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| didattica: ACTIVITIES FOR TEACHING SHAKESPEARE IN THE EFL CLASSROOM Pubblicato il Martedì, 11 febbraio 2003 da cristina |  |
The following task-types have proved stimulating with EFL students approaching Shakespeare.
Robert Hill
Minimal response questions. When students are asked for interpretations their answers are often hesitant: unsurprising if they have little critical confidence - ‘Nothing will come of nothing’ as King Lear says to Cordelia. Additionally, students’ production generally lags behind their reading skills, which also blocks responses. Useful tools for encouraging interpretation are activity types from EFL methodology - multiple choice, true/false, matching, sequencing, gap-filling, ranking – which offer a ‘menu’ of interpretations to choose from and initially require minimal production for responses. But once choices have been made, students will defend and justify them, and this is where real interpretation begins. Students can modify their choices to make them nearer their own interpretation, or create their own interpretation, based on the ‘menu’ presented to them. Multiple choice can be based on one line, a scene, an act, a complete play, or even all of Shakespeare!
Charts relating a play or a character to other texts or characters. This technique encourages a diachronic/comparative approach to Shakespeare, and identifies both Shakespeare’s timelessness and his originality. Texts for comparison can be dramatic or not (e.g. novels, poems, films, etc.), fictional or not (from real life, newspaper articles, etc.): the other characters can be fictional or not. Just one example must serve. On the left hand side of a chart students find the key elements of Romeo and Juliet:
a. The story ends with the death of one or both of the lovers.
b. One or both of the lovers falls in love at first sight, or in a very short time.
c. Their love is ‘impossible’: it must be kept secret.
d. The lovers are very young and good looking.
e. The lovers have a very short period of happiness before catastrophe strikes.
f. One of the lovers has had a previous, unsatisfactory experience of love.
g. The woman declares her love first.
h. Most of the lovers’ meetings take place by night.
On the right hand side students write in any love story they choose – classic or recent, fictional or real – and decide whether it conforms to these elements or not. With this procedure it becomes clear why Titanic was so successful. It follows closely the plot of Romeo and Juliet : even the span of the love affair is the same – three days! Shakespeare’s originality also emerges – it is very rare in fiction for a woman to dare to declare her love first.
Suggesting film versions. Students are familiar with film conventions, and have had exposure to the advantages that film has over staging: tracking and panning to direct focus of attention; cutting (effective for moving rapidly in place and time to bring out situational irony); zoom and close-ups to show nuances of expression difficult to show on stage; voice over (for irony of situation, or to communicate deeper or more tentative thoughts in soliloquies); limitless possibilities for lighting effects and soundtrack.
Aware of these opportunities, students can explore problem-solving activities such as: how do Romeo and Juliet fall in love at first sight at a masked ball? how can Macbeth’s castle be presented? (Duncan and Banquo find it pleasant on arrival, yet it must be menacing.) Shakespeare’s major plays have been filmed several times, so students’ suggestions can be compared with more than one film solution.
Now, itemised as a list, are 10 succesful activities that can be used in teaching Shakespeare. They are all exemplified in the volumes written by Robert Hill and Anthony Jennings for the Spotlight on Shakespeare series, published by CIDEB-Black Cat: All the World’s a Stage (a volume containing 14 theme-based units taken from 16 of Shakespeare’s plays), Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Macbeth .
For further information on these titles, go to
www.blackcat-cideb.com
10 ACTIVITIES from SPOTLIGHT ON SHAKESPEARE (CIDEB – BLACK CAT)
Matching speech acts in modern English with Shakespeare’s words
Aims: To understand Shakespeare’s language more immediately, and to raise sensitivity to it;
to engage in the dynamics of conversation and discourse.
Notes: This could be followed by a ranking activity (e.g. rank according to the most effective, the most conventional, the most surprising, the most revealing of character, the funniest, the most unconventional, etc.), and then by a discussion activity (e.g. Who uses this kind of speech act most? When? Why? etc.)
Examples: Lady Macbeth convincing Macbeth to go ahead with the murder of Duncan (from Macbeth , pages 45-8, activities 9, 10 & 17); Rosalind making fun of conventional romantic ideas about love in As You Like It (from All the World’s a Stage , page 80, activities 1 & 5).
Charts relating a play or a character to other texts or characters
Aims; To open up a diachronic/comparative approach to Shakespeare’s themes, plots and characterisation; to experiment with ‘archetypal criticism’; to identify common ground with other texts and originality in Shakespeare.
Notes: The texts for comparison can be dramatic or not (e.g. novels, poems, films, etc.), fictional or not (from real life, newspaper articles, etc.). The other characters can be fictional or not.
Examples: The characteristics of Romeo and Juliet (from Romeo and Juliet , page 172); the character of Richard III (from All the World’s a Stage , pages 14-15, activities 7-10); Antony’s funeral oration for Julius Caesar (from All the World’s a Stage , page 92, activities 2-3: compare this with the song “Don’t cry for me, Argentina” from the film Evita !); Henry V’s qualities (from All the World’s a Stage , pages 67-8, activities 7-10).
Exploring previous text versions or stage/film productions of Shakespeare (and relating them to their times)
Aims: To raise awareness that there are ‘Shakespeares’, not just a canonical ‘Shakespeare’; to give input in social history, and literary/historical background.
Notes: Shakespeare’s texts have been cut more often than not, and often (in the 17th and 18th centuries) added to!
Examples: Juliet’s speech looking forward to her wedding night (from Romeo and Juliet , page 97, activity 7); different, ‘darker’ endings to Romeo and Juliet (from Romeo and Juliet , page 168, activities 8 & 9), and to Macbeth (from Macbeth , pages 165-6, activity 16).
Multiple Choice and True/False questions (based on interpretation as well as facts)
Aims: To encourage to students to interpret, and justify their interpretations.
Notes: Often if students are asked to give an interpretation the answer is minimal, or even zero. Not surprising if they have little critical confidence: ‘Nothing will come of nothing’ as King Lear says to Cordelia! But... give them a choice, and they will defend and justify it. They can also alter words in their choice to make it nearer their own interpretation, or even write their own original interpretation, based on the ‘menu’ they have seen. Multiple choice can be based on one line, several lines, a scene, an act, a complete play, or even all of Shakespeare!
Examples: The Before You Read interpretations of Jacques’s line from As You Like It : ‘All the world’s a stage...’ (from All the World’s a Stage , page 181); interpretations of Romeo and Juliet (from All the World’s a Stage , pages 30-1, activities 8-9).
‘Tableaux Vivants’, or ‘Statues’
Aims: To encourage interpretation of moments and scenes, character motivation and relationships.
Notes: The students in the tableau can then be questioned in role. For shy students many roles of onlookers, servants, lords, attendants etc. can be created.
Examples: The ‘Mousetrap’ scene from Hamlet (from Hamlet , pages 119-20, activities 12 and 15); the street fight from Romeo and Juliet (from Romeo and Juliet , page 90, activity 11).
‘Hot Seating’, or ‘Questioning in Role’
Aims: To encourage students to explore characterisation and plot.
Notes: A more full-flown version of this simple technique is to arrange a press conference (or ‘webcast’), where the character is interviewed by the press and TV. Both interviewers and character (and eventual advisers) can prepare their questions and answers in advance.
Examples: One example is a press conference given by Claudius (from Hamlet , page 32, activity 12), but this procedure could work with any character from any play.
Trials and Inquiries
Aims: To explore plot and character motivation. These activities always involve revision, too.
Notes: Student roles can be: defending and prosecuting lawyers, defendants, witnesses, judges. Specific charges are a good idea to focus the activity better.
Examples: Lady Macbeth (from Macbeth , page 143, activities 7-8); Romeo (from Romeo and Juliet , page 89, activity 10). But Shakespeare’s plays are full of characters who do not seem to get what they deserve, or whose fate is determined by a variety of causes and circumstances.
Diaries and Letters
Aims: To explore motivation and point of view. To give the opportunity for free writing.
Notes: Minor characters can be used to bring in different and interesting points of view.
Examples: One example is from Macbeth (page 145, activity 12), but most units from the Spotlight on Shakespeare series have writing tasks in the Further Activities section.
Creating Settings
Aims: To explore themes and imagery. To raise awareness of the ‘universality’ of Shakespeare.
Notes: Often the least likely setting of a Shakespeare play on stage or on film nowadays is Elizabethan England! It is a good idea to show the students some alternative settings before asking them to create another.
Examples: The first units of Hamlet, Macbeth and Romeo and Juliet all have activities on settings.
Creating and Evaluating Film Versions
Aims: To convert language into visual imagery. To interpret character, motivation and imagery.
Notes: Students are much more familiar with the language of film than with stage conventions, so such activities can be very motivating and productive. They should be followed up by viewing a film version (or, ideally, two or more versions: this is possible with Shakespeare films!).
Examples: Many activities in the Performing the text sections in the Spotlight on Shakespeare series are film-based. Some are: Duncan’s arrival at Macbeth’s castle (from Macbeth , page 47, activity 13); Macbeth’s soliloquy ‘Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, ...’ (from All the World’s a Stage, page 161, activities 10-11); scenes from Romeo and Juliet (page 100, activity 12).
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