Teaching English Toolbox - OPEN ACCESS SANDBOX
Drama - Theater - Improv
Canva: cat teaching theater to mice
Drama and Improv in the ELT classroom do not have to be huge productions - though of course they could be!! There is a lot we can learn from theater education that can be applied to teaching in general and to ELT.
- What are the principles behind improv and how can they be implemented in the English classroom?
- How can techniques used in theater education be turned into language learning activities?
- How can you adapt literary text (e.g. from Project Gutenberg) or boring coursebook texts with AI to turn them into a reader's theater for your class? How can you then teach it in a way that is sustainable to language learning?
Here are some resources to get you started:
- Melisa Cahmann has a book entitled "Enlivening Instruction with Drama and Improv:
A Guide for Second Language and World Language Teachers" and on her Teachers Act Up website, you find video clips demonstrating each of the activities described in the book (and more). - In the Bewegte Geschichten program, you have many ideas for German that are also applicable to English.
- A basic search for "improv in the EFL/ESL classroom" will lead you to myriad ideas.