Why does a teacher use drama elements in her language classes? This article critically reflects on the author's experiences with employing drama elements in a compulsory class of German as a Foreign Language at college level. Motives for using drama are discussed, with regard to possible positive effects for the teacher-such as rapport with learners and personal confidence-and potential benefits for the language learners-such as promoting vocabulary and grammar learning, fostering oral skills and increasing motivation. After that the drama activities used in class are briefly described. However, two years of experimentation have also shown up a number of problems with implementing drama elements in class and still leave questions open, requiring further iterations of the drama-based approach in this context. The paper was developed from a talk given at the Drama in Education Days in Konstanz 2018.
Steps to the stage
(2017)
Ingenieure auf die Bühne
(2018)
