Theatre as a Communicative Strategy for Teaching English as a Foreign Language to Primary Education UndergraduatesA Pedagogical Experience.

Abstract

As language teachers we are constantly trying to establish a suitable atmosphere in which communication skills can be fully developed through activities or exercises which involve a stimulus, as a language is learnt more easily when the elements used to teach are more appealing. Theatre can perform this role as it is an educational tool that has been explored for the instructions of languages since the emergence of the Communicative Approach. The purpose of this article is twofold: firstly, to examine the effectiveness of theatre in general with reference to the numerous arguments in favour of using this didactic tool in the classroom. Secondly, to draw attention to the benefits and challenges of using theatre to teach a foreign language at university level by presenting the performance of eight plays based on popular tales in the classroom through a series of practical activities using the task-based learning methodology.