English language teachers have to face the reality that teaching English as second

language in a Malaysian Primary classroom is challenging because most children

perceived English as a difficult and boring subject. It is necessary for teachers to think of
ways to plan a lesson which is not merely enjoyable and lively, but also helps learners in
improving their language proficiency. One of the ways to bring English teaching to a better
level is by integrating drama in the classroom. According to Holden (1982) drama can be
defined as any kind of activity where participants are asked either to portray themselves
or to portray someone else in an imaginary situation". Therefore, using plays and drama
in the classroom gives learners the opportunity to express their thoughts, feelings,
emotions and values of life through verbal and non-verbal expressions. The use of drama
activities is beneficial for language learning concerning motivation, the use of language in
context, teaching and learning cross curricular content, etc. (Philips, 2003). Drama
enlivens the English Language teaching into a learner-centred classroom where language
learning gives learners an active and motivating experience. Through drama, learners can
use language for authentic communication and real-life context.
There are many ways to integrate plays and drama in the teaching of English
Language in the Malaysian Primary classroom such as through the drama activity called
mime. According to Dougill (1987), mime can be defined as a non-verbal representation
of an idea or story through gesture, bodily movement and expression. Mime is a drama
activity that gives emphasis on paralinguistic features of communication such as facial
expressions, gestures and body movements. Teachers can be creative in conducting a
mime activity but basically it needs teachers to prepare a box containing papers of words
according to any particular themes. The participant then needs to pick one of the papers
from the box and act out so that the others can guess what the word inside the paper is.
To prepare a mime, teacher needs to pick words according to the themes so that activity
would be more meaningful. Themes can extend from word class such as verbs, nouns
and adjectives to occupation, situations, feelings and others. Mime can be executed in
pairs or in groups, thus language use can be generated while participants are discussing
on how to mime and interpret the mimes. While mime is sometimes regarded as an
activity without using words, it actually helps learners language-wise as their vocabulary
can be enriched. Mime helps to increase childrens confidence level, memory and
imagination. It trains them to be more expressive in front of the others without feeling shy
or insecure about themselves.
Role-play is said to be the basis of all drama activities. Over the years, many
people have come out with vast definitions of the word role-play. According to McCaslin
(1990), role-play focuses more on learners assumption of the role rather for for the
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development of art. Blatner (2002) on the other hand opined that role-play is a way of
discovering the issues involved in complex social situations. In other words, role-play in
an activity which lets children pretend to be another person by using their imagination to
talk, think and act like that particular character. By adopting a role, learners can be
brought into different situations and translate their prior knowledge and experience into
characters. Therefore, role-play can be simply used to illuminate themes across the
curriculum. While preparing a role-play activity, teachers need to choose the right context
or idea to focus on. A meaningful context with high interest value can be from childrens
own life experience, books, TV programs, favourite fictional cartoons or daily interactions.
As Larsen-Freeman(1986) pointed out in her book "Techniques and Principles in
Language Teaching", "role-plays are very important in the Communicative Approach
because they give students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social
contexts and in different social roles." In order to give learners proper chance to develop
their roles, teachers need to consider learners language proficiency level thus the activity
would be less stressful. The roles should suit all types of personalities and circumstances
so that role-taking would be flexible for all children. apart of using role-play to adopt roles
in social situations, it can also be used to act on roles in a story that the children learn. As
a start, teacher can pick some situations and dialogues from teaching materials to be
acted out instead of performing a dramatisation for the whole story. In a Malaysian
classroom context, the script of a dramatisation may look overwhelming and intimidating
especially since English is not the childrens first language their word knowledge can be
quite limited. Role-play is an ideal warm-up drama activity since learners can seize the
opportunity to play the role of characters in the story, say their lines and act out. Through
role-play, teachers can bring children to learn vocabulary, lines and dramatic elements
required in the role-play situation, and it is certainly easier than to teach the elements of
the whole drama all at once. While preparing a role-play, children should be given the
chance to practice their role situations in small groups or pairs. In short, role-play not only
helps language learners to sharpen their language acquisition but also improve their
movement skills and self-expression in acting.
Hot-seating is another effective drama activity that is widely used in an English
Language classroom. In this activity, a character will have to take the hot-seat, introduce
himself and always remain as the character while sitting in the hot-seat. The rest of the
class will act as the audience and given the opportunity to pose questions to the character
from the story they are studying. There a few methods of executing a hot-seat activity in a
classroom. Firstly, it can be use for developing a role during drama rehearsal, before
performing the real dramatisation. It can be an efficient way of fleshing out a character
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and helping children to really understand the characters behaviour, feelings and attitude.
to facilitate children, teacher can also be in the hot-seat during the introduction of a topic
or drama so that they will get the idea of the drama and further explore the characters.
Alternatively, hot-seat can also be done during a drama where the action is paused, and a
particular actor will be questioned on their characters. Whiteson (1996) stated that hotseating is a method to help children in deepening and developing a character. It is a very
good practice for children to really feel their character. For instance, in a story Red
Riding Hood the wolf can be put in the hot-seat and audience can ask the wolf why he
behaves as he does, and talk to him about his act and consequences. For language
acquisition, hot-seat is an effective method to develop childrens questioning skills.
Teacher can use this activity to teach pupils on the conventions of asking questions, not
only during the hot-seat process but for real-life purposes. Therefore, hot-seat can be very
helpful to train children in understanding the nature of asking questions.
To conclude, drama is indeed a powerful teaching tool that provides vital chances
for young learners to expand their potential in vast aspects. Drama is a medium to
develop childrens communication skills as they can improve their voice projection,
articulation of words, language fluency and persuasive speech. In another context, drama
puts teacher in the role of a supporter and facilitator in the learning process thus pupils
can take more responsibility for their own learning. Ideally, teacher will be less dominant
and pupils have the opportunity to explore language activities in an interactive learnercentred classroom. An effective English Language teacher should have an advanced
knowledge about plays and drama so that they can be used optimally in the classroom to
empower pupils personal growth and self development.

REFERENCES
Blatner, A., (2009) Role playing in education, Retrieved on March 15th, 2015 from
http://www.blatner.com/adam/pdntbk/rlplayedu.htm
Brown, H.D. (1994). Principles of Language Learning and Teaching. N.J.: Prentice Hall
Regents
Dougill, John. (1987). Drama Activities for Language Learners. Essential Language
Teaching Series.
Holden, Susan. (1982). Drama in Language Teaching. London. Longman
Ladousse, G. P. (1987). Role play. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986). Techniques and principles in language teaching. New York,
N.Y., USA: Oxford University Press.
Livingstone, C. (1983). Role play in language learning. Harlow, Essex, England:
Longman.
McCaslin , N., (1990) Creative Drama in the classroom. 5th ed. Studio City, player press
Inc.
Philips ,S. C., (2003). Drama with children. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Whiteson, V. L. (1996). New ways of using drama and literature in language teaching.
Alexandria, VA: Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages.