1. Why should drama be taught in the English language classroom?

the acquisition of meaningful, fluent interaction in the target language

the assimilation of a whole range of pronunciation and prosodic features in a fully
contextualized and interactional manner
the fully contextualized acquisition of new vocabulary and structure
provide an opportunity to develop the imagination of the students
students can go beyond the here and now and even 'walk in the shoes' of
another (group works)
drama will offer exercises in critical thinking and the chance for the students to be
creative
Tell me and I will forget.
Show me and I will remember.
Involve me and I will understand.
2. How can drama be incorporated into the teaching of English as a second language in
the Malaysian primary classroom?
(a) Role Play activities from the learner text books
- you can have the learners start out by "acting out" dialogues from their text
books. Additional scenes to cover what happened before and after the
dialogue can be created and added for even more dimension.
(b) Act Out video scenes
- If there is a video from the same course book series learners can act these
out too. Be sure to use realia and props in the scene dramatizations to help
the learners get "into character". And by all means, be creative. If the dramas
are recorded (video and/or audio you can easily demonstrate improvement in
technique, speech, language use, fluency, etc. to the students later on.

Drama has the potential to empower the students, give them many opportunities to have
pride in their work, it teaches them responsibility, problem solving, management and
directing proficiencies. The many activities of team work force students to develop
organizational skills and to think on their feet.