The document provides an overview of using drama techniques in an English language classroom. It discusses elements of drama like plot, character, dialogue, and theme. It explains that drama focuses on the experience of the participants and can engage students' feelings in a motivating way. Various drama techniques are listed, including role-plays, improvisation, readers' theater, and using course materials. The benefits of drama for language learning are that it teaches to multiple intelligences, develops imagination, and boosts confidence through adopting different roles.

1. SKBS2243 DRAMA IN SCHOOL
Sem 2, 2019-2020

2. • A play has many of the
same elements as a short
story. We learn about these
elements mainly through
the characters' words and
actions.
• Plot
• Setting
• Character
• Dialogue
• Theme
• Drama as performance
• Audience
• Stagecraft
• Types of stage
• Stage facilities
• Set Design
• Costume Design
• Lighting Design
• Sound Design
• Technical Design
2

3. Theatre
• Refers to performance
• ‘Drama‘ refers to work
designed for stage, the
body of written plays i.e. the
text.
• Concerned with interaction
between actors and
audience
• Teachers taking a theatre
Drama in the
classroom
• ‘Drama’ is largely
concerned with
experience by the
participants/students
• Teachers with a drama
focus refer more to
‘experience’ or ‘living
through’ improvisations
3

4. • A: How much did he ask for?
B: Ten thousand.
A: Did he really?
B: Yes he did.
• Dramatise dialogue above using
the following tones:
•Happy
•Sad
•Angry
•Surprised 4

5. • Drama techniques
• Theatre techniques
• Creative drama
• Drama in ESL situation
• Drama in language teaching
• In essence… activities which have the experience
of the participants as the goal
5

6. • It is fun and entertaining  motivation to learn.
• Provides varied opportunities for different uses of
language
• Engages feelings  a rich experience of language
for the students.
• Learner-centered  can only operate through
active cooperation.
• A social activity  the social and communal (as
opposed to the purely individual, aspects of
learning). 6

7. 7
• A universal form of human expression
• Emotion, gestures, and imitation are universal forms of
communication understood in all cultures
• Learning thru mimicry and role-modeling
• Teaches to multiple intelligences
• Drama games, activities, and productions develop all of
Gardner's intelligences, but are particularly strong in Spatial,
Bodily/Kinesthetic, Interpersonal, Linguistic, and Intrapersonal
Intelligences.
• Using drama as a teaching tool activates many of the innate
human intelligences often neglected by traditional methods of

8. 8
• Develops the imagination
• develops students' writing, speaking, and creative self-
expression
• A multi-sensory mode of learning
• Research has demonstrated that the emotional involvement in
drama activities promotes a deepening of understanding and
improved retention of the information.
• Reaches students who struggle in traditional schooling
• Drama is a kinesthetic (movement) teaching method that
benefits those students who learn best by doing (moving their
bodies). Also see Total Physical Response

9. • It does not mean grammatical structures are not
important – focus on language in use.
• This is why drama can be such a useful pedagogic
tool.
• CONTEXT is key
9

10. • Bolstering students’ confidence in alternative
language use through assuming different roles
•Students break out of familiar “school” or “classroom”
roles constructed by peers
• Adopting different styles/registers
• Expressing emotions through language
• Learning to “think on your feet”
10

11. • Fostering interpretation through role play of
scenes/related situations
• Adopting characters’ languages and perspectives
• Exploring related conflicts/issues through role play
of similar situations
•Create peer-conflict scene related to a peer conflict in a
story or novel
11

12. • Move away from drama as an elite activity e.g. just
the “drama kids”
• Engage all students through large-group
improvisation / small-group role-play
• Importance of a context of trust and safety
•Students feel comfortable experimenting with different
roles / language use
12

13. • Role play, simulation, drama, and game are sometimes used
interchangeably, but they do illustrate different notions.
• Some scholars believe that the difference between role play
and simulation is in the authenticity of the roles taken by
students.
• Simulation is a situation in which the students play a natural role, i.e. a
role that they sometimes have in real life (e.g., buying groceries or
booking a hotel).
• In a role play, the students play a part they do not play in real life (e.g.,
Prime Minister, Managing Director of a Multinational Company or a
famous singer).
• Other scholars consider role play as one component or element of
simulation (Greenblat, 1988; Crookall & Oxford, 1990). 13

14. • Icebreakers: Exercises/warm-ups/games
• Improvisation, role play
• Mime/Charades
• Nonverbal tableaux/statues
• Body sculptures
• Group tableaux of a scene from a text
• Oral interpretation/poetry slams/choral readings /readers’
theater
• More extended drama simulations e.g. Process drama,
Reader’s Theatre, Scripted skits
• Play production
• Materials exploitation (e.g. dramatising coursebook materials 14

15. • Activities or modes of discussion used to help
individuals ease into a group setting.
• Done in groups
• May involve physical activities
• Should suit the intended purpose
15

16. • Improvisation is a kind of activity done without
preparation.
• Students create a scene, speak, act, react, and
move without preparing. The decisions for what to
say or do are made on the spot. The scene is
created as they go.
• Participants must pay attention to their partners in
order to react appropriately. This forces them to
listen carefully, to speak clearly, and to use 16

17. • Improvisation is a great way to get students
communicating as they would outside the classroom.
Outside the classroom, students must be able to speak
and act without preparing (planning what to say, looking
in the dictionary, writing words, etc.).
• Improvisation gives students the skills and confidence to
be successful when communicating outside of the
classroom.
• To watch videos of how to use improvisation in the ESL
classroom, go to http://esldrama.weebly.com/drama.html
17

18. • Improvised role play might involve the class dividing
into pairs to act out a spontaneous exchange
between shopkeeper and customer.
• Scripted role play is based on similar situations with
the dialogue written out for the participants in
advance.
• As a variation, learners are not given access to
each other's lines until the dialogue is enacted.
18

19. • Allows Ss to engage in, explore and learn about the
everyday roles that occur in their familiar experience; the
roles carried out by their parents or care-givers and
members of their community.
• Allows Ss to express their emotions, positive and
negative, in appropriate ways.
• Allows Ss to explore their own self-image and identity. It
helps build self esteem.
• Encourages speaking and listening skills and leads to
shared understanding, effective communication and
cooperation. 19

20. • Select a scene from a text or a related situation
• Define the conflicts/tensions in the scene or
situation
• Define the social situation/context, roles, role
attributes/agendas, desired goals
• Provide information to students for small-group role
plays
20

21. • Select a topic lending itself to a large-group role
play
•an issue facing students in the school that must be
resolved by the school board
•a censorship case, trial, election, etc.
• Students in class adopt different roles
• Students send written/online messages
•Students persuade others/build alliances
• A final decision is made by a board/jury 21

22. • Might involve students in creating individual
fictitious characters in a specific context (e.g.
people living in different countries or village who
speak and write to each other over a period of
time).
22

23. • Process drama is performed for the sake of the act of doing it –
not for an audience, not for a production, and it doesn't need to
be rehearsed. The audience can simply be the performers
themselves. In process drama, the importance is working
through a problem, and seeing it from many perspectives.
• Process drama allows the participants to experience a topic from
many perspectives – to dig deep into meanings and feelings. It
creates an atmosphere of exploration. Because the end product
is not the focus, students work at every moment to produce to
the best of their ability. In this way, process drama can be seen
as more meaningful, productive, and well-rounded.
• For more information, please refer to the following website
http://esldrama.weebly.com/process-drama.html
23

24. • Students read a story or script (usually with narration) aloud.
• The focus of readers' theatre is on the voice and vocal elements,
rather than visual elements. A set and props are not needed.
• In reader's theatre, a script is chosen, made, or adapted. Students
can help with this process, or it can be done by the teacher.
• Students choose a character from the script and memorize their
lines, which helps imprints the correct pronunciation in the
students' minds.
• Because readers' theatre focuses on vocal expression, and
students have the opportunity to practice repeatedly;
pronunciation is a key component. Readers' theatre is the ideal
tool for perfecting certain aspects of pronunciation – use of 24

25. • In plays, students are assigned a character, and they must plan or read
the lines of the character and dramatize the actions. In plays, students
must listen to their partners in order to know when it is their turn.
Although listening is not as necessary in a play as it is in improvisation,
students still must know when it is their turn to speak.
• When students are asked to take a role in a play, they can imagine and
plan how to act in situations for which they do not yet have the
language skills. This gives them the confidence to try their newly
acquired language outside the classroom.
• There are many purposes for introducing role-play scripts into the ESL
classroom. Students can read for the main idea, read for details, read
to write a different ending, read to understand character’s motivations,
read to find grammar points, or learn vocabulary in context, among
other purposes.
25

26. • Dramatising course book materials and literary
texts e.g. poems, short stories, news report
• The basic concept is to take a piece of literature
that the students can appreciate, and act it out.
• Younger children tend to enjoy acting out the story
as it is being read, whereas older children enjoy
exploring the concept or theme of the entire story.
26

27. 27
• Before/After the dialogue/text
•Getting students to predict & dramatise what they think
happens before or after a coursebook text or dialogue
• Key word to role play
•Giving learners key words from a coursebook dialogue and
getting them to write their own scenarios from the key words
& acting them out, before or after they read the originals.
• Hot off the press: ‘Live’ interviews
•Where a coursebook text reports an interview with someone,
getting students to actually act it out with all the
paralinguistic features.

28. • Begin with warm-up activities
•Importance of comfort/confidence
•Being physically loose
• Move to focus just on nonverbal
•Charades/tableaux activities
•Body sculptures
• Emphasize nonverbal communication
28

29. • Employ situations in which students vary language /
speech-act performance
•Differences in intent, power, register, formality, emotion,
audience
• Saying “Hi” to evoke different meanings
• Reflect on ways of performing language to
construct alternative meanings
29

30. • Select short texts suitable to performance or
memorization
• Reflect on the meaning to be conveyed
• Mark up the text in terms of emphases and pauses to
convey certain meanings
• Practice performing the text
• Perform the text for the class
• Poetry Slam:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJJ03Z6stf4
• Choral Reading: 30

31. Students:
• select challenge/experiences in their
own lives or portrayed in texts
•Conflicts with peers or parents
•Challenges in school/workplace/families
• write dialogue for one-acts
• rehearse and revise dialogue
• perform one-acts for the class
31

32. Students:
• select roles/parts/director
•Small groups may each do different plays
• discuss interpretations and how to convey those
interpretations
• rehearse performances
• perform for the class
• share reactions to the plays
32

33. 33
• The spectacle a play presents in performance, its
visual detail
• Set – Physical setting and backdrop that is the
background for the action
• Props – Furniture, objects, etc. that provides
physical context to play and can play important
dramatic symbol
• Costume – Reveal the characters, reflect their
changing fortunes
• Lighting – Sets mood
• Sound effects – We hear but don’t see the action

34. 34
• Context: These activities "set the scene" or add information as the
lesson progresses.
Soundtracking
Voices or instruments are used to create a mood or
paint a picture.
Costuming
Costuming is used as an introduction to culture or a
lifestyle of a character.
Defining the space
Furniture is arranged to represent the place where the
action happens.
Diaries, journals,
letters
Written in or out of role as a reflecting experience.
Still image
Devising an image using bodies to crystallize a moment,
theme, or idea.
Simulations
Events are simulated to highlight timing, decision-making,
and problem-solving.

35. 35
Mantle of the
expert
The group becomes endowed with specialist knowledge
relevant to the situation (e.g. archaeologists, art critics,
etc.). There are no "wrong" answers.
Meetings
The group meets, plans action, makes decisions, and suggests
solutions.
Interviews
Students interview people, groups, or characters to reveal
information, attitudes, motives, aptitudes, and capabilities.
A day in the life
A chronological sequence of what happened before the action in
the story is experienced or brainstormed.
Reportage
Reporters represent how ideas and truths can be distorted by
media and outsiders.
Teacher in role
The teacher adopts a suitable role to excite interest, control the
action, or provoke tension.

36. 36
Re-enactment
An event is re-enacted in detail to reveal what might have
happened.
Ritual
Students enact stylized traditions to understand other cultures
and rituals.
Analogy Working on a parallel situation that mirrors the real problem.
Masks
Wearing masks to change perspectives of situations and
encounters.
Caption making
Groups devise slogans, titles, and verbal summaries of visual
presentations.
Ceremony Groups create unique special events to mark significance.
Mimed activity
Students act without speaking. Emphasizes movement rather
than dialogue.

37. 37
• Involves moving away from familiar structures and
routines which feel safe into approaches which are more
open-ended and unpredictable.

38. • In ESL contexts, the possibilities are limited by the fluency
and language ability of the students.
• Younger learners: The enthusiasm and exuberance can
turn into problems of discipline.
• Older learners: There may be problems of inhibition and
embarrassment.
• Despite the enormous potential for drama to motivate and
engage the students, in practice drama can sometimes be
flat and fail to inspire.
38

39. PRIMARY (KSSR)
1
Year 1-3: Structured Reading
Program (2003)
Literature in Language Arts Module: Pupils will
be guided to plan, organize and produce
creative works for enjoyment.
2
Year 4-6: Children’s
Contemporary Literature
Program (2006)
An intensive reading program based on 2-3
prescribed texts (poem and short story) per
year; different texts for 3 regions and between
SK and SJK
SECONDARY (KSSM)
1
Year 1-5: Literature Component
in English Language (2000)
Included in PT3 and SPM Paper 2
Meant to inculcate values and broaden outlook
2
Year 4-5: Literature in English
(Elective) (1990)
Inculcate ability to enjoy the experience of
reading literature; understand and respond to
literary texts through an exploration of areas of
39

40. • Literature Component in English Language
• 2000: Forms 1 and 4
• 2001: Forms 2 and 5
• 2002: Form 3
• Compulsory component; forms 20% of the SRP/PT3 and
SPM English language paper
• Cycle 1: 2000 – 2009
• Cycle 2: 2010 – 2014
• Cycle 3: 2015 – 2019
• Literature in English Elective (Forms 4 & 5)
• Cycle 1 – 4: 1990 – 2006 (i.e. 4 years per cycle)
• Cycle 5: 2007 – 2014
• Cycle 6 and 7: 2015 – 2019; 2020 – 2024 (Same texts)
40

41. • English Language is allocated FIVE 45 minute periods a
week; including ONE period for the Literature Component in
English Language
• A range of texts are offered in the secondary school
curriculum and covers Malaysian, British, European,
Australian, American and African works.
• Learners are expected to be able to follow a storyline and
understand a poem and to give their own personal response
to the text.
• The study of these texts is meant to inculcate values and
broaden learners’ outlook.
41

42. Poetry:
• Poetry for Pleasure (RK
Sadler & TAS Haylar)
• News Break (Max Fatchen);
• Sad I Ams (Trevor Millum)
Short Story:
• Short Story Arena (Walter
McVitty)
• Fair’s Fair (Narinder Dhami)
• Graphic Novel:
• 20,000 Leagues under the Sea
– Jules Verne (Kedah, Perlis,
Kelantan, Penang, Perak)
• King Arthur – Retold by Janet
Hardy-Gould (Terengganu,
Pahang, Johor, Sarawak,
Sabah, Labuan)
• The Swiss Family Robinson –
Johan D Wyss (Selangor,
KL/Putrajaya, Negeri Sembilan, 42

43. 43
Poetry:
• Poetry for Pleasure (RK Sadler & TAS Haylar)
• My Hero (Willis Hall)
• What is red (Mary O’Neill)
Short Story:
• Short Story Arena (Walter McVitty)
• Cheat! (Alan Bailie)
Drama:
• One thousand dollars and other plays (Oxford University
Press)
• A Night Out (O. Henry)

44. 44
• Poetry:
• Poetry for Pleasure (RK Sadler & TAS Haylar)
• Poisoned Talk – Raymond Wilson
• The Day the Bulldozers Came – David Orne
• Novel:
• We didn’t mean to go to sea – Arthur Ransome (retold by Ralph
Mowat). (Kedah, Perlis, Kelantan, Penang, Perak)
• The Elephant Man – Tim Vacary. (Selangor, KL/Putrajaya,
Negeri Sembilan, Malacca)
• Moby Dick – Herman Melville (retold by Kathy Burke). (Johor,
Pahang, W. P. Labuan, Sabah, Sarawak)

45. • Poetry:
• A Poison Tree (Selected by: Pie
Corbett and Valerie Bloom)
• The Living Photograph (J Kay);
• The Charge of the Light Brigade -
extract (Lord A Tennyson)
• A Poison Tree (W Blake)
• What ever happened to Lulu? (C
Causley)
• Short Story:
• Leaving No Footprint – Stories
from Asia (Retold by Kay West)
• Tanjung Rhu (Mingfong Ho)
• Changing their skies – Stories
from Africa
• Leaving (M.G. Vassanji)
• Drama:
• Five Short Plays (Oxford
University Press)
• The Right Thing to Do (Martyn Ford)
• Novel:
• Sing to the Dawn – Mingfong
Ho (Kelantan, Terengganu,
Perak, Penang)
• Dear Mr Kilmer - Anne Schraff
(Perlis, Kedah, Selangor, W. P.
K.L. & Putrajaya, N Sembilan,
Melaka)
• Captain Nobody - Dean
Pitchford (Johor, Pahang, W. P.
Labuan, Sabah, Sarawak)
45

46. • BEFORE CLASS: Each group (3-4 students) to
search the Net and come up with the following
activities:
•5 Icebreakers/Warm up activities.
•5 improvisation activities
•5 role play activities
•5 creative drama activities
• Upload into Discussion Forum in iFolio 46