If we think of
the Word Drama some of us think of theatre, but drama is much more than that.To
start, it is necessary to present a definition of the Drama word, according to
English Oxford Dictionary drama is:
1. ´A play for
theatre, radio or television.
2. An exciting,
emotional or unexpected event or
circumstance.‘
We are going to
focus on the second definition because it is the most useful in drama classes.
In the PDF
document called ´teaching approach to CLIL‘say that using drama in CLIL
benefits the students in a lot of aspects. Drama requires to use the
imagination because it is necessary to improvise. Drama helps to keep in the
memory of students the knowledge because if we use the knowledge in a context
is much better encoded. Improve the vocabulary of the students because they
need to use different words and expressions depending on the circumstances.
Drama is a perfect skill to learn an holistic knowledge.
The main and
useful strategy used in drama is the Role-playing, because it involves the
student in a context while they are learning. Role-playing does not require
acting skills where the memorization, the use of gesture, the believability and
the body language is more important than the spontaneous communication like
role-playing.
We can use Drama
in all the subjects: history, science, language… There are some drama
strategies that help us to use in the best way:
Use tableau,
according to English Oxford Dictionary tableau is a ‘pause during or at the end
of a scene on stage when all the performers briefly freeze in position.‘ In
class, the students create still-life images or frozen moment with the body. It
is very useful because if the children have difficulties to communicate
themselves, the tableau help them through the body language. You can also help
the students to write some words on the board about the topic that they are
representing. It is important to divide the class in small groups to facilitate
the organization, and the participation.
Use Role on the
wall that is another strategy. The teacher draws or puts on the board a simple
outline about something (humans, animals, objects…). The students, one by one,
stand up and go to the figure and write an adjective that describes this human,
animal, object… Once all ideas have been written, the teacher says what the
simple outline was.
(Mehisto, Marsh
& Frigols (2008)).
Use a situation
in a context, depending on the level of the students. Divide the class in
groups and give them different situations; for example: the supermarket, the
bus station… Each student is a character and has to role using vocabulary,
knowledge, imagination. The teacher can also help with keywords on the board.
Now I am going to present a Role Play
exercise, a Job Interview:
Outline
|
Learners are interviewed
for a job in the role of a subject character.
|
|
Thinking skills
|
Creative thinking, evaluating.
|
|
Language focus
|
Depends on topic.
|
|
Language skills
|
Speaking.
|
|
Time
|
50 min.
|
|
Level
|
B1 and above.
|
|
Preparation
|
Choose a character or object which plays an
important role or has an important functions in your subject and for which
there is a fictional job vacancy (e.g. an historical character , an Olympic
swimmer in PE). Write and make incomplete copies of the character`s
curriculum vitae and application letters for the job for learners to use a
input.
|
Bibliography:
Dale, L. Tanner,
R. (2012). ´CLIL Activities. A resource for subject and language teachers`
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Mehisto, P.
Marsh David & Jesús Frigols, M. (2008). `Content and Language Integrated
Learning in Bilingual and Multilingual Education`. Oxford: Macmillan.
