Drama & Improvisation. Ken Wilson
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playing in a band, which led directly to two new strands of his working life. Firstly, he wrote songs for his English students, which resulted in the recording of the first-ever album of ELT songs, Mister Monday. Secondly, he joined the English Teaching Theatre (ETT) as a teacher/musician. He eventually became artistic director of the company.
The English Teaching Theatre was the brainchild of John Haycraft, the founder of the International House chain of language schools. Over a period of 25 years, the ETT made more than 250 tours to 55 countries. The actors who worked at the ETT, and the teachers and students that Ken met in these countries have been a major source of inspiration for the ideas in this book.
Alan Maley worked for the British Council from 1966 to 1988, serving as English Language Officer in Yugoslavia, Ghana, Italy, France, and China, and as Regional Representative in South India (Madras). From 1988 to 1993, he was Director-General of the Bell Educational Trust, Cambridge. From 1993 to 1998 he was Senior Fellow in the Department of English Language and Literature of the National University of Singapore, and from 1998 to 2003 he was Director of the graduate programme at Assumption University, Bangkok. He is currently a freelance consultant. Among his publications are Literature (in this series), Beyond Words, Sounds Interesting, Sounds Intriguing, Words, Variations on a Theme, and Drama Techniques in Language Learning (all with Alan Duff), The Mind’s Eye (with Françoise Grellet and Alan Duff), Learning to Listen and Poem into Poem (with Sandra Moulding), Short and Sweet, and The English Teacher’s Voice.
Foreword
Despite all the innovations which have entered the language teaching profession in the wake of the ‘communicative revolution', it remains true that the vast majority of what happens in classrooms is highly structured and controlled. It tends to be focused on supposedly predictable outcomes to be achieved by concentrated, effortful activities, which can be measured in tests and examinations.
There is, however, abundant evidence that languages are not learned or acquired only in this way. There is an important role for activities which focus on playfulness, on enjoyment, on physical movement, on affective engagement, and which can foster what has been called a ‘flow’ state of effortless effort.
There is, of course, no single way of achieving ‘flow’ but using drama and improvisation is one of the well-attested ways of moving towards it. They build confidence and an ability to handle the very unpredictability which lies at the heart of interactions in the new language. They foster the capacity to deal imaginatively with the unexpected, and the willingness to ‘have a go' – to take risks in the new language. In the absence of this capability, little enduring learning is likely to take place.
The activities in this book are designed specifically to help learners loosen up, to engage creatively with the new language in a context of support and cooperative effort. This is not a course book, yet the chapters do tend to lead from shorter, simpler, less demanding activities towards longer and more complex activities, culminating in a series of ideas for working with a series of original dramatic sketches in English.
The author has distilled his experience of working with teachers and students, and with the actors of the English Teaching Theatre and their audiences, over many years in many different geographical and educational contexts. The activities themselves bear the stamp of authentic experience and proven success. This book is a breath of fresh air and will prove a welcome new bank of activities for the resourceful teacher!
Alan Maley
Introduction
Drama and Improvisation is a series of activities designed to enliven your English classes and activate your students’ imagination and creativity. I devised and collected them over many years working as a language trainer and actor/director with the English Teaching Theatre (ETT). Many of them emerged from improvisation activities with students in class or with teachers at workshops and on courses all over the world. Some of them were inspired by working with ETT actors and some are adaptations of material used by a London-based group of improvisation actors and comedians called the Comedy Store Players.
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