Elementary School Students’ Learning Strategies and

Collaboration in Adapting Dialogues to Readers Theater

Scripts

Advisor: Dr. ShenGraduate Student: I-Chen Liu

Contents

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

1.2 Motivation

1.3 Statement of the problem

1.4 Purpose and research questions

1.5 Significance of the study

1.1 Background of the Study

A. In Taiwan, team work and cooperation are needed more

and more. Students deserve and need more

opportunities to learn to work together.

B. English is not the first language that students can use

daily in their life and have few opportunities to expose

themselves in authentic contexts.

1.2 Motivation

A. How to raise students’ learning movtivation has been a

major challenge for teachers in an EFL class in

elementary school.

B. Reader’s Theater has been well-known in English as

Second Language (ESL) countries and English as Foreign

Language (EFL) countries because it is an effective

method for all students, especially those beginners.

1.3 Statement of the Problem

A. Many teachers encountered difficulties in conducting RT in their English classes.

B. The lacking training of RT prevented English teachers in Taiwan transferring the theory to authentic teaching instruction.

C. Researching exploring the effects of RT on elementary students’ writing is scarce.

D. In elementary school English teaching, the focus is on listening and speaking. Reading and writing abilities do not develop as the other two skills.

1.4 Purpose and Research Questions

This study set out to explore elementary school students’ English writing in an RT script from textbook. The purpose was to find out how students perform in RT writing activities.

The research questions:

1.What are the strategies that students use in adapting dialogues to Reader’s Theater scripts?

2.How do students collaborate in composing Reader’s Theater scripts?

3.What are students’ reactions to script writing activities?

1.5 Significance of the Study

With the implementation of RT in elementary school

EFL classes, if the writing aspect is explored, we might

have more insights to elementary school students’

writing and help them to develop writing ability

through RT activities.

Contents

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Reader’s Theater

2.2 Cooperative Learning

2.3 Collaborative Writing

2.4 RT Script

2.1 Reader’s Theater

1. Walker, 2005: RT is literature-based oral reading which

communicates story through oral interpretation rather

than through acting.

2. Latrobe, 1996: “Theater of the mind” is a useful

definition for RT because it does not exist on a stage but

rather in the imagination of the audience, who envision

the scenes by hearing dialogue presented by readers.

2.2 Cooperative Learning

1. Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec, 1994: Cooperative

learning is “ the instructional use of small groups

through which students work together to maximize

their own and each other’s learning.”

2. Walker, 1996: One of the procedures in RT can be

cooperative learning. Walker explained that the teacher

assembles students into groups and passes out scripts.

2.3 Collaborative Writing

1. Storch, 2005: His research findings on L1 and L2

collaborative writing were both positive. L1 learners

reflect on their thinking when they explain their ideas. L2

learners think not only about grammar and vocabulary

but also discourse.

2. Forsythe, 1995: The long-term training of group work

contributed to the successful and efficient collaborative

writing.

2.4 RT Script

1. Walker, 2005: Walker suggested four steps to adapting a short story:

a) Choose short tales with plenty of dialogue.

b) Assign dialogue lines to readers taking “Character parts”.

c) Assign narrative lines to “Narrator parts”.

d) Take out unneeded lines and add new lines.

Contents

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Setting and participants

3.2 Research design

3.3 Procedure

3.4 Data collection and analysis

3.5 Reliability

3.1 Setting and Participants

The participants: 27 four-grade students in NanKe

elementary school in Tainan City in Taiwan.

Grouping: The students were grouped by three based on

students’ third grade scores.

English ability: The participants had had English courses in

school since the first grade.

3.2 Research Design

Time: The study was conducted in class time once a week

(40 minutes). There would be 20 periods in a

semester.

Materials: The textbook – Family and Friends 1

(Oxford)

3.3 Procedure

1. Pre-instruction group interview: With the company, the students were more relaxed and willing to express their real feelings.

2. RT script adapting instruction: The instruction had six steps - dialogue reading, story map, script rules, script adapting, teacher-students conference, and final script.

3. Post-instruction group interview: To know the students’ perceptions about the writing activities.

3.4 Data Collection and Analysis

1. Students’ interviews were audio-recorded.

2. Students’ discussions were audio-recorded and

transcribed.

3. The teacher’s reflexive journals were kept during

the whole instruction.

4. Student’s writing products were analyzed.

3.5 Reliability

The data used to analyze writing process and

strategies was mainly from the student’s discussion,

the teacher’s observation, students’ interviews, and

the student’s writing products.