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The Use of
Readers Theater in the EFL Curriculum
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Readers Theater combines elements both of
storytelling and drama. For EFL teachers it is a useful tool because it motivates students
by using language in a communicative and authentic context. It also incorporates the four
skill areas and provides the students with a cultural component to their lesson.
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Several misconceptions exist however, namely
that Readers Theater is only for children or for those with extensive theatrical
experience. But, teachers who use Readers Theater quickly find that adults have just as
much fun as younger learners; common sense and creativity are the only prerequisites for
the successful incorporation of this teaching technique. Further misconceptions about
Readers Theater include the beliefs that students must memorize their parts, that scripts
are difficult to find and adapt, and that a great deal of time and preparation are
required to use this technique successfully. Conventional theatrical elements such as
props and a stage are optional but not necessary. As illustrated here, teachers will
realize that possible scripts exist in any material used in the classroom, and that these
scripts may quickly be adapted by the students and performed soon afterwards. Readers
Theater is not limited to those students with a high level of speaking proficiency;
instead, students of all levels can participate in this activity which can involve the
entire class.
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Readers Theater provides an interactive way of
introducing cultural knowledge by familiarizing the students with the folklore and
literature of the target language. Students can gain insight into a diverse range of
cultural topics such as gender relationships, historical events and contexts, social
conflicts, and contemporary issues. Readers Theater further allows students to practice
important aspects of linguistic competence including pronunciation, intonation, and the
conveyance of emotional content via language. Further benefits can be observed in the
affective sphere. Because students have scripts in hand, their confidence in delivering
lines is reinforced. As a group activity, Readers Theater promises cooperation between
teachers and students, since the responsibility for success is shared equally by all.
Social bonds are created while traditional barriers are broken down between students and
teachers.
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Finding suitable scripts for Readers Theater may
seem like a daunting prospect to many teachers. However, even if a source book of decent
scripts does exist, it may not include the best choice of material for students, simply
because it may not relate to any of their current course work. The best place to look for
scripts is in the classroom itself. Novels, articles, debates, textbook reading, and short
stories can all provide excellent sources. The resultant scripts may be extracted directly
from the material, developed by the teacher, or (best of all) developed by the students
themselves.
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If a teacher happens to be using a play or
dialogue, these are obviously adaptable into scripts for Readers Theater. The teacher
and/or students merely need to edit the scripts into a suitable form which can be
presented to the class. Five to ten minute scripts often work best. Scripts may add a
narrator to help introduce the scene, characters, and action.
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In transforming books, articles, and texts into
scripts, the only limitation is that students must be working with literature that
contains or lends itself to dialogue. Most novels abound with episodes of characters
conversing. Students need only to choose a passage with a sufficient number of characters
that they want to depict. The passage may either be edited or embellished by the students
to work the scene into a suitable form for presentation. Each participant should have an
individual copy of the scene/script, perhaps mounted on colored cardboard.
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As an example, one script used by the students
of the Intensive English Program at West Virginia University was developed from James
Thurber's (1945) The Unicorn in the Garden . In the actual text, the scene appears
as follows:
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When the police and the
psychiatrist arrived they sat down in chairs and lookedat her, with great
interest,"My husband," she said, "saw a unicorn this morning." The
police looked at thepsychiatrist and thepsychiatrist looked at the police. "He told
me it ate a lily," she said. "Hetold me it had a golden horn inthe middle of its
forehead," she said. At a solemn signal from the psychiatristthe police leaped from
theirchairs and seized the wife. (pp. 268-269)
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Because of time restrictions, the teacher
reworked the scene into the following dialogue:
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Wife: My husband saw a unicorn this morning.
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Wife: He told me it ate a lily.
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Psychiatrist: How interesting!
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Wife: He told me it had a golden horn in the
middle of its forehead.
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Narrator: The psychiatrist leaped from his chair
and seized the wife.
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If time allows, however, it is always better to
let the students in groups rewrite the scene, perhaps taken from a novel or short story
that they are studying. One such scene taken from Pat Conroy's (1986) Prince of Tides
is:
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Mr. Newbury: Why did you hit my son? (blowing
smoke toward Tom)
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Todd: He and his brother ambushed me in the
schoolyard, Dad. I was just walking by minding my own business, when his brother jumped me
from behind and this one started hitting me in the face.
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Mr. Newbury: Why didn't your brother come to
apologize too? I never liked two against one.
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Tom: Why do you want to lie about it, Todd? You
know Luke wasn't anywhere near when all of that happened. Besides, Luke wouldn't have
needed me. He could eat you alive boy, and you know it. (pp. 233)
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Ready-made scripts, even if available, will not
be as useful to students as developing scripts of their own. In developing these scripts,
students cultivate different aspects of writing such as summarizing, editing, and creative
writing.
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Performance of Readers Theater does not
necessarily involve weeks of preparation, intricate costumes, or expensive scenery. In
fact, only minimal direction is required. The staging of scenes may be classified into
three types: non-theatrical, semi-theatrical, and theatrical. In any format, audience
participation can play an integral role, such as being called upon to become involved
through repetition of key phrases or sounds at intervals throughout the script, creating a
dynamic interaction between performers and viewers.
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Non-theatrical staging is probably the most
common type of Readers Theater. ESL teachers may even be employing it now without
realizing it. In this type, students read scenes while seated among their fellow students.
There is no separation of actor and audience. High school English classes studying
Shakespeare tend to use this type of Readers Theater extensively. Students may be called
upon to read various characters with little or no preparation time.
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Semi-theatrical staging is almost as easy as
non-theatrical Readers Theater, but may require a larger amount of preparation on the
students' part. For this type of staging, students read the scene standing or seated in
front of an audience (the classroom). The students may choose to read facing the audience
full front, facing the character with whom they are speaking, or facing away from the
audience when not actually involved in the scene.
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Theatrical staging is the most involved of the
three, but it is also the staging students enjoy most. This type employs simple props,
costumes, scenery, lighting, and music. Students' creativity is facilitated and their
imaginations are engaged. Productions of this sort can be videotaped for later viewing by
the class or staged outside of the usual class period so that other members of the school
or outside community may attend.
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Once a manageable script has been agreed upon,
rehearsal can begin. Students are advised to read through their scripts in class as well
as outside of class for practice in pronunciation, intonation, and clarity of speech.
Students are coached as to body movements and gestures by teacher and classmates. Often a
teacher may desire to precede the Readers Theater unit with a variety of pre- activities
such as discussion of the author, cultural context, setting, dialect, or
vocabulary-building exercises. These types of pre-activities build comprehension of the
text itself and may assist the students in deciding how exactly they would like to portray
their characters.
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Readers Theater is a motivating technique which
allows students to practice language in a unique way. Students gain a deeper understanding
and appreciation of both the content and the language of the text at hand while
simultaneously drawing upon their listening, speaking, and reading facilities.
Furthermore, writing exercises such as short compositions are possible as follow-up
activities. Readers Theater is as accessible to beginning level as to advanced level
students; the difference lies merely in the selection of texts. Once this technique has
been made use of in the EFL classroom, teachers and students will find that this leads to
a deeper appreciation of language, content, and the process of learning.
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Martha
Lengeling is a teacher trainer at the University of Guanajuato, and has taught EFL
for more than 15 years in Mexico and the United States.
Casey Malarcher is currently teaching English and working
on the materials development team writing conversation textbooks for ELS/SI-sa-yong-o-a in
Korea.
Leath Mills is a Graduate Teaching Assistant in German at
the University of Maryland. He has taught EFL in Germany, the Slovak Republic and the
Washington, D.C. area. |
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