Drama and CLIL: The Power of Connection
Susan Hillyard, Argentina
Susan Hillyard is Coordinator for Teaching English through Drama in Special Education, Ministry of Education, City of Buenos Aires, Argentina where she is based. She is a NILE Associate trainer and the Executive Editor for Development of the LACLIL on-line Journal. She has co-authored “Global Issues” an RBT for OUP. She has written materials for Inglés, Inglês, English: ESP for South American Teachers for the British Council and co-authored the TDI-TKT on-line course for Pearson, New York. Susan likes to teach and moderate on-line, especially for TESOL’s EVO Drama courses and to deliver presentations at conferences and lead workshops on, amongst other topics, developing ELT through Drama, CLIL and Global Issues. She has lived and taught EFL/ESL in five countries and has work experience in a further ten.
E-mail: ssnhillyard@gmail.com, LACLIL
website: http://biblioteca.unisabana.edu.co/publicaciones/index.php/laclil/index
Menu
Introduction
Background
From foreign language to basic skill
The five dimensions of drama
The five dimensions of CLIL
The question of motivation as a crucial factor in the classroom
Motivation through connection.
Connecting drama and CLIL
The “new” paradigms of drama and of CLIL
Conclusions
Bibliography
References
Links
This paper looks at both Drama and CLIL as motivating forces in the English language classroom and analyses the relationship between the two approaches. The five dimensions of CLIL are analysed through the eyes of Drama as not only a content subject but also as an appropriate CLIL technique. Practical activities, essential to drama, are shown to fit into a number of the dimensions of CLIL and are intrinsically embedded in the drama experience, leading to more effective language acquisition. Not only do both approaches motivate students through engagement and connection, but also both approaches are connected in their holistic nature, engaging the whole learner in the learning experience. The word “connection“ in the title refers to the connection between the two disciplines and to the way in which both act as connecting forces for students in language classrooms.
I was trained at Warwick University, UK, in the heyday of Educational Drama, growing with Dorothy Heathcote’s Drama as a Learning Medium and then applying it, first to groups of so called immigrant or second generation remedial students in a large comprehensive school in Coventry, UK. I believed that Educational Drama could transform the school lives of students such as this and have gone on to develop a personal pedagogy of teaching English through Drama to all kinds of learners including the gifted. Subsequently, having lived and taught EFL or ESL in five countries in state schools, international schools and bilingual schools I have become heavily involved in CLIL as a motivating force for learners all over the world. I am currently putting the two disciplines together in a dynamic way to form a more effective methodology for teaching a more appropriate form of English to prepare students to take their place as speakers of English in a globalised world.
The five dimensions of CLIL and the five dimensions of Drama show clearly how both are motivating approaches for ELT practitioners and their students. Both are the almost perfect holistic and humanistic approaches to language acquisition in that they deal with the whole person in the big picture of life itself – not only in life in general, but life in a globalised world where Ministries of Education are making huge reforms. According to Graddol (2006, p. 118 ) as “global English makes the transition from ‘foreign language’ to basic skill,” a new world English language project will take shape and CLIL may well be part of that trend. He sees global English as an innovation (2006 p. 106) which follows innovation diffusion theory and which will be taken up in different ways, through different means, at different rates and with different measures of success. He cites CLIL as “a significant curriculum trend in Europe” (2006 p. 86) and admits that similar approaches are now used under different names in many countries.
The interesting issue is to tie together all the approaches and to find out what works best and where according to the experiences of each context. It is not necessarily a straightforward task. As Marsland says,
“Sometimes regarded in Finland rather too simply as just 'Teaching Content through English', Content and Language Integrated Learning is in fact a sophisticated and multi-faceted educational approach. Research shows that the best results are achieved when CLIL is given full consideration by all those in the environments in which it is implemented, regardless of their areas of responsibility. “ Bruce Marsland (1998 Euroclic Bulletin 3) and Hellekjaer says,
“However, experience shows that more than just "comprehensible input" is needed to attain this. The Canadian researcher Merril Swain claims that "comprehensible output", the opportunity to use the target language for demanding oral and written tasks, is just as necessary."
(Glenn Ole Hellekjaer 1999 Euroclic Bulletin 4) And this is perhaps where Drama can play a very relevant part.
Thus it is that I propose that the question of connection, vital to real learning, can be addressed through approaches envisioned within the five dimensions and foci of Drama and of the CLIL compendium.
Both approaches are rather difficult to define. Drama approaches tend to concentrate on the person while CLIL approaches relate more to the learning. Drama is composed of five dimensions all defining developmental processes within the growing person: social development, physical development, intellectual development, creative development and emotional development. It is not to be confused with theatre as it fits well into any education system and, in my experience, into developing language acquisition in a more natural way than traditional ways in ELT. Through the quotations below I sum up how drama relates to the teacher’s work in the classroom. These quotations are adapted from Heathcote’s work:
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Teacher
One who creates learning situations for others. A person whose energies and skills are at the service, during the professional situation, of the pupils. Not one who tries to give away her knowledge to someone else.
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Education
The moment whereby all the understanding you had before is sharpened into a new juxtaposition, because of what you have DONE.
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Drama
Anything which involves people in active role-taking situations in which attitudes, not characters, are the chief concern, lived at life-rate (that is discovery at this moment, not memory-based) and obeying the natural laws of the medium:
- a willing suspension of disbelief
- agreement to pretence
- employing all past experiences
- employing any conjecture of imagination
to create a living, moving picture of life which aims at surprise and discovery for the participants rather than for any onlookers.
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Theatre
The work of writing, producing and acting in plays where specialist actors rehearse a script for a given period of time, following the director’s instructions with the aim of pleasing and entertaining or educating an audience. It is a pure art form.
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CLIL’s five dimensions are summarised thus through the TIXes:
ENTIX …… dealing with the environment
CONTIX …..the content or subject matter
LANTIX ….. the English language dimension
LEARNTIX…..awareness of “Learning to Learn”, or learner training.
CULTIX ….dealing with culture and intercultural communication and understanding
I will endeavour to show how the combination of both Drama and CLIL components can act as a compelling force for teachers to become part of this global movement in keeping our young learners motivated to become competent bilinguals.
It has long been felt that motivation may be an important factor in the acquisition of a foreign or second language and with the “World English Project” as suggested by Graddol (2006 Pg 18) the issue may even become crucial to successful EL teaching and learning. However much we discuss its importance it is not always easy to pin down what motivation actually is. Dörnyei (2001: 7) pertinently quotes Martin Covington on this point: “Motivation, like the concept of gravity, is easier to describe (in terms of its outward, observable effects) than it is to define.”
Certainly, it is easier to describe the outward signs as we have all registered them in their positive aspects and their negative aspects in countless classrooms all over the world. Not only this, but the outward signs of, for example, always doing homework on time and arriving early and eager to be in class compared with finding the lesson boring and complaining about it impinge on classroom dynamics. Individual and group responses to a lack of motivation lead to successful or unsuccessful classroom practices no matter how diligent and experienced the individual teacher might be.
It has always been my contention, as an educational dramatist, that drama is a motivational force in the classroom, particularly in language classrooms. Due to its essentially holistic approach to the learners’ needs, Drama appeals to all students, no matter their learning style and regains the often lost playfulness of younger learners. It employs practical, near to real-life role plays, developing comprehensible output on the part of the students, deploying collaborative techniques, exercising thinking skills, often through problem solving tasks and practising conflict resolution. It is true learning by doing. It might be the nearest many students get to a real life experience and a first hand experience in school.
We are all cognizant with the theory of intrinsic or extrinsic motivation, with Maslow’s pyramid, perhaps also with Jarvis’ theory of learning and Cambourne’s model of the Whole Language approach, not to mention Cummins and Fisher, yet the concrete control of motivational aspects still eludes us in practice. Dörnyei (2001: 1) steers clear of trying to pin it down concisely by saying that motivation is:
“ an abstract concept that we use to explain why people think and behave as they do. It is obvious that in this sense the term subsumes a whole range of motives – from financial incentives such as a raise in salary to idealistic beliefs such as the desire for freedom – that have very little in common except that they influence behaviour. Thus, 'motivation' is best seen as a broad umbrella term that covers a variety of meanings.”
I now see how the CLIL approach and Drama are connected in the ways in which they motivate students to become successful language speakers and it is this relationship I explore in this paper.
We need to harness the force of this motivation magnet to make the best use of the restricted amount of time we usually have in the EFL classroom. To do this, it may be more profitable to see motivation as connection or engagement and try to develop our own theory from the daily lived lives of our experiences within the classroom itself. This connection relates to any relationship in real life and is crucial to the desire to “ stay beside”, to “spend time with”, to “inhabit”, or to the notion of tacit knowledge ( Polanyi 1958) where one “lives IN the skills, or where one indwells only that to which one is committed; it has to do with passion.”. Ian Tudor in his article in HLT, Pilgrims magazine Jan 2004, says that connection “ involves students discovering a sense of personal meaningfulness in their language learning in one way or another.” Again, this is extremely abstract, but clearly obvious if it is seen through the holistic lens of the CLIL approach and educational drama techniques.
Both Drama and CLIL promote connection because the fundamental philosophy is holistic and appeals to the needs of young learners. The five “tixes” of CLIL overlap, intertwine, and weave their way through the minds, the souls, and the bodies of the students in the charge of teachers worldwide. The drama elements appeal to the human condition and the needs of learners to grow and develop in all five areas. CLIL may be considered a sophisticated extension of TBL, of project work, of LAC, of bilingual immersion, of EIL, of EGL. There are as many interpretations of CLIL as there are teachers who teach it. Without a doubt, for those who wish to move into a more global role as a teacher of EFL, Drama combined with CLIL can be a solution.
CLIL deals with subject areas or content which can sometimes be dry and technical, even when practised by an experienced teacher. Drama can move that content into the affective and physical areas so necessary for many young learners to find it at least meaningful.
In comparing the approaches it becomes clear that Drama behaves in a way which fits snugly into the CLIL dimensions and I outline this comparison in the chart below.
| CLIL Component |
Drama |
| Cultix |
Embedded.
Exploring other cultures/habits/behaviours/stereotypes |
| Learntix |
Embedded
Reflection /thinking skills esp.
critical/creative/analytical/interpretative |
| Entix |
Embedded.
Exploring global issues/ environmental problems
Creating an artistic environment for all in schools/institutions |
| Contix |
Embedded.
Literature of Drama/Stories
Cross Curricular e.g. History, Science
Mantle of the Expert |
| Lantix |
Embedded.
ESP through role play
Conversation/negotiation/functions/ register/pronunciation |
| Engagement |
Embedded.
Personal experience/imagined experience/play/ SPICE/self exploration and development. |
| Learning Outcomes |
Embedded.
Comprehensible OUTPUT
Published in the public forum of production |
These methods require the teacher to comply with a number of approaches which are not necessarily routine in the EFL classroom. Drama and CLIL principles come from a number of sources. As Steve Darn, Izmir University of Economics, Turkey ( Teaching English BC) says 'all teachers are teachers of language' (The Bullock Report - A Language for Life, 1975) to the wide-ranging advantages of cross-curricular bilingual teaching in statements from the Content and Language Integrated Project (CLIP). The benefits of CLIL may be seen in terms of cultural awareness, internationalisation, language competence, preparation for life itself, study and working life, and, most crucially of all, increased motivation through the development of the person as a whole, not just a language learner. The joy of putting CLIL together with Drama is that all of these elements are magnified producing a dynamic, effective and enjoyable learning experience for all.
From a language point of view the CLIL 'approach' contains nothing new to the EL teacher except in opening up horizons and deepening the teacher’s role in the general language learning process.. CLIL aims to guide language processing and support language production in the same way as ELT, by teaching strategies for reading and listening and structures and lexis for spoken or written language. Combine it with Drama and it becomes even more powerful. What is different is that the language teacher is also the subject teacher, or that the subject teacher is also able to exploit opportunities for developing language skills. This is the essence of the CLIL teacher training issue.
Thus CLIL, combined with Drama, offers opportunities for real CLT and interactive communication between students and teachers, moving them forward into the World English Project where they can confidently take their place next to other non-native competent, knowledgeable, expressive English language speakers.
I leave you with a quotation from Parker Palmer which perhaps sums up my experience of using both Drama and CLIL approaches with students around the world.
“One student I heard about said she could not describe her good teachers because they were so different from each other. But she could describe her bad teachers because they were all the same: "Their words float somewhere in front of their faces, like the balloon speech in cartoons." With one remarkable image she said it all. Bad teachers distance themselves from the subject they are teaching–and, in the process, from their students. Good teachers join self, subject, and students in the fabric of life because they teach from an integral and undivided self; they manifest in their own lives, and evoke in their students, a "capacity for connectedness." They are able to weave a complex web of connections between themselves, their subjects, and their students, so that students can learn to weave a world for themselves. The methods used by these weavers vary widely: lectures, Socratic dialogues, laboratory experiments, collaborative problem-solving, creative chaos. The connections made by good teachers are held not in their methods but in their hearts, meaning heart in its ancient sense, the place where intellect and emotion and spirit and will converge in the human self.”
Palmer J.P. (1997) The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publisher
CLIL:
Graddol, D. 2006. English Next. British Council.
Graddol, D. 1997 The Future of English
www.britishcouncil.org/learning-elt-research-papers.htm
Downloadable for free.
McKay, SL. 2002. Teaching English as an International Language Oxford University Press
Kirkpatrick, A. 2007. World Englishes: Implications for International Communication and English Language Teaching Cambridge University Press
Mehisto, P., Frigols M J., and Marsh D. (2008) Uncovering CLIL Macmillan
URL Article: "The Future of ELT". The Guardian Unlimited. By Robert Phillipson, and Jeremy Page. November 2003.
URL Link: http://education.guardian.co.uk/tefl/story/0,5500,1083493,00.html
Drama:
Fleming, M. (2001) Teaching Drama in Primary and Secondary Schools David
Fulton Pub.London
Hayes, S. (1984) Drama as a Second Language. Cambridge National Extention College: Cambridge
Heathcote, D. (1984) Ed: Johnson L and O’Neill C Collected Writings on Education and Drama . Northwestern University Press, Illinois
Holden, S. (1981) Drama in Language Teaching. Longman: London
Maley, A. & Duff, A. (1982) Drama Techniques in Language Learning. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge
Morgan N. and Saxton, J. ( 1993) Teaching Drama, a Mind of Many Wonders . Stanley Thornes
Palmer J.P. (1997) The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publisher
Phillips, S. (1999) Drama With Children (Resource Books for Teachers, ed. Alan Maley). Oxford University Press: Oxford
Revell, J. (1980) Teaching Techniques for Communicative English. Allen and Unwin: London
Smith, S.M. (1987) The Theatre Arts and the Teaching of Second Languages Addison Wesley: London
Spaventa, L. (ed.) (1980) Towards the Creative Teaching of English. Allen and Unwin: London
Wagner, B.J. (1999) Dorothy Heathcote: Drama as a Learning Medium. Heinemann
Wessels, C. (1987) Drama (Resource Books for Teachers, ed. Alan Maley). Oxford University Press: Oxford
Porter Ladousse, G. (1987) Role Play (Resource Books for Teachers, ed. Alan Maley)). Oxford University Press:Oxford
Covington, M. (1998). The Will to Learn: A Guide for Motivating Young People. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Cummins. J. 2001. Negotiating Identities Los Angeles: California Association for Bilingual Education.
Dörnyei, Z. (2001). Motivational Strategies in the Language Classroom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Fisher, Robert (1990) Teaching Children to Think, Cornwall, England: T.J. Press.
Gardner, H. (1993) Creating Minds. London: Basic Books, Harper Collins (1989) To Open Minds. USA: Basic Books
Gelb, MJ. (1999) How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Dell, Random House
Graddol, D..2006.. English Next. British Council.
www.britishcouncil.org/learning-research-englishnext.htm
Jarvis P, (1992) Paradoxes of Learning, Josey Bass , San Francisco
Jarvis, P. (1999) The Practitioner Researcher San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Marsh, D. Using Languages to learn and learning to use languages.
www.ecml.at/mtp2/CLILmatrix/pdf/1UK.pdf
Marsh, D., A.Majers, & A-K. Hartiala. 2001. Profiling European CLIL Classrooms:Languages Open Doors. Jyvaskyla: University of Jyvaskala/ European Platform.
Mehisto P., M-J Frigols & D. Marsh, D. 2008. Uncovering CLIL Oxford: Macmillan
Project D3 – CLIL matrix. The CLIL quality matrix. Central Workshop Report
6/2005. European Centre for Modern Languages.
www.ecml.at/mtp2/CLILmatrix/pdf/wsrepD3E2005_6.pdf
Vella, J (2002) Learning to Listen, Learning to Teach. San Francisco: Jossey Bass
Willis, D. & J. Willis. 2007. Doing Task-based Teaching. Oxford: Oxford University
Retrieved 23/03/09:
www.teachingenglish.org.uk/think/articles/clil-a-lesson-framework
Retrieved from British Council Teaching English site:
Forum for Across the Curriculum Teaching - www.factworld.info
Comenius Project TL2L - www.tl2l.nl
European Centre for Modern Languages - www.ecml.at
Norwich Institute for Language Education - www.nile-elt.com/a>
Science Across the Curriculum - www.scienceacross.org
EuroCLIC - www.euroclic.org
The National Centre for Languages (CILT) - www.cilt.org.uk
Content and Language Integrated Project (CLIP) - www.cilt.org.uk/cl
The Drama techniques for Creative Teaching Course can be viewed here
The CLIL for Primary Teachers course can be viewed here
The CLIL for Secondary Teachers course can be viewed here
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