Dramatizations：a small—scale method in English learning

In this essay， the author introduced a small-scale method for college students of five-year system——dramatizations which was proved to be a perfectjoint-up point between the students’ interests and their English studyingin teaching practices. Also how to perform it in the extracurricular activities wasdemonstrated here according to the process of problem-thinking：identification→thinking→plan→implement→product→evaluation→feedback.dramatizationfive-year system extracurricular activitiesassessmentⅠIntroduction

In most Chinese schools the teachers“teach to test”in order to meet the demand of the current education system，that is to say“the top-down policy of government‘enslaves’the culture of teaching”.Almost all the assessments which are designed to test what the students’basic literacy and numeracy lead to narrowly focused learning and neglect the application of the knowledgeinto the real life.In a vocational college，the academic scores aren’t considered as the only evaluation standard for the students and the English teachers can take formative assessment in my daily-teaching.More open-ended performance tasks are designed by the teachers to ensure that students are able to think critically，to solve complex problems，and to apply their knowledge in real-world situations.A performance task is an assessment activity that requires a student to demonstrate her achievement by producing an extended written or spoken answer，by engaging in group or individual activities，or by creating a specific product.Dramatization is one of performance assessments.Many educators in China have mentioned it in their essays，eg.Jin Qiaolan pointed out that dramatization was the effective tool for English teaching.

Now Iam teaching in a vocational college in Beijing where some of the students come from senior high school after entrance exams，while some from junior high school who are named as college students of five-year systemwith ages varying from 15 to 20. Those five-year college students are special studying groups in the transferring time of China vocational education system reform.They are lack of sufficient knowledgebackground and good studying habits，even mature life style and professional enthusiasm.They cannot perform well in their curriculum studying and daily society life.How to stir up their interest and passion for English learning is the first concern.“Dramatizations”combine verbalizations， oral and elocution skills，and movement performances.While in my project design，“dramatizations”has enlarged the dimension not only in speaking skill，but also in listening，reading and writing skills.There are 20 students in my sample class belonging to Art department.

Ⅱ Designing the assessment

“Get to know the students”should be the first step for the teachers teaching. Isurveyed their interests and hobbies.Ifound\"movies\"was the way to get into them.\"Watching English movies\"can stir up their interests and help them concentrate their attention in the studying.Then in my extracurricular activitiesIdesigned my\"dramatizations\"involving all the four components and other meta-cognitive skills（understanding， presentation，creativity…） as following”：

select a movie and play it in the class.

teachers and students watch the film together（listening skill）.

replay a few times one short scene which is to be dramatized by the students.

ask students write down actor’s lines based on what they are hearing（writing skill）.

check the lines and correct the mistakes（reading skill）.

replay the scenes again，mime the actors.

group division.

members prepare for the group work.

dramatize their play（speaking skill）.

evaluate their performance.

Rubricis the last but not the least important factor to prepare for the project. Idesigned two： one was for the individual student’s performance to supervise their behavior in the whole process，the other for group’s timing performance to value their learning levels.

Ⅲ Applying “dramatizations”in the class

In theimplementation processes，there are some links should be paid more attention to：

（1）Dividing effective groups

Iformed them into five groups，in each of which there were 4 students according to the play actors’member requirement and their different levels.First Ichose 4 top students to be the leader for each group.Then Iassigned 2 middle-level ones into each group， also with 1 weak student.The name list of the groups was posted on the blackboard and there were also the assessment rubrics and process explanations.

（2）Selecting suitable movie and proper scenes for students

Some movies are suitable for adults，but not for teenagers.So the teachers should choose one of good education theories as well as it can draw students’attentions. Ipicked up“Forrest Gump“which had got six Grand Prizes of the 67th Oscar Award in 1995，The film created a vivid a representative of the American spirit——“Forrest Gump”who was passionate，never-giving up.

（3）Giving students guidance and encouragement consistently

In the whole process，Ihelped the students whenever they needed as a guide who directed them the correct ways，but not the one who always did the things they should do themselves.The process evaluation was also important as the final comment. Positive words，appraisals and encouragement were used along with the whole process.

Ⅳ Results

The main purpose for assessment is the formative purpose.We concluded a result in the end as well as we regard every step performance of each student as the process result.

After a month，Idid two forms for the sample class and asked students to fill in，from which Isaw the satisfactory results： half of them became to like English very much instead of only 2 in the beginning，the numbers who didn’t like English at all decreased to 1 from 7 before the process，and the average marks for English monthly examinations amounted from 57 in September to 78 in October.

Ⅴ Feedback and Modification

Disadvantages of the assessment design： 1）some shy and poor-based students still reluctant to perform on the stage； 2）planning and rehearsing need suitable place and enoughgroup-time which the students lack of； 3）scores form dramatization may show low reliability because they are decided by one teacher.

Modification：（1）add more forms for“dramatizations”to explore the students’creativity and other meta-cognitive skills，such as plotting a play by themselves；（2）when performing the drama，invite some peer teachers to watch and give comments；（3）give some financial budget for them to prepare for the play props from the class fee.

參考文獻(xiàn)：

[1]Hu Yulin.Views on Teaching Quality Assessment in Higher Vocational Education，Jounal of Zhongzhou University，2002，1.

[2]Jin Qiaolan.Dramatizations——the Effective Tool for Middle School English Teaching，Jounal of Zhejiang Ocean College，2005，3.

[3]Shepard，l.a.The role of assessment in a learning culture，Educational Researcher，2002，29（7）：3-14.

[4]Yeung，S.Y.S.Is student-centered pedagogy impossible in Hong Kong？The case of inquiry in classrooms. Asia Pacific Educ.Rev.，2009，（10）：377-386.

本文系高職課題《五年制高職英語第二課堂初試——“話劇法”在英語影片選修課中的應(yīng)用》的結(jié)題論文。