Drama and creativity in teaching business language skills

Liliya Kovtun (State Academy of Slavic Culture, Moscow, Russia) [BIO]

Email: camomile61@yandex.ru

 

ABSTRACT:

In today's global environment, knowledge of foreign languages such as English, German, French, Spanish etc. has become a vital part of success in the world of business. One more important business skill is creativity which includes creative thinking skills (how you approach a problem), expertise (knowledge and understanding (technical, procedural, and intellectual) and motivation (the desire to solve a problem or exploit an opportunity). The problem is how to combine acquisition of linguistic competence in foreign languages with creative use of it in the professional sphere. One of the possible ways to approach the problem is to use dramatic activities. To succeed in business means to be creative in your role, so drama encourages enactment of many different social roles and engages many levels, styles, and uses of language.

In dramatic activities, students use and examine their present knowledge in order to induce new knowledge. They experienced more instances of higher order thinking, more topic-specific emotions, decreased apprehension, and less topic-irrelevant thought than students in the non-dramatic mode, as the surveys show.

For innovation to flourish, teachers and educators must create the environment that fosters creativity, uses the principles of art and science as catalysts for transformation. Activities involving story telling, improvisation, role-plays and simulations create a lively and friendly atmosphere, that awakens the senses, sharpen insights and allow exciting possibilities for taking creative risks—both personally and professionally.