New Perspectives in Science Education

The European Commission issued an education document common for all EU member countries: recommendations on building the key competences mandatory for each person [1]. In the document, the competences were defined as the totality of the knowledge in certain fields, abilities and attitudes necessary for an individual to assure their personal development, improvement and social integration. Communicative competence is identified as a major competence in the context of general competences (learning to learn, awareness, social and civic competences, sense of initiative and entrepreneurship and personal competences) in the Lithuanian Primary and Basic Education Programs too [2]. The development of communicative competence is one of the most distinct priorities in contemporary education system.

Researchers [3] agree that drama activities develop children’s creativity, artistic excellence, communication skills, imagination, attentiveness, tolerance and help to imitate real life situations. Through drama activities, the purposes in the classroom teaching process become more attractive, vibrant and opening for new ways of understanding. It is noted that younger school-age children acting is as creative as that which applies to the educational process. The authors [4] also discuss the characteristics of employment of drama activities as a method in the education process. It is particularly important to organize children‘s drama activity to make it a solid means of person education, which development of its artistic quality and, in this process, gunning positive communicational, social and emotional experience.. Therefore, potentially revelation of communicative competence development through drama activities is a relevant pedagogical problem.

The key research questions are: how to specify drama - oriented activity by identifying the methods of drama activities relevant to the development of communicative competence and in what mode it should be employed to develop communicative competence; how pedagogues employ the drama – activity in the classroom to developing  children’ s communicative competence.

The article discloses the conception of the drama - activity, presents the attributes of its expression, and analyzes drama – activity methods of development of children’s communicative competence. On the basis of the data of the research with the participation of 150 primary school teachers, the character of the development of children's communicative competence through drama -activities is discussed and the results of interview with primary school teachers (3 focus groups (24 teachers)) in the context of the building of the communicative competence are analyzed. The research was conducted in different educational institutions in various regions of Lithuania. The outcomes of the survey of primary school teachers and the results of the interview were juxtaposed. It is important to analyze, to identify and to justify the drama – activity methods to be employed in the development of children's communicative competence.