By Dean Marriott
This year is the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death. To mark this, the British Council is supporting a series of global events, as well as offering a huge number of online resources.
For those of you who have a spare couple of hours per week and would like to brush up on your knowledge of Shakespeare, it would be worth considering a free 6-week online course with the British Council. After looking into the life of Shakespeare during week 1, the course will then take you on a journey of his works, discovering a new play each week: Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, Much Ado About Nothing, The Tempest and Macbeth. The next course begins on 18th April and you can sign up for free on the following link: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/explore-english-shakespeare
I often explore the works of Shakespeare during classes and workshops with children and am always excited by their discoveries as they bring the text to life and discover the origins of certain expressions. Currently, I am working on Romeo and Juliet with my Wednesday afternoon Advanced English learners aged 8-13. Some parents are often surprised to hear that their children are studying Shakespeare as part of a language acquisition course. However, to me, as an actor teaching English through theatre, this has always seemed a natural part of the language acquisition process. The themes are so relevant today and the language so rich, that it would be a shame to avoid it.
The fact that fear of a language often acts as a barrier to acquisition has taught me to help students to confront and overcome such fears as early as possible. This year, the British Council has made available a wide variety of resources, so that Shakespeare can become an integral part of any English acquisition programme.
This site should be of interest to both teachers and parents: http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/shakespeare
The children who take my Wednesday afternoon classes, do so because they want to develop their English skills in a fun way: effectively, learning through leisure. This half term, after watching a 10-minute animation of Romeo and Juliet, and discussing the themes, the students started to rehearse monologues and duologues using the original text. As part of this process, they improvise the scenes in their own words to ensure comprehension. The results have been superb and we have had a lot of fun working with the text. This week, we will be filming their work in our green-screen studio.
Shakespeare was written to be performed for the wider population not the privileged few. The themes are as relevant today as they were when they were written, which makes them so exciting. Opening the doors to Shakespeare, opens the doors to the world, warts and all.
Full information on the Shakespeare Lives initiative can be found on http://www.shakespearelives.org/learn
Author's bio
Dean Marriott was born in London and educated in the UK and Germany. He retired from a career in finance, aged 33, and subsequently retrained as an actor and teacher. From an early age, his passion for languages has underpinned both his professional and social lives. In his quest for leisure activities, Dean keeps one key thought in mind: if Shakespeare’s words are true and ‘All the world's a stage’, we shouldn’t have to look far in order to be entertained. We just have to make the time to appreciate it.
If you are searching for an element of entertainment in your leisure pursuits and have a desire to look beyond the obvious, then Dean will use his artistic eye to point you in the right direction.
Dean is currently the Director of the World Language Learning Centre at GEMS World Academy-Etoy, where he promotes the idea that language learning is about embodying a new language, not simply studying it.
http://www.gemsworldacademy-etoy.com/wllc
