There are a number of ways in which drama can be defined. It could
be seen as a blanket term covering "a wide range of oral activities that
have an element of creativity present" (Hubbard et al 1986: 317). Susan
Holden takes drama to mean any kind of activity where learners are asked
either to portray themselves or to portray someone else in an imaginary
situation: "In other words, drama is concerned with the world of 'let's
pretend'; it asks the learner to project himself imaginatively into another
situation, outside the classroom, or into the skin and persona of another
person" (Holden 1982: 1). The students may do this on their own or with
one or more fellow students; they may act either in a controlled way in
accordance with organizational and linguistic guidelines established by the
teacher, or they may be left fairly free to work matters out. In both cases
the students interact with other people and react to what they do and say,
making use of their own personal store of language in order to communicate
in a meaningful manner.
Alan Maley and Alan Duff make the point that dramatic activities are
not the performance of plays before passive audiences; the value of these
activities lies "not in what they lead up to but in what they are, in what
they bring out right now" (Maley and Duff 1984: 6). This comment can
be interpreted as meaning that students do their 'acting' for language and
imaginative activity, and not for exhibition. Nevertheless, teachers should
not deny their students the opportunity to act out their scenes to the rest
of the class if they so wish, for if rehearsed drama activities are left
unperformed, there may be a sense of incompleteness in the class.
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In more specific, concrete terms, drama includes mime, role-playing,
extended role-playing (or improvisation), simulation, interaction activities
such as various forms of dialogues, and dramatized story-telling.
So drama can take several forms in the language classroom, but above
all it should be a communicative activity where the student makes the
choices.