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by. Adhyra Irianto
Drama is one of good media in language teaching. In
teaching language, drama has become one of ways to measure students’ ability in
using language in universal, not only in Indonesian language, but also in
English. Teaching-learning process that is being more comfortable will make
students like drama as a medium in language teaching. WS. Rendra defines drama
as the following below;
“Etymologically, drama means movement or it also called
action or a thing done. There is moves and dialog which done by someone, while
that moves and dialog that have particular meaning and aim.” [1]
Quoted from Aristoteles’ statement which defines that
“Drama is a representation from manuscript with action.” [2]
From those statements, we can conclude that drama is an
art shows which departed from a drama manuscript and the projecting to stage
with human body as a principal items with dialog as media.
So, how to include drama in reading teaching?
In teaching English by using drama as a media, well
preparation is needed. It is begun from teaching the drama’s principles and
rules (dramaturgy), basic of acting, until preparing drama script that based
material from syllabus.
Drama in this case is the real-pure drama, which forces
student to make a good and interesting show in a team work. In SMAN 1 Curup, there
is an audio-visual room and a stage that can be used as their theater. By this
condition, the teachers change their role as the art director. Deli Nirmala and
Ratna Asmarani uttered that “when drama techniques are used in the language –
learning – classroom, the teacher acts as a director – initiator (facilitator),
and the students will have freedom to project themselves. In other word, it is
not a teacher – centered kind of study anymore”.[3]
Valdes posited that one of the main functions of
Literature (drama included) is to transform the culture, or in the other words,
to reflect the culture from the native speaker. The usage of language in Drama
without threshold level will be hard to produce the sentence with meaning and
communicative usage. These cases can be concluded to the conclusion that
Grammatical Structures is really needed in order to understand Drama.[4] Because of it, the usage of drama must be guided with the
understanding of Grammar, which also enhances Reading Comprehension ability.
Drama as a
literary work is actually temporary because the script is written for the show.
However, it is not all of the drama script made always for a show. There are
some scripts that are made to be enjoyed by reading only. It is because that
there are two aspects about the script of drama. They are, the first, the
aspect of story as a literary field and the aspect of show which has relation
to the theater. In the script of drama, there has been everything that is done
by the actor or actress of drama. In order for the actor or actress of the
drama be able to animate the way of the story, they have to really understand
script of the drama.
The research which has relation to this research is “the
relation among interest towards the literary work, the reading comprehension
ability and the ability of literary appreciation of second class students at
SMU 1 SLEMAN”. This research is done by Trimurti. The result of her research
indicates that 1. There is found a positive and significant relation between
the interest towards literary work and the appreciation of students’ literary.
2. There is found a positive and significant relation between students’ reading
comprehension ability and the appreciation of students’ literary. 3. There is
found a positive and significant relation among the interest towards literary
work, students’ reading comprehension ability and the ability of appreciation
to the literary work.
[1] WS,
Rendra Bina Drama Remaja, (Pustaka
Jaya: Jakarta 1984) P.9
[2] Drs.
Syahlinar Syam, Bina Drama, (FBSS
IKIP Padang, 1984) P.10
[3] Deli
Nirmala and Ratna Asmarani, Using Drama
In English Language Teaching, (Tefflin seminar,XXXV: 1990) P. 3
[4] ibid
To read about, Reading Ability, Click Here >> HERE
To read about how to implementing drama in improving students reading ability click here >> HERE
