Kalpana Sharma

Benjamin Franklin once said, “Tell me and I forget, teach me and I remember, involve me and I learn.”

One of the key problems with traditional English language learning is creating an illusion of learning. We as educators tend to focus on increasing vocabulary and sentence structures but do not give students an opportunity to apply what they have learnt. Students struggle to recall the new words and sentences they have learnt and without having the opportunity to apply what they have learnt over a period of time, they are likely to forget much of what they have been taught.

After a month-long immersive theatre workshop, I realized that this key problem could be tackled and worked upon. We got an opportunity to work with a group of high energy class 8 students and decided to do The Elephant and the Tragopan by Vikram Seth from his famous collection, Beastly Tales from Here and There. These poems are reflective in nature and hold amusing perspectives, drawing sometimes scary parallels between humans and animals.

It was decided that this theatre workshop would be used for the purpose of learning and we would keep ourselves away from showcasing. Every child would be a part of the play and children who essentially don’t get a chance to come in the forefront would be encouraged to make their way.

Over the course of time, I realized that there were several benefits which fell on the plate. As an English teacher, I could see a transformation happening in many students. They were at much more ease and felt connected with the language. It was heartening to see them developing their communication skills. It was an integration of both verbal and nonverbal.

Verbal	Nonverbal
pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar, listening, fluency	cultural aspects, group work abilities, and self-confidence

The purpose of learning was met and it so happened that each one of them out of a bunch of 40 was involved and learning was flowing effortlessly. There was a TOTAL PHYSICAL RESPONSE FROM each child as if all learning styles were given apt attention to. The house during the night, morning, and weekends would buzz with heavy dialogues and vocabulary.

Suddenly a house where the house parent would struggle to make children speak in English was sorted out. Not only this, as students recalled the events of a particular act or the feelings it provoked within them, it acted as an effective memory trigger, and they were able to build connections between the act and the language learnt within.

“You also have to do new things that make you go beyond yourself, so there are new experiences, and of course it is funny.” – A student

Knowing oneself – The key roles were of the elephant and the tragopan. The role of the tragopan was assigned to a boy who was extremely shy and lacked confidence. Nothing appeared to be working with him all this while. He would feel a disconnect with the language and as an educator I would feel helpless. But this particular role helped him unlace himself. He had to be an up-stander as Tragopan. He had to perform something very dramatic, he had to shed tears, raise his voice. Here he learnt all this through techniques and training, and in the process discovered in himself some hidden feelings This way he got in touch with himself. After the final performance, this boy was someone else. His voice base had increased, he looked straight into the face while speaking and felt comfortable with the language. It appeared as if a catharsis had happened for him during the process of the play.

As an English teacher I have struggled with two major challenges. I have always tried to craft ways to make learning memorable and also at the same time improve students’ functional communication skills. This month-long experience gave answers to my questions and I thought to take advantage of students’ high energy levels. This bunch had enjoyed the process and it had an alluring impact on them. The problem was that they were not able to sit down for grammar and vocabulary drills. I thought of making them write small skits that incorporate the target language.

Let your students take the lead
I saw it as an opportunity for the students to learn in a relaxed environment that allowed them to take the lead. My students could become screenwriters, directors, actors, story board artists, costume designers, and technical experts.

Read, rewrite, rehearse, set up, dress-up…perform!

“I enjoyed everything but my favourite part was writing the play. I would write jokes and as an after check wait if they made people laugh or not. I found this really thrilling.” – A student

As the second term ended and this project came to an end, I was able to determine the following outcomes:

1) The students were told that the duration of the performance should not exceed 10 minutes; this posed a challenge for them. They were forced to condense their scripts in a coherent and concise manner, retaining the most relevant details and excluding the insignificant ones.
2) This resulted in well-structured and creative descriptions that held the audience’s attention.
3) Students employed relevant and often new lexis throughout their presentation, which implied that their vocabulary had expanded.
4) The use of different grammar constructions was also present in the texts they delivered and the degree of fluency increased. They felt more confident.
5) Students’ feedback to other participants was meaningful and constructive and they all took notes of what their classmates were suggesting as improvement measures.
6) Finally, as a result of the above-mentioned aspects, language learning motivation had probably increased. Their juniors also started looking up to them and wanted to do something similar. I was also teaching one section of class 6 then. They had written different forms of poems during the vacation and I tried to trigger them by asking them to create a storyline where all poems are a part of the storyline. They were super excited and welcomed the idea. Soon a story emerged and the vacation poetry work got converted into a script. They were further challenged to ensure that each one of them is a part of the play. They ensured that and we were able to take up the final performance “Rajghat” to the assembly. This time I was also given a role. Their excitement didn’t end here and they wanted to come up with a second season of it.

“East, West, North, South, Everywhere you look out. You see greenery everywhere, And all the children do play fair. Gokul, RR, Varuna, Riverside, These are the Hostels we live beside. Some special places like dispensary, office, sst field and dining hall, Some special classes like visual arts, tabla, music and basketball. This is our school, It’s very cool!” – A poetic description of Rajghat by one of the students.

The entire process in both the cases consisted of creating a play within a task-based framework in which students read, (re)wrote, spoke, reasoned, interacted, and worked together with their peers in a dynamic group project with the support of a written script and the guidance of their teacher. Using theatre as a methodology, the process was learner-centered. This aided in motivating and making the students more responsible. The greatest merit of this method was that students became more confident in their use of English by experiencing the language in operation.

While it is true that stories and drama are already being used in language classrooms around the world, to unlock the full potential of drama within English language learning, it is essential to write stories with the purpose of improving language skills. Rather than engaging students in incidental language learning, we can purposefully craft an interesting and varied language curriculum that integrates key target language into our stories and scripts. This makes the learning process much more effective because we can pitch stories and scripts to meet the specific needs of our students.

William Shakespeare claimed that –
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages.
As You Like It Act 2, scene 7,139-143

If we agree with this then for sure we need to be creating more opportunities for our young learners. We need to craft methods to use English with our students in intriguing and useful ways.

The author has taught for more than two decades in different places and grades. Her experience with under-resourced schools and educational colleges makes her realize that we need to work with children to address their different learning needs, especially at school. She teaches English and has deep interest in inclusive education. She is currently working as Junior School Headmistress at Rajghat Besant School. She can be reached at Kalpana.sharma@rajghatbesantschool.org.