Teaching Young Learners Through Art of Drama Under a Climate of Creativity

¶ … Climate of Creativity: Teaching English to Young Learners Through the Art of Drama

Several learning and involving learning experiences emerge for the early childhood students when both drama and movement are incorporated in the daily syllabus (Chauhan, 2004). Apart from being "fun" for majority of the kids, kinesthetic activities are capable of assisting the young students, particularly those learning the English language, improve interpretation skills, vocabulary, fluency, speech knowledge, syntactic knowledge, and meta-cognitive judgment (Sun, 2003). When drama and movement are employed in the teaching of language skills, the learners are provided with a framework for listening and significant language production, offers chances for writing and reading improvements (Chauhan, 2004), and engages learners in writing and reading as significant communication procedures. Other than the improvement of resourceful judgment and expression, fine and gross motor organization skills, problem tackling, social dealings, cooperative performance, rhyming, and rhythm skills can be developed (Rieg and Paquette, 2009).

Background of the Problem

Drama refers to the act of employing imagination to develop into something or someone apart from you. It is just restricted by the imagination, the apprehension of risking by the participants, or the leader's set restrictions. Drama is described by Richard Courtney, an expert in the field of drama in education, as the human procedure where imaginative ideas turns into action, it is centered on internal identification and sympathy, and the outcome is external impersonation (1980). Courtney also trusts that life in itself is drama; individuals are always coping and acting. Life has no script put down for anyone, but we can utilize role-play to perform the expected situation (Koste, 1995).

The thoughts of employing drama as a teaching medium are not new ideas. The western world, however, has yet to allow the employment of drama as a means of teaching in the elementary syllabus. Most of the survey on drama in education can be attributed to intellectuals in Canada, England, New Zealand, and Australia. A few of the art supporters have succeeded in incorporating drama and theatre arts into schools as a completely different program. Teachers who utilize drama in teaching their students are noticing it as a very flourishing technique and hence, are passing the word (Courtney, 1980).

Dramatic play is quite natural in kids and should, hence, be carried on into the elementary classroom. It is one of the things which kids are very good at and enjoy doing. Kids carry along with them to the classes the general human capability to play, to act as if; from as early as the age of ten months, several kids spontaneously indulge in such dramatic play (Wagner, 1998). It is quite normal for a kid to employ his/her imagination to change him/her. They are skilled in that area. Sigmund Freud, a very famous psychologist states that individuals should search for in a child the initial traces of imaginative actions. Play is the child's most loved and absorbing activity (Courtney, 1980). We may state that all children at play act like imaginative writers, in that they develop individual worlds, they actually reorganize the things of this world and arrange them in a manner that satisfies them (Koste, 1995). The imagination of kids is set free when they change themselves. They then become capable of making links between the indefinite and their past experiences. This link is the one responsible for assisting both adults and children learn best (Wagner, 1998).

Kids are frequently more open to any kind of drama activity because they are nearer to the adventurous phase of development; hence, the early childhood educators frequently utilize games, play, and drama activities in their every day classroom teaching. Incorporating drama and movement methods into the early childhood classroom could be particularly efficient in the enhancement of language skills for the English language learners (ELLs). Language is applied in an interactive framework by these kinesthetic, real experiencesTwo methods that can be applied to encourage learning via drama and movement are the Language Experience Approach (LEA) and the Total Physical Response (TPR), and can be incorporated into the syllabus (Rieg and Paquette, 2009).

One of the major groups that strain with literacy is the English language learners. Consequently, focus of learning should be put on the student's ability to understand the tutorial content instead of the student's language expertise (Tissington and LaCour, 2010). In addition, studies have disclosed that ELLs gain from the same systematic teaching established to be useful for the indigenous English speakers (Mathes et al., 2007). Educators of ELLS should apply techniques in their classrooms to assist all learners (Tissington and LaCour, 2010).

Current discoveries in neuroscience and cognitive science are supportive in the description of arts' possibility as an influential device to develop teaching and learning, illustrating that the body and brain are parts of an integrated cognitive system. Researchers have discovered that most judgment happens at a point below conscious awareness and influence and comprises of a continuous flow of sensory data (Gullat, 2008). They speculate that the deeply personal and emotional matters of arts are a segment of what amounts to the arts being cognitively influential (Gullat, 2008). Efland (2002) has created works, which are now vital for the comprehension of the relationship between cognition and art. He states that his work is specifically essential in the direction of arts learning towards the awareness that a community is re-reproduced in its art, and artists play a huge role in representing that community.

Efland (2002) also displays imagination as a cognitive procedure, which allows people to arrange or re-arrange images, passing the factor of advancement to the development of meanings that is essentially less reliant on usual fashions of thinking. He backs two powerful arguments: firstly, sensory awareness being cognitive (since it needs the perceiver to choose), simplify and abstract features of the objects collected by the mind; and secondly, objects depiction also necessitates the capability of thinking within the method offered by the medium (Efland, 2002). Efland states further that works of art are also social conventions, since one takes in meaning from the art in several ways such as verbal mediation.

Statement of the Problem

Studies reveal that applying drama in the classroom as a teaching technique assists students learn socially, academically, and developmentally. In the past, both drama and theatre have long been acknowledged as powerful methods of education. However, the manner in which they are currently utilized are new and they vary in various aspects form the manners in which they were utilized in the past (McCaslin, 1998). Art supporters and teachers have lately begun to look at the application of drama as an integrated method of learning the syllabus. This want to incorporate drama in teaching English to the young students necessitates comprehension of the outcomes of art and drama on lingual education.

Purpose of the Study

The aim for investigating drama in education is to establish if utilizing drama is an efficient technique for teaching elementary learners. The study will illustrate to teachers, reasons as to why they should incorporate drama into the elementary syllabus. This paper will not try to support drama as the only teaching technique, but somewhat as a complement to the conventional teaching techniques. Via additional analysis on current brain study and how individuals learn, it is true to assert that applying dram could be a thriving manner of teaching elementary students. Kids learn in varying ways, hence an efficient educator will use several different teaching techniques in an effort to communicate to all his/her students (Teale, 2009; McCaslin, 1998).

The state controls today's elementary classroom. Brain-founded studies confirm that learning is individually precise. This means that standardized instructions, materials, and practices might in fact reduce or restrict learning (Teale, 2009). The particular standardized and benchmarked trials offer very minimal margins for educators to diverge from. As funding for the schools relies on if the learners achieve the standardized test score requirements, most of the teachers find themselves teaching to the examination. This can result to the educators teaching a considerable amount of information in a short duration of time. In return, the learners acquire a huge quantity of knowledge with very poor quality (McCaslin, 1998).

Research Questions

1. Is there a major distinction between learners who take part in arts outside school and learners who do not take part in arts outside school with regard to educator ratings of learner skills concerning reading and math concepts?

2. Is there a major distinction in educator ratings of learner skills concerning reading and math concepts through race and gender?

3. Is there a major distinction between learners who receive no arts teaching in schools and learners who receive some sort of arts teaching in school with regards to educator ratings on student skills concerning reading and math concepts?

4. Are there any major distinctions in educator ratings of student skills concerning reading and English concepts through society type?

Importance of the Study

Famous psychologists have observed drama as a means of learning for several years. During the analysis of cognitive human growth, psychologists have discovered that drama offers a basis for development. Jerome Bruner and Lev Vygotsky both view cognitive growth as being reliant on interactive play and on kids visualizing themselves acting in worlds which are developmentally a little above their real intellectual and physical degree. Both offer a reliable basis for applying drama in the classroom as a method that enhances comprehension (Wagner, 1998). A supposition of multiple intelligences has been developed by Dr. Howard Gardner, co-director of Project Zero at Harvard University's Graduate School of Education, that depicts our culture, tutor, examine, strengthen, and reward majorly two types of intelligence; logical and verbal (Dickson, 2002).

We possess dissimilar intelligences, which are indicative of the manner in which we learn and what pleases us. Dr. Gardner mentions at least five different intelligences that individuals might possess. If teachers teach their students that there exist other intelligences apart from just logical and verbal, then students will have improved learning opportunities. The other intelligences are spatial / visual, bodily, interpersonal, intrapersonal, and musical intelligences (Dickson, 2002). Gardner acknowledges each of the intelligences as equally essential to learning. These intelligences offer the bases for music, dance, visual arts, and drama, and via these types of art nearly all students will not only discover the way for personal-expression and communication, but also the devices for the development of meaning and learn almost all subjects efficiently (Dickson, 2002).

Review of the Literature

Drama and Literacy in the Classroom Dramatic Literature-Based Experiences and English Language Learners: The assistance of dramatic literature-founded experiences to encourage English language learners is very essential. According to Peregoy and Boyle (2008), acting out of events and stories is an extremely encouraging technique for learners to understand and share particular information. Wright and her colleagues (2007) concurred and included that the dramatization of stories is not only encouraging, but also provides learners with opportunities to think in more advanced ways. Other advantages of story performance are initiation of kids to the procedure of writing, provision of opportunity for creative display of thoughts and feelings, social skills development opportunities, and permission of kids to work through thoughts and encounters (Rieg and Paquette, 2009).

Chances for the English language learners to improve fluency and comprehension of syntactic knowledge via reading and writing of stories are offered by the execution of dramatic experiences in the early childhood class. According to Tompkin (2009), listening is significant in language improvement since kids learn English as they listen to their colleagues and educator read and talk out loudly (p.223). Other advantages of applying drama are lessened anticipation, more motivation, and improved language acquirement for ELLs (Rieg & Paquette, 2009). Certain young students, particularly those in the silent stage of learning the English language, might not be at ease with drama and movement. Educators of ELLs are warned by Peregoy and Boyle (2008) that the degree of comfort of learners could rely on the family's cultural values, the kid's skills, and changing social factors. Provision of sideline teaching encouragement might help learners in getting more comfortable as they take part in the learning activities such as drama and movement (Peregoy and Boyle, 2008). Given that the advantages of dramatic literature-founded encounters are useful, educators are persuaded to offer suitable assistance and support for such kind of learning opportunities for ELLs (Rieg and Paquette, 2009).

The young ELLs are faced with overwhelming difficulties. In addition to learning a second language at school, they are also enhancing skills in their native languages (Brouillette, 2012). The enhancement of English and academic skills is manipulated by several essential individual aspects such as cultural and social backgrounds of the learners, their skill and educational account in their native languages, and their duration of contact with English, including classroom-level aspects like teaching quality (Brouillette, 2012). In the pursuit of enhancing their oral language proficiency, ELLs require regular chances to indulge in organized academic discussions with educators and classmates who are good in English and can offer truthful response. In most classrooms, however, the chances for organized and rich communication between student and teacher are restricted by increasing class sizes and requirements of rigidly designed syllabus (Brouillette, 2012).

Chances for personal responses might be restricted. Theatre activities, which employ nonverbal communication together with verbal dealings, are an efficient method of supporting the utilization of oral language. Kids learning a language internalize the flow and rhythm of the language. The exercise of singing in syllables assists children in hearing the English sounds. Students may clap out the syllables of a song and then recite the lyrics. This practice assists kids in hearing the English word breaks and understands how the words match with each other. Whatever they are singing is, as an outcome, rooted in meaning rather than just being a blob of sound. Kids can slowly become conversant with the patterns and intonation of the language, the way it matches together, and its design via rhythm and sound (Brouillette, 2012).

Studies reveal that narrative proficiency enhanced in a major language shall also be transmitted to a second language (Uccelli and Paez 2007). Given that the growth of oral language expertise in a second language corresponds closely to vocabulary development (Brouillette, 2012), innovative expression via stories could serve a potential advance to vocabulary building. Children comprehend more words than they can generate at the beginning of language learning. Kids display this understanding via behaviours, actions, and non-verbal reactions. Extensive involvements, which concentrate on performing scenes from fairy tales and narratives, can develop these reactions quite easily. Therefore, theatre arts tutorials possess the likelihood of offering all learners with entry to expert vocabulary and complicated low-frequency words (Uccelli and Paez 2007).

The advancement of English vocabulary plays a vital task in encouraging later English literacy development. According to August and colleagues (2005), in order to recognize a phrase, a learner must be familiar with its pronunciation, its semantic relationship with other phrases, and its application in varying situations. To acquire this rich understanding of a phrase and its application, kids ought to possess several opportunities of interacting with the phrase in various situations (August et al., 2005). At first, the creative vocabulary of English students comprises of nouns. After a while, however, the vocabulary of the learners ought to include a great diversity of phrases like verbs, adverbs and adjectives. Drama tutorials help develop the depth of vocabulary, too (Brouillette, 2012).

Cautiously structured theatre arts tutorials offer a means for the expansion of both depth and breadth of ELLs' knowledge of vocabulary. Drama tutorials offer a way of developing oral language expertise, which is essential for every learner. A developing literature body has stated that best exercises for supporting vocabulary knowledge amidst ELLs have also demonstrated their potential for developing depth and breadth of vocabulary knowledge amidst the native English speakers (August et al. 2005). Studies have also determined that ELLs require teaching support to attain utmost literary learning. According to Teale (2009), this support necessitates the forms of teaching adjustments listed as under:

Extensive descriptions with laid off data like pictures, gestures, and visual signs;

Additional attention to locating and explaining difficult and main vocabulary;

Books which contain some level of content awareness for the learner;

A focus on combining text understanding through having the students, teacher, and ELLs paraphrasing and shortening the meanings;

Extra practice and duration for reading and writing activities; and Extensive linguistic involvements with teachers and colleagues (Brouillette, 2012).

Drama tutorials permit the educators to spend extra time on essential vocabulary and proficiency, and to offer an opportunity for the ELLs to practise them in a manner they can remember. This technique assists the young learners in strengthening their learning. Such oral language actions generally suit the daily planned literacy block. Moreover, this kind of arts integration, that kids find pleasing and greatly inspiring, reinforces comprehension in the language syllabuses (Brouillette, 2012; Teale, 2009).

Methodology

Research design

Towards obtaining solutions to the study questions, qualitative research techniques shall be utilized, particularly semi-structured interviews. With regards to Johnson and Christensen (2012), qualitative study techniques are appropriate for analyses where little information is recognized concerning the matter, and when one wishes to find out more concerning it (2012, p. 33). It is not easy to come across data concerning practices and viewpoints of Ukrainian English teachers regarding the application of narratives in language teaching. It would have been exciting to merge qualitative interviews with a statistical study with a great number of teachers addressed, however, due to the scope of the project, I find it essential to restrict the research to qualitative study.

According to Brouillette (2012), the utmost strength possessed by qualitative studies is their capability to illustrate greater circumstances in a very comprehensible, concrete, personal and immediate way. In qualitative study, novel trends for the field might occur from insights created by the gathered information. While qualitative research look for depth instead of depth in its study and scope, its objective is not to universalize but instead to particularize and then generate insights of possibly broader significance and theoretical importance (Brouillette, 2012). Moreover, carrying out qualitative research possesses significant practical worth, since just a few people and places are usually engaged, and members might hence be simpler to employ and permissions might be simpler to acquire, when in comparison with a research with a varying structure in which hundreds of permissions from organizations may be needed (Brouillette, 2012).

Data Sources

Analysis of student participation in artist-student work sittings was accomplished through the utilization of an observational device created by Blumenthal Performing Arts Center's Education Institute (Franklin, 2005). The device utilized time sampling to gauge the extent to which the artist-student engagements comprised centered attention, student reply to prompts, student debates, student issue tackling, student engagement in art activities, constructive non-verbal student reply, and shared work. Constant comparative was employed in the assessment of every audio-taped interview and class sitting after their transcription.

Data Collection

For study purposes, face-to-face interviews shall be carried out with three primary school teachers in Ukraine. Semi-structured interviews shall be arranged for this project, wherein the interviewee is faced with open-ended questions (Johnson and Christensen, 2012). This gave room for modification of the questions for every interview condition, and the utilization of guide guaranteed that all the essential subjects were examined in the interview (Franklin, 2005).

All interviews shall commence with some opening questions concerning the academic background of teachers and working experience. This data is quite essential for later study. Significant concentration was accorded to general questions concerning teaching techniques and tools utilized in the classroom together with the proficiency of the teacher's experience with them. This advance gave the interviewees a chance to discuss about the negative and positive features of the methods they employ with an open mind. Given that the primary goal of my analysis is to examine the need for novel teaching devices, majority of the questions were aimed particularly for any difficulties the teachers might encounter and at a conversation of what could be enhanced (Johnson and Christensen, 2012; Brouillette, 2012).

The main technique of recording interview information is the employment of a digital recorder since it has the benefit of conserving the verbal segment of the interview for later assessment. The major disadvantages associated with it are likely breakdown of the device and that some individuals might be anxious of talking while being recorded. I, however, had the chance of attempting both note taking and recording during the interview proceedings, and eventually decided on settling for recording. The major reasons for this were that I had a feeling that the interviewee felt comfortable of talking while the interview was being recorded (Brouillette, 2012; Franklin, 2005). Note taking shall fill up any breaks that are in the interview, providing the interviewees with a greater feeling of cooperation, interaction and ample chances for them to improve or modify their answers.