The Application Of Drama In Education To English Teaching In Junior High Schools

English Curriculum Standard(2011)advocates student-centered and humanistic teaching.Domestic English teaching attaches much to grammar and vocabulary knowledge and little to the students' interest.The lack of context in English teaching lowers the students' chances of obtaining English communicative competence.Drama in Education(DIE)is a kind of teaching strategy,which encourages students to have experience in drama activities and explore knowledge by themselves.Drama activities can create a relaxing and real English learning environment,which enables the students to develop their imagination and creativity,and stimulate interest in English learning as well.DIE follows the new curriculum standard and is a specific way to practice the Social Constructivism Theory,Task-based Teaching Approach and Communicative Teaching Approach.It helps to cultivate students' humanity accomplishment,innovation consciousness and language competence.Therefore,it is necessary to research how to apply this strategy in junior high school English teaching.A teaching experiment was carried out in two parallel classes in Grade Seven.Guided by DIE,teaching materials and activities were constructed to create a rich English learning environment.It was found that DIE can be applied to junior high school English teaching through warm-up games,scene drama(improvisation,imitation and role playing),pantomime and play(play script analysis,rewriting and creation).During the one-term teaching experiment,questionnaire surveys on English study interest was conducted among the experimental class students.Data collected through the surveys is analyzed by SPSS.The results indicate,it can be concluded that after the experiment,students are excelled in fostering interest in English learning.Three students of different English levels from the experimental class were followed up with interview to find out the influence of DIE on different groups of students.Data of two final examinations collected from experimental class and control class is analyzed by SPSS.The results in independent sample T-test showed that the English achievement of experimental class has been improved noticeably than that of the control class.Therefore,it is proved that DIE has a positive effect on improving students' interest and English achievement.DIE is a scientific and feasible English teaching method.The application of DIE can improve the English learning efficiency of junior high school students.DIE also provides a way for further education reform in junior high schools.