Benefits of Drama

Drama is a great tool to use in the classroom, because it encourages active

practice rather than passive written or listening exercises. Let's now take a
closer look at the benefits of drama in the ESL classroom.

 The fact that students actively use the language they are learning is by
itself a benefit of drama.
 Performing drama is like getting in a simulator, say, to see how it feels to be
on a roller-coaster. Drama simulates real-life conversations and situations.
This can help reduce ESL students' fears of using language in real settings.
 Let's be realistic. The ESL students are likely to feel awkward and
embarrassed when faced with the responsibility of playing a character. It
can help the ESL students overcome fear by doing a few seconds of drama
representation for them. We could also ask an outspoken student to
demonstrate with ourself. This way the ESL students who are shy are not
the first ones to go, plus they're not the only ones performing drama. Once
they see they can do it, confidence will increase and, as we know,
confidence is key in language development.
 Because your ESL students must feel what they say to play a
believable character in drama, they begin to sense the meaning
words convey. To put it in perspective, your student learns the
expression, I am a bit under the weather today. The student repeats
the expression and knows when to use it. However, one day the
student feels sick in real life and gets to use the expression to tell
others about her or his state. Only then, the real meaning of the
expression is felt. Drama allows your ESL students to have
awareness of the real meaning of words.

 The ESL students will use their speaking skills, which are often
difficult because of factors, such as intimidating situations, lack of
familiarity with others, etc.

 Drama elicits the use of body language. Facial expressions, hand

gestures, body movement, etc. accompany verbal language to make
it complete. When the ESL students speak English, they're often stiff
because they concentrate too hard on the verbal language they are
trying to produce. With drama, the body becomes a spontaneous
part of the overall language students use to communicate a
message.
 Drama activities lend meaning to language structures by letting students
experience the language in concrete situations. Learners are, for example,
not simply given a list of phrases typical for meetings to memories for a
vocabulary test but have to role-play a meeting situation—and can thus
memorize difficult phrases in context.

 Learners can practice using language and behavior adequate to potentially

complex situations in the safety of the classroom. To extend Fleming’s
example, while in a real life situation using the wrong register might lead to a
conflict between the client and the shopkeeper, in the classroom the situation
can be analyzed after being acted and/or frozen, slowed down or repeated
with an alternative outcome. Moreover, the role of a fictional persona is often
felt by learners to be a kind of protection and they seem to experience less
embarrassment about making mistakes.

 Drama activities can increase students’ self-confidence and decrease fear

of using the foreign language spontaneously. Since drama activities are
largely collaborative, learners can also improve their social competences.
Moreover, exploring identities beyond their own through inhabiting fictional
characters can support learners in developing their capability for empathy
.
 In general, drama activities involve physical activity and emotional
involvement which can lead to improved retention of language structures
and vocabulary.
a. The physical aspect, which includes non-verbal (body-language,
proxemics) and para-verbal communication (intonation and stress,
volume, pauses) can become relevant to learning on several levels. On
the phoneme level, pronunciation and articulation games can help
learners to explore the sounds of the target language. On the
word/phrase level, accompanying words and phrases with gestures can
make them more memorable and can help learners to internalize the
correct rhythm and intonation. Furthermore, movement can be used to
illustrate grammatical aspects.
b. Emotional aspects are involved in drama activities on both a direct and a
meta-level. On the one hand, feelings are directly involved by acting them
in role-playing. On the other hand, learners will have an emotional attitude
towards the drama activities themselves. Ideally, positive feelings such as
enjoying a collaborative and creative atmosphere and pride in
achievement will prevail but even if negative emotions such as insecurity
or stage-fright are occasionally experienced, the learning will be more
memorable than in a neutral, predominantly cognitive setting, as it is set
apart from other events.