Humanising Language Teaching
Year 6; Issue 3; September 04

Drama in Education for Language Learning

Céline Healy
celinehealy@eircom.net

This article has two kinds of readers in mind. Those who would like to explore the use of Drama in Education or Process Drama in their language classroom but don't know where or how to start. Those who have some experience of using Drama in Education but want to extend their knowledge and understanding of how to use it in the language class. It is in two parts: after a brief introduction to the underlying principles and aims of Drama in Education it sets out a detailed workshop plan with accompanying objectives and task descriptions.

Drama in Education is essentially improvised in nature. Drawing on the elements of drama it enables learners to create and inhabit a fictional world for the experiences, insights and understandings it may yield (Heathcote, 1984). It encourages learners to bring their interests and personalities, their 'cultural capital' (Giroux, 1989), to the learning process so that they can become actively involved and their knowledge personalised (Bruner, 1962). Thus Drama in Education helps to blur the edges between the classroom and life outside by promoting a content-rich learning environment that creates meaningful, motivating contexts for communication and learning.

The emphasis is on using drama for the process of learning and not for producing a spectacle. The whole group is involved and there is no external audience: the participants are audience to their own action. The starting point of the improvised drama is a theme, situation or pre-text that is both interesting and challenging for learners, will lead them into the drama and imply action (O' Neill, 1995). The drama is then built from a series of episodes, often developed in a non-linear way, to enable participants to explore different aspects and perspectives of the dramatic world created. Learners are thus encouraged to actively engage with the content, to reflect and to communicate their reflections and opinions thereby creating a web of meaning and advancing the drama.

The workshop that follows shows how Drama in Education techniques and conventions may be used to explore the language and themes of poetry. The unfolding drama leads learners into an understanding of the language and the themes of the poems so when they read the poems in their entirety for the first time they can do so independently of their teacher and their classmates. Thus, Drama in Education prepares them for success and helps them develop a growing sense of autonomy in their language learning and language use.

The workshop illustrates how the teacher can work as co-participant in the drama to create a more democratic classroom environment that promotes collaboration and risk-taking. A Multiple Intelligences approach (Gardner, 1983) is fostered through a variety of tasks appealing to different learning styles while promoting an integrated approach to the development of the language skills. The emphasis is on involving learners in their learning, scaffolding them in their understandings, encouraging them and promoting their success.

Three poems, dealing with the theme of escaping from reality and loss, by Irish poets are explored. These are 'I Will Leave This Place' by Mary Dorcey¹, 'The Woman And The Igloo' by Joan Mc Breen² and 'The Stolen Child' by William Butler Yeats³. Through the drama participants are encouraged to make links between the poems, to relate the themes to their understandings of life and to explore these understandings. The level is pitched at upper intermediate or lower advanced learners. The tasks do not have to be sequenced in the way suggested and not all tasks have to be used: the needs and interests of the learners should take precedence over the workshop plan.

Task: Rapid Mimes

Participants, working in small groups, respond to vocabulary items written on slips of paper by creating mimes.

An envelope containing 8 slips of paper for each group.

• To enable participants to become physically as well as cognitively involved in their learning through the mime activity.

• To foster a relaxed, collaborative learning environment through physical activity in small groups.

• To enable participants to collaborate in the revision and learning of vocabulary that will help them to read the poetry with ease.

Each group of 3/4 is given an envelope containing 8 slips of paper.
They read the first slip and decide how best to represent this through mime. They are given 20 seconds for this.
The group facilitator calls aloud what is written on the slip and all the groups together do their mimes. This ensures that the focus is on the vocabulary and on group collaboration and not on any individual.
This is repeated for each of the slips.
Often the class want to see individual groups' representations. As long as the groups are willing this can be great fun.

Herons. Flapping herons. Water rats. Drowsy water rats. Olden dances. To and fro we leap. Chasing frothy bubbles. Leaning out.
* This is based on an activity called Rapid Mimes in Brandes, D. (1982), The Gamesters' Handbook Two, London: Hutchinson.

Task: Setting the scene through teacher-in-role.

Participants are invited by the facilitator to sit on chairs in a circle. When everyone is settled the facilitator, in role as leader of an amateur detective society, welcomes all to a meeting, reports on the job they have been asked to do and invites their questions and comments.

• To set the scenario with economy of time through use of teacher-in-role.

• To focus the attention of the group and stimulate their interest in the next task.

Teacher-in-role as leader of the amateur detective society; sufficient chairs for the whole group arranged in a circle.

Teacher-in-role welcomes the amateur detective to the meeting. 'Good evening and welcome. Thank you very much for coming out on such a wet and windy night, and at such short notice, for this meeting. Why was this meeting called? Well, you know it's happened again - yet another person has been reported missing, disappeared into thin air, no evidence of foul play, disappeared as if abducted by aliens. So all hands are needed on deck and that's why we, in the amateur detective society, have been called in to help in the investigation. We are, however, under pressure of time and have been asked to examine the information and clues available and come to some conclusions before we leave here this evening. Do you have any questions?'

This convention sets the scene and invites group members to participate without any need for lengthy contextualisation. The group are now aware of their roles and what is expected of them. A time constraint is given to lend tension to the proceedings. The facilitator-in-role offers the group a model of behaviour and the type of language to be used during the drama. Inviting the group to ask questions immediately plunges them into the make-believe situation; to participate in what Dorothy Heathcote calls 'the big lie' (Heathcote, 1984). This acts as an incentive and motivation for them to become involved in and to take responsibility for the emerging drama.

Task: Examining the scene

Participants examine the scene where the latest person to have disappeared is last known to have been.

• To stimulate participants' imaginations as they examine the scene and form hypotheses.

• To encourage participants to consider the human situations behind the poems that will be read later.

A desk and chair; a folder; a writing pad; a handbag; personal items such as a plant or an incense stick on the desk; torn slips of paper; a sheet of paper; a crumbled sheet of paper; sheets of poster paper.

Participants are invited to examine the scene then break into groups to compile a chart of their findings under suggested headings: Who? Why? Where? With Whom? The scene consists of a desk and chair. On the desk is a black folder on which is placed a sheet of paper and a writing pad. There is a note written on the pad*. The sheet of paper under the pad is decorated with doodles that include an outline of mountains with trees, a river and a waterfall. The words 'to the waters and the wild'* are scribbled in a corner. On the back of the chair a handbag is hanging. There are torn slips of paper in the bag with words written on them in an old fashioned script*. On the floor beside the desk is a crumbled ball of paper*.
*On the pad is hand-written:

I will leave this place,
and go somewhere
you are not known.
Days might pass,
without hearing your name.

This is a poem entitled 'I Will Leave This Place' by Mary Dorcey in MacMonagle, N. (ed.) (1994) Real Cool: Poems to Grow Up With, Dublin: Martello, 72.

*An examination of the crumpled ball of paper reveals the hand-written text:

My time has never been my own
I have so much to do
and do again tomorrow
Between all of you
I am exhausted
I will take time off and go away.

This is an adaptation of a poem entitled 'The Woman and The Igloo' by Joan McBreen, in MacMonagle, N. (ed.) (1994) Real Cool: Poems to Grow Up With, Dublin: Martello, 145.

*The words doodled on the sheet of paper 'to the waters and the wild' are taken from 'The Stolen Child' by William Butler Yeats.

*The words on the torn slips of paper found in the handbag are places referred to in 'The Stolen Child':
Sleuth Wood; the lake; a leafy island; hills; grey sands - Rosses;
waterfall - Glen Car; pools among the rushes.

Task: Modelling an image of the person who went away

Participants are invited to create a living picture of the person before they went away to give some idea of how they might have been feeling and what they might have been thinking.

• To build participants involvement in the make believe situation as they see a physical representation, in a particular moment in time, of one of the people who disappeared.

• To enable participants to create a physical representation of their observations and thoughts after examining the scene.

• To allow participants to critique these observations and thoughts through seeing and commenting on different physical representations.

• To foster an understanding of how people interpret scenes in different ways.

The table and chair scene used above and one volunteer from the group.

A volunteer sits in the seat at the desk. Following instructions from members of the group he/she sits in a particular way, holds his/her head in a particular way, wears a particular expression and so on. When, for example, one expression is seen another may be tried and discussed. In this way multiple interpretations are seen and critiqued and adjusted accordingly.

Having modelled the person in the moments before he/she disappeared the groups then return to their charts and make any changes they deem necessary.

Task: Creating an information and hypotheses chart

Participants pool together information gathered and hypotheses made to create a summary in chart form that will be passed on to those leading the investigation.

The charts that participants have created.

• To create a motivational context for reading and listening to others' observations and points of view.

• To initiate debate and discussion among participants as they articulate and defend their opinions.

Each group posts the chart it has created on the walls of the room. Participants circulate reading the charts to get an overview of the observations and hypotheses made. They then return to their circle of seats to compile a chart similar to the ones created by each group representing a summary of the group's work. A tension is added by reminding the group that we are under pressure to submit a chart of our findings as soon as possible. A further tension is added through the debate and defence of ideas and opinions.

Task: Reading an e-mail for clues

Participants read an e-mail found in the mailbox of one of the disappeared to find further information on where the people may have gone, why and with whom.

• To enable participants to engage in a close reading of the refrain from 'The Stolen Child' by reading and discussing the contents of the e-mail.

Copies of an e-mail on which the refrain of 'The Stolen Child' is written in an elaborate script (e.g., Blackadder ITC). The sender's address should be blanked out.

Group facilitator in role as leader of the amateur detective society introduces some new evidence that has just been found. Printed copies of an e-mail found in the mailbox of one of people who have disappeared are distributed. The group is invited to read the text for clues. Findings are shared, discussed and taken note of.

On the e-mail is written:
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
Than you
Can understand.

From The Stolen Child by W. B. Yeats

Task: Expressing heightened, poetic language in everyday language

Pieces of paper that have been written on in old-fashioned script are read and expressed in everyday English.

• To facilitate a collaborative reading of extracts from 'The Stolen Child' to encourage participants to help one another with any difficulties they may have with the poetic language.

Pieces of paper that have been charred around the edges on which extracts from 'The Stolen Child' have been written in old-fashioned script.

The 'leader' announces that more clues have been found and forwarded to us for investigation. The charred pieces of paper are distributed to small groups. They are asked to read and find ways of expressing them in everyday English.
Before the groups give feedback on their pieces of text sheets of paper on which all the pieces of text are written are distributed. Each group reads aloud the extracts they were given and then expresses them in everyday English. The others help where necessary and tell what clues they glean from them. Clues are discussed and noted.

The following are examples of some of the texts on the charred pieces of paper:

Where dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island

There we've hid our faery vats
Full of berries
And of reddest stolen cherries.

Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances,

To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And is anxious in its sleep.

In pools among the rushes
That scarce could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout

He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast

From 'The Stolen Child' by W. B. Yeats.

Task: Exploring the theme of loss in the poems

Participants read and listen to 'The Stolen Child' by W. B. Yeats arranged to music by The Waterboys. They will also read 'I Will Leave This Place' by Mary Dorcey and 'The Woman And The Igloo' by Joan McBreen. As they read and listen they are asked to focus on what the poems suggest the person who leaves will miss.

• To encourage participants to examine the theme of loss in the poems as they read them in their entirety.

• To give participants the pleasure of listening to a beautiful arrangement of 'The Stolen Child'.

Sufficient copies of 'The Stolen Child' by W. B. Yeats, 'I Will Leave This Place' by Mary Dorcey and 'The Woman And The Igloo' by Joan McBreen for all participants. A recording of 'The Stolen Child' arranged to music by The Waterboys with Tomás MacEoin on the album Now And In Time To Be: A Musical Celebration Of The Works Of W. B. Yeats, The Grapevine Label Ltd., London, 1997.

Copies of the poem are distributed. Participants are given time to read it in their groups. Then the recording is played. Afterwards participants are given time to discuss in their groups what the poem suggests the person who leaves might miss. Copies of 'I Will Leave This Place' by Mary Dorcey and 'The Woman And The Igloo' by Joan McBreen are also distributed and the discussion is extended to what these poems suggest the person might miss by going away.
Findings are then shared and discussed with the whole group.

Task: Creating and reading tableaux using 'thought-tracking'

Participants in small groups are invited to create two tableaux or freeze-frames: one showing why the person in the Mary Dorcey poem or the Joan McBreen poem might want to 'run away with the fairies' and another showing what they might miss by going away. Participants in each tableau are 'thought-tracked' or called upon to express the thoughts their 'role' has at that particular moment in time.

• To enable participants to draw on their own experiences in the creation of tableaux or freeze-frames in order to better understand those of others.

• To facilitate participants to express themselves kinaesthetically as well as orally through the tableaux and 'thought-tracking'.

• To allow participants the possibility of exploring the tensions between 'what is' and 'what appears to be' by reading the tableaux and 'thought-tracking' the characters.

Participants, in small groups, are invited to create two tableaux as outlined above. A tableau is a representation, like a photograph, of a moment frozen in time. Participants take a position and a role as if in a photograph and then hold still so others may 'read' the physical image created.

Participants are given time to prepare a sentence or two that describes their thoughts and feelings at the moment that the tableau depicts.

The tableaux are viewed and the others describe what they see paying particular attention to the distance between bodies, body language and facial expression. In this way participants look beneath the surface of what appears to be to examine a particular moment in more detail.

The characters in the tableaux may then be thought-tracked. When someone in a tableau is touched on the elbow by one of the participants then he/she can express the thoughts of the character. In this way participants can gain further insights into the situation depicted.

To facilitate further reflection participants may then be led to discuss their observations or even to create a diary entry for one of the characters.

Task: Conscience Alley

Participants are requested to divide into two straight lines facing one another. Volunteers walk between the two lines in the role of one of the people depicted in the tableaux. Those in the lines must offer advice about whether 'to go away with the fairies' or stay.

• To enable participants to express their opinions and learn the opinions of others through the giving and receiving of advice.

• To stimulate further discussion on the themes of the poems related to participants' understandings of life.

Group divides into two straight lines with participants from each facing towards the other. Volunteers in the role of one of the people depicted in the tableaux walk slowly between the two lines. As they go past participants whisper their advice to them on whether or not they should go and why.

As many volunteers as wish, or as time permits walk through the alley and the others give the same piece of advice each time. After some time those that have walked through the tunnel in role tell whether they have decided to stay or go and why. Further discussion may then ensue.

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