Embellishing language with role play and theatrical techniques

     Retelling is an essential aspect of communication. We use retelling when we talk about what happened to us yesterday, the movie we saw last night or when we consciously or unconsciously use role-play to enhance our description of something that has happened to us. In recreating our experiences or talking about those of characters in movies, stories or plays, we involve our feelings, our reasoning process, diverse timbers of voice, gestures and body language.

      Acting technique therefore is an essential tool for language learners because it deals with how to come to terms with the big or little conflicts in our own lives or in the lives of characters in stories, plays, movies or even in our own experiences. Attempting to comprehend the way people communicate their ideas, needs and feelings is a fascinating, entertaining and extremely effective way to improve language fluency: when we play a role we must alter our language, the tone of our voices, find appropriate gestures, discover the rationality of our character’s actions and utilize countless other non-verbal communicative tools.

Some Guidelines:

     To role play you must be part scientist, part artist. You must carefully collect raw material (what the character looks like, his or her tone of voice, habits, etc.). In the process we must become careful observers and learn to discard what is of little use. Does the character smoke, twitch her lips, mumble, speak gruffly, use an accent, resort to slang, does he or she pronounce clearly, mumble? Is she timid, aggressive…? We need to practice the character’s ticks, gestures, way of walking, tones of voice, accents, etc. until we feel they are our own.

 Essential questions we must ask and answer:

 1. Who am I?

2.  Where have I come from?

3. How do I feel?

4. What is my immediate objective?

5. What is my long term objective?

6. How am I going to achieve it?

7. What kind of relationship do I have with the other characters?

     What are my own strengths and weaknesses and what are those of the character I am going to play? How can I think the way my character does? I must justify my actions on the basis of how my character thinks, NOT how I think. I must put aside my own thinking patterns in order to think and solve problems with the character’s logic. For example, if my character is a boss who refuses to give an employee a raise, what is his reasoning process? If he is a thief, what was the thinking process that led to the robbery? How does my character react to emotional situations, stress? Does he/she suppress her feelings, speak under her breath? Shout? Smirk? Gesture wildly?

     Understanding the character’s bio-rhythm is essential, yet we must be careful not to confuse our own tempo with that of the role we are playing. If we cannot visualize the character’s thinking and feeling due to lack of experience, we must resort either to “emotional memory” or to physical actions which transmit the character’s feelings. “Emotional memory” means finding in our own life a nearly equivalent experience to that of the character. Finding the physical actions means ordering my own body to do the actions required by the situation.

Clues:

1)    An essential aspect of role playing when applied to the learning of English is how well we can resolve the situation we have been asked to deal with.

2)    It is important to sometimes “break the rules.” By doing so imagination and creativity are added to our knowledge of fixed grammar structures. Sometimes an “error” allows us to learn in a more profound way. Teachers should not criticize a student for how he plays his role, whether he is “successful” or not in reproducing a supposed or established model of the character being played. The teacher or coach should take mental or written note of the language difficulties the students encounter when playing their roles: difficulties may then be discussed during the subsequent feedback. Tthe role playing should NOT be interrupted to correct the student’s speaking errors. That only serves to make the role player more self conscious.

3)    The coach should dedicate special attention to the images or graphic expressions related to the character or the situation involved in the role play. Verbs such as “stumble” or expressions such as “he blushed red as a rose” evoke images not only in the mind of the listener: they also motivate the player. The role player must see, feel, hear, touch or taste the image in order to make it come alive.

4)    Improvisation should be considered a tool for accumulating knowledge concerning the character or the situation being dealt with. It is a game and as such it has its rules. Once begun, the impromptu must continue without interruption until the desired effect or knowledge is achieved. Sometimes role players get lost. In that case they should rely on their companions for help. They may also invent actions which change the course of events and thus enable the improvisation to continue. If role players feel the urge to laugh or react in ways not directly related to the action being explored, they should try to re-direct that laugh, cry or whatever in the context of the role they are playing.

5)    When there are obvious difficulties in language, techniques such as mime may be useful. Likewise, some students may do the actions while others read or invent the dialogues.

6)    It is extremely important for the role player to adapt his or her action to that of his or her companions. Adaptation (to unexpected situations) provides the role player with an excellent opportunity to explore other avenues of expression. Everyone uses adaptation to deal with challenging situations, for example when lost in a foreign country.

Routines:

     The coach may begin each encounter with routines related to voice and breathing, in order to correct or improve problems related to diction. These drills should stress the importance of the diaphragm and the need to push the air against the resonators. Some practical games might include “selling” a product in a sports stadium, delivering a speech, or calling persons who are not present. Also useful are storytelling games.

     Organize encounters between characters, say, between a boss and an employee. It may also be taken from real life, from the newspapers, a play, a story, a scene from a movie. What words and phrases are needed to defend each character’s viewpoints? What accent does the boss have? What language ticks? How does the employee ask for a raise? How does the boss turn down his request?

      If it is a scene from a story or play, or movie who are the characters? What are their conflicts? Working on scenes from movies allows students to listen to the words used and repeat the actions or invent their own gestures or movements. While some students do the role-playing others watch attentively; likewise those students not acting may provide information or even structure the dialogues.

       Propose a problem to be solved by several characters and choose the role players. Have them pantomime the actions. Divide the class into teams, one for each character. Have students work out the dialogues, physical actions, attitudes, etc. and then organize a brief improvisation.

 Feedback:

     Do NOT interrupt role-play activities with language corrections. During the feedback at the end of the class the teacher should explain language as well as other difficulties involved in the role-play. This is a great opportunity for students to share their feelings concerning the experience, although at first it is difficult for students to clearly express their ideas or feelings. When used regularly students begin to understand that the feedback is for their own benefit.

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