Mohamad Irwandy

TESL R2

Reflection on dramatization
For this course, our assignment for this semester was mainly to dramatize a story for young
learners. The story which my group and I chose for our dramatization was Tanggang the
Ungrateful Son. We worked together to develop the script for it and make the props ourselves.
We did the dramatization on Wednesdays night and recorded it.
From our drama, there were some stengths and weaknesses shown on my part. I will first
discuss about my strenghts that Ive shown during the dramatization. One of my strenght would
be my voice projection. My voice was loud and clear. According to Barbara Brockmann (2010)
who wrote the book, Remembrance Day Plays for Schools and Communities, she states that
Voice projection is the most important dramatic skill. Despite the increasing use ofhanging and
clip on microphones, skills like enunciation, pacing of speech, and loud voice projection are
critically important.Besides that, I used appropriate tones during my dialogue which helps in
setting the mood for the drama and clearly conveyed what happens during my scene. Other
than my voice, the emotions I had conveyed during my dramatization also help in my acting.
This is because when I get into the character, the emotion shown when I act was conveyed
naturally rather than forcefully. Furthermore, one other strength that I had shown would be the
strong cooperation that I have between other actors.This strong cooperation had allowed the
other cast members and I work well together and also finishing the drama wthin the time given.
As well as there are strengths, there are also weaknesses I had shown during the
dramatization of our group. One of my biggest weaknesses would be my unclear utterances and
pronunciation. The result of my weakness makes it a bit hard for my voice to be heard in the
video. Moreover, because my pronunciation was a bit unclear, there were some words which
sounded more like muffled noises. Besides that, one other weakness that I had shown would
be the the hesistation during my acting. This is mainly caused when I tried to memorize my lines
during a certain time in my act. The hesitation caused a silent gap which affects the drama
greatly because it was obvious to others who watch the drama that I was getting uncomfortable
and that I had somehow forgotten my lines. In addition, I had also committed dragging which
was saying or doing unneseacary action during my scene in order to come up with my lines.
This had caused the drama to be stretch loneger and audiences bored because what Ive
shown werent necessary to the drama. Other than that, during my performance or acting, I was
a bit still and my movements around the stage were stiff. I did not use the stage well and I could
have move around more during some scenes.

Mohamad Irwandy

TESL R2

To address these weaknesses, I had come up with a few suggestions for

improvement. To improve on my utterances, repeated practice is one way to fix this problem. A
few days before the dramatization, I should practice my lines with a partner and he could make
sure whether my utterances are clear and precise. To adress the problem where I hesitate
during acting, I should try to improvise whenever it is necessary to do so. Improvisation can help
me save a lot of time and prevent me from spacing out during the dramatization. To improve on
my weak pronunciation, one way to fix it is with constant practice and also listening to the corrct
pronunciation by others and modeled it. My stiffness and my lack of movement across the stage
can be overcome by practicing my movement in front of the mirror. Also, I can ask for some help
from my friends who has better knowledge on stage direction to teach me about it.
From this drama, I had also gain a lot of knowledge which proves to be very useful in my
future teaching career. One of the things I learn from the dramatization that I and my group had
done is that appropriate stage direction need to be mastered by actors to make dramatization
much intersting and real. This piece of knowledge is important because it will help in developing
my acting skills which can be use in the classroom where I will teach students using drama.
Furthermore, I can use this knowledge to assist young learners when I am given the
resposibility to help them manage a play or a drama in schools. Other than that, I now know that
props play an important part in a drama not just as tools but also in helping the actors create a
more realistic feeling during the drama. I can utilise this knowledge to help my students in the
future and helping them to make better props.
When conducting this drama, I had also made a few decisions which I think worth
mentioning. One of the decision was in order to make it much more interesting and fun, I and
together with my group decided to improvise a bit of the drama and adapt it with extra scenes
like the marriage scene. The marriage scene was also included because my group and I know
that it would be a crowd pleaser. Also, I decided to insert some sense of humor in every scene
so that it would lesson the grim mood of the story. This decision was made because the
targeted audience was young learners. Young learners tend to be more attracted and relax if
some humor is incorporated inside a story or a drama. According to Chiiasson (2002), the
nature of positive humor helps create a "positive atmosphere" which encourages the learners'
desire to take part in class conversations by decreasing anxiety and stress. Nevertheless, it was
a decision made because the most of the members of my group were having difficulty in
expressing sadness for the drama. So instead, we put in a twist of humor which all of us can
relate to.

Mohamad Irwandy

TESL R2

Lastly, from the dramatization done, I learnt that drama isnt just for entertainment but can
also be educational for young learners.

Mohamad Irwandy

TESL R2

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Mohamad Irwandy

TESL R2

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