Drama and early foreign language teaching

Introduction

In early foreign language teaching drama is a very useful method to promote language. According to my experience at primary schools, unfortunately drama activities are not that current in the language classroom. This is due to various reasons such as additional work for the teacher or insufficient practical experience in this area. I have to admit that even I myself had doubts about the efficiency of language learning with the help of drama activities. My fear was losing too much time with preparation, organisation and rehearsals, time that could be used more effectively otherwise in the language classroom. This explains my curiosity in how far the seminar Cross-curricular English through Drama and Multimedia would change my previous attitude or more precisely my slight objections towards drama activities.

In fact, I changed my mind through the work on the performance of our course during that term. More details concerning the new perspective I adopted can be found in the last part of this extended essay. Mainly, I want to point out how drama can help in learning English at primary school level. In this context, the four major features focus on language, focus on context, focus on learner as well as focus on content are of importance. But first of all, I want to look into the theoretical aspects of drama by trying to define the term drama and to differentiate between its different types.

1 Theory on drama

As this extended essay mainly deals with drama activities in the language classroom, first of all the term drama should be clarified. When a generous interpretation of drama is taken into account, then children

“encounter drama whenever they play, act out stories, imitate other people, experiment with social roles, pretend to be someone else whom they admire or fear or love” (HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 206).

John O’Toole‘s classifies drama as a “symbolic representation at first hand of the working out of relationships involving human beings.” (O’TOOLE, 1976, page 18, taken from: HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 206). In this context, HOLLINDALE argues that there is a continuity of drama in children’s lives from playing to watching a play, from acting stupidly to acting on the stage (Compare HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 207).

The British Arts Council pamphlet of guidance on drama education, Drama in Schools (1992), regards drama as educational experience referring to the three activities making, performing and responding that can be pointed out as followed:

- Making comes up in early childhood when children start to improvise stories and games with rules and allotted parts.
- Performing can be found in form of a structured play at school. Here stories are acted out for peers, parents and/or local community. Often drama is regarded as a process not as a product.
- Responding on broadcast or stage performance as third activity includes the development of critical response. (Compare HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 208).

There are three terms that correspond to these three activities. All of them are subordinate denotations of the term children’s drama.

According to GOLDBERG these types of drama are:

1. Creative dramatics as

“ an informal activity in which children are guided by a leader to express themselves through the medium of drama. Its goal is not performance, but rather the free expression of the child’s creative imagination th(r)ough the discipline of an art form.” (GOLDBERG, 1974, page 5, taken from HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 208).

Creative dramatics, as it is explained above, lead on from spontaneous play. These activities include improvised dialogue, movement, dance, mime, and puppetry, the acting out of stories as well as dramatised response to poetry and music. Its aims are imaginative, artistic and personal so that the development of self-confidence and social awareness is also included. (Compare HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 208).

2. Recreational drama which is

“a formal theatrical presentation where the development and experience of the performers is as or more important than the aesthetic enjoyment of the audience.“ (GOLDBERG, 1974, page 5, taken from HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 209).

Here, school pageans, camp skits and recreational department programs, where children act for other children, are included. The main emphasis lies on the learner. In Britain the most important form is the school play.

3. Children’s theatre is

“a formal theatrical experience in which a play is presented for an audience of children.” (GOLDBERG, 1974, page 5, taken from HOLLINDALE, 1996, page 209).

Its purpose is to entertain and to encourage enjoyment of theatre as an art form. Consequently, the focus lies on the audience. Children have child roles whereas other roles are played by adults. Most of the actors are professionals who attended drama schools.

In order to distinguish between professional and unprofessional or ordinary performers two other terms have come up which supplement GOLDBERG`S categories:

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