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MASARYK UNIVERSITY BRNO

FACULTY OF EDUCATION

Department of English Language and Literature

The Use of Drama Techniques in Teaching

Adult EFL Learners

Bachelor Thesis

Brno 2012

Supervisor: Author:

Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková Martina Váchová

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Annotation

The Bachelor's thesis The Use of Drama Techniques in Teaching Adult EFL Learners

deals with the use of drama in teaching English, putting emphasis on teaching adults. Chapter

one is concerned with the advantages and disadvantages of using drama in teaching English

and provides several practical tips on implementing drama into English lessons. Chapter two

enumerates and describes various types of commonly used drama techniques. Chapter three

characterizes adult learners, defines their expectations and analyses possibilities of using

drama in adult education, with particular emphasis on enriching English lessons with drama

oriented activities. Chapter four, being the practical part, consists of a series of lesson plans

based on drama activities, accompanied with evaluations of the lessons.

Anotace

Bakalářská práce The Use of Drama Techniques in Teaching Adult EFL Learners se

zabývá využitím technik dramatické výchovy ve výuce angličtiny, přičemž důraz je kladen na

výuku dospělých. V první kapitole jsou popsány výhody a nevýhody používání dramatiky ve

výuce angličtiny a dále je zde uvedeno několik praktických rad vztahujících se k zavádění

dramatických postupů do hodin angličtiny. V kapitole druhé jsou vyjmenovány nejběžněji

používané dramatické techniky. Třetí kapitola pojednává o charakteristických rysech

dospělých studentů a nastiňuje možnosti využití dramatiky ve vzdělávání dospělých, zejména

v souvislosti s možnostmi obohacení hodin angličtiny. Čtvrtá kapitola zahrnuje přípravy na

hodiny založené na dramatických postupech a hodnocení proběhlých hodin.

Key words:

Drama, drama techniques, EFL, adult learners, adult education, conversation courses, lesson

plans

Klíčová slova:

Dramatická výchova, dramatické techniky, vzdělávání dospělých, konverzační kurz, příprava

na hodinu

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Declaration

I declare that I worked on this bachelor thesis independently and used only the sources

listed in the bibliography. I agree that the work will be kept in the Masaryk University library

for study purposes.

Brno, 3 December 2012 -----------------------

Martina Váchová

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Acknowledgement

I would like to thank my supervisor Mgr. Naděžda Vojtková for her kind guidance and

helpful advice.

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Content

Introduction..............................................................................................................................7

Theoretical Part......................................................................................................................9

1. Drama…………………………….......................................................................................9

1.1. What is drama........................................................................................................9

1.2. The advantages of using drama.............................................................................9

1.3. The disadvantages of using drama.......................................................................12

1.4. Several tips before using drama...........................................................................13

2. Drama techniques………………………………………....................................................15

2.1. Hot-seating...........................................................................................................15

2.2. Role on the Wall...................................................................................................15

2.3. Conscience Alley………………………………………………………………..15

2.4. Frozen Frames/ Still Images…………………………………………………….16

2.5. Thought-tracking………………………………………………………………...16

2.6. Teacher in Role………………………………………………………………….16

2.7. Mantle of the Expert…………………………………………………………….16

2.8. Role Play…………………………………………………………………….…..17

2.9. Simulation……………………………………………………………………….17

3. Adult learners......................................................................................................................18

3.1. Characteristics of an adult learner........................................................................18

3.2. Adult learners‟ expectations.................................................................................19

3.3. Adult learners and drama.....................................................................................20

3.4. Drama with adults in ELT....................................................................................21

Practical Part

4. Lesson plans for a conversation course..............................................................................23

4.1. Description of the course.....................................................................................23

4.2. Lesson plans.........................................................................................................24

4.2.1. Lesson plan 1-Extraordinary Newspaper Stories..................................24

4.2.2. Lesson plan 2-TV News Bulletin..........................................................27

4.2.3. Lesson plan 3-Guided Tour...................................................................29

4.2.4. Lesson plan 4-Life in the Terminal........................................................32

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4.3. Final assessment of the course...............................................................................41

Conclusion................................................................................................................................44

Bibliography.............................................................................................................................46

Appendices...............................................................................................................................48

Appendix A: Lesson plan 2 Handout...........................................................................49

Appendix B: Lesson plan 4 Handout...........................................................................50

Appendix C: Questionnaire..........................................................................................52

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Introduction

The popularity of communicative teaching method in the last decades brought interest

in using drama in teaching foreign languages. However, there are still many teachers and

learners reluctant to include drama techniques, presumably for the reason of lack of

information on what drama in language classes looks like and how it can be incorporated into

lessons. I must admit that I used to be one of them. Several years ago, I associated teaching

languages through drama with working on a masterpiece by a great classical playwright. An

idea of rehearsing a play in order to prepare a performance for public crossed my mind and I

immediately lost interest. I considered drama to be something complicated and time-

consuming, convenient only for enthusiastic theatregoers.

The turning point came when I experienced a lesson based on drama techniques as a

student. During my studies at university I was impressed by a lesson led by one of my

colleagues in the subject Cultural Studies. When I asked her about her source of inspiration

she recommended me Neelands and Goode and at that moment a new world opened to me. I

started to study literature and became interested in using drama conventions in my teaching. I

realised that I had been using some of simpler drama techniques even before being aware that

they are drama, for example roleplays and mimes.

I have found out that there are many established activities used in drama education that

can be adapted to TEFL. However, many of them are designed for bigger groups and most of

the resources deal with the use of drama in teaching children. I teach both young and adult

learners. As for the children, it seems to be quite natural to use dramatization, in fact I have

always been basing their lessons on roleplays, mimes, storytelling and similar techniques.

However, doing drama with the adults was a real challenge, I became profoundly interested in

it and soon many questions to consider appeared in my mind, which in the end resulted in the

decision to focus my thesis on this topic.

The aim of this Bachelor Thesis is to examine several questions concerning possible

use of drama education as a tool for teaching foreign languages to adults. Firstly, would adults

benefit from doing drama activities in English classes in the same way as children do?

Secondly, is it possible to use drama activities with small groups (4-6students)? Finally, how

would adult students respond to drama?

I have divided my work into two parts. The theoretical part deals with the definition of

drama in context of teaching languages, describes adult learners and enumerates several most

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common drama techniques. The practical part offers my own lesson plans incorporating

drama activities accompanied with my reflections on them. I hope the lesson plans will be

inspiring for other teachers considering introducing drama into their lessons.

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Theoretical Part

1. Drama

1.1. What is drama

To start with, it is important to point out that drama in this context does not mean

performing a scripted play on stage. Neelands and Goodle consider theatre “the direct

experience that is shared when people imagine and behave as if they were other than

themselves in some other place at another time” (3). This implies that we all have experienced

drama in our lives – what else is the pretend play in toddlers and preschoolers than a roleplay?

We can take drama as a natural process, as a part of everybody‟s life. Wessels (7) believes

this is also true for adults:

Drama is doing. Drama is being. Drama is such a normal thing. It is something

that we all engage in daily when faced with difficult situations. You get up in

the morning with a bad headache or an attack of depression, yet you face the

day and cope with other people, pretending that nothing is wrong. You have an

important meeting or an interview coming up, so you „talk through‟ the issues

with yourself beforehand and decide how to present a confident, cheerful face,

what to wear, what to do with your hands, and so on.

1.2. The advantages of using drama

In traditional teaching, students are often introduced new grammatical structures and

subsequently trained to practise them while the teacher is correcting their mistakes. As Alan

Maley and Alan Duff say, “the conviction that Vocabulary + Essential Structures = Language

lies at the base of nearly every foreign language syllabus” (7). This may result in mastering

the forms theoretically without being able to use them actively in speaking. Maley and Duff

continue: “Much language teaching is done through structures or so-called situations in the

belief that once a sentence has been correctly formulated a use can always be found for it.

First comes form, then meaning” (7-8). They criticize this approach because it results in

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getting learners used to “making sentences fit into structural moulds” (8) which they illustrate

with the following simile:

To use an analogy, such a learner is like an architect who designs a building

before inspecting the site on which it is to be placed. There may be nothing

structurally wrong with the design, but if the building is five storeys high with

a stone façade, and is intended to fill the gap between two steel-and-glass

skyscrapers, the architect will clearly have to put in some overtime! (Maley

and Duff, 8)

We should also mention other linguists who are against this approach. Stephen

Krashen points out the importance of “natural communication - in which speakers are

concerned not with the form of their utterances but with the message they are conveying and

understanding” (Krashen in Wessels 12). Charlyn Wessels writes about the importance of

teaching genuine communication in which the participants do not take turns in a regular

pattern as “most ordinary conversations contain hesitations, interruptions, distractions,

misunderstandings and even silences” (11). Other important features of communication are

emotional involvement: “a conversation could evoke the whole spectrum of feelings from

violent anger to tenderest love in the speakers” (Wessels 11) and body language: “facial

expressions, gestures, the positions of our limbs, and non/verbal sounds, which can be as

eloquent as words” (Wessels 11).

The big drawback with the commonly used textbooks is neglecting of these non-verbal

components of communication, which according to Wessels is the reason why “many students

fail, or take such a long time, to achieve the ability to communicate effectively outside the

classroom” (11). As Wessels goes on, she suggests drama as a possible solution to this

situation: “The use of drama would involve a consideration of most (if not all) of the aspects

of genuine communication discussed earlier – background, emotions, relationships, status,

body language, and other paralinguistic features” (11). Maley and Duff have similar opinion:

“Drama attempts to put back some of this forgotten emotional content into language – and to

put the body back too” (7).

Drama can bring the opportunity to communicate naturally in the classroom because it

provides the language learners with meaningful context for speaking and listening. Maley and

Duff enumerate several elements that form this context or the situation:

Setting - the physical surroundings, for example restaurant, airport, station

Role and status - Maley and Duff point out that it is important “to encourage students

from the very start to become sensitive to the way in which our built-in views of our

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own roles and those of others are defined and clarified through language” (10). Each

person interchanges various roles during the day and the particular role undoubtedly

influences the way they speak. Wessels also mentions the influence of the status –

whether the speaker is a superior or a subordinate (11). She continues on the mutual

influence between the setting and the status: “The lofty customs officer at the airport

undergoes a radical change of status when stopped for speeding by the traffic police on

the motorway” (11).

Mood, attitude and feeling – feelings have influence on language in almost all

situations. Maley and Duff especially emphasize the importance of intonation: “much

of our feeling . . . is conveyed through intonation, and it is important for students to

associate the intonation pattern with the feeling that gives rise to it” (11).

Shared knowledge – practically all conversations that people lead comprise to certain

extent shared knowledge, something what both participants know and thus there is no

need to say to each other. Maley and Duff believe that this is the reason “why the

language of text-books often strikes us as being artificial” (11-12). They think that

even at lower levels saying the self-evident, such as “The blue pencil is longer than the

red one.” should be avoided as students hardly manage to use such sentences

meaningfully.

Another advantage of using drama techniques in teaching foreign languages is that

drama brings fun to lessons, which increases students‟ motivation and makes learning more

memorable. Harmer writes that “one of the teacher‟s main aims should be to help students to

sustain their motivation” (20). Introducing drama activities could be one of the possible ways

how to manage it. “There is no place here for stereotyped responses, set-up discussions, pre-

planned arguments or „free conversations‟ in which everyone speaks and nobody listens, or

else nobody speaks and the teacher is left to quench the fire started by his or her burning

question” (Maley and Duff 13).

Wessels also mentions positive effects of drama projects on EFL learners‟ confidence

(13).

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1.3. The disadvantages of using drama

Taking into account the potential of using drama mentioned above it might seem

surprising why teachers do not include more drama-oriented activities in English lessons.

There are several factors that can prevent teachers from incorporating drama in their teaching.

First of all, the lack of experience plays an important role. Wessels (14) says:

If drama can really enrich the language class in all these ways, why are so

many teachers reluctant to use it? Many still think of drama as 'theatricals',

because this is their only experience of it. Often the fault lies not with the

individual teacher, but with the training that he or she has received; a training

that presents education as the one-way transmission of knowledge from the

teacher to the student, rather than the creation of a learning situation in which

the student is also the teacher.

Most teachers in the Czech Republic did not come across any kind of training in this field as

drama is generally not a compulsory part of teacher-trainers syllabuses at universities and

therefore many teachers have merely vague idea of drama techniques and how to exploit

them. It is true that at present time students at many universities have opportunity to sign up

for optional courses focused on using drama, however, it is not uncommon that only the

students with previous experience or interest in drama make use of this chance. Others might

be discouraged by the idea of performing a play for the audience which in their opinion is the

main part of drama lessons.

Next, teachers have limited resources available when they want to prepare drama-

based lessons. As I have already mentioned, drama conventions are not widely used in

teaching at Czech schools and thus, in general, school libraries are not well-equipped as for

the relevant literature is concerning. Moreover, not many books offer guidance on how to use

drama in teaching foreign language. Another source that should be mention here is the

Internet. We can assume that nowadays the vast majority of teachers have access to the

Internet and use it on regular basis which can enable them to search wide range of resources

for drama teachers. However, the use of these materials can be limited simply because of the

fact that the essential part of drama resources is primarily aimed at native speakers and thus

can be too complicated to be used with learners of English, especially at lower levels. Even

those materials that are focused on teaching English as a foreign language may be found

inappropriate for the particular group. As a result many teachers consider the process of

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searching the Internet very time-consuming and they easily get discouraged. To sum up, the

lack of appropriate ready-to-use materials can be frustrating for teachers considering

implementing process drama into their lessons. It is necessary either to adapt materials or

create one‟s own and here we again encounter the obstacle of teachers‟ little knowledge of

drama techniques.

Another constraint can be students‟ reluctance to participate in drama-oriented

activities. This can be caused by their introversion or shyness, not all students are willing to

act in front of their classmates. Others can consider drama-oriented activities mere play that is

not justifiable in the process of learning English and that reduces time for more serious work.

1.4. Several tips before starting with drama

Many teachers fear to start with drama in their classes for the first time. Charlyn

Wessels recommends “a gradual induction period” to allow both the teacher and the learners

time to get used to drama. Teachers should initially try some simple activities and react to

students‟ attitude to them: “if a group doesn‟t want to be taught through drama, it should not

be forced on them. Gradual and careful introduction and demonstrable success, enjoyment

and involvement is the way to convince the students of the value of learning through drama”

(20).

The relationship between the teacher and learners plays an important role in drama

education.

Drama demands enthusiasm – not only for the lesson, but also for the students.

And this in turn depends on the formation of a relationship of mutual trust in

which neither teacher nor student feels „at risk‟, but they willingly change roles

and status to achieve the aims of the lesson. (Wessels 15)

Maley and Duff talk about the necessity of creating “a relaxed atmosphere” (22) and suggest

changes in the layout of the room. However, as they point out, what is even much more

important is the shift in teacher‟s role in the class. When doing drama with the class teacher is

not supposed to be the “source of all knowledge nor the sole arbiter of what is „right‟ and

„wrong‟, „good‟ and „bad‟. Your [the teacher‟s] main function now is to set things in motion”

(22). The teacher should introduce the activity and then let students work independently. The

relationships between students will notably affect the process because they have to cooperate

and trust each other. Wessels thinks that teacher should help the group to get to know each

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other better either by implementing some „getting to know‟ activities into lessons or by

encouraging socializing outside the classroom (22).

Apart from relationships there are several other elements that can influence success or

failure of a drama activity. First of all we have to take into consideration place where the

drama activities should be performed. Most classrooms can be easily rearranged to fit the

needs of drama lessons, the activities usually involves movement so it is advisable to leave

some space in the room empty to enable students to circulate. Time is another important

point. The school lesson in our country lasts 45 minutes, but this is not always true in the

context of adult learners. In language schools there are often 60-minutes lessons or double

lessons – 90 minutes in total which can be enough for even more complex drama activities.

Last but not least, it is necessary to make clear what the aim of the lesson is and make sure

that students are aware of it. According to Wessels, this will help students to concentrate,

improve their time-management and finally they will experience the feeling of

accomplishments when the aim is fulfilled (24).

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2. Drama techniques

In drama education various activities called drama techniques or conventions are used

in the process of building a performance. Neelands and Goode consider drama conventions

tools useful for exploring and communicating the meaning (3).

The following is only a brief description of several commonly used drama techniques

that can be easily adapted for teaching foreign languages. The descriptions of individual

techniques are based on Neelands and Goode and the web page dramaresource.com.

2.1. Hot-seating

Aim: to explore the character and their motivation or unknown parts of the story

One of the students sits in front of the class pretending to be the character and the others

(either in roles or not) ask him questions. Questions can be prepared in advance or asked on

the spot. This convention helps to reveal the character‟s motivation and encourages reflection

on people‟s behaviour.

2.2. Role on the Wall

Aim: to get to know the character, to brainstorm ideas

Students work with a large sheet of paper where the outline of the character is drawn. Either

in groups or individually, they put down what they know about this character. They can write

both facts (age, appearance, clothes) and inner feelings of the character. The result of their

work is then put up on the wall.

2.3. Conscience Alley

Aim: to analyse a situation that requires a decision

Students stand in two lines facing each other, the student in the role of a character walks

slowly in the middle and everybody gives him/her advice. As an alternation the group

standing on one side could be asked to give arguments for while the other one against. In the

end he/she makes a decision.

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2.4. Frozen Frames/ Still Images

Aim: to illustrate a specific event, to explore the feeling of characters

Students are asked to freeze at a certain moment of performing or they gradually build a scene

using their bodies. The advantage is that learners are able to express more than they would be

able say in words. It can be also successfully used to control dramatic moments. It is also

possible to divide students into 2 or more groups and then one group performs while the rest

comment on what the still-image means.

2.5. Thought-tracking

Aim: to reflect and analyze the situation and role

The group focuses on the character who is „frozen‟ in a still-image or a frozen frame and

comes with ideas what this character‟s thoughts are. Person who wants to contribute a thought

can tap the character‟s shoulder. These thoughts can be contrasted with what he/she says

publicly. This can help to understand inner feelings of the character.

2.6. Teacher in Role

Aim: to develop or control the drama activity, to challenge learners‟ thinking

The teacher involves in the drama, either as one of the participants or as a leader. Teacher can

give evidence of stepping in or out the role by using a prop connected to the character (for

example a hat) or signify that they are in a role only when sitting on a particular chair. This

allows the teacher to comment on the situation from outside and actively influence it from

inside at the same time. This convention can be used in connection with others, for example

Hot-seating.

2.7. Mantle of the Expert

Aim: to move responsibility from the teacher to learners, to provoke involvement, to boost

confidence

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The learners are given roles of experts in a particular field connected with the situation – they

can become social workers, architects, designers, archaeologists. The group is often supposed

to fulfil a task with help of these experts. This activity can be adapted to a great variety of

topics and provoke meaningful opportunities to speak.

2.8. Role Play

Aim: to get into role

This convention belongs to the basic ones, it is widely used because of its simplicity and

familiarity both to teacher and students. It can be established quickly by mere allocating roles

to learners or learners can choose roles themselves. More complex alternative is to distribute

role cards with additional information on the character, their opinions, wishes or some hints

how the character will behave in particular situation. No matter how simple this activity might

seem, it can be very beneficial – it helps learners to understand different viewpoints and

accustom their language and movement to different characters.

2.9. Simulations

Aim: to simulate real-life situations which require making decisions or solving problems

Group is presented with a situation that they have to solve, often within a time limit which

puts tension on participants. Through simulations learners can identify with the problem and

examine various criteria before making a final decision. Group can be for example asked to

design a new town facility within a given budget. It is usual in stimulations that learners are

provided with some guidelines that have to be taken into account – a set budget, criteria of the

competition or various rules.

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3. Adult Learners

3.1. Characteristics of an adult learner

It is evident that adult learners differ from young learners in many ways. Scientists

have been dealing with the distinctive features of the former ones for a long time. In 1833 a

German teacher Alexander Kapp introduced the term andragogy as a science dealing with

education of a „man‟ in contrast to pedagogy dealing with education of a „child‟ (Smith). The

leading figure of andragogy later became Malcolm Knowles who formulated six basic

assumptions defining adult learners (57-63):

The need to know – adults need to understand why they need to learn something.

Teachers should become facilitators who show learners how they will be able to use what they

have learnt in real life. Knowles adds that “even more potent tools for raising the level of

awareness of the need to know are real or simulated experiences in which the learners

discover for themselves the gaps between where they are now and where they want to be”

(58).

The learners’ self-concept – adults have a need to be self-directing and to be seen as

such by others. However, in context with education, adults, according to their previous

experience from school education, often start to behave dependently and expect the teacher to

lead them. When the teacher accepts this role, adult students may suffer from not fulfilling

their psychological need.

The role of the learners’ experience – adults come to education with a noticeably

larger amount of experiences than children or youth do. Moreover, the spectrum of

experiences is much wider, which means that learners themselves can be valuable resources

for learning. This implies that in adult education experiential techniques such as discussions,

simulations and problem-solving activities should prevail over transmitting methods.

Nevertheless, Knowles also mentions negative effects: through various experiences adults

may have formed a range of prejudices and bias and might have become reluctant to new

approaches.

Readiness to learn – adults are ready to learn things that are in accordance with their

personal development and social roles. Various techniques, such as simulation, exposure to

models and career counselling, can help to invoke the readiness.

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Orientation to learning – adults are task-centred or problem-centred. They resent

learning something for its own sake. They tend to learn new knowledge and skills best when

these are useful in their real lives.

Motivation – according to Knowles, intrinsic motivation prevails.

3.2. Adult learners’ expectations

We have already mentioned that adult learners enter educational courses with a vast

quantity of previous knowledge and life-experiences. This, together with possible differences

in age and background, brings a huge variety to the class. The differences among individual

learners are much bigger than in school-aged children or teenagers‟ classes. Consequently

they can also have a range of different expectations of the course.

Amanda Hayes, a specialist in Further Education, sums up the most significant adult

students‟ expectations of an educational course (8-12). Firstly, adult learners expect their

teacher to be a professional with high level of knowledge not only of their field, but also of

methodology. He or she should also follow the latest development in both areas mentioned

above. As for the personality, adults long for a respectable teacher, who is enthusiastic about

their subject. Hayes says: “Whatever subject we teach, we need to be exemplars of best and

current practise” (8). Secondly, the learners expect to fulfil their personal learning aims.

However, as Hayes writes, these are not necessarily “identical to the course objectives” (9).

Teachers should be aware of their students‟ goals and adjust the course accordingly. It is also

crucial to bear in mind the fact that students are influenced by the learning process and can

alter their goals as the course proceeds. Thirdly, adult learners expect to get feedback. This

aspect might be neglected, especially in non-formal education when students are not going to

take any formal exam. However, they need to know what they have achieved and they expect

advice on further progress. Another point worth mentioning is stimulating and safe

environment. It can be promoted by suitable seating arrangement (Hayles recommends a

horseshow due to the fact it encourages a feeling of equality), providing refreshment facilities

or by teacher and students‟ joint coffee breaks. Lastly, adults expect to be treated with respect.

Hayles emphasizes that it is absolutely essential that teachers avoid humiliation, sarcasm or

being patronizing.

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3.3. Adult learners and drama

Having analysed adult learners‟ expectations let me try to apply this analysis on the

use of drama.

As we could see in the previous chapters, participants of adult education expect their

teacher to be an expert which can collide with the fact that teachers of English, no matter how

professional in English they are, very often lack education in drama. This might make them

feel unprepared and unsecure about teaching drama to others, in particular to adults. It is more

than obvious that if the teacher feels unsecure about what he is doing he can easily transmit

the doubts to his pupils and make them resistant to innovative teaching methods. Maley and

Duff (4) emphasize the impact of teacher‟s self-assurance on the result of drama-based lesson:

For drama activities to work well, teachers themselves need to be convinced

that they will work. A class rapidly senses any hesitancy or nervousness, or

lack of conviction on the part of the teacher. You are the key to the success of

these activities. If you do them reluctantly, or half-heartedly, it is better not to

do them at all.

Another point that should be taken into consideration is the previous educational

experience that participants bring into class as it can remarkably influence the attitude of

learners towards learning. Speaking of adults, there can be noticeable differences among their

backgrounds which can also be applied on various levels of experience with alternative

methods in education. Not only the length of formal education plays an important role, but

also experience with courses in further education can influence their attitude to various

techniques. Those who have never come across using drama techniques in education may not

see the point of doing it. Wessels (10) writes:

Not all students will perceive it as being inherently useful, and will fail to bring

with them the high degree of „motivational readiness‟ essential for the success

of such a project.

Here the role of the teacher is crucial, his task is to explain to the learners how they can

benefit from immersing in drama-based lessons. In addition, adult learners are goal-oriented

therefore it is vitally important that they are aware of the way how activities performed in

class can help them achieve their targets and fulfil their needs.

Focusing on adults, we must not omit their possible psychological barriers to

participate in activities involving stepping out of the safety behind their desks and taking risks

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performing in front of their classmates. Some of them might consider drama-oriented

activities, especially those ones connected with physical movement, embarrassing. The way

how to overcome this obstacle might lie in the gradual introduction of drama and allowing

students plenty of time to get used to it. It is not advisable to force adult learners to do too

much in too short time, they must feel comfortable before they take part in drama activities.

Positive atmosphere and mutual trust can also help to cope with the anxiety.

3.4. Drama with adults in ELT

As far as teaching English to children is concerned, teachers tend to use drama in

lessons much more than with adults. There is a wide range of activities that are occurring in

primary schools or even kindergartens on a large scale, such as miming, songs, chants, role

plays, making puppets and playing with them. All of these activities are part of everyday lives

of children, thus it seems quite natural that many teachers base their lessons on them and it

shows that pupils benefit from them. As Philips (6) explains:

Using drama and drama activities has clear advantages for language learning. It

encourages children to speak and gives them the chance to communicate, even

with limited language, using non-verbal communication, such as body

movements and facial expressions. There are also a number of other factors

which make drama a very powerful tool in the language classroom. Try

thinking about the ways in which reading a dialogue aloud from a textbook is

different from acting out that same dialogue. You will find that the list is a long

one. This is because drama involves children at many levels, through their

bodies, minds, emotions, language, and social interaction.

As it has been already mentioned in chapter 1, some experts believe that the same

principles can be applied on adult learners. Krashen talks about the need of natural

communication, Wessels as well as Maley and Duff emphasize the importance of non-verbal

communication, body language and emotions (see ch. 1). They suppose drama has a great

potential to provide teachers and learners with meaningful context and develop the non-verbal

aspects of communication.

As we can see drama can be enormously beneficial in teaching English to adult

learners. Nevertheless, it is also important to consider possible problems. In addition to

difficulties mentioned in the previous chapter, we should bear in mind time constraint. In

22

general, adults have to handle a lot of duties, they have to divide their time among work,

family and personal life and therefore they cannot devote so much time to learning a foreign

language. Speaking of private courses, adults most often attend one session a week, lasting

between 60 and 90 minutes, which probably is not long enough to work on a long-term drama

project resulting into performing the final product on the stage. However, as regards various

drama activities or conventions, they are very flexible and can be used any time during the

lesson in order to make the lessons more authentic.

...drama is a marvellously flexible technique that can fit into any area of the

timetable. It requires no major adjustments on the part of the teacher. It does

not even demand that teachers should change the materials they are presenting.

But it will help to bring the materials to life, by infusing the lifeless print with

the feelings, imaginations, and thoughts of the learners, who become active

participants in the learning process (Wessels 10).

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Practical Part

The practical part of this thesis comprises a series of lesson plans that I created for a

summer conversation course. These lesson plans incorporate drama techniques in the lessons

with regarding to principles mentioned in chapter 3. Especially the necessity of gradual

implementing of drama was taken into account. The course starts with more conventional

activities and drama techniques are added step by step.

4. Lesson plans for a conversation course

4.1. Description of the course

The lesson plans were designed for a one-week summer conversation course that took

place from Monday to Friday, there were 4 lessons a day, that is 20 lessons altogether. Each

session started at 8:30 and finished at 11:45, with one fifteen-minutes break.

There were 5 participants aged 29-42, all of them female. As far as their education

background is concerned, 2 participants had secondary education, 3 of them university

education. The level of their English according to CEFR was mostly B1+, one of them was

aiming at B2 level in reading and listening.

The main objectives of the course were to develop speaking fluency, to improve

communicative competence and to extend and reinforce vocabulary range. I also set myself

several personal aims. Firstly, to try out various drama techniques, secondly, to find out

whether adult students can benefit from using drama in English lessons and last but not least,

to explore adult students‟ attitude to using such techniques.

As I have mentioned above, I tried to incorporate drama techniques gradually. When

preparing the course syllabus, I decided not to devote all the course time to drama. I combined

drama activities with more traditional ones, using various materials from textbooks, resource

books and Internet articles. Special attention was also paid to setting good relationships

through getting to know activities at the beginning of the course.

Bearing in mind that the group will be meeting every day in a period of one week, I

was looking for a motif that would link individual lessons together. I opted for the topic of

journalists and their work, since it enables wide variability. Some activities are based

24

exclusively on this theme (e.g. TV News Bulletin) whereas others are merely loosely

connected to the topic of journalism (Guided Tour – visitors could be just tourists but the

motif of foreign journalists on an exchange visit helps sustain the story). Having chosen

journalism as a common thread running through all the lessons, I basically looked for suitable

stories or worksheets and tried to apply drama techniques to them. The choice of drama

techniques was inspired by Neelands and Goode and website dramasource.com which

provides a brief outline of most common drama conventions.

4.2. Lesson plans

In this chapter four lesson plans based on using drama activities are introduced. I

considered the layout of the lesson plans carefully as it plays an important role in utility for

potential users. Each of the following lesson plans consists of four parts: brief introduction,

detailed description of activities, final evaluation of the lesson and suggestions.

The first part of each lesson plan outlines basic facts about the lesson: time, level, aims

and materials needed.

The second part is dedicated to the process of the lesson. In order to make the

descriptions of activities clearly organised, they have been divided into two columns, the first

containing instructions for the teacher while the latter describing what the students are

supposed to do in each stage.

Further, as I have piloted all the lessons, I have complemented the lesson plans with

my evaluations in which I reflect on the strong and weak points of the lessons, deal with

problems that occurred and come up with possible solutions. My reflections are based on

comments which I put down after each session into the teaching diary and on students‟

feedback. Since I was curious whether the course was fulfilling the expectations of students,

at the end of each day I included a short discussion on activities they had experienced.

Furthermore, at the very end of the course I asked the participants to fill in a short

questionnaire and a final discussion followed.

The last part of the lesson plans, called Suggestions, offers possible improvements and

modifications to the original lesson plans.

25

4.2.1. Lesson plan 1 – Extraordinary Newspaper Stories

Length: 45min

Level: intermediate and above

Aim: By the end of the session the students:

will have read several short stories about crime.

will have learnt new items of vocabulary focused on crime and

newspaper stories.

will have used the language of the stories in interviews.

Materials: a set of Angry Motorist „Kills‟ Car story plus pictures for each pair of

sudents, a set of pictures and extracts for Boy Driver Saves Father story for

each pair (both adopted from www.onestopenglish.com) ,a toy microphone

(it is not necessary, however, may be useful to make the activity more

interesting, it can be easily made of a paper roll and a paper ball)

Stage 1 Reading

Teacher Students

Teacher distributes newspaper articles

Angry Motorist Kills Car and sets of pictures

accompanying the story.

Teacher checks whether the task has been

completed successfully.

Students work in pairs, they read the story

and consequently try to put the pictures in the

right order.

Stage 2 Roleplay

Teacher Students

Teacher tells the students that they are

going to pretend to be TV news presenters

informing about the Angry motorist incident

in the evening news, allows students some

time for preparation and then asks them to

perform. A toy microphone can help Ss feel

Students in pairs prepare a short spot about

the incident and after preparation time

perform in front of the whole group.

26

more in the role and release the tension when

performing.

Stage 3 Reading

Teacher Students

Teacher gives students another unusual

story with pictures, this time the pictures are

in the right order, however, the text is cut

into several short strips which are in random

order.

Teacher checks with the whole group.

Students in pairs put the extracts in correct

order.

Stage 4 Role play

Teacher Students

Another role play follows: Students are in the role of police officers

who are in the pub after work. They are

chatting with other friends about an

interesting incident that happened during

their today‟s shift.

Evaluation:

The lesson based on this lesson plan was incorporated in the first day of the one-

week‟s course. I deliberately chose role play as the first of the drama techniques because I

supposed that due to the fact that role plays are relatively widely used in various English

textbooks most students would be familiar with this kind of activity and feel safe when

performing. It proved to be a good choice. I also wanted to provide the students with some

print materials at the beginning of the course as I anticipated that they were used to working

with textbooks and handouts and having some material to reference before/during speaking

helps them feel more comfortable. The lesson worked well, students easily fulfilled the first

matching task, the text was not difficult for their level, they only had difficulties with

vocabulary connected to cars- tyre, tyre iron, bonnet. After being asked to prepare the first

role play, most students seemed to be surprised, some of them even worried that they would

27

not be able to perform, but in the end they overcame all troubles and finished the task

successfully. As for the second story, reading activity ran smoothly, students became really

interested in the story and when the second role play was introduced they enjoyed

enthusiastically. In my opinion, the lesson was a success and a good beginning of mutual

cooperation.

Suggestions:

A good introduction activity could be giving students several crucial words from the

first story and asking them to predict the plot. This would raise the interest of the students in

the story and, meanwhile, the less familiar words could be pre-taught.

4.2.2 Lesson plan 2 – TV News Bulletin

Length: 45min

Level: intermediate and above

Aim: By the end of the session the students:

will have used the language of decision making, expressing

opinions, agreeing and disagreeing in a discussion.

will have written several short scripts for TV news.

will have presented several news stories.

Materials: Handout with topics (adapted from www.teachingenglish.org.uk; see

Appendix A)

Stage 1 Introduction

Teacher Students

Teacher asks students some of the

following questions:

Did you watch TV news yesterday?

What stories do you remember?

Do you ever watch news bulletins on TV?

What kinds of stories are usually reported?

Students answer and discuss their

experience with TV news.

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Stage 2 Simulation

Teacher Students

Teacher sets up the situation: students are

in the role of TV news bulletin crew who are

having a meeting to decide which stories will

appear on TV news tonight. It is necessary to

choose 6 stories and decide in which order

they will be reported.

Teacher distributes the list of events.

Students read the list and simulate having a

meeting, they hold the discussion until they

come to an agreement on 6 most important

events and the most appropriate order of

reporting these events.

In the end students present the result of

their discussion to the teacher.

Stage 3 Writing

Teacher Students

Teacher asks the students to prepare the

news bulletin, they are supposed to report 6

stories they have chosen in previous activity

in a five-minute slot.

Students work in pairs, first they have to

decide which stories will each pair be

responsible for and then they work out the

appropriate scripts.

Stage 4 Performing

Teacher Students

Teacher points out that each student has

to take part in the performing of the bulletin.

Finally students perform the bulletin.

Evaluation:

At the beginning of the lesson it seemed to be difficult to stimulate the discussion

about TV news as all participants admitted they had not watched the news recently. However,

when we began to talk about news in general, they slowly started to come up with ideas.

When the stimulation task was assigned, the students became more interested. All of them

participated in the discussion and they enjoyed the task very much. The students managed to

express their opinions and give reasons to advocate their choices. They excluded several

options quite easily but then it showed they had had different opinions on the remaining

stories which made them even more involved. They discussed the topics on the list properly,

giving examples of stories applied on our country which resulted in spending more time on

29

this stage than I had expected, but I dare to say it was beneficial. In my opinion this was the

most fruitful part of the lesson as everybody was immensely enthusiastic about expressing

their points of view and they worked on developing oral fluency.

In the next stage students worked in pairs, they distributed the stories among them

without any difficulties and wrote the scripts for the stories. I would like to point out that

pairwork proved to be extremely helpful at this stage. Not only it was a good way of

generating ideas on what to write about but it also provoked a lot of discussion, students

evaluated their partners‟ suggestions and they focused on the appropriate length of their

contributions.

The last activity involved presentation of the final product-performing the news

bulletin. Each student was asked to participate actively in this activity. As we did not have

enough time left for this activity the students simply read their scripts. If we had had more

time I would have asked the students to prepare performing the bulletin without using their

notes to promote more speaking practice. I can say the task was fulfilled successfully even

though the students overestimated the length of their utterances and finally the bulletin

appeared to be much shorter than 5 minutes.

4.2.3. Lesson plan 3 – Guided Tour

Length: 45min

Level: intermediate and above

Aim: By the end of the session the students:

will have used the language of making questions and describing

pictures.

will have practised talking about their town.

will have rehearsed showing foreigners round the town.

Materials: Pictures connected with the town where the course is taking place

Stage 1 Describing pictures

Teacher Students

Teacher brings a set of pictures with

main sights in the town/part of the city where

Students work in groups of 3-5 people. One

person has a picture, the others take turns in

30

the course is taking place, pictures of

important local people or events held locally.

Teacher keeps the pictures secret while

explaining how the activity processes.

asking him/her questions to find out what the

picture depicts. Once the main motif is

revealed, they go on to find out more details.

When Ss think they have clear images of

what the picture looks like, the picture is

shown to them to compare their ideas with

the reality. Then another person chooses a

new picture and the activity continues in the

same way.

Stage 2 Motivation

Teacher Students

After all pictures have been uncovered,

the teacher encourages students to find out

what all pictures have in common.

When the town/city is mentioned, teacher

introduces the starting point of the next

activity: some students are local journalists

while the others are foreign colleagues who

are on a business trip. Czech journalists have

to take the visitors on a guided tour round the

city. The teacher informs where the group

will exactly go.

Students should come to a conclusion

that all the pictures have something to do

with the town/city where they are at the

moment.

Students are divided into 2 groups-Czech

and foreign journalists, then they make pairs

comprising one person from each group.

Stage 3 Guided tour

Teacher Students

Teacher monitors and helps when

necessary.

Students set out on a short walk from the

language school to an important place in the

town/city (e.g. a well-known sight, an

important building or a square).

Czech journalists comment on what can

be seen on the way and can also talk about

the town/city in general-history, legends,

31

interesting facts.

Foreign journalists listen and ask

questions to find out as much as possible.

Stage 4 Feedback

Teacher Students

When the group reaches the end of the

journey, the teacher asks the foreign

journalists to compare the information they

gained from their guides.

All students are joined together. They

discuss what they talked about during the

walk.

Evaluation:

The first activity - Guessing the Pictures - created a lot of enthusiasm among the

students, they came with plenty of questions and were eager to find out what the pictures

looked like. However, in the beginning two members of the group tended to dominate the

process, asking one question after another, not leaving the others enough time to make up

their own questions. As I did not want to interrupt the flow of the activity, I let them finish the

first picture and then adapted the rules by telling them to take turns in questioning clockwise.

On one hand, this slowed the activity down, but on the other hand, all students got the same

chance to speak. Another problem which arose during the introductory stage was that it was

not clear enough to what extent should the pictures be described. The first picture depicted the

square being under reconstruction and there also were a few workers in the foreground. At the

moment when the students managed to work out that it was a photo of the square in their

town, they considered the task to be fulfilled. When I encouraged them to get into more

details they continued and after a while successfully guessed what was happening in the

photo. However, when the second picture was being examined, they tended to focus on too

many details such as what the people were wearing etc. which caused the activity to become

quite time-consuming. I recommend either giving more precise instructions beforehand or

moderating the activity if any inconveniences appear.

In the second stage the students easily recognised that all the pictures were connected

to their town. When I put on a role play, half of the group seemed to be thrilled by the

challenge while the other half looked a bit nervous. I let them make pairs according to their

choice as I wanted them to feel secure and comfortable. When we set off, the tension was

32

gradually released and everybody co-operated well. The weak point was that the students

regarded their knowledge of the town as insufficient which sometimes prevented them from

speaking. I dealt with this situation by encouraging them to focus on basic facts they know

and by reminding them of their roles of journalist not professional guides. I advised them not

to worry about the lack of knowledge and instead, try to improvise and take the chance to

rehearse showing foreign visitors round the town. Later the students overcame the difficulties

and the activity went on well. Nevertheless, it made me think of inserting a preparation stage

into this lesson plan which would precede the guided tour.

As we had run out of time, I had to skip the last stage, I just asked the students to

briefly comment on the activity. Generally, the lesson was positively evaluated, the students

appreciated being exposed to real life situation and were satisfied with accomplishing the

task. In my point of view, the lesson stimulated reasonable amount of speaking practice,

although, admittedly, the students in the roles of guides were given much more fluency

practice than the visitors. The solution could be in not omitting the final stage where the

visitors were to share the information gained during the walk, which would help balance the

participation of both groups.

Suggestions:

It might be useful to set a time limit for the Picture guessing to prevent the students

from talking about the same picture for too long.

As I have already mentioned above, students could also benefit from being allowed

time to get ready before the main activity. They could be given some leaflets in English to

flick through and get some ideas what to talk about. However, I believe this stage should be

kept short, otherwise the spontaneity and opportunity to improvise would disappear.

4.2.4 Lesson plan 4 – Life in the Terminal

Length: 4 x 45min

Level: intermediate and above

Aim: By the end of the session the students:

will have practised asking questions.

will have read an unusual story.

will have retold the story.

33

will have used the language connected to airports.

will have talked about daily routines.

will have conducted several interviews.

will have written a newspaper article/diary entry.

Materials: a picture of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, a handout with information about

Nasseri (adapted from www.wikipedia.com; see Appendix B), dictionaries,

whiteboard+markers, a large sheet of paper, crayons or felt-tip pens

Stage 1 Lead in- Brainstorming

Teacher Students

Teacher provides students with the picture

of Mehran Karimi Nasseri and asks them to

brainstorm ideas who this person is.

Students try to come up with different

ideas about occupation, age, family, origin

and lifestyle of the man depicted in the

photo.

Stage 2 Teacher in the role

Teacher Students

Teacher is in the role-he/she pretends to

be Mehran Karimi Nasseri and encourages

the students to question him.

In case students get stuck and cannot

come up with any ideas, teacher can give

them some hints that arouse their curiosity.

Students try to find out as much

information as possible about the identity of

the mysterious person in the photo.

Stage 3 Reading

Teacher Students

Teacher distributes the text about Mehran

Karimi Nasseri and asks students to read the

extract on their own.

Teacher provides students with

dictionaries, however he/she gives them

Students read the text silently, comparing

the information given with the facts they

learnt in the previous activity. They can

check the meaning of unfamiliar words in the

dictionary but they should focus only on the

34

instruction they should try to guess the

meaning of new words form the context

rather than look up too many words in the

dictionary.

When the students finished reading

teacher elicits some basic facts about the

character.

words that are necessary for understanding

the meaning of the text.

Students answer teacher‟s questions about

the character.

Stage 4 Character on the wall

Teacher Students

Teacher quickly draws a big-sized outline

of a person on the board and informs students

that it represents Mehran Karimi Nasseri.

Students collectively try to write into the

outline as many details about the character as

they remember.

They can also write their assumptions

outside the figure.

Provided that the number of students in

the class is too high, the activity will run

smoother if the teacher writes the words on

the board himself or appoints a secretary who

writes down all ideas.

Stage 5 Still image + Voices in head

Teacher Students

Teacher asks one volunteer to make a still

image of the scene when Nasseri found out

that his briefcase had been stolen.

Teacher asks students to try to formulate

one sentence saying what Nasseri is thinking

about.

One student performs a still image. The

others think about his inner feelings.

After a short while students should be

ready to say the sentences out loud. If they

want to contribute, they pat the student in the

role of Nasseri on the shoulder and then they

say the thought.

35

Stage 6 Role play

Teacher Students

Teacher says to the students that Nasseri

decided to go on with his journey and fly to

Britain in spite of the fact he does not have

his passport. However, the immigration

check revealed it and sent him back to

France.

Teacher divides group into pairs and asks

them to role play the scene at the airport

when Nasseri is not able to show his passport

to British immigration.

Students work in pairs or groups of three

and try to role play the dialogue between

Nasseri and Immigration clerk.

Stage 7 Nasseri’s narrative - Teacher in the role

Teacher Students

Teacher asks students to help him

rearrange the chairs in a line looking similar

to benches in the airport hall.

Teacher adopts the role of Nasseri, sits

down on the bench and invites students to

join him and listen.

Teacher starts narrating about his flight

back to France, about being arrested after

arrival and released soon after that, about the

beginning of his residency at the airport.

He/she continues on the trial in 1992.

Students in the role of passenger at the

airport sit on the bench next to Nasseri and

listen to his speech.

Stage 8 Reading

Teacher Students

Teacher steps out of the role of Nasseri

and tells the students they are going to mime

the part of the story they have just heard at

the airport. But before they start, they will

Students work in pairs. They are allowed

to use dictionaries or consult new vocabulary

with their classmates.

36

have chance to read the relevant extract of

the story.

Teacher hands out next part of the text

and asks students to read it in pairs.

Stage 9 Miming

Teacher Students

Teacher asks students to prepare miming

the story.

Teacher asks students to retell the story in

their own words.

Having finished reading, students have to

work together and agree on how to perform

the story. They should try to negotiate in

English.

Students mime the story.

In the end students retell the story in their

own words, they take turns in narrating one

sentence each.

Stage 10 Body sculptures

Teacher Students

Teacher reminds the students that

Nasseri has been living at the airport terminal

for many years. During this time he has

adjusted the place where he is staying to fit

better his needs. He still has the luggage he

came with many years ago and some other

equipment he managed to find at the airport.

Teacher asks students to think briefly

about what sort of things surrounds Nasseri

and then try to make body sculptures that

represent furniture and things around

Nasseri.

Teacher gives signal „Freeze!‟ and walks

round still sculptures, tapping one‟s shoulder

Students first brainstorm possible things

that could Nasseri use to equip his place and

then try to represent them with their bodies.

After a couple of minutes the teacher

freezes the scene and comes to examine the

statues. If teacher touches the statue, it must

give some information about the thing it

represents: What it is, what it is used for,

how Nasseri got it, how long he has had it or

even how this thing is feeling.

37

occasionally to find out about the statues.

Stage 11 Collective drawing

Teacher Students

The teacher brings a large sheet of paper,

lays it on the table and asks students to sit

around it.

Students are going to draw a plan of the

airport that is the home of Nasseri. The

drawing will be done collectively. To

practice speaking and listening, students

cannot draw their own ideas, they have to

instruct others to draw. Everybody must say

at least 2 sentences. The place where Nasseri

lives must be on the plan.

Stage 12 Nasseri’s day - Still images

Teacher Students

Teacher asks students to close their eyes

and imagine how Nasseri spends day at the

airport. What time does he wake up? What

can he see when he opens his eyes? What can

he hear? What does he do when he gets up?

Does he have breakfast? What does he do in

the morning? Does he go for lunch? How

does he spend afternoons, does he have any

friends to spend time with? What does he do

in the evening?

Teacher tells the students to open their

eyes and work together on Still images to

depict particular moments of Nasseri‟s

typical day.

Teacher‟s assistance might be necessary to

help the group describe their colleagues‟ still

images, teacher can ask what is happening

and what the characters think.

Students with eyes closed listen to

teacher‟s questions and try to imagine as

many details as possible.

Students in small groups prepare pictures

illustrating various parts of Nasseri‟s daily

routine using their bodies. While one group

is performing, the other one is describing

what is happening. Their description may

differ from what was intended by the

performers, but the group performing Still

image is not allowed to speak or move, there

will be chance to compare their versions

afterwards.

38

Stage 13 Role play

Teacher Students

Teacher divides class into 2 groups-one of

them being representatives of Nasseri, the

other of journalists. Teacher informs students

journalists are going to interview Nasseri in

order to write a newspaper article based on

his story.

After preparation period teacher asks

students to get into pairs consisting of one

Nasseri and one journalist. If there is odd

number of students, in one group 2

journalists will cooperate on interviewing

Nasseri.

Students playing journalists are going to

prepare for the interview together. They have

a meeting where they can prepare appropriate

questions. They can make notes.

Students in the role of Nasseri can

brainstorm ideas about his hobbies, free time

activities, eating habits, everyday life at the

airport and so on.

Students in pairs or groups of three

perform the interviews, journalist are making

notes for future reference.

Stage 14 Writing

Teacher Students

Teacher distributes sheets of paper. Students who were previously in the role of

journalists write an article about his story.

Students in the role of Nasseri write an entry

to his personal diary.

Evaluation:

Whereas the first three lesson plans are allocated to 1 lesson (45-60mins), Life in the

Terminal is a several-lessons‟ project. I decided to incorporate this project into day 4 of the

course schedule, after the students had participated in other lessons using various drama

techniques. As all the previous sessions proved to be successful, I dared to devote all one day

(4 x 45mins) to a drama project. When I informed the students about this plan their reactions

were widely positive, presumably due to the fact they were satisfied with drama activities

which they had taken part in so far.

The whole project started with speculating about a mysterious person in the picture.

The choice of the lead-in showed to be convenient, the students became interested in the topic

although in the beginning it was necessary to encourage them to think about the person more

39

deeply. They talked only about his occupation so I guided them to think about his age,

nationality, family and lifestyle as well. When we continued with the second activity (Teacher

in the role), it went much smoother as the students started to use the ideas from the previous

stage to make questions. I decided not to reveal everything during this activity to keep

students interested for the next stage.

In spite of the fact that I intended to keep stage 3 (Reading) short, it took a

considerable amount of time as the students tended to overuse dictionaries and translate the

article word by word. I think that I should have set a clear task before they started to read,

such as giving them a few questions to be answered. What could also help shorten the reading

is setting a time limit.

Character on the wall was appreciated by the students, they came up with a lot of

words and it was a good opportunity to use new vocabulary items from the article. Moreover,

it was a welcome change after reading activity and a bridge leading to the next stage.

Voices in head was a slightly problematic activity. At first, the students did not

understand what they were supposed to do. Next, when they comprehended, they were

reluctant to join in. Finally, I had to do most of the talking myself and thus I decided to stop

the activity. The feedback at the end of the session revealed two reasons why students felt

insecure. Firstly, they were uncomfortable with the arrangement, standing in the circle made

them feel more under pressure compared to sitting behind the desks, they worried about

making mistakes when everybody watched them. Secondly, they did not want to speak

because of the lack of language. After the session I realised that I could have dealt with

problems at this stage by interrupting the activity, eliciting the language, writing useful

structures on the board for the reference while speaking and then continuing with Voices in

head. In the future I would insert eliciting the language before Voices in head starts. It could

even be additional stage of Character in the wall-bubbles with Nasseri‟s thoughts could be

drawn on the board.

In the next stage students made an interview between Nasseri and immigration clerk at

the airport. Before they began we discussed the situation with the whole group and focused on

possible questions. Thus, when performing the activity, students did not come across any

serious problems and both me and the students assessed this stage highly as for the amount of

speaking practice.

After finishing the dialogs I developed the story by using drama technique called

Teacher in the role and then asked students to mime this part of the story. I distributed the text

of this part for the reference while preparing. In this case students concentrated on main

40

events in the story and did not worry so much about unfamiliar vocabulary as they did during

the first reading activity. While getting ready for miming, some students tended to use mother

tongue instead of English. I tried to eliminate this tendency but, on the other hand, I did not

want to spoil the activity so in the end I decided not to interfere. The miming as such was

surprisingly successful, I had doubts whether adult students would be willing to participate in

such activity, but they had no objections. After miming they retold the story. Some of them

had difficulties with vocabulary and tried to find the words in the text. As a result, they tended

to read whole passages of the text rather than use their own words and the fluency was

disrupted. It might be useful to go through the text before miming activity and deal with any

difficult vocabulary in advance.

Body sculptures ran quite smoothly, although some students had few ideas what to talk

about, but it was easily solved by asking them questions about the object they were depicting.

Collective drawing proved to be very beneficial as for the language practice. In the

beginning I set clear rules to prevent students from drawing their own pictures without talking

to the others. A good variety of language structures and vocabulary was used. Moreover,

students cooperated greatly and helped each other explain unfamiliar words.

While the students were preparing their still images the use of mother tongue appeared

again. Taking into account students‟ comments at the end of the day I found out that they

switched to Czech when they were thinking creatively, because they had a lot of ideas in their

minds and wanted to deliver them quickly, they did not want to spend too much time thinking

about the form in order not to lose the meaning. They also mentioned lack of vocabulary

connected with body movement.

The final roleplay was very successful and fruitful. After working thoroughly on the

topic the students had come across a lot of ideas and useful language and used both the former

and the latter naturally and confidently. The roleplay was a good opportunity to consolidate

all language items grasped in previous activities and, at the meantime, to develop fluency.

The last stage involved writing either an article or an entry to Nasseri‟s personal diary.

Writing was a good way how to calm students down and provide them with another chance to

use all the language they had been working on for several lessons. In the end they read their

works out loud.

Suggestions:

It is possible to divide this project into two days with timing 2 x 90minutes. In this

case I would finish the first session with miming and retelling the story (stage 9). The second

41

session would start with stage 10 (Body sculptures) which could be possibly preceded by

eliciting the story from the students to refresh their memories. Even when the whole project

takes part in one day, a short break would probably be necessary and the interruption is, in my

opinion, the most suitable between stages 9 and 10.

4.3. Final assessment of the course

Apart from immediate feedback at the end of each session, the students were also

asked to assess the whole project by the means of filling in a short questionnaire (see

Appendix C) at the end of the last session. The participants responded anonymously and all 5

participants were willing to take part. Before they started, the meaning of questions was

clarified, namely the term “drama activities” was explained as the students were not aware of

the terminology. This subchapter summarizes the responses gained both from the

questionnaires and the discussion that followed.

Question 1: Do you think this conversation course helped you improve your English?

If yes, in what way?

All the students perceived the course as highly useful. The respondents believed that

participating in this project had a positive impact on breaking down a barrier to

communication in English and provided them with plenty of opportunity to try out their

knowledge. As a result, all of them now feel more confident to communicate in English. Most

of them mentioned the extension of vocabulary and acquisition of new structures. Two of

them appreciated the deep immersion in the language and they claimed that they had started

thinking in English even outside the class. Nevertheless, this can be caused by the

considerable amount of time they spent engaged in English during the week rather than the

methodology used.

Question 2: Which activities do you consider the most beneficial for your language

development?

As was already mentioned, the course involved both drama activities and more

traditional ones. The aim of question 2 was to find out which of them participants considered

42

more beneficial. Respondents were allowed to state more than one answer. The following

table reports the results.

Activity Number of

votes

Vocabulary Bag 5

Roleplays 5

Guided Tour 3

Simulation 3

Writing 1

As it can be seen, both drama activities and more traditional ones are represented in

the chart. The former include Roleplays, Guided Tour and Simulation, the latter Vocabulary

Bag and possibly Writing, even though Writing was in fact a part of a drama project.

Vocabulary Bag was an activity aimed at revising vocabulary. At the end of each session

students were asked to agree on a set of new words they would like to remember and write

them down on small cards. At the beginning of each session some activities connected with

these cards occurred in order to reinforce continuously new vocabulary items. This was

assessed very positively by the students as they were awarded opportunity to come across the

same vocabulary repeatedly and thus acquire it thoroughly.

All students named Roleplays as an important component in the learning process.

There was a broad range of activities based on playing roles during the week, some students

stated particular roleplays in the questionnaires while the others spoke of roleplaying in

general. However, it was revealed in the follow-up discussion that all the roleplays were

considered equally important by the students, thus no distinction was made for the purposes of

this summarization.

Simulation and Guided Tour were perceived highly positively due to the sense of real

life situation and the high level of motivation. One student claimed that she had felt strong

urge to express herself in English.

To sum up, many drama-based activities were regarded as an effective device for

learning English.

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Question 3: Which activities do you consider the least useful for your language

development?

3 out of 5 students did not give any answer to this question, one student named Voices

in head and one Still images and Body sculptures. Admittedly, these were the activities which

were the most problematic as for the use of the target language, students struggled with

insufficient knowledge and tended to use the mother tongue.

Question 4: Would you like to attend a similar course in the future?

All the students responded positively.

Question 5: Would you like to attend a course based exclusively on drama activities?

4 students would not like to attend a course involving solely drama activities, while

one student would be pleased to participate in such a course. It emerged in the discussion that

even though the drama based activities were appealing and seen as extremely beneficial, most

students find traditional methods equally important and do not want them to be omitted.

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Conclusion

The main aim of this thesis was to explore the possibilities of using drama and drama

techniques in teaching adult students English as a foreign language and to examine their

attitude towards drama activities.

The theoretical part of the work outlines the benefits and constraints of using drama in

lessons. The major benefit might be seen in the fact that drama can promote natural

communication in the classroom and provide meaningful contexts for speaking and listening.

The basic elements that form the context are setting, role, feelings and shared knowledge.

Moreover, drama brings fun into the classroom and thus has a positive impact on students‟

motivation which plays a crucial role in learning a foreign language. However, there are also

some constraints which can inhibit the implementation of drama. First of all, it is the lack of

teachers‟ experience, next, limited resources and finally, possible reluctance of adult students.

In order to overcome the barriers, teachers should be enthusiastic, set up a good atmosphere

and work on good relationships in the class.

Furthermore, when teaching adults several distinctive features must be taken into

account. Firstly, they need to know why they are learning something and how they can use it

in real life situations. Secondly, adult learners need to be self-directed. Thirdly, they bring to

the class broad range of experience which can serve as a resource for learning. Finally, they

are task-centred. In addition, adult students hold several expectations concerning their

learning: they expect their teacher to be a professional not only in English but also in

methodology, they need to see that the learning process fulfils their personal aims, they expect

to get feedback and last but not least, adult learners require respect.

The starting point of the practical part was a one-week conversation course which I

held in Mother Centre in Havlíčkův Brod. I set myself following objectives: to implement

drama techniques into the syllabus of the course with regard to the above mentioned

principles, to offer lesson plans that incorporate drama activities and to evaluate the lessons

taught according to lesson plans mentioned above.

Generally speaking, drama activities were positively accepted by the adult students. It

seems that drama can be very beneficial in many ways. To start with, the students got actively

engaged and felt the need to communicate in English. Further, while the course proceeded the

students claimed in the end-of-the-day discussions that they had felt more confident and their

motivation had risen. As for the language development concerns the students mentioned in the

45

questionnaires and final discussion that they had acquired a broad range of new vocabulary

items and structures and improved the fluency. In addition, since the number of participants

attending the course was 5, it was proved that it is possible to use drama techniques even with

small groups.

All the facts mentioned above lead to the conclusion that drama activities can have

highly beneficial impact in the learning process and are generally well-accepted by adult

students. However, due to the low number of participants involved in the experiment, a

further research might be useful.

46

Bibliography

Farmer, David. What Are Drama strategies? 2010. Web. January 26, 2011.

<http://dramaresource.com/strategies>

Harmer, Jeremy. How to teach English. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. 2007. Print.

Hayes, Amanda. Teaching Adults. London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2006.

Print.

Knowles, Malcolm. The Adult Learner: A Neglected Species. 4th ed. Huston: Gulf

Publishing Company, 1990. Print.

Maley, Alan, and Alan Duff. Drama techniques: a Resource Book of Communication

Activities for Language Teachers. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

1982. Print.

Mehran Karimi Nasseri. Web. March 24, 2011.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri>

Neelands, Jonothan, and Tony Goode. Structuring Drama Work. Cambridge: Cambridge

University Press, 2000. Print.

Onestopenglish.com. Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2000-2012. Web. March 15, 2011.

<www.onestopenglish.com>

Philips, Sarah. Drama with children. Oxford: Oxfors University Press, 1999. Print.

Smith, Mark K. Andragogy, the encyclopaedia of informal education. September 07, 2009.

Web. January 14, 2011. <http://www.infed.org/lifelonglearning/b-andra.htm>.

Trickett, Chris. Conversation lesson – News. August 11, 2010. Web. March 15, 2011.

47

<http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/lesson-plans/conversation-lesson-%E2%80%93-

news>

Wessels, Charlyn. Drama. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987. Print.

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Appendices

Appendix A: Lesson plan 2 Handout

Appendix B: Lesson plan 4 Handout

Appendix C: Questionnaire

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Appendix A: Lesson plan 2 Handout – TV News Bulletin

List of events:

A local boy has bought a new bike from the shop (red with 18

gears).

The president of our country has been involved in a road accident.

He is hurt but his life is not in danger.

An old woman from a small village on the sea has won $10,000,000

on the national lottery.

A cat has scratched his owner’s sofa.

Škoda company has won a multi-million pound contract to supply

car parts to Ferrari.

There is a train workers‘ strike which has resulted in there being no

train services all day.

Weathermen predict that severe weather will hit the capital

tomorrow.

The national economy may go into recession if the government does

not solve the unemployment problem.

A group of school children have painted pictures of the school dog.

Our country has won the World Team Darts Championship

The national health service advises people not to eat cheese

because of a food scare. A bacteria can be found in certain cheese

which should be avoided until the problem can be solved.

A local film maker has been nominated for an Oscar.

Adapted from http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/lesson-plans/conversation-lesson-%E2%80%93-news

50

Appendix B: Lesson plan 4 Handout - Life in the Terminal

Mehran Karimi Nasseri pronounced [meɦˈrɔːn

kʲæriːˈmiː nɔːseˈriː]; born 1942), also known as Sir, Alfred Mehran is an Iranian refugee

who lived in the departure lounge of Terminal One in Charles de Gaulle Airport from 8

August 1988 until July 2006, when he was hospitalized for an unspecified ailment. His

autobiography has been published as a book and he may have been the basis for the

movie The Terminal.

Early life

Nasseri was born in the Anglo-Persian Oil Company settlement located in Masjed

Soleiman, Iran. His father was an Iranian physician working for the company. Nasseri

stated that his mother was a nurse from Scotland working in the same place. He arrived

in the United Kingdom in September 1973, to take a three-year course in Yugoslav

studies at the University of Bradford.

Current position

Nasseri was expelled from Iran in 1977 for protests against the Shah and after a long

battle, involving applications in several countries, was awarded refugee status by the

United Nations High Commission for refugees in Belgium. This permitted residence in

any European country.

Having claimed to have one British parent, although he has produced no evidence to

support this, he decided to settle in the UK in 1986, but en route to there in 1988, his

briefcase containing his papers was stolen in Paris. Despite this setback, he boarded the

51

plane for London but was promptly returned to France when he failed to present a

passport to British immigration. He was initially arrested by the French, but then

released as his entry to the airport was legal and he had no country of origin to be

returned to; thus began his residency at Terminal 1.

His case was later taken on by French human rights lawyer Christian Bourget. In 1992,

French courts ruled that, having entered the country legally, he could not be expelled

from the airport, but it could not grant him permission to enter France.

Attempts were then made to have new documents issued from Belgium, but the

authorities there would only do so if Naserri presented himself in person. However,

under Belgian law a refugee who voluntarily leaves a country that has accepted him

cannot return. In 1995, the Belgian authorities granted permission for him to return, but

only if he agreed to live there under supervision of a social worker. Naserri refused this

on the grounds of wanting to enter the UK as originally intended.

Nasseri's life at the airport ended in July 2006 when he was hospitalized and his sitting

place dismantled. Towards the end of January 2007, he left the hospital and was looked

after by the airport's branch of the French Red Cross; he was lodged for a few weeks in a

hotel close to the airport. On March 6, 2007, he transferred to an Emmaus charity

reception centre in Paris's twentieth arrondissement. As of 2008, he continues to live in a

Paris shelter.

Life in Terminal 1

During his eighteen year long stay at Terminal 1 in the Charles de Gaulle Airport, Nasseri

had his luggage at his side, and spent his time reading, writing in his diary, or studying

economics. He received food and newspapers from employees of the airport. Contrary to

what many believe, he has never been stuck in the transit area and was therefore free to

move.

Adapted from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mehran_Karimi_Nasseri

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Appendix C

Questionnaire

1. Do you think this conversation course helped you improve your English? If yes,

in what way?

2. Which activities do you consider the most beneficial for your language

development?

3. Which activities do you consider the least useful for your language

development?

4. Would you like to attend a similar course in the future?

5. Would you like to attend a course based exclusively on drama activities?

Thank you very much for your help.