Why a musical in English?

Why a musical in English?

In order for students to acquire a foreign language vocabulary, a rich word-environment is essential. This is enhanced through repetition of the terms learned as well as excessive practice and it improves students’ self-learning processes (Cubukcu, 2014). A play in English, consequently, assists this process of meaningful and joyful repetition of notions, thus making students independent users of the target language. Furthermore, the ‘multicultural contexts’ of the current project, which allowed for self-reliance owing to immediate interaction in both L1 and L2, motivated the participating adolescents even more (Pae, 2008). Along with drama, music also ‘contributes to students’ sense of self and community’ and enables building of their ‘cultural identity’ (Stefanakis, 1999, p.56). Moreover, it can ‘energize’ and trigger mental functions (Jensen, 2002, p.20, as cited in Crowe, 2006) as students are compelled to listen to it and, therefore, unintentionally build mnemonic strategies and acquire knowledge (Crowe, 2002). Thus, music renders students capable of reviving and triggering their inner emotions. As a result, they may vividly reminisce, at a later stage, what they have experienced and felt (Ansdell, 2015). It might be mentioned, of course that students are not confident when they are required to express themselves by singing, especially within a school context, and in fact even very potent educators find it burdensome to engage their students into it (Paynter, 2002). Still, musical schemes were used for students to overcome accent barriers since through singing patterns came out more easily. A musical similarly encompasses dance. Both drama and dance are ‘performing arts’ and their ‘educational traditions’ ‘complement each other’ (Nicholson & Taylor, 1998, p.112), as dance emphasizes ‘artistic movements’ and drama promotes exploration of ‘themes and issues’ (ibid).

Opting for the right drama activities aiming to enhance English

Learning through drama relies on the theory of Constructivism which involves a powerful social and active ‘learning by doing’ environment (Gillespie, 1990; Valverde, 2003), ‘draws on emotional intelligence,’ and, hence, enhances confidence in the students of all learning styles (Ashton-Hay, 2005, p.4). Bruner (1987) claims that language is learnt along with the concept each student has of the world and, thus, after communicating their view to the rest of the drama team, the whole group give their interpretations in accordance with their own top-down knowledge and emotions. Hence, one of the greatest benefits of drama education is that the students become motivated to interpret the text they have in front of them, trim it to fit their own character in accordance with their life-experiences and add their own feelings, thus re-creating the text through their emotions (Flint, 2016).

Hence, the whole drama project is never simply a means to an end, a path to the final performance. Via drama students are tempted to be creative thinkers, that is to process provided data and come up with unique and extraordinary ways of utilizing them (Paraskevopoulos, 2004). It is an exceptional alternative learning process through which all stakeholders are provided with unique experiences, develop strategies and skills, learn to think critically and gain confidence which will eventually lead them to exhibit, painstakingly at times, what is hidden inside them (Crowe, 2006). Needless to say, it is the right drama activities which stimulate students to keep participating. As such role-playing activities were chosen, because, especially as far as teaching a foreign language is concerned, they are a useful teaching alternative, since the evoke interest and motivate students to participate (Ghazal & Singh, 2016). Moreover, lexes and fact-files were sought for and discussed during the weekly sessions or via Messenger as it is crucial for students who deal with a certain written text to have acknowledged the unknown lexis (Cameron, 2001, as cited in Gonzales, 2010). All drills dealt with during the performances stimulated students to enjoy and love the project as they admitted in the interviews. Finally, the TIE games interactive drills benefited both actors and spectators, as in order for learners to be motivated, they need to be provided with a profound objective towards understanding how valuable constructing and acquiring knowledge really is (Turner & Paris, 1995). It is even more motivating for students to endeavor to communicate this meaningfulness and value of being literate to their peers through challenging and curiosity-provoking activities which will, in turn, enable them as well to be motivated towards learning (Kong, 2009).