Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes on the Efficiency of Drama Education in Learning and Teaching Foreign Languages

Abstract

The aim of this article is to introduce drama education as a method of learning and teaching foreign languages. We first introduce the distinction between two methods: drama education and theatre pedagogy, as established in the field of foreign language didactics, and then present some main characteristics of the method of drama education.

The main part of the article is based on the results of a survey among pre-service teachers of German as a foreign language about the efficiency of drama education for the development of various competences in the foreign language classroom. The analysis shows the greatest benefit of drama education for the development of literary competences, vocabulary learning, foreign language skills and other competences, that are not so frequently developed in foreign language teaching. The average impact of drama education in this context as assessed with regard to emotions, development of grammar competence, learning process and learning styles. The students did not recognise any negative effects of drama education on foreign language teaching or learning. Workshops on drama education seem to be a very successful way of combining theory and practice in pre-service teacher training. It helped students to better understand the theory, gain practical knowledge and reflect on their own learning as well as the drama-based pedagogical method. Besides gaining personal experience and practical techniques, providing a workshop with a focus on reflection a very effective way to develop the competence of self-reflection, which is one of the key competences of teachers.