Most of the English drama professors in Korea tend toward teaching Shakespeare by means of reading through and interpreting the play. To teach Shakespeare in such a conventional way, however, has qestionable effects on learning. Perhaps the best way t...
Most of the English drama professors in Korea tend toward teaching Shakespeare by means of reading through and interpreting the play. To teach Shakespeare in such a conventional way, however, has qestionable effects on learning. Perhaps the best way to lecture on one of Shakespearean plays is to produce it, under the auspices of registered participants, on stage before the audience in the classroom.
Performance: This method tends to concentrate on gestures and body movement along with spoken words in much the same way as full-length drama does. It is difficult to stage this type of performance on campus during one semester; consequently we are forced to use an briefly edited script to be produced.
Episode: One short scene ought to be chosen as a script. The main action of this method relys on dialogue which is accompanied by actions such as gestures and facial expressions. In this case dialogue is not governed by action, but instead, action makes the meaning of what is said veritable and forceful.
Mime: Generally it is a little bit convenient and an easy approach to figure out one's idea without words. Spoken words can sometimes make meaning more ambiguous than mime does. Thus, one chosen part of the text can be displayed by mime. Participants can practice their own mime either at home of while walking alone.
Voice: On hearing someone's voice one can determine whose character is being portrayed by the voice. Voice is not only a face without face but a strong meaning delivered to what is being said. All participants with distributed scripts sit around and read them aloud in turn, taking a mental picture of what it would be like to be there.
At the current time on our campuses, one of the best way we can enhance our methods of teaching Shakespeare is to use the four methods mentined above through role-playing.