trgnacio Martínez

TEII^A 19.

- rÉcrurcAs DE ANIA^AcIóru y EXPREsIóN co,l O RECURSO PARA EL APRENDIZAJE DE

LAS LEN6UA5 EXTRANJERAS.

- LA DRAI ATrzAcróN DE srruAcroNEs DE LA vrDA corrDrANA y LA

REPRESENTACIóN DE CUENTOS, PERSONA.TES, CHISTES, ETC.

. EL TRABAJO EN 6RUPO5 PARA ACTIVIDADES CREATIVA5.

. PÁPEL DEL PROFESOR

The present essoy oims to study the use of dromo in the foreign longuoge clossroom. fn
order to do so, f will first present the def inition of "Drama" ond some general considerations, os
its benefifsto the foreign longuoge clossroom, the elemenfs required for a drama lesson, and how
to correctty ptan and time o dromo lesson. The second port of the essay will deol with different
drama techniques, orronging them out in 4 categories: drama games, dromo os on octivity extending
the course book, dromo to improve pronunciationand finolly dromo to develop spoken skills. Then r
will onolyse ín depth the most commonly used octivitíes, thot is doily life simulations and role-plays'
The third port of the essay will deol group work in creafive acfivífies: for doing that f will onolyse
the droma projects. Finolly, I will focus on the main role of the teacher when dealing with dromo.

As for qs dromo is concerned, Chorlyn Wassels begins her book " Droma" by stoting thot
"dromo is doing". This simplified definition occurotely illustrotes dromo os the direct involvement
of learning by experience. Rather thon just listening ond remembering, or seeing ond exploining,
the students toke o personol journey through experientiol leorning , by developing procticol skills
for opplying meoning into reol-life situotion. In this woy, dromo ollows students to become octiv¿
porticiponts in the leorning of English ond tronsforms the classroom into o smoll stoge.

OnceThavepresentad whot dromo is, next f will onolyse some generol considenations, such
os the benefits of using dnomo octivities in o foreign languoge clossroom, the elenents required to
exploit succ¿ssfully a dromo octivity ond the importonce of planning and timingthese octivities.

Lets us distinguish the moin benefits of using dromo in longuoge teoching: i

- Droino ollows meoningf ul ond f luent interoction in the f oreign longuoge

- Dromo ollows contextuolised ossimilotion of pronunciotion ond intonotion,.'vocobulory ond
longuoge potterns
- Dromo encouroges the leorners' conf idence in their obility to leorn English
- Dromo motivates, helps to develop creotivity and is fun
- Dromo builds o better understonding of culture
- Any distonc¿ between T ond 5s con be reduce by the use of f un octivities

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 Ignacio Martínez
rn order to achieve these benefits, we need the following
moin elenenfsto be port of our doily
lessons. Let us onolyse them:

- Relotionships. ss love to work in groups. Thus, o

friendly otmosphere should be created,
encouraging positive comments os well os heolthy criticism.
Ss leqrn to respect eoch other.

- Physicol envíronment. A right physicot environment

is essentiol, thus the clossroom moy be
orronged for dromo octívities: puttíng tobles ond chairs
ogoinst wolls; forming o full circle
with the choirs; orrongíng the students in groups.

. : worm-ups' Students may benefit from worm-ups such os games,

songs, or chants reloted to
' the moín activity, thu3 expectatíons ond interest are created.

- Goal orientotion. Students are given o time limit,

ond they must reach o gool ín this time. rn
doing so, they will concentrote more qnd orgonise
their group work foster.
- student leodership. The sense of. responsibility for their own
learning is encouroged when
hovíng group leoders. This role will be given to tiie
loziest member of eochgroup.

- The most co-operative students con be used to demonstrote

octivities ond
group work ond they olso keep the octivity going ín
to help wíth
the group, therefore it is highly
recommendoble to include one in eoch group.

- Bockground role for the teacher. Teochers are no

longer the centre of the closs ond only
help when being osked, leoving the pupils to cope with
minor difficulties.

rn oddition to these essentiol
coreful planning and timing.
technigues.
elements, the success of ony droma lesson olso depends
on
r will present the essentiol components of o typicol lesson using
dromo

- Mentol and physicol preporotion. Expectotion for leorníng should

be created. worm-up
octivities moy be used os dromo gomes, tíme being no longerlhon (5,
).

- Supply bockground to the situotion. Perceptions ond interest

wíll be developed,since o
porticulor context is given to the story ond students
feelcloser to it. (10,)

- Questíons on the chqrocters. Empothy is createdand students link their experiences

to the
choracters'. At leqst, ten minutes wiil be necessary. (10')

- rmprovísotion, mime ond role play. once the students' hove

cleor ideos obout the sítuotion
ond they are awate of the new linguístic components, they
moy be osked to moke up o new
one (improvísotion) or to províde ih" longuo je for o situotion
mimed by others (mime), in
order to top students' previous linguistic knowledge. But they
may olso be osked to prepore
simílor situations (role-ploy), as it is generally stoied thot learn
ing by doing ís longer lostíng.
(30')

- Feedback. At the end of the closs, we should criticolly tolk

obout the octivíty orientoting
the comments to students' encouragernent ond gentle correction. (5,
)

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 Ignacio Martínez

fn the second port of the topic, f will focus on different dromo technigues thot con be used ín
the clossroom. fn doing so f will focus on dromq gomes, dromo os on octivity extending the course
book, dromo to improve pronunciotion ond finolly dromo to develop spoken skílls. Let us anolyze
them:

o) Drama games. Dromq gomes con be ínteresting becouse of the following chorocteristics: they
involve ocfíon; they exercise students' ímoginotion; they will involve both conscious leorning ond
subconscious ocguisition; ond they give students the possibility of using porolinguistic feotures
. ,
ond non-verbol communicotion.

At this point, I will distinguish three moments in which dromo gomes con be used more
ef f ectivelyt

At the beginning of the lesson, by meons of introductory octivities or worm-ups.

Their oim is to moke students feel comfortoble ond relox.
E.g. What am f doing2, in which one student mime on oction ond the rest of the
closs or the rest of o smoller group try to guess whot helshe is doing.

Then, there ore games thot con be used before the production stoge thot will
help to clorify problemotic or key points through direct experience.
E.g. Snake pit,in which one student stonds in o circle, relating the doily routine of
someone; whenever he omits the -s ending, the closs hiss like snokes ond touch him.

Finolly, there are games thot con be used to relox students ofter o tiring session.
E.g. Sinon soys... The teoch er o? o stunt gives commonds, some preceded by the
words "5imon soys" ond other not. Students obey the former only.

b) Drona as supplement of the cou?se book (which usuolly is the moin source of foreign
longuoge input). Dromo con moke the leorning of English on enjoyoble experience ond enliven the
unexciting experience of studying only with q textbook. We con moke the chorocters ond their
qctions stond up form the printed page ond become real people.
The most commonly used technigue bosed on the coursebook os the source of foreign
longuoge input is the dromotized reodíng. This techniques brings to live to the chorocters ond
the children get more involved in the leorning octivities.

Howeve?, other bosic technigues moy be used in order to tronsform o boríng printed poge
from o coursebook into on intense leorning experience. These odditionol technigues ore:

- Mime is motivoting os weok students do not need to use words initiolly, but they understond
the lesson. Coursebooks con olso present some texts ín mime ond the students should motch
the words of the diologue to the octions.

- fmprovisotion con be used in the 3'd cycle, when the students ore oble to breok the
constro¡nts of the coursebook texts ond con improvise possible continuotions of diologues

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 Ignacio Martínez
- Porollel role-ploy: the oríginol ploy can be proctised through o porollel diologue thot reguires
the some functíons ond vocobulory os the originol one.

- Chonging the diologue, students con be asked to lengthen or shorten diologues.

c) Drama to improve pronunciation We con use some technigues commonly used by octors to
prepo?e their voices for the stage in order to proctise different ospects of English
pronunciotion. Following foctors should be token into occount:

First, students must be encouraged to relox their bodies ond odopt o correct stonce, since
. thot promotes good ond cleor pronunciotion. Then we should teoch them to breothe
properly, thot is to breothe with the stomoch ond to with the chest.

Then, we con begin the pronunciotíon proctice, centring on segmental or suprosegmentol

feotures:

- To practice segmental feotures, students moy copy the mouth shope of the teocher
moking a particulor sound. Then they can creote short diologues using the vocobulory
leornt or try to reod the lips of the teacher"

- To proctice suprosegmental feotures, students try to imitote whot is soid ín o cossett¿,

ot the beginning just by humming ond copying lhe intonotion, rhythm ond stress, ond
then they should try to ímitate the speoker exoctly.

d) Drama fo develop spoken skills. Lessons bosed on dromo con be odded to our repertoire of
spoken communicotíon octivities. The moin dromo technigues which oím to improve the
leorners' speoking skills ore the simulotion ond the role-ploy. I will deol wíth them in the
next section.

hove considered dromo techniques, f will go on to study the most commonly used
Once f
octivities: doily life simulations and role plays. Both are dromo technigues, but in a simulation,
students toke part os themselves; ond in a role play, students ploy o role olreody known. Let's
onolyse other chorocteristícs of simulotíons ond role ploysr

o) Doily life simulotions ore very limited. They deol with situotions thot ore likely to occur to
students in their doily lífe, ond most situotionol simulations are prepared occording to the
needs of the group. They rely heovily on the skill of improvisation ond on our obility os
teochers to teoch ín role, becouse sometimes we will hov¿ to ploy o role to enable our pupils
to interoct os themselves.
E.g. An English fanily has noved in next door. Your parents speak no English and you have to
act as inferpreter to: invite them to dinner, to tell them about the nearest bakery, ask
them for sone salt...

b) On the other hond, in role ploys, students hove freedom to produce longuoge that they f eel
oppropríote to that context ond to their assigned roles. fn oddition to this, role ploys ore
less límited os students con ploy any role. However, students' level of proficiency is very
low ond role ploys should be simplified occordingly. Students' interests ond psychological
chorocteristics moy be token into occount.
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 Ignacio Murtínez
E.g. Students A felephones Student B to invite hin/her to play fennís

So for we hove concentroted on dromo in the clossroom. Although some of the previous
technigues will naturolly leod to group work, the kind of cooperotion they foster is not very strong
os they arevety limited in time. Howeve?,there is onother dromo octivity which con only be done
by meons of group work ond thot provides o porticulorly sotisfying experience for our pupils: the
drama project. This creotive octivity corried out in grouP fosters personol growth, grouP cohesion,
ottention to the spoken word, ond oworeness of non-verbol forms of communicotion. fn oddition to
the benefits álreody presented of dromo technigues, using dromo projects to teoch o foreign
longuoge olso present following odditionol odvontogesr

- It provides students with on opportunity to use their creotivity

- It ollows students to express themselves through o full tonge of gestures ond body
longuoge, ond to discover fhe importonce of porolinguistic ond extro-linguistic foctors in
communicotion.
- Acting helps to lower students' off ective f ilters ond focilitotes leorning.
- Ploying the ports of other people rother thon being themselves increoses empathy towords
others, which is cruciql to cross-culturol sensitivity.
- It contributes to develop co-operotion ond sociolisotion skills.

However, some disodvontoges moy be mentioned when ref erring to dromo projects:

- They con be used eff ectively only with smoll groups of volunteer students

- Not oll students will perceive it os being inherently useful, so it wíll foil in relotion to the
high degree of "motivotionol" reodiness essentiol for the success of such o project.

- They ore time-intensive, reguiring consideroble plonning ond orgonisotionol skills from the
teacher, ond dedicotion ond loyolty f rom the students.

Once I
hove exomined the different dromo feotures ond presented vorious technigues ond
octivities highly recommended in on EFL leorning context, f will concentrote on the teocher's role
when using dromo in the clossroom.

While the dromo octivity tokes ploce, the teocher performs severol roles:

t Orgoniser: the teacher decides the size of the group ond the woy to select its members.
Def ines the qctivity ond its result.

a Monoger: the teocher observes the dynomic of the grouP ond suggests improvements. Co-
ordinates T he different groups to ovoid unnecessory repetitions. Checks thot the tosks ore
corried out occording to the given specificotions.

t Resource: the teocher gives informotion or mqteriols when osked. Proposes severol ond vorioble
olternqtives.
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 Ignocio Martínez

Assessor: the teacher gives explonotions depending

on the necessíties of eoch group. clorifíes
grommoticol difficulties, orgonízes sessions
to procfice pronunciotion. provides positive
f eedback obout the development of theoctivíty.

Evoluotor: the teacher evoluotes the work or performon

groups con evoluote themselves"
ce of the group: propose criterio so the

Problem detecton the teacher observes the

' difficulties oppeored ín the performonce of the
group, clorifies the problems ond suggests
solutions.
'
During ony session, the teacher will hove to
required in eoch situotion"
move from o role to other,opplying the technigues

Conclusion
After having presented the benefits of dromo, it results
evident thot the use of this
technigue in the English longuoge clossroom enhonces language retention ond greotly
language development' Dromo ossíst
ptouid"t the learner on opportunity to símultoneously
longuoge and experiment with experience the
it using their whole body.
Addítíonolly, dromo enobles |he teacher to breok
free fromthe textbook ond focus on reol
life' meaningful language, creating o motivotíng ond en¡oyobie
which enhonces the
f oreign language ocguisítion. And io ochieve this "nrir"nr"nt
fovour;í;.";;ri o'9".0 relotionshi p between
teacher ond students is also needed, ond by
meons of dramo we con breok down the borriers
between them' This olso benefits the teacher
to odopt several roles within o dromo session, not
just os orgoniser or evoluotor, but olso os ossessor,
resourceond monoger.

To conclude, r would líke to guote o fomous chinese proverb

which cleorly stotes the
importonce of using dromo octivities to teoch
a foreign longuoge, "Teil me ond r will f orget: teach
me ond I will remember: involve me ond f wíll leorn,,.

Biblíogrophy
. Wessels, C. Droma. OUp. Oxford,lggZ

' l-ittlewood, w. communicative Language Teaching.c.u.p..

combridge, 19g1.
' Richords, J'c'; & Rodgers, T.5. Approaches ánd
ilethods in'Language Teaching. c.u.p.
Cambridge,1986.

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