Integrating art with language
Gita Krishnan
Art forms can be broadly classified into two types: visual arts and performing arts. Both these encompass several sub-skills. Visual arts include colouring, cutting, pasting – anything that will appeal to the motor-sensory perceptions and skills. Performing arts include music, dance, drama, poetry, story narration, etc. – not tangible, but something that will appeal to our finer senses.
Be it sketching, colouring, engaging in paper craft, reciting a poem, dramatization or learning to sing and dance, when language is taught using art, children will learn with great joy.
Arts have the power to educate and inspire. No more an “extra” curricular subject, art is now an integral part of learning. Participation in the arts can help children think, grow and develop a positive approach to learning.
Teaching a language calls for the development of all the four skills of listening, speaking, reading and writing. How do we, as teachers, use art to develop these skills?
Careful planning is required to see that the integration is not forced or deliberate, but blends well with the teaching process. Let us look at an example of a story narration to see how such integration is possible.
We are all familiar with the story The Elves and the Shoemaker. Here is a short version of the story.
A poor, hardworking shoemaker needs money to pay the rent, but he gives away the last pair of shoes he has to a needy lady. He is now left with enough leather to make just one more pair of shoes. He cuts out the piece of leather before going to bed, so that he can sew it into a pair of shoes in the morning. That night three young, clever and helpful elves come to the shoemaker’s shop and make the pair of shoes, which the shoemaker sells for more than the asking price the next day. He uses that money to pay the rent, buy food and feed a poor traveller.
He is then left with enough money to buy leather for two pairs of shoes. He cuts the pieces of leather for two pairs and retires for the night. The three elves come again that night and make two pairs of shoes. The shoemaker gives away one pair to a needy person and sells the other.
The shoemaker now buys leather for three pairs of shoes, but this time stays up to find the elves making the shoes. In gratitude, the shoemaker and his wife make clothes for the elves the next day, but the elves are freed when they wear their new clothes and so they leave, and the shoemaker and his wife never see them again.
Listening is initially the most important language skill.
Using flash cards to narrate the story will help the children visualize the story and thereby motivate them to listen. After they have finished listening to the story, the teacher can follow it up with a discussion to enhance their speaking skills.
“Look at the picture of the shoemaker! Can you spot two things in the picture that tell you the shoemaker is poor?”Drawing the students’ attention to the patchwork on the curtains and on his shirt will help the students express their thoughts.
Another topic of discussion can be the elves. What is an ELF? An elf is a supernatural being in human form. They are small, active and very helpful.
In the story, the elves enter the shop to help the shoemaker. Let the students guess why the elves decided to help the shoemaker.
Flash cards can also be used to introduce vocabulary. The teacher can show a few flash cards with words from the story and ask the students to give similar sounding/rhyming words.
Reading can be silent or aloud. After the teacher narrates the story, students can take turns to read two lines each of the story. The teacher can stop them at any point and ask questions to test if they have understood what they are reading. It definitely helps to introduce relevant grammar in the process of narrating the story as well.
Bring in the idea of irregular plurals where singular words ending in ‘f’, become ‘ves’ while expressing in the plural form. Give them a table of such examples to read and understand.
| Singular | Plural |
| Half | Halves |
| Loaf | Loaves |
| Elf | Elves |
| Leaf | Leaves |
| Self | Selves |
| Shelf | Shelves |
Give them a writing exercise using the plural words. They could also spin their own short stories about elves.
This picture can be used to ask students to look at carefully and write down their thoughts. Leading questions can be given.
• Which part of the day do you think the shoemaker is sitting and working? How do you know?
• Who is peeping from behind the curtain?
• What do you think is inside the basket?
• Why do you think he looks so serious?
The creative arts can make learning English fun and interesting. Incorporating art, craft and drama into language teaching can motivate students to express themselves correctly in the language.
Other possibilities of this storytelling session
After the children listen to the story, they can be asked to draw and cut out shoes, add designs on them. Paper craft or origami kindles their imagination to create and recreate.
They can make a circle and dance to show their happiness imagining how the elves would have danced with joy. Performing arts like dancing and singing create an atmosphere where students become uninhibited and relaxed.
Sorting different pairs of shoes according to the size and patterns can be an interesting math game.
Finally, a wrap up with an activity for value education. Ask students to create a beautiful THANK YOU card for the elves for helping the shoemaker.
The arts’ position in the school curriculum symbolizes to the young what adults believe is important. When it comes to language learning, an old adage rings true: a picture is worth a thousand words. There is growing evidence that the arts – be it a picture, drama, song, or dance – can help children with English language learning and related cognitive skills that support learning across many different areas.
There are a few reasons why this is the case. First, there are multiple ways to express an idea – many of which are not linguistic. By expressing an idea through visual, auditory, kinesthetic and/or tactile sensory information, a child has more ways to map that concept onto language forms.
There’s also no form of art that is necessarily more effective than another – it just depends on the individual learner and the area that they are trying to improve upon. If a teacher wants students to remember or learn vocabulary, one might have the students act it out through tableau, draw it, or use gestures to describe it. Once students understand the vocabulary in a symbolic way, the teacher could then incorporate that vocabulary into a script for a play, which will enable the students to pair up their understanding of the words or phrases with linguistic forms.
The author has a keen interest in writing short articles and composing poems for children. She creates short stories for children as rapid reading sources. She has been a primary English teacher for three decades and has also headed a school. She can be reached at gitakrishnan502003@yahoo.com.
