A STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF THEATER ON IRANIAN L۲ LEARNERS’ SPEAKING FLUENCY, CLASS ENGAGEMENT, AND SELF-ESTEEM

Every L۲ teacher faces some challenges in his/ her L۲ classroom which can be risen by using some techniques, one of which is the use of drama and theater. Many studies have been conducted on the effects of drama and theater on various aspects of L۲ learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the (possible) effects of theater on L۲ fluency, classroom engagement, and self-esteem in Iranian L۲ learners. For this purpose, ۶۰ intermediate participants were selected from Safir Institute of Shahrekord (Shahrekord, Iran) using a placement test. Next, the participants were divided into ۲ groups: Those who were interested in drama and theater formed the experimental group, and the rest formed the control group. First, all the participants were asked to answer ۲ oral questions and ۲ questionnaires on classroom engagement and self-esteem as a pretest. After a ۱۲-hour treatment, participants were asked to answer ۲ more questions about speaking and ۲ questionnaires about classroom engagement and self-esteem as a posttest to examine whether or not they had improved during the treatment. The results showed that the use of drama in the L۲ classroom improved the participants' L۲ fluency and class engagement. However, there was no significant difference between the performance of the participants in the experimental group and the participants in the control group in terms of their self-esteem. In conclusion, L۲ teachers can take advantage of theater in order to make their L۲ classrooms more entertaining and effective.

Keywords:

theater , fluency , class engagement , self-esteem