English through Drama: Is It Worth It?

 

 

Agus Budiawan

Hiyeg Sakerti Wening

 

 

Language acquisition is best accomplished in context in which students convey their thoughts, messages and ideas in meaningful communication. It is often considered that the first stage of language acquisition is social interaction. Students must develop strategies for making and maintaining relationship in order to receive necessary input language (Soejarto, 1991). Teachers often have difficulties in finding classroom activities that can supply students’ need for such input. The challenge faced by language teachers is to help learners bridge the gap between passive knowledge of language and active communication with it (Zoebaidah,1991)). In this case, teachers should be able to motivate learners to express their ideas through interactive communication or social interaction. One strategy for developing interactive communication or social interaction is through drama activity either in class or outside the classroom.

 

When we talk about communication, drama is all communication. Every word in it is communication. In a good drama, the dialogue will be natural and relatively accurate. It is expected that the dialog expressed will be the way people talk. Students do not talk in pattern practices and drills. They talk with emotion and feeling to create true communication. In a drama, students are communicating for a clear purpose – they are involved in the situation and with the dramatic content of the drama. Through the interesting scenario, students gets interested in what is going to happen –they have motivation to perform the drama (Via, 1970). Drama can also help students overcome some of students shyness and give them the ability to think on their feet in a language other then their own. Clark (Di Pietro, 1987) mentions that the intention of drama is to put students into realistic communication situation in order to sharpen their listening comprehension skills, bring them into contact with the new language, and discover areas where they need additional practice. Preliminary study of developing students’ ability in English through Drama has been conducted in LBPP-LIA Bogor, Indonesia since 2001. The purpose of this study is to answer some questions related to Drama as one activity to enhance students’ language acquisition. The questions are: a. When can teachers introduce drama? b. What theme, topic, story and scenario are appropriate for the students? c. How can teachers impose drama to the students? d. What are the benefits of drama in teaching and learning English? From the result of this study, this paper will discuss and

answer those questions including the methodology of the study.

 

 

 

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Budiawan, A, & Wening, H. S. (2005, March). English through drama: Is it worth it?. Paper presented at LIA International Conference, Jakarta, Indonesia.

 

 

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