Drama helps us make sense of the world. It explores what happens when people make certain choices, and in doing so it shapes culture and values. This was the intention of the original Greek playwrights. They wanted to show multiple points of view around an issue so people could be better participants in a democracy.

In ELT, the art at the center of drama can be leveraged in lesson planning to give students interesting and useful experiences in their developing language. After all, dialogs in scenes and difficult conversations share many features. In both, the speakers have an objective, use language and non-verbal strategies to achieve it, and they must pay attention to the responses of the other speaker.

While drama can mean different things to different people, there are three major skill areas where it can be incorporated into language learning.

Improvisation, where characters take on roles and interact in pretend situations allows for practice and fluency development. Actors can “play” around with functional language such as complimenting, asking for a favor, negotiating, or giving advice. They can also develop confidence in their ability to understand and get meaning across.

Preparing a class for improv activities involves getting them comfortable with the physical and social space of the classroom. You can start with ice breakers. For example, have students stand in a circle. Then each student takes a turn. The first one comes to the middle, says their name and does a gesture. Then the rest of the class comes forward, says the person’s name and imitates the gesture. They step back and the next student takes a turn. The activity has the multiple aims of learning names, creating community, and getting comfortable with movement.

From there, students can move on to role playing. Improvisation often starts with two students at the front. They are given a cue to start a scene. They must “buy into” the premise of the scene by saying things like, “Yes, and . . .” to keep the story going. If they stall, other members of the class can enter, or tag a player to take over their role. Language learners can work on different kinds of language functions in this way such as apologizing or giving advice.

It is also possible to pair students off to maximize speaking time and then have one or two perform for the class. Teachers can watch and take notes on how performers are actually using the language in conversational contexts. (Does grammar fly out the window? Do they self correct?)

In process drama, the teacher takes on a role as do all the students. Process drama is often paired with other subject areas such as history or geography, giving students a chance to bring kings, soldiers, and explorers to life. For example, perhaps the students are learning about the potato famine in Ireland. Should the villagers emigrate to America? The teacher can have a central role as “the mayor,” or play a side role. Students can take on other roles and perspectives, including a shopkeeper, a farmer, or a cook for the rich people in the mansion down the road. 

Second, working with scripts allows for the development of reading skills, vocabulary, and pronunciation work. A script has a story that can be interpreted and discussed, vocabulary and fixed expressions that can aid conversational maneuvering, and they provide a rich context for working on pragmatics (the art of implicit signaling through voice, gesture, and language choices). Scripts also give actors an opportunity to work on pronunciation in a meaningful way. The rehearsal process supports returning to difficult sounds over and over. Context can inform choices about stress and intonation.

Scripts come in many varieties and lengths. There are plays and scenes written expressly for English Learners. The Drama Book (alphabet publishing) has pragmatics dialogs, single scenes, and monologues. Alphabet Publishing also offers stand alone one acts for ELLs, and a set of Shakespeare plays that have been adapted for the language classroom. These scripts can still feel natural because the language of interaction tends to employ high frequency words and expressions. Students can follow and discuss the story, relate to the characters and situations, and perform a readers theater production in which they practice line-delivery (pronunciation, pronunciation, pronunciation) and then read from the script in a performance. Because it skips the stressful and time-consuming task of memorizing lines, readers theater provides an efficient way to perform a play.

It is also possible to borrow monologues and scenes from original plays. You Tube has many scenes from professional productions that students can watch, write down, and practice performing in manageable chunks. For example, you can take a speech or just a few lines from Shakespeare and rewrite the text in modern language but keep the epic nature of the situation. For example, here’s a short text from Henry the IV Part I, Act 5, scene 4. Prince Hal has just killed his adversary, Hotspur, and he speaks to the dead body on the battlefield,

Ill-weaved ambition, how much art thou shrunk!
When that this body did contain a spirit,
A kingdom for it was too small a bound,
But now two paces of the vilest earth
Is room enough.

Depending on the level of your students (or your own creativity), the line can be adapted with modern language while retaining the majesty of the scene. Groups could come up with different interpretations such as this one.

When you were alive, Hotspur, a kingdom was too small for your ambition. But now you are dead, and a small square of earth is enough.

Lines like these are great fun to perform (whether in the original or adapted), and they encourage students to work on prosody, including intonation, stress, and rhythm.

Finally, workshopping original short plays develops all of the above plus writing skills, including exposition (setting background and characters), developing a premise with a conflict that must be worked out followed by a resolution. Participants can draw from their own experiences and beliefs to explore personally relevant themes. They can perform and gain confidence in public speaking, and they can practice the language of planning, negotiating, and giving feedback as they go.

A workshopped play can start with a discussion of a belief. People can’t change, or Never trust a stranger, are good examples. Students in groups can share stories that illustrate whether they agree or disagree with the belief. The group hears all and then chooses and adapts a story that lends itself to a dramatic interpretation of the belief, which becomes the premise of the play. The group then creates ta hree-scene synopsis with exposition, conflict, and resolution. They need not script the dialog. They only have to agree on the characters and objectives of each scene. Then they can rehearse and perform with those objectives in mind.  

I am sharing a PDF of a power point for an upcoming presentation with some drama activities that focus on language development. You can find it in Handouts – English on the Move: multimodal activities for language learners.