How To Dramatize Your Foreign Language Teaching and Learning

In his first article in this series, Larry Lynch looked at some ways of using drama in an EFL classroom. Here, he suggests some more, including "Improvised dialogues" and "Double Talk dialogues".

In my previous article "How to Add Drama to an EFL Class or Start a Drama Group" some interesting ways in which you could initiate Drama into an EFL class or new drama group were suggested. If you’re a foreign language student, sooner or later you'll start becoming "tired" or "bored" with the more conventionally used teaching approaches. This is especially true if you attend (or teach) a class that must follow a standard curriculum or course book series. To crank out more speaking and develop more vocabulary and language use in context, try some of these additional drama-based activities to spice things up a bit.

Do Improvised Dialogues

Another popular technique is to "improvise" scenes based on specific character sets in different situations, like a Mother - Daughter, Father - Son, Teacher - Student, Boss - Worker, Robber - Bank Teller, Waiter - Customer, or a multitude of other possible combinations of two, three or even more characters. Give each character set a scenario in which to work, like a son with bad grades who wants to borrow Dad's car, or a mother who needs help around the house with a daughter giving excuses so she can talk on the phone with her friends.

Have a student answer the phone and have a chat with the "wrong number" who wants to talk anyway.

Interview a famous person

Simulate an interview with a famous person or historical figure or even create a fictitious scene involving a famous person or historical figure. You can get an extensive list of famous people / historical figures the students are familiar with and use these as a basis for constructing scenes and dialogues. You can even have famous people "talk" to each other who couldn't literally have done so. What would Jesus or Mohammed say to Adolf Hitler? What would George Washington say to Marilyn Monroe, Pamela Anderson or JFK? What might Chairman Mao and Idi Amin or Augustus Pinochet have talked about? How about a chat between Princess Diana and Cleopatra or Marie Antoinette? The possibilities are endless. Some wonderful ideas, dialogues, scenes and scripts could come out of a little swapping and brainstorming in this manner.

Double Talk Dialogues

These fun dialogues will erase any timidness the learners may have in speaking in front of others. Start with your most uninhibited learners at first until others from the group "get up their nerve" to do this activity. In this dramatic speaking practice activity the person "talks" to him/herself taking on multiple roles in a dialogue, asking him/herself a question and then answering him/herself too. He/she could also argue pros and cons of a decision or situation aloud. They are often hilarious and loads of fun once the students get the hang of it. A man can discuss / argue the pros and cons of going out with woman A or woman B. Betty or Nicole? A woman learner can do the reverse. Tom or Jerry? Other sample themes are: Which friend to tell a secret? Which car to buy? Which vacation to take? The fun almost never ends.

To continue to get even more mileage from these activities and materials, record and use them for listening comprehension, error-correction exercises, pronunciation, language use or grammar practice activities in another class. Teachers and students, I hope some of these ideas help with starting material. I'll send you some more specific suggestions if you'll tell me specific areas you'd like more information on. Please let me know about your progress and experiences. Good luck.

Prof Larry M. Lynch is a certified English language teacher / trainer, bi-lingual copywriter, expert author and photographer specializing in business, travel, food and education-related writing in South America. His work has appeared in Transitions Abroad, South American Explorer, Escape From America, Mexico News and Brazil magazines. He teaches at a university in Cali, Colombia. To read more or get additional original, exclusive language education based articles and content for your newsletter, blog or website contact him at: lynchlarrym@gmail.com

Related links

How to add drama to an EFL class
Using comics and cartoons in the classroom
Using art in the classroom
Using songs in the classroom
ESL resources
Downloadable classroom activities

Drama Techniques: A Resource Book of Commuinication Activities for Language Teachers
150 ideas for interesting and productive fluency practice - a large selection of drama-based techniques which focus learners' attention on communicative tasks or activities.

Comments

• "I had been hopeless thinking of other strategies to use in my high school English class until I read this article. It gave me a better idea on how to make my classes more interesting and enjoyable on the part of my students. Thank you for sending me articles. The previous ones had been a great help too. Keep it up!"
  Janette
• "I liked your article, and will certainly give it a go! Thanks a lot!!!"
  Harvey
• "I think that it is great to have dialogue and role play in the classroom, however when I tried to do this whilst being a student of TEFL in Dublin, I got into trouble with a young Japanese girl who complained to me when I tried to engage her in dialogue with me about Japan and the Emperor. It was not that the Emperor is almost a sacred person in this country and this subject was taboo, but it was that as a Japanese woman she felt that she should not have been "put upon" to take part in this type of dialogue by me a Western woman.!!
  
  So perhaps one should use one's discretion with regard to the personnages, such as some of the more notorious ones in history, when role-playing with certain nationalities.
  
  It is just a comment."
  Beatrice
• "Thanks for sending me this useful article, but i find it very hard to use the above techniques to apply to the classes where all the second language students, Cambodian, sit in. The problem is that most of Cambodian students are shy so that i can't have them done this. Further, the ability of their speaking is very poor. On the other hand, I really enjoy reading all the articles you have sent me. They are really helpful for me. Thanks again for this!".
  Sangvat
• "Thanks for your brilliant ideas for arousing students uttering in class. I am thinking about trying this approach. My students are seventh graders, who are still in the beginning stage of learning English in an EFL environment. They are learning simple past tense. I hope I'll have satisfactory findings. Thanks".
  Darmor
• "These look like fun ideas to liven up the class. When students laugh, they relax and start learning. It would help to get them over the embarrassment of making mistakes if they are allowed to be silly now and then. My students are predominantly from Asian countries who believe that making mistakes in front of others is loss of face."
  Tricia
• "These ideas, or techniques lets say, are ones I have already used in my classes. I appreciate the Schizophrenic Dialogues, though. It is not only motivating but includes humorous elements, too. Actually, I am looking for activities which enables students to be more active in class. Thanks."
  Elvan
• "I like the ideas and I'll try them with some adaptations... I teach young learners!"
  Sofia
• "The ideas are good and anything that we can use to stimulate us teachers and pass it on to students is a great help. I teach Asian learners in adult classes and I find that they are hesitant to speak or act out a role play. What I now do to get them asking questions and talking is to prepare a story of about eight paragraphs (half a page), and I blank out some of the story for student A and blank out another part of the story for student B. They then get a series of questions that they have to ask each other about the story. The questions guide them from the start of the story to the finish. I use the kiss principle (keep it simple stupid). You can use any tense. It seems that once they get talking to each other and the teacher is not correcting them in their pronunciation as they ask each other the questions they do open up and at the finish of the exercise the teacher reads the whole story with the class, they will ask questions about certain words and then you can help them with their pronunciation. Plenty of praise is appreciated. Depending on the class and how well you know them you make the story to suit. Some like relationship stories, family, sport etc, and even did one on Robinson Crusoe, which they liked a lot. I find being an ESL teacher is not to be to serious, have fun, be dramatic, and smile. My two bobs worth. Good luck."
  Bob
• "Double Talk Dialogue, very good for:
  1st conditionals (If...then...will) used with asking advice (should I...?)
  I like X, but... (likes and dislikes, giving reasons)
  
  Dialogue between famous people:
  Introductions/what are your hobbies/what's your job, etc. (at a party/language school)
  Secrets of (staying beautiful/rich/powerful)
  
  Heaps of opportunities, just think about the language used in each situation and see which lesson it can fit into. Sometimes with shy students it's good to demonstrate role playing yourself. If the teacher can be a twit, so can the rest of us!"
  Julie
• "Thanks for sending the article - I like it very much. It will make my classroom a place for learning and fun for my pupils. Thanks."
  James
• "Thanks for the article. I've tried dramatic expression with my students and I find it's quiet motivating, but these ideas to create different dialogues are fantastic."
  Suzi
• "I think the term "schizophrenic" should have been avoided. It is an illness and is not about split personalities. I have contacted the author and eslbase and am disappointed that this article remains unchanged on what I think is a really good website. The charity Rethink has information on its website about negative portrayal in the media, and they are campaigning for more informed and accurate representation of Schizophrenia. Please see their web page: www.rethink.org
  Samantha
• "Thank you Samantha for post your comment. We feel you raise a valid point and have changed the name of the activity to "Double Talk Dialogues". Eslbase

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