Abstract
Process drama or educational drama, the use of dramatic approaches in literacy class, is not a classroom performance or a skit. It is not a classroom event where students memorize a script and perform a story for other students to watch. For Heathcote and Herbert (1985), Carroll (1986), O’Neill and Lambert (1982), Warner (2013) and Taylor (2006), or Edmiston (2013), it has become the tool to explore social issues, history, or science lessons that have “less emphasis on story and character development and more on problem-solving and living through a particular moment in time” (Wagner, 1999, p.5). Studies on classroom talks during dramatic interactions, unfortunately, are limited. After a systemic online search, three studies are selected for further analysis: Harden (2015), Epstein (2004), and Kao, et al. (2011). These three existing studies explore the discourses in educational drama settings from various contexts, participants, and texts. The three studies are examined for their positions in the extant literature, methodology, and contributions to the field. The examination reveals the predominant perspectives, methodologies, dramatic strategies, and issues frequently discussed within the field.
Keywords: Process drama, discourse analysis, talk in process drama, literacy
References
Anderson, A., & Berry, K. (2015). The influence of classroom drama on teachers’ language and students’ on-task behavior. Preventing School Failure: Alternative Education for Children and Youth, 59(4), 197-206.
Anderson, A., & Loughlin, S. M. (2014). The influence of classroom drama on English learners’ academic language use during English language arts lessons. Bilingual Research Journal, 37(3), 263-286.
Edmiston, B. (2015). Dialogue and social positioning in dramatic inquiry: Creating with Prospero. Dramatic interactions in education: Vygotskian and sociocultural approaches to drama, education and research, 79-96.
Baldwin, P. (2004). With drama in Mind: Real learning in imagined worlds. A&C Black.
Bolton, G. (1979). Towards a theory of drama in education. London: Longman.
Bowell, P., & Heap, B. S. (2013). Planning process drama: Enriching teaching and learning. Routledge.
Carroll, J. (1978). A language functions approach to learning areas in drama in education. National Association for Drama in Education, 3, 19–27.
Carroll, J. (1980). Language, the role of the teacher, and drama in education. English in Australia, 53, 35–43.
Carroll, J. (1986). Taking the initiative: Role of drama in pupil/teacher talk. Newcastle upon Tyne University: Ph.D. Dissertation.
Carroll, J. (1988). Terra incognita: Mapping drama talk. National Association for Drama in Education, 12(2), 13–21.
Edmiston, B. (1994). More than talk: a Bakhtinian perspective on drama in education and change in understanding. NADIE Journal, 18(2).
Edmiston, B. (2013). Transforming teaching and learning with active and dramatic approaches: Engaging students across the curriculum. Routledge.
Esfandiari, M. (2014). Task-Based Writing to Improve Young Teenage Learners’ Reading Skills. World Journal of English language, 4(1), 20.
Epstein, S. D. (2004). Reimagining literacy practices: Creating living Midrash from ancient texts through
Dunn, J. (2008). Playing around with improvisation: An analysis of the text creation processes used within a preadolescent dramatic play. Research in Drama Education, 13(1), 55-70.
Duran, R. P., Eisenhart, M. A., Erickson, F. D., Grant, C. A., Green, J. L., Hedges, L. V., & Schneider, B. L. (2006). Standards for reporting on empirical social science research in AERA publications-American Educational Research Association. Educational Researcher, 35(6), 33-40.
Freebody, K. (2010). Exploring teacher-student interactions and moral reasoning practices in drama classrooms. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 15(2), 209-225.
Freebody, K. (2011). Interdisciplinary dialogues with dialogue: Drama, sociology and the detailed analysis of talk. NJ, 35(1), 105-117.
Freebody, K. (2013). Talking drama into being: Types of talk in drama classrooms. Exchanges: The Warwick Research Journal, 1(1), 91-113.
Greckhamer, T., & Cilesiz, S. (2014). Rigor, transparency, evidence, and representation in discourse analysis: Challenges and recommendations. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 13(1), 422-443.
Harden, A. (2015). The discourse of drama supporting literacy learning in an early years classroom. The Australian Journal of Language and Literacy, 38(3), 141.
Heathcote, D. (1970). How does drama serve thinking, talking, and writing? Elementary English, 47(8), 1077-1081.
Heathcote, D. & Herbert, P. ( 1985). A drama of learning: Mantle of the expert. Theory into Practice, 24 (3), 173-180.
Kao, S. M., Carkin, G., & Hsu, L. F. (2011). Questioning techniques for promoting language learning with students of limited L2 oral proficiency in a drama-oriented language classroom. Research in Drama Education: The Journal of Applied Theatre and Performance, 16(4), 489-515.
Kao, S. M., & O’Neill, C. (1998). Words into worlds: Learning a second language through process drama. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Johnson, L., & O’Neill, C. (1984). Dorothy Heathcote: Collected writings on drama and education. London: Hutchinson.
Komala, A. S., & Rifai, I. (2021). The impacts of the Cherry Orchard video game on players’ reading comprehension. Procedia Computer Science, 179, 368-374.
Mercer, N., Wegerif, R., & Dawes, L. (1999). Children’s talk and the development of reasoning in the classroom. British Educational Research Journal, 25(1), 95-111.
O’Neill, C. & Lambert, A. (1982). Drama structures: A practical handbook for teachers. Portsmouth: Heinemann.
Rifai, I. (2019). Using Process Drama Strategies to Support Students’ Co-construction of Meanings from Literary and Religious Texts: The Experience of an Islamic School in the The United States. The Ohio State University.
Taylor, P., & Warner, C. D. (Eds.). (2006). Structure and spontaneity: The process drama of Cecily O’Neill. Stylus Publishing, LLC.
Wagner, B. J. (1988). Research currents: Does classroom drama affect the arts of language? Language Arts, 65(1), 46-55.
Wagner, B. J. (Ed.). (1999). Building moral communities through educational drama. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Warner, C. D. (2013). Drama and science: An unlikely partnership for inquiry. How Drama Activates Learning: Contemporary Research and Practice, 260-176.
Wilkinson, I. A. G., Soter, A. O., & Murphy, P. K. (2010). Developing a model of quality talk about a literary text. Bringing Reading Research to Life, 142-169.
Wolf, S., Edmiston, B., & Enciso, P. (1997). Drama worlds: Places of the heart, head, voice, and hand in dramatic interpretation. Handbook of research on teaching literacy through the communicative and visual arts, 474-487.
Wohlwend, K. E. (2009). Damsels in discourse: Girls consuming and producing identity texts through Disney princess play. Reading Research Quarterly, 44(1), 57-83.