Learning English Through Musicals

Abstract

This textbook teaches English through the medium of musical theatre. The main goal is to let students practice listening, speaking, reading, and writing by participating in a musical production. The book will be used in an after school class in Korea. The classes will be conducted with ten students for two semesters. The students will meet twice a week, two hours per day. Each musical will be taught for ten weeks per semester. The final goal of the course will be to present the musical on the last day of the class. The target students of this textbook are fifth grade elementary school students at a private school. According to the ACTFL, the students are mixed-level between B1-B2 (CEF), low-high intermediate to low-high advanced level. They regularly have English classes six periods a week, forty minutes each. They can read, write and interact in the target language but are relatively lacking in accuracy and fluency. The reason I have chosen the following group of students is because I have experience of teaching twelve year old students for a few years. As a result, I am familiar with this age group. Moreover, I want to develop a course where students can really enjoy using and learning English through acting and singing in a musical production.