The Benefits of Drama in the Albanian English Language Teaching Classroom: A Case Study

This study aimed to present the benefits of plays in the English language teaching classroom. Over the last few years, the use of literature as a fundamental component and source of authentic texts in the learning context has grown rapidly all over the world, especially after the introduction of Communicative Language Teaching in 1970s and 1980s. The 1990s brought about a novel approach to language teaching in the Albanian classroom. In 2018, the Ministry of Education in Albania published A Curriculum Manual for Foreign Language Teaching, issuing a guideline for the teaching of foreign languages and aiming to broadly apply the Communicative Language Teaching Method and play activities. Of the literary genres, drama is distinctive in its use in fostering the learning of English as a second language in an ELT classroom. The didactic advantages to the use of a play are as follows: it stimulates the imagination and promotes creative thinking, develops critical thinking skills, promotes language development, heightens effective listening skills, strengthens comprehension and learning retention, increases empathy and awareness of others, fosters peer respect and group cooperation, reinforces positive self-concepts, and provides teachers with a fresh perspective on teaching. Understanding the role of plays in Albanian schools is the key to an effective teaching experience. A quantitative approach was used in this study to examine the results and observe the reliability of the findings. The method used to collect the necessary data was a questionnaire with closed-ended questions.