Readers Theatre: A different approach to English for struggling readers

Abstract

This article presents a study of the use of Readers Theatre in English lessons with groups of academically-challenged pupils in a Norwegian lower secondary school. The study is based on the teacher’s logs, interviews with the teacher, a questionnaire answered by the pupils, and lesson observations. Readers Theatre, a group reading activity that can be used with a wide range of texts, was successfully incorporated into the curriculum with relatively small ‘fordypning’ (specialisation) groups in English. These pupils had opted for more English lessons instead of learning a second foreign language. Most of them struggled with English as their first foreign language and were struggling readers. However, the majority of the pupils experienced Readers Theatre as both enjoyable and educational. The experience had a positive effect on their confidence and motivation to read. It also helped to improve their reading fluency and accuracy, for example pronunciation, and facilitated growth in vocabulary. The experience of practising and performing as a group was especially satisfying and motivating for the pupils involved. The majority were keen to participate in other Readers Theatre projects.

Reading in the second language classroom: Consideration of first language approaches in second language contexts

“…Readers Theatre is arguably the most effective approach of the three for training L2 learners' oral skills, in addition to reading skills, as it is essentially an oral reading of a written text. For example, pupils in Drew and Pedersen (2010) found RT to be an excellent way of practising oral English. Those in Myrset (2014), Myrset and Drew (2016), and Naess (2016) made considerable gains in oral fluency, pronunciation and word recognition.…”

“…Learners became aware of the need for their reading to be as accurate and fluent as possible. They understood the value of strategies in this process, such as repeatedly reading the same text, seeking and giving help to each other, for example in connection with the pronunciation, stress and comprehension of words, and seeking help from the teacher (Drew & Pedersen, 2010). Their metacognition thus developed naturally as a consequence of the nature of RT.…”

“…However, a growing number of studies have been carried out on RT in a range of English language classrooms and with learners of different age groups in Norway. There have been studies on RT in primary EFL classrooms (Myrset, 2014;Myrset & Drew, 2016), in lower secondary classrooms (Drew & Pedersen, 2010, 2012Pettersen, 2013), and with adult learners (Naess, 2016).…”

“…At the lower secondary level, Drew and Pedersen's (2010) research focussed on RT with a group of struggling 9 th grade EFL learners at the beginning of the school year. Drew and Pedersen collected data from a pupil questionnaire, teacher interviews and logs, and classroom observations.…”

Linking Readers Theatre to CLIL in foreign language education

“…In fact, several studies have been conducted among groups of so-called struggling readers, whose motivation to read and attitudes to reading become more positive as a consequence of experiencing RT (e.g. Drew and Pedersen 2010;Rasinsky 2006;Tyler and Chard 2000;Uthman 2002). In addition to affective gains, RT also leads to positive benefits on pupils' cognitive development.…”