Using drama to enhance the speaking performance and intelligibility of English major students at the university of Palestine

Abstract EN

Speaking activities are one of the most difficult tasks that many English foreign language learners (EFLLs) do not admire.

These learners are not motivated enough to participate in such activities, and usually, they opt to withdraw.

Most English language teachers adopt traditional methods in dealing with such activities, which negatively affects their students’ speaking performance.

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate the effect of using the drama approach on enhancing speaking performance and intelligibility among English major students at the University of Palestine.

The researcher adopted the quasi-experimental approach and selected a convenient sample of the University of Palestine’s English majors, including 15 senior students, two males and 13 females.

The selected students were enrolled in a drama course during the second semester of the academic year 2018/2019.

To achieve the goals of the study, the researcher used drama as a teaching approach to enhance students’ speaking performance and intelligibility.

In the one-group experiment design of this study, the researcher conducted a speaking pre/posttest on the study participants.

The participants’ speaking performance and intelligibility were qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed.

The results revealed that the drama approach positively enhanced the University of Palestine’s English students’ speaking performance and intelligibility.