Drama for Student Motivation, Participation, and Engagement in Foreign Language Learning

Students may spend years studying a foreign language without being fluent, or able to speak it confidently and may lose interest in the learning process that may require not only money, time, and effort to reach a decent level of proficiency in the language but also may put students under pressure by following traditional methods such as the use of translation or being obliged to do homework all the time, or being passive learners. Language learners should not feel stressed when learning a foreign language or penalized for making mistakes because these two factors may affect learners’ motivation for learning. Therefore, Drama could facilitate student-to-student interaction and provide a friendly environment where students may not be penalized for making mistakes. This may motivate students to speak in the target language and to participate in the different drama activities without the fear of being punished or judged. To understand how drama could do that, an online survey was conducted, and 53 students who participated in answering the questions were from different countries and they joined the English theater group workshops that took place at the Languages and linguistics center at the University of Padua and which started from September 2022 till July 2023. Findings showed that most students joined the workshop to improve their acting skills, face their fear of public speaking, have fun, make friends, and socialize while improving their English language skills. The second questionnaire will be conducted at the end of the final performance to reflect on the students' experiences and their participation in the final performance. This research paper aims to explore the following Research Questions: 1. How can drama help students in managing stress and anxiety, and improve their acting and foreign language skills while having fun and making new friends? 2. What 'learning' takes place in second language "full-scale" drama projects? 3. How can students acquire English through drama activities in a safe atmosphere where they can practice English without being judged, or penalized for making mistakes? 4. What do members perceive as the benefits of this experience? And what 'language learning' takes place in second language "full-scale" drama projects?