256-267 pooneh -pdf

Research Journal of English Language and Literature (RJELAL) A Peer Reviewed (Refereed) International Journal

http://www.rjelal.com; Email:[email protected]

Vol.4.Issue 3. 2016 (July-Sept.)

256 POONEH KARIMZADEH

THE EFFECT OF DRAMA-BASED TECHNIQUES AS METACOGNITIVE PRE-READING

STRATEGIES ON READING COMPREHENSION OF PRE-INTERMEDIATE IRANIAN ESL

LEARNERS

POONEH KARIMZADEH

Department of English language,

Payame Noor University, I. R. of Iran

ABSTRACT

The present study investigates the effect of drama-based instruction as

metacognitive pre-reading strategies on reading comprehension of pre-

intermediate Iranian ESL learners. Because of the significant role of metacognitive

thinking in learning, finding effective strategies to improve metacognitive thinking in

reading comprehension seems necessary. According to different research based on

art, the effect of drama on teaching and learning has been beneficial. In order to

examine the effect of drama- based instruction, a total of 80 pre-intermediate in

third to sixth grade students in a private English institute in Iran, take KET Movers

exam reading and writing test as a pre-test from which 40 homogeneous students

are chosen. This group is divided in to two sub groups , i.e., 20 in experimental

group receiving the required treatment and 20 in control group without that .

Students will take posttest which consists of 2 piloted reading comprehension texts

from Oxford Primary Skills Reading and Writing. The data will be analyzed usingan

independent t-test. The posttest scores of experimental group indicates that the

treatment can improve the reading comprehension of ESL students in Iran, in other

words the usage of drama-based techniques as metacognitive pre-reading

strategiescan be influential and supportive.

Key words: drama, metacognitivestrategies, pre-reading strategies, role play

©KY PUBLICATIONS

INTRODUCTION

One of the most essential skills in learning

language is reading. The more skillful a reader, the

more successful in comprehension he will be. As a

matter of fact if someone can't read correctly

hewon't be able to comprehend. Through extensive

reading learners can elicit a lot of

knowledge.Nowadays because of increasing day to

day growth of technologyall around the world,most

of the Iranian eagerly try to learn English as an

Internationallanguage to facilitate reading

comprehension through extensive reading and

acquire modern technology academically and

professionally. Moreover the role of a teacher as a

great leader is crucial. It’s the teacher that chooses

the appropriate style of teaching, and a high

degreeof learner’s learning depends on this

decision. Teacher is a little artist whose art is

training great educators. Nowadays because of the

growth of science and technology, most of the

people all around the world have been kept far from

the lost pearl of life. Art manifest the beauty of life,

through art everything seems elegant even laborious

process of teaching and learning. As a matter of fact,

RESEARCH ARTICLE

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applyinga suitable manner of teaching; by means of

art, make a paradise in theclass. Drama as one the

strongest tools, can make the ground of teaching

level. 1.1.Back ground and purpose

According to Wallas (2001) reading is

considered as a passive and receptive skill that only

involves grapheme to phoneme decoding, which is a

bottom-up approach .On the other hand ,reading is

considered as a more active process which is a top-

down approach and a reader elicits the meaning

from the whole text based on his schemes(Ediger

,2001 ,p.157).On the basis of schematic theory

,knowledge can be acquired and interpreted of text

through the activation of "schemata".Base on the

study of Piget ( 1970) schemes are organized mental

systems of actions or thought that enable a reader

to think. The more organized thinking process, the

more new schemes development will appear. As

metacognition or in another words "thinking about

thinking" is related to awareness and monitoring ,it

is essential to apply effective strategies to regulate

the thinking process and enhance the degree of

learner's awareness .According to Flavell(1971)

metacognition is intentional ,conscious ,foresighted

and purposeful. In respect to another research by

Flavell (1976), metacognition includes both

monitoringand regulating the learning process.In

regard to a research by Mohammad R.A. (2013)

metacognitive reading strategies not only can raise

the reader's awareness of how he learn, but also

facilitate students reading comprehension.

Moreover based on the new approach of

metacognitive reading strategy, any behavior

,thought and technique that improve the process of

learning refers toawareness(Cook, 2001; Macaro,

2001; Oxford, 1990).In the other words ,

metacognitive reading strategies awareness enable

the learners to think about the learning process,

monitoring and controlling their activities and

plans.In addition, according to a Soviet psychologist

Lev Vygotskey (1896-1934),Classroom teaching

begin with explicit teacher instruction on the one

hand andGuided practice of cognitive and

metacognitive strategies on the other hand that

gradually leads to students' independency, self-

monitoring, and new strategiescapabilities , self-

regulation and ability of taking their own

responsibility, for these reasons the role of the

instructors in the class rooms willbe significant.With

respect to these studies and various findings of this

kind, metacognitivepre-reading strategies have a

fundamental role in reading comprehension. On one

hand,the pre-reading strategies include predicting,

inferring, andmaking

connection(Marinaccio,2010),on the other

handmetacognitive strategies that consist of

planning, monitoring and evaluation, have a crucial

role before, during, and after reading (Perie,1997) .It

is worth pointing out that most of the research

workerswho have considered metacognitive

strategies, have emphasized on thinking about one’s

thinking, in other word it is the foundation for other

reading comprehension strategies.

As a matter of fact people have different

metacognitive knowledge andskills, so they differ in

how well and how quickly they learn (Brown,

Bransord, Ferrara ,&Campione,1983; Moris ,

1990).According to this variety the skillful instructor

knows how to activate learner's awareness with

various metacognitive strategies. Indeed there are

lots of metacognitive strategies which can be ……

This article investigates the impact of

another influential technique that can be used as

metacognitive strategies and provide a variety of

learning style. On the basis of studies by Katlie

Dawson(2016) drama based learning strategies as a

teaching tool ,at first was used in the United States

in 1920s.After that gradually other countries tried to

apply them .These strategies include creative drama

and drama –in- education. According to

MandiMoore(2004) historically drama have been a

successful way of teaching. Furthermore drama

based strategies areguided, non- exhibition, process

centered form of drama which deal with problem

solving and creative thinking through creation of

kinesthetic and interactive experience. According to

Rosalind M. Flynn (2012), drama teaching and

learning methods encourages not only creative

thinking, but also deals with brain based learning

principles .On the basis of the fact that drama based

learning strategies is similar to that of metacognitive

learning strategies that both deals with

improvingthe higher order thinking skills, drama–






based instructions can play a significant role in pre-

reading activities. On the other hand because of the

complexity and difficulty of some standardized

instruction and materials, students and sometimes

even teachers feel depressed and lose their

motivation .In regard to this problem, the delightful

condition that drama can bring to the class, can be a

kind of suitable treatment. In addition as far as

young learners are concerned, attention is the first

step in learning,is essential (Anita E. W., Philip H.W.,

& Nancy E.P.,1962).According to Dr. Bruce D. Perry

drama is a beneficial tool that can maintain learners

attention.

Since few studies have examined the

influence of drama based instruction on pre-reading

activities, the present study investigates the

different drama based learning strategies and its

crucial role as a kind of metacognitive activities in

reading comprehension.

1.2.Statement of the problem

In spite of the fact that most of the TTC

courses emphasize on the pre-reading phase and

clarify the significant influence of this section on

reading comprehension, unfortunately some of the

teachers don't take it in to account and worst of all

skip this crucial part. But on the contrary some

experienced teachers take more responsibility and

consider pre-reading strategies in their classroom.

One of the most popular and effective

technique that teachers use as a pre-reading

practice is activating learner's prior knowledge to

make a connection between their previous

knowledge and new acquired knowledge. It is for

this reason that experienced teachers use various

types of strategies to activate their learner's prior

knowledge. According to Beers (2003) one of these

strategies is story telling as a pre-reading activity

based on the text.Knowledge Rating is another

strategy with which students rate their

understanding of certain terms or concepts from a

reading assignment. UsingKWHL Chartisan

interesting technique with an added column labeled

“How I will find out…”Students write everything they

know about the topic they are studying under the K

column, everything they want to know under the W

column, and strategies for how they will found the

answers to their W questions under the H column.

As a matter of fact all of these types of

activities are mainly considered to activate the prior

knowledge of learners that help learners think about

their own thinking, develop confidence and

eventually apply his reflective thinking to their

readingpractice (Tanny Mc. Gregor, 2016).

According to all of these reasons, those

teachers who don't involve students in pre-reading

activities, don't take in to consideration the fact that

they have eliminated such a crucial phase and they'll

confront problematic consequences. On the other

hand most of the reading comprehension texts can

be a little difficult for second language learners. The

reading texts include not only new vocabularies but

they also can't be comprehended appropriately and

easily. Most of the learners who haven'tacquired

enough prior knowledge, find reading

comprehension difficult and boring, gradually lose

their confidence and try not to participate in reading

comprehension practice in their classroom. As a

matter of fact those teachers, wholecture a lot in

their classesand neglect the role of a student as an

active member, turn the learner into a passive

observer. As a result of applying such a carrier in the

classes, creativity and thinking are ruined on the

spot.

In regard to all of these mentioned

problems, choosing suitable and appropriate

activities as a pre-reading strategy seems essential.

Using drama based techniques as metacognitive

pre-reading strategies can be beneficial.

1.3.Significant of the study

The present research focused on the

investigation the drama based techniques based on

the metacognitive strategies. This typeof study can

provide valuable techniques as pre-reading activities

that teachers can use in their ESLClasses. As a

matter of fact theoretical and interactive drama-

based methodsprovide a non-threatening and safe

condition for learners. Unlike more traditional

learning methods theatre can not only engage all

the learners’senses, but also provide a safe

environment where learners can interact with each

othereasily. Asfar as a young learneris concerned,

the significant of this type of instruction is obvious.

According to Dr.Rosalind M.F. (2012), thereare 10

powerful benefits of using drama in the classroom






which on one hand can go well with learner’s brain

based learning principles, and on the other hand

involve learner’s emotions and movement.

Furthermore through drama, emotion and learning

come together to provide smooth way of teaching.

According to Dr.Rosalin

M. (2012) these are 10

benefits of using drama

In classroom:

1.Student Engagement

2. Collaboration and

Cooperation

3. Active Learning

4. Creativity within Limits

5. Flexibility

6. Investment in Learning

7. Higher Order Thinking

Skills

8. Showing Appreciation

9. Fun

10. Discipline.

Figure 1

Besides the benefits that have been mentioned

above, theteacher can take advantage of providing a

suitable condition in the class in which more

confident, highly motivated and active problem

solver learners are involved and can support

amusing peer interaction and verity of group work

and team work. Furthermore the teacher’s role can

shift from the traditional teacher center position to

a supporter.(Boudreault,2010)

Figure 2

1.4.Research questions and hypotheses

Concerning the problem stated above, the

following research questionis projected:

Q1:Do drama-based instructionsas metacognitive

pre-reading strategies have any effecton reading

comprehension of pre-intermediate Iranian ESL

learners?

Based on the research question mentioned

above, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H01:Drama-based instructionsas metacognitive pre-

reading strategies don't have any effect on reading

comprehension of pre-intermediate Iranian ESL

learners.

1.5.Definition of key terms

1.5.1. What is drama?

Drama refers to any story that can be told in a

dialogue and concludes different characters.

1.5.2.What is the role of dialogue?

Dialogue is a kind of conversation between

characters. It provides a situation that is exciting and

affects people’s feeling.

1.5.3.What is drama script?

Script is a written text of play which can be

a kind of written copy that a teacher prepares based

on the reading comprehension content or it can be a

kind of learner’s open improvisation.

1.6.Limitation of the study

In classroom activities, when given tasks

are challenging ,metacognition is most beneficial.

For some routine activities, planning, monitoring

and evaluation are unconscious but for those

activities which are new, these processes can be

done consciously(Bargh&Chattrand , 1999; Reder,

1996). Since drama –based techniques are new

strategies for both teachers and students, at first

sessions it can be a little time consuming and the

process of metacognitive skills can be done

gradually and consciously under the direct control of

the teacher. Fortunately after a few sessions

learners will be able to accomplish their goals and

solve the problems easily and unconsciously.

Moreover, because of the complexity of the

metacognitive process, teachers need to take part in

specific drama-based instruction course or take

advantage of extra teaching consultants.

Review of literature

2.1.Role play and drama

The role of role-play in drama is vital. According to

Chris Boudreult(2010) role-play as a powerful

teaching tool can be beneficial in different ways as

follows:






Drama and

Role-play

1.encouraging cooperation

2.encouraging team work and group work

3.decision making

4.exchanging knowledge freely

5.building self-esteem

6.encouraging self-acceptance

7.encouraging acceptance of others

8.providing real-life condition

Figure 3

In regard to all of these benefits, drama

based techniques as metacognitive pre-reading

strategies can be beneficial.

2.2.How can drama be described according to

teaching English?

On the research by Holden(1981) the

definition of drama is any activity that asks students

to depicta)himself in an imaginary situation or

b)another person in an imaginary situation .This

form of drama is a kind of role-play that can be used

in different class room activities. Students can take

role in a real life situation, cooperate with each

other, experience the peer-interaction, solve their

problems together and have enjoyable moments.

Figure 4

2.3.What is the role of script?

Script as a written text has different forms.

The present study mainly deals with classroom

dialogue script, funny dialogue scriptor even a short

story. As a matter of fact ,role play can be done as a

dialogue so it needs a script. Unlike the traditional

teaching methods which most of the time use pre-

preparedscript of a textor dialogue for the students,

in this study a learner should write a script for a

dialogue himself .Of course at first sessions teacher

should monitor and control this activity. But

gradually learners will be able to write their own

script effortlessly by themselves.

Figure 5

2.4.With which knowledge and skills are learners

able to write their script for the task based

dialogue needed for drama?

As a matter of fact in using drama-based

techniques in the process of writing a script for a

drama ,the learner’s knowledgeis provided by

metacognitive knowledge that comes declarative

knowledge(self-awareness),procedural knowledge

(knowing that what to do and how to do…) and

conditional knowledge (knowing when and why to

apply the strategies)(Bruning ,Schraw ,&

Ronning,1999).It is important to emphasize that

metacognitive knowledge is used to regulate

thinking and learning. On the other hand, there are

different essential skills that each learner should

possess in order to be able to write a dialogue, that

include some metacognitive skills, such as :

planning, self-regulating, self-monitoring, evaluating

and problem solving.

Student2

Brainstorming

Topic of the text

Text key words

Text picture (visual image)

Student2

Teacher Script

writing

Teacher as a supporter

Student1 Student2

Role-play

Cooperation

Peer-

interaction






Moreover as a matter of fact this kind of task based

dialogue is a guided practice .According to

figure6one of the most important knowledge as a

kind of prior knowledge can be provided by teacher.

Since brain storming in writing the script is the basic

part, teacher uses topic of the text, some important

key words and phrases and also the picture of the

text or extra posters or pictures related to the

reading comprehension text to guide the students.

Key words and phrases

Text visual image or picture

Text topic

Figure 6

2.5.How can drama based techniques be used as a

metacognitive pre-reading strategies?

On one hand ,in the process of script writing ,the

provided knowledge directly or indirectly are related

to metacognitive knowledge ;declarative knowledge,

procedural knowledge and conditional knowledge,

and on the other hand metacognitive skills;planning,

self-regulating, self-monitoring, evaluating and

problem solving, have crucial role in organizing an

appropriate script for the dialogue. Moreover

studentsas participants, should share their

knowledge and negotiate their roles.(Wagner,1976)

2.6.How dodrama based techniquesas a

metacognitive pre-reading strategiesaffect reading

comprehension?

In figure 7 the pre-reading activities

comprise of drama strategies that students can

perform on the basis of their own scripts. Since

they’ve elicited enough prior-knowledge through all

of these processes, they will be well-prepared for

the reading comprehension.

thinking action thinking

Figure 7

Metacognitive knowledge

declarative knowledge procedural knowledge conditional knowledge

Metacognitive skills

planning

self-regulating

self-monitoring

evaluating

Metacognitive/ knowledge

Prior –knowledge

Metacognition(thinking)

Learner’s mind

Teacher’s

instruction Writing

script

Monitoring/controlling

Teacher as a supporter

Metacognition

Metacognitive

knowledge

Metacognitive

skills

It is used to regulate thinking

and learning

Guided practice

practice

p

guided

Pre-

reading

activities

Comprehending

the reading

content






Methodology

3.1. Participants

A total of 120 pre-intermediate intheforth to sixth

grade students in a private English institute in

Iranwilltake KET movers exam reading and writing

test,80 homogeneous students will be chosen. This

group will be divided in to two sub groups ,i.e., 4o in

experimental group receiving the required

treatment and 40 in control group without that .The

number of10 teacherswill be also participated in

13classes. A supervisor as a supporter ,instructor

and observer will participate too.

3.2. Materials and instrumentation

KetMovers reading and writing test will be

administered as the pretest to select 80

homogeneous students. Ket Movers exam is one of

the three English language tests for young learners

from Cambridge English Language Assessment. The

test includes 40 reading and writing questions. It

takes about 30 minutes. It consists of multiple

choice, sentence completion and reading

comprehension questions. In 12 sessions that each

takes one hour and thirty minute, 6 reading

comprehension texts from Oxford Primary Skills

Reading and Writing level 4,published by Oxford

university press(2009) are taught .Students can take

advantage of the useful exercises at the end of each

unit.Students will take posttest which consists of 2

piloted reading comprehension texts from Oxford

Primary Skills Reading and Writing that takes30

minutes.

3.3. Procedure

During these 12 sessions, reading

comprehension texts will be taughtin experimental

and control group .In experimental group,

teacherswill use thedrama based techniques as

metacognitive strategies butthe other groups will be

taught by traditional methods. As the first step of

treatment in experimental group class, students will

make their groups or they can work two by two,

then the teacher will select some keywords or

phrases from the reading text ,write them on the

board and put the words in different sentences in

terms of examples and ask student to guess their

meaning ,show the text picture and ask students to

think and talk about the pictures. The teacher will

write the topic of the text on the board and gives

them some clues and supports them so students

should try to guess the meaning. They will be even

able to use their dictionary if they have and take

advantage of pair work or group work. The second

step can start with this teacher’s utterance, “Now

it’s time to write your dialogue”. Students start

writing the script for a dialogue based on the given

knowledge and their prior knowledge. During this

phase teacher will monitor and guide them. As the

third step ,after a short time students will be asked

to act out their dialogue or even lecture their script

.In this phase students have one of the most

interesting and enjoyable moments in the class.

They cooperate and feel each other, laugh a lot,

present their abilities and learn in a real lifelike

situation. Teacher as a supporter, a friend or even a

director on one hand will control and monitor the

students, on the other hand praise them for their

performances. Finally students will be ready for the

reading comprehension text. They‘ve already

thought about the topic and key words and even

written a script based on it so in a shorter time than

before they will read and comprehend the text .

3.4.Data analysis

This study will investigate the effect of

drama-based techniques as metacognitive pre-

reading strategies on reading comprehension of pre-

intermediate Iranian ESL learners. The scores of the

posttest of reading comprehension of the students

in both experimental and control groups will be

compared in order to probe the research question in

this study.

Results

This study explores the effect of drama-

based instructions as metacognitive pre-reading

strategies on reading comprehension of pre-

intermediate Iranian ESL learners. To achieve these

objectives the following research question was

posed;

Do drama-based instructions as

metacognitive pre-reading strategies have any effect

on reading comprehension of pre-intermediate

Iranian ESL learners?

The data were analyzed through

independent t-test which assumes normality of the

data and homogeneity of the variances of the group.

The latter will be discussed within the main report.






As displayed in Table 4.1 the present data enjoyed

normal distribution. The ratios of skewness and

kurtosis over their respective standard errors were

within the ranges of +/- 1.96.

Table 1: Testing Normality Assumption

Group

N Skewness Kurtosis

Statistic Statistic Std. Error Ratio Statistic Std. Error Ratio

Experimental NELSON 20 -.124 .512 -0.24 1.509 .992 1.52

RC 20 -.102 .512 -0.20 -1.427 .992 -1.44

Control NELSON 20 -.081 .512 -0.16 -1.228 .992 -1.24

RC 20 -.316 .512 -0.62 -1.039 .992 -1.05

KET Movers exam reading and writing Test

An independent t-test was run to compare

the experimental and control groups’ means on the

KET Movers exam reading and writing test in order

to prove that the two groups were homogenous in

terms of the general language proficiency before

administering the treatment. Based on the results

displayed in Table 2 it can be claimed that the

experimental (M = 71.95, SD = 6.77) and control (M

= 69.55, SD = 8.24) groups had close means on

theKET Movers exam reading and writing test.

Table 2: Descriptive Statistics; KET Movers exam by Groups

Group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

KET Movers Experimental 20 71.95 6.770 1.514

Control 20 69.55 8.243 1.843

The results of the independent t-test (t (38)

= 1, p =.321, r = .16 representing a weak effect size)

(Table 3) indicated that there was not any significant

difference between the two groups’ mean scores on

the test. Based on these results it can be claimed

that the two groups were homogenous in terms of

their general language proficiency prior to the main

study.

Table 3: Independent Samples Test, KET MoversTest by Groups

Levene's Test for

Equality of

Variances

t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. T Df Sig. (2-

tailed)

Mean

Difference

Std. Error

Difference

95% Confidence

Interval of the

Difference

Lower Upper

Equal variances

assumed 2.951 .094 1.006 38 .321 2.400 2.385 -2.429 7.229

Equal variances not

assumed 1.006 36.618 .321 2.400 2.385 -2.435 7.235

Note. The negative 95 % lower bound confidence

interval of -2.42 indicated that the difference

between the two groups’ means on the tKET Movers

test could have been zero. Thus the above

mentioned conclusion as no significant difference

between the two groups’ means was correctly

made.

It should be noted that the assumption of

homogeneity of variances was met (Levene’s F =

2.95, p = .094). That is why the first row of Table 3,

i.e. “Equal variances assumed” was reported.






Figure 8 .tKET Movers exam by group

Null-Hypothesis

Drama-based instructions as metacognitive

pre-reading strategies did not have any effect on

reading comprehension of pre-intermediate Iranian

ESL learners.

An independent t-test was run to compare

the experimental and control groups’ means on the

posttest of reading comprehension (RC) in order to

probe the only null-hypothesis posed in this study.

Based on the results displayed in Table 4 it can be

claimed that the experimental group (M = 85.10, SD

= 11.74) had higher mean than the control group (M

= 65.85, SD = 9.28) on posttest of RC.

Table 4:Descriptive Statistics; Posttest of Reading Comprehension by Groups

Group N Mean Std. Deviation Std. Error Mean

RC Experimental 20 85.10 11.747 2.627

Control 20 65.85 9.281 2.075

The results of the independent t-test (t (38) = 5.75, p

= .000, r = .68 representing a large effect size) (Table

5) indicated that there was a significant difference

between the two groups’ mean scores on the

posttest of RC. Thus the null-hypothesis was

rejected. The experimental group after receiving

Drama-based instructions as metacognitive pre-

reading strategies significantly outperformed the

control group on the posttest of RC.

Table 5: Independent Samples Test, Posttest of Reading Comprehension by Groups

Levene's Test

for Equality of

Variances

t-test for Equality of Means

F Sig. T Df Sig. (2-

tailed)

Mean

Difference

Std. Error

Difference

95% Confidence

Interval of the

Difference

Lower Upper

Equal

variances

assumed

1.986 .167 5.750 38 .000 19.250 3.348 12.473 26.027

Equal

variances

not

assumed

5.750 36.069 .000 19.250 3.348 12.461 26.039

6062646668707274767880

Experimental Control

Series1 71.95 69.55






It should be noted that the assumption of

homogeneity of variances was met (Levene’s F =

1.98, p = .167). That is why the first row of Table 5,

i.e. “Equal variances assumed” was reported.

Figure 9. Posttest of reading comprehension by groups

Criterion Reference Validity

The Pearson correlation between the KET Movers

examandthe posttest of RC was computed as the

criterion referenced validity index of the latter test.

Based on the results displayed in Table 6 (r (38) =

.62, p = .000, representing a large effect size) it can

be claimed that the posttest of reading

comprehension enjoyed a significant criterion

referenced validity index.

Table 6: Pearson Correlation; KET Movers with Posttest of Reading Comprehension

Posttest of

Reading Comprehension

NELSON Test

Pearson Correlation .623**

Sig. (2-tailed) .000

N 40

**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

KR-21 Reliability Indices

The KR-21 reliability indices for the KET Movers exam posttest of reading comprehension were .64 and .92

(Table 7) respectively.

Table 7; KR-21 Reliability Indices for aKET Moversexam and Posttest of Reading

Comprehension

N Mean Std. Deviation Variance KR-21

Proficiency 40 70.75 7.544 56.910 .64

Test 40 75.48 14.290 204.204 .92

Conclusion

This research investigated the effect of

drama-based instructions as metacognitive pre-

reading strategies on reading comprehension of pre-

intermediate Iranian ESL learners. A total of 80 pre-

intermediate in third to sixth grade students took

KET Movers exam reading and writing test as a pre-

test from which 40 homogeneous students were

chosen. This group was divided in to two sub-groups

.During 12 sessions, 20 in experimental group

received the required treatment and 20 in control

group received traditional teaching style at the same

time.Drama-based instructions as metacognitive

pre-reading strategieswere applied for experimental

group and their influential effect on reading

comprehension were investigated. Studentstook

posttest which consists of 2 piloted reading

comprehension texts from Oxford Primary Skills

Reading. The results confirmed the idea that drama-

based instructions as metacognitive pre-reading

strategieswere appropriate enough to shed light on

learners’ reading comprehension development. In

50.0055.0060.0065.0070.0075.0080.0085.0090.0095.00

100.00

Experimental Control

Series1 85.10 65.85






the light of creative elegant drama based-

instruction, teachers as a supporter could bring

paradise to their classes.

As a matter of fact English classes should

provide peaceful places for cooperation,team

working ,group working,decision making, self-

monitoring,building self-esteem, creativity,

providing real-life condition, communicating and

active learning. To achieve such a complicated

pedagogical situation, choosing a suitable method is

crucial. Moreover the teacher’s role as a supporter is

essential to raise learner’s capacity to engage in the

process of active learning in the class.

In spite of the fact that this research

focused on a verity of drama based-instructions that

have positive effect on the process of learning, there

is a need to investigate the influence of drama

based- instructionsas a as metacognitive pre-reading

strategies on different genders and compare their

degree of reading comprehension development.

Acknowledgement: ''Special thanks for my

respectful professor; Dr. Amir Reza Nemat Tabrizi

who taught me how to write research article ,and

many thanks for the manager of Can Do Institute in

Iran, Mr. Otady and Mrs. Momen and my lovely

family .

Art manifest the beauty of life. Through art

everything seems elegant even laborious process of

teaching and learning. Teachers are little artists who

train great educators.''

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Special thanks for my respectful

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who taught me how to write research

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of Can Do Institute in Iran, Mr. Otady and

Mrs. Momen and my lovely family .


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