports the Maryland Essential Learner Outcomes in the Fine Arts (ELOs) and is perhaps best read in conjunction with the ELOs and compendia such as Champions of Change: The Impact of the Arts on Learning and Critical Links: Learning in the Arts and Student Academic and Social Development. In concert, these texts promote and validate the utility of the artstheir effectiveness as instructional tools and as independent, academic subjects with unique content and processes.While better Practice in Theatre Education celebrates the potential power and authenticity of arts-related educational activity and learning, it also raises ancillary questions regarding the efficacy and application of the said instruction. For instance, when applying the arts/theatre to teach other academic disciplines, e.g., math or science, in what ways do theatre serve the related arena? What balance of educational activity and learning relate to sound practice and theory? Are the applied theatre exercises and processes removed from their conceptual foundations only to be used in pedestrian ways? Are there substance and rigor in the application for both fields? What are the causal relationships among the academic field, the arts experience, and scholarship? These complex questions (suggesting a deep agenda for future research) converge in two underlying concerns: (1) What characterizes a meaningful application of the humanities? And (2) In what ways might this knowledge, foster better teaching? These interrelated core questions are the substantive concerns of better.Building Effective Teaching Through Educational Research/Theatre Education does not answer all of the questions it puts forwardnor should it. It serves, nevertheless, identify and synthesize current research on effective instruction, and it raises an implicit philosophical framework grounded in advocacy that may promote deeper thinking about curricular design, teaching, and student learning in and through the arts.

MethodologyThe drama techniques are already incorporated in most English teaching course books. Instructors and their students enjoy songs with TPR activities, games, dialogues, simulations or simple role plays. (Maley, 9)Many teachers hold their physical structure to create a visual effect and control the voice in order to talk aloud and distinctly. Many instructors also use Total Physical Response (TPR) technique as a good method how to start with dramatization. The TPR technique denotes childrens e.g., physical responding to language instructions with their physical structures. (Philips, 9) nonverbal activities based on TPR teaching technique can be applied at the outset of the lesson as warm-up activity. The warm-up activities help develop trust and cooperation with others and they assist students realize a quiet conversion from different disciplines in the language category. It is not necessary to employ them alone at the commencement of the example. They can be utilized to create links between activities during the lesson. The object lessons are included in the practical component of this study in individual lesson programs.Thither are many more possible ways of applying drama in English learning teaching. One of the most popular techniques is a role-play. According to Wan Y. Sam this technique involves taking on a role of an imaginary character in a hypothetical situation. Pupils act in role and setting which is described, but it involves spontaneous interaction of participants. Thither is a whole range of these types of actions. A role-play can be a very simple scene or a complex story dramatization. As Gillian P. Leafs highlights in his book titled Role Play: I do not mean problem-solving case studies in which school children are asked to call back like Mr Smith or Mr Brown. In role play they are Mr Smith or Mr Brown.A quite similar technique to role-play is simulation. It is a structured set of circumstances from real life where students act according to the instructions. Everybody gets his/her own accomplishments and experience into working. It can be a problem solving activity with materials to illustrate the setting to induce it as true to life as possible. (Sam) Another really useful activity is person-in-office. In this activity one of the students or a teacher assumes responsibility as facilitator. He/she lays on a character which enables him/her to encourage the rest of the group, to control the action, to involve everybody and to flesh out the possibilities for the interaction. (Neelands, 32)The instructor uses this type of activity early in the process to activate the students energy. It is significant to select a proper character. It does not have to be a key part. The next relevant point is to clearly show when you are in or out of the office.

This proficiency is beneficial because it takes off the usual power structure of the instructor-focused course of study. And as Dorothy Heathcote adds, the teacher may encounter an expert or a colleague willing to add up into a classroom in the purpose. This individual should be trained beforehand.A next technique useful for English teaching is called hot-seating or in other words questioning in the character. As Vani Chauhan describes the procedure, the class is told that they are reporters and their job is to interview the character. The character (a learner who has volunteered to carry on the role) sits in the front, facing the rest of the class and answers questions put by the reporters. The role of the character is delimited by a teacher, an article or any other fabric. The class takes notes in order to compose an article for a paper. Reporters work on their articles after the consultation. This tin be made out as both individual and team work.A next possible drama technique called still image is a group action where pupils have to join forces and produce a photo using their own bodies. Thither is a motif or idea they represent. (Neelands, 11)Next popular drama activities are so called drama games. Drama games are short games and according to Charlyn Wessels they involve action, when students move freely around the classroom. They involve imagination too, The learners are called upon to consider beyond the teachers presentation, and they involve both reading and learning. Warming up and cooling down body processes, group formation activities, statues, maiming and other social status among these drama games.

Research QuestionHow to succeed with Theatre/Drama in ELT?It should be mentioned how students feel while they are taught through drama techniques. Dramatic play is always changing lessons of language so that no lesson is a dull stereotype. Students forget that they are taking and practicing English and they induce a belief that they play games. Everybody is involved and he/she determines to practice improvisation. Pupils are initiating rather than replying to the teachers questions.On the other hand, problems such as shyness, the role of the mother tongue, correcting errors or noise could arise in drama lessons. Here are some instructions on how to surmount these troubles. They will also help teachers succeed with drama in the schoolroom.One of the most significant points is that the teacher must believe in the advantages of drama.For drama activities to run well, the instructor needs to be convinced that they will make. A class rapidly senses any hesitancy or nervousness, or lack of conviction on the character of the instructor. You are the key to the success of these actions. If you do them reluctantly, or half-heartedly, it is better not to perform them at all. (Maley and Duff, 2005)Since there is no substitute for experience, trying it out is the best thing. The role of a teacher during the drama in the classroom is more of a facilitator than an authority or the source of knowledge. (Heatchcote) Open body language, friendly quality of voice, good planning and good governance are the characters that show teachers confidence and experience with this type of instruction. The teacher should create a well-humored, creative and friendly atmosphere in the schoolroom. In this atmosphere, it will be leisurely to get students involved. Drama lessons must be easily designed. The teacher requires to know the purpose of the lesson and structure the lesson accordingly. Some other significant component in the planning is the students age. For new learners the whole-grade activities are more desirable than a group work, whereas teenage learners may enrich the drama with their own thoughts. (Philips, 8)It is beneficial to use warm up activities in a group of students who do not even know each other. Thus, it is significant that they change partners as much as possible so as to interact with a larger number of other scholars. This can be achieved by group formation activities. (Maley and Duff, 6, 234)When a teacher plans a drama activity, it is important to remember that it is not possible to predict how long it will take since the ability of each class varies. Sometimes the instructor senses that the activity is running so well that he/she does not desire to break it. Or maybe the instructor got a mistake in judgment and the natural process is too unexciting for students and then he/she should terminate it earlier than he/she was after. Of course this happens in other activities too but it is easy to solve this problem during the drama lesson by preparing a follow-up activity. These can also be used for the groups that finish before that their colleges. (Landousse, 12)The following important problem associated with drama activities is dealing with misunderstandings: More and more teachers are sticking to the view that mistakes are an inbuilt portion of the language-learning process, and that an opportunity to create them in a three phase in any lesson ultimately enhances learning, rather than blocking it. Some mistakes do fossilize, but most of them only seem to indicate certain stages in the acquirement of the terminology. (Landousse, 1987)This implies that they vanish with practicing of the speech. However, there are two primary questions: Which mistakes to correct? and How to monitor what the scholarly people are saying and ensure that they are speaking the words correctly?The first query does not bear a definite solution. Thither are many standards for dealing with errors during speaking. It must be counted if the mistake affects communication. No less important is the aim of the lesson. The mistakes correction will be significant in a lesson oriented on accuracy. Nevertheless, it will be different during lessons concentrated on fluency. Some other significant detail is the students reaction. Teachers corrections must not discourage pupils from speaking.To resolve the second question, here is a list of correction techniques, described by Rolf Donald in his article about the error correction:- Using signals teacher and students have some shared signals which they use commonly during lessons. These can be body language, gestures or mouthing. For example when the pupil forgets the affix s in the third person singular in present simple, teacher hisses like a snake to indicate this type of mistake. In event the class is used to this it is easier to correct student immediately during drama activity without disruption.- Notes this is one of the delayed correction techniques. Teacher notes down the errors during the action. He/she focuses either on the whole class or on each pupil. Everyone receives a written feedback on what he/she can ameliorate.- Recording teacher uses a tape recorder or camera to monitor the action. At the conclusion of the lesson or the next lesson, class listen back to the record and concentrate on correction. This affords students more responsibility for their own learning, they can be more mindful of the cracks in their spoken English and the recording makes them to pay more attention to what they pronounce as they are executing. (Donald)Further problem while students solve in groups preparing the activity is that they oftentimes induce a tendency to use a mother tongue to convey. It is satisfactory to allow beginners a limited role of the mother tongue in discussion. Indeed, it may be unacceptable to forestall it. But during the actual activity there should be a rigid rule to practice English. (Maley and Duff, 3)The concluding point in this list is that dramatic event is not a lesson full of pandemonium. However, children are noisy when they are involved in rehearsing a scene. It is good when drama is full of laughter and language, but screaming or noisy shouting does not have space in this type of example. The answer to manage the class is establishing a block sign. This can be any concerted signal, e.g. teacher puts the hand up and everybody must practice the same thing. Another possibility is that teacher uses a whistle, drums or a piano, etc. The sign means that children "freeze" in spots they are in.Drama/Theatre in Foreign language teaching: how can it be described?Holden, S (1981: 1) defines drama as any activ ity which asks the student to portray a) himself in an imaginary situation or b) another person in an imaginary situationa definition which can be applied to most formats of drama in language teaching and includes role-play as a form of drama. Howev er, v ocal and phy sical ex ercises that do not imply the creation of a fictional character or situation, such as articulation exercises or movement games, should also be included.

The following characteristics can be used to classify drama activities. Short/long: a drama game can be play ed in only a few minutes while a drama project can ex tend ov er sev eral months or longer.

Non-v erbal/v erbal: while the use of v erbal activ ities for languagelearning seems self-ex planatory , non-v erbal ex ercises can also have their benefit, for ex ample as icebreakers to decrease learners anxiety or to prov ide topics for discussion or to broaden learners perspective on a foreign language by drawing their attention to aspects of body language.

Open/closed: Kao & ONeill (1 998: 5-1 8) suggest a continuum model of drama approaches ranging from closed/controlled (script-based) to open communication with process drama at the far end of the spectrum. Open forms will foster creativ e language use (focus on meaning) and while they can be used with lower-lev el learners, they may be more fruitful if a certain lev el of language competence has already been achiev ed. Closed forms (among which Kao & ONeill also include language games), on the other hand, are suitable for a focus on accuracy /focus on form for pronunciation, v ocabulary , and grammar or tex t-genre practice but they can also be used for the introduction of new linguistic input. Again, different teaching aims and learner needs will necessitate different approaches.

Process-oriented/product-oriented: Is there an audience productoriented approachor is the focus on the ex perience of the participantsprocess-oriented approach (cf. Moody 2002 and Fleming 2006). Product-oriented forms can be more motiv ating for learners who prefer working towards a concrete end-product (Fonio & Genicot 201 1 ;Schewe & Scott 2003) and they tend to be more beneficial for a focus on accuracy . On the one hand, process-oriented approaches are argued to be more creativ e (Glock 1 993; Kao & ONeill 1 998) and liberating for certain learners (Culham 2002) as fluency is v alued ov er accuracy andthere is no (or less) pressure to perform flawlessly . On the other hand, process and product can be connected in drama projects, e.g. asstudents process-oriented ex plorations of a topic (improv isations, hotseating, thought-tracking, etc.) are turned into a scripted play which isrehearsed and ev entually publicly performed

Chapter Division

In this particular dissertation the following chapters are divided :

(1) Introduction(2) Literature Review/ Survey(3) Detailed Chapter on TILL( Theatre In Language Learning)(4) Activities(5) Conclusion(6) Bibliography/References

LITERATURE REVIEWMuch works have been done on Theatre as a tool in language learning (TiLL) and Teaching. Instructors have realized the benefits of Theatre/Drama because of its performative nature and the dramatic effect it creates which captures the mind and motivates the language learning process. Thus, because of this very reason language teachers have embraced and utilized it with a view to gear up the language acquisition process. The purpose of my research is to epitomize how Theatre can be utilized as a tool to teach and learn language.

Gardner, H. (1983). Talks about, Frames of Mind. Basic Books, Multiple intelligences and levels of cognitive skills beyond paper-and-pencil tests. Gardner sees theatre as key to addressing linguistic, intrapersonal, interpersonal, and bodily kinesthetic intelligences. (1995). Schools, communities, and the arts: A research compendium. Tempe, AZ: Author. Involvement in the arts is linked to student motivation and engagement in school and to attitudes that contribute to academic achievement. Humans possess multiple intelligences. In the past, schools attended mostly to linguistic and logical mathematical, but contemporary educators must address themselves to the whole person.According to Christie, J. F. (1987). Play and story comprehension is a critique of recent training research. Journal of Research and Development in Education, 21 36-43, which studies investigating the relationship between play and reading. Most of these inspections should be called training studies.DuPont, S. (1992). Talks about The effectiveness of creative drama as an instructional strategy to enhance the reading comprehension skills of fifth-grade remedial readers. In R. J. Deasy (Ed.), Critical links: Learning in the arts and student academic and societal evolution (pp. 22-23). Documents relationships among creative drama, childrens literature, and reading comprehension in fifth-grade remedial readers.According to Page, A. (1983). Childrens story comprehension as a effect of storytelling and story dramatization: A study of the tyke as a spectator and as a participant. A comparison of dramatization and storytelling techniques for elementary pupils.Pellegrini, A. D. (1985) talks about The relations between symbolic play and literature behavior. Review of Education Research, 5 (51), 107-121. A review and critique of the literature.As according to Pellegrini, A. D., & Galda, L. (1982). The effects of thematic- fantasy play training on the development of childrens story comprehension. Research Journal, (19, 443-452). The process of animating the graphic symbols and events of a given story leads to greater understanding of that narrative..In J. F. Christie (Ed.), they speak about Play and Early Literacy Thematic fantasy play and spontaneous dramatic play help children recall a story more accurately than those who did not perform the story dramatically.Gardner, H. (1985). Talks about, The minds new science. Gresham, F. (1982). Assessment of childrens social skills. Journal of School Psychology, 19, 120-133. Attempts to train students with disabilities have had only limited success. Programs that simply bring these students in contact with peers without disabilities for various activities fall short of the desired integration that educators and parents want for their students and children.Miller, H., Rynders, J. E., and Schleien, S. J. (1993). Drama: A medium to enhance social interaction between students with and without mental retardation. Mental Retardation, 31 (4), 228-233. The shortcomings of most peer socialization -oriented programs are not found in programs that bring together students with and without disabilities in theatre activities. The authors believe that interaction and friendships are improved by including both groups of students in traditional theatre games and activities.Barrs, M. (1987). Voice and role in reading and writing. Language Arts, 64 (2), 207-218. Role-playing as another way of focusingof developing an attitude toward the material. Role-playing provides a clear role and a clear sense of audience needed for a young writer to have a starting point.Enciso-Edmiston, P. (1988). Writing and responsibility. London Drama 7, 8-10. Theatre and audience awareness in writing are closely allied. Because the events in theatre are happening now, both the participant in role and the writer in role share with their audience the common concern for what has happened, what is now happening, and what will happen.Summerfield, J., & Summerfield, G. (1986). Texts and contexts: A contribution to the theory and practice of teaching composition. New York: Random House. Role-play in reading and writing. Both are products of concrete social exchange. They rely on what-if propositions and Imagine you were... prompts to engage students in reading and writing tasks. The authors often have students write and reshape pieces of writing into the simulated roles of other persona. They claim that this role-playing is a powerful generative device.Wagner, B. J. (1986). The effects of role-playing on written persuasion: An age and channel comparison of fourth and eighth graders. In R. J. Deasy (Ed.), Critical links: Learning in the arts and student academic and social development (pp. 52-53). Washington, D.C.: Arts Education Partnership. Documents effects of role-playing on written forms of persuasion and supports the efficacy of dramatic play as a prewriting strategy.Applebee, A.N. (1981). Writing in the secondary schools. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English. Despite our knowledge of the importance of prewriting to the writing process, teachers in most high schools fail to give this essential stage the time and attention it deserves.

Bolton, G. (1984). Talks about, Changes in thinking about drama in education. Theory into Practice 23 (4), 151-157. The use of drama to teach a number of subjects in school, including writing. Bolton argues that it is simpler to add details to a drama, or even rerun an entire story, than to rearrange ideas in writing.According to Moore, B. H., & Caldwell, H. (1993). Drama and drawing for narrative writing in primary grades. Journal of Educational Research, 87 (2), 100-110. Theatre and drawing help students achieve effective, meaningful prewriting. Novice writers may gain more control of their narratives by working out ideas through the artistic/symbolic means of drawing and theatre.Pellegrini, A. D. (1984). Talks about, Identifying causal elements in the thematic-fantasy play paradigm. In R. J. Deasy (Ed.), Critical links: Learning in the arts and student academic and social development (pp. 42-43). Arts Education Partnership. Research question: What are the relative effects of three modes of story reconstruction trainingthematic-fantasy play, teacher-led discussion, and drawing on the development of childrens story comprehensionPellegrini, A. D. (1984). Talks about, The effect of dramatic play on childrens generation of cohesive text. In R. J. Deasy (Ed.), Critical links: Learning in the arts and student academic and social development (pp. 44-45). Arts Education Partnership. Research questions: To what extent does the informational status of a listener (whether familiar or not familiar with the story) affect a students use of oral language to retell the story? (Do students use effective and appropriate language when told in advance the knowledge base of the listener?) With what relative effectiveness can childrens use of oral language (retelling stories to non familiar listeners) be facilitated through the use of alternative interventions, namely discussion, drawing, and dramatic play?According to Schmidt, E. (1975). Syntactic and semantic structures used by children in response to six modes of story presentation 35, 4879A. The positive impact of nonscripted storytelling on student language development. Vitz, K. (1984). The effects of creative drama on English as a second language. Childrens Theater Review, 33 (4), 23-33. The positive impact of drama in improving ESL student language facility.

Wagner, B. J. (1998). Talks about, Educational drama and language arts: What research shows. An extensive overview of theatre education research.Barnes, D. (1976). Talks about, From Communication to Curriculum. Producing language and receiving language are the most powerful tools for learning what human beings possess. Theatre is one of the most effective ways to stimulate lively and apt conversation.According to Booth, D. (1998). Language power through working in role. And as according to B. J. Wagner (Ed.), Educational drama and language arts: What research shows (pp. 57- 76). Drama and role-playing are useful tools to expand student experiences, thus building language and literacy.Halliday, M. A. (1977). Talks about, Learning how to mean: Explorations in the development of language, Elsevier. Interacting in role, students explore the social functions of language that may not arise in the language forms of the traditional classroom. The context plays a part in determining what they say, and what they say plays a part in determining the context.Byron, K. (1986). Talks about, Drama in the English classroom. Methuen. Dramatic experience enhances oral language development as children recast their vocabulary and speech patterns to suit the roles they assume and to accommodate their listeners, whom they address in imaginary contexts.Davidson, J. (1996). Talks about, Emergent literacy and dramatic play in early childhood. Examples and supporting research for the ways in which theatre can assist young children in language development.According to De la Cruz, R. E. (1995). The effects of creative drama on the social and oral skills of children with learning disabilities Dissertation Abstracts International 5 610, 3 913 A. A 12-week creative theatre program for students with learning disabilities.Felton, M., Little, G., Parsons, B., & Schaffner, M. (1984). Talks about, Drama, language and learning. Theatre in Education. Theatre provides opportunities for children to use language for a wide range of purposes. There is a higher incidence of interactive and expressive talk, compared to the high incidence of informational talk in traditional classrooms.Adamson, D. (1981). Talks about, Dramatization of childrens literature and visual perceptual kinesthetic intervention for disadvantaged beginning readers Dissertation Abstracts International 42, 062481A. Rural white disadvantaged students who approached reading via theatre performed significantly better on reading readiness and vocabulary tests.According to Allen, E. G. (1968). An investigation of change in reading achievement, selfconcept, and creativity of disadvantaged elementary school children experiencing three methods of training. African American elementary school students improved significantly in attitude and motivation toward reading when teachers included theatre activities in their reading lessons.Gourgey, A. F., Bosseau, J., & Delgado, J. (1985). Talks about, The impact of an improvisational dramatics program on students attitudes and achievement. Childrens Theater Review, 34, (3), 9-14. Role-playing, story making, playwriting, and improvisational exercises significantly improved reading achievement, which may have been a result of emphasizing individual and group story making and storytelling, because these activities may have developed skills that directly apply to reading comprehension.

According to Christen, W. L., & Murphy, T. J. (1991). Increasing comprehension by activating prior knowledge. (EDO-CS91-04 May 1991): Clearinghouse on Reading, English, and Communication. An overview of research in reading comprehension and delineation of the classroom implications of that research..Edmiston, B., & Wilhelm, J. (1996). Talks about, Repositioning views/reviewing positions: Forming complex understandings in dialogue. In B. J. Wagner (Ed.), Educational drama and language arts: what research shows (pp. 90-117). Chicago: Heinemann.The use of drama to help students address issues from many perspectives.Elbow, P. (1986). Talks about, Embracing contraries. Rather than rest in an acquisitive desire to know more information, it is important for educators to help their students embrace a sense of the unknown as well.Bolton, G. (1979). Talks about, Towards a theory of drama in education. London: Longman. An argument for the use of drama in the classroom. Bolton suggests three levels of reflection (personal, universal, analogous).Colby, R.W. (1987). Talks about, A rationale for drama as education. Youth Theatre Journal 1 (4), 3-7. Opportunities for exploration at the subjective level, where the deepest changes in understanding can be realized. Drama has the potential for achieving an understanding that transforms a previous way of thinking. .Bernstein, B. (1985). Talks about, Drama as a context for transformation. In J. Kase Polisini (Ed.), Creative Drama in a Developmental Context. Lanham, Theatre as a way to transform the traditional classroom relationship of student and teacher and allow real learning and growth to occur..Oddleifson, E. (1990). Talks about, A fifty school arts education demonstration project. On the Beam 11 (1), 1-5. An argument for arts in schools. Oddleifson provides examples of success stories and demonstrates the link between arts education and Gardners theory of multiple intelligences.

Chapter 3Theatre In Language Learning(TILL) and TeachingTeachers who approach literature from a dramatic approach help students become better thinkers and more expert readers. This is particularly true for scholars who are severely checked in their interpretation. Surveys indicate a correlation between the mental processes employed in dramatic art and those applied in reading (Pellegrini, 1985).The traditional approach to stories involves reading silently or out loud. Pupils look at the words on the page and sometimes sound them out to see what happens to the parts. The teacher may lecture, take questions, and have students operate in small groups on questions or issues in the chronicle. The report is read and addressed. But is it truly understood? And will it even be withdrawn a few weeks or months after?Instructors who use dramatic reenactment of stories in their classrooms provide opportunities for scholarly people to internalize the significance of words. They enhance comprehension of the news reports read in class and make more generalized skills for story reading and story recall.Too frequently, the result is negative. Still, when students become physically, intellectually, and socially involved in the reenactment of a story, they more readily see the roles, relationships between characters, the natural process of the story, details, and intent. Having reenacted and discussed the story, students interpret it better when they reread it. They also commemorate the narration for a longer time (Pellegrini & GaIda, 1982).More significantly, teachers who encourage and steer their students in dramatic activities generally find their students to be stronger readers. In a meta-analysis of 80 studies (culled from 200 published since 1950), Ann Podlozny establishes a relationship between classroom drama and verbal ability. Her results reveal statistically significant correlations between drama activities and half dozen areas of reading and language development, including reading readiness and achievement, story understanding, and story recall (Podlozny, 2000). Theatre and reading involve similar mental processes, and story schema is broken in the process of creating, executing, and watching dramatic performances. Children, through their own teacher-guided creations, learn the elements that construct up a tale. Through theatre they organize narratives and become characters. Their experience and solve problems, change, and develop. They use terminology and natural process to communicate.Recognizing the potential language-rich environment associated with theatrical experiences, James Catterall notes increases in reading proficiency among students who are extremely involved in drama activities, particularly students from low socioeconomic backgrounds (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 1999). Growth also appears in remedial readers exposed to creative dramatics. Investigating the relationship between creative dramatics, childrens literature, and reading comprehension skills, researcher Sherry DuPont reports increased scores among fifth-grad students after a six-week integrated program (DuPont, 1992). Students participating in theatre become storytellers at the same time that they become story readers. It stands to reason that they are more capable to comprehend stories than students not involved with the graphics of the story (Wilhelm & Edmiston, 1998). Teachers should understand, however, that the play is [not only] the thing. Much of the benefit of theatre results from metaplay, the process of analysis and creative activity in preparation for the operation. Students look to the text for guidance and contexthow to do an action, how to speak or react. In metaplay, students challenge each other with their varying beliefs and interpretations of the textbook. And as scholars research and debate the meanings and intentions of a text, ample opportunities for teaching ariseopportunities to probe, to ask deeper questions, to revisit the text, and to create (Williamson & Silvern, 1991).Researcher A. Page reports that such depth of work with a text, both through the metaplay and the execution, also builds vocabulary. The teacher who approaches literature through theatre allows students to look closely at the language, the words on the page, and the denotations and connotations of the words (Page, 1983).(Although professional experience often confirms the Pages assertion, it should be noted that Podloznys work contradicts the vocabulary building suggested here.) Dramatizing a story one has just read, or pantomiming a poem or story, helps children internalize the significance of spoken communication, extend their range of intellect, and make unfamiliar words their own. And through theatre, these words take on far larger interest and importance to students than when they appear on a list to be memorized for the Friday quiz. Through theatre, the instructor helps students become more proficient proofreaders.The story schemata generated through repeated group dramatic play should not only contribute to better inclusion of stories just enacted, but also result in increased understanding and recall of stories in general. (Christie, 1987, p. 36)

The TiLL Model

The TiLL model is an applied theatre model which was created by the founderof Viennas English Theatre, Austrian Theatre Director, Dr Franz Shafranek andhis wife, American actress Ruth Brinkmann. In 1970, in partnership with LeoLeitner, Head of Secondary Schools at the Austrian Ministry of Education andCulture (BMUKK), they jointly devised a programme of educational theatreunder the title Englisches Theater geht in die Schulen.

The core objective of the model was to produce theatrical productionssupporting the study of English as a foreign language by offering

Professional theatre performances, acted by native English speakers

The commission of age-appropriate and specifically targeted plays

The publication and distribution of the play texts to students prior to

Performance The provision of educational support materials (exercises and questionsbased on the productions and texts).

The key pedagogical outcomes of this model were defined as

Building cross-cultural understanding;

Making the study of English fun

Taking language study out of the classroom context; Hearing English spoken by native speakers Providing opportunities for conversations with native speakers.The TiLL model was, and still remains, based on three key principles: reading,seeing and hearing.

The script of a selected play is read in the classroom and all its ramificationsare discussed in detail. The students are familiarized with theplot, characters and the medium of a foreign language. The direct experienceof the scenes is enhanced through understanding, the action inthe play forms a kind of unity between actors and spectators, and theatrebecomes inter-action. (Shafranek 2001: 102)

Students are supplied with a copy of the selected text, (ideally) to be studied inthe classroom prior to a performance of the play. Performances are undertakenby a team of professional native speaking actors and take place within the schoolitself or in a theatre location nearby. The tripartite focus of reading, seeingand hearing particularly supports three of the distinct learning styles identifiedwithin Flemings celebrated VARK model the visual, the auditory and theread/write. It also has the potential to contain the kinesthetic within the reading category, and in audience participation, as will be demonstrated.

In his internet article on the Use of Drama in the Classroom on the TeachingEnglish website, Robinson cites Maley & Duff (1978) and Wessels (1987) asauthors who have demonstrated the core values of this methodology; in that itcan overcome the students resistance to learning the new language by makingthe learning of the new language an enjoyable experience, a particularlyimportant outcome in a compulsory learning setting. Robinson also highlightsthe research undertaken by Collie & Slater into the positive contributionsmade to language learning by the study of literature. Primary texts constitutevaluable authentic material which expose learners to different registers(Collie & Slater 1987: 3). There is also strong evidence that reading producessuperior vocabulary retention rates in L2 learners, in comparison with the use ofvocabulary lists (cf. Hermann 2003: 1).

Social Cognition

Instructors who use theatre as a medium for instruction effectively increase interactions and encourage friendship building between students with handicaps and those without handicaps.For years, educators in mainstream school settings attempted to incorporate pupils with and without handicaps. Many schools have devised buddy systems or special friend initiatives to bridge the societal and educational gap between the two groups. Cooperative learning techniques and recreational activities are also popular approaches. Offering an environment for scholars with disabilities that is both motivational stimulating and emotionally safe is often debatable. Despite troubles, many programs follow.With theatre, some teachers take in increased interaction between pupils with and without disabilities, and have stimulated friendships between the two groups. Theatre teachers report, and studies indicate, that the sham world of theatre functions as a sort of neutral territory in which the two groups can converge in creative, artistic, and meaningful ways (Miller, Rynders, & Schleien, 1993). The processes of dramatic exploration and artistic creation, encourage an environment in which both groups remain active and challenged, free of some of the dangers associated with other plans. Dramatic play offers a unique paradox in which participants can experience risks without penalties. Theatre is a social interaction. Accordingly, it is an excellent option when working with people who possess limited social skills (Gardner, 1985).Miller, Rynders, and Schleien (1993) cite examples of how students with and without disabilities who participate in creative drama activities spontaneously initiate play and assume imaginary roles with each other outside the schoolroom. An environment of imaginative play and creation is equally enriching for children both with and without handicaps. This is not only a way for students with and without disabilities to spend time together. Through theatre, both groups share the process of mental imagery and creative activity. They interact in a confident manner and build friendships not often trained in other areas of the shoal.If adults leading [theatre] activities encourage imaginative play activities involving children with and without mental retardation, it appears that the group dynamics and enjoyment of everyone involved are enhanced. (Miller, Rynders, & Schleien, 1993, p. 232)

Role play and Writing

Instructors who use role-play as a generative device with their students enable them to get more proficient writers. They encourage students to draw close the all-important act of expository, persuasive, or narrative writing by knowing and reacting to different parts and points of view.To be effective writers, students must possess a sense that what they say has value and how they convey it in writing will interest their readers. Pupils are often unsafe and unsure of what they like to read. Even those who experience what they want to read are often unsteady with tone and voice necessary to earn their points appropriately. As a consequence, their narrative writing is often flat and their expository writing mediocre. Instructors who wish to better student writing can turn to the theater of operations.Role-playing, one area of theatre, helps scholars develop a voice both on stage and on paper (Barrs, 1987). Role-playing allows students to try on different hats and a variety of personalities, to be someone they are not (Summerfield & Summerfield, 1987). When students act in a role, they are challenged to organize narrative sequences and identify ideas and emotionsto develop empathy by adopting voices or states of intellect that are perhaps foreign to their spirits.

Through role-playing, students learn to acquire cognitive and affective strategies and to use language in expressive ways. For instance, when approaching persuasive writing, pupils can use improvisational role-playing with a spouse to produce a series of convincing and meaningful statements. As students interact with classmates, orally and kinesthetically, they may explore and test rationales and counterarguments. The immediate effectsFeedback or spontaneous interaction between participants may also assist scholars identify a variety of logical, ethical, and emotional appeals. Betty Jane Wagner speaks to the positive relationship between role-playing and successful persuasive writing. Comparing the writing of fourth- and eighth-grade students receiving direct persuasive instruction (lecture only) or no specific instruction with students exposed to lecture and role-playing sessions, Wagner observed stronger argument construction and writing among students having the lecture/role-play interventionparticularly in the fourth-grade group (Wagner, 1986).[Theatre is] another way of focusingof taking up an attitude to [the writers] material. Either a clear role or a clean sense of audience is needed for a writer to have a beginning period. (Barrs, 1987, p. 217)

Prewriting Process

Instructors who incorporate drama activities as part of the rewriting process improve student writing. They offer opportunities for scholarly people to go through the creative process, rehearsing their narratives and shaping their stories before dropping a line.Educators have recognized for some time that teaching the process of writingtraditionally categorized as prewriting, composing, and rewritingis more significant to developing strong student writers than is the finished merchandise. Lacking serious and meaningful planning, many young writers are incapable of making a nice finished product. Although experts have known for years the need to prepare for writing, many instructors do not pass this important stage the time it deserves. Too much, they only discuss ideas with their scholars. Normally, this is not enough for young authors, particularly those who struggle with writing (Moore & Caldwell, 1993). Scholars tend to be more interested, and to write better, when they act out, pronounce, or rehearse their stories first (Bolton, 1984).The procedure of authorship does not necessarily signify the act of composition. The cognitive and creative process used before writing is frequently as important as putting words to report. When simple discussion falls short in planning to write, multimodal approaches may be informative. Exploring stories through creative movement, theatre games, and improvisation prepares students for composition. In a 15-week experimental program, students who used drama activities to prepare thoughts and strategies for narrative writing displayed significant growth in style, content, and organization when compared with a control group using more traditional prewriting discussion models (Moore & Caldwell, 1993). Constructing stories through theatre before writing offers students needed planning and thinking time. Before students even sharpen their pencils, they explore character and plot, and develop detailed and dialoguepossible elements of story composition. In effect, they make their levels. The rehearsal of their stories through theatre might even be seen as a first draftdrafts that students may easily revise and edit before they actually start the procedure of writing (Bolton, 1984).

In helping others perform their stories, students invite each other into their unique creative processes. They challenge and assist each other in shape and revise their thoughts into a tale. In concert, they decide what runs in the narratives and what does not. Though the real composition is done alone, the concerted process of preparation for writing involves the pupils in an exciting manner.

Creative Drama, Storytelling, and Proficiency

Instructors who allow students time to practice acquired language skills through creative theatre and storytelling activities motivate them to extend their language skills and develop more complex linguistic structures.Acquiring proficiency in language goes beyond the simple ability to put together a string of words to make a perfect condemnation. Real proficiency occurs when students have enough control over the voice communication to express abstract and complex ideas. Theories abound about how best to reach proficiency. Various surveys demonstrate that theatre and storytelling can play a positive part in the operation.

In one survey, students who participated in non scripted storytelling activities significantly improved their ability to produce complex linguistic structures (Schmidt, 1975). Other studies showed that theatre enabled students not just to make more complex sentences but also to bolster their total verbal output as easily. This development also occurred with students who participated in classroom work that was not in their main language (Vitz, 1984).Just why do scholars who participate in creative drama activities to experience significant increase in their linguistic acumen? On that point are no unequivocal answers, but Holly Griffin (1990), in an article written for the Youth Theatre Journal, postulated that perhaps theatre leads to an apprehension of how to breach out of experience and collectively shape it (p. 20). Betty Jane Wagner (1998) expands upon this thought, conjecturing that this ability to abstract and study as well as to take part in the experience may lead to cognitive maturity (p. 40). Jane Davidson (1996) believes that dramatic play lets students use the language skills they know.While it is oftentimes hard to distinguish the multiple variables that may influence outcomes related to arts interventions, researchers have designed sound experiments yielding intriguing results. Proficiency in storytelling, for model, depends on an array of behaviors linked with literacy such as the ability to produce complex linguistic utterances or to return and recreate a narrative for a specific listening audience. In a 1984 study, Pellegrini asked: With what relative effectiveness can childrens use of oral language (retelling stories to unfamiliar listeners) be facilitated through the utilization of alternative approaches, namely discussion, passing, and dramatic play? The researcher found that kids involved in dramatic play, after hearing a narrative read by an adult, we're better capable to make an explicit and coherent retelling to an uninformed listener (Pellegrini, A., 1984). This result indicates a causal link between enactment and recall (a connection discussed elsewhere in this document). Farther, and perhaps more subtly, students retelling strategies demonstrate an agreement of how the speaker/listener relationship influences communication/language choices. Knowing the relationship between context, narrative, and the communication of meaning speaks to higher-level thinking skills.

Confronted with a myriad of challenges to foster language proficiency in our students, teachers need a varied repertoire of instructional strategies. Creative play, storytelling, and dramatic enactment may prove appropriate in a diversity of contexts.The multidimensional learning that happens is a natural part of childrens pretend play, whether the children are skilled pretenders or beginning actors. Some hint that for children with language impairments, and for those with developmental delays, this type of play is specially important. Because dramatic play is child directed, and child selected, it often motivates children to stretch their skills in order to keep the play going. (Davidson, 1996, p. 7)

Speaking ProficiencyInstructors who use theatre in instruction enable students to acquire a richer apprehension of the communicative process, and provide authentic situations for testing and acquiring language proficiency.Proficiency in spoken language marks a major element of success. Spoken language is a social act. People need a good grasp of the language to function well, and must be able to adjust the way they use language for a variety of situations. Language proficiency and the ability to adapt to multiple environments develop with practice. Acting out text-based plays in the classroom can help students polish vital communication skills.Language develops best when students engage in authentic experiences (Booth, 1998). The traditional classroom provides only two interactive settingsteacher/student and student/student. Theatre enables students to step into the shoes of characters who are involved in any number of situations. By performing as those characters, students gain insights. Acting also lets students talk the talk of the situation. They can use the language of a king, knight, or pauper. They can speak as a lawyer, doctor, politician, mother, father, or friend. Charles Grover (1994) encourages teachers to have students ask themselves questions like, What would I do in that situation? How do I like this character? or How am I different from this character? The responses help students understand the character and context. In addition, the reflection and responses give students an opportunity to project themselves into the situation, identifying needs and feelings while exploring the meanings and nuances evoked by differing approaches to delivery.Paulo Freire (1970) contends that learning begins with known reality. Teachers, through theatre, can encourage students to expand upon the known reality. By extending the boundaries of theatre beyond the formal representation of characters, authentic opportunities for oral expression can also be found in interpretive literary readings. Through the oral interpretation of literature (with appropriate guidance, experimentation, and discussion), students may gain an understanding of the power of languagediscovering and giving voice to ideas while honing general communication skills. In a six-week workshop/study, students were introduced to poetry and wrote poems based on personal experience and perception (Kassab, 1984). Students were then offered instruction highlighting interpretive and presentational skills. Summarizing this strategy, Catterall notes, The study found that the workshop on the oral interpretation and dramatic presentation of personal poems improves oral skills, increases comfort with oral communication, and enhances self-esteem and self-image (Critical Links, p. 30).In all, to encourage experimentation with expressive language, clear and balanced feedback shared in a supportive, none-valuative, communal environment is critical. Through theatre, teachers create situations in which students learn that we play many roles in life, and we speak differently in each role. The dramatic process provides a vehicle for students to practice speaking in authentic situations. As students learn that context influences what is said, and that what is said also influences the context, theatre can provide a safe environment for written and oral experimentation (Halliday, 1977).When students are being as well as doing, the potential for exchange of thought and language grows, and they can negotiate between their own knowledge and the as if-what if world. In drama, language controls and influences both the real and the imaginary situations and relationships. Students are not talking to talk, but are talking to learn, to influence, to persuade, to interpret. They are using and developing all of their linguistic resources. (Booth, 1998, p. 71)

Oral Language

Teachers who provide opportunities for students to interact and express themselves as different characters in a variety of settings and situations enhance oral language development.Theatre offers a range of situations, language contexts, and modes of expression that promote language growth. Young people interact with various forms of languagethat of home, class, friends, work, or athletic teams, for example. They are instinctively familiar with how language is used in different settings; the language of home may change when there is company or when the family is in a setting outside of the home. Drama activities can appropriate language styles and modes of delivery that are notexperienced in traditional classroom settings. Through theatre, teachers can stimulate and encourage students to expand their language base and apply linguistic decisions to more abstract and extended levels of thinking (Wagner, 1998, p. 34).

The collaborative process of theatre and the production of oral languageas opposed to independent reading or writing in classallows the teacher to observe the process of language rather than examine the product. At any point in the process, the teacher can pause the action to challenge the students, to ask them to reflect on what they are doing, to consider alternative strategies. Using theatre, the teacher can create any dramatic situation or environment and stop the action at any place in the process to develop a salient teaching moment (Davidson, 1996).People often interpret dramatic play as doing a skit, but the teacher is actually providing an exercise in language that helps students become more literate. Studies clearly demonstrate that students, including those with learning disabilities, experience improvement in oral communication skills and language development when they participate in creative theatre experiences (de la Cruz, 1996; Podlozny, 2000).

Motivation And Reading Comprehension

Teachers who use strategies that enable students to participate in the stories they read improve motivation for reading and reading comprehension skills in student populations whose academic performance is statistically lower than that of their peers.

There is nationwide concern about illiteracy. Test scores are not what they should be; students graduate unable to succeed in college or to find a job that pays a decent salary. For too many, literacy is at best functional and at worst seemingly impossible. This is especially true of student populations that are marginalized by society, raised in communities whose schools perform below average. These students face even greater difficulties in becoming literate.

Educators have found that these populations respond well to theatre in the classroom. Many students, including those who live in lower socioeconomic communities and those who are behaviorally disturbed, are motivated by theatre (Wagner, 1998). Rather than just reading or answering questions, these students have the opportunity to participate in the stories they read. Many struggle with reading and have even greater difficulty when working alone. When collaborating with peers, however, whether creating a performance or working together to understand the story to present it correctly and interestingly, students who normally are turned off by reading take more interest in it. They also have more fun with it. James Catterall documents a 20% increase in the reading proficiency of low-SES students involved in intensive drama instruction between 8th grade and 12th grade (Catterall, Chapleau, & Iwanaga, 1999), and a growing body of research supports connections between motivation, comprehension, and dramatic activitiesespecially in the lower grades. Teachers who use strong storytelling techniques and/or employ story enactment strategies increase students ability to identify characters, motivations, narrative sequences, details, and key ideas (Page, 1983; Galda, 1984). As future studies support gains in reading comprehension, it is reasonable to argue for the place of drama activities in the early grades as one mode of literacy intervention.Results of the studies reviewed showing improvement in generalized story comprehension suggest that repeated enactment of stories should help students in reading as well as in remembering stories they have heard, since reading comprehension is dependent on the same story schemata... Improvisational drama, perhaps more obviously than other oral language activities, ties directly into both literacy and into nonverbal knowing. Dramatizing a story one has just read or pantomiming a poem or story as it is presented orally helps children internalize the meaning of language, extend their range of understanding, or make unfamiliar words their own. (Wagner, 1998, p. 197)

Schemata And Reading Success

Teachers who use instructional strategies that establish common experiences before reading help diverse student groups to succeed by enhancing their preexisting knowledge base. A growing body of research indicates that preexisting schemata (knowledge elements) have direct bearing on reading and writing abilities (Christen & Murphy, 1991). Childrens knowledge and emergent literacy begin at home in the context of shared family experiences and ideas (Teale, 1987). Every day, however, teachers face classrooms of children from increasingly diverse backgrounds, and it is difficult to find reading materials that reflect common experiences. Nevertheless, teachers need to use reading and writing activities to impart knowledge about every subject area.When students lack the knowledge necessary to read well, teachers may consider three instructional strategies: (1) teach vocabulary prior to reading; (2) provide students with experiences that relate to what they will read; and (3) introduce a conceptual framework that will help students build their ownbackground (Christen & Murphy, 1991).Theatre activities can create a shared information base for students. Watching a production of The Andersonville Trial gives students who are studying the Civil War insights into its horrors. Social studies students acting out a scene from Inherit the Wind assume roles and deliver lines in a play that addresses controversial philosophical, social, political, and religious issues. A group of science pupils studying the cell may grasp the subject by improvising mitosis.Humans learn language in a social setting. To assist students in acquiring and developing language, teachers must foster an environment and context in which words, ideas, and experiences are shared (Schickedanz, 1990). Theatre is a social process that can help the teacher lay the framework for successful reading and writing experiences.When educators fail to build on students preexisting schemata, gaps are produced in students cognition. If a student does not know the farm concept, Old McDonald has little significance. One must have experienced the concept personally to truly gain additional knowledge. Otherwise, the knowledge is hollow, stored in the short-term memory bank, and soon forgotten.(Czubaj, 1997, p. 539)

Second-Language Learning

Teachers who use dramatic games and other theatre techniques for second language instruction promote accelerated development of second-language skills.Theatre helps students grow and develop in regard to their primary language. It is also beneficial to students learning a second language.Students who learn a second language through dramatic games, storytelling, interviews, and role-play make fewer errors and speak English as a second language better than students trained in traditional ESL methods (Planchat, 1994). Students who learn through theatre also improve in spontaneity, fluency, vocabulary, articulation, variety of speech patterns, and reading readiness skills (Maranon, 1981).The traditional class may use innovative methods to teach vocabulary, but usually the class offers almost exclusively a teacher-student linguistic environment. Theatre allows students to create new characters and settings, thus expanding active involvement in the second language. Students can use reality-based theatre for practice in using the second language to deal with lifes daily occurrences, or theatre can be fantasy based, which really allows them to play with the language. They can be firemen, ship captains, or politicians, each of which brings new language challenges. Both observational and empirical studies show that theatre challenges students to use a second language in a wide range of registers and styles, and for a broader range of purposes than customary school dialogues. (Wagner, 1998, p. 55)

Reasoning and the Application of Personal Resources

Teachers who engage students in constructing meaning actively encourage and enrich learning. They model ways to connect personal resources with multiple modes of learning to internalize experience and develop reasoning ability.The Battle of Bull Run, the splitting of a cell, obtuse and acute angles, two roads diverging in a yellow woodall are sources of passion for teachers. However, they often mean little to the students who must learn them, having had no connection to their lives nor providing any inspiration.How often have teachers taught something that students learn but dont actually get? They wish to please their parents and teachers; they wish to do well, to earn good grades. They do learn, but too frequently dont internalize that which they study; they dont own the material in a rich or meaningful way.Teachers, hoping for more from their students, can use theatre strategies and activities to link learning and knowing (Wagner, 1997, p. 68). Theatre brings students to another zone of learning (Vygotsky, 1978, p. 86). The passive form of education, reading and answering questions, is replaced by kinetic, experiential learning. The student who dramatically performs the role of mitochondria in a cell must do far more than remember that they are the powerhouse of the cell. To present mitochondria dramatically, a student must know what powerhouse of the cell means, its functions and operations; otherwise, his or her actions on stage are entirely uncertain. Knowing what it is, the student then draws on experience to create the role, translating knowledge into a different mode or a new language of expression.With effort and teacher guidance, the child connects with the topic in a meaningful way. Creation, collaboration, physical involvement, the tension of presenting something of merit to teacher and peers all come together to involve the student deeply in the study of mitochondria. Rather than just reading about the cell, discussing it, bubbling in answers to multiple-choice questions, the student sees it and becomes part of it. The student completes a lesson using several ways of knowing.Jennifer Ross Goodman addresses dramatic play and literacy in 5-year-old children. During a five-month observation, children enacted literacy in a variety of ways: adapting stories into plays, orchestrating material into narrative sequences, translating images into language, or producing and using written artifacts within enacted scenarios. Commenting on Goodmans work, Bruce Wilson notes: The research provides evidence that dramatic play is an important vehicle whereby children can both practice and learn about literacy skills and knowledge, highlighting the need for an engaging and stimulating learning environment, and for opportunities to participate in potent teacher-student and student-student engagement around personal and relevant themes (Goodman, 1990).How is drama a way of knowing [as opposed to simply learning]? It challenges children, within a social context, to work symbolically. It demands that they draw on personal experiences and from external resources in order to construct meaning out of events at first so seemingly remote from their lives. Drama enables them to transform the meaning of events into a personal and profound understanding. (Wagner, 1997, p. 71)

Multiple Perspectives and Complexity

Teachers who use dramatic dialogue effectively in their teaching encourage students to expand their understanding of complex issues.Thinking frequently occurs in simple, concrete terms: This is good, that bad; this is better than this; this event happened as a result of that event. These simple notions are comfortable, but valuable learning occurs when questions are asked and when accepted notions are challenged. Often, it is discovered that what seemed so simple is, in fact, quite complex.

Theatre, specifically dramatic dialogue, can help students open their minds, ask questions, and explore an issue from multiple sides. Students dont need to place themselves in character to ask questions. Often, however, students pose questions that are merely informational in nature, seeking information that supports opinions they already hold. Through theatre, students must address the issue at hand. Whether the roles they assume depict the conflict in Vietnam, the Scopes trial, or violence in schools, students engaged in theatre become physically, mentally, and emotionally involved. Through dramatic dialogue, they see the topic from multiple perspectives, causing them to review their original positions and perhaps even change their understandings (Edmiston & Wilhelm, 1998).

Theatre should not be a means of changing beliefs contrary to those held by students and perhaps by their parents as well. Teachers should not undermine values held by the students and their families, but theatre can help students explore issues in more depth.

Teachers often use a common theatre device in all content areas. Students can dialogue as characters from a novel, as famous historical figures, even as inanimate objects or as abstract ideas. When they interact dramatically in character, they begin to see issues from different perspectives. Having more than a single perspective from which to judge, they review their positions, reconstruct what they know or thought they knew, and consider whether it is appropriate to change their beliefs. Regardless of whether a student actually changes, he or she gains a deeper and more complex understanding of the issue. That is what education is about (Edmiston & Wilhelm, 1998).No view is ever complete. To recognize the role of perspective and vantage point, to recognize at the same time that there are always multiple perspectives and multiple vantage points, is to recognize that no accounting, disciplinary or otherwise, can ever be finished or complete. There is always more. There is always possibility. (Greene, 1988, p. 128)

Gesture as Symbolic Language

Teachers who challenge students to communicate using gesture strengthenunderstanding of other symbolic systems and enhance communication skills.By removing language from the classroom, the teacher can bring students closer to what they are reading and to what they wish to express. Initially it may seem preposterous, but by limiting students to hand, body, and facial expressions, the teacher can build their understanding and assess comprehension.

Though awkward at first, gesture is not as foreign as one might think. Did you say something to me? (raised eyebrows, head forward and up); What stinks? (nose scrunched, eyes questioning); No thanks, I cant eat another bite (big exhalation and a pat on the belly); and how about, Go that way (try saying that without pointing or tilting your head). Appropriate and even necessary gestures accentuate much of normal daily conversation (Eastman, 1989).

In what way is gesture educational? Gestures, like spoken and written language, consist of symbols. Gestures symbolize feelings and ideas. They can be highly descriptive (who couldnt show Santa Claus with gesture?). The symbols of gesture can convey almost any idea. Gestures are rudimentary and basic, even pure. Gesture is to language as stick figures are to portraits. While a stick figure looks little like a human, it is a symbol that all can easily understand (Gardner, 1982).

The teacher asks a student to retell a story he or she has read, perhaps the legend of Johnny Appleseed. Rather than telling, however, the student is to gesture it. Like the stick figure, the telling omits many details, leaving the essence of the story. This can be difficult because many people do not know the difference between essential and nonessential details, or do not recognize that some scenes are not essential to plot. Students struggle in this new symbolic mode. Students understand the story more deeply and become more skilled in symbolic communication as they develop skill in gesture (Schwartz & Aldrich, 1985).

Students watching the silent, gestured retelling of a story are challenged in understudying a sequence of symbols in which they are not yet fluent. They become more attentive and involved than if the story were retold in words. Students use and comprehend symbolic language. Gesture provides aninteresting and challenging way to communicate while bolstering other language skills.

Gesture is the shoot from which writing grows. We start by gesturing as if writing in the air; our gestures are signs and symbols just as our later pictures and writings on paper are also signs and symbols. (Wagner, 1998, p. 18)

Drama offers no neat, quick solutions: indeed the further a particular problem is investigated the more complex it could become. In making provisions for reflection in the dramatic experience, the teacher is continually planning situations which move students from their subjective concerns to an objective awareness of the world in which they live and from a concrete, contextual use of conventional language to the use and awareness of the power of symbolic thought and language. (Verriour, 1984, p. 130)

Reflection and Objective Awareness

Teachers who plan opportunities for reflective thought expand their students thinking processes by moving them from concrete to symbolic uses of thought and language. One key skill necessary for student success is reflection. Studies demonstrate that classroom theatre activities stimulate and enhance student reflection. Through the performance of scenes, students become actors who interpret their characters while other students are audience. Actors can take moments to pause and step out of character. Teachers should encourage the actors and audience members to discuss and reflect on what they have just seen and heard (Wagner, 1998).

This is not always easy for a teacher to do. As in so many other aspects of teaching, the teacher must walk a fine line. The teacher must guide and facilitate but not force any theatre activity (Creery, 1991). Too much guidance becomes control, at which point students become players to the teachers work, rather than thinkers. Students lose interest in the activity and miss the opportunity to reflect on a theatre they own. Cooperating with classmates, students extend and expand their thinking. Throughout the dramatic process, teachers must provide as many opportunities as possible for students to reflect on their work with theatre (Edmiston, 1992).

The teacher can engage the students in various activities to encourage reflection. Gavin Bolton (1979) suggested three levels of reflection personal, universal, and analogous. Teachers who create a comfortable and open environment encourage student participation in theatre education experiences. They implement timely and probing questions along with carefully crafted activities.

Teacher Knowledge and Competence

Teachers who maintain high standards, set expectations, and demonstrate fairness with students contribute to student success by providing a nurturing environment that enriches and encourages learning.

Findings in the literature make it clear that theatre is a social act. Integral to this social milieu is the teacher, whose critical role in theatre and in theatre in education activities structures learning relationships. Throughout the school year, the theatre teacher will have to assume many roles in the classroomcatalyst, prodder, prompter, referee, cheerleader, director, audience ember, fellow actor, editor, and sounding board (Johnson & ONeill, 1985).

What does it take to be an excellent theatre teacher? Dorothy Heathcote wrote on the subject: For me, an excellent teacher is one who knows the difference between relating to things and relating to people.If I am to aspire to excellence as a teacher, I must be able to see my pupils as they really are.

As an excellent teacher, I must not be afraid to move out of my center, and meet the children where they are. I must also have the ability to see the world through my students, and not my students through it. I must also have the ability not to be lessened by my students, to withstand them, to use my own eyes sometimes, and be myself.

If I wish to be an excellent teacher, I must also have the ability to dominate the scene for my students when it is necessary, and in the guise of one thing, do another, so that the pupils can grow. As an excellent teacher I must be able to bring power to my students and to draw on their power (Heathcote, 1978, p. 18-21).

Heathcote (1985, p. 195) states, I am suggesting that teacher power has enormous potential for these changing times.

Nellie McCaslin, in her book Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond (1996), gives us insight into successful teachers:

Successful creative drama teachers guide rather than direct. Teachers of creative drama find their own way. A sense of humor helps teachers over those periods when nothing is going right. Teachers maintain high standards, knowing that what they accept in the beginning is what the group is capable of at the time, but that they can expect more from them later. Finally, a successful creative drama leader keeps abreast of the times (pp. 412-413).

There is no single way to do theatre in schools. Armed with training in his or her discipline, coupled with an understanding of the learning and growing process, the theatre teacher embarks on a journey of exploration and discovery. The explorations and discoveries lay the foundation for the most valuable research setting available to a teacherthe classroomwhere, through years of experimenting, cajoling, inspiring, observing, and learning, the excellent teacher begins to know the true value and impact of theatre in the school.

The more we could honor in our training programmes the need for personality, plus the need for internal structure, the more quickly we might get authentic relationships in learning situations. Those teachers with that something extra could teach or be helped to analyse what they are doing when theyre in action. (Heathcote, 1985, p. 180)

MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES

Many of us are familiar with three general categories in which people learn: visual learners, auditory learners, and kinesthetic learners. Beyond these three general categories, many theories of and approaches toward human potential have been developed. Among them is the theory of multiple intelligences, developed by Howard Gardner, Ph.D., Professor of Education at Harvard University.

Gardners early work in psychology and later in human cognition and human potential led to the development of the initial six intelligences. Today there are nine intelligences and the possibility of others may eventually expand the list. These intelligences (or competencies) relate to a persons unique aptitude set of capabilities and ways they might prefer to demonstrate intellectual abilities.

People have different strengths and intelligences. For example, students who are interviewed as a means to gain access to a course may be mis-labeled as being less than desirable because of inappropriate assessment (poorly written interview questions, bias toward a perceived perfect student, and other narrow criteria). In life, we need people who collectively are good at different things. A well-balanced world, and well-balanced organizations and teams, are necessarily comprised of people who possess different mixtures of intelligences. This gives that group a fuller collective capacity than a group of identical able specialists (businessballs.com, 2009).

The following tables given below, shows what are the various types of Multiple Intelligences as according to Howard Gardner

LINGUISTIC Intelligence

Learning style and preferences Description Roles Tasks, activities and assessments

written and spoken words interpretation and explanation of ideas and information via language understands relationship between communication and meaning

copywriters editors historians journalists lawyers linguists poets PR and media consultants speakers teachers professors trainers translators TV and radio presenters voice-over artists wr

edit a peers paper give an oral presentation list the strengths and weaknesses of a product write a eulogy write directions to accompany a map

LOGICAL-MATHEMATICAL Intelligence

Learning style and preferences Description Roles Tasks, activities and assessments

Logic and numbers analyze problems detecting patterns perform mathematical calculations scientific reasoning and deduction understands relationship between cause and effect toward a tangible outcome or result

analysts arbitrators bankers certified public accountants computer programmers accountants engineers insurance brokers negotiators researchers scientists statisticians traders

analyze how a computer works assess the value of a business or a proposition create a process devise a strategy to achieve an aim perform a mental mathematical calculation, create a process to measure something

MUSICAL Intelligence

Learning style and preferences Description Roles Tasks, activities and assessments

Music, sound, rhythm awareness, appreciation and use of sound recognition of tonal and rhythmic patterns understands relationship between sound and feeling

acoustic engineers composers DJs entertainers environment and noise analysts music producers musical instrument repair specialists musical performers Singers voice coaches coach someone to play a musical instrument compose media jingles identify music for malls and retail stores lead a choir perform a musical piece review musical play

BODILY KINESTHETIC Intelligence

Learning style and preferences Description Roles Tasks, activities and assessments

Body movement control eye and body coordination manual dexterity physical agility and balance

anthropologists athletes biologists dancers geologists instrumentalists nurses physical education teachers physical therapists physicians actors sign-language interpreters

arrange workplace furniture demonstrate a sports technique design a window display interpret a speech using American sign language prepare samples for magnification and testing put together a piece of modular furniture ride a horse stack books on a shelf

SPACIAL-VISUAL Intelligence

Learning style and preferences Description Roles Tasks, activities and assessments

Spatial-visual Images and space interpretation and creation of visual images, pictorial imagination and expression understands relationships between images and meanings and between space and effect

architects artists cartographers city-planners engineers graphic designers inventors landscape architects photographers sculptors

compose a photograph create an organizational logo design a building design a historic costume design a landscape interpret a painting organize a storage room pack an automobile trunk paint a landscape

INTERPERSONAL Intelligence

Learning style and preferences Description Roles Tasks, activities and assessments

Other peoples feelings ability to relate to others interpretation of behavior and communications understands the relationship between people and their situations, including other people

advertising professionals care givers coaches and mentors counselors educators health providers HR professional mediators politicians psychologists sales-people teachers therapists trainers

affect the feelings of others in a planned way coach or council another person demonstrate feelings though body language interpret moods from facial expressions mentor a new faculty member

INTRAPERSONAL Intelligence

Learning style and preferences Description Roles Tasks, activities and assessments

Self-awareness ones own needs for and reaction to change, ability to deal with change in the workplace ones relationship to others and the world personal cognizance personal objectivity the capability to understand oneself one who is self-aware and involved in the process of changing personal thoughts, beliefs, and behavior in relation to their situation other people, their purpose and aims

consider and decide ones own aims and personal changes required to achieve them (not necessarily reveal this to others) consider and decide ones own position in relation to the Emotional Intelligence Model

References

businessballs.com (2009). Howard Gardners multiple intelligences. http://www.businessballs.com/howardgardnermultipleintelligences.htm.

Selected Resources

Armstrong, T. (2010). Multiple intelligences. http://www.thomasarmstrong.com/multiple_intelligences.htm

Howard Gardner. (2010). Multiple intelligences. http://www.howardgardner.com/MI/mi.html

BLOOMSS TAXONOMY

First of all who is Dr. Benjamin Bloom? (1913-1999) He was a teacher, thinker, & inventor He worked at a college He created a list about how we think about thinking..

As accordind to Dr Bloom, there are six levels of thinking. The levels build on one another. The six levels all have to do with thinking. Level one is the lowest level of thinking of thinking Level six is the highest level of thinking

1) Knowledge observation and recall of information knowledge of dates, events, places knowledge of major ideas mastery of subject matter Keywords:list, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc2) Comprehension understanding information grasp meaning translate knowledge into new context interpret facts, compare, contrast order, group, infer causes predict consequences.Keywords: summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend 3) Application use information use methods, concepts, theories in new situations solve problems using required skills or knowledge Keywords: apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover 4) Analysis seeing patterns organization of parts recognition of hidden meanings identification of components Keywords:analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer 5) Synthesis use old ideas to create new ones generalize from given f