Teaching English through Drama and Literature

St. Marks Academy Drama. (n.d.). [Photograph]. St. Marks Academy. 

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Thinking about the most effective ways to teach English, it is not common to think about doing it through dramatic representations. The sound of teaching students through a Shakespeare play and his "Elizabethan English" is not something that sounds easy, or appealing. But as it turns out, it can be a magical experience for both teacher and students while also, practicing the language four skills in more than one meaningful way.

The magic of teaching drama, lays on choosing the right play for our students and preparing them before, helping them during, and reflecting about it after. For children and teenagers, One Act plays are the best bet while using also the Communicative Approach method.

Literature and drama can provide intellectual and emotional pleasure to our students, and going through a play and really understanding it, helps them "feel" the language, which is in fact, the best way to learn something.

The key is preparation, for us teachers, it has to be clear that we will be facilitators with little to none interference. We must prepare pre reading activities where we can helo our students feel motivated, relaxed and engaged with the play. This can be done in several ways, but I will provide you with some examples: Show the students the title of a play, it can be: "The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair", by Bradley Walton. This title is engaging, and we can ask our students what do they think the play is about, according to the tittle. Students can come up with funny ideas, or accurate one's, so this is not only motivating and fun, but it also helps them develop critical thinking. Another idea can be to make an imaginary camp fire, sit in a circle and provide students with a very summarized plot, and ask them the opposite, What would be a good title for this play? Making these predictions is critical for their language development and it is super fun.

Providing background information about the play before working on it can help students release anxiety about the unknown, learn key words or new words before starting to read it. Following with the same example: "The Absolutely Insidious and Utterly Terrifying Truth About Cat Hair", we can start by explaining what "Insidious" means, give students a list of words to practice pronunciation, and prepare to start. 

While reading the play, students practice sound and intonation, it is highly recommended to read the play in class, maybe the teacher first and the students can read along, and then assign characters so students can read and practice the words and start to learn them. If the play is going to be presented in class, it can be a simple class exercise just like a table reading of it, or it can be a huge event, with costumes, props and all that "Hollywood" feeling.

Finally, it is important to ask students what they learned from the play, express what they liked, what they didn't like, what could be done better for next time, etc. Students need to close the subject while still being engaged to the play.

As you can see, drama and literature are a very fun, fantastic and interesting way to learn and practice English, we just have to trust the process, be creative and let our students express themselves through it.