Graduate School of Sookmyung TESOL
Language in Context
Ahn Eun-ok
1054014
Application of Drama Techniques in Technical High Schools
- Focusing on the self-confidence and motivation of underachievers
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ABSTRACT
The purpose of this paper is to provide the model lessons which apply drama
techniques in the technical high schools. Many of studies show that drama techniques bring
positive atmosphere and energy in the classroom and create a supportive and enjoyable
classroom where students are encouraged and motivated to learn the target language. The
underachievers have low self-esteem and motivation due to repeated failures and this leads to
the poorer academic performance in the later studies. Drama appears to be the ideal method
for low proficiency students because they can develop self-confidence and motivation while
participating in drama activities.
The main consideration for this paper is to evaluate how much self-esteem and
motivation of underachievers increase through drama activities. Also, to test the effectiveness
of drama as a teaching technique, vocabulary test will be implemented. For this research, two
research questions are posed :
(1) Do drama techniques enhance the self-esteem and motivation of underachievers?
(2) Are drama techniques helpful in underachievers’ vocabulary building?
1. Introduction
1.1 Purpose
In Korea, there are about 1300 academic high schools and 700 technical high schools and
it means that one third of high schools are technical high school and it takes up significant
amount. Though there are some specialized technical high schools where only excellent
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students are able to enter, most of students who go to technical high schools tend to neglect
studies and some of them can be labeled as underachievers. Many of the technical high
school students cannot read English and many of them sleep or chat with friends in the
English lessons and have little attention on learning English. Graduates of the technical high
schools have hard time while they attend Universities because they cannot follow the English
lessons. However, English teachers of technical high schools are teaching them without
considering the proficiency and distinct characteristics of them and the same textbooks are
used for teaching both academic and technical high school students. Though there are some
teachers who edit the textbooks for teaching them, the way of editing them is not systematic
and it usually ends up deleting some parts of the textbooks. One of the aims of the 7th
National curriculum is to provide differentiated lessons aiming to help students fulfill their
potential and there have been much research on the area. However, there has been little
attention on providing textbooks and methodologies geared for the technical high schools. It
is necessary to think of ways to teach them more effectively by developing methods which
are apt for them. This purpose of this paper is to provide the lesson model which will be
helpful in motivating students and having them interested in English using drama techniques.
1.2 Research questions
The underachievers show lower self-esteem and higher levels of failure expectation due
to repeated failures. Furthermore, they have low levels of motivation and interests in learning.
Drama can be a powerful teaching method for teaching English because it can raise selfconfidence and motivation of them. The present study attempts to verify some questions
related to drama techniques and the underachievers. For this purpose, the following research
questions are posed :
(1) Do drama techniques enhance the self-esteem and motivation of underachievers?
(2) Are drama techniques helpful in underachievers’ vocabulary building?
2. Literature Review
2.1 Underachiever
Defining the reasons of the students who are labeled as an underachiever or as having a
learning disability problem has been a task of educators for a long time. There are several
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reasons for the slow learning. Sontag, Baker & Nelson identified that emotion of the learner
plays a significant role(1958). Wender attended to neurological disability of the learner
(1971). Children with behavioral maladjustments also suffer from underachievement.
(DeHirsch,Jansky&Langford, 1966). Some children have learning disability because of the
combination of these difficulties (Rourke, 1975). These underachievers show lower selfesteem and higher levels of failure expectation and task-irrelevant behavior than the learners
who are functioning normally within the classroom.
2.2 Teaching strategies for underachievers
Teacher should realize that learners do not reach their potential because of the traditional
way of teaching and should pay attention to the ways of teaching underachievers. It is
plausible that we posit that underachievers might restore their learning abilities if they are
taught in the right circumstances with the proper ways of learning. There are some teaching
techniques which are more effective in teaching them (Wooon, 2005).
•
Check learners’ comprehend.
•
Change ways of teaching frequently.
•
Provide opportunities to succeed.
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Have the learner participate in the learning rather than having them listen.
•
Connect what students learn and their personal interests.
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Encourage them to take risks.
•
Have students use more sensory organs.
2.3 Benefits of Drama in education
2.3.1 Motivation
Motivation is the most frequently cited reason for using drama in foreign language
classes. Dramatic activities encourage students to want to learn another language and the
purposefulness of them can provide a strong instrumental motivation for language learning
(Moulding, 1978). Maley and Duff(1978) mentioned that language teaching has killed
motivation by separating language (vocabulary and grammar) from its body and emotion and
emphasizing the former. Dramatic techniques restore the emotion to language learning and
thereby restore motivation. If learners are motivated, their affective filter is low and they
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acquire the language(Krashen, 1984). Gardner also mentioned that motivation encourages
learners to make efforts in learning and leads to greater success in terms of language
proficiency(1994).
2.3.1 Self-Esteem
Self-esteem is an evaluation of our abilities in terms of worthiness. There appears to
be predictive correlation between self-esteem and the ability to learn a second language.
Students with high self-esteem were better than low self-esteem students in speaking tests
and this shows that increased self-esteem heighten the learners’ oral proficiency. Advocates of
drama in second or foreign language learning believe that drama is an effective way for
raising the self-esteem of the learners because drama demonstrates to the learners that they
are able to express themselves in realistic communicative situations (Heyde, 1979).
2.3.2 Sensitivity to Rejection
Learners who are afraid of what others think of their poor commandment of the second
language will be reluctant to speak it. Via found that drama creates a non-threatening
situation which can reduce sensitivity to rejection (1976). There are many possible reasons
for this phenomenon and one of them is that critical judgment of what the learners say might
be thought as being directed toward the characters they are playing. Therefore, learners lose
their inhibition about speaking in their second language in front of others.
(You have very interesting literature review. And is very relevant to your own research.
But
hope to include more of pragmatics.)
3. Method
3.1 Analysis of School, participants & Textbook
3.1.1 The school
This research is going to be conducted for the students who attend ‘S’ technical high
school in Seongbuk, Seoul. In the national assessment of educational achievement (NAEA)
which was took in the year of 2010, this school achieved the lowest rank among all the high
schools including both academic and technical high schools in Seoul. While there are only 6%
of students who are below basic level in English, there are 43.5% of them in ‘S’ technical
high school. As shown in table 2, students have the most difficulties in learning English.
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Table 1. English grades of ‘S’ technical high school and average of all the high schools in
Seoul in NAEA which took in the year of 2010
S technical high school
All the high schools in Seoul
Advanced Level
0.6%
62.9%
Basic Level
55.9%
31.1%
Below Basic Level
43.5%
6.0%
Table 2. Results of the other subjects of ‘S’ technical high school students
English
Korean
Math
Advanced Level
0.6%
5.5%
1.9%
Basic Level
55.9%
52.1%
57.8%
Below Basic Level
43.5%
42.5%
40.3%
3.1.2
The profile of students
The students who will participate in this research are third graders. Though 90
percentage of them will enter University after graduation, there is only one student who
prepares Korean SAT and the rest of them go to University only with the result of the
evaluation which is implemented within the school. While there are about 35- 40 students in
one classroom in the other high schools, there are only 23 students in this class because many
of them dropped the school when they were first or second graders. The English proficiency
level is as low as the elementary school students and there are 3-5 students who cannot read
and write alphabets and another 5 students who cannot read English words. They take 2
English classes a week and none of them attend private academic institution for studying
English.
3.1.3
Analysis of the textbook & teaching methodology
Though English proficiency level of them is very low, the normal textbook is used for
teaching them. By considering their poor academic performance, teachers teach only the
dialogue and listening parts of each chapter. Because of the short span of the concentration,
teachers spend only 30 minutes in teaching them and spend the other 20 minutes in having
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them write target words several times. (this part should be included in the participants section,
What you are saying over here not much about the information of the subjects)
3.2 Choosing dramatic techniques for underachievers
Drama techniques can take several different forms and the teacher can provide students
with the appropriate drama activities according to the individual needs, interests and the
proficiency level. The teacher of the underachievers needs to pay more attention to choosing
the appropriate drama techniques. Role-play and simulation involve a lot of conversation and
discussion and they are not suitable for low proficiency learners who do not have the
necessary communicative competence to carry out the activity and they might experience
stress and anxiety though these drama techniques are employed for forming enjoyable
learning circumstances. Therefore, careful thoughts and planning should be given before the
activities are used in the classroom.
3.2.1 Drama techniques apt for the underachievers
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Miming
Miming can be used for gaining attention of the learners as a warm-up or for reviewing words
that were taught in the previous lesson. Or, teacher can introduce the topic of the lesson
through miming. This simple dramatic technique will loosen up the atmosphere of the class
and prepare a teacher and students for doing other drama activities.
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Telephone Conversations
For this activity, two students from each team go to the front and they sit with their backs to
each other so that they can only hear their telephone conversation partner. A teacher can give
a particular situation from the textbook or students can choose any topic they want. Though
the learners are free to say whatever they like, they have to remember what is said by the
other speaker and continue the conversation accordingly. Telephone conversations enhance
the learner’s ability to react quickly as well as speaking and listening skills. Furthermore, it
might be helpful in having student speak in a louder voice.
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Role play with gestures
At the first round, students are allowed to use gestures and body language to fill their lack of
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vocabulary. After attempting to communicate in this manner, students can ask five words they
need to know to fill the gap and they have the second chance to role play with five words
they learned. This activity will be used for introducing the target language of the lesson .
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Reading theater
Students perform for the class by reading the scripts without learning them by heart. Though
they do not memorize the scripts, they are still asked to express their emotion through voice
and gestures. There are many advantages to this technique. First of all, students do not have
to spend time on rehearsal. Secondly, students feel comfortable because they are not pressed
by the burden of memorizing the lines.
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One Word Dialogues
After learning the dialogues or some target vocabulary, students can be asked to make a one
word dialogue between two people. Though students have to make a dialogue, they will not
be stressed out because they do not need to make sentences. This activity might be used for
review exercises.
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Read it with different emotions
After teaching some dialogues, the teacher usually asks students to take a role of A or B and
read the dialogues and have them exchange the role at best. This techniques can be used when
the teacher have students read the same dialogue several times by assigning different
emotions for each reading. This will be a way of repetition which is not boring and
monotonous.
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3.3 Lesson Plan
Worries and Concerns
Title
Goal
Content
Language
Students will be able to give advice to friends.
Students will be able to use key expressions (I think you
should~. /Things will work out well. ) in the right context.
Step
Activities
Introduction
Review
1.The teacher gives some target words to one of the students.
2.The student mime the words.
3. Other students guess the words.
Development
Teaching dialogue
1. To teach the dialogue.
2. To read it several times with different emotions.
3. To have some students perform the dialogue by reading the scripts.
Extension
One word drama
1.To brainstorm the problem which teenagers have.
Ex)
Being habitually late for school.
Being bullied by classmates.
Sleeping all day
Using cell-phone during the lesson.
Smoking cigarettes in the school.
Spending too much time playing games.
Being concerned about appearance
Getting poor grades.
Having a crush on somebody.
2. To show examples of one word drama by acting it.
Ex) A and b are girls and they are talking while looking at mirrors.
A: Sad.
B: Why?
A: Ugly!
B: Me, too.
A: Study!
3. To have students write one word dramas and present it in front of the class.
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3.4 How to verify
In order to verify the effectiveness of the drama techniques to the technical high schools
students, survey questions will be provided before and after the experimental lessons.
The
survey questions will be focused on the improvement of the motivation and self-confidence.
In terms of the vocabulary building, the same vocabulary tests will be provided to the
experimental class and the control group. If there is a significant difference between two
survey questions or vocabulary tests results, it is very plausible to relate drama techniques
and the improvement because the students do not go to any academic institute or take private
tutoring. The difference cannot come from other variables other than the teaching techniques
in the classroom.
4. Conclusion
This study intended to show the practical ways of applying drama techniques to the
technical high school students with the purpose of enhancing the vocabulary building ability
by heightening the motivation and the self-confidence. Though there are two research
questions: (1) Do drama techniques enhance the self-esteem and motivation of
underachievers? (2) Are drama techniques helpful in underachievers’ vocabulary building?,
the relation between psychological factors and language acquisition can be explored if there
are positive improvement in both psychological factors and the vocabulary building.
Many of the English teachers think that drama activities are more available to teaching
high proficiency students and most of technical high school teachers depend on the simple
repletion drill for teaching and games for improving motivation of students. However, if
careful thought is given to choosing appropriate drama techniques, underachievers can enjoy
drama activities and develop their proficiency.
The teacher who deploys drama techniques for teaching underachievers should pay more
attention in monitoring students because some of them might take advantages of the flexible
atmosphere made by drama activities. Furthermore, some of them might be more frustrated
when they ruin their performance in front of other students.
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Reference
Dehirsh, K.,Jansky, J.&Lanford, W.S. Predicting reading failure: A preliminary study of
reading, writing and spelling in pre-school children. New York : Harper & Row, 1966
Gardner H. Estructures de la mente. Mexico, 1994
Krashen S. The Natural Approach : Language Acquisition in the classroom. Hertfordshire :
Prentice Hall, 1984
Woonok, K. Teaching strategies for underachievers. Seoul. 2005
Rourke, B. P. Brain-behavior relationship in children with learning disabilities. American
Psychology, 1975.
Sontag, L., Baker, C., & Nelson, V. Mental growth and personality development: A
longitudinal study. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development,
1958
Wender P.H. Minimal brain dysfunction in children. New York : Wiley Interscience, 1971
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