Oeconomia

Copernicana
Volume 12 issue 3 2021

p-ISSN 2083-1277, e-ISSN 2353-1827

www.oeconomiacopernicana.pl

Received: 30.04.2021; Revised: 29.06.2021, Accepted: 28.07.2021, Published Online: 18.08.2021

THE DIDACTIC PERSPECTIVES OF ONE - ACT PLAYS: WITH REFERENCE TO

RIDERS TO THE SEA

Dr. A. Shanti
Associate Professor of English, Kamaraj College, Thoothukudi

Abstract
The one-act play in English has developed into an independent and interesting literacy from which has
a sufficient dose of all components to impart high pedagogical value for teaching language. New
methodologies to teach this potential literacy form enables the second language learners to acquire
basic language skills. A representative one-act play, Riders to the Sea is reflected to propagate the
idea that if properly used, it could be tapped to develop the communicative skills of the learners.
Different methods of utilizing the one-act play for classroom interaction and language competence is
explored with an example.
Keywords: One-act Play, Pedagogical Value, Diverse Skills, Language Competence, New
Methodology.

This paper is an endeavour to initiate distinct flip-flap in the drilling techniques which can
generate efficient training and perspective strategy to acquire the necessary language skills. Presently,
we should endure and grasp that the absolute recurrently recycled schemes executed from time
immemorial are deficient without appropriate sequel and skills. Apparently novel escalating
procedures and craft, investigated and proposed to be of proficient utility in Indian innate classroom
situations, are presented using a dynamic neoteric foundation. An absolute and profound assessment
relevant to specific creative tactics aspired for meticulous language has been probed with the teaching
of a play.
Enlightening via one-act plays is a distinctive process to teach students to elevate their speaking
skills beyond listening skills. Verbal communication can also be made possible simply by antithetic
varieties of usages, it is stimulating to guide the team of excited and passionate students. The specific
reports of scientific studies confirming upon utilizing this sort of gear to instigate oral skills are
incredibly inspiring. Since college students habituate the interacting abilities inside the classroom, this
gist of the articulation, positive self-image and lucidity correlated with cognition are enriched and
upgraded.
It is fruitful to select twentieth century plays because they reflect social traits, general
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capabilities, humanistic ideals or perhaps emotional aspects that are highly relevant to the second
vernacular students. Moreover, it may be mentioned that in the logical – trial and error method on
second language teaching, the researcher establishes undoubtedly the specific pedagogical beliefs of
distinct techniques that may be applied with reference to teaching syntax, language and also varied
skills. The actual objective would be to highlight the language teachers around several efficient
procedures in addition to tactics that will assist to create their activity an extremely pleasant expertise.
The suggestion for any language trainer would be to administer the teaching of language and also to
scrutinize on the strength of the procedures advocated.
All the language teacher should instantly utilize certain technological methods to fulfil the
academic goal by virtue of the prompt growth and expansion of erudite technical components. Utility
of one-act plays inside English language instructing sessions is actually a phase of modern instructional
systems that results in any modification within the coaching and social rapport of the teacher and the
student. The wisdom in addition to the talent with which an ingenious teacher applies new mechanisms
and basics such as plays contribute to the scope of a teacher as a specialist in addition to his/her skills.
Frequently we all can experience self-pleased attitude amongst some teacher instead of trying out
modern technique. They have a tendency to employ a monotonous one which provides them a strong
guard. This kind of limitation plunders the sweeping efficiency of the teaching plan of action and
performance. Consequently, an effective blend of traditional standard as well as innovative training
procedure would be a motivating conversion as the ultimate end.
The tutelage of the students is often a pair of comprehending the probabilities of three
fundamental crucial components like programs, mood as well as the strategy. Teaching is normally in
the line with the subject matter and the main ideas linked to the syllabus. The surrounding domain
could be the next aspect which is associated with the kind of temper the actual program creates. The
final one, is the execution in which the derivation the particular teacher chooses to ensure that he can
assist the second language student to succeed in his learning.
Audio visual scenes tends to be one of the modern strategies in the teaching associated with
the language learners. The present technological progress provides its influence on mastering it since
it can label the specific complex age group along with foreign language learning. It has disposed more
emphasis on the manipulation of English inside the classroom in accordance with the teacher and
student. The classical access to teaching within the classroom can’t cope up with the audio-visual
technique. Teaching the One-act plays improves and enhances the efficiency correlated with the
teacher and the pupil. Beyond the classroom the students may not have the opportunity to tune in to
indigenous display associated with dialogues as well as local expressions obviously. As Raju conveys
that, “Young students assimilate, as a matter of course, aspects such as story, dialogue, themes,
characterization and stage-techniques.”(IV)
The main target of language classroom would be perspective to supplement the exclusive
training of pupil more proficiently. Language teachers entertain the one-act plays to promote certain
areas where students are consistently approaching with issues, for example; format of structures,
pronunciation, tense etc. each pupil inducts consequent training and learning exercises with an accurate
authentication of his successive proficiency.
Dominant learning components like nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, articles, pronouns,
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conjunctions, as well as auxiliaries etc, should be engrossed by the students instinctively through the
medium of dialogues, they recognize and acknowledge in the one-act plays. The multifarious
techniques used in the Language classroom stimulate the language competence as well as the
formalistic and intellectual conception whereby this unique accomplishment conceivably exhibit
diverse teaching ambience.
The amateur who observes and adores the spectacle, with the dialogues and communication
might be acquainted with a greater scope of satisfactory sentences and dialogues supplementary to
proper intonations. Students can learn undoubtedly what indeed is declared in the play, and can
formulate the mechanism to reciprocate on the basics of this meaning. Students are able to compose
their assimilated works and charisma to approach and handle the state of affairs which they’ve acquired
from the one-act plays.
As a rule, a play manifests its accomplishments by virtue of actors a stage before the spectators.
The dramatist candidly does not remark on the action or characters as an author. Simply via facial
expression, motion, presentation, tune, tempo, and intonation, the characters make their terms very
significant; yet the reader of a play may not have any indications to comprehend the intensity of the
vocal expressions in a play. A teacher’s role emerges here by making a highly powerful reading of the
play aloud using the hints provided. The students could avail and partake by imitating the teacher and
engross themselves in role play. This is one of the actual factors, which made this researcher to realize
that the one act play has rich perspective to comprehend and teach spoken English. It is an undeniable
veracity that the esteem and reputation of the one act play is robust and exuberant despite the threats
faced from current ingression of the radio plays, the cinema and the TV play. In the words of Maini,

“The truth is the other way round; the above-said media have started
offering a good platform for the one act play. The compactness of the
one act play has given it a greater flexibly to be adapted to any
medium that offers it a stage. Its ‘atomistic character’ has given it a
permanent place”. (IV)

Drama, or even a play, is a little bit of structures which is provided virtually as well as usability
with the help of dialogues. As being a fast story or tale, it functions under a sustainable ground,
characters, plot, in addition to its value. Nevertheless, they’re directed to the audience that varies from
the others, mainly rather than a brief account or perhaps book, the specific play is intended to be carried
out in front of a crowd, and not with regard to reading.
A research like this would be distinct only with illustrations from the genre associated with the
one-act plays; Contemplating on this one specific one-act play has been picked for study here. The
Riders to the Sea by J.M. Synge portray the life and struggle of the fishermen in Ireland. In spite of
their sufferings and misfortunes they feel pride in their sacrifices for nature and nation. It depicts the
concept of love for nationalism among Irishmen. Their sacrifice for the nation is visualized, when
Maurya is seen satisfied and inspired by the sea, when she emotionally tells that she has no more son
to sacrifice for the sea.
Riders to the sea is a very simple but written by an Irish playwright John Millington Synge.
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It is a one-act tragedy set on an Island off the coast of Ireland. The play concentrates on the actual
mourning of an Irishwoman Maurya, who loses her father-in-law, husband and six of her sons in the
sea. This play is about their struggle against the relentless nature. As the play begins, we see Maurya
trying to dissuade her youngest son Bartley from going to sea. As her another son Micheal has not
turned back from the sea for a long time, she is worrying and feels restless. She is more worried about
his safety as a storm is threatening in their island. She is more afraid to think of her future without her
sons. But her youngest son, Bartley is adamant and never pays any heed to his mother’s request and
goes out to the sea. Inside the cabin of their house, we see Catheleen, the daughter of Maurya, with a
spinning wheel. Her younger sister Nora enters and shows her a bundle of clothes, given by a young
priest. Inside the bundle, there are clothes got off from a drowned man. The priest has given them to
her to verify if they belong to her brother Michael. It is really the clothes of their brother Michael, and
they both are very sad to realize the death of their brother in the sea. Only later, Maurya comes to
know about the death of Michael. She tells her daughter that she had seen Bartley, riding fast in a red
mare, followed by Michael in her vision. Afterwards some people bring in the dead body of Bartley.
He has been knocked into the sea by his grey pony. Maurya groans with pain. All her male children
are dead now. She finds that she has nothing more to lose for the sea. She realizes that no man can live
forever.
The play is selected after reading carefully and its stage-directions is found to be very useful
in teaching vocabulary, grammar, and sentence structures along with integrated skill, necessary for
ELT classrooms. The following is an edited version of the initial stage direction from the Riders to
the Sea,
1. An island off the West of Ireland. Cottage Kitchen, with nets, oilskins, spinning-wheel,
some new boards standing by the wall, etc. CATHLEEN, a girl of about twenty, finishes
kneading cake, and puts it down in the pot-oven by the fire; then wipes her hands, and
begins to spin at the wheel NORA, A young girls, puts her head in at the door.
2. They put the ladder against the gable of the chimney; CATHLEEN goes up a few steps
and hides the bundle in the turf-loft. MAURYA comes from the inner room.
3. NORA sits down at the chimney corner, with her back to the door. MAURYA comes
in very slowly, without looking at the girls, and goes over to her stool at the other side
of the fire. The cloth with the bread is still in her hand. The girls look at each other, and
NORA points to the bundle of bread.
4. She pauses again with her hand stretched out towards the door. It opens softly and old
women begin to come in, crossing themselves on the threshold and kneeling down in
front of the stage with red petticoats over their heads.
5. Two younger women come in and pull out the table. Then men carry in the body of
BARTLEY, laid on a plank, with a bit of a sail over it, and lay it on the table.
6. MAURYA has gone over and knelt down at the head of the table. The women are
keening softly and swaying themselves with a slow movement. CATHLEEN and
NORA kneel at the other end of the table. The men kneel near the door.
7. MAURYA stands up again very slowly and spreads out the pieces of MICHAEL’S
clothes beside the body, sprinkling them with the last of the Holy Water.
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Passage (1) gives the details of an Island. The teacher can explain the description of an
Island and ask the students to give similar words related to sea. Next, with the words like
net, oilskins, spinning wheel and boards, the teacher can instruct the objects related to
fishermen. Similarly, the list of objects related to other jobs like ….blacksmith, tailor,
carpenter, electrician etc. could be asked to increase their vocabulary related to many
different varieties of jobs.
Passage (2) could be used to teach them different rooms available in a house as well as in
building. The terms like chimney and turf-loft could be pointed out with their differences
and can ask the students to tell more about other similar rooms inside a house or a hotel or
a marriage hall.
Passage (3) provides the usage of phrase like with her back to the door, at the other side of
the fire, over to her stool. Such sentences with similar usage could be taught to the students
and finally ask them to bring out similar sentences.
Passage (4) brings forth the words like – door and threshold. The students should be taught
how to differentiate the meaning of them and ask them to use it in their own sentences. The
word “petticoats” could be explained and the students could be asked to list out, all the
other types of dresses usually men and women wear. This helps them to learn more new
words for their better communication in English.
Passage (5) introduces the readers with two new words like. Plank and sail used in ships
and boat. The use of these two things along with other objects used in the ship and boat
could be discussed with the students.
Passage (6) could be used to explain the situation and feeling of the people when they
witness their presence in a death house. The feeling of them is expressed in the words like-
keening, swaying, softy-make the students list out identical words related to death,
marriage function and other ceremonies
Passage (7) describes the habit of sprinkling holy water over the dead body. Ask the
students to come forward with similar practices of ritual ceremonies they know from their
own experiences in their family or society
Vocabulary Items
Most of English course at school and college levels are intended to be language –
through- literature courses. Words are the kingpins of any language as they are the basic
units. A rich vocabulary is sure to give a learner the much – needed confidence in the use
of them. Hence vocabulary teaching is important at the initial level to lay a strong
foundation of linguistic skill. The one- act play could be used to teach vocabulary. A one
act play has a vocabulary which is rooted in modern life situations. Hence vocabulary
selected from any one-act play will have currency and its application will be of a wide
range. For the purposes of analysis here five words are selected from the play Riders to
the Sea
 Clean burial Ram’s father was buried with proper rituals and last rites.
 Green head Near the sea we have a green grassy land overlooking it.
 Hooker The Islanders used only the boats they owned.
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 Hags There were birds of ill – omen flying here before his death.
 Jobber The traders were selling apples today

The meaning for the above words is given in the sentences along with it. The students are made
to understand the meaning of these words by creating new sentences using these words in different
contexts.
This kind of exercise will involve the students to participate actively and will help them to be
familiar with the structure. The students could be asked to read out the sentences from the table.
Using the spaced learning technique, the next day the same set of students may be asked to
generate new sentences.

The book talk method

Book talks are useful exercises which help to make students speak. Each week one or two
students talk about the story of a one-act play other students ask suggestions. When one student
presents a book-talk, others take notes and later on help to connect the loose ends by way of
discussion. At the school level this exercise could be used to comprehend the story; at a higher
level this method could be used to critically appraise a story in all its aspects. It will look different
from the chalk-talk method which is teacher centred. If more students participate in the book
talk, then role playing could also be practiced. In all these exercises , the part played by the
students is a major one and the teacher’s role is kept to the minimum. During this exercise, the
vocabulary items and the idiomatic expressions taught from the one-act plays could be tested for
its use. The teacher could play the role of a guide, helping the speaker and the questioner.

Use of technology
The electronic medium has entered the classroom and it is an effective medium to teach English
language. Video clippings of one-act plays prescribed could be shown as a leisure time activity.
One should remember the fact that a drama is a stage art and it is meant for acting on the stage.
Video presentation of one or two one act plays will create interest in the students in these art
forms. This exercise could be combined with book talks. In these days of increasing use of
electronic gadgets, it is not difficult to use video presentation in the classroom. The language
class could be made interesting by making use of One-act plays from You-tube and other short
plays. The teacher can teach the students with the help of power point presentations and videos
for teaching grammar, syntax and other skills from dialogues and structures of the plays.

Watching to writing
Language teaching should aim at developing the four basic language skills; listening, speaking
, reading and writing. The book talk method and video presentation help to develop listening
(and watching) skill along with speaking skill. Listening and watching are receptive activities,
Idiomatic Expressions
One-act plays are known for their effective dialogue. The dialogue contains a lot of crisp expressions.
Most of them are very brief; they are also highly idiomatic. Since the plays selected are by native
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English writers, the native idiom finds liberal expression in the dialogue. They are also relevant to the
situation. A method is suggested to use these expressions to teach communicate skill. It is strange that
the one-act play is not used to teach idiomatic expressions to students in the present scheme of
exercises. Hence this method is suggested. Five idiomatic expressions are drawn from this play for
the scope of this study. Usually, we find that all the one-act plays have abundant of idiomatic
expressions.
a) Bartley - Is she coming to the pier?
 Is she coming to school?
 Are they coming to market?
 Is Ram coming to theatre?
 Are you coming to park?
 Are the teachers coming to tour?
The students should be asked to read it and try to produce similar sentences.
b) Cathleen-Did you see him riding down?
You Riding down?
He Walking fast?
She Pulling up?
Did They See him Sleeping well?
We Blowing tube?
I Boosting pipe?

c) Cathleen-what is it ails you, at all?

annoys
Disturbs
What is it Pains You, at all?
irritates

While speaking is a productive activity. The students who participate in video presentation and book
talk exercise could be asked to write the story of the play they listened or watched. This productive
exercise will help them to organize their writing. They will also be trained in remembering the story
in the correct sequence. Thus, the one-act play could be used to develop not only the listening skill but
also the writing skill of the students. These exercise are group activities and they will reduce the burden
of the teacher in classroom. These exercises will also give unconventional twist to classroom teaching.
Learning through Hints.
Guided composition is used to develop the writing skills of the students. Hints are given and
students are asked to develop the hints into a story or an essay. This method has an advantage. The
students need not worry about the content of them while writing because the content is given in the
form of hints. The students will have to take care of their language skills only such a vocabulary and
structures. One of the best methods to teach the English one-act play is to reduce the entire story of
the one act play into a set of hints into a story. The hints could be developed using the present, past,

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perfect tense in successive steps to motivate the students.

The minor details of the story are ignored, only the major points necessary to construct a story
are presented as hints. Another important point is that the hints are presented in the correct sequence.
This will help the students to pass from one step to another without any confusion. As a language
exercise the students could be asked to render the story in the present tense at first, and then they may
be asked to do it in the past tense. The teacher could step in if the students have any difficulty in
developing the hints. This exercise will help the students to prepare them to answer essay questions.
Instead of depending on bazaar notes, the students can be encouraged to write their own essays. There
is also scope for the originality of the students. At a higher level, the students may be asked to reduce
a play into a set of hints, though at a lower level this is not possible. Since the student are already
familiar with the exercise of developing hints into a story. They may find this exercise easy. Since the
story is presented in the correct sequence, there is no chance for confusion. Since only major points
are given as hints, memory retention is easier.
This study is a pursuit to make use of certain drama tactics in the ELT classroom.As the existing
training methods appear to possess degeneration of the standard associated with Language, this
challenge brought the researcher to be able to discover option or additional training techniques that
may improve the English language teaching thorugh these drama strategies and subtle schemes.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
 Maini B.S.Ed.1995. Masks: Act Plays. Chennai: Macmillan 1998.
 Raju, Anand Kumar. Chills&amp: Chuckles: Six One- Act Plays Madras: Blackie Books,
Ed.1993.
 Shanti,A. International journal of English language, Literature in Humanities, Volume 7,Issue
3, March 2019.

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