Abstract
Drama courses are widely set up in K-12 education in Western countries, and drama in education promotes both language acquisition and drama acting in the West. Therefore, in the current K-12 education curriculum in China, the practice of offering English drama courses is in line with the needs of students’ core competencies development. Drawing on the participants’ interview narratives, classroom observations and journals, based upon the case in a foreign language primary school in Guangzhou, China, this study examines how the drama course is carried out and how the students’ English competency is enhanced through the drama course. The enquiry revealed that the drama course had helped promote both students’ language competency and drama acting capacity. These findings will be discussed with suggestions for making setting up drama courses in other schools and cities in China possible.
Highlights
Drama courses have attracted the attention of many teachers and educators in Western countries, especially in Europe and the United States, and their significance and values are generally recognized
Drama courses are widely set up in K-12 education in Western countries, and drama in education promotes both language acquisition and drama acting in the West
In the current K-12 education curriculum in China, the practice of offering English drama courses is in line with the needs of students’ core competencies development
Summary
Drama courses have attracted the attention of many teachers and educators in Western countries, especially in Europe and the United States, and their significance and values are generally recognized. Drama teaching (drama in education) makes a balance between language acquisition and drama acting, providing natural, confident, and free platform through the systematic process of “improvisation-presentation-knowledge expression-reflection” (Wang et al, 2016). In 2016, China’s Ministry of Education put forward the concept of students’ core competencies and put forward eighteen specific categories for the development of core competencies in the 21st century (Lin, 2016). Drama courses are undoubtedly a proper platform to highlight and cultivate these abilities and qualities. Some primary and middle schools in China, in cities where quality education is highlighted, have begun to offer English drama classes
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