Course Description
This course, Drama in the ESL Classroom, is intended to be taught in the Program in Intensive English (PIE) located on the Northern Arizona University campus. It is one option for students to choose from in the Electives for Language Improvement (ELI) course. Students in the PIE are mostly college-aged students hoping to improve their English quickly in order to enter mainstream university classes. Some students in this class have had one or two years of college classes; others have not. As this course is based on the Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) approach, the goals of this course aim at communicative competence. All other classes in the PIE are comprised of students with the same proficiency levels; however, the ELIs are classes in which students from all levels participate. This means that in one ELI class, there will be students in the pre-academic, level 1, and level 2 on the roster. Therefore, one must consider the multi-level structure of this Drama in the ESL Classroom class, as students’ abilities range from beginners to high intermediate.
As in many language settings, student motivation can vary. Some PIE students are highly motivated to participate in all classes. Other students see the PIE as a hindrance to their taking classes in the university. That said, students do have the option to choose which ELI course they would like to take. When students are given a choice, they typically are more committed and motivated to partake in the activities of the course. Because this course is an elective, and because enrollment varies in the PIE, it’s difficult to say exactly how many students are in this class. A range of 10−25 students can be expected in one ELI class. Resources available to the teachers are numerous. These include ESL Drama books, recommended websites, sample activities, and numerous mentors in the TESL/AL program.