Shakespeare in the English Language Classroom: Using Drama Techniques to Develop Adult Learner’s L2 Speaking Skills

Abstract

Speaking in L2 is the most vital skill in this modern, globalized world. Shakespeare’s drama with its stage techniques can be a useful tool for developing L2 (English as a foreign/second) speaking skills. Drama skills/techniques on stage facilitate a learner’s fluency, pronunciation, and confidence in oral delivery. In the present communicative language teaching (CLT) method, there is still a lack of options for developing L2 speaking skills among our learners. So L2 speaking is always difficult for them from class one to twelve. The result is visible at the advanced level also. A learner suffers from severe anxiety to deliver an oral presentation or to attend a viva-voce exam. It often hinders one to speak naturally in public to present an impromptu speech even in front of classmates. Drama skills/techniques encourage a learner to come out of this challenging situation. To test this, a case study has been made on 68 learners of the Department of English Language and Literature (DELL) at Premier University, Chattagram. As research instruments, questionnaires and one-to-one interviews have been taken in three phases. The target group (TG) of students comprises three advanced-level students. These groups have done three compulsory courses— ‘Shakespeare: Tragedies and Histories’, ‘Shakespeare: Comedies and Sonnets’ and ‘The History of Theatre’. The department offers these courses in three different semesters for four and half months’ each with intensive theoretical and practical classes. From the study, it comes out that the influence of staging Shakespeare’s dramas on developing an L2 learner’s speaking skills is phenomenal. It has significantly increased the self-confidence along with other speaking skills of the L2 learners. Shakespeare on stage comes out as more beneficial for language learners than on the pages of the books.