In Their Own Words
Drama With Young English Language Learners

by Kelin Daniel B.

Handbook for drama and language arts teachers and ESL specialists. Illustrated. 320 pages, paperback.. $ 21.95

The growing number of students for whom English is a second language creates new challenges for our teachers and schools. However, it also creates opportunities for drama teachers to use the tools that are ideal to meet these needs. Dan Kelin, long-time education director for the Honolulu Theatre for Youth, shares, in this extensive new handbook (he calls it a toolbox) the work he has been doing with elementary and middle school students and their teachers from Hawaii to India to the far=flung islands of the Pacific. "In Their Own Words" offers a mix of keen insights into the language learning process, storytelling, and an abundant smorgrasboard of activities for different purposes, age groups, and levels of language proficiency.

Kelin provides detailed strategies for exploring language and communication through drama, as well a springboards to success through story-making, reader's theatre, and improvisational plays leading to informal performance. A selection of delightful short tales from around the world, ideal material for drama, add to the richness of this handbook.

You don't need to teach ESL to find this book a valuable source of activities, stories, and ideas, but it is an especially valuable book for teachers who need new strategies as their classrooms fill with an increasing number of students for whom English is a second language, and drama specialists who want to expand their skills into the growing ESL field.