ELTWeekly, a refereed journal, and newsletter
[ELTWeekly Volume 10, Issue 5 |March 2018 | ISSN 0975-3036]
Use of drama-based activities in ELT classroom
Dipan Bhatt
Research Scholar
&
Dr. Sunil Shah
Associate Professor, Vir Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat
Abstract
Drama can encourage students actively participate in teaching-learning process for English language. It can practically be a motivational tool to increase the zest of adapting language capacity. The researcher conducted this research at Navsari High School, Navsari, which involved 50 students of Vernacular Medium class of 9Th standard. Four basic aspects of speaking- Grammar, Fluency, Accuracy and Vocabulary- were taken into consideration for this research, and the same were used to analyse the scores. The data analysis indicated that the mean score of the students’ Pre-test was 7.57, while that of the students’ post-test was 17.78. Hence it signified that use of drama based activities in classroom can really enhance speaking skills of ESL learners.
Keyword : Drama, Activities, ELT classroom
Introduction
According to Broughton (2003), English is an international language and most people in the world use this language. It is the most broadly studied foreign language in the world. English is learnt widely either for general or specific purpose in formal as well as information and education from the elementary schools up to higher secondary schools as well as universities or colleges.
These days the concept of classroom teaching is evolving. Innovating methods of creative thinking, creative activities, and smart classes are changing the old school scenario. A lot many things have been done through dramatic techniques in teaching learning process. The researcher, being closely connected with drama and teaching, has observed that creative abilities, productive thinking, and many such abilities are developed by drama based activities. However, no effective attempts have been made either to implement this method or to evaluate its effectiveness. Hence, the researcher has implemented the method to ESL learners of secondary level. These are some of the drama based activities which can be used in ELT Classrooms.
1. Introducing self 1
a) Task objectives
Ø To break the ice between students and teacher
Ø To make them feel special
Ø To motivate them for accurate listening
b) Task method
The task is to introduce them one by one in a language they are comfortable with.
c) Teacher’s role
Ø Here teacher will first give his/her introduction and then will ask students to give their introduction.
Ø Teacher will listen to them
Ø While students are giving their introduction, teacher will confirm his/her name and then will ask a question from his/her introduction. To give example, teacher may ask a student, if he/she has spoken about his/her favourite subject, why the particular subject is his/her favourite question.
d) Learner’s role
Ø Here, 46 students are supposed to give their introduction in the language they are comfortable with.
Ø They will give their introduction one by one.
Ø They are also supposed to recollect a particular thing from everyone’s introduction.
2. Warming up activities -1
a) Task objectives
Ø To build a rapport with the teacher
Ø To make them free from the traditional schools environment
Ø To make them a better listener
Ø To make them understand the difference in intonations
b) Task method
In this session, the task divided into mainly two different stages.
Ø Students are supposed to form a circle of on big group and then follow the instructions of teacher while walking in the circle.
Ø Being Chorus – where a person says a line and other repeats the line
Ø Chinese whisper – 5 groups of 9 students. The first student will read a very short story from a book. He will tell the same story in the second person’s ears. Second person will tell the third, and the line follows. The last person will tell the same story that he has been told by the previous person.
c) Teacher’s role
Ø Teacher will ask them to form a circle and will instruct them to change the activities while doing one activity. Teacher will first ask them to walk in a circle while counting numbers.
Ø After the start putting their steps on the same time teacher will ask them to stop and then he will start counting the numbers. He will increase the speed slowly and decrease the speed. And then, teacher will ask them to stop.
Ø Teacher will ask them to walk again and this time he will be speaking the dialogues of famous Hindi films, as students are connected with them more. Here, teacher will use few dialogues from Hindi films, translated in English. Such as: “We have been getting dates on dates, dates on dates, dates on dates milord, but no justice.” “How will you know the price of a pinch of vermillion Sir Ramesh?” “When this 2.5 kg hand falls on a man, he doesn’t rise. He dies.” “Do me a favour that you will not do me favour.” Etc. teacher will ask them to repeat the original dialogue if they get it.
Ø After the circle, teacher will ask students to repeat the dialogues he speaks in exactly the same way in which the teacher is speaking. Starting from the one-liners to comparatively longer one. The teacher started with, “Mongambo Khush Hua.” and he ended with, “Aaj mere paas building hai, property hai, bank balance hai….tumahre paas kya hai? Kya hai tumhaare paas?”
Ø After Chorus, teacher will form five groups of nine students each and ten in one group. Teacher will, then, give all the first member of each group a different story to read.
d) Learner’s role
Ø Students will form a circle and walk in circle while counting numbers, that will automatically make all the students put their steps on the same time.
Ø After they start putting their steps on the same time, teacher will ask them to stop and he will start counting. While counting the numbers, teacher will increase and decrease the speed. As a result, students will start walking according to the speed the teacher is counting the numbers.
Ø Students will listen to the English dialogues and translate them into Hindi and they will automatically walk according to the teacher’s speed of speaking the dialogue. That’s how our body and our words are connected. They will also listen to the teacher carefully to translate the dialogues.
Ø After the circle, students are supposed to do chorus, where they will repeat the lines of famous Hindi films, in exactly the same tone variation that teacher is speaking with. That will enable students to understand the tone variation of the dialogues and the requirement of it while communicating.
Ø After the chorus, students will be divided into five different groups and the first member of each group will be given a story to read. He/she, then, tell the same story in second student’s ear and they continue the line. The last person will speak the story loudly. There students will come to know that how story is distorted from first person to the last. And that’s how they will come to know the impact of accurate listening and poor listening.
3. Reading aloud dialogues of scripts
a) Task objectives
Ø To make them aware about the articulation of dialogues
Ø To develop skill of reading aloud
Ø To enable them to read punctuation marks with intonations
b) Task method
This task is also divided primarily in two divisions. First teacher will give a demo that how dialogues of a play should be read aloud. Teacher will read the whole script. Teacher then will ask students to read one or two lines one by one just as the teacher has shown.
c) Teacher’s role
Ø The teacher will first do the reading of a whole script aloud in front of them with intonations and punctuation marks.
Ø The teacher will then ask them to speak one or two dialogues in the way the teacher speaks. He asks him to copy the way the teacher is speaking the dialogues.
d) Learner’s role
Ø Learners will listen to the teacher while teacher is speaking aloud the dialogues of the script.
Ø After the reading is over, teacher will make them speak different dialogues of the script form the play that teacher was reading aloud. They will repeat the dialogues one by one as teacher is showing them to speak.
4. Story telling
a) Task objectives
Ø To make them aware about the expressions play a vital role in communication
Ø To enable them to narrate a story English.
b) Task method
Here in this task, teacher will tell a story to the students with expressions and intonations. And students will also tell different stories in English.
c) Teacher’s role
Ø Teacher will tell a story to the students by using simple sentence structures. Teacher will also use expressions and intonations while telling the story. Teacher will make them understand the importance of expression and gestures while communicating.
Ø At the time when learners tell the story, teacher will give reflection and will ask other students to reflect on the story.
d) Learner’s role
Ø Learners will listen to teacher’s story.
Ø They will narrate the story as teacher had set the demo for them to understand. They will select the story of their interest areas and the stories that they have learnt in the past.
5. Give me a life
a) Task objectives
Ø To improve their creative writing skills
Ø To enable them to think out of the box
Ø To motivate them for conversation
b) Task method
Here in this task, students are supposed to make dialogue with an inanimate object of their surroundings.
c) Teacher’s role
Ø Here, once again, will give a demo by communicating with an inanimate object. After that teacher will instruct them to do the exercise. Teacher may help them in some parts of the dialogue if they find some difficulties in writing. Teacher will not help in deciding the topic of their conversation.
d) Learner’s role
Ø After they are assigned the task, they will start preparing the dialogues with an inanimate object in Gujarati first. They will given time for the preparation.
Ø After the preparation, they will start performing the dialogues with the inanimate object they have selected.
Ø After they perform in Gujarati, they will be given time for preparing dialogues in English. This time, they can select any topic than they had selected earlier.
Ø After the preparation, they will perform one by one.
Method of research
The researcher chose Pre-experimental research method by using group pre-test and post-test design as the researcher also wanted to investigate the effectiveness of using drama in ELT classroom.
The researcher had conducted a pre-test (O1) for the 50 participants of the students of vernacular medium school. After the pre-test researcher introduces them to the tasks he has designed for them. Following the experimental treatment, the researcher has again measured group attitudes by post-test (O2).
Analysis
It is essential to classify and analyze the rough data that are obtained by the researcher so that they can be interpreted accurately. Until these data are classified and analyzed statistically, they are not meaningful. Interpretation of the data actually means the synthesizing of the results with methodology approach, conditions of study and related works. In fact, a clear understanding of the variables engage the sampling process, the methodology, the statistical procedures etc. have to be considered at the stage of interpretation. The data are critically reported through textual discussion and tabular and graphic devices.
| H There will be no significant difference between the mean scores of Pre- test and Post-test of experimental group.
Table: 1.0 Paired Samples Statistics |
|||||
| Mean | N | Std. Deviation | Std. Error Mean | ||
| Pair 1 | Experimental Posttest | 17.78 | 46 | 5.432 | .801 |
| Experimental Pretest | 7.57 | 46 | 4.875 | .719 | |
The obtained data from the test scores present that the overall mean of the pre-test was 7.57 and the standard deviation was 4.87 where as the overall mean score of the post test was 17.78 and the standard deviation was 5.43. Table 1.0 reveals the details information about the pre-test and post-test scores.
Table: 1.1 Paired Samples Correlations
| Table: 1.1 Paired Samples Correlations | ||||
| N | Correlation | Sig. | ||
| Pair 1 | Experimental Posttest & Experimental Pretest | 46 | .345 | .019 |
The researcher went ahead by analyzing a correlation analysis of the pre-test and post-test and observed that the details of the correlation analysis depicts a significant value of correlation of 0.345(which falls between 0 and 1) with a significance of 0.019. This indicates that the overall scores of the pre-test and post-test were highly correlated. Details on correlation analysis of the pre-test and post-test scores are provided in the above Table 1.1.
Table: 1.2 Paired Samples Test
| Table: 1.2 Paired Samples Test | |||||||||
| Paired Differences | t | df | Sig. (2-tailed) | ||||||
| Mean | Std. Deviation | Std. Error Mean | 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference | ||||||
| Lower | Upper | ||||||||
| Pair 1 | Experimental Posttest – Experimental Pretest | 10.217 | 5.918 | .873 | 8.460 | 11.975 | 11.710 | 45 | .000 |
The T-value collected from the analysis of the overall mean scores of the pre-test and post-test was 11.710. The details of the paired T-test analysis for the pre-test and post-test scores highlighted that the P-value of significance was 0.000, at the level of 0.04 which basically means that there was a significant difference between the overall mean scores of the pre-test and post-test. The mean of the paired difference was 10.217 which advised that the overall average score of the post-test was high compared to the pre-test score. Thus, the findings could determine that the significant differences found in the overall means scores of the pre-test and the post-test were not due to chance but due to the treatment, that is, due to the drama based activities. As a result, the analysis obtained could be useful in rejecting the first null hypothesis of the study.
Conclusion
Therefore, the finding from the analysis could establish that there is a significant difference between the overall mean scores on the pre-test and post-test of the students who participated in the drama based activity to enhance speaking skills.
There are number of other activities as well, which can be used in classrooms. These activities increase students’ confidence. Use of drama in classroom involves creativity in it. It also develops students’ creativity. Students start thinking out of the box. They enhance their grasping power as well. It has been observed over a period of time that such activities in classroom, improve students’ result in other subjects as well.
Suggestions
The researcher suggests that the policy makers shall incorporate drama and drama based activities as one of the components of regular teaching to ESL learners at secondary level. At the same time, this research work dealt with ESL learners at secondary level. The similar research can be under taken in at primary level, higher secondary level and even at university level.
References
Barbu, Lucia (2007) Using Drama techniques for teaching English. Retrievedon 17/7/2010 from http://forum.famouswhy.com/index.php? Show topic=1150
Broughton, Geofrrey. 2003. Teaching English as a Foreign Language. London: Franchise-Library University.
Dailey, Michael (2009): Acting out: A one-year drama class to increase participation. In: The Language Teacher, 33(2). ( http://jalt-publications.org/tlt/articles/452-acting-out-one-year-drama-class-increase-participation
Mouly, G. J.(1964) “The Science of Educational Research” ,Eursia Publishing House, New Delhi, p.326