Improving Oral Skills through Readers Theatre among Foreign Learners

Abstract

Drama with its dialogue provide a dynamic form in which language and oral skills can be introduced and reinforced. Readers Theatre (RT) is an example of a story dramatization in which readers are given drama scripts to portray characters from the text they have read. As they portray a character, readers strive for good articulation, proper pronunciation, and projection. Our study was designed to investigate the following research questions:  Do learners have positive experiences using Readers Theatre to improve their oral skills? Does Readers Theater give learners more confidence to speak? 40 foreign learners from an Asian University Summer Program joined the Language Cultural Program organized by the International Students Centre at the University Malaya from 4^th- 20^th August 2018. Initially we involved them in role play and improvisations before giving them a Readers Theatre script based on a local historical play.  At the end of the program, they were required to give a 15-minute public performance. The participants were evaluated for their oral communication skills at the first meeting through an oral task and at the end of their program through their RT performance by a panel of three experts. The findings from our studies show that RT helped in the fluency, expression and oral skills of English Foreign Learners as they began to feel confident in using their oral skills by varying the pitch and volume to portray the characters. RT also boosted their confidence in handling spoken dialogue.