Using Choreography as a Pedagogical Tool in the Language Classroom

The question I have:

As the school I teach in is set in a backward rural area, the students tend to have a minimal exposure to the English language. As an English teacher, how can I help my students to resolve their issues while learning English?

I searched for an appropriate answer to this question for a very long time in my experience as a teacher. In order to broaden my own understanding, I discussed about the problem I faced with many teachers asking them how they managed such situations.

Why I chose this tool instead of traditional teaching:

Even after having taught English for 18 years, I was left quite dissatisfied as I found that it was only the average students who improved every year. As a result, one question that was left unanswered for a very long time was how I could address needs of the low-proficient learners. What would be the right way to address their needs and facilitate their improvement? During this exploration, I employed many methods in my classroom. All of these methods only worked well up to a certain level, having some problem or the other.

As a result, I found myself searching for methods that were different from the traditional ones. When I attended the Acquiring Competence in English (ACE) workshop conducted by Dr. K. N. Anandan as a part of the service training program, I got an idea about how I could use choreography as a tool for teaching English in a manner that would address the needs of the low-proficient learners.

What is Choreography?

Choreography is a performance through which the performer(s) brings out certain themes through their act. It is usually done in the form of a drama without the employment dialogues or props. Students are able to better interpret a poem through choreography, since they have a deeper understanding of the themes.

Choreography helps in creating a fear-free environment for the students, and this facilitates language acquisition.

The Process:

Having gathered the different ideas in the training program, I had a doubt as to whether choreography would improve the vocabulary of the students or if it would only allow the students to enjoy the poem. However, putting aside these doubts, I decided to try it out and see the output from my students.

So, one day, I went to my class and told the students that we would be learning the poem titled ‘A tiger in the zoo’. The students seemed to be disinterested, since they figured that it would one more poem for them to memorize. I quickly told them that we were not going to memorize the poem but were going to perform it instead. Suddenly, the faces of the students brightened, and they wanted to know how they would be doing the performance. All of the students read the poem on their own without asking for help. They went on to discuss amongst themselves as to what action they could employ for each line, who would take up the role of which character, and how they could make a village set up for the poem. I silently observed them and noticed how interested all of my students were.

I shared an idea of a possible way in which the choreography of the poem could be done, and I insisted that the students read the poem one stanza at a time. Upon doing that, the students realized that each of the stanzas were distinct and had a separate theme. They located the place where the tiger was and what it was doing.

The students took the initiative and even volunteered to take up the different roles and bring necessary materials, such as masks, to complete the background setting as well. One student, who was a low-proficient learner, even suggested an innovative idea of using the desks to make a cage.

On the day when the final choreography was to be presented, many students were eagerly waiting for me at the gate itself, and they were quite excited to perform the choreography. The students, including the low-proficient learners, started reading out the lines from the poem during the performance and even used phrases such as “he stalks”.

How the vocabulary of the students improved through choreography:

I was amazed to find the students use words like “lurking”, “stalks”, and others that they learnt through the choreography. They even used it in other contexts as well. They were also spontaneously able to recall and connect the words that they learnt in the poem. Hence, I view choreography to be a successful teaching tool to address the needs of the-low proficient learners.

In the near future, I plan to implement these methods in my classroom teaching, since it arouses the interest of the students. It also gives me a sense of satisfaction that I attempted to incorporate what I learnt. ■

Author: Mrs. H. Swarnambigai, TGT, Ansari Duraisamy Govt. Hr. Sec. School, Thondamanatham