The Magic Carpet: Language-Drama in Everyday Life

The Magic Carpet: Language-Drama in Everyday Life Sister Barbara Louise, O.S.A. Theatre has always held a special magic for children. Adults usually associate this "magic" with a darkened playhouse, rainbowcolored stage lights, fairy-tale costumes, and the celestial music of Tchaikovsky or the sparkling songs of Mary Poppins or Peter Pan. But are these trappings really necessary for theatre "magic"? Children don't seem to think so. They are just as happy to use an old sheet for a stage curtain, mosquito netting for a wedding veil, a Christmas wreath for a crown, or an overturned kindergarten chair for spinning straw into gold in Rumpelstiltskin. These mundane items, plus a story and a dash of imagination, seem to be enough. Children see "magic" in everyday events and love to act out even the smallest "scenes." Teachers of the hearing do not usually think of their classrooms as living theatres in which the various scenes of life constantly take place. In classrooms for the deaf, however, where connected language is so eagerly sought and so elusive, the magic of theatre in everyday life (Language-Drama) can provide reason, examples , and much practice in developing and employing connected language for translation into day-to-day living. How does the concept of Language-Drama work? Very simply. A teacher can begin by making a list of classroom tasks and encouraging the children to assist him/her in carrying these tasks out by using simple connected language . For example, the teacher might say/sign to the students: "Who will dust our room today?" and then begin to act out the process of dusting while saying, "I'm dusting our room" and asking for volunteers to help. When a few children raise their hands, he/she calls on one, first helping the child to say and sign, "I'll help," and "I'll dust today." The child then takes over the job of dusting. In a short while, the child assumes the role of the teacher and calls on another, saying, "Who The author is from the Convent of St. Anne in Chicago, Illinois. will dust today?" The second child becomes the duster, saying, "I'll dust," as he/she carries out the corresponding action. This process continues until most of the children have taken turns playing both roles and are thoroughly familiar with the phrases, "Who will help dust?" and "I'm dusting our room." (That the room is very well dusted by now is only secondary; the goal is language practice through Language-Drama.) After a period of classroom lessons (e.g., math or spelling), the process is repeated with the next task that comes up in the daily routine. "Who will pass out milk today?" the teacher asks, demonstrating by passing out a few cartons . She then calls on a child, helping him/her to say and sign, "I'm passing the milk today" as the student does the job, and so forth until all the children have become "teachers" and "milk-passers" using Language-Drama to connect appropriate words with simple actions. This process is continued throughout the school day. Although the first few "scenes" enacted may be time-consuming, the children soon become familiar with the dramatic patterns and will need help only with new language in new scenes. Gradually, more detailed, less concrete language may be introduced. For example, the teacher might ask, "Who will feed our rabbit?" (or bird, fish, or hamster), and one child can take on the role of the rabbit-feeder, while another plays the rabbit itself. The teacher asks, rather than tells the student, what might the rabbit-feeder say. The child might then ask, "Are you hungry, rabbit?" And when occasionally the rabbit replies, "Thanks, I was starved!" the teacher should not try to change or correct the imaginative "Harvey." It will be asked whether Language-Drama is a new language system. It is not a language system; rather, it is a creative supplement, an enrichment, of whatever kind of language system a teacher uses. Some kind of systematic presentation of language is still needed. LanguageDrama is useful in the creative understanding, application, and practice of everyday language in life...