Letting language live. Establishing a basis for the use of drama in education to support and implement a communicative approach to the teaching and learning of modern foreign languages

Abstract

Having for many years successfully used Drama in Education (DiE) in her classroom as a means of supporting and implementing a communicative approach (CLT) to the teaching and learning of modern foreign languages (MFL), the author undertook this study to understand more fully the relationship between the two approaches to teaching and learning. An extensive review of literature in the areas of second language acquisition (SLA), communicative language teaching and learning (CLT), and learner autonomy is undertaken to explore the foundations on which an active approach to the teaching and learning of languages might be based. To better contextualise the research, the aims and guiding principles of language teaching and learning in a European context and in the Irish second level school context, as well as initiatives and challenges to their attainment, are investigated. The focus then turns to Drama in Education, exploring what it is and what it is not, before establishing links between it and a communicative approach to language teaching and learning.