Enhancing the English-language oral skills of international students through drama

Abstract

Ten non-English-speaking-background students of Bond University were observed to identify the effects of drama on oral English. Over a period of twelve weeks (two hours per week), elements of their oral English communication were measured. The weeks were divided into four lots of three weeks each, with the first three weeks made up entirely of communicative non-drama-based (CNDB) lessons, weeks four to six comprising only communicative drama-based (CDB) methodology, weeks seven to nine reverting to CNDB methodology, and the final three weeks being made up of CDB strategies again. The hypothesis of this study was that all the participants would show improvement once CDB methodology was introduced and that, by the end of Week 12, their mean-scores would be higher than when they were first observed. The first part of the hypothesis was disproved for a majority of the participants, while the second part revealed positive findings for all ten.