Elementary School Students’
Learning Strategies and
Collaboration in Adapting Dialogues
to Readers Theater Scripts
Advisor: Dr. Shen
Graduate 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.