Enhancing English Language Skills through a Collaborative Drama Project

Abstract

We have to admit that drama activities can give a variety of benefits for English foreign language learners of all ages in Indonesia. This article describes how a collaborative drama project could enhance twenty-seven undergraduate students in the sixth semester of the English education study program of a small private college in Cimahi, West Java, Indonesia. Drama, which could be considered a literary exposure for the participants, is one subject being taught as intra-curricular activities for 3 credit hours per semester, where they took the subject for the whole semester. The final assignment for this subject is a collaborative drama project in the English language. The article summarises the benefits of using collaborative drama activities to enhance the participants’ English language skills and offers recommendations for the implementation of similar projects for other language instructors. Further, the challenges of organizing collaborative English language drama projects at the college will be outlined. As the final elucidation of this article, the participants’ experiences during the collaborative drama project were analysed briefly through an interview as feedback on the research. Their self-perceived learning through collaborative drama is also highlighted. Keywords: collaborative drama project, English language learning, undergraduate students