1 Shakespeare in The Classroom GHID METODOLOGIC AUTHOR: Dragoi Antoniuc Bogdan Stejarel 2026 2 Introduction William Shakespeare holds a special place in any teacher’s heart. Every teacher of English, every linguist and reader knows the significant part that Shakespeare played in shaping the modern world of the English language and literature as we know it today. Naturally, most teachers will feel compelled to introduce Shakespeare in the classroom, even if this implies certain responsibilities and risks. For some strange reason, there are plenty of EFL teachers that give up teaching Shakespeare, considering his works far too complex for the syllabus of a typical classroom of EFL students. It takes time, dedication, motivation and intensive planning in order to introduce Shakespeare to EFL students, regardless of their age, cultural background, social status and so on. But things don’t end here; a teacher should do some follow-ups and give the EFL students a questionnaire in order to analyze the impact that Shakespeare had over the class, over its self-confidence, grammar, vocabulary and fluency. By analyzing this kind of data, anybody can draw pertinent conclusions and see what things need to be changed, what things should stay as they are and how much one’s English has improved (or not) after getting acquainted with William Shakespeare, his greatest works and various drama activities. When a teacher analyzes this useful data he or she can tell if his or her endeavors were successful or not, based on the students’ feedback. 3 Empirical data also counts, from regular tests that show exactly how much Shakespeare influenced the class and in what way to analyzing the students’ progress during the lessons using different teaching strategies. The Bard’s legacy is a teaching material itself, offering teachers the possibility of choosing which works to study, depending on the class’ level of English. Teaching Shakespeare is an unforgettable moment for both the EFL students and the teachers. Students find out exactly what public speaking means, what drama means and what its core elements are and if they perform in one of Shakespeare’s plays their self-confidence will receive a boost. In order to keep track with the students’ progress regarding certain Shakespeare related activities, I gave them a questionnaire to fill out: 4 Student’s name: Date: Grade: the VII-th The Questionnaire 1. Did you like the English club “Discovering Shakespeare” from this school year 2015 – 2016? a. Yes b. No 2. Do you consider that using drama during these English club activities helped you get higher marks? a. Never b. Seldom c. Sometimes d. Quite often e. Often g. Always 3. What did you like during this English club activities? Give them a number from 1 to 3. a. the topics b. the teacher 5 c. the interesting and various materials (pictures, drawings, excerpts of books, films, etc.) 4. The English club “Discovering Shakespeare” represents for you: a. An interesting way of learning about Shakespeare b. A nice passing time c. A waste of time 5. From this club you found out more information about: a. Some plays b. Some films c. Both books and films d. Nothing 6. What have you improved during this club activities? a. your English vocabulary b. your English speaking c. both English vocabulary and speaking d. nothing 7. What are the difficulties that some of your classmates have had during these club activities? Give them a number from 1 to 3. a. vocabulary and grammar b. short time/ length of time (just one hour a week) c. materials 6 8.Would you like to have a similar club in the following school year 2016 - 2017? Motivate your answer. a. Yes b. No The creation and handling of this questionnaire had multiple purposes. One of the main instruments in any respectful, scientific research is the questionnaire. It is a valid tool that is used on a certain number of persons in order to validate the purpose of the research. I have applied the questionnaire on every EFL students from the seventh grade and the results supported my hypothesis. My hypothesis was that the English club “Discovering Shakespeare” would make students happy and more willing to learn about the English playwright and that this activity would improve their level of English in a noticeable way. There are several reasons why I chose to go with a questionnaire and not with other research method. I had to handle plenty of important information coming from a large number of students in a short period of time and I had to find a reliable method to do so. The number of students that participated at this research didn’t influence the findings in any way since questionnaires are known to be valid and reliable regardless of the number of respondents. I included the results in a special software program that works as a statistical database for such kinds of data. The software is called SPSS Statistics (SPSS stands for Statistical Analysis Software Package) and it is one of the most preferred statistical tools out there because it has simple instructions, integrated formulas, charts and it is heavily used by statisticians, psychologists and even teachers. 7 The questionnaire is more reliable than any other method of research that people often use. Teachers will always use the method of observation the most during their classes of English. However, even if teachers have accumulated a great deal of experience when it comes to analyzing different personalities and evaluating and assessing one’s level of English, the method of observation will still come from a subjective source whereas a questionnaire is as neutral as it can be. Another purpose for this questionnaire was to compare results and see exactly how things changes for my class after it being introduced to the English club “Discovering Shakespeare”. I believe that there is such thing as Shakespeare in and out of the classroom. I will linger on some projects that are dear to me and that introduced EFL students to William Shakespeare and some of his greatest works. One of the most successful projects that I’ve ever been part of is the educational partnership Discovering Shakespeare. Three counties took part in this project: Suceava, Neamț and Botoșani. My role here was that of a coordinating professor. The EFL students visited the National Theatre in Iași and they performed three short scenes from one of Shakespeare’s most famous romantic tragedies, Romeo and Juliet. The pupils also performed several sonnets. The pupils had to follow certain drama activities. They came up with drawings, flyers, posters mini-books to celebrate Shakespeare and his works. The theatre curator took the time to tell the pupils how important is studying Shakespeare’s works and the impact he still has over our contemporary society, modern literature and the English language also. 8 The EFL pupils visited the Botanical Garden where they played a game called “Shakespeare’s Idioms” and they also engaged in a contest called “Who Remembers Shakespeare the Best?” The winning team received books and diplomas. The main objectives and goals of this educational partnership was to promote William Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets, to introduce the original Shakespearian language to pupils and to connect the pupils to the British cultural heritage. Other goals were to introduce drama elements and activities to EFL students so that they can learn to express themselves better and use their linguistic resources in order to offer a life performance of one of Shakespeare’s plays. The county competition ’Shakespeare la aniversare’’ was also a great way to introduce students to the idea of improvisation, creativity and competition. We won this competition two years in a row. The competition was organized by Liceul Tehnologic ‘’Dimitrie Leonida ‘’from Piatra Neamț. In 2014 we won first place thanks to the performance of Romeo and Juliet (the balcony sceme). In 2015 the first place was awarded to us thanks to the outstanding performance from Macbeth (the Three Witches scene) and for the interpretation of a sonnet. I thought of combining the new with the old in a sense that I started an activity called Shakespeare on YouTube at the county library. The kids and I watched different movies, documentaries and cartoons that made subtle and not so subtle references to William Shakespeare. The kids were asked to identify Shakespeare’s plays, his characters and we started engaging in different educational games. I chose this alternative to make sure the kids found out about Shakespeare in a unique, modern, appealing way. This made the kids curious for more information about Shakespeare and some of them even went home and read some of Shakespeare’s plays, impressed by the activities that happened at the library. 9 The films and documentaries were, of course, far more accurate than the cartoons, making it easier for me to introduce Shakespeare’s historical plays to the kids. I believe that Shakespeare should be taught in classes, but from a multidimensional standpoint otherwise the EFL students would never have the patience or inclination to linger on his works. I also paused the films and videos for a while to explain different things about Shakespeare, why a certain scene was important and what it represented for the plot etc. The kids had asked questions and they also got to pay close attention to the actors’ impeccable accent, tone of voice and not to mention theatrical poses and gestures. These images alone could help kids easily memorize certain information associated with those scenes and crucial moments. I came up with different lesson plans, structures and ideas that I will present below. Some of these lessons plans have already been implemented in the classroom while others still remain as projects or ideas that need a little bit of development in order to make Shakespeare appealing and relevant to EFL students. I had a class where I wrote the name Shakespeare on the blackboard and I wanted to see what words EFL students use to associate Shakespeare with. A brainstorming session ensued from here, students coming up with all sorts of words from skulls to Denmark to hamlet and whatnot. After this activity finished, we engaged in a similar brainstorming session only this time students were asked to name some of Shakespeare’s characters. The students that participated at these brainstorming sessions belong to the seventh grade. I found it challenging to pick only three of William Shakespeare’s greatest plays to teach in class. I chose Romeo and Juliet because it is the first romantic tragedy in literature and it is a major reference in popular culture as well as in different academic fields. It isn’t that complicated compared with other plays from Shakespeare. Next >