Customer Reviews

Drama Techniques: A Resource Book of Communication Activities for Language Teachers, Third Edition

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The introduction (not given in "Look Inside"), provides the premises behind this resource book of communication activities, and is a must for any teacher, and not only for EFL teachers.
The approach to learning is so different from what we have all endured at school, and even though clearly presented with tangible examples, it is so rich that no review could do justice to the massive foundation stones provided.
The introduction is a tool: what to consider when creating a living classroom environment for sparking natural communication. The instructions for choosing and leading the exercises provided (use "Look Inside" to see the categories in Contents) show how to put the theory into practice in your language acquiring workshop. Competence in the use of the target language in the real world is clearly acquired, even though the language isn't directly ""taught" during these workshops.
Each and every student is emotionally and physically involved and the lively group dynamics engendered, the imaginative creating, and the obvious fun of the students make the class a joy for the teacher to witness.
It is advisable to use professional level classrooms where movement is possible, and where more than one person can speak at the same time without it becoming irritating noise. The ideal group size for any EFL workshop is 12, but I have used the approach successfully with 40, and once 80 (:o) in an appropriately sized room.
The edition used for this review dates back to 1982 but the the whole approach is still revolutionary for most teachers.
First, read the introduction again and again, try out the "A day's work" (9am to 5pm for an intensive course but which can be spread out over an extensive course), and from then on design your own mix. Quite soon, you will adapt the exercises and even design your own exercises based on this common sense approach.
Have fun :)

this book contains plenty of drama activities which vary from mime to action role play.However, I wish there was more information about drama techniques- the theory not only the practical usage. All in all, it is useful to all the teachers planning to introduce some drama techniques to their lessons.