Many of my ESL students in East Asia have asked me to help them learn about the rhythms and cadences of the English language. They will tell me with desperation in their eyes that they do not want to speak what they often describe as ‘monotone’ or ‘robot’ English. I developed the game ‘Drama queen English’ specifically for them. Of course, we all know what a drama queen is. This is a person who over-reacts emotionally and often makes a big deal out of nothing. I think the term applies to men as well as women – I know I have been called a drama queen many times. I suppose you could call the game ‘Drama royalty English’ if you choose, or, Drama king and queen English’.
First of all, I happen to be one of the biggest drama queens on the face of the earth, so I was qualified. Secondly, I realised that ‘monotone’ English was often due to the fact that English is sometimes taught as if it is separate from human emotions. I wanted to create a game or exercise which showed that the English language cannot be divorced from our emotional lives. English, like all languages, is often an expression of an emotion or is meant to engage others emotionally. We are not AI systems – we are flesh and blood beings and I wanted to stress that we cannot ignore this fact. We need to be able to speak a foreign language in a way that reflects our emotional states.
I would argue that very little which is spoken is free from emotion. I realised that if I could create an activity where students absolutely had to emote, and every student had to emote in front of every other student, ‘face-saving’ and ‘shyness’ barriers could be broken down and students would be encouraged to experiment with over-the-top facial expressions and body language.
I have found through my years as a teacher that shyness barriers should be broken down early and often. All students must feel comfortable in a class and this, to me, means all students (and their teacher) taking chances and creating a mutually supportive and experimental atmosphere. I would like my classes to look and feel more like improvisational comedy clubs than formal classrooms.
Through Drama queen English you can help beginning ESL students: learn the names of various emotions; help any level with their pronunciation; give them experience developing English rhythms while making easy basic statements; and help them use English to express their emotional states. So we get disguised exercises in ‘chunking’ here, by helping students to stress certain key words, and we are helping students feel more comfortable expressing themselves in class. Frankly, students really seem to enjoy playing this educational game.
One of the lessons is that spoken English is rarely emotion free, it is OK and encouraged to make facial, hand and body gestures while speaking; and nonverbal communication is, indeed, often employed when speaking English to supplement what you are saying.
Have you ever had trouble just getting your students to stick their tongues through their teeth to make the ‘th’ sound? Then you know what I am talking about. Students are often literally afraid to make certain facial expressions. Getting some students to stick their tongues through their teeth is like asking them to break an ancient taboo! I firmly believe one of the jobs of an ESL or EFL teacher is to help students loosen up and enjoy employing the nonverbal aspects of speaking English.
In the game, the student should be encouraged to go totally overboard and express over-the-top emotions while making simple statements.
So here’s how you do it. I am sharing some visuals (Figures 1 & 2) from one of my own classes – so don’t expect perfect and beautiful images here; yet, these prompts were quite effective and led to numerous wonderful classes with students.
You start by creating a number of slips of paper with basic statements (Figure 1) and slips of paper with emotions (Figure 2). If your students are beginners, you might do a PowerPoint on emotions before playing the game, and you can also remind students of what the emotions are as you play.
Figure 1 (left): Basic statements
Figure 2 (right): Emotion prompts
First, put together a list of several very basic statements. You can see the selection of basic statements I used. You are free to create your own. Cut them out into little slips of paper. These are the actual slips that I first used when I tried out this game with 4th graders in Shenzhen, China.
You will have another group of slips of paper or cards with emotions. The slips of paper should be in two piles and they should be turned over so that students do not know which statement or emotion they are choosing. Of course, now students will take one statement and one emotion randomly and have to present it as a drama queen in front of the class.
Again, they should be encouraged to be as expressive and dramatic as possible – that’s the point of the exercise and game. If you want to, you can have little prizes for the most expressive students (like winning Oscars, but provide candy treats or little knickknacks, not gold statues). By the way, emotions that don’t seem to fit the statements actually can still fit the statements in uncanny ways – therein lies the fun!
Sometimes I will have a pair of students in the front of the room and after one emotes a statement, the other responds with an equally goofy and silly emoted statement.
For example:
First student: Lovestruck: I hurt my elbow.
Second student: Happy: I had a strange dream.
You wind up creating strange and funny little absurdist dramas and dialogues in which students display emotions using rhythm, tone of voice and body language.
At one of my schools in China I was asked to do a presentation every two weeks to Chinese English teachers, to demonstrate ‘American’ teaching methods. I am not sure there are American teaching methods, but as a guy from Chicago and New York City, I developed the types of methods they seemed to be looking for and believed were prevalent in America. These methods involved getting students out of their chairs, moving around and speaking. This activity is perfect!
Would it surprise you to find out that teachers can be even more reserved than students? I found this to be the case and it was fun helping them break through their shyness barriers as well. I felt that the more teachers I could help to overcome fears of presenting emotion, the more students I would help.
So there you have a simple exercise or game which will allow your students to express themselves, feel more confident about being in front of the class or other groups, teach them different emotions and help them realise that when speaking English we do not speak in a monotone and we use our bodies and faces in the expression of various statements. Good luck and enjoy!
Daniel Gauss was born in Chicago, studied at UW/Madison and Teachers College Columbia University, and has worked in the field of education for the past 20 years. He has had numerous nonfiction articles published on a diverse range of platforms including The Good Men Project and E: the environmental magazine. He has also published some fiction and some children’s poetry on Dirigible Balloon and Balloon Lit Journal. He currently runs an educational consulting business in China.
Daniel Gauss: [email protected]
