Immigrant Ells Character Analysis
Learning creatively: the effectiveness of using theater pedagogy for immigrant ELLs
Introduction
Having the experience of being an actress in a drama, I myself appreciate the power of acting the role out in thinking in the shoes of the character with empathy, thus better understanding the character in the specific story settings; on the other hand, given the authentic practicing environment, I could rehearse the lines again and again until they became perfect to act. Meanwhile, just as Gina Tiffany Badie (2014) mentioned in the CATESOL Journal, rehearsals and final performances can also spark motivation, another extremely important factor in language learning.“In a similar way to the actor who prepares for his role during rehearsals, acts with a group of motivated individuals, and gives life to a character to present to an audience, so a second language learner prepares for assessments, thrives in conjunction with his or her peers, takes on a new identity in the language classroom, and communicates outside the classroom in the target language.” Therefore, we can see the components of drama plays can fulfill many of the requirement of how to better learn a new language, so why not borrow the concept of theater, to arrange English Language Learners(ELLs) in a drama setting, and let them act the story out with the help of the …show more content…
As we all know, different cultures have different social norms, thus language learners also need to establish or adjust themselves in an environment using different social skills. Therefore, it reminded me of the theater therapy in special education field, aiming to help students with autism to effectively develop social skills in a safe environment ( D’Amico, Lalonde and Snow, 2015). Thus, I guess the effectiveness and benefits of theater therapy can be transferable to
Introduction
Having the experience of being an actress in a drama, I myself appreciate the power of acting the role out in thinking in the shoes of the character with empathy, thus better understanding the character in the specific story settings; on the other hand, given the authentic practicing environment, I could rehearse the lines again and again until they became perfect to act. Meanwhile, just as Gina Tiffany Badie (2014) mentioned in the CATESOL Journal, rehearsals and final performances can also spark motivation, another extremely important factor in language learning.“In a similar way to the actor who prepares for his role during rehearsals, acts with a group of motivated individuals, and gives life to a character to present to an audience, so a second language learner prepares for assessments, thrives in conjunction with his or her peers, takes on a new identity in the language classroom, and communicates outside the classroom in the target language.” Therefore, we can see the components of drama plays can fulfill many of the requirement of how to better learn a new language, so why not borrow the concept of theater, to arrange English Language Learners(ELLs) in a drama setting, and let them act the story out with the help of the …show more content…
As we all know, different cultures have different social norms, thus language learners also need to establish or adjust themselves in an environment using different social skills. Therefore, it reminded me of the theater therapy in special education field, aiming to help students with autism to effectively develop social skills in a safe environment ( D’Amico, Lalonde and Snow, 2015). Thus, I guess the effectiveness and benefits of theater therapy can be transferable to