The Effects of Drama Activities on Thai Secondary Students’ Speaking Fluency

Abstract

                 The objectives of this study were to investigate the effects of drama activities, i.e., mimes, role plays, and guided improvisation on Thai secondary students’ speaking fluency and to explore the students’ perception towards the use of drama activities.  This research was a quasi-experimental study with a single group pre and posttest design. The participants were 42 Grade 9 students at Horwang Pathumthani School.  The duration of the experiment was eight weeks.  The students’ speaking fluency was measured by comparing the scores of pre- and post- speaking fluency tests using a dependent t-test.  Moreover, the students were asked to complete a questionnaire to state their views towards the teacher’s use of drama activities at the end of the experiment.  Additionally, to gain more detailed information about students’ perception, the participants were randomly selected for a structured interview.  The data obtained from the questionnaire was analyzed for mean and standard deviation and the data gained from the structured interview was analyzed via content analysis. The findings revealed that the mean scores of students’ posttest were higher than those of the pretest at the statistical significance level at .05.  Furthermore, the students’ perception towards the teacher’s use of drama activities in the classroom was highly positive.