Drama for Language Learning

Drama is an effective way of helping students to learn languages including English as a Second Language (ESL), as it uses active teaching and learning styles likely to motivate and sustain the attention of a wider cross section of pupils. Activities can include role-play, drama games, improvisation, group discussion and individual or pair work.

The activities which follow can easily be used along with other teaching techniques, or you might like to choose some to put together as a drama session. They are suited to a range of learning levels, so you will need to decide what is appropriate for your group. To begin with, you could use a couple of warm up activities which may not even use language, but will introduce the class to the enjoyment, participation and cooperation which is a natural part of drama activities.

Clap around the circle
In a circle, each person claps in turn. Try to make it sound like one person is clapping. Now try again with your eyes closed. It's much harder!

Look in the drama games section for lots more ice-breakers and warm ups.

The following game is not only fun, but is also a way of exploring the present continuous! It would work well if it followed a lesson on hobbies, occupations or everyday activities. It begins to introduce some simple language along with actions, which will help to reinforce the vocabulary.

What are you doing?
In a circle. The first person starts miming an activity. The person to their left says "What are you doing?". The person miming the activity has to keep acting and at the same time say the name of a different activity - in the present continuous. For example, if they were "eating an apple", they could say "playing the piano". The second person then starts "playing the piano".

The first person stops their mime. Now the third person asks the second, "What are you doing?". The second person keeps "playing the piano" and names a different activity which the third person must mime. There should be no repetition and no similar activities. For example if you are miming "climbing a ladder", you cannot say "climbing the stairs".

Ten second objects is also a good way of reinforcing new vocabulary as well as encouraging physical awareness and group cooperation. It is very quick to organise (if you have the space) and always interesting, as you can never predict what groups may come up with! Once groups have made a few objects suggested by you, they could make up some of their own for the rest of the class to try and guess.

Still images are also an accessible way for groups to work together and can help to achieve a range of objectives. For example, you could divide the class into groups of 4-6. Explain that they will be given a theme and will have two minutes to make a still image (just like a photograph or video freeze-frame). You could give the same theme to the whole class or give each group a card with a different theme. Themes could include: Famous event or place, recent news event, film or book. Explain that there will be no sound or movement, it will literally be a still image made by the people in the group. When the time is up, ask each group to show their work. Ask them to bring the image to life for a few moments when you clap your hands. Clap your hands again to stop them. Ask the others to guess what the image is.

For students who are beginning to converse in the language, you could move onto:

Whats my Job?
Divide the class into pairs. Give each pair a card with the name of a job or occupation printed on it, for example, “doctor”. Make sure you don't stereotype when you give them out - it's more fun that way! Explain that they must invent a still image representing the job. You will also ask them to bring the image to life and to have a short conversation, so they should prepare this. When they are ready ask each group in turn to show their still image. Clap your hands and ask them to bring the image to life for a few moments. Now ask the rest of the class to guess the occupation. Here are some suggestions for occupations:

FILM DIRECTOR, DOCTOR, ARTIST, SPY, SECRETARY, HAIRDRESSER, ZOOKEEPER, DISC JOCKEY (DJ), ROCK STAR, BARMAID, SURGEON, GARDENER, WAITER

Many of the games and strategies on this site are very useful for language learning, including