The Effect of Drama Education on Communication Skills
―In the Case of Japanese High School Students―
OGAWA Miyoko (Hyogo University of Teacher Education, Graduate Student)
keywords: communication skills, theatrical methods, intercultural understanding, non-verbal
1. Introduction
In recent years, the number of foreign students has increased with globalization, and the classrooms have changed into "cross-cultural" communities. Under the situation, from the Improvement of the Course of Study, the Central Council for Education in 2008, defined communication skills as follows.
Communication skills consist of main factors to form human relationships and teamwork, and share information through dialogues, think deeply on our own, discuss and solve problems to reach a consensus in a group of people from various values and cultural backgrounds.
In globalization, as mentioned above, it is important to form "human relations and teamwork"
with "people with various values and backgrounds" and to understand the cultural differences accept diversities. In addition, in order to engage in “dialogues,” “share information” and “think deeply on our own," it is necessary to have the ability to objectively grasp one's ideas and thoughts and coordinate them in a group.
On top of that, in order to "discuss and solve problems," not only the "language ability" to convey information in logic, but also the ability to convey "thoughts" in mind to others will be required. Communication skills are regarded as "non-cognitive abilities" that have not been recognized as being measured (Japan Lifelong Learning Research Institute, 2017). This means, communication skills are not only the language ability to convey information with words, but also the skills to receive and transmit non-verbal information such as postures and facial expressions.
2. Purpose
This study aims for the effectiveness of drama education for Japanese high school students in
communication skills as follows:
(1) the ability to objectively grasp one’s behavior and adjust it according to the situation: the skill of self-monitoring
(2) the ability to engage in interactions using verbal and non-verbal expressions (3) the ability to understand and accept diversities
3. Methodology
(1) Communication lessons based on Theatrical Methods for Intercultural Communication
In this study, in order to develop communication skills, I examined 33 students who selected the educational program to become teachers in the future. Based on drama education by Rengyo &
Hirata (2016), Watanabe (2014), Kawashima (2017), etc., I conducted communication lessons that incorporate theatrical methods, focusing on dialogues with role-play that can be practiced across subjects in the classroom.
In the first lesson, I focused on ice breaks by Janken greeting to do Janken and shake hands, and improvisation in nonverbal communication (e.g., catch ball & jumping rope) to act in groups and build teamwork. Next, I set a "reading theater” that does not focus on stage performance but on informal drama work using scripts, slides and background music. I prepared short scripts using two works written by Kenji Miyazawa, known as reading materials at school: ‘The Night of the Galactic Railway’ and ‘Cello Player Gosh’. In the first work, ‘The Night of the Galactic Railway,’ I played the roles of main characters in the classroom, using one of theatrical methods called
“teacher-in-role.” After that, I set a short drama work using the second short script, ‘Cello Player Gosh’ to express phrases in his/her own words with various tone of voice and facial expressions.
In the second half of the communication class (the third and fourth lesson), I set opportunities to simulate communication among people with different languages and cultures. I prepared a "rubric"
to indicate some points of performances such as facial expressions and postures. I conducted non-verbal communication activities for cross-cultural understanding in class such as “Narikiri presentation” that students pretend to be "foreign residents" from China, Korean, Vietnam, India, and Philippine in national costumes and introduce his/her country by gesture.
As a whole, I designed communication classes for drama work in a new model (ACE model) to have communication activities in introduction, connect the activities with real situations and extend his/her ideas in group as shown in Figure 1:
Figure 1 ACE Model in communication class based on theatrical methods
(2) Research for the Effectiveness of Communication lessons based on Theatrical Methods
As for data collection, the preliminary survey of the communication skills was performed. I collected 302 data from the 11th graders in the Japanese senior high school by (1) Self-Monitoring scale (Iwabuchi et al., (1982) as for self-monitoring, (2) Communication Skill Scale (ENDCOREs) (Fujimoto & Daibo, 2007) as for verbal and non-verbal communication skills, and (3) Intercultural Sensitivity Scale (Suzuki & Saito, 2016) for cross-cultural understanding. After these factor analyses, in order to examine the effectiveness of communication lessons based on theatrical methods, I collected data from 33 students in the 11th grade who selected the educational program before the first class in April (pre-survey), after the third class in July (post survey), and after the last lesson in October (for follow-up).
4. Results and Discussion
(1) Result of Self-Monitoring Scale
Self-Monitoring(SM) means observe whether self-expressions are socially appropriate for the situation and the behaviors of others, and control the behavior of one’s own. The Japanese version of Self-Monitoring scale by Snyder (1974) was set by Iwabuchi et al. (1982). It contained 15 items on a five-point scale. In factor analysis, two factors ("externality" and "Other-Directedness") were extracted as common factors with the previous study as shown in Table1.
The first factor, "Extraversion" consisted of 6 items including reverse items such as "At a party I let others keep the jokes and stories going.” and" I'm not always the person I appear to be.”
According to Fujimoto and Daibo (2007), personal characteristics are strongly related to communication skills. It has been reported that people with higher sociability have better communication skills. The second factor, "Other-Directedness" consisted of 7 items such as "I tend to be what people expect me to be.” This factor is considered to be a characteristic to increase the interests in others by controlling his/her feelings.
Self-Monitoring Ⅰ Ⅱ Ⅲ
R: At a party I let others keep the jokes and stories going.
.697 -.173 .111 R: I'm not always the person I appear to be.
.642 -.248 -.070 R: In a group of people I am rarely the center of attention.
.609 -.096 .065 R: I am not particularly good at making other people like me.
.500 .025 .393
I have considered being an entertainer.
.495 .409 -.248 R: I have never been good at games like charades or improvisational
acting. .490 .013 .217
I can make impromptu speeches even on topics about which I have
almost no information. .373 .162 -.046
I guess I put on a show to impress or entertain people. .190 .742 -.025 In order to get along and be liked, I tend to be what people expect
me to be rather than anything else. .030 .634 .154
Even if I am not enjoying myself, I often pretend to be having a
good time. -.276 .557 .113
In different situations and with different people, I often act like
very different persons. -.270 .547 .103
I would probably make a good actor.
.396 .531 -.078 I sometimes appear to others to be experiencing deeper emotions
than I actually am. -.131 .530 .050
R: Reverse Item
Ⅱ. Other-Directedness （α＝0.720)
Ⅰ. Extraversion（α＝0.731)
environmental factors.
Table 1 Result of Factor Analysis on Self-Monitoring
Based on the two factors,
comparative surveys were conducted for 33 eleventh graders in the
educational course in April, July and October, 2019, as I mentioned above.
Throughout the data analysis, as for the first factor, "Extraversion," no
significant difference was observed; on the other hand, in the second factor of
"Other-Directedness," there was a significant difference (F (1,60) =5.492, p＜.01). Also, as for this factor, the t-tests in pairs during the three surveys were performed; as a result, a
significant difference was found between the first and third survey (t (30) =2.090, p＜.05).
(2) Result of Communication Skill Scale (ENDCOREs)
The communication skill scale, ENDCOREs (Fujimoto & Daibo, 2007) was used to clear the main factors of communication skills. It contained 24 questions on a five-point scale, about 80% of which consisted of the contents related to "non-verbal communication." Since no factor analysis was performed in previous studies, it was performed on the preliminary survey for 302 eleventh graders. Five factors were extracted such as "verbal expression," "relationship adjustment",
"decoding non-verbal context", "self-control" and “non-verbal expression” as shown in Table 2.
In fact, Fujimoto and Daibo (2007) define "communication skills" as the abilities to communicate directly with words and non-verbal signals or contexts. From this result in the case of the Japanese high school students, it seems that the human relations has been built with verbal and non-verbal expressions associated with self-control in the process of interactions.
Table 2 Result of Factor Analysis on ENDCOREs
The first factor, "verbal expression"
included five items like an “initiative”
factor to control the conversation,
"logical" expressions and "flexibility"
to respond to others. Next, the second factor, "relationship adjustment"
consisted of seven items such as
"respect", "sympathy", "acceptance", and "friendly." That is, "relationship adjustment" can be assumed to be a significant factor of the communication skills to work for non-verbal communication in order to build good human relations. As for the third factor,
"decoding non-verbal context” it was composed of four items such as
"gesture reading" and “reading the other’s feelings.” This factor is considered to affect non-verbal communication as well as the above-mentioned factor of
“relationship adjustment."
The fourth factor, “self-control”
consisted of four items like “taking appropriate action” and "controlling emotions.” It can be assumed that self-control has gradually been enhanced when people communicate with others who have different cultural backgrounds. The fifth factor of "non-verbal expression" consisted of three items such as "facial expressions," and
"gestures,” which means this can be a direct factor in non-verbal communication.
Based on the five factors obtained on the preliminary survey, comparative surveys were conducted in the first survey (at the beginning of the class in April), the second survey (after the
CS scale (ENDCOREs) Ⅰ Ⅱ Ⅲ Ⅳ Ⅴ
I can take control of the conversation and
promote the dialogue with my counterpart. .813 .085 .062 -.197 .036 I can express my thoughts and ideas in my
own words. .740 -.055 -.017 .092 .030
I disclose my own opinion and position
regardless of surroundings around me. .648 -.194 -.045 .260 .067 I promote the dialogue responding flexibly
to the other person in order to convince .581 .065 -.130 -.018 .145 I often claim my opinions logically.
.518 .166 .069 .221 -.050
I choose the right action based on a moral
judgment (to tell the right from the wrong). .120 .714 .078 .013 -.230 I empathize with the other person's
opinion and position. -.103 .578 .092 -.058 .348
I can treat others in a friendly manner.
-.125 .539 -.082 .121 .283 I can accept the other person's opinion as
much as possible. .024 .533 .076 .248 .046
I respect the other person's opinion and
position. .324 .507 .024 -.048 .068
I think about human relationships first to
take action. -.159 .472 -.025 .113 .314
I try to keep human relationships in good
condition. .017 .406 .165 .142 -.095
I can read the other person's thoughts and
ideas correctly in his/her speech. -.059 -.041 .820 .099 .072 I can correctly read the other person's
feelings from his/her gesture. -.081 .095 .805 .047 -.035 I can correctly read the other person's
feelings from his/her expression. -.004 .099 .680 -.058 .063 I sensitively sense the other person's
emotions and mental states. .235 .062 .519 .026 .085
I can take appropriate action under conflicts
of opinions. .002 -.087 .087 .716 .009
I can properly deal with frictions from
emotional confrontations/conflicts. .150 .172 -.031 .566 .049 I suppress my own impulses and desires.
.112 .264 -.107 .556 -.005 I can control my emotions well.
-.075 .103 .103 .504 -.077
I can express my feelings with gestures. .173 -.029 .083 -.079 .640
I can express my feelings well with facial
expressions. .231 -.084 .107 .118 .607
I am good at having my counterpart get a
sense of my emotions and mental states .174 .156 -.010 -.060 .491
Ⅰ. Verbal Expression（α＝0.831)
Ⅱ. Relation Adjustment（α＝0.839)
Ⅲ. Decoding Nonverbal Context（α＝0.852)
Ⅳ. Self-Control(α＝0.765)
Ⅴ. Non-Verbal Expression（α＝0.756)
or non-verbal drama work by improvisation, the factor analysis revealed a large significant difference in the second factor, "relationship adjustment" (F(1,56)= 335.894, p＜.001). Further, regarding this factor, the t-tests in pairs on the three surveys showed significant differences between the first and the second survey and between the first and the third survey (t(29)=23.532, p
＜.001; t(30)=22.217, p＜.001).
As for the third factor, "decoding non-verbal context,” there was a significant difference (F(1,54)=7.477, p＜.01); as a result of the t-tests in pairs on the three surveys, significant differences were found between the first and second survey and between the first and third survey (t(29)=3.833, p＜.001; t(30)=2.344, p＜.05). As for the fourth factor, "self-control", the t-tests in pairs on the three surveys showed a significant difference between the first and third survey (t(30)=2.098, p＜.05). These factors can be assumed to be main elements of the communication skills. Here it can be said that communication skills mainly consist of non-verbal factors.
Regarding "verbal expression," a significant difference was observed (F(1,56)=8.700, p＜.001);
the t-tests in pairs on the three surveys showed significant differences between the first and second survey and between the first and third survey (t(29)=3.943, p＜.01; t(30)=3.443, p＜.01). On the other hand, there was no significant difference as for "non-verbal expression," which means that the Japanese high school students tend to communicate with others using verbal expressions rather than non-verbal signals or contexts, especially on the Internet or social network, according to information technology development.
(3) Result of Intercultural sensitivity scale
In order to understand the sensitivity of different cultures for Japanese, Suzuki and Saito (2016) made the Japanese version of the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale: ISS (Chen & Starosta, 2000). I partially translated some items into Japanese for the Japanese high school students with the permission of Chen and Suzuki. This scale contained 24 items and 302 students in the eleventh grade answered them in a five-point scale. As a result of the factor analysis, four factors similar to the original version were extracted: "Interaction Confidence," "Interaction Enjoyment," "Interaction Attentiveness," and "Respect for Cultural Differences" as shown in Table3.
The first factor, "Interaction Confidence" consisted of four items such as "I feel confident when interacting with people from different cultures." and "I am pretty sure of myself in interacting with people from different cultures." The second factor, "Interaction Enjoyment" consisted of six items including reverse items like “I don't like to be with people from different cultures.”
Table 3 Result of Factor Analysis on ISS of the Japanese version
The third factor, "Interaction Attentiveness" contained positive items toward intercultural interaction such as “I am open-minded to people from different cultures” and “I often give positive responses to my culturally-different counterpart during our interaction.”
The fourth factor consisted of four items like "I respect the ways people from different cultures have” and “I respect the values of people from different cultures.”
Based on the four factors obtained on the preliminary survey, comparative surveys were conducted on the above-mentioned three surveys in April, July and October.
After data analyses, a main effect was observed in the fourth factor, "respect for cultural differences" (F(1,56)=5.255, p
＜.01): the t-tests in pairs on the three surveys showed significant differences between the first and second survey and between the first and third survey (t(31)=2.496, p＜.05; t(29)=2.524, p＜.05).
As for the second factor "Interaction Enjoyment," the t-tests in pairs on the three surveys showed a significant difference between the first and second survey (t(30)=2.619, p ＜ .05) . No significant differences were found in the first factor, “Interaction Confidence” and the third factor, “Interaction Attentiveness."
communication for cross-cultural understanding.
(4) Reflection on Communication Lessons based on Theatrical Methods
The communication lessons focused on non-verbal communication activities like gesture games simulated intercultural communication in diversities, and increased the communication skills as follows.
In terms of self-monitoring, the comparative surveys on the t-tests revealed that the
"Other-Directedness” to control one's emotions and increase interests in others, improved after classes. As for communication skills on the communication skill scale, ENDCOREs showed that the main factors of communication skills can be non-verbal factors like “decoding non-verbal contexts” or "self-control,” and that there was a large difference in "relationship adjustment" in particular. These non-verbal factors are considered to be characteristics found in the Asian cultures, including the Japanese, known as high-contextual cultures based upon non-verbal contexts like human relations or respect. We have to study the details on this issue from the cultural aspects.
With regard to the level of cross-cultural understanding based on the Intercultural Sensitivity Scale on the Japanese version, the main effect was found in "respect for cultural differences,"
which suggests that positive factors like “respect” or “enjoyment” can be a key to a good intercultural communication.
To discuss the effectiveness of drama education on communication skills, further study will be required to reveal the reliability and validity of the factor analyses in the three scales such as (1) the self-monitoring scale, (2) the communication skill scale, ENDCOREs and (3) the intercultural sensitivity scale. Especially, as for the term of “intercultural,” Kawashima (2017) implies that intercultural communication refers to interactions with others who have different cultural backgrounds, including generations, and genders, as well as languages and cultures. It seems that a new scale will be required with respect to this broad sense of intercultural sensitivity/understanding.
In order to reflect the communication classes, the students’ reflection sheets were used;
KH-Coder3, a free software of text mining (Higuchi, 2017) extracted some keywords toward the reflection of the lessons such as "think,” “communication" and "gestures." It seems that the keywords show the process of interactions in non-verbal contexts. In particular, regarding nonverbal communication, one student commented on the reflection sheet as follows: "Through the communication classes, I felt very familiar with nonverbal communication, such as facial expressions and gestures, and I thought that it would be easier to enjoy intercultural interactions by using gestures or non-verbal signals. On the other hand, the other student mentioned the difficulty of non-verbal communication: "I thought it would be difficult to communicate with people from other countries even by gestures, but I wanted to try to actively interact with foreigners using
gestures or other non-verbal signals like eye contact, for a better communication. Some suggested that nonverbal communication would have a positive impact on intercultural communication in diversities. Others assumed that intercultural enjoyment would affect intercultural communication based on respect for cultural differences.
Here, it can be assumed that drama education would be effective to simulate intercultural communication based on non-verbal contexts in diversities. Further, Ogawa (2019) demonstrates the usefulness of nonverbal signals and context in intercultural communications/role-playing such as nodding, eye contact and postures, in case studies of leadership in US.
Therefore, this study is considered to be an effective case study that suggests the usefulness of theatrical methods in the development of "communication skills" mainly based on non-verbal factors for intercultural understanding.
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