Lights! Action! Content!: Using Acting and Drama to Teach Content-rich English

The benefi ts of using acting and drama in second language instruction have been discussed in terms of positive effects of their use in the areas of improving pronunciation, natural body language, and fl uency and confi dence in oral interaction.This paper extends this discussing to include its effectiveness in facilitating the teaching of factual content as well as improving vocabulary.It also puts the discussion into the context of contemporary ( 2007) ESL/EFL classrooms and students with their related issues and challenges, as well as what might be called the current rhetoric of ideas that dominate academic discussions of teaching.Acting and drama as teaching methods will be distinguished from oral interpretation and roleplay.Specifi c examples of classroom methods will be presented from the author's experiences at Aichi Prefectural University and Nanzan Tandai.