6. DRAMA

DRAMA

Drama

By Andrea Billíková Nitra, Slovakia

With drama techniques, we imitate authenticity and bring it to the classroom through a variety of communicative situations with real-life characters and their problems. Language practice is based on solving these problems and providing creative solutions in the target language. Such tasks stimulate learners’ imagination, creativity, thinking, and decision-making and motivate them to participate actively. There is always some reason to speak and to listen to each other. Authentic communication is usually not planned in advance; it is spontaneous and unpredictable. Some drama techniques offer such experience to learners — to act without preparation. As to foreign language practice, drama provides the opportunity to solve language difficulties in a foreign language — to say something somehow even with limited knowledge of a target language. They can fill these gaps by using facial expressions, body language, gestures, and different “communication tricks” (paraphrasing, repetition, hesitation, fillers, and others) that we all use subconsciously and naturally even when communicating in our mother tongue. Drama techniques provide the context to practice conversation strategies (opening, leading, ending, changing the topic) and the whole scale of language functions (describing, asking, refusing, accepting, explaining, etc.). Through drama techniques, we teach our learners to become more aware of themselves (the way they move, speak, behave, and feel), to identify with others (to understand how they feel, react, speak, move, and behave), and to respect the environment we live in (the animals, plants, and objects around us, their purpose of existence, how they affect us). Learning happens in a stress-free environment without fear, tension, or threat. So it is not only the language we aim to teach but also cooperation, thinking, acceptance, and awareness.

The potential of drama techniques in a foreign language class is enormous. That is why drama techniques are used there in order to: • improve communicative competence and performance of language learners; • express naturally and spontaneously via verbal and non-verbal means (such as mimes, gestures, posture); • experiment in (with) a foreign language and take risks in communication; • use voice potential to its maximum in a foreign language; • vary intonation and rhythm of speech according to different moods; • be aware of the setting where the language is used; • be empathetic and tolerant; • acquire new language subconsciously, without too much conscious effort; • create a friendly and cooperative atmosphere; • change the roles of learners and teachers; • lead learners to responsibility and independence when learning a foreign language via reflection on the learning process, and self-reflection; • see the reason behind learning a foreign language; • practice all skills (speaking, listening, reading, writing); • involve learners with different learning styles, different personalities, and multiple intelligences; • motivate both learners and teachers; • lead all participants to creativity and convergent thinking;

• create better rapport between a teacher and his or her learners; • make the learning and teaching process joyful; • implement interdisciplinary knowledge; • develop the whole personality of learners.

Drama techniques are just a learning and teaching tool, not a goal. Therefore we remind teachers to teach a foreign language via drama instead of teaching drama through a foreign language.