Drama and Storytelling in ELT

IATEFL International Conference Vienna, March 2006

Ken Wilson: Can Drama Be the Core of Your Lesson?

Many students are EFNAR ( = English For No Apparent Reason) and actively enjoy being passive.

Andy Kempe: Line Stories

What is a 'line story'? Re-telling a story in a choric way, using a combination of vocal and physical techniques while standing in a line, facing the audience.

Steps in creating a 'line story'

Students: identify the main points of the narrative decide how to use their voices / bodies to communicate with the audience mirroring cannon unison juxtaposing words and actions

Andrew Wright: Multivitamins for the Whole Child

"Our bodies are made of the food we eat. Our minds are made of the stories we hear and tell." Teaching = telling a story

"Out of nothing (?) the story, Out of the story the play, Out of the play awareness, Out of awareness power." *** "The story is as real and as fragile as a soap bubble."

Teacher's roles
protagonist helper / mediator reflector on issues raised re-teller

Why stories in ELT?

motivation (everyone wants a story) sense of achievement fluency in all four skills introducing new language activities arising from the stories free!

Key elements for CREATING a story

it is the students who create the story; the teacher is merely a mediator and a re-teller students create the story with the language they have in English somebody in the story must have a difficulty and must struggle to try to overcome it students are encouraged to give the story reality through detail

STORYMAKING
WHO?
boy / girl / man / woman / animal / object details: age, name, kind, size

WHERE?
big place little place

WHEN?
time, year, season, month, day, part of the day weather

WHAT . is doing? Is alone? SUDDENLY, a strange thing happens (problem)

The Otzi Project

research (the Internet, museums, libraries, forests) discussion about facts and hypotheses acting out episodes drafting story texts alternating roles re-drafting examining professional page design designing pages doing the illustrations designing the cover exhibition printing and publication of students' story books

Useful sites

www.storyline-scotland.com www.ierg.net/seminars /index.html www.wordandaction.com

Ken Wilson: Classroom Drama

"The answer in the coursebook is an answer; it's not the answer." SELF-REGULATING ANSWERS

Changing boring dialogues

A: Hi, John! How are you? B: Fine, thanks. And you? A: Not bad, thanks. Did you do anything special yesterday evening? B: Yes, I went to the cinema. A: Oh, really? Who with? B: With my girlfriend. A: What did you see? B: Titanic. A: Did you like it? B: It was all right, I guess. A bit boring from time to time, though.

Jim Wingate: Techniques for Storytelling

"Storytelling with Drama takes 60 times faster than conventional teaching."

Bunraku
Bunraku ( = traditional Japanese puppetry) applied in ELT in the form of manipulating students' bodies to tell a story (TPR in context).
e.g. Open the door. Step into the shop. Put on the green jacket. It's too big. Take it off. Pick up the red jacket. It's too big. Put it back..

Psychic Mime

Techniques for Storytelling

Learner as a map / picture / text Fingers as characters Learners as characters / objects Interviewing items / objects Students as words Buttons as characters Buttons stories to teach grammar

Egon Turecek: Shadow Theatre

Bringing fairy tales and stories to life with simple, inexpensive tools Emphasis on the auditory, visual and kinesthetic mode, which enables multisensory learning Young learners acquire new language with no inhibitions, tensions or distractions

A mediocre teacher tells, A good teacher explains, A superior teacher demonstrates, A great teacher inspires.