Spanning over 2 000 years, teaching languages through drama is nothing new. Despite promising international research on the topic of teaching English as a second language (ESL) through drama, few to no studies have been conducted to assess its pedagogical value in the Swedish elementary school context. The national curriculum in Sweden promotes playful learning, with drama being included as a viable teaching activity for English in grades 4-6. Through five semi-structured interviews, this study explores how teachers in Sweden employ drama and role-play-based methods, but also how they perceive these method’s impact on students’ language skills. A thematic analysis of the teacher interviews suggests that drama and role-play can have positive effects, both in terms of academic skills development and in terms of affective factors related to the English subject. However, the teachers express concern that drama can give rise to unwanted behavior and bullying, which underlines the importance of a safe and supportive classroom environment before implementing drama-based tasks. Overall, the results seem to be in line with previous research on the topic and may thus be of relevance to the Swedish educational context. This study’s main limitation is its sole reliance on teachers who have a positive attitude towards drama and role-play. Therefore, further research could involve teachers who have used drama-based methods but found dissatisfying outcomes.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:mau-67365 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Olsson, Axel, Dabbous, Niam |
| Publisher | Malmö universitet, Institutionen för kultur, språk och medier (KSM) |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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