Using Plays and Oral Culture to Teach Immigrant Children (SLW & CALL)

Using Plays and Oral Culture to Teach Immigrant Children

Introduction
Storytelling and folktales are valuable tools in the ESL classroom, especially for students who come from cultures where the oral tradition is prized. This article describes how a literacy program developed and performed dramas based on Latin American and West African folktales to effectively teach grammar and Christian values to children from traditionally oral cultures.

Program
The literacy program of the Glen Ellyn Community Resource Center is located in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. Its purpose is to provide homework assistance and a supplemental English curriculum for refugee and immigrant students who attend area public schools. Our program is housed in the library of Abraham Lincoln Elementary School and meets for 3 hours each day after school. We have 90 students from grades K through 12 representing 13 countries. We created our own literacy skills assessment exam (similar to the BEST for adults) to measure the literacy levels of our students. They are divided into 10 groups based on the results of this assessment, and improvements are measured by administering this test three times throughout the school year.

We created our own basic education curriculum intended to supplement student learning in school. The curriculum focuses on areas such as telling time, recognizing and counting money, number and letter recognition, measurements, personal information, basic math operations, and reading and writing skills. We have three paid staff and 40 volunteers consisting mainly of retired teachers, college interns, and high school students who lead each of the 10 groups. In addition to our 3-month play project, we run a music and fine arts program focusing on literacy.

Many of our students are from traditionally oral cultures. Often, it is the old grandmothers who, sitting around the cooking fire at night, give the children these life lessons. Children then repeat what they have learned. As a result, they are capable of memorizing vast amounts of information. The ability to memorize great blocks of verbal information is written into their cultural code, and their learning strengths lie in verbal communication. They have an innate cognitive ability to process grammar through memorization.

For the play, we choose specific students and focus on their particularly stubborn language errors. Using our assessments and with periodic classroom teacher evaluations, I am able to recognize and choose students who are not showing improvement through written activities. I then write these students into the play. Teachers typically use a play to focus on phonetic problems, but in our play we place an equal emphasis on grammatical errors. I believe that by using a student's oral culture, grammatical rules can be induced through memorization. Patterns learned through a set script can be replicated later in student-generated language.

In addition, it was very important to me that this play contain core Christian values as well as be linguistically useful and relevant to my students' specific needs. Memorization in this play project can lead to internalized grammar and valuable morals for refugee and immigrant children. One of the many values of scripture memorization is that it allows one to dwell on and digest the author's intention (Foster, 1998). When we dwell on Bible verses and passages in small parts, we begin to internalize the meaning and can soon apply them to our lives. Likewise, through the play, students have the opportunity to digest grammar rules and scriptural values implicitly through the memorization of a set oral text. This is a starting point for the necessary internalization of difficult grammar and important values.

Storytelling
The earliest forms of storytelling were oral. Traditionally, oral stories were passed from generation to generation, and survived solely by memory. Before many African cultures had a written language, they preserved their traditions and history by word of mouth, through stories. They were used as a teaching tool to convey ideals and morals and cultural values from one generation to another (Abrahamson, 1998). Storytelling develops as a means of communication in an oral culture because for some people it is easier to recall information learned as a series of events rather than as a set of facts. Oral culture gives more emphasis to rhythm, using repetition and short phrases to make the stories easier to understand and recall from memory. It encourages students to think critically and understand factual content in a personalized way, while providing very meaningful learning (Abrahamson, 1998).

In many cultures and societies there have been keepers of oral tradition, whose duty it was to memorize and recite historical and other relevant information about people, their culture, and their tribe. Griots, or bards, are a significant part of the oral tradition in West African culture (Hale, 1998; Hoffman, 2001). These storytellers are revered orators who memorize important events. In many West African cultures, speech is believed to have power because it can reshape history and the relationships of people. Most villages had their own griot who told tales of births, deaths, marriages, battles, hunts, and folktales. They were and still are the history books and libraries of people who do not read and write (Salmons, 2001). I have tried to build on this oral tradition, which I have observed in my work in Africa, by using plays with immigrant students here in America.

The Play
In our curriculum, we have a separate track for students involved in the play project. Each spring, we perform the play at an area church. The community is invited to enjoy the free event. To fill out the evening, we have an "undercard" performance. In the past we have brought in international groups such as the Muntu Dance Company and the Sudanese Men's Choir to perform before beginning the play. This allows the students to engage the community and increase the number of attendees viewing the play. Last year we had nearly 500 in attendance, and the students were invited by the local library and another church to perform the play later in the year.

While writing the play, my first challenge was to identify students who were making repeated pronunciation and grammatical mistakes and not correcting them through traditional lessons. Students were chosen based on linguistic needs, not because they had any particular acting talent.

My second challenge was to isolate particular language functions that were disruptive for the selected students. I then had to create a script that focused on those deficiencies while at the same time basing the play on a traditional folktale that was meaningful to the students. I write the script based on a culturally relevant folktale, but the lines of the script are written to specifically address the linguistic needs of certain students. I identified those students with the help of written classroom teacher evaluations and our own assessment exams.

I created a chart containing the selected students and their areas of linguistic need. I then wrote some sample lines that could be used in the script, focusing on the problem areas for each student.

Student Name	Problem Area	Error Sample	Play Correction Sample
Nania	Intonation/Rhythm	"Can you help"	Who is the most beautiful in the world?
Alonga	Demonstratives	"these pencil"	Look, there is a cave/Someone is buried here.
Catherine	Possessive Pronouns	"you books"	Your daughter and your daughter alone, my queen
Andrea	Negatives	"I no have"	You don't have to, Juan
Peyo	Adjectives	No Usage	A very nice, very expensive golden necklace!
Ladu	Negatives	"We no like"	Don't be afraid girl, we won't hurt you.

After the students were chosen, I gave them a script. This was the only time they were allowed to see the written dialogue. The students were excited about the written dialogue because they wanted to see and feel the play, but they struggled tremendously with reading and remembering their lines. Our students clearly remembered their lines best through verbal clues, not with written words. They discovered and induced rules and generalizations on their own.

Time Table
After the first day, scripts are removed, and students are told their lines and asked to repeat them. We do a run-through of the play without correcting any errors. Just as griots would sometimes paraphrase the "script," students are allowed to paraphrase the lines that they read on the first day just to get the gist of what they are supposed to say.

In total, we practice 3 days each week for 30 to 40 minutes for about 3 months. After 3 weeks of rehearsal, students have memorized their lines, but there are many grammar and pronunciation errors. We now begin to verbally repair the errors without grammatical rules and explanations. Students are given examples of the correct structure with communicative input.

During our play practices, students partner with a volunteer understudy. The volunteers are aware of the specific language errors we are focusing on for each student. They keep a daily competency log to monitor student progress. In this way, they can encourage students with verbal input and give one-on-one attention, focusing solely on student lines.

Progress is also evaluated through periodic video footage. The video clearly shows how students initially struggle with their lines. When students view the video, they are able to see their mistakes and correct them. We can pause, rewind, and fast-forward to focus on language errors. In this way, students receive focused verbal attention rather than written input.

In addition, one day each week we have a student talent show; those involved in the play are encouraged to write and perform their own original plays with the help of their volunteer understudies. These plays range from several lines to several pages in length. We have used this as a way to critique and assess student progress and recognize other errors. It gives the students an opportunity to create new language and dialogue, using what they learned from the play process.

Students rehearse in a classroom 3 days each week for 8 weeks. They practice alone with their tutors before coming together for a videotaped group rehearsal. The following day we review the videotape with the student and verbally repair errors.

Costumes are added after 6 weeks, and students begin practicing on a stage with props and a mock audience after 2 months. To follow up our verbal correction of the students' grammatical errors, we use written activities that focus on the grammar points made through the play. This helps students apply what they have learned in written form. After about 3 months the students are ready for their performance.

Grammar
Our first play was based on a West African folktale called "The Tale of Rabbit and the Well." It is a traditional West African folktale that describes a severe drought and how different animals finally find a way to bring water to the parched land. But the underlying theme is driven by the character of the Rabbit who tries to take advantage of the hard work done by the other animals to find water. The animals try several different tactics to get the clouds to let go of their rain. For the part of the rainless cloud, I selected two students who were struggling with negatives. Both would often say, "Me no want to go outside today." Written lessons were not helping, so we wrote three lines into the script specifically for them.

1) Brother elephant why do you trumpet? I have no water to give.
2) Again I ask, what are you doing? I don't have any water.
3) Giraffe, why do you strike? I have no water to give.

Over 3 months of play practice, the students not only showed improvement in the targeted areas, but after the play was completed, they self-corrected the selected grammar and pronunciation errors. For example, "Me no have homework" became "I don't have any homework." It was fascinating to notice that the students had internalized what they had learned verbally through the play.

Christian Values
We are an after-school program affiliated with the public school system, so the Christian message cannot be propagated or written directly into our curriculum. In our secular setting, we do not overtly incorporate the Bible into our teaching. But core scriptural truths can be implicitly passed on in the text of the play. Our most recent play was called "Blanca Flor." "Blanca Flor" is a Mexican folktale similar to "Snow White." I wrote the play based on the folktale specifically for students who were not responding to traditional written exercises. The lines of the play address specific student needs.

In the play, the beautiful princess says, "Juan, if I had one wish, I'd wish the world was free from pain and that peace would be the new king, and that food would fill us all day and that people would never be thirsty again!" This line is a lead-in for the central theme that runs through the play: A princess' sacrifice leads to redemption and peace in a land where people thirst and hunger for something more. As the students work each day to memorize their lines, they are not only internalizing necessary grammar rules, but are also meditating on related biblical truth.

Conclusion
I choose folktales that students may be familiar with. For example, many of our Mexican students and their families are familiar with "Blanca Flor." Our West African students were familiar with "The Tale of Rabbit and the Well," or a similar form of it. These folktales were meant to be shared and passed down orally to teach a lesson to children and preserve culture. A clear and definite moral is embedded in the tales. Many of the themes have a correlation with scriptural values. When I write the play, I expound upon these themes. Often, our volunteer understudies find wonderful opportunities to talk to the students about the theme and reinforce the message.

Through this activity, students not only improve stubborn grammatical errors, but are exposed to core elements of the Christian message as well. Choosing a play that is based on a folktale relevant to the students' cultural background makes this technique communicative, real, and meaningful. It also utilizes the oral tradition that many of our students know so well. These tales provide teachers with a model that they can use to develop similar oral-culture-based presentations in their classrooms.

Daniel Zagami works with Africa Inland Mission in Antananarivo, Madagascar. He is currently on home assignment and is serving as literacy director for the Glen Ellyn Community Resource Center in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. He holds an MA in Intercultural Studies and TESOL from Wheaton College Graduate School.

References

Abrahamson, C. E. (1998, Mar 1). Storytelling as a pedagogical tool in higher education. Education, p. 16.

Foster, R. (1998). Celebration of discipline. New York: HarperCollins.

Hale, T. A. (1998). Griots and griottes: Masters of words and music. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Hoffman, B. G. (2001). Griots at war: Conflict, conciliation and caste in Mande. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Salmons, C. A. (2001, Sept. 30). Balla Tounkara 'Griot.' The Boston Phoenix, p. 37.

SLW & CALL October 2007 Volume 11 Number 3: Table of Contents