Many students find hard time in understanding the language used by William Shakespeare in his works. They claimed that they are interested to know the stories of Shakespeare, but the problem lies in the author’s command of language. Researchers claim that Shakespeare has an sparse formal education, no dictionaries during his time. Despite this, Shakespeare is credited by the Oxford English Dictionary of nearly 3,000 words into the language.
As an English teacher, I try to find ways to teach Shakespeare in a way that students will understand his works. One of my interventions to enable students to facilitate learning the works of Shakespeare especially Drama or play is dubbed as Understanding Shakespeare Activity.
The main focus is to study and appreciate the dramas/plays of W. Shakespeare. Initially, the students will do the activity on a particular work of Shakespeare entitled Romeo & Juliet I decided to proposed this Innovation material so that students will understand the works of Shakespeare by changing difficult words into simple vocabulary, particularly the nouns and adjectives. Students will have a dictionary or a mobile phone with a dictionary application on it while doing this activity.
Usually, students are not interested to read and study the works of Shakespeare and other Dramas or Plays primarily because of the language used. Shakespeare is an English writer of drama, coming from Scotland, his language used in his poems cannot be understood by the high school readers, since they are not well-oriented on British English. To facilitate understanding of the works of Shakespeare, the students view the play in movies or in computers.
Directors are constantly tweaking Shakespeare’s plays in order to make them appeal to modern audiences. Though they often update the sets and the costumes, they rarely change the language, which can be a major roadblock in getting kids to understand and appreciate the Bard. Put your teenager in the director’s chair by having her put a modern-day spin on Romeo and Juliet. Copy of Romeo and Juliet (an annotated copy is ideal). Copies of film versions of the play and/or movies based on it.
The teacher will teach drama, after discussing he/she will assign the Drama/Tragedy, Romeo and Juliet to be read again. With the help of a dictionary ( book and mobile phone) Romeo and Juliet will be simplified. After doing the activity, the students will read their activities.. Discussion of the activity and processing will be done by the teacher. Role playing of a scene of the play can be reenacted by groups.
The proponent of this innovation proposal has several years of experience teaching English, and she noticed that many students are having hard time understanding and appreciating Drama or Plays, particularly by William Shakespeare because of the use of British language. The teachers and students are used to using the American English, which is the standard English language used by teachers and students in the English language classes.
The objectives of this innovation are to: study and appreciate Dramas or plays by William Shakespeare.; to improve students’ knowledge of the British English, and help students to improve reading skills and increase vocabulary meaning.
Reference:JSTOR Understanding Shakespeare https//labs.jstor.org
By: DULCE GARCIA |T-I| MARIVELES NATIONAL HIGH SCHOOL – CABCABEN Cabcaben Mariveles, Bataan
