Drama is one of effective ways to develop the basic language art for students who have different learning styles, thus, it is much more effective than conventional ones
(Maden, 2012)
Dear educators,
Today, I am going to write about one of teaching methods to improve students' speaking skill by using socio drama. This is a method of group learning where students are engaged in the group to play a particular role in a drama. Usually the selected drama is a reflection of an issue that exists in people's lives. Commonly, the purpose of applying the socio drama as a learning method is to build students' empathy, love, creative skill by taking some action in the drama such as solving problems, clarifying the social values and developing their social skills.
However, in this writing I want to explain how to apply this method in the English Speaking class. Socio drama gives more opportunity for student to interact communicatively in learning than other methods. I believe that by applying such the method, the students are encouraged to be more engaged along the learning process. Thus, it can foster students' confidence to speak using the targeted language. The another fact is that using socio drama enables students to connect their emotions and cognition (Belliveau & Kim, 2013).
How to use Socio Drama in Speaking Class?
To apply the method, I had to divide my students into several groups. Each group consisted of 5 students who would play five roles. The time allocation for this topic is two meetings. In the first meeting, I started my class by greeting students and checking their attendance list. Then, I asked some scaffolding questions about the drama to stimulate students' interests in exploring the drama. Several students gave answers of my questions about the drama using their schemata (previous knowledge). Such this activity can benefits the other students when listening on their friends' answers or explanation, and what I had to do during this section was to encourage each students to give their ideas in that beginning discussion.
The next step after beginning discussion was I had to clarify their answers about the drama, then I further explain about the drama, socio drama in particular, and every component of drama performance. in this step, the students were encouraged by me to ask several questions regarding the socio drama. The last step of the first meeting was giving each of the the drama's script. The students were commanded to read a glance about the script, then I allowed them to discuss with their groups to determined the roles taken by each of them. Before ending the class, I suggested them to train drama performance with their group outside the classroom, such in their home or in the school when school breaks.
The example of Script:
Dita : What's up friends?
Veni : All right, How about you, Dit?
Dita : Thank God, I am healthy.
Veni : How are your father, Dit? He's well, right?
Dita : Thank God, He's really healthy. Thank you for asking my father condition.
Tika : Dit, did your father was sick yesterday?
Dita : Yes, but now he's already healthy.
Tika : I'm sorry, I did not get to see because I didn't know.
Dita : It's okay, Tika. Thank for your care.
Huda : Dit, you better keep your father well. Don't let him too much works, he's old.
Dita : Sure! after recovering I have talk to him to do not work heavily.
Erry : Come to think of our parents have sacrificed so much for us. we have to give much attention to them in their old ages and try to make them feel proud of us. Dita : You are absolutely right! We must appreciate their sacrifice for us.
Tika : However, we are not being able to repay service and sacrifice of our parents. They are able to do everything for us. that's why, we must love and keep them well till the end of their live. (source)
The second meeting of speaking class was held a week later. As usual, I started my class by greeting the students and checking their attendance list. The day was drama performing day. Before starting the groups performance, I gave several minute in order the groups prepared their performance. Then, I used random way for the groups orders in performing drama. When students performed, I did the assessment, several indicators were used such as pronunciation, accuracy, fluency, expression, physical acts and role control. additionally, I also took some notes about their performance to be commented or appreciated after all groups performed.
After drama performing, I could take some conclusions to what extend the students improve their speaking skill. Of course, I could assume that all activity starting from the training day till the performing day are very communicative, where all students in their groups did speaking activities that can enrich their pronunciation, accuracy, and fluency as the component of speaking skill. However, I could say that this method can Improve students speaking skill as well as social skills
References
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Well said.