materials design i

Licenciatura en enseñanza del idioma inglésMATERIALS DESIGN I

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Materials_Design_1_U4_15-08-08_ATS.pdf

APPLIED DRAMA ACTIVITIESContents writer: Mgtr. Ana María Rozzi de Bergel


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Learner-centred materials design

There must be a good match between curriculm and materials and learners' needs.

• To create an awareness of the need to centre materials design on learners' needs, expectations and preferences.

• To explore the principles of design which make materials cohesive and coherent.

• To provide the tools to adapt, extend or create materials for specific groups of learners.

• To analyse materials critically.• To explore web-based or computer-based tools for TEFL

Project theme

THE MATERIALS DESIGN I PROJECT

Aimsof the course

Project topic

PROJECT MAP - PART I (2 weeks)

To diagnose to whatextent the materialsused with a particulargroup of learnersactually match theirneeds, in orderto suggest appropriatesupplementary orextension materials.

Unit 1 Materials and students: making thematchDefinitions of materials, their purposeand the teacher's expectations.Roles ofmaterials. Arguments in favour oragainst using textbooks. Ways ofcarrying out needs analysis andreporting on its results. Writing a needsanalysis questionnaire. Differentoutlooks on materials analysis.Historical perspective. Robert O'Neill'sprinciples of design. Thecorrespondence between materials andthe learners' needs.

Contents: To achieve the Part 1objectives, we will study Unit 1.

Objectives: The courseaims will translate intoconcrete performance:

Products: Afterstudying the units andcarrying out your tasks,you will produce:

Comparative analysisof the results of needsanalysis and materialsanalysis.

Suggestions forsupplementary orextension materials.


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Unit 2Analysing and sequencing activitiesDefinition of task, activity, exercise. Activityanalysis. The taxonomy of performanceobjectives. The educational dimension.Sequencing activities. Close-ended andopen-ended activities. Skills-based sequences.Content-based sequences. From easy todifficult, from the general to the particular.

Unit 3Integrative activitiesDefinitions of integrative activities.Types of gaps. Creating information gapactivities. Definitions of projects.Designing projects. Designing materialsfor projects. Evaluating projects.

Unit 4Applied Drama activitiesDefinition of applied drama.Main types ofapplied drama activities. Mime. MimeTechniques. Dramatisation. Characterportrayal. Character portrayal activities. Designof applied drama sequences. Roles. Dramaticaction, scenarios and hidden agendas. Thepsychological-dramatic perspective. Thecontribution of information technology.

Unit 5The contributions of informationtechnologyComputer-assisted language learning. Usesof the computer in the classroom. Uses ofthe computer as an interactive medium.Blogs. Wikis. Free web pages. Web.2. E-learning and virtual campuses. E-mail.

PROJECT MAP - PART 2 (6 weeks)

Objectives: The courseaims will translate intoconcrete performance:

Contents: To achieve the Part 2objectives, we will study Units 2, 3, 4and 5.

Products: Afterstudying the units andcarrying out your tasks,you will produce:

To design activitiesfor integratedlanguage use.

Four connected activitiesdesigned to cater forlearners' needs not metby the materials beingused, according to theresults of the comparativeanalysis carried out inPart 1.


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You will send the Part II products to your tutor and if your work is correct, you will pass thispart of the project and will be able to take the final examination, where you will be asked toaccount for the principles used in your design. Remember that you also have to post the rest ofyour tasks to your tutor or to the forum, as requested in the unit, to reach the final examination.

PRODUCT PRESENTATION AND EVALUATION


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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Map of the Unit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6

1. Definition of applied drama . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Activity 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Activity 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .11

Activity 3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12

1.1. Main types of applied drama activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

1.1.1. Mime . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13

1.1.2. Mime Techniques . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15

1.1.3. Dramatisation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .16

1.1.4. Character portrayal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

1.1.5. Character portrayal activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

Activity 4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .18

2. Roles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .21

2.1. Dramatic action, scenarios and hidden agendas . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22

Activity 5 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .24

2.2. The psychological-dramatic perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .25

2.3. The contribution of information technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .26

Activity 6 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28

Unit summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .29

Activity 7 - Rounding-off . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .30

Answers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31


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MAP OF THE UNIT

In this unit, we will be working towards the final Part 2 objective but wewill not achieve it yet. In this unit, you will:

1. Analyse drama-based activities.2. Design role-play activities.3. Design drama-based CALL activities.

In order to do this, we will study:1. Definition of applied drama.

1.1. Main types of applied drama activities.1.1.1. Mime.1.1.2. Mime Techniques.1.1.3. Dramatisation.1.1.4. Character portrayal.1.1.5. Character portrayal activities.

2. Roles.2.1. Dramatic action, scenarios and hidden agendas.2.2. The psychological-dramatic perspective.2.3. The contribution of information technology.

This information will later be used for• discussing e-learning and web-based activities in greater depth.

role - drama - music - scenario

Fleming, M. (2006). Drama and language teaching: the relevance ofWittgenstein's concept of language games. Humanising Language Teaching,Year 8, Issue 4, July 2006. http://www.hltmag.co.uk/jul06/mart01.htm

Bergel, A.M.R. de (2007). Disclosures in Applied Drama - Reading materialfor this unit.

Colburn, Ch. (1989). Online Strategic Interaction: ESL Role-Playing viaInternet Relay Chat. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 6, June 1998http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/ Accessed in November 2005.

Fehér, J (2006). Creativity in the Language Classroom.www.britishcouncilonline.org Accessed in November 2007.

Fehér, J (2006). Features of Creativity. www.britishcouncilonline.orgAccessed in November 2007.

Contents

UnitObjectives

Connections

Key words

CoreBibliography


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Pichon Rivière, E. (1984). El proceso grupal. Del psicoanálisis a la psicologíasocial. Buenos Aires: Editorial Nueva Visión.

Karpman, S. (1968). Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis. TransactionalAnalysis Bulletin, vol. 7, no. 26, pp. 39-43.http://www.itaa-net.org/TAJNet/articles/karpman01.html

Rasmussen, B. (2000). Applied theatre and the power play - An internationalperspective. Applied Theatre Researcher ISSN 1443-1726 Number 1

Ekman and Friesen: Using the Facial Action Coding System to Code SpontaneousEmotion: A methodological analysishttp://www.pitt.edu/~emotion/FACSsub3_sp.pdf

Albert Mehrabian's web page: http://www.kaaj.com/psych/

Remember to participate in the forums and exchange ideas with your colleagues.Prepare your questions before you come to virtual lessons, so that you can makethe most of this weekly contact with your tutor.

You will find activities for self-evaluation in the unit, so that you canconstantly check your progress, but you will also be requested to send somework to your tutor, particularly, the final Evaluation, for her review.

FurtherReading

Interactive

Evaluationand

self-evaluation

MATERIALS DESIGN I U4

8Materials_Design_1_U4_15-08-08_ATS.pdf

We will now focus on the first objective:

• To analyse drama-based activities.

What is Applied Drama?

Unfortunately, when ELT teachers talk about drama-based activities or the applicationof drama principles and techniques to language teaching, they often do so withoutmuch theoretical background. Teachers know that drama can make an importantcontribution to their lessons, they have all attended workshops and seminars ondrama-based activities and have either enthusiastically engaged in storytelling orbriefly trained in this discipline.

Most of these courses, seminars and workshops are taught by other English languageteachers and a few are offered by professional actors, mimes or even puppeteers. Theproblem with this is twofold: teacher trainers are not professional actors and thereforelack the theoretical foundations of drama, and professional actors are not teachers andcannot advise us on adaptations of theatre practices to the classroom environment.The result is that teachers are often confused about the real meaning of drama-basedactivities: they either think they have to be actors or even clowns themselves, or thatstudents have to become actors. More often than not, the field is associated with theschool play or concert or simply with outings to the theatre.

The solution would be to formally teach Applied Drama at teacher education colleges,as an academic discipline, instead of leaving it in the realm of informal education.

1. Definition of Applied Drama

Please read, from the Core Bibliography:Bergel, A.M.R. de (2007) Disclosures in Applied Drama - Reading material for this unit

The article you have to read starts with a dictionary definition of drama and thenconsiders how this definition should be adapted to include the word “applied":

“According to Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary/Thesaurus (1996),drama is a composition in verse or prose intended to portray life or characteror to tell a story usually involving conflicts and emotions through action anddialogue and typically designed for theatrical performance.

A definition of Applied Drama must necessarily consider the different ways andmeans in which theatre and drama are used for educational purposes. Ourstudents may draw valuable teachings from a visit to the theatre, but attendinga performance of a theatre play with our learners is not Applied Drama morethan a visit to the Rural Exhibition would be Applied Agriculture.



The staging of a school play, which might be called Educational Theatre, andthe training learners receive at Drama lessons have a high educational value,but if we called this Applied Drama, we ought to attach the word "Applied" toall the other subjects in the curriculum, as they all have an educational valuebeyond their instructional purpose. Schools do not teach Mathematics onlybecause people need to know how to add and subtract, but also because of theenormous contribution of the subject to the development of a person'sthinking and reasoning abilities. Yet, this does not make the discipline AppliedMathematics. ……………………………………………………………."

Later on, in the definition of Applied Drama, we find the elements and characteristicswhich distinguish drama-based work in the classroom or the activities which resultfrom the application of drama to materials and activity design:

“The identified field seems to consist of a large number of different dramatic-aesthetic practices, concerned with making an impact on specific socio-culturalcontexts. These practices are drawn from theatre but acquire an identity asautonomous, professional practices not ruled by the same aesthetic principles.In theatre, aesthetic approaches are originated by artists creating a way tomake an artistic impact on the social context; in Applied Drama, aestheticapproaches are enslaved to the needs of the context and have lost all theirautonomy. Practitioners are not seeking to make an artistic impact but toproduce a desired, describable effect, mostly, for changing or developing theirtarget context.

The field of Applied Drama appears, then, as defined by its purpose, its inputcycle, its manner of evaluation and its addressees rather than by its methods.The purpose should always be to deliberately change or develop a socialcontext: psychodrama (Moreno, 1969) is used in psychotherapy, the Theatre ofthe Oppressed (Boal, 1976) sought to raise awareness of social issues amongmarginal communities, role-play is used to improve learners' communication ina foreign language (Di Pietro, 1989), among other applications. The purpose isnever theatre-based but community-based. Applied Drama is thus subordinatedto other fields, to which it makes a contribution by undergoing an adaptationprocess. In this adaptation, it loses part of its independence as an art form.

This definition of purpose has a direct bearing on evaluation, which can onlybe carried out by measuring the extent to which the context-related goals havebeen achieved, so it is vital to find clear indicators of these goals, indicatorsthat may be ostensible and measurable.………………………………………………………………………………………………….

The input cycle for Applied Drama starts with an analysis of the social contextit seeks to act upon and the results of this exploration conditions not only thesubject-matter but also the methods and style to be used. The practitioners'views on theatre or their aesthetic styles make an important contribution toApplied Drama, but they should, again, lose their autonomy and become



subordinated to the needs of the context. If these needs are met, artistic flaws or concessions made to style or aesthetics are fully justified. The context shapesthe practice and the practice affects the context, so there should be anempathic relationship between them (Rasmussen, ib.id.).

The addressees of Applied Drama are the members of the well-defined socialcontext previously studied by the practitioners and that is to be modified ordeveloped: a class of learners of a foreign language, in the case in hand. Theparticipation of professional artists cannot be ruled out, but the activeinvolvement of the addressees in the construction of the Applied Dramaactivities should be the key element in the application. Therefore, a particularinstance of Applied Drama is hardly ever transferable to various contexts andis exhausted once it has attained its aims.

When defined from the point of view of its purpose, evaluation, input cycle andaddressees, Applied Drama becomes a comprehensive field which canaccommodate visits to the theatre, the staging of school plays, drama teachingor the use of drama-based methods in the foreign language classroom. Wecease to focus on the form of the implementation to concentrate more on itsruling principles.

This change of focus is extremely relevant if we are to explore the theoreticalframework of Applied Drama, a necessary undertaking in the study of anyacademic discipline. …………………………………………………………………………………………………."

Designing Applied Drama activities calls for considerable skill for writing instructionsfor teachers and students, as the cycle is, above all, action and dramatic action. In thefollowing sections, we will analyse some activities which are typically drama-based.

Evaluation Modified target context

AddresseesPurposeEvaluation

New characteristicsof addressees, newpurpose andmanner ofevaluation for moreApplied Dramapractices resultingin furthermodifications ofthe target context.

Target Context

Adresses

shows determines

shapeupinvolving

APPLIEDDRAMA

PRACTICES

change

determines

Figure 1 - The Applied Drama Cycle



Activity 1Answer: Which of these educational activities qualify more clearly asinstances of Applied Drama?

a. The school decides to send some groups of students to the theatre. They attend theperformance and then discuss the play in class with their teachers.

b. Students show their understanding of a story by miming it.c. In teams, students read a story, and then write a script from it which they rehearse and

perform in front of the class.d. Students rehearse a play and perform it before an audience of parents and fellow

students.

Activity 2Answer: What is Applied Drama more often related to, or oftenoverlapping with?

Is it often related to Applied Drama? Yes Sometimes Hardly ever

a. Writing tasks.

b. Project work.

c. Grammar activities.

d. Body expression.

e. Integrated activities.

f. Activities appropriate for mixed ability groups.

g. The integrated development of all forms of intelligence.

h. Giving opportunities for putting different learning styles into practice.

i. Fostering team spirit.

j. Developing introspection and reflexion.

k. Judging others.



Activity 3Is this True or False?

Assumption T F

a. To design Applied Drama activities, teachers must be excellent actors.

b. It is silly to do mime or perform plays in class. Children want to performat the theatre.

c. Mime means performing certain actions as if you were manipulatingobjects, but also showing abstract feelings

d. On stage, an actor should focus mainly on the audience.

e. Children must know their lines by heart during the presentation of asketch or scene in class, or at least they should have practised them.

f. Shy people should be allowed not to participate in Applied Drama activities.

g. If children like an activity, you have to perform it all over again.

You will find the suggested answers at the end of this unit.

1.1. Main types of Applied Drama activities

As the list of activities based on Applied Drama would be rather long, we are going toconcentrate on those which are not so well-known or not often used. We can all findresource books with drama games, ideas for storytelling or performances of improvisedscenes, but the use of mime, beyond mimicking actions or the manipulation ofimaginary objects; reader's theatre; choral reading and speaking are Applied Dramaareas where we feel the materials designer might need further instruction.

The design of Applied Drama activities calls for great clarity and precision for writinginstructions to teachers and students. We will provide some examples further on.



How much do you know about mime?

Assumption I agree

a. Mime is the art of communicating stories, feelings or emotions without words, through body language

b. Mime is the art of communicating without words or objects.

c. All mimes wear white make-up.

d. Masks are not used in mime because they conceal the face.

e. Music is vital in mime shows.

f. You cannot represent abstract concepts through mime.activities.

g. Mimes must also be good dancers.

h. Mime shows are usually performed by only one mime at a time.

Read the next section and check your answers:

1.1.1. Mime

a. Yes, you could say that, but mime is a lot more than communicating withoutwords, through body language:

“I understand by stylisation not the exact reconstruction of the style of ahistorical period, or the reproduction of events or actions, as in a photograph,rather, I associate it to the idea of an established convention, a generalisation,a symbol. Stylising means depicting the abstract synthesis of a period or anevent, resorting to all the possible means of expression. It is a representationof all the specific hidden elements of a work of art." Meyerhold, V. (1971)

Meyerhold established his stylisation principle in the 20th century, but mimes had beenusing it for centuries. The mime's movements are always stylised to permit a clearerinterpretation. Because of this, we speak about a “grammar of mime".



“There should be a study of the value of signs. In general, we see that thecopied sign is worth as much as the original; the sign created by ourimagination reveals the performer's thoughts, intentions, tastes, combinations

and genius." Dorcy, J. (1958) 1

b. No. Objects can be used in mime and there may be signs with brief textswritten on them, to indicate geographical location or the passing of time.

c. No, not necessarily.d. Masks are widely used in mime. By neutralising the face as a means of

expression, mimes concentrate on delivering more accurate body messages.e. Yes, but many mimes - Marcel Marceau, for instance - have also performed

in complete silence.f. Not true. There is figurative and non-figurative mime. Figurative mime

imitates real situations and movements. Non-figurative mime expressesabstract concepts.

g. Yes, this is true. h. No. Many people can interact in a mime show.

Non-verbal codes are a substantive part of communication. In fact, most messages areconveyed through body language and not by words. It is also through body languagethat people build up their relationships.

Gestures and body posture, the relative position of the interlocutors, muscular tensionand facial expression define the true meaning of words in conversation, to such anextent, that we may try to lie with words but our body language will always tell thetruth and send the messages we are trying to conceal. If our objective is to educateour learners as effective communicators, we cannot neglect training in body language,which is an integral part of their expression.

In 1914, Ekman and Friesen, from the Langley Porter Neurosychiatric Institute ofCalifornia, and Sorensen, from the National Institute of Neurotic Diseases and Blindnessformulated the theory of the existence of innate sub cortical programs whichautomatically attribute certain standard meanings to universally perceptible facialexpressions reflecting primary emotions: joy, surprise, fear, anger, anguish, shame,despite, dislike and interest. This does not erase cultural differences when it comes tohand gestures or body posture, but it confirms Darwin's idea that basic facial gesturesare common to all human being. For example, smiles are always expressions of joy. Thisalso points to the existence of a body language which contains fairly universal symbols.

Albert Mehrabian went as far as stating that words alone account for only 7% ofhuman communication, 38% is transmitted by the tone of voice, intonation, volumeand pitch and 55% of the meaning of messages is attributable to other, non-verbalcodes. In other words, we may spend the whole day talking, but we build andstrengthen our interpersonal relationships through body messages.

(See both papers in the Further Reading section)

Why mime?

Silentmessages

1 The translation is mine.



1.1.2. Mime techniques

As we have all studied Asher's Total Physical Response method and it is not very boldto state that all teachers use mime during their lessons. However, there are sometechniques which have not yet found their proper place in the ELT classroom althoughthey pertain to the ancient art of mime and can make a significant contribution tolanguage learning:

This type of exercise gives cohesion to a group, and helps the participants to developawareness of team work and to connect with the other members of the group. Thefollowing are examples of how to write instructions for a Tableau activity:

Building a tableau:a. A person proposes a theme for a tableau, by carrying out an action and then

freezing it. (Example: He/she plays in an open space, like a park)b. Another member of the team, at the coordinator's signal (Clapping, for example),

joins the tableaux in the same way: he/she performs an action and freezes it.People who freeze actions do not move until the tableau is complete.

c. The game continues until the tableau is complete.

NB: The tableau may be a physical representation of a scene from a story, or be usedto create one, among other uses.

Also a group-cohesion activity. Students arrange themselves into a still scene whichlooks like a living photo.

Building a photo:a. In groups of three or four, decide what picture you are going to produce.

(Holidays by the sea, first day at the office, graduation, birthday, etc.)b. Build the picture and freeze it.NB: The picture may be exploited by having the class describe it, guess where thepicture was taken, writing a story based on the picture, etc.

Building a changing tableaux or mime drama:a. In groups, create a story in tableaux. b. Create a tableau and freeze it. The coordinator will clap.c. At the coordinator's signal, change into the next tableau.d. Devise a way of changing the tableaux quickly and neatly.NB: Before creating the tableaux story, students may write it down.

(Example: Students write: 1. Two men are sitting on a bench in the park. They are reading thenewspaper. 2. A young man has come and is reading comics. 3. The man readingcomics is laughing his head off. The others have put down their newspapers and arelooking at him. 4. The two men have left their newspapers on the floor and are readingthe comics from behind the young man's shoulders)

The technique is very productive because learners have to discuss what they are goingto do and write it down. The audience may be asked to interpret the tableaux or touse them as inspiration for creating more stories or descriptions.

Tableaux

Photo

Changingtableaux or

mime dramas



Forum discussion

How would you use the mime techniques described above for developing writingskills? Give an example and discuss the topic with the other course participants.

1.1.3. Dramatisation

Which of these activities would you call “dramatisation" of a situation?

a. Susan, a young student, wants to give another student, Robert, her dog. Susan ismoving to Canada and wants to leave her dog in good hands. Robert is also astudent. He lives with his parents in a house in the suburbs, but he has not yetdecided if he wants a dog. Susan and Robert meet at a bar to discuss the problem.Susan will try to convince Robert. Will she succeed? Act out the situation andcome to a conclusion.

b. Mary is seventeen years old and attends school in her neighbourhood. One day,she plays truant from school because she does not want to take a very difficulttest. She goes to a nearby park and meets a nice old lady who is reading thepaper, sitting on a bench. What happens next? What do they talk about? Twostudents improvise the scene.

c. In Cinderella, the Prince enters Cinderella's house to ask the young women in thehouse to try on the crystal slipper. When it fits perfectly on Cinderella's foot, heasks him to marry him. She agrees and forgives her step-sisters.

Dramatisation is not, in general, a presentation technique. It should be used topractise, review and consolidate knowledge or language items previously introduced.It often paves the way for more open-ended activities, such as role-play (Activity “a")or improvisation (Activity “b") In improvisation, participants are given some clues andallowed to develop the situation as they please.

CYES! THE ANSWER IS ................

WHY?Because the situation and its outcome arefully described. There is very little for theparticipants to create or decide. They havebeen given “a complete script"



Hot Seating

1.1.4. Character portrayal

It means moving, talking, generally behaving and even feeling as one of the charactersin a story. It entails stepping into a character's shoes.

Character portrayal is as old as theatre itself and all teachers understand that learnersportray characters when they impersonate fictional or real people or beings in stories.This sometimes includes researching the historical moment when the story takes place,the characters' social medium, their past, etc. A study of a character and writing asoliloquy to be delivered by that character is, in itself, a story-based project.

Hundreds of resourcebooks have been written on the use of character portrayal forlanguage teaching, so we will not set out to duplicate them. Let us just discuss twotechniques within this domain.

1.1.5 Character portrayal activities

A learner impersonating one of the characters in a story or non-fiction text sits in frontof the class and the others ask him/her questions about details of his/her life which donot appear in the story. They may also ask the character for opinions or points of viewon different issues.

Both for the interviewee to be able to answer the questions and remain in role, andfor the interviewers to ask pertinent, relevant questions, it is necessary to have studiedthe text in depth. The learners' performance is judged by how coherent with the storyand the character the questions and the answers have been.

The same as Hot-Seating, but the teacher sits on the interviewee's chair. This allowsfor more control of the answers and perhaps for the introduction of language itemsthe teacher wants to review or consolidate.

Teacher-in-role

There are many more activities, but listing them here would exceed the scope of this unit.



Activity 4In this sequence of activities designed to practise and internalise theuse of reported speech, analyse each activity and explain which AppliedDrama techniques they contain - if any.

Look up the suggested answers at the end of the unit.

1. Play Who said that? - Two groups. A student from each group goes to the front. Theystand with their backs to the class. The other students answer several questions posed by the teacher, using present simple: What kind of music do you prefer?, When do you play football?, etc. The students at the front have to guess who answered, eg.,Maria said she hated tomatoes. The student with more correct guesses, wins.

2. Play Chinese Whispers: ask students to stand in a row. Whisper a message intothe first student's ear and ask him/her to pass it on to his/her neighbour, whowill also pass it on, until the message reaches the last player. Nobody shouldhear what the others are saying. Remind the students to begin the message with,“He/She said that ….". Suggested messages: I don't get up early on Sundaysbecause I don't go to work./ I like apples and bananas but not for breakfast. Thegame has no winner. It is just fun to see how accurately the message has beenrepeated and whether the original and final versions are the same.

3. Where are we? In groups. Students imagine they are on a spaceship, exploring a remote planet. They have to describe the environment.

• Where in the spaceship are they? (Cabin, controls, cockpit, etc.) What is this place like?

• What is the weather like outside? • What can they hear? / see /smell / taste / feel?• How do they feel?

4. The groups discuss the task and answer it orally, a question each. Elicit the useof reported speech by asking, for example, Who said it was cold?, What did yousay when he said it was raining?, etc Be careful not to turn the conversationinto a grammar task.

5. Problems! The spaceship returns to Earth, but lands on a desert island and isseriously damaged.

Preparation: students write the names of objects in aircraft on pieces of paperand put them on your desk, face down. Discuss this with the class to make sureobjects are not repeated: money, water containers, spacesuits, etc.

SPACESHIP -Teacher's

Instructions

Level: IntermediateStudents' age: 12

Type of lesson: ConsolidationAim: To practise and internalise the use of reported speech.Objective: To report what other people say.



Setting: the spaceship is no good any more, communication is cut and theastronauts have to survive on the island. The groups describe the environment.Are there any rocks?, Is there a river?, Are there any trees?, etc.

Scenario: Only eight objects from the ship can be used. The others have beendestroyed. Ask the class to pick eight pieces of paper at random and make a listof those objects.

Outcome: The groups find uses for the eight objects they have. They cannotdiscard any. After their discussion, they report their conclusions to the class, whoare also on the island. The class choose the best suggestions.

6. Interview. The astronauts are rescued. They are interviewed at a pressconference. Some students play the astronauts and the others are journalists. Give the class time to write their questions, then carry out the pressconference. In teams, the “journalists" write the report of the interview for theirnewspapers. The student who impersonated the astronaut assumes the role of journalist, too,for the writing activity.

SPACESHIP -Teacher's

Instructions

Forum discussion

If you disagree with any of the suggested answers, or you wish to add some commentsto the activity analysis, discuss your queries and contributions to the Forum.

Note and remember

In the sequence of activities we analysed in Activity 1, we can see the criteria used forconnecting the activities, drawn from drama principles:

a. The sequence begins with some group cohesion games, which are best related todrama skills, such as paying attention, communicating, or memory training.(Activities 1 and 2) Lowering the affective filter and creating a cooperative groupatmosphere are pre-requisites for meaningful Applied Drama practices.

b. The second step has to do with developing some specific drama-related skills, suchas impersonation, body expression, action-reaction skills or as in this case,awareness of the environment. (Activities 3 and 4)

c. The last activity integrates several drama-based skills and is usually based ondramatisation, role-play or improvisation. (Activities 5 and 6)

If your answers to Activity 4 demonstrated an understanding of drama concepts andtechniques, you have achieved this section's objective. Now you can:

• Analyse drama-based activities.



We will now move on to the last objective of this unit:

• To design effective role-play activities

What is a role?

When we get up in the morning, we are ready to play the roles we will need to carryout our work, interact with our family and go on with our lives in our community. Stillin our pyjamas, we play the roles of parents, caretakers, spouses, sons or daughters;then, we get dressed and go to work, where we play the secretary, the teacher or thedoctor, for example. From time to time, we vote in an election, thus playing our roleas citizens, and maybe there are other roles we will assume if we do charity work inour free time or join an amateur theatre group.

A role isnot a person

This brief description of the transformations we go throughon any normal day gives us the first insight into adefinition of a role:

If we were asked, What is your role?, we would require clarification to answer thequestion, such as, What is my role where? When? With whom? Our roles depend largelyon the social context and the type of interaction they require. We come into this worldas stand-in actors in a play which has already been developing for a long time. Our fellowactors do their best to help us fit into the existing circumstances on stage, but ourperformance will also have an influence on them, and all the cast will have to go throughadaptations and changes.

We are going to discuss scientific definitions of roles, but perhaps the most memorablebelongs to William Shakespeare:

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. At first the infant, Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.

And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel And shining morning face, creeping like snail

Unwillingly to school. And then the lover, Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad

Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier, Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard, Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel

Seeking the bubble reputation



Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice, In fair round belly with good capon lined, With eyes severe and beard of formal cut, Full of wise saws and modern instances;

And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,

With spectacles on nose and pouch on side, His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,

Turning again toward childish treble, pipes And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,

That ends this strange eventful history, Is second childishness and mere oblivion,

Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

As You Like It - Act 2, scene 7, 139-143

In this poetic but strikingly realistic description of the roles a human being plays frombirth to death, we can find the main attributes of role-playing:

a. To behave in the expected fashion. The social medium expects certain type of behaviour from different role-players: the lover should sigh; the soldier should be“sudden and quick in quarrel".

b. To talk and move appropriately - that is in order to conform to social conventionsand to assert his/her personal way of playing the role.

c. To dress for the role.

An additional consideration is that we sometimes play overlapping roles, for example,we can be our children's teachers while being their parents.

2. Roles

We will now discuss the Role Theory in Social Psychology and some of its implications.

According to Pichón Riviére (1984),

“A role is an organised model of behaviour relative to a certain position of theindividual in an interaction web, relating to his/her own expectations and those

of others." 2(p 89)

In this view, there is an interplay between the inner world and the outside world, thatis, the social and cultural dimension of the role and the role player's individualconception of the role, partly conditioned by his personal history.

Some authors stress the social aspect of roles, stating that role-playing is practicallycompletely conditioned by social expectations, patterns or status. Others place theemphasis on interaction and how roles change and develop as individuals play them.A more comprehensive discussion of the definitions provided by Social Psychology isoutside the scope of this work, so we are going to concentrate on several aspectswhich, to a lesser or a greater degree, are common to all of them.



Other relevant characteristics of roles, are:

• They are mostly complementary, each role having its counter-role. There is noteacher without pupils and no doctor without patients, for example.

• They generate expectations in the social group, as each player is supposed tobehave according to an accepted model.

• They are hierarchical, as different roles have different status and enjoying relativedegrees of respect or consideration.

• They depend for their existence on general agreement as to how the role should be defined.

• Highly influential role players may cause a re-definition of the role: a teacher whoestablished new conventions or practices for her/his role would cause futuregenerations to change their expectations for the role.

2.1. Dramatic action, scenarios and hidden agendas

The discussion of the nature and characteristics of roles is a necessary background tothe design of role-play activities, but it does not complete these activities' theoreticalsubstantiation, as the key element seems to be not so much what a role is but howinteraction between roles occurs, and what for. To define this interaction, we are goingto resort to the concept of dramatic action, since role-play is, in the classroom, adrama-based activity.

2 The translation is mine.

Dramatic action is the interplay of roles occurringin a shared scenario, by people playing rolesaccording to hidden agendas, with the purpose ofsolving a conflict and attaining certain goals.

According to Di Pietro (1987), “a scenario is the strategic interplay of roles functioningto fulfil personal agendas within a shared context". This definition is somewhatdifferent from our concept of “dramatic action" in that we would consider a“scenario", all the circumstances and contexts surrounding a particular situation.

However, if we adhere to Di Pietro's definition, which is more pedagogical thandramatic, we would consider the scenario a realistic happening involving theunexpected and requiring the use of language for the resolution of a conflict.

In his theory, several concepts are particularly relevant when we consider the design ofrole-play activities:

the conversation is more than just an exchange of factual information. The speakersare trying to achieve certain goals, those in their private agendas, and they adjust theirmessages to ongoing interlocutor's responses, always with an end in mind. It is notjust playing a social ritual.

they can be psychological (victim, enemy, rival) or social (buyer, teacher, tourist). Socialroles, however, often involve psychological roles when they are set in a scenario.

Strategicinterplay:

Roles:

What is dramaticaction?



Each party in a scenario must be given an agenda, a set of personal goals that requiresinteraction with other parties in order to be completed. The use of role-cards enableseach student to keep his/her agenda secret.

It is obvious, then, that in role-play activities there must be:• A scenario or situation involving a conflict.

• Strategic interaction leading to the achievement of personal goals.• An ending which is the resolution of the conflict.

There is some overlapping between role-play and information-gap activities: whenroles are purely social (Buyer and seller at a shop, for example) and the scenario doesnot contain important hidden agendas (The buyer wants a sweater of certaincharacteristics and the seller has it and is willing to sell it), the resulting conflict is sosuperficial that this may be considered an information-gap activity rather than a roleplay, but then again, all role-play activities will contain an information gap.

Perhaps the most relevant feature distinguishing one category from the other is theextent of the strategic interaction: in role play, action will develop in unforeseen waystowards the resolution of the conflict; in information-gap activities, this developmentis highly predictable, almost ritualistic, and the conflict is kept to a minimum, becausethe participants' agendas are almost complementary.

When designing role-play activities, we may allow students to interact as themselves orwe may ask them to play a character. This means students will always play roles butsometimes will not play characters, which would entail assuming a fictitious personalityand literally behaving like an actor who is playing a part on stage or on the screen.

Adults are sometimes unable or unwilling to play characters. This is often the case withpeople whose creativity and imagination have not been developed in early years, orwho feel inhibited by this type of performance.

On the other hand, some adults enjoy dressing up, portraying characters and actingout situations and find this highly “liberating", because they feel they are notthemselves, at that moment, and lose their inhibitions. It is the teacher's job, not thematerials designer's, to choose the type of activities which will go down well with aparticular group of learners.

A distinction should be drawn, then, between live roles, demanding the portrayal of afictitious character, and life roles, allowing students to work out a conflict asthemselves, although this conflict will always involve some make-believe or pretence.

Considering that some adult learners will not play characters, but everybody will play a role,it is advisable for the materials designer to provide a good number of role-play activities inwhich students will play life roles, and make the situations resemble real-life circumstancesas closely as possible, whilst keeping more imaginative scenarios to a minimum.

The situation is completely different when designing materials for children, who needto develop their imagination and creativity, as well as their artistic capabilities. Theyusually enjoy not only acting out and developing fantastic situations, but also dressingup, wearing masks and changing their voices to better impersonate characters. We mayeven claim that children will not play roles unless they also play characters.

Personalagendas and

shared contexts:

Charactersand roles



Activity 5Analyse the three examples below and say which is more typically arole-play activity, taking into consideration: a) depth of the conflict; b)differences in the participants' agendas; c) range of dramatic action.

See the suggested answer at the end of the unit.

Example 1:

Scenario: Tom is finally dating the girl of his dreams. He has to go out with her tonight,but his car is out of order. He wants to borrow Robert's car.

Situation: Tom goes to Robert's place to borrow his car.

Roles:

Card A - Tom You want to borrow your friend's car to go out with your girlfriend this evening.You know your friend hates to lend his car, but you offer to do something for himin exchange, such as helping him with his homework. Try to convince him.

Card B - Robert You are stuck with your homework. On top of this, your friend comes to see youand interrupts your work. Your friend is a genius, so maybe his visit is not sountimely after all, because he may help you with your homework. The onlyproblem is that he does not like being asked to coach fellow students.

Example 2:

Scenario: You and two colleagues have just won a contest at the company for the designof a new office building. The prize is a week's holiday at a place of your choice in Argentina,but the three of you must travel together. Wives/husbands may accompany you.

Situation: The three of you get together to decide where to go. You have to decide todayor you will lose the prize.

Roles:

Card AYou want to go to a mountain resort in Bariloche, with a spa. Bariloche is practicallythe only place in Argentina you do not know. Besides, you want to inspect the job offersthere, as you are planning to move to the south. Your friends should not know this.

Card BYou do not care very much where you go, as long as it is a not a very quiet place.You do not find peace and quiet relaxing at all. You like discos, theatres and shops.

Card CA friend of yours has a travel agency and will give you a commission if youpersuade your friends to go to Carlos Paz. You need the money very badly.

Outcome: You finally agree on a place for your holidays or lose your prize.



Example 3:

Scenario: Susan goes to the greengrocer's to buy some vegetables and fruit.

Situation: Susan buys what she needs.

CARD A - Greengrocer

You are a greengrocer. These are the prices ofsome of the vegetables and fruit you sell:

- Oranges............................ $ 1.50 the kilo- Potatoes .......................... $ 0.30 - Bananas .......................... $ 2.00- Tomatoes ........................ $ 2.40- Lettuce ............................ $ 3.00

CARD B - Susan

Go to the greengrocer's to buy:- 1 kilo oranges (or bananas)- 1 kilo tomatoes- 1 kilo lettuce (or 500 grams)

You have $5.- Ask about prices.

Outcome: Susan makes a purchase.

2.2. The psychological-dramatic perspective

In 1968, Stephen Karpman, M.D., outlined his theory of drama as consisting of adramatic triangle with only three roles. He used this paradigm to analyse fairy tales andother forms of drama.

The action roles needed for dramatic action to exist are the Persecutor, Rescuer, andVictim, or P, R, and V, in the diagram. Drama begins when these roles are established, orare anticipated by the audience. There is no drama unless there is a switch in the roles.

Once three parties become involved in the triangle, they begin to play the three roles,so the triangle rotates.

Karpman's dramatic triangle can be used as a model for the design of effective role-play activities, provided that the conflicts are always superficial and the scenarios referto everyday situations.

EXAMPLEA job overseas

Scenario: The company where John works has offered him an interesting job in Paris.The salary is excellent and there are a lot of perks. However, he has not accepted yet.

PERSECUTOR

RESCUER VICTIM



Situation: He discusses the matter with his wife, Susan, and their eighteen-year oldson, Bobby.

Roles:

SUSANYou have a shop in Buenos Aires and do not speak any foreign languages. Youlook after your aging and sick mother, 80. Going to live abroad would meangiving up everything you do and starting over, not to mention that you wouldhave to take.

BOBBYYou are about to finish secondary school and would like to study abroad and seethe world. You can't wait to leave.

JOHNThis is a wonderful opportunity and you trust that your family will follow you.However, you do not want to make them unhappy and will try to please them asmuch as possible.

Outcome: John will accept or turn down the offer.

You may wish to read, from the Further Reading list:Karpman, S. (1968). Fairy Tales and Script Drama Analysis. Transactional Analysis Bulletin,vol. 7, no. 26, pp. 39-43. http://www.itaa-net.org/TAJNet/articles/karpman01.html

The article is not directly applicable to an ELT situation, but it contains many conceptswhich can be used both in drama-based activities and in literary analysis of narrative ordramatic texts - not to mention its usefulness for conducting interpersonal relations.

2.3. The contribution of information technology

Please read, from the core bibliography: Colburn, Ch. (1989) Online Strategic Interaction: ESL Role-Playing via Internet RelayChat. The Internet TESL Journal, Vol. IV, No. 6, June 1998http://www.aitech.ac.jp/~iteslj/ Accessed in November 2005.

Human contact, body expression, tone of voice, are irreplaceable components ofhuman communication when it takes place face-to-face. However, virtualenvironments also succeed in creating meaningful communication. Computer AssistedLanguage Learning (CALL) and virtual learning environments are powerful tools for thecreation of Applied Drama activities.

In some cases, CALL can give added value to a language programme; in others, it isthe only option, for example, for people in remote places, where no teacher is available.Technological advances allow us not only to re-create most of the conditions of face-



to-face communication in virtual environments, but to enrich the contents of a courseby putting students in touch with other cultures.

We are going to deal with CALL and e-learning in the following unit, but we wouldlike to invite you to begin exploring the means available to you for designing projects,role-plays, interviews or other interactive activities using electronic means such as:

a. The e-mail. Students can play roles and work out a situation, writing a finalreport, for example.

b. A blog. This is a perfect medium for discussions, exchanges of information or thepublication of students' work. Go to www.blogger.com

c. A Wiki page. This is an internet page that many people can edit. Go towww.pbwiki.com.

d. The tools of Web.2.0.e. Messenger - a chat programme. www.msn.com

The Internet itself is very useful for language teaching, but we are now concerned withdramatic action, so we should concentrate on interactive electronic means.

Final recommendations for the design of role-play activities:

We have limited our examples to the role-play activities themselves, but whendesigning materials, it is important to include:

a. Target group (age, level, language programme)b. Language items addressed.c. Cross-curricular links, if any.d. Scenario or situation.e. Role descriptions or role cards.f. Description of the teacher's role.g. Conduct of the activity.

The teacher may play the observer's role or participate in the role-play. In the lattercase, he/she should always keep the coordinator's or moderator's role and neverengage in a triangle with the learners.

If the teacher acts as an observer, it should be clear to the students when and why thetutor may step in and participate in the role-play activity. Otherwise, his/herintervention may disrupt the development of the scenario.



Activity 6a. Design a role-play activity involving a dramatic triangle. Include theitems listed in the previous section: Target group, language itemsaddressed, etc.

b. Try it out and report on the results, giving reasons for the success or failure of theactivity.

Send your work to your tutor, together with your answers to Activity 7 (Rounding-off).

If your work is up to standard, you have achieved the last objective of this unit.Now you can:

• Design effective role-play activities

You are ready for the final summary and rounding-off.

Applied Drama is the application of theatre-based principles and techniques to non-theatrical environments, for educational, social or therapeutical purposes. It is tailoredto the needs of a particular group, which is subsequently modified by theimplementation of these practices.

In the EFL classroom, Applied Drama contributes realistic interaction and soundtraining in communication skills. The activities are many, but in this unit we havepresented those belonging to three main groups:

As we discussed sequencing in previous units, we found it fit to explain the principlesof sequencing Applied Drama activities according to the needs of the field, so that theybuild up to a fully integrative communicative exchange:

We have paid special attention to role-play, and to the design of activities accordingto the principles of strategic interaction and Karpman's dramatic triangle. Theseactivities are particularly interesting for adults in business environments and can alsobe developed by electronic means.

MATERIALS DESIGN I


U4

Unit summary: Applied Drama activities

MIME

MimeTableauMime dramasPhoto

CHARACTERPORTRAYAL

Character portrayal activities.Hot-seating.Teacher-in-role.

INTERACTIONDramatisation.Improvisation.Role-play

1. Group cohesion game.

2. An activity based on a particular drama skills.

3. A fully integrative and interactive activity.



Activity 7 - Rounding-offGo to http://www.roleplaysim.org/papers/default.asp?Topic=toc3 In this site,you will find some papers on role-playing. Choose one, read it and tell us:

a. Why did you choose this paper?b. How can it help you to improve the design of your role-play activities?

5This site is sponsored by http://www.fablusi.com/ , which we also invite you to explore.

Send your answers to your tutor, as we have said.

You have completed this unit.

We invite you to proceed to Unit 5 to continue working towardscompleting Part II of our Project.



ANSWERS

Activity 1

All of them contain applied drama elements, but "c" is more clearly an applied drama activity.In the other cases, some features seem to be missing:

d. We do not know why the play was chosen. Had there been an analysis of the target context?

e. They use mime, which is a drama technique, but in a rather limited fashion.f If the rehearsal and performance are just steps in the staging of a show, this is clearly a

drama, not an applied drama, activity. However, depending on how it is carried out, it may have a high educational value. It is to be noted that perhaps it will not be carried out for the purpose of teaching English and that the drama teacher, not the English teacher, will probably be in charge of this activity.

Activity 2

Answer: What is Applied Drama more often related to, or often overlapping with?

BACK

BACK

Is it often related to Applied Drama? Yes Sometimes Hardly ever

a. Writing tasks.

b. Project work.

c. Grammar activities.

d. Body expression.

e. Integrated activities.

f. Activities appropriate for mixed ability groups.

g. The integrated development of all forms of intelligence.

h. Giving opportunities for putting different learning styles into practice.

i. Fostering team spirit.

j. Developing introspection and reflexion.

k. Judging others.

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

X



ANSWERS

Activity 2

a. Writing tasks may be based on Applied Drama activities, but this is not often the case.c. Ditto a.d. Some drama-based activities do not lay particular stress on body expression.j. This depends on how the activity is conducted and analysed.k. "Judging" should be avoided. Giving feedback or discussing results is better.

BACK

Activity 3. Is this True or False?

a. They need to have learnt something, but not necessarily to have appeared on a stage.b. Children do not necessarily want to be onstage.c. There is figurative and abstract mime.d. No. He should focus on the other actors.e. Yes. They should feel self-assured.f. Shy people may not want to act, but they can carry out other tasks - like directing.g. It is advisable to “kill" an activity before it dies a slow death.

Assumption T F

a. To design Applied Drama activities, teachers must be excellent actors.

b. It is silly to do mime or perform plays in class. Children want to performat the theatre.

c. Mime means performing certain actions as if you were manipulatingobjects, but also showing abstract feelings

d. On stage, an actor should focus mainly on the audience.

e. Children must know their lines by heart during the presentation of asketch or scene in class, or at least they should have practised them.

f. Shy people should be allowed not to participate in Applied Drama activities.

g. If children like an activity, you have to perform it all over again.

X

X

X

X

X

X

X

BACK



ANSWERS

Activity 4

1. The game is associated to character portrayal and is often used in drama training, butwe cannot say it is a typical Applied Drama activity.

2. This is a group cohesion game, used in Applied Drama to pave the way for moretheatre-like activities.

3. This activity develops awareness of the environment. It is associated to drama training,as well.

4. This activity is rather language-oriented, not drama-based.5. Improvisation. The improvisation cue is: what shall we do with these objects?6. Hot seating the astronauts. Role-playing. (Social roles, as we will see)

Activity 5

Suggested answer: Example 2.

In Example 1 the agendas are too complementary and will not produce too much conflict.In Example 3, we have an information gap activity with a very superficial conflict.

BACK

BACK

materials design i

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