Teaching English to young learners through drama and movement

¶ … 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).

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.

Data Analysis

Analysis of the data totally relies on the objective and subject of the research (Uccelli & Paez, 2007). Material gathered in the research consisted of notes written during the interviews, and detailed notes made in the analysis procedure. The notes were designed in accordance to the three subsections cited in the interview guide (general teaching techniques, the narrative approach, and background data). In qualitative studies, the assessment of the individual interviews is shown first, and later on, a cross-case assessment is performed on ensuing problems.

Verification

In order to ensure the consistency of the research, the interview was conducted with a single interview guide and similar questions were asked, however, the sequence of the questions changed. Regardless of the inner organization of semi-structured interviews, they also allow room for free dialogue which guarantees the reliability of the interview. Towards improving the authenticity, every respondent was presented with similar data concerning the research objectives and subject, every interview was carried out in a similar environment (Uccelli & Paez, 2007; Franklin, 2005).

According to Lenters & Winters (2013), the strength of a measure is described by the degree to which it gauges what one aims to measure. The study guide, concluded before this master's thesis, possessed a similar topic to this research, and a test was performed on the interview guide in advance. A number of the questions decided upon initially were eliminated because of their ambiguity and others included instead. This provided me with meaningful experience on the manner of asking follow-up questions, which gave solutions significant to the research.

Transferability is the extent to which the qualitative study's results can be implemented to other situations or groups (Dickinson, 2002). The minimum number of respondents in the current research is its utmost restriction (Uccelli and Paez, 2007). The results of the research have offered a significant insight into the academic condition of teaching English language in primary and elementary school.

Procedure

The study assessed teachers experience in the skill level of reading and mathematics proficiencies of their fifth grade students. A five point scale (1 = not yet, 2 = beginning, 3 = in progress, 4 = intermediate, and 5 = proficient) was utilized by the teachers to give a rating of the degree to which all students were skilful on each and every competency. In order to mange any disparities in ratings in the special needs and regular learners, all learners having individualized education plans (IEPs) was not included in the study. The sample size hence decreased to 8,048 students.

In order to establish the statistical variation in the group means, t-tests were performed utilizing the group means of the learners who obtained arts exposure just in school and those who obtained any kind of art exposure after school. T-tests were also performed to establish if there existed any major distinctions in race and gender. In addition, T-tests were also performed to establish any major distinctions amidst kids who did not receive any kind of art as a segment of the syllabus and those kids whose syllabus consisted of art or music. Any major distinctions in the ratings of teachers by society type were determined by the application of the one-way analysis variance process. At the end, socioeconomic group (SES) evaluated teacher ratings on both mathematics and reading.

Conclusion

Drama provides teacher's with the chance to conduct their teaching in a manner that would develop a love for learning among the students. Drama appreciates the young learner's emotions and imaginations, which often get ignored in classrooms. The National Standard for Arts Education gives a clear outline of the importance of arts, including drama. Students who take part in the art disciplines acquire influential devices for: comprehension of human encounters, learning to accept and respect one another and coming up with decisions where there are no standard solutions. We are naturally capable of utilizing drama in our lives. Drama is employed from birth all the way to death to learn new things and conquer challenging situations. Drama triggers the entire brain in addition to involving several different types of intelligences. It touches learners who require a challenge. Teachers shall take current studies into thought and construct their techniques across these novel results. The world of drama will finally be appreciated by educators and learners will have opportunities to learn in welcoming and fun surroundings.