The effects of creative dramatics on reading comprehension and language/thought of second grade children

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine whether training in creative dramatics could enhance the reading comprehension and language/thought of second grade children. Seventy-one second graders were randomly assigned to an experimental and control group. There were approximately equal numbers of girls and boys in each group and there were no significant differences between average measures of reading comprehension and intelligence in the two groups.

The creative dramatics training administered to the experimental group involved role-playing material from traditional folk tales. Twenty-four training sessions were conducted over twelve weeks. During these sessions the controls played various learning games that involved no reading or dramatics.

A standardized reading comprehension test was administered to both groups before and after the training. Reading was also measured after training using an informal Cloze procedure based on a folk tale.Measures of narrative language/thought were obtained from a story-retelling/story-inventing task.

Based on prior findings in the fields of reading, language/thought development and creative dramatics, it was hypothesized that as compared with the control group, the experimental group would show significantly higher performances on the standardized reading test, the Cloze procedure, and the language/thought measures.

Analyses revealed no significant differences between the groups on any of the foregoing tests and measures. Discussion suggests that this failure to find significant effects was due to methodological problems. It appears that the statistical analyses employed were too conservative, and the creative dramatics training was not sufficiently prolonged or intensive.

Informal observations by the author indicated that the creative dramatics training was a positive learning experience for the participating children. It is suggested, therefore, that further research is warranted on methods of creative dramatics training and the evaluation of its effects on reading comprehension and language/thought.