My name is Bara Dockalova, and I am an English teacher from Prague, the Czech Republic. Since the very beginnings of my teaching career, I have been using drama for learning in many forms: improvisation, full length plays, short plays and skits, structured drama, writing scripts with students, using puppets, taking on roles as a teacher, setting up simulations, making films, and more. Over the years, I‘ve created a lot of original English plays and other materials for students of various ages. I‘d like to share them - so here is a part of my collection which I‘m planning to expand over time. I hope you find it useful!
The idea of using dramatic play for language learning has been around for centuries, but in the past few decades it has become more recognized than ever, probably for two main reasons:
The magic words "let‘s pretend" have the power to bring an endless amount of meaningful situations into the English classroom. We can be anywhere, we can become anyone, we can experience a different adventure every day. The imagined situations generate all kinds of opportunities to use English, much more exciting and diverse than if we stick to what is real. And when students sense the scent of dramatic tension in the air, when they hear it calling, they often want to stand up and participate in an activity even before we ask them to.
