The Effect of Readers Theater on EFL Students’Reading Motivation and Reading Anxiety

• Main Authors: Nientsun Wu, 吳念村
• Other Authors: Shiauping Tian
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2009
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/21056979382892065234

碩士 === 國立臺灣科技大學 === 應用外語系 === 97 === This study aims to investigate the effects of Readers Theater on EFL students’ reading motivation and reading anxiety. Students’ perceptions toward RT were also examined. This study looked at ways in which teachers can incorporate RT activities into the curriculum. The participants were seventy-one seventh graders from two intact classes in a junior high school in Taipei city. They were assigned to two treatment groups. The two groups read the same stories; however, the experimental group presented the scripts adapted from the stories in RT and the control group read the original texts and wrote summaries. Pre and post Reading Survey (RS) and Foreign Language Reading Anxiety Scale (FLRAS) were collected from two groups within sixteen weeks. After RT treatment, the experimental group was required to fill out a reflection questionnaire. Although findings of this study indicated that the students’ reading motivation by mean scores were enhanced and many students experienced a lower level of reading anxiety through RT activities according to mean scores, the t-test scores showed no significant differences of reading motivation and reading anxiety between experimental group and control group. High achievers and low achievers of experimental group also had the same results of no significant differences. However, students’ perceptions toward English reading suggested that RT can be integrated into a broader curriculum to provide a stress-reduced environment for EFL students to promote English reading motivation, vocabulary learning and reading fluency. Finally, pedagogical implications for the use of RT in EFL classroom and practical suggestions for future research concerning using RT were also presented.