The document provides techniques for teaching English through drama in the classroom. It outlines 5 tasks using a monologue from Anton Chekhov's play "Ivanov" as the basis for activities to develop students' language skills. The tasks include warm-up games, role-plays, group discussions, writing assignments, and comprehension questions to help students analyze the characters and themes in the monologue. The document argues that using drama is an engaging way to maximize language learning and develop students' speaking, listening, reading, and writing abilities in a fun, non-serious manner.

1. Language through
Literature:Drama
Teaching Drama:
Techniques to Teach Drama in a
Language Classroom
By
Rajeev Ranjan
English Language Teacher
B.ED(ENG)& PGDTE
English and Foreign Languages
University, Hyderabad
Email. Id:- rajeevbhuvns@gmail.com
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2. IVANOV
A monologue from the play by Anton
Chekhov
This translation by Marian Fell
was first published in 1912 by
Charles Scribner's Sons, New
York. It is now a public domain
work and may be performed
without royalties.
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3. IVANOV: I used to have a workman called
Simon, you remember him. Once, at
threshing time, to show the girls how strong
he was, he loaded himself with two sacks of
rye, and broke his back. He died soon after. I
think I have broken my back also. First I went
to school, then to the university, then came
the cares of this estate, all my plans--I did
not believe what others did; did not marry
as others did; I worked passionately, risked
everything; no one else, as you know, threw
their money away to right and left as I did. So
I heaped the burdens on my back, and it
broke. We are all heroes at twenty, ready to
attack anything, to do everything, and at
thirty are worn-out, useless men. Only a
man equally miserable and suffering, as Paul
is, could love or esteem me now. Good God!
How I loathe myself! How bitterly I hate my
voice, my hands, my thoughts, these clothes,
each step I take! How ridiculous it is, how
disgusting! Less than a year ago I was healthy
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4. and strong, full of pride and energy and
enthusiasm. I worked with these hands here,
and my words could move the dullest man to
tears. I could weep with sorrow, and grow
indignant at the sight of wrong. I could feel
the glow of inspiration, and understand the
beauty and romance of the silent nights which
I used to watch through from evening until
dawn, sitting at my work-table, and giving
my soul up to dreams. I believed in a bright
future then, and looked into it as trustfully as
a child looks into its mothers eyes. And
now ... oh, I am tired and without hope; I
spend my days and nights in idleness; I have
no control over my feet and brain. My estate
is ruined; my woods are falling under the
blows of the axe. And what can I think of my
treatment of Sarah? I promised her love and
happiness forever; I opened her eyes to the
promise of a future such as she had never
dreamed of. She believed me, and though for
five years I have seen her sinking under the
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5. weight of her sacrifices to me, and losing her
strength in her struggles with her conscience,
God knows she has never given me one angry
look, or uttered one word of reproach. What
is the result? That I don't love her! She is
suffering; her days are numbered; yet I fly
like a contemptible coward from her white
face, her sunken chest, and her pleading eyes.
What is the matter with me? I can't
understand it. The easiest way out would be a
bullet through the head!
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6. Drama is specific mode of fiction
represented in performance. It is an
important genre. It consists of various
emotions. Drama is a potential
resource to create wonderful activities
to maximize language learning in the
classroom with full of fun. Language
learning should be a matter of fun. It is
totally non-serious thing. Pupil should
enjoy a drama class.
Activity for Teaching Language through
Drama
A teacher can use different strategies for
teaching English through Drama in a
language classroom. It depends on teachers’
creativity, his/her innovative mind. These
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7. activities will suit for Intermediate level
students in Indian context.
A Warm-up Game
Task One
Objective: To provoke interest in the
learners about a play.
Teacher will divide the class into groups
.S/he asks learners to come up on the
stage .One learner will act like a hero of a
famous movie and s/he enacts mime of a
particular scene and rest of the learners will
guess the scene. If a group guesses the right
answers within a stipulated time, let us say, 2
minutes, they will be given one point.
Task Two
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8. Objective: To develop Listening and
Speaking skills.
Teacher divides learners in pairs and asks
learners to talk on mobile phone on any
topic. Teacher will instruct about time slot
for this activity. In this activity, learners are
free to say whatever they like, but the others
will have to retain what is said by the
speaker and continue the conversation
accordingly.
Task Three: Part one
Speaking Tasks
Objective: To develop Speaking Skills.
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9. Teacher will write this sentence “I did not
believe what others did” on the black board.
Now teacher asks learners to work in pairs,
discuss on this sentence for five minutes,
write your friend and your own points in your
notebook and then one of them will speak
about his/her view point in this topic. Teacher
will give some guiding questions which helps
the learners to think on this topic like
What do you think about this statement?
Do we believe others?
 In what sense has the speaker said this?
Is the speaker happy or sad? Why do you
think so?
 Do we follow others?
 Do we follow others blindly?
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10.  Is the speaker a courageous and strong
minded person?
 In what context did the speaker give this
statement?
Task Three :Part Two
Objective: Develop Speaking Skills
through promoting group discussion in the
class.
“We are all heroes at twenty, ready to
attack anything, to do everything, and at
thirty are worn-out, useless men”.
Teacher divides learners into four groups and
gives each group a distinct name from
scholars, players, famous leaders, and famous
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11. leaders. Chair will be arranged as a round
table. Each group will select a leader. They
will discuss in their own group, later on
leader of each group will speak to the whole
class. Teacher gives ten minutes to discuss
and 4-5 minutes to speak. Teacher monitors
the whole class, move around the group, and
checks whether everyone is participating in
this discussion or not. Teacher will guide
students and try to make conscious them on
some points by giving guiding questions.
• Is it true in real life situation?
• Why does he think like this?
• Is he pessimistic or optimistic? What do
you think? Give reasons. You can say
what do you really think and find in your
life? There is nothing like wrong and
right points.
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12. • Is he a happy or sad person? How would
you say so?
Task Four
Writing Tasks
Task Four: Part one
Objective: To develop Writing Skills.
What kind of person was Ivanov? Discuss
with your friend and write 100 words
about his character.
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13. This activity will enable the learners to
develop writing skill. It will increase peer
interactions and peer correction in the class.
Teacher asks learners to work in pairs and
write 100 words about Ivanov’s character. It
is a 10-minute activity. Teacher will ask
learners to exchange their note book with
other classmates’ note and make necessary
change like write correct words, grammar etc.
Teacher helps the learners with some guiding
questions.
Teacher presents another piece of well
developed model of characterization. It will
help learners, what should be the gradation of
the characterization. They will be able to put
right information about a character.
Task four :Part Two
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14. Ivanov talks so much about his wife. What
kind of wife she is? Is she devoted to her
husband or is she a cheater? Talk to your
partner about Ivanov’s wife and write her
wife’s characteristic features in about 5o
words.
Task Four: Part Three
Do you believe in love or arranged marriage?
Suppose you are going to marry very soon.
You are looking for a number of qualities in
your wife/husband. Write an article in about
150 words on your Ideal husband/ Wife.
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15. You can discuss with your friend. You should
include all these points like:
• Physical beauty: fair, black , long , short
,lean and thin , fatty
• Behavioral quality: talkative, friendly,
caring, devoted, faithful, introvert,
extrovert etc.
• Educational qualifications
• Family background
• Any other qualities you would like to
mention.
Task Five
Task Five :Part one
15

16. Grammar: Past Tense
Teacher reads a biography of famous person
in which many past incidents have been
included like his habits, his interest, and his
likes and dislikes etc. Teacher asks the
learners to listen carefully. The text will be
short so the interest of the learners is
sustained. Now teacher asks learners to list all
his habits, likes, dislikes and his activity
which were mentioned in the text. Then
teacher explains rule of past tense by using
elicitation technique in the class. Further the
teacher will ask students to collect all these
information about Ivanov from the text. It
will directly connect the learners to present
knowledge e.g. I worked passionately, so I
heaped the burdens on my back.
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17. Teacher gives clear instruction to the
students, about time and what are they going
to do.
Task Five Part Two
Vocabulary
Objective: To enable the learners to identify
different types of feelings like happiness and
sadness used in the text.
Many words have been used in this text,
which have negative meaning or which
denote negative quality of a person, like
‘miserable and suffering, hate, bitterly etc.
Can you list them into your notebook?
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18. Many words have been used in the text
which has positive meaning. Some of these
words show positive aspects of human beings
like happiness, confidence. Can you list
them?
Task Five :Part two
After above mentioned tasks, the students
will have sound knowledge of the meaning of
the words in the text. Now teacher gives some
words and asks learners to give antonyms.
 Give antonyms of these words. One has
been done for you. Strong-weak
back, passionately, believe, love, bitterly,
ridiculous, healthy, control, bright future,
hope, forever, strength, coward, conscience.
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19.  A word can have similar meanings like,
believe- faith. Can you give some
synonym for these words? You can
consult dictionary or you can ask your
friend. You can work in pairs.
Remember, strong, passionately, miserable,
esteem, enthusiasm, bitterly, angry, coward.
 One word can be used as a noun, verb,
adverb, adjectives etc. It depends on the
context.
Passion
1. [n] - a feeling of strong sexual desire
2. [n] - strong feeling or emotion ,
Synonym: Feeling, Emotion.
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20. Struggle
Struggle Strug"gle, n. Great labor; forcible
effort to obtain an object, or to avert an evil
Synonym: Endeavor; effort; contest; labor;
difficulty
These are some words from the text. Choose
ten words of your choice from the lists of
words. Consult a dictionary and write their
different types of use in different functions
like noun, adjectives, adverb etc. You can talk
to your friend.
Objective: To develop word power.
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21. Back, believe, passionately, miserable and
suffering, love or esteem bitterly, ridiculous,
disgusting! healthy , strong, energy
,enthusiasm, sorrow, beauty , romance
,silent bright future , trustfully , hope,
idleness, control ruined, promised, forever,
believed , sacrifices, strength struggles
,conscience, angry., Suffering, contemptible,
coward, pleading.
Reading Comprehension
Comprehension Questions
Who was his work man?
What he did to show a girl that he is
strong?
Why did not he believe in others?
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22. What was his profession? (i) Carpenter
(ii) soldier (iii) doctor (iv) teacher. Give
your reason to support your answer.
 He said "I believed in a bright future."
What does it mean? If he is an optimistic,
why did he use so many words like
unhappy, disgusting etc?
 What did he promise his wife? Is he able
to keep his promise?
 Is his wife an angry woman? How can
you say? Support your answer.
 In the second last line, he uttered this
sentence. "What is the matter with me? I
can't understand it." Do you understand
his problems? Discuss with your friend
and write your answer.
Select ten important words from this
paragraph and write a summary in fifty
words.
 “The easiest way out would be a bullet
through the head” this is the last statement
of Ivanov. Did he suicide himself?
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23.  There are two types of emotion expressed
in this text. Can you identify them? Do
we have only two types of emotions
happy and sad? Do you know any
different kind of emotion? Discuss with
your friend and write the answer in fifty
words.
Conclusion:
In fact many activities can be created on this
text. But I have created very few on based of
my experience, we can implement these tasks
at Intermediate Level in ESL context. English
Language Teacher should design activities
according to the age, social background,
understanding level of learners. It can
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24. maximize learning English Language in the
classroom.
References:
• Dougill, John (1987). Drama Activities
for Language Learning. London:
Macmillan
• Johnson, K. & Morrow K. [Ed] (1981).
Communication in the Classroom.
London: Longman
• Blatchford, Roy [Ed] (1986). The English
Teacher's Handbook. London: Hutchinson
• Maley, A. & Duff A (1982). Drama
Teaching in Language Learning.
London: CUP
• The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. X, No.
10, October 2004 http://iteslj.org/
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