Here are the 6 main reasons why
incorporating drama into your
language learning programme is so
effectivie: |
· |
Students practise using
the target language in a
spontaneous way.
|
· |
Students quickly lose
their fear of speaking
in a foreign language in
front of others.
|
· |
Students soon realise
that making mistakes not
only doesn't matter but
also helps them improve
rapidly.
|
· |
Students pick up and
build on emergent
language (as opposed to
just the target language
of text books.) |
· |
Students learn language
rules naturally in
non-fake contexts. |
· |
Students engage in whole
brain learning where
they are learning
intellectually,
physically and
emotionally. |
|
|
The
Big Fail |
In my neighbourhood in Valencia
there are twice as many private
English academies as there
are kebab take-aways. |
· |
In schools in Spain,
English is generally
taught using a student's
book and an activity book
supplied by one of the
big publishers. They
have claimed at one time
or another to use the
communicative approach
but this does not seem
to be true when you
read up about this
methodology. |
· |
In these text books, every unit is
disconnected from the
previous one in terms of
learning goals but
maintains the same
format: a text
superimposed onto a
photo followed by
reading comprehension
exercises; some
vocabulary exercises; a
grammar section; a
writing section and
lastly a speaking
section. |
· |
These books are easy to
use but rarely coincide
with the contemporary
interests of students
and the overall results
do not seem to be
especially good, as the
proliferation of English
academies would seem to
indicate. This
appears to be
particularly true when
it comes to developing
oral expression
and spontaneous
speech. |
|
WE NEED TO
FIND ANOTHER WAY. |
How
Do We Acquire a Second Language? |
Bob
Wilson is a constructivist and adheres to the theories and
tecniques of
Jerome Bruner,
Stephen Krashen and
Scott Thornbury. I will very
briefly spell out the main conditions
for optimum foreign language
acquisition. |
· |
Learning by doing |
· |
Input is king!
|
· |
Opportunities for
interaction |
· |
Low anxiety levels |
· |
Learning events as
positive emotional
experiences
|
· |
Conversation-driven
|
· |
Grammar and vocabulary
are emergent. |
|
The
Golden Rule |
Allow
only the target language to be used
in class. |
· |
When students are
involved in
project-based learning
they tend to use their
mother tongues to
communicate with each
other when working in
groups. While they will
gain vital skills in
many areas, they will
not improve their
speaking skills in the
target language. |
· |
Students are highly
resourceful. They help
each other or ask their
teachers directly when
they are trying to
express themselves. Once
they know how to say
something, they will
never forget and will
have obtained another brick for
building their target
language. |
· |
The first few weeks will
be difficult but after a
month or two, students
will feel great about
being able to express so
much in their target
language. It will feel
"cool". |
· |
Use a control sheet to
penalize the use of
other languages. This
may seem harsh but no
one likes losing points.
After 2 months nobody
will be losing points
anymore anyway. Download this
one and adapt it to your
needs: |
|
|
Why
Use Drama to Teach English as a Foreign
Language? |
Bob Wilson has seen how using drama
to teach English as a foreign
language has changed students'
attitudes from disliking what has just
been another boring school subject
into something fun and creative. He
has seen how happy faces
actively seek out the "cool" way of
saying things and build their speech
brick by brick or expression by
expression and then go on to use the language
in a spontaneous way. Here are more
reasons to try using drama in your
classes. |
· |
Drama activities are fun
and frequently funny and
so students will be
intrinsically motivated.
|
· |
Language is being used
in a meaningful way or
for real purposes. |
· |
Learning becomes not
just a cognitive process
but also a physical and
emotional one which
makes new language much
easier to remember. |
· |
Learning is a
collaborative
cooperative process as
students help and
correct each other. This
process snowballs. |
· |
Students become used to
using English in a
spontaneous way and so
gain confidence using
the target language and
in expressing themselves
generally. |
· |
Students have the desire
to speak well and so
will seek correction
proactively and without
any sense of shame.
|
· |
Students have the
opportunity to try out
bits of language they
have picked up in songs
and from TV series and
discover that they work!
Then they will look for
more. |
· |
Teachers tweak students'
grammar or use of English so that
they learn firsthand
about when the present
perfect sounds good and
which preposition works
in a particular
instance. As these kinds
of errors are
reoccurring, students
will have plenty of oportunities to get
things right. Remember
that humans have an
instinct for grammar. (Noam
Chomsky) |
· |
Teachers will help
students to use REAL
English and to pick up
new and topical terms
and expressions which
spring up in
contemporary language
such as FAKE NEWS. |
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