Using DRAMA in EFL Class

Teaching English Through Drama
David Burns – English Language Fellow
Tirana
15 March 2012

English Language Fellow Program
Facebook: www.facebook.com/pages/English-Language-Fellow-Program
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/elfellowprogram

Think of synonyms for:
BIG
&
SMALL
SMALL

BIG SMALL
Large, huge, enormous,
giant, gigantic, gargantuan,
massive, vast, colossal,
hefty, hulking, oversized,
super, burly, fat, capacious,
humongous, jumbo,
extensive, roomy, spacious,
ample, mammoth,
immense, voluminous,
copious, considerable, full,
tall….
Little, tiny, mini, miniature,
minute, baby, petite,
meager, petty, bantam,
microscopic, undersized,
toy, minuscule, modest,
wee, puny, runty, scanty,
paltry, limited, short,
narrow, pocket-sized, pint-sized…
Teeny, teensy, teeny-weeny,
itty-bitty, itsy-bitsy…

Itsy-bitsy spider
went up the water spout.
Down came the rain
and washed the spider out.
Out came the sun
and dried up all the rain.
Itsy-bitsy spider
went up the spout again!

Something in Common
Turn to your neighbor and share a bit about
yourself. Find 3 things that you have in
common. Do NOT count the obvious!

Silent ordering of students by height

Drama Activities:
Considerations for Learners
 Process over product
 Learner involvement as
 Performers
 Audience
 Directed activities or autonomous activities
 Emotional involvement
 Ideas found in newspapers, magazines, songs,
poems, e-mails, any source of human interest
stories, pictures, objects, etc.

Why use drama?
1. Develops real communication-skills: involving ideas, emotions,
feelings, appropriateness, and adaptability.
2. Many options for learner-centered activities in the classroom.
3. Skills in working together and learning tolerance of different
opinions and outcomes
4. Students gain confidence; using English in and out of class;
develop fluency; improvisation; public speaking practice.
5. Nurture and encourage creativity; exposure to
literature/poetry/plays. Writing, reading, speaking, and listening
all developed.
6. Change from the monotony of the day-to-day class.

Beginning with a focus exercise.
(Adapted from Viola Spolin's Theater Game File)
 Stand. Close your eyes.
 Where are your feet? Feel your feet on the floor.
Pull your toes up and wiggle them. Slowly bend
your knees and straighten.
 Where are your hands? Feel your hands. Rub your
hands together, feel the warmth. Let your hands
down, let your arms hang.
 Feel your arms, shoulders, neck.
 Open your eyes.

The Silence is Deafening
• Great way to show the POWER of non-verbal
communication. Show clips of famous silent movies
(Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, this year’s Best Film
‘The Artist’). Students can write (or dictate) original
scripts for the silent film clips.
• This is a good way to get your students up and
moving around – and a sure way for them to
remember the new words. Can mime abstract ideas.
• Think of verbs or phrasal verbs that pairs of students
can act out together – without the use of words, only
actions.
Let’s try a few…

Charades
• Check out this web-site for 1000’s of ideas from
the main topics: music, movies, TV, books,
celebrities (including a new section for kids):
http://www.charades-ideas.com/
• Of course, charades is easily adapted to
Albania and whatever you are studying at the
time.
• Try this one….

Expert Interview Arms
 Select 3 participants:
 An interviewer
 An interviewee “Expert Chef”
 Arms
 The “arms” sit behind the interviewee and
become the interviewee's arms.
 The interviewer conducts an interview with the
interviewee while the “arms” make gestures.

Space Ball
With your hands, create a ball. Can you see the ball?
What color is it? How big is it?
Put the ball into someone's hand. What is it? How big
is it? What does it feel like? Depending upon the
level, the details may be elicited or supplied by the
teacher.
Have participants pass the ball around. If it's a large
group, you can separate into groups each with a
ball. Pass with eyes open. Continue, eyes closed.
Have participants play, throwing & catching the ball.

I'm a Tree!
 Form a circle.
 Select a participant to come to the center of
the circle. S/he poses as a tree and says,
“I'm a tree!”
 A 2nd participant then joins the 1st. S/he
poses as an object that is associated with a
tree and announces what s/he is:
“I'm a nest.”
 A 3rd participant joins the others. S/he poses
as an object that is associated with the first
two and announces what s/he is:
“I'm a chick.”
 The 1st participant chooses one to remain.

Ad-libbing with Mad-libs…
• Funny fill-in-the-blank word game activities in
paragraph, poetry, essay, story, or song form.
• Challenges students to think of specific words
according to their part of speech.
• Fun and silly results that can be read in front of
the class; worked on in groups; create original
mad-libs; oral mad-lib competitions, etc.
http://www.eduplace.com/tales/
http://madlibs.org/
http://www.itsamadlibsworld.com/

Let’s try a mad-lib…
1. Adjective
2. Adjective
3. Noun
4. Noun
5. Subject pronoun
6. Adverb
7. Verb
8. Verb
9. Adjective

English class mad-lib
My English class is 1.___________. My teacher
is always 2.___________ . The students seem
to like 3._______________ more than
4.______________. 5.______________ speak
English 6._______________ and never 7.
____________ English outside of class. I
8._____________ English so much and I think
it’s the 9._______________ language in the
world.

Mirror Images
 Select 2 participants.
 One participant will lead
the actions.
 The second participant
mirrors the actions.
 Students can take notes
on what they see.

Back to Back
 Select 2 participants.
 Participants take a minute to look at
each other.
 Participants then turn back to back.
 The 1st participant describes the
other participant.
 Participants switch roles.
 Other students can take notes and
add new or difficult vocabulary.

A Fun Way to Explore Poems &
Short Stories
1. Draw out characterization, inference, and
deduction
2. Discuss themes, parables, morals
3. Work on writing & speaking skills – narrative
structure
4. Stretch your imagination & show off your
creativity
5. Entertain your classmates!

Students will be able to:
1. Explore the issues within the story before meeting the text
2. Enact scenes in the original text.
3. Use space and objects (including costumes) in a variety of
realist and symbolist ways
4. Explore how to use gesture to convey sub-text.
5. Ad-lib, or improvise alternate endings or new lines.
6. Demonstrate to each other that there can be a variety of
possible when it comes to the interpretation and representation
of meaning.

Some of my favorites
Lower levels:
The Rainbow Fish
The Selfish Giant
Going on a Bear Hunt
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
The Omnibombulator
The Gingerbread Man
Intermediate levels:
Dr. Seuss
Roald Dahl
Shel Silverstein
When Jessie Sailed Across
the Sea
The Golden Compass
The Iron Man
The Jabberwocky

Yearbook Photo
Participants think of their
favorite sports.
Each participant poses as
a statue representing
his/her sport.
An interviewer asks them
questions about their
sport.

Interview Hot-seat
 Have a participant volunteer to be
interviewed. The interviewee
pretends to be a celebrity (actor,
singer, politician, etc).
 The interviewee sits in front in the
“hot-seat.”
 The other participants are
journalists. They ask questions
about the event and take notes.
 Participants then report back on
“the story.”

Role Play Considerations
•Who are the characters?
•What objects (realia or substitute) can be used?
•Where is the situation?
•How would the problem be explained (& resolved)
by the characters?
•What would the characters do?
MATERIALS SETTING
DIALOGUE ACTIONS

Puppet Shows
The Creativity Institute is a great resource:
http://www.creativityinstitute.com/puppettheaterscr
iptideas.aspx
• Sock, finger, shadow puppets
• Thematic shows: Earth Day,
Women’s Rights, etc.

Readers' Theater
Readers' Theater asks
participants to read a story or
script aloud.
Participants can add some
elements of movement, but the
action is different from acting
out a scene.
The focus of Readers' Theater is
on the voice and vocal
elements, rather than visual
elements.

More ideas….
• Comedy, improv, joke telling, games, Simon says, etc.
• Original films or plays (could be small or large-scale
productions).
• Free writing or speaking activities using prompts.
• Verbal or written chain (or bouncing) stories.
• Songwriting, live music, poetry readings (slams)
• Field trips (theater, concerts, art departments); guest
speakers; have class outside; on the roof.
• Photo essays on different themes (using cell phones);
or short original videos.

For more information...
 The Benefits of Using Drama in the EFL
Classroom at http://iteslj.org/Articles/Boudreault-
Drama.html
 EFL Resources at
http://www.efl-resource.com/tag/drama/
 Language though drama at http://www.tefl.net/esl-lesson-
plans/esl-activities-drama.
htm

And 3 more links:
• Drama Techniques for Teacher English
http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Chauhan-Drama.html
• Teach it Through Drama
http://www.teach-it-through-drama.com/drama-workshops.
htm#PSHE
• Famous Why? Using Drama Techniques in
English
http://forum.famouswhy.com/index.php?showtopic
=1150

There was a farmer
who had a dog,
and Bingo was his name-oh!
B-I-N-G-O (x3)
And Bingo was his name-oh!

How to contact me:
www.facebook.com/ELFellow.Albania
Twitter: @ELFellowAlbania
Email: ELFellow.Albania@gmail.com
Mobile: + 355 69 549 0927

Shumë Faleminderit!
Many Thanks!

Using DRAMA in EFL Class

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