Drama and writing in the English as a foreign language classroom : an experimental study of the use of drama to promote writing in the foreign classroom.

摘要

This thesis explores issues in the development of foreign language writing abilities in audPortuguese setting. The study is based on a research project carried out in 1993 in threeudUniversity classrooms, where the author was teaching. It investigates what happens whenudeducational drama is brought into the EFL classroom as part of a teaching programme with audview to improving writing abilities.udSet in a Vygotskian framework, educational drama is used as a mediating device to attend to audwhole set of factors not usually salient in L2 writing. The study covers all 108 students majoringudin EFL at that time. The students were proficient in both oral work and grammar exercises butudhad difficulties writing in English. Two obligatory drama workshops were carried out in Englishudwith each group of students during their second term of study and all written work carried outudduring the term stemmed from the workshops.udLarge amounts of data were analysed by qualitative and quantitative methods. Writingudassignments pre/post drama workshops were collected. Drama workshops were monitored viaudaudio and video recording. Questionnaires were given to the students during the pre and postuddata collection periods to measure writing apprehension.udStudent writing was found to improve significantly in both content and grammatical fluency in audrelatively short period of time. Drawing on linguistic and social semiotic analyses, the projectudexamines the nature of the different written texts produced in this particular educationaludenvironment and the interaction between the use of drama and the writing process itself throughudthe concept of transformation. In terms of a larger Vygotskian framework it looks at the role ofudthinking in learning, development and instruction in a way which bridges difficult conceptualudphases in foreign language teaching.udKey words: EFL, foreign languages, writing, Vygotsky, drama, Social Semiotics, transformation.