Plenty of empirical studies have shown that Readers Theater implementation can improve students’ learning effects and evoke students’ emotional growth. Based on the studies, they provided a wide range of benefits in RT implementation. The benefits are divided into language learning effects and emotional growth, and language learning effects are included reading fluency, reading comprehension and vocabulary development while emotional growth is included learning attitude, learning motivation and social interaction. With the empirical studies of RT, most researchers have proved that RT definitely has positive influence on learners. The researcher believes that RT is an effective activity which helps learners progress no matter in learning effect or emotional growth. Even though there has no study shown any results about raising learners’ speaking proficiency, the researcher hopes to explore and examine students’
performance which might related to empirical studies in the RT experiment. The related studies about the benefits of RT implementation can be seen below.
2.4.1 Benefits on Reading Fluency
According to Young and Rasinski (2009), the repeated and assisted practice involved in RT rehearsal improved accuracy and automaticity in word recognition.
They also claimed that the concept of fluency was about accuracy, automaticity, and prosody. Previous researchers Tsai (2012), Chang (2012), Morrison (2011), Johnson (2011) and so on have suggested that modeled, assisted, and repeated readings are powerful tools to improve fluency as in Table 2.3.
Table 2.3
The Related Studies of RT and Reading Fluency Researcher/
All of the students gained a significant increase in their oral
Tsou, W.L.
After 15 weeks, the results of showed that RT had improved the students’ oral reading fluency in rate and accuracy.
Huang, S.C. was found to have a significant difference between the pre- and
According to the empirical studies of RT and reading fluency, it showed that the RT implementation significantly improved students’ oral fluency which included reading accuracy, reading rate and prosody. Moreover, students also gained lots of reading skills such as intonation, expression and volume, and students
2.4.2 Benefits on Reading Comprehension
Young and Rasinski (2009) suggested that students who read orally with expression tended to have good comprehension. Oppositely, students who read with little or inappropriate expressions in oral reading were more likely to have poor comprehension. In the RT implementation, some researchers Lin (2012), Tsai (2009) in
Liu, Y.Y.
reflections also supported this finding. Students claimed that they liked the task and improved oral reading fluency including accuracy, reading speed, and fluency. The study suggested that RT might be helpful in promoting English oral reading fluency of
Table 2.4 had researched and showed that students’ reading comprehension positively improved. The results indicated that it’s necessary for students to understand the text in order to interpret the character’s feelings, thoughts, and emotions, making their performance understandable.
Table 2.4
The Related Studies of RT and Reading Comprehension
Researcher/ Year Topic Results
Lin, Y.H.
Results showed that there was a significant difference on students in the RT group agreed that their reading
comprehension was enhanced with teachers’ instruction.
The studies indicated that students had better comprehension after the RT implementation. However, there weren’t many studies focus on reading comprehension.
Even though the RT implementation claims it can improve students’ story comprehension, and it seems that the empirical studies about reading comprehension are still insufficient.
2.4.3 Benefits on Vocabulary Development
During rehearsing the RT scripts, students are exposed in a meaningful context where they can acquire new vocabulary and word usage. A meaningful context is essential in vocabulary acquisition. According to the researchers Lin (2011), Tsai (2010), Peng (2009) and so on in Table 2.5, we can see their studies of RT and Vocabulary Development. Based on the findings of various studies, the strategy of repeated reading in RT implementation and the content gradually becoming sight words were found to be beneficial to students’ vocabulary development.
Table 2.5
The Related Studies of RT and Vocabulary Development
Researcher/ Year Topic Results
Lin, H.W.
(2011)
A Study of the Application of Readers Theater in a Second-
Tsai, Y.C.
The students in experimental group gained higher scores on the posttest so RT instruction seems to be a possible teaching method for vocabulary and sentence patterns. Students also demonstrated that RT helped them to learn vocabulary and
A Study of Readers Theater in Eighth Grade: Issues of Fluency, Comprehension, and Vocabulary
Over six weeks of a short story unit, one class participated in Readers Theater. Students in the Reader Theater class made statistically significant growth in oral reading. The Readers Theater class nearly doubled the vocabulary acquisition of the comparison group.
The previous studies of RT and vocabulary development found that the RT implantation had enhanced students’ alphabet recognition, word acquisition, phonological awareness and spelling. These results offered an idea that there is no need to drill vocabulary over and over, and teachers can try to utilize the RT in class.
2.4.4 Benefits on Learning Attitude
A positive learning attitude not only promotes students’ learning willingness but also gains learning interests in the process (Chin, 2009). In RT implementation, most readers lose their anxiety when practicing a script with teacher and group members.
Students are encouraged and stimulated in the cooperative learning environment, and their confidence has been built up by teacher’s and group members’ feedbacks which activate their language learning based on the findings of previous studies and the researchers Chang (2012), Kao (2012), Tsai (2010) and Hung (2008) are listed in Table 2.6.
Table 2.6
The Related Studies of RT and Learning Attitude
Researcher/ Year Topic Results
Chang, Y.W. attitude of the experimental group was significantly higher than the control group on affection and behavior dimensions. Moreover, the female’s learning attitude was significantly higher than the male in the same group on affection and behavior dimensions.
Kao, P.G.
(2012)
A study in the effects of English Readers Theater Instruction on toward English learning. The results also revealed that students’ attitudes toward English Readers Theater instruction and the interview had a positive improvement after the treatment.
Tsai, H.Y. activities the low achieving participants are more anxious than the high achieving
According to the studies, both students and teachers kept positive attitude toward language learning. The traditional English teaching was replaced by the RT implementation. The researchers claimed that students engaged in the class with better, positive learning attitude based on the teacher’s observation, students’ reflection, interviews and questionnaire.
2.4.5 Benefits on Learning Motivation
In RT implementation, textbooks are replaced by various kinds of reading material learning, and the RT performance also become a diverse assessment to evaluate students’ learning progress instead of the traditional exams. RT provides students a chance to participate successfully and equally in an enjoyable literary environment
which might lead them to become better readers. Moreover, RT helps struggling readers gain confidence by repeated rehearsal and stage performance. Students are not required to read or even memorize the whole script by themselves, and students can engage in scripts with ease. Table 2.7 lists studies conducted by Lin, (2013), Chen (2011), Drew, I; Pedersen, R.R. (2010), Liu (2008) and Chen (2008) to investigate the impact of RT on students’ learning motivation.
Table 2.7
The Related Studies of RT and Learning Motivation
Researcher/ Year Topic Results
Lin, M.C.
Drew, I; study. It implied that the RT task might motivate students social factor for reading.
In the empirical studies, the researchers proved that student were encouraged and motivated by the RT implementation. Students gradually built up their confidence and successful experience with great collaboration, interaction and performance time after time. No matter the self-efficacy or social factors, students would participate in class actively.
2.4.6 Benefits on Social Interaction
Readers Theater demands communication and collaboration no matter in the preparation or performance. Students help each other in heterogeneous groups, and group members discuss how to interpret the characters, read contexts correctly and create different stage movements. Hence, students increase the opportunities of social interaction during the collaborative learning as suggested by previous studies conducted by Tsou (2011), Chen (2009) and Yun (2008) are listed in Table 2.8.
Table 2.8
The Related Studies of RT and Social Interaction
Researcher/ Year Topic Results
Tsou, W.L. that students have a purpose to interact in class, to work with others, to read and write for an audience, and, at the same did not grasp the tips to work cooperatively; hence, the School in Taiwan : An Action Research Study
Based on the qualitative results in studies, they showed that students could work collaboratively, which improved their peers relationship during the RT rehearsal.
To sum up, the previous studies has shown significant benefits in RT implementation; however, there hasn’t been a study which aimed to check the significance of RT implementation of improving English speaking proficiency. Even though most of studies had been focus on oral reading, they didn’t have enough proof about English speaking improvement. Therefore, the researcher is going to apply RT to the English teaching to see if the students advance English speaking proficiency instead of oral reading in current study.