Drama in the L2 Classroom: A Defense and Practicum

Abstract

A case is made for the use and practice of drama and dramatic activities in order to engage students in the second language (L2) classroom. This article also attempts to clarify terms such as drama, theatre, and dramatic activities within a second language classroom context. In order to make the case for drama in the L2 classroom, well-established trends in contemporary pedagogy are presented. Coupled with Maley & Duff’s benefits of drama in the L2 classroom, the overall intent of this article is to empower L2 instructors and give them the theoretical and practical tools to brave potentially hostile educational environments that may not be open to dramatic activities in the classroom. In short, while teachers may instinctively know the value and benefits of drama to their language learners, they may at times need to convince administrators, fellow teachers, and even themselves of the benefits.

Genki: A Case Study of Benefits for Foreigners Producing Theatre in a Japanese Regional Dialect

“…Numerous studies have shown that theatre and drama can have beneficial foreign language learning effects (Carson, 2012;Dodson, 2002;Horghagen & Josephsson, 2010;Ryan-Scheutz & Colangelo, 2004). These benefits can be seen in terms of the improvement of specific language skills as well as motivation (Barbee, 2016).…”

Page to Stage: An Empirical Study of Foreign Language Learning (FLL) and Motivation Through Playwriting, Readers Theatre, and Stage Production

“…Dramatic activities are any activities that engage students in both drama and theatre. Within the context of the language classroom, the benefits of both drama and theatre coincide with the basic concepts of several holistic methods of language teaching including Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), Task-based Learning (TBL), and Total Physical Response (TPR) (Barbee, 2016;Davies, 1990). Nina Spada (2007) states that CLT validates drama as pedagogy in the language classroom, writing that CLT is "a meaning-based, learner-centered approach to L2 teaching where fluency is given priority over accuracy and the emphasis is on the comprehension and production of messages" (p. 272).…”

“…Dramatic activities in the classroom can include but are not limited to mime, simulation, role-playing, improvisation, teacher-in-role, playwriting, and various types of theatre performances from monologues and scenes to readers theatre and full productions (Barbee, 2016;Davies, 1990).…”

“…While the simpler dramatic activities from mime to improvisation are very low resource, i.e., they only require a room of human beings (Maley & Duff, 1978), using the more involved forms of theatre, including full theatre production, in an English class with second language learners can come with limitations from student motivation and level of English ability to space, policy constraints, and time (Barbee, 2016). Because of the limitations with time especially, I have rarely staged full theatre productions in my classes.…”

The Effectiveness of Using Drama-based Activities in English L2 Classroom

“…Through execution of the changes, I am going to make based on educational research, I anticipate that students' speaking anxiety will be alleviated to a large extent. It will directly result in their linguistic and emotional development, thus boost their frequency and confidence in English speaking [4] .…”