Thursday, 24 March 2011

Welcome to "Act and Speak"

 
As a practicing teacher, teaching English as a foreign language (EFL) in Ecuador, I have always thought
of what would be the best strategy for students to improve their oral production. 

A major problem in teaching a new language is to match the content of the lessons to the intellectual and cognitive skills of the students. Too often, students at elementary or intermediate levels are not stimulated or excited by the content of their lessons.  
Hypothesis

-Simulation of real life situations projecting real life size images will be an effective language teaching strategy to enhance student’s individual autonomy, self confidence and motivation, with the final goal of lowering speaking anxiety.-
                          

 So who washes the dishes ?  


In this "Model Class" you can see of how students interact with eachother according to the given task by the teacher. Students are free to involve their own ideas as Improvisation is being applied.


Grammar:   Conditionals






Scene 1

Scene 2
   


Scene 3
 







_________________________________________________________________________________


“In the real world, learners need to act pragmatically in order to survive linguistically, not simply learn to perform
  adequately to pass some standard in a classroom situation. “

Mc Donough (1995:30)

By doing drama exercises in class throughout a long period of time, transforming it into a habit, students will be prepared in order to survive in the outside world.




Doing business with the Arabs....







Preparation



Performance




The noisy neighbor





Preparation


Performance

Tuesday, 8 March 2011

Let's go shopping



Preparation time





Performance

Sorry but you can't smoke here....

Monday, 7 March 2011

Saturday, 5 March 2011

You can be my partner ...(from The clean up...)


Great Interaction and Improvisation !!!










Are you single ? You can be my partner if you want...




Teachers' Analysis


Hi honey .. I am home


Great Improvisation, great Interaction, great Motivation








Tuesday, 22 February 2011

What to do with all that junk....?



Watch how students are learning how to react to eachothers' speeches during unrehearsed situations.  
 



Two girls living in the same house and don't know what to do with all these junk. But there is a solution...

 






Sunday, 20 February 2011

Renting a house (at the Real Estate Office)




Students become real actors !!!

Extract from dissertation: 

" Those performances were great to watch. Students had so much fun Students as real rental applications were used. (See Project Link 5A) They did a pretty good job on improvisation skills following all the instructions plus adding their own input to the scene. They were so creative and got into their roles so much; that I thought sometimes this was for real. Students forgot that they were being filmed due to its informal situation. As everybody was acting even the shyest ones were trying to express themselves. Motivation rose tremendously and speaking anxiety just disappeared."

Apartment hunting 1


A beautiful family is looking for a nice home ...






Part 1- Which neighborhood ...?



Part 2 - So who is going to pay the rent...?
 


Part 3


I want a loft just for me....


Part 4

The contract

_________________________________________________________________________________

Apartment hunting 2




Two beautiful models are looking for a temporal home ...

Part 1 - so you are models...



Part 2 - No party tonight....


Part 3 -Please come to my party....

____________________________________________________

Apartment hunting 3


Five old friends need a place to live...


Student: Can I bring my own furniture ?
Landlord: I don't like this job anymore...



Teachers' analysis:

"When you participate during drama sessions you'll stay active and don't fall asleep."






Behind the scenes 1:


Behind the scenes 2: 





Behind the scenes 3: 

 



Saturday, 30 October 2010

At the party 1

 
                                   Watch great interaction of Estefy !!!                                      
 (sorry for the bad sound quality)
                                                                        
"I just looove cookies"