Humanising Language Teaching
Year 6; Issue 2; March 04

Drama : simply performing or more ?

Marisa Agostinelli, Italy

The normal understanding of this word by teachers in our country is that of an end-of-year performance planned at the beginning of the school year and prepared for over the school year.

It also implies hard work for both teachers and pupils.

Nowadays, thanks to new thinking either in learning styles or in teaching methodology, drama is a subject in the national curriculum in some countries, such as the UK, whereas in others it is considered as a technique to improve learners' skills.

As all subject teachers may be involved in drama work it fosters cross-curricular lesson- planning and team-work. That means that children's needs and learning processes can be focused on during the whole activity.

Why use drama ?

There are many good reasons for using drama activities in infant and primary classes, here are some:

Drama helps children to:

become aware of their own identity
In drama sessions children learn about emotions, problem-solving and relating to other people. In this way they build up an image of themselves and of the outside world.

become aware of their social role
Children feel part of a group, learn how to work co-operatively with their classmates and get ready to face up to any situation.

become confident
Through their experiences in drama, they can develop their imagination, creativity and learn how to learn. As a result, their confidence will increase and they will build a positive image of themselves.

learn according to their own style
As in drama any kind of expression is accepted, any intelligence can be fostered and valued. As a consequence, an individualised learning process is guaranteed.

Resources for drama
A useful resource to start a drama session is a story. You can use any story you like, from a traditional to a modern one. Traditional stories can help children to understand a foreign language better as they already know its content in their mother tongue but that isn't a good reason for limiting your choice and not exploring your pupils' creativity.

With my young learners I prefer short action stories as I have found that they are a good way of training them for drama purposes. They are in fact enjoyable and enhance the children's imagination and creativity, as well. In using them, children have the chance to experience body language, to get into the story more easily and to acquire a considerable amount of language.

Other resources for drama can be any objects, collected by the children , which may fire their imagination and become a part of a setting or even a character to whom they can give a voice. All the objects can be stored in drama resource boxes and used when the time seems ripe. Children should have the chance to access them easily in order to find the props which will enable them to express their creativity.

Arts and crafts
Children love making things like masks on their own. Through these they can get into the characters and the story events more easily. Don't feel frustrated if some characters have in part or totally lost their original features.

The fact is that each child has his own way of interpreting the outside world.

When making things, give the children clear instructions in L2 ( and in L1 if necessary) while showing them what to do. In this way children will be able to take on board a considerable amount of language without feeling pushed into learning it.

A drama session outline

Here's how you can do an action story:

• Material – prepare all the material you will need such as flashcards or board pictures of the characters and the objects mentioned in the story.
• Preparation – Learn the story by heart and practise it.
• In class – Use the flashcards to introduce the characters and to teach new words.

Here is a drama lesson path I planned and followed with my six and seven year-old pupils.

Level : absolute beginners
Age group : five to seven
Aims:

• Language : to practise listening and acquire some food- vocabulary
• Other: to work together to perform a story, to share ideas in order to create a script, cast the characters and perform a play.

Material : Pictures of the story- sequences and flashcards related to food items.

Procedure

• Tell the children that they are going to listen to a story called
  A hat ? Yummy, Yummy!
  Mime the title in order to help them understand the meaning.
  Show them the pictures of the characters (a dragon, some children and a rabbit) while naming them. Use the flashcards of the food items to teach the words. Ask the children what the story will be about and listen to their ideas, expressed in L1.

• Get the children to mime actions and words as follows

Words to be mimed	Actions
Small	Put your hands together as if you were holding a small ball
Dragon	Blow hard while moving your head backwards and forwards
Hungry	Rub your stomach
Yuck !	Make a disgusted expression with your face
Horrible	Make a shocked expression
Yummy	Rub your stomach and chew while you make a happy face
A rabbit	Raise your hands and flip them so that they look like a rabbit's ears
Basket	Make a circle with your hands in front of you
Taste	Move your closed mouth as if eating something good
Give	Stretch out your hand
See	Point with your index fingers first to your eyes then to something in the opposite direction

Story A hat ? Yummy, Yummy!

This is a story of a small dragon called Lochnie
Lochnie goes for a walk in the park.
He is hungry, very, very hungry.
He sees a picnic basket near a bench.
Lochnie looks into the basket: there's a pear, some chips, an apple, a hamburger and some yoghurt…"
A boy comes and gives him an apple.
" Have an apple" he says
Lochnie tastes the apple
"Yuck! I don't like apples" the dragon says
Lochnie is hungry, very, very hungry.
Other children come and offer him some yoghurt, some chips and pizza.
Lochnie tastes the yoghurt, the chips and the pizza.
" Yuck ! I don't like yoghurt, chips or pizza" the dragon says.
Lochnie is hungry, very, very hungry
" Have a sandwich !" a girl says
Lochnie tastes the sandwich
"Yuck ! I don't like sandwiches" the dragon says
Lochnie is hungry, very, very hungry.
" Have a hamburger" a boy says
Lochnie tastes the hamburger
" Disgusting ! I don't like hamburgers!" the dragon says
" I have got an idea !"Charlie ,the rabbit, says
"Hey , friend !" he says " Have my hat !!!"
Lochnie tastes the hat…
"Mmmm…Yummy, Yummy!"the dragon says "I like hats"
And he eats up the hat
(adapted from a book for young learners)