Playwriting, a Strategy for Foreign Language Education = Playwriting, a Strategy for Foreign Language Education

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Current elementary school English education in Korea places a heavy emphasis on oral language instruction, while middle-school English instruction mostly stresses written language, particularly reading and grammar. This incongruity can cause an imbalance in students’ linguistic development, leads to difficulties in adjusting to the new academic curriculum, and result in a loss of academic motivation. I therefore propose playwriting, an activity in educational drama in which learners perform the scripts they write, as an effective teaching tool to balance and bridge gaps between the Korean elementary- and middle-school English-language classroom. Playwriting can begin with a few lines of situational dialogues and then expand to a one scene/act play, a lengthier drama. While playwriting has originally been advocated in English language arts courses for native English speakers, this paper applies previous studies by educational drama scholars to foreign-language acquisition. Drawing specifically on students`` composition samples, three major issues which instructors can confront when applying the playwriting activity in a foreign language class are examined to propose a model for customizing playwriting for the foreign-language classroom. Issues discussed include: when to conduct the playwriting activity, what kind of source materials to use, and how to determine the level of instructor``s involvement. Equipped with this knowledge of drama methodology, I hope that Korean elementary- and middle-school English instructors can better utilize creative drama in the English classroom.(William Paterson University)