3.1 Preparation Activities
To prepare students’ mental and competence in playing drama, a syllabus was made carefully before teaching activity to reach maximum learning outcome; students are ableto perform drama.
The activities were divided into big programs. First half semester wasfor general information and preparation practices, the second half semester was for groups’ project preparation in the forms of drama and video. The information about drama including the definition, characters and characteristics, kinds of drama, theatre exercises, and script writing were completely given to the
exercise is to supply the students on how to play the dialogue loudly if in case no loud speaker duringtheshoworelectricitytrouble.Here, studentsweretaught howtofill inthelungwithairand release it in right way to produce maximum sound. Students were not yet practice speaking, they practiced saying‘a’, V,‘u’,‘e’,and ‘o’, evenintheirsmall groupdramapresentation. Blockingis thetechniqueofhowtooccupythestagewithoutleavinganemptyspace.For practice,eachstudent wascalled one by onetocometothe stage(in front ofthe class)tolet themthink‘where I should place mypositiononthestage’. Actingisthelast stagepreparationtoact howtobesad,happy, cry, laugh and other expressionsthat should be trained well before drama performance. This sessionis interesting hence the students had to come one by one to the front of the class, chose one card containing oneexpression and practiced it. Somestudents needed sometimeto focusbefore acting it outwhile othersdid not.Afterindividualpractice, studentswereasked topreparegrouppractice.
In group practice, each group which consisted of five students was given five different expression cardsthat they had to act. Group practices tooktwo meetings becauseone groupcould take30minutesperformance.Mostgroupusedtheiroriginal scenariobasedonthecardstheygotin previous meeting. Thevoice, blockingtechnique, andaction werealreadygood.Some shy students evenappeared as very good actors/actresswho got recommendation as the main characters for the
real show.
Scriptwritingwasthenext activitydonebythestudents. Thiswasdoneaftereachgroupdecided their title for the performance because script writing is directly prepared students to write, adapt, revise, or edit beforeperformance. Scriptwritingand drama preparationtookfive meetingswhile I only checkedif needed.Therestwastackled bythestudents. Ineachmeeting,studentsreportedthe progress, problems, or the D-day program. Cooperation was required in this group work because
theyhavetoleavetheirego totakedifferent rolesasthejob description;asdirectors, scriptwriters, players, wardrobe persons, set persons, and technician. During preparation week, different class helpedtopreparethehalland equipment,advertisement andhost.
3.2 Theatrical Activities
There are two kinds of theatrical activities produced by the students; drama and video. Both projects were presented in one event. It is called “Students’ Performing Art” which was held on Friday,
14lh
of August 2015 at 7 p.m upto 11 p.m. Theevent was presenting four groups of drama andtwovideos. Somelecturers and headsfrom other study programs were also attending theevent.Students who were not from English Education Study Program also came to seethe performance.
Lecturers gavethecomments tothe performers as eachof them was given acommentarypaper. All lecturers attending the event appreciated students’ effort and achievement to make such kind of performance. They also agreed that students’ performances were above the average; acting, wardrobe, setting, back sound and voice were well presented. Moreover, students’ speaking skill was clearly heard byall audience even they did notuseloud speaker, means,thestorymessagewas successfully delivered.
3.2.1 Drama
Performed by four teams, each drama spent for about thirty minutes. Performance order was based on the lottery done at the rehearsal night. Not all team members performed hence some persons tackled the settings, back sound, and wardrobe. Moreover, all directors did not perform
Lakewerepresented throughdubbingtechnique.SwanLaketeamdubbed theirown voicewhilethe snowwhiteteam used original movievoiceforthe dramawhichisactuallyout ofthe requirement.
The team members were not ready from the beginning. In the regular report, they reported their problemsthatthemembershad difficulttimetomeetbecauseallofthe memberswereworkers.
TABLE1Drama Titles and Description
Group Drama Title Description
1 Roro Jongrang Played by 15 students, this performance adapted a legend from middleJava. The actors and actresswere dressed in full traditional clothes and make-up. Some lecturers commented the drama was attractive because it was presented lively. The back sound played nicely between some scenes. The most interesting is the actor of BandungBondowoso isabeautilul girl acting perfectly likea man.
2 R.A. Kartini Taken from the biography of Indonesian heroin, R.A. Kartini, studentsof2012Aperformedthestoryof Kartini’s life before she got married until her premature death in 1904at the age of25. Itis alive performance supported by good setting, furniture, and back sound.
3 TheSnow White and the Huntsman
Performed by the students of 2012 C. the snow white and the huntsman was presented in lip-sync teclmique. The actors and actress were mostly acting less speaking. This was out of the requirementhence the purposeof the activity istosupportstudents’
speaking ability.
4 Swan Lake According to some observers. Swan Lake performance is a well prepared performance. This is true because students dubbed their own voice in a professional studio for the performance. As the progress report said, it took a day for voice recording only.
Furthermore, the settings in the form of slides were also well designed.
3.2.2 Video
Asstated in syllabus, the project was only in the form of drama. In the process, students argued that in different subject they had made drama project so they wanted different challenge todo. To cater students’ creativity, and to free students’ innovation, then the projects were in the forms of dramaand video. All students were in one voice agreeing this new idea. Mostly, the process was the same.The difference was in the final step;performing and movie making.
Table2VideoTitles and Description
Group VideoTitles Description
1 The Second Chance This isanindie movie produced by studentsof 2012B. The story wasabout howagirlrealized that she had done something wrong in the past and wanted to make a better difference. To support the story, the scenes were taken in Juanda airport, Kebun Raya Pasuruan.andahouse.
2 Lutung Kasanmg and Cinderella
This is another indie movie produced by 2012 B. The story is a drama comedy combining the story of Lutung Kasanmg and Cinderella. The settings were mostly taken in Mpu Tantular museum of Sidoarjo. The end of the story is unpredictable but nice.
This study supports Nikitana’s study which was done in 2011. She believes that theatrical activities are widely used by language educators to promote and facilitate language learning.
Further, she claims that involving students in production of their own video or a short movie in the targetlanguageallows a seamless fusion of language learning, art,and popular culture. The activity is also conducivefor creating an authentic learning situation where the real world becomesapart of theeducational experience and necessitates the useof an authentic language by the learners [13],
Based on the data found during students’ performingart,conversations made in video and drama scripts showed real life relevance because there were some daily expressions people usually use including agreement, disagreement, congratulating, disappointment, arguing, surprise, sympathy, and thanking. Some scenes were also showing specific condition like dialogue between parentsand kid,teacher and students, between friends or couple. Secondly, while developing the storylines and planning the production of the videos the students had an ample opportunity toreflect not only on the material they had learned during the language program but also to consider how to produce a
‘polished’end product, which identified as an ultimate outcomeofan authentic learning experience [11], Further, the students needed to approach the task from various perspectives. They had to attend not only to the artistic aspect of the drama performing or video making but also be efficient managers of their resources and time. In this case, drama teams had to manage the schedule of trainings, renting needed clothes, and preparing the settings, while video teams had toscale down the original planfor the video which included traveling toother partsof city because they realized that they would need considerable financial resources as well as an ample timeat their disposal to accomplish this project. Off ten elements of authentic learning situation proposed by Herrington et.al, seven elements were found. For detail description, below are the elements of authentic situation in drama and video project.
TABLE3Elementsof Authentic Learning Situation in the Project
Elementsof Explanation Elaboration
Authentic Learning Situation
Real world relevance The language used in drama As the synopses attest, the drama and video had and video reflects real life real life relevance because they reflected or situation. incorporatedsomepartsof real life situation which were showing specific condition like dialogues between parents and kid. teacher and students, between friendsorcouple.
The task is ill-defined Therewerenopre designed Teaching aidsormaterialsto guide the workonthe project.
The students had to separate the project into several stages;they needed to plan each stage of the project implementation. Theteamsencountered various unexpected problems while shooting the video (eg., technical problems, software incompatibility, etc), they also had to anticipate teclmical problems happened during the live show (eg.,electrical problem,audio,orsetting).
Several complex The students had to attend to tasksare incorporated the linguistic, artistic, and inone project teclmical aspects of the
project.
In making thevideos, the students developed their video scripts and wrote the conversations in English. They memorized the lines before acting in front of the camera. To shoot the video, they neededto manage thetime, prepare the equipment and physical props, identify suitablelocations,etc.
While to perform the live drama,students needed
orcutlike in making video.Thus,well preparation wascrucialtothesuccess of performance.
Opportunityto Thestudents had to share the Every videoteammember contributedto the collaborate responsibilities and tasks development of the storyline, writing the
between themselves equally. conversations, filming and editing of the video, while for drama, every team member contributed to the development of the storyline, writing conversations, practicing drama, preparing the settings,audio,and wardrobe. This promotedteam work and collaboration between the group members.
Assessment is integratedwithin the task
Various aspects were evaluated. The evaluation scheme was given to the students before the project began
The scheme included marks for an appropriate language use, video content/ drama performance, teamwork,and creativity.
Outcome of the activityisapolished product
Students’drama and video had been prepared well before performing.
The drama and video could begin only after the scripts were ready and well rehearsed. While working on the drama and video scripts the students needed to decide what message they wanted to sendtotheir audience and howto send this message effectively.
Diversityof learning outcomes is possible
Linguistic and nonlinguistic As the students performed, they had not only learning outcomes were polished the language skills but also learned to achieved. workasagroup, to communicate, to persevere in theirtask,to manage theirtime, to be responsible.
Some students said they could learn cooperatively with all members, discuss all change and plan duringthe work,and gainnew knowledge dealing
_with performingart._
Evidently, creating and filming a drama or a video in the target language is an ‘illdefined’ and complex task which takes a certain period of time to complete; the outcome of the activity is a
‘polished product’. Through the creative process ample opportunities a rise for the students to collaborate on the task, to reflect on their learning, and to explore the task from different perspectives. The learners have to deal with multiple responsibilities, such as writing the script, preparing physical props, acting, choosing suitable locations to shoot the video, etc.,which also promotesthe learners’ ownershipof their learning.
The learners’ abilitytoconveythe intended messagetothe viewers through linguistic means was a very important aspect of the project. Sending a message successfully means that the recipients are ableto understand the message. In order to achieve this, appropriate language must be employed.
There were two conditions dealing with language use in the project, (1) the students may adapt popular story or make their own scenario which has good moral value, (2) the narratives and conversations in the video must be understandable to the audience. As language educators know, the studentsoften feel constrained in expressing themselves in the target language as eloquently as they could do in their mothertongue.Duetoa limited knowledge of thetarget language the learners may be tempted to use a direct word-by-word translation from their mother tongue or they may want employ electronic translation devices or the translation software available on the Internet.
These ‘solutions’ to the problem would not only result in an inferior linguistic output by the
To conclude, the benefitsto be reaped from involving language learners in producing their own project in thetarget language are numerousand diverse. Among them, asthecurrent paper argued, is an enhanced authenticity of a learning experience that in turn stimulates the use of a real world language by the students. The finding showed that theatrical activities could promote authentic languagelearningbased on elementsof authentic learning situation;(1)real world relevance,(2) ill-defined natureof the learning task,(3) incorporation into the activity of several complex tasks, (4) opportunity to collaborate, (5) assessment which was seamlessly integrated with the task, (6) polished product outcome activity, and (7) possible diversity of outcomes. This study suggests developing authentic language learning through theatrical activities. It is hoped that an approach to language teaching described in the present article could identify some possible vectors for developing language pedagogy inthe institution.