Drama Activities

 Drama Activities

Communication drama games have a vital role to play in the ESL classroom. These activities help the learners to speak with and listen to other learners. The purpose of the following activities is for the students to find information, break down barriers and talk about themselves in a relaxed manner. 

Los niños con tutores disfrutan actuando en el escenario del teatro al aire  libre, gente pequeña. 

Dramas include various types of language teaching activities, such as:

Role-Play 

Students can explore realistic situations by interacting with other people in a managed way to develop experience and trial different strategies in a supported environment. It provides the possibility of significant learning.

Mime

It involves non-verbal language. The students use movement,  gestures,  and expressions to act a  story or some ideas without using any words. Usually, students employ a  visual component that allows memorizing language for memory is extremely reinforced by visual associations.

Simulation

Simulation  enables  the  students  to  see  the  usefulness  of  the  language they are learning. Also, it create an environment in which the  participants  are  involved  in  a  personally  meaningful  activity.

Scripted Play

It provides the opportunity to improve speaking and interaction with other people as well as  enriches  the  learners’  vocabulary  and  functional  language  like  agreeing  or disagreeing, apologizing, refusing, offering help, etc. (Scrivener, 1994: 69)

Improvisation

It is  a  spontaneous  action  without  any  script  or  rehearsal  with  minimal instruction  or  framework  from  the  teacher.  In  improvisation,  the  students  employ  their ideas and imaginations to collaborate.

Examples of activities / games 

Title:  BUILDING A CHARACTER  
Activity objectives
  • Stimulate Imagination 
  • Improved social kills (empathy, observing)  
  •  Improved communication skills
Instructions:  
Let the group walk around, think of and pick a character. While they are walking side coach them with questions to build their character. Ask: How does he/she: Walk, move etc. what do her/his feet, legs, belly, chest, shoulders, arms, neck, head, face (eyes, mouth, and nose) look like? What about strong/weak, big/small, happy/sad? Let the participants not verbally anwswer your questions, but rather react upon them!  
After this,  
  • You can have interviews with the characters, ask questions about this person.. 
  • You can place the characters in many different situations: party, on the bus, on the market, getting to know each other, waiting in line, etc.
  • Variation on ‘normal’ characters: Superheroes, Animals, Kings/Queens (of a fictional country) 
 
Title: JABBER TALK  
Activity objectives:
  • Developing/Freeing creative imagination 
  • Emotional expression  
  • Developing communication skills  

Instructions:

  1. Ask the whole group to get into a circle and face each other in pairs.
  2. Then, ask them to create their own unusual ‘foreign language etc. using anunusual or funny voice.
  3.  Ask them to introduce themselves to each other in this language and to have a short conversation about what they have done today and where they are going next.
  4. Give the children different settings and situations where they can talk to each other in their new Jabber languag.
  5. Children can change pairs and create a new Jabber language with each other.
  6. Speech: leader of the group gives speech to his people in Jabber.
  7. Person 1 tells story in jabber, person 2 translates, and person 3 acts out (or doesthe translation for deaf people)
 Title: THE DOG SHOW  
 Activity objectives:
  • Stimulate Imagination
  •  Practice forming questions and responding in an appropriate manner.
Instructions:
The students use mime, providing a chance to use the “teacher in role” drama technique. Get each student to imagine that they are a dog owner. They must each mime interacting with their dog. Once they have done this and gotten used to the size of their dog, get them to imagine they are competing in a dog show. The teacher takes on the role as a judge of the show. She/he interviews each of the dog owners individually and asks them the following questions:
  • What type of dog is it?
  • Where did you get him from? 
  • What type of personality does he have? 
  • What dog tricks can he do? Can you show us? 
  • Why should you dog win the show?
The judge/teacher can decide at the end of the activity who wins the show.

Some activities that you can apply: 

https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/8551/pdf/wch_drama_activities.pdf

https://dramastartbooks.com/2017/05/20/dramacommunication-activities-for-esl-students/

 

Bibliography

Griede, E. (2005). DRAMA ACTIVITIES. Save the Children's Resource Centre. https://resourcecentre.savethechildren.net/node/8551/pdf/wch_drama_activities.pdf


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