INTEGRATING EDUCATIONAL DRAMA IN TEACHING EFL

Abstract

There is a continuous demand for innovative foreign language teaching approaches in current education system. The article discusses Educational drama as an effective method in developing foreign language (English) learners’ sociolinguistic competence. Theoretical and practical overview of the research will be presented to highlight the importance of the method. In pedagogy, there are many advantages of the Educational drama method. Drama encourages students to acquire cognitive knowledge. As active learners, they not only receive information, but also develop creative thinking skills. Language teaching through drama creates intrinsic motivation (internal motivation) for students to learn the language. In drama classes, students learn to work with other students in collaboration, increase self-confidence, and begin to think critically listening to each other. Most importantly it enhances students’ cultural understanding of the target language. In the article the implementation of the drama approach in secondary school EFL classroom in Uzbekistan will be described together with investigation and survey results. Theoretical value of the research will be provided supported by opinions of scholars of the field. Types of Educational drama, organizing drama lessons, managing the classroom and other peculiarities of drama approach will be explained.