Theatre for All

Abstract

At the crossroads of ESL education and drama there lies a relatively unexplored issue facing schools. Little research exists proposing and examining the efficacy of pedagogy designed to serve students without an English-as-a-first-language background. Through the lens of Ontario’s education system wherein students of all language backgrounds are expected to learn together in subject classrooms, the impacts of existing ESL focused pedagogy were tested in this mixed environment. Using existing linguistic analysis techniques focused around rhythm and pause, the development of students’ performance of dramatic text who followed this pedagogy was measured against a control group in an attempt to ascertain whether this pedagogy has merit in the classroom, and what still needs to be done to create more inclusive and effective drama classrooms in the province of Ontario.