ENGAGE AND ENCHANT: ACTIVATING FOUNDATION ENGLISH THROUGH ART, LITERATURE, AND FAIRY TALES

Dramatizing literature deepens student engagement and fairy tales add magic to the mix. This article details how fairy tales can be used to teach English as a foreign language, and drama enlisted to further mine their riches. Research on literature, fairy tales, and drama in language learning is reviewed, and the pedagogical advantages of the fairy tale genre described. Acting fairy tales hones all four language skills while also enhancing the Seven Cs life skills: communication, creativity, critical thinking, collaboration, confidence, commitment, and compromise. Students can download free fairy tale scripts and spice them with creative twists adapted from film and cartoon versions. Providing maximum student engagement, tales can be enacted with minimum preparation. With a few simple props and a short script, students can dramatize The Three Bears, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, or Snow White in class with little practice. Engagement deepens when teams enact tales on stage for an audience of family, friends, classmates, or educators as a competition with judges invited and winners recognized. Adding the frame of project-based learning to the instructional strengths of fairy tales and drama forms a strong pedagogical triangle. In fairy tale enactments, whether in class or on stage, students apply multiple intelligences when choosing performance team roles: script-writing, acting, backstage, costumes, make-up, sound and lights, reporter, advertising, usher, writer s corner, or stage managing. The article concludes by summarizing the benefits of fairy tale enactments for English learners and listing related language activities.