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Teaching English
Using Drama Activities and Techniques for Teaching English

What is Drama? Drama is a unique tool to explore and express human feeling. Drama is an essential form of behavior in all cultures, it is a fundamental human activity. In this site we are investigating the benefits Drama can have on child development when applied functionally within a primary classroom. Drama has the potential, as a diverse medium, to enhance cognitive, affective and motor development. A high degree of thinking, feeling and moving is involved and subsequently aids in the development of skills for all other learning within and outside of schools (transfer of learning). Drama is a discrete skill in itself (acting, theatre, refined skill), and therefore it is offered as a 'subject' in secondary school. However Drama is also a tool which is flexible, versatile and applicable among all areas of the curriculum. Through its application as a tool in the primary classroom, Drama can be experienced by all children. Drama can foster language skills such as reading, writing, speaking and listening by creating a suitable context. Drama is a powerful language teaching tool that involves all of the students interactively all of the class period. Drama can also provide the means for connecting students’ emotions and cognition as it enables students to take risks with language and experience the connection between thought and action. Teaching English as a foreign language inevitably involves a balance between receptive and productive skills; here drama can effectively deal with this requirement. Through drama, a class will address, practice and integrate reading, writing, speaking and listening. Drama also fosters and maintains students’ motivation, by providing an atmosphere which is full of fun and entertainment. In so doing, it engages feelings and attention and enriches the learners' experience of the language.

There are many reasons in favors of using drama

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