Drama Techniques

Prepared by Mydhili Muniandy, Michelle Elaine, Png Xiao Yen, Masliza David, Nor Syamimi binti Ali, Nurfazilah binti Nursyam, Frecylla May Gidor, Mohamad Rozainizam Usnie, and Mohd Zyarfan Hakim Mohd Rasid

Content of The Booklet a) Types of Drama Activities and Techniques

b) How and When Drama Activities Can Be Used In the KBSR

and KSSR Classrooms

c) The Advantages of Using Drama to Develop Multiple

Intelligence, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Language

d) Collection of Suggested Activities a Teacher Can Use In

His/Her Classroom 

Basom, J. (2005). The Benefits of Drama Education. Retrieved

from http://www.dramaed.net/benefits.pdf 

Boudreault, C. (2010). The Benefits of Using Drama in the ESL/

EFL Classroom. The Internet TESL Journal. 16(1). Retrieved

from http://iteslj.org/Articles/Boudreault-Drama.html 

Buchanan, M. (n.d). Why Teach Drama? A Defense of the Craft.

Retrived from http://www.childdrama.com/why.html 

Dougill, J. (1987). Drama Activities for Language Learning.

London: Macmillan. 

Maley, A., & Duff, A.( 2005). Drama Techniques: A resource book

of communication activities for language teachers (3rd

ed.).New York: Cambridge University Press.

Vani Chauhan. (2004). Drama Techniques for Teaching English.

The Internet TESL Journal. 10(10). Retrieved from http://

iteslj.org/Techniques/Chauhan-Drama.html 

Credits to

Images are credited to : www.volunteerscotland.org.uk www.aoehome.com dramagames.wordpress.comTeachingtheatricks.blogspot.com www.emotional-intelligence-education.com www.dramaforkids.net

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The team would like to express our gratitude and appreciation to all those who help us to complete this

booklet. A special thanks to our lecturer, Mdm Angelia Lee Sor Geek, whose help, stimulating suggestions and encouragement, helped us to coordinate our project

especially in writing this booklet.We would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the crucial role of the team members,

Mydhili Muniandy, Michelle Elaine, Png Xiao Yen, Masliza David, Nor Syamimi binti Ali, Nurfazilah binti Nursyam, Frecylla May Gidor, Mohd Zyarfan Hakim Mohd Rasid and Mohamad Rozainizam Usnie, who

gave all the commitment and hard works to complete this booklet. 

Creating a Make-Believe Space

Whether it's a big empty box, a tent, or a tree house, designated "pretend"

spaces encourage kids to create make-believe worlds. In these magical

spaces, children feel free to be anyone—to leave the everyday world behind

and let imagination soar.

Performing for an Audience

Does your child love performing in front of the family? Encourage it!

Acting out skits, singing, playing an instrument, dancing, performing a

comedy routine—all these activities help kids develop talent and self-

esteem. There are many benefits to "putting on a show"—writing a script

requires creativity, working with a "troupe" calls on cooperative skills, and

facing an audience builds public speaking skills. And the sweet sound of

applause that follows a successful production is a terrific confidence-

builder. What child doesn't benefit from that?

ACTIVITY 1: ‘Pairs on Chairs’ (Mime)

This is a pair activity. Each pair needs to improvise a scene where

one person would be sitting in a chair and the other offering them a service

(hairdresser and dentist). While portraying the scene, they are not allowed

to speak to each other. They may pretend to speak without sound. The

teacher may set the time limit for each pair to perform. When the time

ends, the teacher could ask the class to describe the situation being

portrayed by the pairs. This activity could be adapted for larger number of

pupils where the teacher could design a scene that involves many

characters (scene in a moving bus or in a market)

This activity is suitable for pupils who do not have the confidence

to speaking the language. As they act and perform in front of their

classmates without speaking, they will slowly gain the confidence to stand

in front of an audience. Once they are comfortable, the teacher could

move to the next stage when she could provide structure for the pupils to

speak in front of an audience. This activity also creates room for discussion

which gives the opportunity to pupils to speak out their thoughts by

guessing what the scene is about. Pupils could use their imagination and

creativity to predict what the situation is about. The teacher needs to guide

the pupils through the discussion as different pupils might interpret a

situation differently. The teacher should also acknowledge the pupils’ idea.

Playing Dress-Up

In the wink of an eye, most kids can turn a towel into a superhero cape, a

royal robe or a cloak of invisibility. Playing dress up instantly transports

kids into the role of someone else—real or imaginary. Most children love

dressing up in grown-up clothes, and this is terrific. In addition, providing

your child with dress-up quality costumes is a great way to encourage these

role play adventures.

Acting Out Real-Life Situations

What child doesn't enjoy playing school, store, or doctor? One way to learn

about the people in the children’s world is by recreating real-life people,

places and situations. As they play,

they reinforce what they have

learned about appropriate behavior

in different situation. More likely

than not, when kids explore this type

of role play, they're not alone, they

are playing with a friend or two .

And that's even better! Cooperative

role play teaches kids how to negotiate, take turns, work as part of a team,

and play leader. These are all necessary to developing social skills.

Re-enacting Stories

When children re-enact stories, it helps them appreciate other people's

perspectives and feelings. How did Cinderella feel about missing the ball?

Was Harry Potter afraid before he opened the secret door? This

encourages feelings of empathy. In addition, repeating dialogue— whether

written in a book or spoken in a movie—helps kids build language skills

and vocabulary.

Types of Drama Activities and Techniques

Role Play

This is a common technique used in ESL classroom. Role play is short

scenes where learners can practice actual language use. All role plays have

defined roles/ character. Essentially lines are scripted. It is an effective

means for the teacher to introduce oral practice to reinforce the teaching of

certain structures and functions. They are short and manageable for

classroom use.

Play gives children many learning opportunities :

•Acting out and making sense of real-life situations

•Exploring, investigating and experimenting

•Collaborating with others

•Expressing ideas and feelings confidently

•Developing an awareness of themselves and others

If the role-play environment includes research for problem solving,

children are more likely to retain knowledge that they have constructed

themselves, than that simply handed to them in other classroom activities.

ACTIVITY 2: Pantomimes

• Solo pantomimes: each actor goes up and chooses an activity out

of the box. They have 30 seconds to act out that activity. Audience

player guess the activity.• Group: students are grouped into fours. They must create a stage

picture that represents that activity chosen from the box. The

audience guesses the activity.

Examples:

Lifting weights, taking picture, jumping rope, bowling, playing drums,

driving a race car, practicing karate, rowing a boat, tying your shoes

ACTIVITY 3: The Wind Blows

Put chairs in a circle. Choose someone to stand in the middle. That person

will have to say:

“The wind blows for………..• everyone wearing a watch• everyone who supports Arsenal• everyone who can swim a length• everyone who had breakfast today• everyone who likes ice cream

If the statement applies to a pupil, they must get up and change places.

The caller finds a seat. The last pupil left standing becomes the new caller.

No one can change places with the person sitting next to them.

A collection of Suggested Activities

Drama in KSSR and KBSR

Drama + Educational emphases

The Educational Emphases reflect current developments in education. These

emphases are infused and woven into classroom lessons to prepare pupils for

the challenges of the real world. Using drama end drama activities has clear

advantages for language learning. These educational emphases can be

incorporated in the ESL classroom where drama or plays are carried out.

Drama / Plays are a powerful language teaching tool that involves all of the

students interactively all of the class period. Drama can also provide the means

for connecting students’ emotions and cognition as it enables students to take

risks with language and experience the connection between thought and action.

Thinking Skills

Critical and creative thinking skills are incorporated in the learning standards

to enable pupils to solve simple problems, make decisions, and express

themselves creatively in simple language.

Drama for second language learners can provide an opportunity to develop the

imagination and the thinking skills of the students. The students can go beyond

the here and now and even 'walk in the shoes' of another. It provides an

opportunity for independent thinking where students are encouraged to express

their own ideas and contribute to the whole.  In a role play, each student is

encourages to develop their own ideas to solve certain situation or making

certain decision.

For example, roles play on the story of “Sleeping Beauty”. Each group has to

act out the situation when the Sleeping Beauty could not wake up even

Dramatizing also allows children to add an emotion or personality

to a text that they have read or listened to. In the classroom, we often

expose children to small bit of language such as individual words, rather

than whole process or ‘chunks’. When speaking, children are not often

asked to combine the different structures they are learning. Drama is an

ideal way to encourage children to guess the meaning of unknown

language in a context which often makes meaning clear.

Apart from that, drama can add a change of pace or mood to the

classroom. Dramatizing is learner-centred so that the teacher can use it to

contrast with the more teacher-

centred parts of the lesson. It is

active and so the teacher can use it

to make a class livelier after quieter

or individual work. More than

often students feel engaged when a

drama takes place in the class

because it is more interesting and

enables them to take part in the

process.

Another advantage of using drama is that dramatizing a text is

very motivating and it’s fun. In addition, the same activity can be done at

different levels at the same time, which means that all the children can do it

successfully. The end product, the performance, is clear and so children

feel safe, and have a goal to work towards. Children are motivated if they

know that one or two groups will be asked to show what they have done, or

if they are being videoed or putting on a public performance.

Using drama and drama activities has clear advantages for

language learning. It encourages children to speak and gives them the

chances to communicate, even with limited language.

Using drama in classrooms brings many benefits to

young children. These advantages can be used to

develop Multiple Intelligence, creativity, critical

thinking and language among young children.

Stories and drama provide opportunities for children to

use different combinations of their Multiple Intelligences.

Through engaging different intelligences in storytelling and drama

activities, individual children have opportunities to build on their personal

strengths in order to consolidate, extend and deepen their learning. This

also provides for variety and helps to broaden and maximise the appeal of

activities and activity cycles within lessons.

Drama also helps to develop creativity among young children.

Events that happen in both stories and drama are playful. Even very young

children quickly learn to become adept at distinguishing between the

conventions and boundaries of stories and drama on the one hand, and

real, everyday life on the other. As well as being fascinating and pleasurable

for children, exploring the differences between stories, drama and real life

develops their potential for creativity and imagination in a similar way to

when they are engaged in play.

Stories and drama provide a wide appeal to children with

predominantly different learning styles, whether visual, auditory,

kinaesthetic, or a combination of these. Through the use of a wide range

of storytelling and drama techniques, children can also be helped to

develop and discover their own individual learning styles and preferences.

When children dramatize they use all the channels, and each child will

draw on the one that suits them best.

The Advantages of Using Drama to Develop Multiple Intelligence, Creativity, Critical Thinking

and Language with a kiss from the prince. It prompts each member to think of the

solving.

Constructivism

Constructivism will enable pupils to build new knowledge and concepts

based on existing knowledge or schema that they have. Drama can give

children an experience of using the language for communication and real-

life purposes and by generating a need to speak.

Most of the students in our classroom are exposed to limited amount of

English, usually individual words and phrases. Therefore, drama is an ideal

way to encourage learners to guess the meaning of unknown language in a

context based on their schemata. Learners will need to use a mixture of

language structures and functions if they want to communicate

successfully.

For example, in the story “The rooster who went to his uncle’s birthday

party”, there are lots of repetitive chants which provide plenty

opportunities for the students to learn the language.

Contextual Learning

Contextual Learning is an approach to learning which connects the

contents being learnt to the pupils’ daily lives, the community around them

and the working world. Learning takes place when a pupil is able to relate

the new knowledge acquired in a meaningful manner in their lives.

Drama can bring the real world into the classroom. Teacher can use topics

from other subjects to integrate into drama. In the classroom, the children

can act out scenes from history. Pupils not only understand the information

better, it also promotes some values to the students.

For example, pupils act out the scene of 13rd May 1963. In fact, elements

of patriotism and citizenship is also emphasised in the drama / play in

order to cultivate a love for the nation and produce patriotic citizens.

Creativity

Creativity is the ability to produce something new in an imaginative and

fun-filled way. Pupils in Year 1 and 2 will display interest, confidence and

self-esteem through performance and producing simple creative works. In

a theatre class where they create and produce their own plays or just

playing a role in a drama, pupils could feel the sense of achievement.

Thus, the arts are a wonderful arena for fostering creativity, an important

skill to have in a rapidly changing world.

In drama, the teacher can foster critical and creative thinking by

encouraging students to look for alternatives and give reasons for their

decisions and encouraging imaginative responses. Therefore, when carry

out a drama / play in the classroom, teacher needs to provide plenty of

opportunity for the students to think, imagine, discuss, speak out and look

for the solutions to a problem.

For example, in the story “The rooster who went to his uncle’s birthday

party”, the teacher can encourage the students to think of other solutions

when the wavy grass unwilling to help the rooster.

❖ Preparation for the real world

The application of knowledge must be able to bridge the theories

learnt to the world outside in order for the pupils to see the use of

those knowledge. One of the challenges in preparing the pupils for

the real world is on language use in society. Deeper exploration of

language will expose the pupils to more language aspects that they

can use later in life. Drama gives away similar opportunity with

extra package in which the pupils are not only expose to those

language aspects but are able to experiment with it by applying

them in drama. Drama provides real-life issues which encourages

pupils to operate in real-life situation. Drama gives the opportunity

for them to involve, face and solve these situations.

This method breaks the traditional view of learning as we have

always been confined to theory alone without proper environment

or situation where we can apply the knowledge. In the classroom,

teacher can use script produced by the pupils in reading, speaking

or listening lessons apart from the

drama itself. Activities with

different range such as individual,

pair or group helps to promote

opportunities of applying multiple

intelligences.

v Knowledge acquisition

Acquisition of knowledge in

drama is vast as it is integrated

with skills. For example, as pupils

begin to write their script in the

classroom, they will have to learn

different purposes of writing, how

to write in different voices and they are able to experiment with

vocabulary, speech patterns, rhythm as well as registers. By

exposing the pupils with different condition or criteria needed for

writing, they will discover other methods or aspects of writing

which is far different than the basic writing that they have learnt in

classroom.

How children's plays and drama can be used in the KBSR and KSSR classroom

v Learning how to learn skills

Learning how to learn skills helps in building

independent learners. This is a way to

inculcate some sense of responsibility

towards their learning. Drama offers chances

of exploring learning skills through different

methods. Drama incorporates information

skills, library skills as well as study skills

among the pupils. These skills are applicable

especially during early stage of drama

preparation in which they have to study

different aspects of drama such as script,

characters, scenes, props and etc. This can

be conducted in classroom as tasks on

preparation the drama.

v Multiple intelligences

Multiple intelligences such as verbal linguistic, visual spatial,

interpersonal and intrapersonal are some of the content of

knowledge offered by drama. It helps in character building as to

develop desirable personalities and able to expand their social

interaction circle properly. Use of language, teamwork and

communication are among the main focus of knowledge

application and these are valuable chances of learning.