Infinite Possibilities – Expanding Limited Opportunities in Language Education: Proceedings of the 8th Annual JALT Pan-SIG Conference
May 23 - 24, 2009. Chiba, Japan: Toyo Gakuen University, Nagareyama Campu. (pp. 54 - 69)

Expanding opportunities through English drama

by Miori Shimada (Tamagawa University)

This paper introduces two university courses of future teachers of English to children. It describes how the author successfully built a bridge between the university and its affiliated elementary school through two drama activities. The course details and the process of drama-making by the university students are also explained. In 2007 and 2008 groups of university students and elementary school teachers collaborated to create interesting drama performances based on two children's books. The university students performed with unique improvisation and gestures to attract more attention from the elementary school students. In addition, the university students provided some relevant activities to encourage elementary school students to be more involved after the performance. As a result, the students from both sides were not only united, but also given an opportunity to share and learn from each other. The drama activities described herein enabled the university students to gain some confidence to speak English in front of people. That is an essential quality for a teacher.
"The drama activities described herein enabled the university students to gain some confidence to speak English in front of people. That is an essential quality for a teacher."

Drama Projects

Tamagawa Gakuen offers preschool to graduate school education within a single campus. When I began teaching there, I'd had an inspiration to unite preschool and university students since I conducted teacher training for students in the Department of Education and they wanted to gain some experience in teaching English to young learners. I invited a few teachers from the institution's elementary school division as guest speakers, but also wanted to send my students there and have them give their English performance as a wrap-up activity for the course.
It seemed this arrangement would be beneficial for both sides. My students would obtain an authentic classroom setting for their final performance and get honest feedback as kyoiku jisshu, a practicum for their teacher certification. On the other hand, the elementary school students would get an opportunity to see an English drama and learn some tips about English performance. This was particularly helpful as they gave English performance at the end of the year every year. This Drama Activity started in the fall of 2007.
This paper explains how the drama activity was conducted and how the students interacted with each other during the performance. The drama activity also enabled both groups of students to share the pleasure and a sense of solidarity.
The reaction paper of the students also revealed that they became more used to writing in English and gained confidence in speaking English while developing their drama scripts and relevant activities for their fellow students.

Literature Review

[ p. 54 ]

According to Wallace (1991), there are two ways to cultivate knowledge among teachers: one is to master a given corpus of "received knowledge", and the other is to gain "experiential knowledge" (p. 87). Thus we need to consider how teacher-candidates can acquire "experiential knowledge"? One way is through practice teaching. However, many universities have had difficulties in finding schools to accept students for their teacher-certification programs (Ota, cited in Sakamoto & Ogane, 2006). In the end, they generally ask for cooperation from nearby schools or the schools that students graduated from to accept those teacher-candidates for their practicum training.
When designing the drama projects, the views from Maley and Duff (1978) and Wallace (1991) encouraged me to carry out this activity. Maley and Duff (1978) state:
By working together, the students learn to feel their way to creating their own parts and adapting them as they come up against others. The problem of not wanting to speak or, more often, not knowing what to say is practically resolved because the activity makes it necessary to talk. (p. 9).
These same authors later contend that, "…the conclusion must be that, generally speaking, nothing works so well as using real learners" (p. 101).

Methodology
Courses

I taught two teacher-training courses of elementary school English in 2007 and 2008. Although both were nominally general English courses, I was requested to introduce elementary school English teaching skills to students. Let us now consider both courses.
In both courses, students learned to communicate in English from reading and analyzing picture books by Leo Lionni (2007 Class) and Eric Carle (2008 Class). Students acquired the skills to teach English to young learners by observing the video clips of a few classrooms and listening to a lecture by an English teacher for young children on Guest Speaker's Day. They also had opportunities to discuss on what kinds of activities they would conduct followed by the introduction of a few picture books in each lesson and how those activities would be demonstrated in an actual classroom. At the end of the course, the university teacher-candidates performed an English drama in front of the young students.

Participants and Time Frame

The participants and time frames for both classes are summarized in Tables 1 and 2.

Table 1. A profile of the participant groups described in this study.
# of Students M / F Majors Academic Years
2007 Class 5 2 / 3 Education 2, 3, 4, & Grad.
2008 Class 4 4 / 0 Education 2 & 3

Table 2. Time frame for the 2007 and 2008 courses.
Class time # of classes Time span Extra lessons
(for meeting/rehearsal)
2007 Class 13:00 - 14:40 15 Sep. '06 - Jan. '07 *1
2008 Class 13:00 - 14:40 15 Sep. '07 - Jan. '08 *2

[ p. 55 ]

* Extra lesson for rehearsal a few days before the actual performance
** All three sophomore students took turns visiting the elementary school during their free class time periods on separate weekdays to discuss about their performance and the script with the native-speaker teacher there.
Procedure

2007 Class

The students studied 23 picture books by Leo Lionni (1910-1999), who is most noted for Swimmy (1963), in the first half of the fall semester. Appendix A offers an overview of Lionni's books for children.
In each lesson, the students took turns at storytelling, and the class examined a few books in each lesson by filling in charts, as in Appendix B, and discussed ideas on how to teach English to elementary school students. In the middle of the course, each student selected his/her favorite picture book, chose an appropriate performance-style for the book, and created a drama script based on its story. All scripts were brought to the children's English teachers, who read those scripts, gave students feedback, and then chose one they thought was most appropriate. The script that was chosen was a drama based on the book Cornelius (1999) by Leo Lionni. This book is about a unique crocodile, Cornelius, who always walked upright. He was proud because he could see a great distance due to his unusual posture, but other crocodiles turned their backs on him. Shocked and disappointed, Cornelius left native swamp and met a monkey who taught him an acrobatic performance. He returned home with confidence and performed some acrobatics in front of other crocodiles. At first, they seemed not to pay any attention to him. However, when Cornelius looked back, he saw that they were all imitating his acrobatics. Cornelius felt happy and proud. A copy of the script for this story is in Appendix C.
In the latter half of the course, students revised this script, prepared for their performance, went through a rehearsal, and then performed the play. This was followed by a yes/no quiz show with look-alike animals, as in Appendix D. Both the university and elementary school students participated in the drama and subsequent yes/no quiz interactively. The elementary school students also gave feedback to the university students after the performance. The timetable of this course, as well as the one that followed next year, is displayed in Table 3.

2008 Class

The students studied 19 picture books by Eric Carle, the author of The Very Hungry Caterpillar (1981), in the first half of the fall semester. An overview of his works for children appears in Appendix F.
In each lesson, the students took turns storytelling, and the class examined a few books in each lesson by filling in charts, as in Appendix G. They also discussed how to teach English to elementary school students in Japan.

Table 3. The schedules of the 2007 and 2008 classes.
Lesson 2007 2008
1
◌ Course syllabus and timetable
◌ Self-Introductions
◌ Read one of the most popular picture books
by Leo Lionni (Swimmy)
◌ A list of foreign books used as Japanese Language
textbooks for children 1992 - 2005
◌ Course syllabus and timetable
◌ Self-Introductions
◌ Read one of the most popular picture books
by Eric Carle (The Very Hungry Caterpillar)
2
◌ "Simple and Easy" books
◌ The "Very" book series
3
◌ Books with "Interesting contrasts"
◌ "Simple and easy" books
4
◌ "Unique" books
◌ Books about "Self-Awareness"
5
◌ Books about "Friendship"
◌ Books about "Family"
6
◌ Books about "Family"
◌ Books about "Family"
7
◌ Books about "Self-Awareness"
◌ Select books from "Universe"
and "Occupation" categories for the Performance Day
(one book per person)
and start making scripts
8
◌ Books about "Self-Awareness"
◌ Guest Speaker's DayStudent scripts due
9
◌ Books about "Responsibility"
◌ Review feedback from First Division
◌ Begin to polish the recommended script
◌ Discussion on performance
10
Student scripts due
◌ Books about "Solidarity"
◌ Class observations
11
◌ Books about "Peace"
◌ Make changes and script additions
◌ Decide the role of each student
12
◌ Class Observations
◌ More script-development,
song-creation and prop making
13
◌ Practice
◌ Practice
Extra lesson
◌ Rehearsal   
◌ Final revision of the script
14
◌ Performance
◌ Rehearsal
Extra lesson
◌ Final check and inclusion of
an additional section
15
◌ Feedback and the wrap-up lesson
◌ Performance

The same procedure for selecting the 2007 script was used again in 2008. This time a script was chosen based on Carle's 1998 book Pancakes, Pancakes! This book is about a hungry boy named Jack who wanted to eat pancakes for breakfast one morning. However, his mother was too busy and told Jack to get all the necessary ingredients by himself. Finally, he collected them, cooked the pancakes with his mother, and ate them with joy. The book highlights the effort needed to collect various agricultural products to make pancakes with appealing illustrations. The script used for that book appears in Appendix H.
As in the previous year, the students also revised this script, prepared their performance, and performed the play with some quizzes.

[ p. 57 ]

Results

Attitudinal Changes

Since this drama activity was introduced on the school website, it became a positive stress that appeared to motivate many of the students. As a result, students in the 2007 course decided to spend an extra day for the final rehearsal, and those in the next year's course met the Fist Division teachers twice.
The students worked even more cooperatively once we started practicing our performances. They dedicated themselves to the different tasks (music, props, songs, etc.) and became autonomous learners. Similar attitudinal changes were also noted in a study by Kamiya (2001). As she puts it, "Some willingly volunteered for camera work, some for lighting" (p. 10).
In the 2007 course the student who developed this script was the youngest in the class and was very worried about his English ability at first. However, the fact that he was a member of the university drama club gave him confidence to work harder to develop a better script in English. On the performance day, he even added some extra lines to involve the audience more. The graduate school student who was the oldest in this class was willing to work as a key person and made frequent contacts with teachers in the First Division. The other three female students worked harmoniously and decided to take turns being the main character so that they could equally share this important role.
In the 2008 course, the student who developed the two scripts based on the same book became more actively involved once his script was chosen. He volunteered to play minor characters and began to put much more effort in the revision of the script. The rest of the classmates were also cooperative in revising his script and shared other roles. The oldest student who could not commit himself to extra work outside the class volunteered to play a main character and remembered all the lines perfectly on the performance day. He also did lots of improvisation with confidence to captivate the audience. The three sophomore students exchanged ideas frequently and actively met with the elementary school teachers to discuss their performance. They also spent some time making props on campus between classes.

Written Feedback from the 2008 Students

At the end of the 2008 course, I asked all the students to write a 1-2 page reaction paper about their performances, covering the following points:
  1. the things they did well
  2. the efforts they made
  3. the things they did not perform well
  4. suggestions for improvements
  5. Whether the drama project contributed for improving their English skills or not.
Overall, the feedback was positive. All respondents felt that the final quiz section could have been improved, however.

[ p. 58 ]

Audience Feedback

As mentioned in the previous section, we received collected student feedback from the First Division in the 2008 Course. The feedback was a packet of short essays about our performance and yes/no quiz from all 36 students who attended our performance. Tables 4 and 5 summarize their responses.

Table 4. Ranking of the audience feedback on the 2008 drama performance (N = 25).
Rank Comment
#Stds. making this comment
1
◌ The play was very interesting.
10
2
◌ The university students performed quite well.
8
3
◌ We want to see the play again.
7
4
◌ The actors' voices were clear and their pronunciation was good.
4
5
◌ The drama was warm-hearted.
3
5
◌ We want to perform in English like these university students.
3
5
◌ I understood around half of the drama since it was in English. 
3
NOTE: These comments are summarized and have been translated from the original Japanese by the author.
Table 5. Ranking of the students' feedback on the yes/no quiz (N = 8).
Rank Comment
#Stds. making this comment
1
◌ It was a fun game.
5
2
◌ It was a bit difficult to answer.
3
3
◌ It was easy to answer.
1
3
◌ I was happy to get all the answers correct.
1
3
◌ For me, this game was a unique experience.
1
3
◌ I want to play this game again at home.
1
NOTE: These comments are summarized and have been translated from the original Japanese by the author.
Discussion

"The drama activities described in this paper appeared to promote cooperation, enhance individual talent, and raise the levels of respect among the classmates when each student became responsible for his/her role as a leader, coordinator, prop designer, music creator, and so on."
The drama activities described in this paper appeared to promote cooperation, enhance individual talent, and raise the levels of respect among the classmates when each student became responsible for his/her role as a leader, coordinator, prop designer, music creator, and so on.
Based on the feedback from the students, some of their English skills seem to have improved as they did the storytelling of the English picture books and discussed their ideas about those books by filling in the categorization charts in English. The students also felt that they made some improvements in their creative thinking-skills to develop English phrases as they polished their own English drama scripts based on the comments from their peers. Despite these facts, assessing students' performances more objectively still seems to be a major concern for teachers. This is because the assessment of such performance tends to be subjective and more complicated compared to regular written tests, therefore, needs to be explored more.

[ p. 59 ]

The goal of this drama activity, however, is not to make a perfect performance. Maley and Duff (1978) also state, "The language is only part of the activity. The other part is a compound of imagination, spontaneous creation and chance discovery, which depends on the students working together" (pp. 8-9).
My next plan is to arrange another performance in a public school with the same members so that they will be able to get different feedback and compare it with that from the First Division students.
I will conduct more research on drama activities and seek better ideas for different classroom situations.

References

Andersen, H. C. (1949). The Ugly Duckling. (J. Hersholt, Trans.) New York: Limited Editions Club. (originally published in 1843).

Carle, E. (1981). The Very Hungry Caterpillar. New York: Scholastic Inc.

Carle, E. (1998). Pancakes, Pancakes! New York: Aladdin Paperbacks.

DePaola, T. (1978). Pancakes for Breakfast. New York: Voyager Books.

DePaola, T. (1984). The Popcorn Book. New York: Holiday House.

Kamiya, A. (2001). Increasing student motivation through English drama. Unpublished master's thesis, Teachers College, Columbia University, Tokyo.

Lionni, L. (1963). Swimmy. New York: Random House.

Lionni, L. (1994). Cornelius. Caledonia, Ontario: Dragonfly Books.

Maley, A. & Duff, A. (1978). Drama techniques in language learning. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Pfister, M. (1992). The Rainbow Fish. New York: North-South Books.

Sakamoto, M., & Ogane, E. (2006). English teacher education at Japanese universities. In K. Bradford-Watts, C. Ikeguchi, & M. Swanson (Eds.) JALT2005 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.

Shimada, M. (2005). Learning with books by Eric Carle. In K. Bradford-Watts, C. Ikeguchi, & M. Swanson (Eds.) JALT2004 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.

Shimada, M. (2006). What can we teach with books by Leo Lionni? In K. Bradford-Watts, C. Ikeguchi, & M. Swanson (Eds.) JALT2005 Conference Proceedings. Tokyo: JALT.

Wallace, M. (1991) Training foreign language teachers. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

[ p. 60 ]

Appendix A. A Classification of Leo Lionni's Childrens' Books

Appendix A
(Adapted from Shimada, 2006)

[ p. 61 ]

Appendix B. A Model Chart for Using Big Books

Category ("series" or "theme" based)
Title Recommendation when using a "Big Book"
1. Main character
2. Other special character(s)
3.Teachable words/subjects5. Secret(s) of the book
Activities

* 0ther products (puzzles, videos, etc.)
of the same title,
available from toy stores, websites,
or in the references.
(Adapted from Shimada, 2005)
Friendship/Self-Awareness
Cornelius
1. Cornelius
2. Monkey, other crocodiles
3. Some differences between crocodiles
   and alligators: walk/stand upright,
   stand on their heads, hang
   from their tails, adjectives
   to express emotion, body parts of animals
4. "So what?", "Can you do it?", "I can do it"
5. Collage
◌ Copy the action each student acts out
◌ Teacher gives commands: up,
  down, right, left, forward, backward
◌ Presentation (by saying "I can do
  a handstand", etc.)
◌ Guessing names of things which
  are placed upside down
◌ Interview game (by asking "Can you do this?")
◌ Quiz show (by asking "Who can do this?")
◌ Making a book about each
  student who has a special talent
From Head to Toe (Eric Carle),
  The Rainbow Fish (Marcus Pfister),
  Swimmy (Leo Lionni),
  The Ugly Duckling (H. C. Andersen)

[ p. 62 ]


Appendix C. A Drama Script Based on Lionni's Cornelius

NOTE: For a version of this with some Japanese gloss, refer to the PDF edition of this article.

Characters in the play: Cornelius, Monkey, Crocodile 1, Crocodile 2

[Scene 1]
MC: Hi. How are you? The name of this play is Cornelius. Do you know what Cornelius is? Cornelius is a crocodile. What's a crocodile?
[Scene 2]
MC: Good! This is a crocodile. Let's start the story. Now close your eyes.
You are in the jungle. There are many tall trees. Birds are singing. The sun is bright. It's hot!
(Crocodile 1 and Crocodile 2 enter the stage)
MC: Oh, crocodiles! Good morning!
Cr1&2: Good morning.
MC: Are you Cornelius?
Cr1: No.
MC: Are you Cornelius?
Cr1: No. Cornelius is over there.
MC: Oh, What a surprise! You stand upright.
Corn: Yes. I can walk upright!
Cr1: So what?
Corn: I can do some other tricks.
MC: Is that right? Can you show us?
Corn: OK!
Cr2: So what?
Cr1&2: So what?
Cr1: So what?

[ p. 63 ]

[Scene 3]
Monkey: Hi.
Corn: Hi.
Monkey: What's wrong? You look very sad.
Corn: Yeah, nobody cares about my tricks. . . How about you? Do you want to see my tricks?
Monkey: Of course.
(Cornelius performs a trick)
Monkey: Great!
Corn: Thank you!
Monkey: So, can you do this?
Corn: Wow, I'm surprised. Fantastic! Great! Can you show me how to do them?
Monkey: Of course! I'll show you! Now, everyone, stand up! We'll do them together. OK! Everyone is great! Now, sit down please.
Corn: Thank you. I'm very happy.
Monkey: You are welcome. I'm happy, too.
Corn: Bye!
Monkey: Bye!
[Scene 4]
Corn: I'm home. Look! I have a new trick.
Cr1&2: So what?
SONG: Can you do this difficult trick, difficult trick, difficult trick? Can you do this difficult trick?
Yes, we can. No, we can't.

[ p. 64 ]


Appendix D. Follow-up Activity: Yes / No Quiz of Look-Alike Animals


Appendix D
(Adapted from Shimada, 2006)

Appendix E. A Song for Cornelius (To the Melody of London Bridge)

	Can you do this difficult trick, difficult trick, difficult trick?
	Can you do this difficult trick?
	Yes, I can. / No, I can't. (Yes, we can. / No, we can)

[ p. 65 ]


Appendix F. A Classification of the Childrens' Books by Eric Carle

Appendix F
(Adapted from Shimada, 2006)

[ p. 66 ]


Appendix G. Model Chart of One Discussion Activity

Category ("series" or "theme" based)
Title Recommendation when using a "Big Book"
1. Main character
2. Other special character(s)
3.Teachable words/subjects5. Secret(s) of the book
Activities

*---0ther relevant book titles
(Adapted from Shimada, 2005)
Family/Responsibility
Pancakes, Pancakes!
1. Jack
2. Mother, miller, animals
3. Ingredients of pancakes, kitchen utensils, recipe instruction, recipes of other foods, words describing "taste"
4. World pancakes, nutritional phrases: "We need to (verb)." "We need (noun)." How to get each ingredient
5. Recipe
◌ Cook pancakes according to recipes
◌ Talk about typical breakfasts (lunches, dinners) around the world
◌ Create recipes of typical/new foods
◌ Create original stories based on the foods above
Pancakes for Breakfast (Tomie dePaola), The Popcorn Book (Tomie dePaola)

Appendix H. A Drama Script Based on Carle's Pancakes, Pancakes!

NOTE: For a version of this with some Japanese gloss, refer to the PDF edition of this article.

Characters in the play: MC, Jack, Jack's mother, Black Hen, Cow

[Scene 1]
(Jack comes on stage)
Mother: Wake up, Jack!
Jack: Ha. . . Good morning. Mom – I'm very hungry. So I will go and look for some food.
(Action stops and the MC enters the stage)
MC: Hi, how are you? I will be your guide for today's story. What does Jack want to eat? What do you think?
(Children say various foods)
MC: O.K. O.K. Please enjoy! Watch and listen for the first hint.
(Drama resumes)
Jack: Here is some flour. We need three more things. Let's go to the chicken farm.
(Sound effects as Jack goes to the chicken farm)
Jack: Oh, there is a black hen.
Black Hen: Ba ba ba ba ba . . .
(Jack tries to catch a black hen, but it is difficult)
Jack: Mrs. Hen, Please don't run away. I just want your egg.
(The black hen lays an egg)
Jack: Thanks, Mrs. Hen!
(Action stops as the MC returns on stage.)

[ p. 67 ]

MC: Jack has some flour and an egg. What is Jack going to make? Watch and listen for the next hint.
(Drama resumes)
Jack: Let's go visit the cows.
(Sound effects as Jack goes to the ranch)
Cow: Mooooo!
Jack: Mrs. Cow, don't kick me. I just want your milk. Please give me your milk.
(Jack milks Mrs. Cow)
Jack: Thanks, Mrs. Cow!
(Action stops as the MC returns on stage.)
MC: Jack has some flour and an egg and milk. What is Jack going to make? Here comes the final hint. Are you ready?
(Drama resumes)
Jack: Let's go home.
(Sound effects as Jack returns home.)
Mother: Welcome back, Jack. What do you want now?
Jack: I want some butter.
Mother: Sorry. We don't have any butter. So, let's make some butter, Jack.
Jack: O.K.
(In fact, making butter)
Jack: O.K. It's finished. Now we will show you . . .
(Show the print and explain the appliance, then action pauses as the MC returns to stage)
MC: Jack has some flour and an egg and milk and butter. What is Jack going to make? The correct answer is . . . ?
(Pancakes are taken out of an oven, then Jack returns to stage)
Jack: The correct answer is pancakes. Pancakes are very delicious. Everyone, let's eat.
MC: Jack, when you made the pancakes, what was difficult for you?
Jack: It was difficult to get some flour and an eggs and milk and butter by myself.
MC: I see.
Jack: These days, it is very easy to get food. However it takes many people to get many foods.
(Some talk)
Jack: Therefore, you should always think about all of the people who bring food to your kitchen table.
MC: Thanks, Jack! That's the end of our story. We hope you have some new ideas about the food you eat everyday. Now, let's sing the "pancakes" song together!

[ p. 68 ]

Appendix I. A Song Accompanying the Performance of Pancakes, Pancakes!
(To the melody of the French nursery rhyme, "Frère Jacques"
which in English is often rendered as "Are you Sleeping, Brother John"?)
		Are you hungry?					Pan, pan, pancakes
		Are you hungry?					Pan, pan, pancakes

		How about you?					Nice and hot
		How about you?					Nice and hot

		Have some pancakes				Add a little butter
		Have some pancakes				Add a little butter

		Now I'm full					Now it's done!
		Now I'm full					Now it's done!


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