Students Playwriting For Language Development

Students playwriting for language development
Ann Gillian Elgar
This article recommends playwriting activities in English language teaching language development,
starting by the way of these activities are organized. Courses for first year undergraduate TESL
university of Brunei Darussalam students. Playwriting improve students writing skills in addition to
recognizing text type and authenticity of a text directed to a global audience.
Introduction
Playwriting has great potential that the author used in language-learning activity with tertiary level
students of English; she presents the playwriting activities of I BA TESL students on a language
development course at the University of Brunei Darussalam (UBD) and suggest a methodology for
composite of plays in classroom.
Playwriting and English language teaching:
Various authors described the benefits of writing and play performance in L1 and L2 English teaching.
Rycik (1990:40) claimed that playwriting in L1 English teaching allows students to have their own
style writing, improve their writing skills and imagination, and to be aware of team work importance.
Salvante (1993) describes playwriting residency programmes she administers for US public schools as
they help students to meet professional playwrights to increase their self esteem by being autonomous
writers and feel accomplished (ibid 37)
Sandok (1994), Baines an Dial (1995), and Jackson and Kerr-Norflett (1997) also proposed the use of
Jamaican style play as a playwriting activity to enhance literacy skills of students by involving them
into learning process. Sandock (1994:414) considers that students by the play written by their class, to
study words and phrases and to pay attention to cues to get it right?
Baines and Dial (1995:86-7) suggest scripting screen plays as an appropriate classroom activity since
students are more attracted to films, and a complete writing process in groups.
Wessel (1991) and Heath (1993: 1996) recommend playwriting in EFL/ESL context. Wessels (ibid)
state that the improvisation of plays gives students rise to much intensive language practice, moreover
because they created the play by themselves (Wessels 1991:234).
Heath (1996:776) claims that literary writing generates essentials of language learning, writing
listening, reading aloud.
Heath (1993) recommend play writing as an effectiveness of the drama activities, run by US university
youth organizations. She notes that young people under-achievers in school improved after having
written and performed plays, with a possible high linguistic performance.
Heath (ibid:185) suggest that schools should all implicate drama as a successful activity that improve
ranges of linguistic competence of students.
Playwriting at UBD: Background and rationale :

Blubaun and Chin (1995) recommend playwriting to foster language development for future English
teachers, they interviewed all graduates from UBD’s TESL programme who emphasized the
importance of oral fluency activities, like role plays and drama (ibid:16).
Role-play activities are described by Elliot (1990) who focuses on existing works of literature, and the
revised language development syllabus, which make future English teacher more experienced in
writing dialogues.
Berry (1990:101) suggests that language improvement activities are a model for teaching behavior.
However there was some doubts about student’s memory divided between the play’s lines and their
courses, specially if they are not interested, (1987:10) recommends regrouping students interested on
staging a play. A play reading seemed a more appropriate using a restricted setting, location.
Students playwrights
TESL students’ programme at UBD have level of English that varies with regard to their first
language, their control of grammatical structure and their knowledge of vocabulary.
Year groups on the BA TESL comprise 5 in the first playwriting project, 6 in the second, and 12 in the
third, female students predominate.
The playwriting project:
The students undertook all the tasks relating to the playwriting project in English. In the first session
Ann Gillian Elgar gave an outline of the project then they discussed their themes. Finally I requested
each student to write an original synopsis by providing a title, list of characters and their description
(most of them female), with a number equal to the number of students in the group, and an outline of
the plot.
In the second session synopsis copies were distributed to all class members, they studied it, discussed
it. Finally student make 02 secret votes to choose 02 synopses, and discussed them to select the
highest ranking one, they elaborate the characters, plot, and setting of the play, and could write it scene
bye scene outside the classroom free to be helped by others to write a fairly lengthy scenes which
detailed the synopses with one week being allocated between session for composing, typing, and
photocopying the first draft of a scene, and another week for producing a revised draft, students
amended the draft version until all the scenes were completed. The final session was for reading and
editing.
The students’ plays: Wessels (1987:10) notes that teachers should not expect their second language
learners to write a play with outstanding literature when using drama, but the results were
encouraging.
The first play is entitled ‘Meeting at five’, it involves 05 former college friends who decided to meet at
05PM at a café they used to go to, they recount their old memories together, and discussed their
current life and problems, sarah is in crisis with her husband, but didn’t find help from her friends, so
she decided to solve them on her own.
The students presented their work to an audience, and transformed they classroom into a café (menu
presented in the blackboard, white cloth, and a vase of flowers on the table).
The second play, written by the next intake of first year students is entitled ‘Childbirth for beginners’.
It is set in the corridor of a maternity hospital, where a group of pregnant women, with their partners,
recount their parenthood problems.
In the following year, the first year students wrote a play called ‘The wedding Ceremony’. The central
characters are : a bride, Kasum, and a groom, Zulkifli, it tells the story of a man who was obliged to
marry three wives, and facec problems supporting them, this play had an audience, and used
videotapes for that other classes could use as a resource.
Conclusion:
Playwriting is highly recommended for language learning activity, it develops the student’s four skills,
writing scenes they invented, read others word, listen to other actors lines, display the full range of
their work for the benefit of their fellow actors, and unknown audience. Playwriting promote authentic
text type and has potential for use on many types of language courses whether general or specific
purpose.

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Students playwriting for language development

Ann Gillian Elgar

Playwriting and English language teaching:

Playwriting at UBD: Background and rationale :

The playwriting project:

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