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The grammar school boy from Stratford-upon-Avon has delivered a significant academic impact after ground-breaking research showed that Shakespeare does benefit children's literacy and emotional development. But only if you act him out. A study found that a“rehearsal(彩排)room”approach to teaching Shakespeare broadened children's vocabulary and writing complexity as well as their emotiona literacy.
“The research shows that the way actors work makes a big difference to the way children use language and also how they think about themselves,” Jacqui O'Hanlon ol the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) said.“Allowing children to use their whole bodies to bring the text to life and to make choices about character motivation had long been thought to improve literacy but now the research supported it”, she added.The randomized control trial involved hundreds of year 5 pupils at 45 state primary schools with no prior exposure to RSC pedagogy (教学法). They were split into target and control groups and asked to write, for example, a message in a bottle as Ferdinand after the shipwreck in The Tempest(《暴风雨》). The target group was given a
30-minute drama-based activity to accompany the passage.
The peer-reviewed results showed that the target group of pupils tapped into a wider vocabulary, used words classed as more complicated or rarer, and wrote at greater length. They also appear to be more comfortable writing in role. While control pupils imagine how they themselves would react to being shipwrecked, target children put themselves in the shoes of a literary character and express that character's emotion.Another study also found that while control pupils relied on “desert island clichés(陈词滥调)” such as palm trees, target pupils were more expressive giving a broadel picture of the sky, the sea and the atmospheric conditions.
O"Hanlon expressed surprise at the emotional literacy in the target children's writing, noting they were more adaptable and hopeful. She stressed that it was probably related to the rehearsal room process where you were used to trying to imagine your way through. She also said more research would be needed but suggested that Shakespeare's use of 20,000 words, compared with the everyday 2,000 words, significantly enriches children's language experience, especially when they engage their whole bodies to bring the words to life. She added: “The reason we are performing Shakespeare's work 400 years on is that there are so many different choices to make about character motivation, the meanings of different kinds of speeches, the setting. Shakespeare is great at asking you the questions. He doesn’ give you the answers and that's why it's such an interesting and creative body of work to explore.”
1. Which of the following learners’ activities fits the “rehearsal room” approach?
A. Physically perform Shakespeare's works
B. Emotionally reading Shakespeare's plays.
C.Independently writing reviews of Shakespeare's plays.
D.Regularly memorizing the lines of Shakespeare's works
2. What can we learn from the peer-reviewed results?
A. Control pupils generally write longer pieces
B. Target pupils prefer using common vocabulary.
C. Target pupils better identify with literary characters
D. Control pupils fail to react to an imagined situation.
3.O’Hanlon would most likely to agree that .
A. young children demonstrate strong literacy and motivation
B. memorizing Shakespeare's texts directly teaches emotional skills
C. actors' performance helps children's language learning and mental development
D. Shakespeare's enduring popularity lies in open questions and diverse interpretations
4. Which of the following might be the best title of this passage?
A. Language's Power: Writing in role.
B.Shakespeare's Magic: Learning by Acting
C.A Discovery Journey: Exploring Shakespeare's World.
D. A Path to Growth: Conducting Drama-driven Research
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