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Learning English one line at a time

Program shines the spotlight on language lessons

By Brooke Edge
For The Prague Post
March 28th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Students at Jeviště rehearse lines for an upcoming school production that aims to make learning English fun.
Present simple. Present continuous. Present perfect.
This bores. This is boring. This has been boring.
Bára Dočkalová started Prague's Jeviště school a year ago to give parents and their children a theatrical method of English-language learning.
It’s a dilemma that faces both sides of an English classroom: how to make learning this language — and all its aggravating tenses — exciting and fun.
Bára Dočkalová thinks she may have a solution. She calls it the “Act and Speak” method, a technique that uses theater to elicit learning.
Jeviště

Mikuláše z Husi 8
Prague 4
604 276 168
www.jeviste.cz
bara.dockalova@jeviste.cz
Summer camp dates: Aug. 11–25

The course is similar to an acting class, and students enrolled in the after-school program at Jeviště, which Dočkalová opened last year, work toward a goal of staging a play for friends and family.
But, before rehearsals can begin, pupils spend a good deal of the class acting out “grammar plays” to learn and comprehend rules of the language. They then will read the play to be performed as a class, switching roles to digest what’s being said. Dočkalová calls it “language learning based on the script.”
Though a far cry from traditional learning formats of lesson books, vocabulary quizzes and grammar drills, Dočkalová swears her system works. Jeviště breaks the year up into two semesters — a short 14-week course runs from September until the end of December while a longer 24-week course runs from January until mid-June. Students meet once a week for about two hours.
“Not only is it fun,” she says, “but English is the goal and the process is as important as the product.”
Dočkalová writes original plays and scenes based on the proficiency level of each individual class. She says she wants every student to be pushed academically in his or her role and for every role to be integral to the play’s plot so that students remain invested in learning.
The setup appears to not only be a hit with students but also teachers.
“I came to Prague and got bored to death teaching normal English until I started working at Jeviště,” says Melanie Rada, one of the instructors at the school. “It’s so fun. Kids love theater.”
The method integrates games into lessons, Rada explains, which keeps students interested and distracted from what they’re actually doing.
“They don’t realize they’re learning,” Rada says with a laugh.
The plays Dočkalová writes combine grammar with an emphasis on real-world language application, so students who stay with Jeviště through numerous classes work through the same language levels they would in more traditional classes. But, by learning through drama — being up on their feet rather than behind a desk — the task becomes more fun, according to Dočkalová.
“We look at grammar just as much as any other school would,” Rada says.
But, instead of textbooks and grammar exercises, students learn the ins and outs of English through the dialogues and actions of the characters in the plays.
“I think it works much better than the other [more traditional] way,” Rada adds.
Students get to put what they’ve learned about language to use in imaginative contexts, Dočkalová agrees.
“The heroes have to communicate because there is some adventure,” she says, rather than simply reading and repeating dialogues from a workbook. Plus, the method helps the language sink in, she says. “I’m still surprised by how many phrases the kids use after the plays.”
This summer, Jeviště will host a two-week, intensive-English summer camp using the “Act and Speak” method. Divided into groups according to proficiency levels, students will follow the same pattern of a Jeviště course, condensed into a few days. They will enact scenes, learn performance techniques and, most importantly, have fun putting the English language to work, Dočkalová says.
We would love to get a greater variety of nationalities  … to create theater together, and share the stage,” Dočkalová says. “That’s also part of the reason why we are organizing the international summer camp.”
The impetus behind “Act and Speak” and Jeviště started years ago when Dočkalová was a student at Charles University working toward an education degree. There she met a visiting professor from California who taught a course about the intersection of acting and learning.
In 2001, while still a student, she traveled to California to study theater arts at Humboldt State University.
Dočkalová fell in love with the art of dramatic performance but returned to Charles University to complete her education studies. Her acting experience in California, however, had inevitably changed the way Dočkalová approached teaching.
She created her thesis project around using drama as a way to teach children English, not just as a fun reinforcement activity in the course of a lesson but as the foundation for an entire course. This idea eventually evolved into her “Act and Speak” method.
This year’s summer camp is a major milestone for Dočkalová.
Jeviště is the camp’s main organizer, but the school is collaborating with the California Institute of English Language and Theatre, of which Dočkalová is also a co-director. The California Institute has held two similar camps in California, and Dočkalová has assisted with both of those.
“The success was enormous. [The students] were completely thrilled with how quickly they made progress in English,” she says.
Jeviště is soliciting applicants from around the world, not only the Czech Republic, Dočkalová says. The camp, which will be held in Hrubšice over two weeks in mid-August, is also open to English teachers who want to enroll and observe the “Act and Speak” method in action. Separate workshops will be included for this group to teach them this technique, Dočkalová says.
“We’re hoping to bring together a nice group where it will be forbidden to speak Czech,” says Dočkalová, herself a native Czech speaker, with a smile. “We want people who come to really be immersed in English.”
She’s not kidding. Dočkalová describes the camp as “24/7 English,” where students will live together on the grounds of a Moravian castle with a staff of native English speakers.
In addition to the “Act and Speak” drama work, they will also watch English-language films at night and even talk with English-speaking chefs during mealtimes.
“The cook introduces the food and tells stories around it in order to engage everyone in communication while they are eating,” Dočkalová explains.
The new camp’s enrollment is already one-third full.
Dočkalová acknowledged that this nontraditional method of teaching is not always an easy sell. But, she says, “I think it has a great future.”
“It’s definitely a niche market,” Rada agrees. “It’s still a new idea, a new method.” But, she adds, “I think once people learn more about it, it will become very popular.”

Brooke Edge can be reached at specialsection@praguepost.com


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Reader's comments:

add your comment
[18:03 07/04/2007] : As an English language teacher I've always thought a
course like that could work. People are able to keep
song lyrics in mind, why not lines of a play? It really sounds great.
PS. Here in Brazil people love acting.
Edson jupira dos Santos
Sabara
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