Importance Of Drama Research Articles

Analyzing the Role of Contemporary Teaching Techniques and Importance of Drama in Learning English as a Foreign Language

This research explores the important activities and principles of the teaching of drama in learning English as a foreign language. This research is qualitative in nature and the analysis is based on theoretical grounds and a strong theoretical framework. It concentrates on the brief history of drama in education, its basic principles, techniques, and the possibilities and advantages that drama in education brings into English language learning. The aim of this research, Drama in Learning English as a Foreign Language, is not only to introduce drama in education to the readers but also present drama in the context of English language learning, and subsequently support the concept of drama being an English language learning method. I define drama, its general concepts, principles, and aims. I concentrate on the role of drama in learning English as a foreign language, its techniques, and the benefits that drama brings into the learning. This research is helpful for the teachers to understand the drama and activates related to it in the classroom.

The drama of nonviolence: theatre as education within the American civil rights movement

ABSTRACT Role-play was a popular educational strategy within the American civil rights movement. Many civil rights activists performed the movement in private before performing it again in public. Compared to the scholarship on the role of music in the civil rights movement, the importance of drama has been understudied. The history of role-play as an educational strategy provides new insights into the relationship between performance and nonviolent activism, and offers an alternative genealogy of applied theatre.

The curriculum in the Palestinian Territories: drama processes in theatre making and self-liberation

ABSTRACTThe Israeli occupation and its strategies employed for controlling the Palestinian Territories have reflected negatively on all aspects of Palestinians’ lives. The occupation has also created a closed environment where people have little room to act and react freely. This article highlights the importance of drama and theatre making for Palestinians who are still facing all sorts of challenges in their daily life. In addition, it offers a clear picture of the educational sector in the Palestinian Territories, particularly the Palestinian curriculum and the position of drama and theatre making in curriculum design and development. Finally, based on research studies and personal experiences, the article sheds light on the effective role of drama and theatre making on Palestinian learners from different levels.

Between acting and hypocrisy: Students’ change regarding future perception and social acting

Abstract This article is part of a larger study that consists of testing the relevance of drama for 202 Romanian teenagers. The study explores differences in the ways high school students would like to be perceived in the future, their opinion about the importance of drama, and the concept of social acting as an extension of theatricality. The research takes into account three samples: students who practise drama in a dedicated art high school; students from a regular high school with optional drama classes; and students who never engage in drama activities. The study considers theatricality as a concept that belongs at the same time to theatre (at a semantic level) and to everyday life, since human behaviour in different social settings resembles the stage and its instruments (Goffman 1959). The results show a higher level of daily awareness of theatricality for Romanian students who practise drama either in a dedicated acting class or in a regular high school with optional drama classes. Students who do not have any connection with drama activities report that those who behave differently according to their situation are hypocritical, and these students consider acting (as interpreting a role) to be an exclusive characteristic of theatre, not real life. Another key finding in the study was that the interest in engaging in future cultural activities was higher among the students from the regular high school than among those who study at the art high school, who labelled stardom and financial aspects as more important than engaging in arts-related activities for their cultural enrichment. The article offers possible explanations for the diverse responses provided by students.

Importance of Drama in Pre-school Education

In this study, the main aim was to draw attention to the importance of the pre-school drama and drama-based education. In today's educational system the first step is the pre-school education; Taking into account of Children's developmental characteristics, individual differences and abilities, aiming to provide healthy form of physical, emotional, linguistic, social and mental aspects of development, positive personality, and reveal the creative aspects, and providing this education we ensure that child has the self confidence. Using drama in the educational step is the most important way of expressing the persons feeling in an healthy manner; to improve the child's imagination, to enable child to think and act independent, to improve the child's social awareness and cooperative awareness. At this point pre-school drama education plays a important role. Therefore the importance of pre-school drama must be considered to enable children to benefit from it. In this study, the relevant literature was searched and differences between the pre-school educations was considered.

Le théâtre dans la formation oratoire des écoliers au XVIe siècle

The importance of drama as pedagogic and didactic tool in the 15(th) and 16(th) century schools has long been ignored, and so has the role of theatrical practices in the education of young men in the context of urban sociability. Yet those two aspects can be analyzed thanks to numerous historical sources (municipal archives) and literary ones (plays contextualized thanks to archive data). Their study shows how often drama was used as a tool in the first stages of the training of men aspiring to start a career in rhetorical arts.

Acting together: ensemble as a democratic process in art and life

Traditionally drama in schools has been seen either as a learning medium with a wide range of curricular uses or as a subject in its own right. This paper argues that the importance of drama in schools is in the processes of social and artistic engagement and experiencing of drama rather than in its outcomes. The paper contrasts the pro-social emphasis in the ensemble model of drama with the pro-technical and limited range of learning in subject-based approaches which foreground technical knowledge of periods, plays, styles and genres. The ensemble-based approach is positioned in the context of professional theatre understandings of ensemble artistry and in the context of revolutionary shifts from the pro-technical to the pro-social in educational and cultural policy making in England. Using ideas drawn from McGrath and Castoriadis, the paper claims that the ensemble approach provides young people with a model of democratic living.

The Dartmouth Method of ELT and the Greek EFL teacher

This paper is a response to the Dartmouth Method of ELT (known as the J. Rassias method: H.H. Stern, 1983:475) designed and conducted by John Rassias in a series of innovative and interactive workshops held in Constantinople (12-15 November 1997), with teachers of English at both High School and University level. The spirit and substance of this article originates primarily from the discussions I had with Professor Rassias after the workshops. I will argue, in this paper, the aspects of his method which could be effectively applied in both Elementary and Secondary/High School Greek education as far as ELT is concerned. To start with, I support that Rassias's approach to teaching, based on dramatic techniques, is ideal, in primarily Elementary School education. The importance of drama and emotions is feasible in relatively small groups of 9-12 year olds: whereas the same dramatic technique is less effectively manipulated by the High School EL teacher working with 30 member groups of more sophisticated Greek teenagers. Furthermore, I propose that the technique of dramatization, stressing the interaction of the cultural features of both mother tongue and English, would be better substantiated with students of Secondary/High School education. Finally, the actor-teacher association triggering motivation via spontaneity could find a realistic basis in only Elementary School education irrespective of the number of pupils . My arguments have been based on empirical work and information drawn from (a) personal participation in authentic classroom ELT situations with both Elementary and Secondary Schools in Thessaloniki (the 45th Primary School of Thessaloniki and the 3rd High School and 3rd Lyceum of Thessaloniki), and (b) personal involvement of ELT at an Advanced level, working with University students with EL courses.

Introduction

Play offers children the opportunity to try out new ways of relating to the physical and social world. Through a range of encounters they can develop their imagination and skills, without incurring the material consequences of similar activities enacted ‘for real’. It is an essential and often joyful part of child development, and glum is the adult who does not retain some playfulness. It is a laboratory where children can develop different strategies to cope with the practical tasks of daily living and integrate themselves into a social network. Aberrant patterns of play may indicate a variety of difficulties and disorders in development, and may often provide important clues as to the problem. For example, a gross lack of imagination and rigid stereotyped play are found in children with autism; violent play with underdeveloped elaboration of emotional states is characteristic of children with conduct problems; repeated re-enactment of a single disturbing scene may be seen in children with post-traumatic stress disorder; and a disturbed pattern of emotional relationships is often exhibited in the doll play of children with attachment problems. As well as providing clues to the nature of a child's difficulties, play often offers an opportunity to engage with the child, and can provide a main avenue for therapeutic work, particularly with younger children who are not adept at talking about emotions and relationships.In this and subsequent issues, we shall be publishing a number of commissioned reviews exploring children's play from a number of perspectives. Anthony Pellegrini and Peter Smith start us off with a review of the development of play and its forms and functions. As well as covering the structure of play including fantasy and pretend elements, the authors go on to consider its benefits for the child, and include a rather novel approach of attempting a cost-benefit analysis. Then Peter Blatchford reviews the state of play in schools. Here the importance of a time for the child to develop peer relationships and friendships away from the watchful gaze of adults is stressed, not only from a theoretical viewpoint, but from the practical standpoint of how much supervision should be given in the playground. In future numbers of the Review, we will publish an anthropological perspective by Allison James, a child psychotherapist's view by Anne Alvarez and Asha Phillips, and a review of the importance of drama in play and therapy by Peter Slade. At all times we would welcome your reactions, agreements, and disagreements, plus comments on what you think has been left out. Please do write to the Review office.