Gary Carkin's ESL/EFL Drama Log

Home | ESL/EFL Drama in Poland | The London School of Language and Drama | Alexis Gerard Finger | Julie O'Sullivan and Duchess County Community College | Julie O'Sullivan's Class | Julie O'Sullivan's Class -- Part Two | Julie's Class -- Part Three -- Work on the Plays | Christine Parkhurst and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences | George Plautz and Drama at ELI, University of Utah | George Plautz -- Part Two -- The Performance | Video Clips | Nicole Kupfer | Nicole Kupfer's Approach | The Color of Life -- Scenes One -Three | The Color of Life -- Scenes Four and Five | The Process of Play Production and Language Acquisition | Gluing the Parts Together -- Working the Language | DE or Dramatic English | Stephanie Fuller and Hong Kong's Dramatic English | Stephanie at DE continued | Stephen Rhind's Class/ DRAMATIC ENGLISH | Improvised Drama | Improvised Drama 2 | Scripted Drama | Scripted Drama (cont'd) | About Me | A comedy performed by the International Drama Club at SNHU | The Princess and the Pea | Favorite Links | Let's interact: visit my BLOG

The Process of Play Production and Language Acquisition

The process of language acquisition linked to the dramatic process has a number of pedagogical benefits.
 
We have seen how the process of creating a script supports practice in writing. Students must also develop their reading skills as they read over the scripts that they develop together and structure grammatically. Then, the practice of rehearsal and performance allows for opportunity to listen and to speak.
 
But there are deeper and more beneficial elements that support language acquisition when linked to the dramatic
process.

The first element, or condition, that contributes to active language learning is the fact that the learning occurs in an environment freed of desks and traditional classroom set up. Instead, the classroom, such as it is, is an open space  in which something has a potential to happen. There are no foregone associations or presumptions in the student mind as to what is to be expected or as what is to occur. Immediately, the tone is set for excitement, for anticipation of building an event.  Into this opening, the teacher/director can establish the working modus operandi based upon his/her pedagogical objectives. It is almost as if the teacher has been given a carte blanch or tabula rasa to create the classroom feeling and atmosphere that s/he wishes.
 
The studio/open space environment also indicates that this is a place to explore, play, and create rather than to read a boring text, study grammar, or stay put behind a desk while a teacher expounds. It is freeing, not only to the students, but also to the teacher.
 
To support the "sandbox" effect, the "classroom" is full of interesting items to help fashion the creation of a play: lights, light board, sound equipment for sound effects and sound board to play them, musical instruments to create new compositions, space, to develop dance and movement supported by the live musicians, props, and materials for costumes to use and try on for improvisaions and rehearsals. The space indicates that this is a place where language will be used, not "studied."

THEY WORK ON A SCRIPT OR STUDY LINES
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STUDENTS COME TO CLASS WITH INSTRUMENTS
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PROPS AND SCRIPTS
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WARM UP THEIR MUSIC
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PRACTICE WITH SOUND
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OR WORK WITH THE LIGHT BOARD
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THEY SET UP LIGHTS
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OR PRACTICE THEIR MOVEMENT
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Whatever the student's interest, the glue which bonds all the various foci is the language...the English language in this case, for each focus needs relationship to the whole work.
 
On the next page, we will take a look, via video clip, at Nicole Kupfer in action. Go to the next page to see how she and her students use English to accomplish their tasks.

Click here for: GLUING THE PARTS TOGETHER: WORKING THE LANGUAGE

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