FAQs: Learning Languages through Drama

Using a format of frequently asked questions about teaching foreign languages using drama, this article explores the evolution of this approach, its benefits and drawbacks, and the various theatrical activities that can be used to teach languages. After describing how drama fits into the communicative approach to language teaching, the article discusses how the idea of drama in the language classroom developed from the 1970s to the present, also noting certain textbooks that can take advantage of what drama offers and other resources for language teachers. Benefits to using drama in language classrooms include acquiring and practicing new vocabulary and grammatical structures, lowering the affective filter, and learning the language because of practicing it with communicative activities in a real context. Potential drawbacks to this approach include students' backgrounds and skepticism, teachers' lack of preparation in this area, and perceptions that drama is not serious. Various theatrical activities that can be used include pantomime, jazz chants, role play and simulations, fairy tales and folk tales, improvisation, reading plays, watching or listening to plays, staging plays, and writing plays. There is some drama-related English as a Second Language computer assisted language learning software available. (Contains 37 references.) (SM)