Debate the following. Keep it in mind that some of the statements are dis putable.
The actor, when on the stage, should wholly concentrate on his part and on his co-actors. He should act as if the audience didn't exist.
Note. It is actually the problem of "the fourth wall" raised in histime by Stanislavsky. There is a pronounced tendency in the contem-porary stage-direction to try and destroy "the fourth wall", i.e. "to play for the house".
The actor should convey to the audience his own vision of his part and not what he thinks they expect from him.
Acting is an art.
Acting consists in communication.
Note. The important point here is whether communication canbe achieved only through "playing for the gallery".
Acting is basically entertainment, the actor isn't there to in struct, he's there to amuse.
The actor must always be himself. Acting has nothing to do with imitation. The actor is not supposed to adjust himself to every new role.
Stage acting is a lost art, it has been ruined by films and TV.
IV. Arrange discussions and round-table talks on the following.
Why do people go to the theatre?
What is a play? Amusement? Instruction? Just a story enacted on the stage?
The educational role of the theatre.
The theatre versus films and TV.
The actor and the problems of play-acting.
Dialogue. Its role in the play.
Scenery and music. Their role in the play.
INSIGHT INTO PROFESSION
THE TEACHING OF MEANING
Talking Points:
How are meanings of new words to be taught in class? Can the teacher resort to translating the new words into the students' moth er tongue or is it an error in method?
Which ways of meaning presentation are especially effective at different study levels?
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I. a) Read the following article:
The meaning of words can be communicated or taught in many different ways. The following list includes most of the possibilities.
By demonstration: using an object, using a cut-out figure, us ing gesture, performing an action.
By pictures: photographs, blackboard drawings, pictures from books.
By verbal explanation: description, giving a word with the same meaning, giving a word with opposite meaning, putting the new word in a defining context, translating into another language.
Some people often criticise translation into the mother tongue as a way of communicating or teaching meaning. Their objections are generally like this:
There is usually no exact correspondence between one lan guage and another.
Translation into the mother tongue is indirect.
The use of the mother tongue takes time which could better be spent in using English.
All of these criticisms are true. But they can also be applied to the use of pictures, drawings, demonstration, and the use of real objects. For example, a picture for one group of learners does not always have the same meaning as it does for the teacher. The use of a picture to convey meaning is indirect because it requires decoding. Time spent using pictures could be better spent in using English.
Translation into the mother tongue, however, has certain features that can be used by the teacher to the learners' advantage. Here is a list of the main advantages.
Translation can be done quickly. This is a disadvantage if the teacher wants to spend time on a word so that the learners will be sure to remember it. The speed of translation is an advantage, however, if the teacher wants to pass quickly over an unimportant word in a reading text. By giving the meaning quickly, using translation, the teacher has satisfied the learners and has avoided spending too much time on an unimportant word.
Translation is not limited like pictures and objects to nouns, adjectives, and verbs. It can be used to explain many different types of words.
The teacher can ask the learners to respond by using transla tion to see if they have understood something he presented in anoth er way. Except where the teacher provides a multiple-choice list of
definitions or pictures, there is not really any other way in which the learners can respond freely, quickly, and easily to show they have understood something.
It is true that the use of translation as a way of teaching meaning has its drawbacks. It is usually too quick, it takes away time that could have been used to expose the learners to English, often there are not exact equivalents of English words in the mother tongue. However, translation shares these drawbacks with other ways of conveying meaning. By careful use of translation in suitable teaching tech-niques many of these drawbacks can be avoided.
The exclusion of the mother tongue from the classroom as a way of communicating meaning robs the teacher of one useful technique of encoding. It also leaves the learners to make their own uncon-trolled and often incorrect translations.
(From: English Language Teaching Journal. L., 1978. Abridged.)
b) Answer the following questions:
What ways of teaching the meaning of words does the author suggest? 2. Which of the suggested ways do you consider more ef fective for different study levels? (Give your reasons.) 3. What kind of meanings cannot be conveyed in any other way but by verbal ex planation? What are the subtypes of this method? (Illustrate each subtype by examples showing how it is possible to convey this or that meaning.) 4. What are the usual objections against using translation as a way of teaching meaning? 5. What are the author's arguments in favour of using translation? 6. What is your opinion? 7. What are the drawbacks of the demonstration method of teaching meanings?
What are the drawbacks of using pictures? 9. Does verbal expla nation in the target language always achieve the aim? Why can it sometimes fail? What should be done to prevent the failure? 10. How can translation be used to check the students' understanding? What do you think of the recommendation? 11. Do you think that the mother tongue should be absolutely excluded from a foreign lan guage class? Give sound reasons for whatever you say.