Using drama in the classroom: The educational values of theatre in second language acquisition

In my dissertation, I will demonstrate how theatre is one of the most complete teaching tools in promoting second language acquisition. After an historical excursus, I will continue by explaining and analyzing the multiple uses and functions of theatre today. Nowadays, theatre has achieved recognition not only as a form of entertainment, but also as an educational tool. In this dissertation, I will demonstrate that theater is particularly effective and useful when used as a teaching tool in the second language acquisition classroom. The use of drama in the language classroom allows the teacher to present the target language in an active, communicative and contextualized way. Dramatization helps the teacher address the four skills of language learning (speaking, listening, writing and reading), and it also favors and facilitates the study of some often neglected aspects of language such as pronunciation and body language. Theatre can be used with impressive results in the Italian language classroom, since the Italian language is highly theatrical: as a matter of fact, Italian speakers (more than others) typically accompany the spoken language with hand gestures, facial expressions and body language. Last but not least, theater creates cohesion and camaraderie among students in a non-competitive atmosphere and teaches students the importance of building something together as a group versus performing individually and competitively.; In my three years experience as a teacher of Italian language in the European Languages Department of Stony Brook University, I had the possibility and the opportunity to try different ways to utilize drama as a teaching tool and tested out many techniques and strategies with positive results. Hence, in the concluding part of my thesis, I will share the material I have used such as lesson plans, exercises, evaluating tools (quizzes), grading tools (rubrics and error correcting codes/symbols), as well as pictures of my students in action. This last section aims to provide some examples of how to put theory into practice.