International Journal of Instruction July 2023 ● Vol.16, No.

3
e-ISSN: 1308-1470 ● www.e-iji.net p-ISSN: 1694-609X
pp. 991-1012
Article submission code: Received: 13/09/2022 Accepted: 15/03/2023
20220913015840 Revision: 18/02/2023 OnlineFirst: 26/05/2023

Effects of Applying Drama-Based Activities in Speaking Classes on EFL

Students’ Speaking Performance

Cang Trung Nguyen

Kien Giang University, Vietnam, [email protected]

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of applying drama-based

activities in speaking classes on high school English as a foreign language (EFL)
students' speaking performance in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation,
fluency and discourse management; and their perceptions of implementing drama-
based activities in speaking lessons. This quasi-experimental study which used the
mixed method approach was conducted with the participation of sixty eleventh-
grade students at a high school in Can Tho city. The quantitative data from the
results of the pre-test and post-test were done to find out the effects of applying
drama-based activities on high school EFL students’ speaking performance. The
quantitative and qualitative data from the questionnaire and interviews focused on
students’ perceptions of implementing drama-based activities in speaking lessons.
The findings of the study reveal that drama-based activities had positive effects on
students’ speaking performance, especially in term of discourse management and
students had positive perceptions of implementing drama-based activities in
speaking lessons.
Keywords: drama-based activities, students, speaking performance, EFL, speaking
INTRODUCTION
Among many subjects at high schools, English is considered as an efficient tool to
support students in their daily life. Particularly, communicative competence in English is
one of the most crucial criteria for students to integrate with the globe effectively (issued
with circular No.32/2018/TT-BGDĐT on December 26, 2018 of the Minister of
Education and training). Thus, students need to learn how to convey their ambitions,
desires, and goals effectively in the classroom. Among all the four language skills,
speaking skill is considered as the most important skill in order to communicate well in
this global world (Bailey & Savage 1994). In addition, some researchers believe that
speaking is a main part in language education settings (Kao & O'Neill, 1998; Ur, 1996;
Halley & Austin, 2004; Nunan, 1991). Goh and Burns (2012) state that speaking not
only offers affordances for learning but also is a significant component of learning
outcomes and syllabus content (p.165). According to Burkart and Sheppard (2004);
Ellis (2003); Kramsch (1987); Mackey (2012); Nunan (1999); Richards and Rodgers
(2001), the roles of speaking indicate how learners reflect their ability to use the target
Citation: Nguyen, C. T. (2023). Effects of applying drama-based activities in speaking classes on EFL
students’ speaking performance. International Journal of Instruction, 16(3), 991-1012.
https://doi.org/10.29333/iji.2023.16353a
992 Effects of Applying Drama-Based Activities in Speaking …

language for interaction or how successful they are in learning a foreign language. In
addition, speaking skill is also considered as influencing other language skills (Gass &
Varonis, 1994). Increased speaking results can help promote development of writing
(Trachsel & Severino, 2004), and listening (Regina, 1997) and reading (Garner, 2000).
However, some researchers concluded that most EFL teachers paid much attention to
lecturing and teaching grammatical points instead of language use (Lochana & Deb,
2016). They mostly use their mother tongue as the means to convey their instructions.
Such matters cause the failure of the interaction in a language classroom and it does not
promote the use of the target language (Khamkhien, 2010). Furthermore, many English
language teachers do not equip students with the tools that they will need for 'real-life'
communication where fluency is the primary goal and not just accuracy which is
promoted within the traditional approaches.
Drama is considered as a modern and advanced technique to teach speaking skill. It was
not until the 1980s, drama in communicative language teaching was introduced to "build
around notion, functions, skills, tasks or other non-grammatical units of organization”,
which continues to "shape approaches in teaching speaking skills today" (Richards,
2008, p.2). Moreover, applying drama- based activities seems to be an ideal approach
for students to enhance and practice their speaking skill effectively. Hui (2011) and
Kaiyi (2006) point out that with drama, teachers can apply the use of authentic
classroom resources, encourage student speech participation, maximize students’
presentation time, engage students in collaborative learning, and provide support and
feedback for students in speaking classes. Particularly, it provides students with the
opportunity to socially interact through meaningful activities in which students build up
their knowledge (Aldavero et al., 2008); gives support to learners’ speaking skill and
reduce their nervousness during the activities in the classroom (Demircioğlu, 2015);
provides opportunities for students to use the target language in a meaningful context
and situations which are similar to their real-life situations (Schejbal, 2006); motivates
students’ language learning (Ashton-Hay, 2005; Maley & Duff, 2005). Therefore, drama
technique is a natural and meaningful way to activate students’ imagination and
background knowledge through some interesting and purposeful activities.
This study was conducted to clarify the effects of applying drama-based activities on
high school EFL students' speaking performance in Can Tho city. In some degree, the
potentialities of this technique are supposed to address the context of high school EFL
students' speaking performance in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency
and discourse management. It is hoped that this research can fill the gaps left by other
studies which mostly focused on speaking skills in general, not specific aspects of the
speaking skills.
Review of the Literature
Drama and drama-based activities
“Drama deals with the mind, heart and body as one unit” (Barakat, 2022, p. 105). In
language education, the term drama is defined as “any kind of activity which includes
action” by Adıgüzel (2018). Moreover, according to Way (1967), he defined drama as
an activity of art in which by presenters’ skills and knowledge, they can act out freely on

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the stage in front of many audiences. Moreover, drama is the "communication between
people” which helps people express their thoughts or ideas (Via, 1987, p.110). In other
words, it is used for communicative purposes (Somers, 1994). Therefore, drama is
known as the activities in which leaners use the target language in a certain task or a
particular situation (Sirisrimangkorn & Suwanthep, 2013; Cockett, 2000; Holden, 1982;
Mok, 2012).
Drama activities, according to Scrivener (2005), includes drama-based activities such as
role-play, drama games - short games, acting play scripts - short written sketches or
scenes, simulation, guided improvisation, prepared improvised drama short scene or
story. In reality, drama- based activities are the combination of different activities such
as role-play, mime, simulation, improvisation and script. Therefore, learners should use
flexibly in speaking classes (Sun, 2003) because they may apply them in their own lives.
In this research, all of the above-mentioned drama-based activities were applied.
Speaking and speaking performance
Sarac (2007) states that speaking combines both receptive skill and productive skill in
communication because it is a two- way process between listeners and speakers. Brown
(1994), Burns and Joyce (1997), they suggest that there are three fundamental
components in speaking process including generating, receiving, and processing input.
Besides, Chaney (1998) investigates that speaking relates to "the process of building and
sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of
contexts" (p. 13).
Among these above-mention definitions, we can see that they have a common
characteristic in the literature that leaners can express their own views during the oral
interaction. However, it can be noted that among the definitions, they have different
interpretations of speaking. In terms of the purposes of this study, leaners deliver their
thoughts, desires and emotions in forms of monologues or dialogues accurately and
appropriately in speaking.
“Performance, denotes the production of actual utterances as a result of certain
psychological processes” (De Kort & Leerdam as cited in Hemerka, 2009, p. 14).
Among the three aspects of speaking competence (knowledge of language and
discourse, communication strategies and core speaking skills) mentioned by Goh and
Burns (2012), there were two components of speaking performance consisting of
knowledge of language and discourse, and core speaking skills considered as the process
of assessing students’ oral production in this study. Particularly, in terms of knowledge
of language and discourse, it includes the mastery of grammar (structures), vocabulary
and pronunciation such as stress, sounds, intonation and comprehensibility of meanings
in the conversation. Relating to the core speaking skills, it involves the interaction and
discourse management. It means that learners know how to negotiate meanings of
utterances, respond and generate conversations. Therefore, drama is considered as
useful speaking activities that help learners an opportunity to engage in an interactive
learning environment.

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994 Effects of Applying Drama-Based Activities in Speaking …

To measure high school EFL students’ speaking performance, the rubrics from VSTEP
are selected. It includes six reference levels - A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2 based on CEFR.
There are four criteria in marking speaking performance: accuracy, pronunciation,
fluency and discourse management in VSTEP and they are assessed through three parts
of performance including social interaction, discussion and topic development in
speaking test. As regards pronunciation, learners are assessed by stress of words,
appropriate intonation, intelligibility, and clear individual sounds. With fluency, leaners
frequently produce extended stretches of language with little hesitation, maintain fluent
and natural flow with little repetition or error correction. Besides, they use pauses to
search for suitable ideas for difficult concepts. For discourse management, it is the way
leaners are assessed by their ability to produce connected and coherent speech. In short,
the researcher uses these aspects (accuracy, pronunciation, fluency and discourse
management to measure students' oral performance in this study.
Drama- based activities in relation to speaking performance
Drama- based activities play a significant role in speaking performance and they have a
close relationship in teaching English as a foreign language. There are many researchers
investigating that drama-based activities are strongly connected with the aspect of oral
production in terms of pronunciation, speaking performance, accuracy and interactive
communication (Cho, 2015; Sirisrimangkorn & Suwanthep, 2013; Belliveau & Kim,
2013; Brash & Warnecke, 2009; Magos & Politi, 2008; Livingstone, 1983; Maley &
Duff, 1982; Wagner, 1998).
In terms of pronunciation, pragmatic awareness, discourse intonation and nonverbal
communication practiced in an integrated way are effective components of
communicative competence subsumed in drama-based activities (Goodwin, 2001, p.12).
Therefore, those aspects help learner act out the roles in drama-based activities
expressively (Ashton-Hay, 2005). In addition, drama-based activities provide leaners
with efficient learning environment encouraging learners to volitionally interact with the
others (Via, 1976; Smith, 1984; Wessels 1987) or maintain the classroom engagement in
an exciting classroom (Zafeiriadou, 2009). Moreover, social interaction and the
increased level of self-confidence are also created during drama-based activities. Thus,
learners are ready to take risks in speaking English, take the ownership of their learning,
investigate more new ideas, rephrase and edit the content of plays and express their own
viewpoints meaningfully as cited in Stinson’s research " they shape, rehearse and modify
the text" (Stinson, 2006, p.4). Furthermore, learners can highly activate their inventive
mind via participating in drama-based activities because they may self-discover to
express more innovative thoughts, ideas and vocabulary for real-life situations, so this
may help learners speak English effectively over a period of time (Hutt et al., 1989).
With regard to speaking performance, drama-based activities give learners opportunities
to experience lexicon, registers and speech patterns when they are taking the roles in
speaking classes (Wagner, 1998). Sam (1990) continues to state "drama helps to extend,
retain and reinforce vocabulary and sentence structure through role-play and
communication games” (p. 86). Particularly, Neelands (1992) points out that drama-

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based activities make learners freely utter word choice, word use, speech style,
vocabulary and grammar while talking.
Relating to interactive communication, according to Kao and O'Neill (1998, p.25), the
selected contexts in drama-based activities for interactive situations stimulate learners to
interact with the others variously in terms of asking and answering questions, solving
problems, offering both information and opinions, arguing and persuading, and fulfilling
the widest range of language functions" while drama is being processed”. Through real-
life related scenarios in drama-based activities, learners practice language for different
purposes (Stinson, 2006).
Related studies on drama-based activities
There are many studies conducted by various researchers in relevance to effects of
drama-based activities on students’ speaking performance in language teaching and
learning.
The first study was conducted by Nhi in 2017 with thirty freshmen at An Giang
university. It is about drama-based role play activities to impact students’ speaking
performance. The researcher used the pre- and post- tests and interview to collect the
data. The findings reveal that students in the experimental group got more positive
effects in their speaking performance. Also, it finds out that students had positive
attitudes towards the use of this technique in the classroom.
The next study concerns about Effects of Dramatic Activities on Improving English
Communicative Speaking Skill by Prisana and Sakon (2015) at high school in Thailand.
The research instruments used to collect data were the speaking test and questionnaire.
The results were that after using dramatic activities to teach speaking skill, students
made progress in English communicative speaking skill and their attitudes to this
technique on speaking were highly positive.
The study conducted by Aryn (2021) is about the effects of drama activities on EFL
students in Kazakhstan. The researcher used the pre- and post- tests, questionnaire and
interview to find out the effect of drama on students in EFL classroom. The results
revealed that the use of drama in EFL greatly affected students. Also, it was to assure
that drama activities benefited not only speaking skills of EFL learners, but also other
factors such as confidence.
Miccoli (2003) conducted the study with 37 participants in a Brazilian University. She
used students’ portfolios and interviews to investigate how drama activities influenced
her students' oral skills. The results showed that in the aspects of structure, vocabulary
and pronunciation, they greatly improve students' speaking competence.
Another empirical study was undertaken at high schools in Singapore by Stinson and
Freebody (2006) to investigate whether the use of role play activities during the learning
process improves students' oral communication skills in English or not. Speaking tests
and interviews were used to collect the data in this study. The results revealed that the
intervention group made more significant progress than the comparison group in the
criteria of clarity, vocabulary, relevance to topic, interaction with the examiner and the
need for prompting.

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The effects of role-play on students' speaking ability were also investigated by Rahimy
and Safarpour (2012) in sixty intermediate language learners at Shokouh Language
Institute in Bandar Anzali, Iran. The researchers used the questionnaire, interview and
speaking test to collect the data. The findings showed that all participants had higher
scores after applying role-play and they had positive attitudes to this technique.
Finally, Sirisrimangkorn and Suwanthep (2013) conducted the effectiveness of drama-
based role play combined with student teams’ achievement division (STAD) on students'
speaking skills and affective involvement with 80 non-native undergraduate students in a
university in Thailand. The instruments used to collect data were pre- and post- test,
interview and questionnaire. The results were that drama-based role play and
cooperative learning had significant effects on students' speaking skills.
In general, most of the previous studies indicate that drama activities have greatly
positive effects on students’ speaking performance. Especially, this technique plays a
significant role in improving speaking performance among language skills and
stimulating learners’ attitudes toward studying English. However, those studies just
made very general conclusion that these activities helped improve students’ speaking
performance. This study focused on their effects on specific speaking components such
as grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse management.
METHOD
Research design
The research was quasi-experimental in nature and mixed-methods approach was
adopted. Quantitative data was collected via questionnaire, a pre- test and a post- test
when applying drama- based activities. The researcher chose convenience sampling by
selecting two teaching classes in grade 11 (one class for the experimental group and the
other class for the control group) to enhance the validity of the study. The participants
in the experimental group were exposed to drama-based activities whereas those in the
control group received the treatment introduced in the textbook over an eight-week
period.
Participants
Sixty eleventh- grade students who were studying at Thanh An high school in Can Tho
city in the second term of academic year 2021-2022 were chosen to participate in the
research. They were chosen because the researcher was assigned to teach these two
classes. The age of the participants was around 16 to 17 years old. They were randomly
assigned to the experimental group and the control group with 30 participants per group.
Research instruments
Pre- and post-speaking tests
In this study, the pre-test was administered in the first week of the experiment and the
post-test was conducted in the final week to assess students’ oral performance. The pre-
and post- speaking tests were similar in form. The researcher designed the tests basing

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on the format of VSTEP (Vietnamese Standardise Test of English Proficiency). The test
is designed by the Ministry of Education and Training of Vietnam to certify English
proficiency of Vietnamese users. The topics of the tests were what students have learnt
from the textbook of English 11 such as Family (Unit1); Relationships (Unit 2); Life
skills (Unit 3) and Volunteer Work (Unit 4). The tests included three parts: social
interaction in order to assess the students’ speaking fluency, discussion of solutions to a
problem in which the participants were provided a problem and two or more solutions
and were asked to give his/her opinions on the best solution among the provided
solutions and compare and explain why the selected solution was the best and
developing verbal discussion on a specific topic in which the participants talked about a
general or academic topic. In this part they could use provided ideas or develop their
own ideas. Each student had ten minutes to do the test. The students’ oral performance
was recorded and rated by three raters including two English teaching speaking teachers
who had the experience in English language teaching for more than five years in the
researcher’s school and the researcher to enhance the inner-rater reliability of a grading
process.
The researcher adapted the assessment criteria from VSTEP. It was used for both pre-
and post-speaking tests. The rating criteria of ten-band scoring system with 1 as the
lowest and 10 the highest for scoring students' performance. There are six criteria from
the VSTEP rubric: vocabulary, content, pronunciation, fluency, grammar, and
communication strategy. However, in this study, the researcher adapted and selected
only five criteria to assess students' speaking performance including grammar,
vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse management.
The questionnaire
The researcher used a 5-point Likert-type scales questionnaire with choices ranging
from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree” to find out the understandings, effects,
attitudes and challenges perceived by high school EFL students when they are taught
English speaking skill by applying drama-based activities. The findings of some
previous studies presented in Literature Review were used to design the questionnaire.
Also, the researcher adapted it based on Lee’s (2007), Shagofah and Parigul’s (2020)
studies about drama-based activities. Each item had 5 degrees meaning 1: strongly
disagree, 2: disagree, 3: uncertain, 4: agree and 5: strongly agree. The questionnaire
consists of two domains. The first one includes open-ended questions about participants’
information. The second one consists of thirty-five statements of five-point Likert scale
items about students’ perceptions in terms of drama-based activities. There are four
clusters including students’ understanding of drama; the effects of drama; students’
attitudes and the challenges of students when applying drama-based activities in
speaking classes. The questionnaire was translated into Vietnamese “to maximize the
understanding, save time and achieve full completions from the Vietnamese
participants”, (Nguyen et al,, 2022, p.441) The detailed items of each cluster are shown
in Table 1.

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Table 1
Item categories in the questionnaire
Clusters Items
Students’ understandings of drama From 1 to 5
The effects of drama From 6 to 21
Students’ attitudes toward drama From 22 to 30
Students’ challenges in learning speaking lessons with drama From 31 to 35
Interviews
An interview was regarded as “an interaction taken place in a spoken form in that one
person can obtain the information from another in person or over the phone" (Fraenkel
et al., 2012, p. 120). Moreover, an interview was considered as a source of qualitative
data relating to the "interaction" which helps the researcher get a particular goal (Gay,
Mill & Airasian, 2011, p.387). In addition, the attitude was “a psychological tendency
that was expressed by evaluating a particular entity with some degree of favor or
disfavor" (Eagly, & Chaiken, 1993, p. 1). What is more, Passer and Smith (2007)
continue to support that the attitude can be negative or positive reaction towards an
attitude about matters or objects via responses.
The aims of the interview were to know what interviewees think and how they feel and
experience about a certain topic. Generally, there were four types of interviews
including semi-structured interview, structured interview, informal interview, and
retrospective interview. To further explore the students’ attitudes towards drama-based
activities, a semi-structured interview was administered after the post-speaking test.
Semi-structured interview subsumed the characteristics of both unstructured and
structured interviews. With this kind of interview, based on the basic questions, both the
interviewer and interviewees could investigate more details for the data needed (Gill et
al., 2008). In this study there were 5 participants selected randomly from the participants
in the experimental group for the interview and the interview was conducted in
Vietnamese to make it convenient for the interviewees to express their opinions.
The interview questions focused on the effects of drama-based activities (questions 1
and 2).
1. How do you evaluate drama-based activities in speaking classes?
2. What did you get from studying speaking with this technique?
Treatment for the two groups
In generally, lesson plans for both experimental group and control group were designed
based on the contents of English 11 for ten-year program. However, the researcher used
different techniques in each lesson plan. Specifically, for the experimental group, the
researcher designed four lesson plans applying drama-based activities in eight weeks
and they were assessed by the supervisor. Besides, there were four projects relating to
drama-based activities for students to practice. Each lesson was taught in 45 minutes.
There are five stages in the lesson plans including warm-up stage, presentation stage,
practice stage, further practice stage and free practice stage. Furthermore, the lesson
plans consist of various activities for students such as matching, brainstorming ideas,

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describing the pictures, listening to the video clips, working in pairs or groups, playing
and disguising roles with a given real-life topic. On the other hand, for the control
group, the researcher still used the traditional lesson plans with three-stage procedure
such as presentation stage, practice stage and production stage. Students just listen and
do the tasks in the textbook.
Data analysis
The researcher used Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS 20.0) to analyze
descriptive statistics and reliability of the quantitative data collected through
questionnaires. There were 30 participants with different language abilities from the
other classes for the reliability to test their comprehension of the options and the
statements based on the ordinal scale taking part in the pilot and the scale reliability
coefficient Cronbach's Alpha (α) was 0.805. This reliability coefficient of the
questionnaire has proven that the questionnaire was acceptable to be used for
conducting research with a larger number of participants. The items were organized
according to the principles of Likert Scale (1934).
For the qualitative data, the researcher applied thematic analysis by (Thomas & Harden,
2008). Firstly, the responses of the interviewees were transcribed then translated into
English. Next, they were synthesized by salient themes which were indicated by
repetition of words, key-word-in-context, compare and contrast. Finally, the themes
were analyzed for more insightful understandings and interpretation.
FINDINGS
The effects of applying drama-based activities on students’ speaking performance
Test - Before the experiment
Table 2 below shows the average pretest scores of students' speaking performance
between control and experimental groups (M=6.70, M=6.75 respectively). The mean
difference at .08 was small and no statistically significant difference was found from the
results of the t-test for independent samples (t=.51, df=58, p=.61). It might be assumed
that the groups started the program with quite similar level of speaking performance.
Table 2
Independent Samples t-Test (pre-test)
Variable Group N t df Mean Sig.(2 tailed) MD
Pretest Control 30 .51 58 6.70 .61 .08
Experimental 30 6.75

Test - After the experiment

As can be seen from table 3, there was a slight change in the mean scores between
control and experimental groups after the study. Specifically, the mean score of students'
speaking performance in the treatment group (M=8.65) was much higher than that of the
control group (M= 8.05). Nevertheless, there was a significant difference between two
study groups (t=-3.4, df=58, p=.001). The results indicated that drama-based activities
on students' speaking performance are more effective than the traditional method.

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Table 3
Independent Samples t-Test (post-test)
Variable Group N t df Mean Sig.(2 tailed) MD
Posttest Control 30 -3.40 58 8.05 .001 -.60
Experimental 30 8.65 .001
Students’ level of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse
management
The Paired Sample T-Test was run to test which level of students’ speaking aspects in
terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse management before
and after the experiment is improved after the study. Table 4 below indicated the results
of participants’ speaking performance in the experimental group.
Table 4
Paired Samples T-Test (pre- and post-tests)
Paired Differences t df Sig. (2-
Mean Std. Std. 95% Confidence tailed)
Deviation Error Interval of the
Mean Difference
Lower Upper
G2PGrammarpretest -
Pair 1 -.32000 .39862 .07278 -.46885 -.17115 -4.397 29 .000
G2GrammarPosttest
G2VocabularyPretest -
Pair 2 -.42667 .41930 .07655 -.58324 -.27010 -5.573 29 .000
G2VocabularyPosttest
G2PronunciationPretest -
Pair 3 -.44000 .49661 .09067 -.62544 -.25456 -4.853 29 .000
G2PronunciationPosttest
G2FluencyPretest -
Pair 4 -.38667 .37114 .06776 -.52525 -.24808 -5.706 29 .000
G2FluencyPosttest
G2DiscoursemanagementPretest -
Pair 5 -.29333 .29587 .05402 -.40381 -.18285 -5.430 29 .000
G2DiscoursemanagementPosttest

The findings showed that the average posttest scores of grammar (M= 1.72), vocabulary
(M=1.73), pronunciation (M=1.70), fluency (M=1.53) and discourse management
(M=1.96) increased in general. In other words, difference among these means was
observed after the study (t=-4.39, df=29, p=.00; t=-5.57, df=29, p=.00; t=-4.85, df=29,
p=.00; t=-5.70, df=29, p=.00; t=-5.43, df=29, p=.00 respectively). Therefore, it could be
said that students' level of these speaking aspects after the study was higher than that
before the study.
Students’ perceptions about the effects of drama-based activities
Questionnaire
The Descriptive Statistics Test was run to explore the mean scores, maximum,
minimum, and standard deviation of students’ perceptions of applying drama-based
activities in speaking lessons. The results of the Descriptive Statistics Test are exhibited
in Table 5.
Table 5
Descriptive statistics test of the questionnaire
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Perceptions 30 2.77 4.46 3.5619 .35411
Valid N (listwise) 30

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As shown in Table 5, the mean score about students’ perceptions of applying drama-
based activities in speaking classes (M = 3.5, SD = .354) reveals that students had high
positive perceptions of applying drama-based activities in speaking classes (compared
with five points in five-point Likert type).
Students’ perceptions about categories of drama-based activities
There are four clusters including students’ understanding of drama; the effects of drama;
students’ attitudes and the challenges of students when applying drama-based activities
in speaking classes. In this section, the Descriptive Statistic Test was used to evaluate
the total mean scores for each cluster. The results of the tests were shown in Table 6
below.
Table 6
Students' perceptions of the importance of each cluster about drama-based activities
N Minimum Maximum Mean Std. Deviation
Understandings 30 2.60 4.80 3.7600 .46208
effects 30 2.50 4.69 3.6104 .51005
attitudes 30 2.67 4.78 3.6741 .46681
challenges 30 1.60 4.00 3.0067 .54452
Valid N (listwise) 30
As can be seen, the results showed that students’ understandings of drama (M=3.76;
SD=.46), effects of drama-based activities (M=3.61; SD=.51) and students’ attitudes
about drama (M= 3.67; SD=.47) were higher than their challenges toward drama (M=
3.00; SD= .54). Particularly, the perceptions of the understandings of drama is the
highest. After that, Pair Sample T-test was run on the means of each pair of clusters:
students’ understandings of drama and effects of drama-based activities; effects of
drama-based activities and students’ attitudes about drama-based activities; students’
attitudes about drama-based activities and challenges toward drama. The result indicated
that no difference among the three means was observed (t=2.6; p=.013); (t=-1.09,
p=.285 respectively). Participants’ perceptions in both understanding, effects and
attitudes are the same. However, the findings also showed that there are the significant
differences (t=4.12, p=.00). Participants’ perceptions about their attitudes and the
challenges are different.
Interview
When participants were asked about the use of drama-based activities, they had positive
attitudes towards these activities. They also agreed that drama-based activities benefited
them from language learning such as vocabulary, grammar, collaborative learning,
confidence, and interactive communication skills.
Relating to the accuracy of vocabulary and grammar, all the respondents highly
appreciate benefits of drama-based activities toward the use of grammar and vocabulary
precisely. It is considered as the results of learning from mistakes, friends, drama-based
activities, looking-up dictionary and searching information from Google, and self-study.
For example, student A said,
“Drama helps me increase my vocabulary and grammar. When my friends speak
English very well, I actually do not have sufficient vocabulary and grammar but in

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1002 Effects of Applying Drama-Based Activities in Speaking …

order to talk more with my friends and share an experience, it requires me to ask my
friends, look up the dictionary to know the exact sounds of the words and self-study at
home to improve vocabulary and structures”. (Student A)
Beside vocabulary and grammar, there were two informants expressed that through
practice or rehearsing, drama helped them learn pronunciation more efficiently.
According to student B, and student D,
“About pronunciation, when we do a role-play, we will make a video clip so when
looking it back, I know what mistakes I made, and then I will correct them.” and “I
could not pronounce the word "furnished" correctly at the first time but now I practice
pronouncing it many times when I take part in role-plays, I could pronounce it
correctly.” (Students B, D)
Moreover, fluency was incessantly improved during taking part in drama-based
activities. One participant stated,
“I am able to speak English more fluently and faster, at first, I hesitate when someone
talks to me and there is the lack of confidence in speaking English, but gradually,
adapting to the frequent use of English, practicing more and talking in a long time will
help speak smoothly”. (Student B)
Another benefit stated by respondents was related to cooperative learning. Most of them
believed that drama-based activities helped them enhance their collaborative skill.
Perhaps, these activities held by teacher must be joined in groups so that students get
familiar with working with the others. Two of them responded,
“When we study with you, you always ask us to work in groups, so I have to cooperate
with my friends to create a dialogue. From that, I know how to work in groups well”
And “Taking part in the activities helps me interact with my friends better because we
need to cooperate with each other to cast someone in a role, create a dialogue to
produce a good play”. (Students B, E)
With regard to confidence, the respondents revealed:
…Previously, I used to be a shy person. Whenever the teacher calls me, I do not dare to
say anything. However, when I start to speak from the time working with my friends for
classroom assignments, I have confidence in speaking in front of my friends”. Student E
added more, “Thanks to the process of interaction in drama-based activities, I am able
to practice speaking English more often in class, so I am able to speak rather fluently
and I am more confident. I dare to look at the partners”. (Students A, E)
Furthermore, role-plays were thought to be useful in real life by the respondents, too.
Student A stated, “Through these activities, I know more about the ways of offering
gifts, renting a flat, table manners, diverse cultures or how to behave with surrounding
people”. Student B expressed, “Drama-based activities helps us how to deal with a
situation when we play the same real matters, characters or a job in reality... I can use
the language in a real situation and deploy the behaviors of figures learned into real
life”.

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Nguyen 1003

These participants showed the importance of how to behave or communicate with others
appropriately in the outside world through drama in speaking classes.
One more code in the effects of applying drama-based is interactive communication
skills. There were three interviewees uttered this aspect in speaking classes. For
instance, student C said: “When playing a role of discussing to choose the best suitable
gift for a friend, we actually do not have time to prepare for the content, we act like a
real meeting and then talk. This helps me react to English situations”. Student D also
replied, “Because you often ask us to develop a conversation for future (would be)
situations, so when doing a role-play, I can react to the situation. I can develop them in
a suitable way like I know what to say next while speaking and also find more ideas”.
Based on these comments, it can be assumed that drama enabled them to have proper
ways of communication, and act out spontaneously while maintaining the conversation
with others. Students C and D also indicated that in doing their roles, the script let them
act out what came naturally and in real communication instead of being put in settings or
set discourse.
Turning to simulation, a kind of drama-based activities, it was also positively evaluated
because of its great benefits. Participants reported that simulation enabled them to apply
knowledge into reality, develop language proficiency, foster cognitive and creativity,
improve interactive communication, express viewpoints, and develop soft skills. The
following statements were heard:
“So those hot problems make us understand more about the life. I know how to behave
appropriately when I face those situations in real life”. (Student A)
“I know how to behave or talk in reality...via the activity of cultural fair such as table
manners, ways of greeting… it helps me increase the politeness and use the language
suitably when coming to another countries”. (Student E)
“When you gave us a problem-solving task about a certain aspect that we have never
experienced before, we will learn vocabulary relating to that aspect in order to be able
to talk when we solve a problem. We can also learn from friends”. (Students B)
“Because the situations help me think more. For example, we have never discussed
such a task before. But when we study with you, you provide such tasks so I think more
about how to solve a problem appropriately in my situation”. (Student C)
As a result, these respondents suggested that simulation helped them confront with real
situations and they can find the solutions in their lives.
DISCUSION
Students' speaking performance
The first research question asked how drama-based activities affect high school EFL
students' speaking performance and which aspects of speaking performance were most
developed by this technique.
The findings showed that in the control group, the level of students’ speaking
performance did not change much after the study while the level of students’ speaking
performance in the experimental group made more improvement after the study.

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1004 Effects of Applying Drama-Based Activities in Speaking …

Therefore, it is obvious to state that dram-based activities enhanced students' speaking

performance. This also confirmed that this technique could bring more benefits and
develop high school EFL students' speaking performance.
Furthermore, the results from this study were in line with many previous researchers in
their study such as Hubbard (1983); Via (1987); Helen (2000); Miccoli (2003);
Zafeiriadou, (2009); Rahimy and Safarpour (2012); Sirisrimangkorn and Suwanthep
(2013); Nouralian et al. (2013); Alrajhi at al., (2013); Gill (2013). All of them claimed
that drama-based activities had positive effects on students' oral proficiency and enhance
their communicative competences in speaking English. In this study, students could
improve their speaking performance because of some following reasons.
First of all, through drama-based activities, students enriched their speaking aspects
such as vocabulary, grammar, structures and pronunciation because they were given
time to rehearse carefully before acting out in front of class. Moreover, students’ prior
knowledge could be improved and reinforced through drama-based activities (Mordecai,
1985; Fernandez & Coil, 1986; Sam, 1990). Besides, drama technique is considered as
a valuable opportunity for students to show their latent ability in communication. Via
drama-based activities, students would show not only their language speaking abilities
but also their soft skills such as problem-solving skill, public speaking skill and so on.
From that, they would make some adjustments for the new role, all of which were
supposed to move their speaking performance forward.
Moreover, according to Early and Tarlington (1982); Mordecai (1985); Scharengnivei
(1970), because of reality-related interactive activities, students might desire to use
language as a means for communication in genuine via given scenarios rather than
learned language at school. In addition, students had more chances to approach and
practice the language for different purposes in real life situations (Stinson, 2006).
Therefore, they could jump out the outside world naturally and develop the dialogues by
themselves.
Nonthreatening learning environment is another reason for the improvement in the
quality of students’ speaking performance in a drama-based practice class (Wessles
1987; Smith, 1984; Via, 1976). Because students worked and collaborated with their
friends during their practice time, they feel free and comfortable to use their langue.
Gradually, they acquired the target language naturally and effectively without any
pressure. Additionally, according to Zafeiriadou (2009), drama-based activities mainly
focused on student-student interaction. Therefore, students could feel at ease to
participate in the activities with their friends regardless of errors made during speaking
classes applied drama-based activities.
One more reason for the better results after applying drama-based activities is “breaking
down the barriers between teacher and student" (Wessels, 1987, p. 14). During speaking
classes, teachers are considered as a facilitator and supporter whereas students spend
times practicing speaking with their peers. From that, students would develop not only
their language skills but also their social skills comfortably.
Finally, the integration of all language skills such as listening, reading and writing in
dram-based activities contributed to the enhancement of oral performance. When

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Nguyen 1005

students take part in drama-based activities, they must write down what they would
speak first. They can be a mind map for main ideas, a detailed small skit, a dialogue for
a conversation or a scenario. In this situation, students had to read and listen to the ideas
or thoughts of their friends for discussion about the background information and the
language that they might need to collect. According to (Gass & Selinker, 2001, p.302),
“the negotiated interaction allowed learners to think about language and learn a
language" when the information exchange took place. Especially, low-achieving
students would have more opportunities to make some appropriate modifications when
there were some language mistakes they produced. Also, the integration of four
language skills promote students' speaking abilities when they practice English language
use and modify their assigned roles in front of class.
Another part of the first question is that the students' level of grammar, vocabulary,
pronunciation, fluency and discourse management within the experimental group were
most affected by drama. The findings revealed that there was significant difference in all
aspects of speaking performance in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation,
fluency and discourse management. In other words, drama-based activities affect these
dimensions positively. This finding indicated that learners might gain more benefits
from grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse management.
Especially, discourse management was improved considerably by drama-based
technique rather than the other aspects. On the other hand, this result was different from
previous research by Alrajhi et al. (2013); Rahimy’s and Safarpour (2012); Miccoli
(2003). They investigated that both grammar and vocabulary were more improved after
the study.
To explain for this result, there were some specific and convincible reasons that help
students gain discourse management most. It could be that students likely experience
and understand the behaviors, feelings of the characters they act out. Simultaneously,
they could reflect beyond themselves when they interact with many people around them
in a real English language environment. This factor was consistent with the previous
literature by Paulston (1992) that drama is "exercises where the student can improvise
some kind of behavior towards the other role characters” (Paulston, 1992, p.60).
Besides, “students have the right to take the ownership of their own learning” (Stinson,
2006). In other words, they actively organize, set the scene and wrote the scripts
according to the assignments they received from the teachers which their ability to
maintain and initiate a conversation can be developed.
Students' perceptions towards the use of drama-based activities in speaking classes
The second research question asked about the perceptions of high school EFL students
when drama-based activities were applied in speaking classes. The results from the
questionnaires and semi-structured interviews revealed that participants had positive
perceptions towards the implementation of drama-based activities in speaking classes.
These findings were consensus with Gill (2013) results that students were interested in
the use of drama-based activities because they could experience and improve their oral
skills as well as increase their confidence in speaking English (Gill, 2013).

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The explanation for the positive perceptions to the use of drama-based activities in
speaking classes evaluated by the experimental related to the considerable improvement
they achieved in their oral performance during the learning process. Dodson (2002)
believes that a stress-free learning environment could make learners reduce their anxiety
in speaking English and build up their self-confidence in their real-life. Therefore, they
were willing to express their thoughts and learn from the others regarding to speaking
aspects consisting of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse
management.
From the questionnaires and students' interviews, drama could increase student-centered
learning because students were asked to create a conversation and write scripts by
themselves, synthesize, analyze and evaluate what and how they have just played the
roles. Besides, students had to search by themselves to have sufficient knowledge of
vocabulary, suitable contents and grammar for the interaction rather than waiting for
teachers’ assistance.
Additionally, drama-based activities made high-achieving students help low-achieving
ones to speak the target language well. They were willing to give help to other peers
about vocabulary, pronunciation and structure during the learning process. Moreover,
learning community might be built up interestingly since they could communicate with
their peers to express their own ideas without worrying about errors. Besides, when
students act out on the stage with their friends, drama-based activities make them feel
close-knit in English speaking classes.
Especially, students would have more opportunities to further practice beside the
activities in the textbook. Therefore, these findings could assist participating students to
gradually increase the level of self-confidence in conveying their ideas or thoughts in the
crowd. According to Piazzoli (2011), he states that “walking into someone's shoes helps
learners feel less shy to produce the target language”. Truly, when students participated
in drama-based activities, they might not receive bad feedback from others because the
language produced was from the characters assigned.
Among grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse management,
discourse management was perceived as an important part in learning English by
students at different proficiency levels. This element not only assist students in
expressing their viewpoints naturally in real life but also help them how to establish
moral and socio qualities, e.g. behaviors, acquired via drama-based activities which
might contribute to effective communication real life contexts.
CONCLUSION, IMPLICATION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This study proved that drama-based activities were considered as potential instructional
tool on EFL students' speaking performance through its findings. In other words,
drama-based activities play a significant role in promoting high school EFL students’
speaking performance at the context of Thanh An high school. Through speaking tests,
this study presented the effects of drama-based activities on each element of speaking
performance in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse
management. Specifically, significant results of discourse management were
investigated in the pre-and post-tests which were higher than the other components.

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Nguyen 1007

Also, the findings from this study revealed that students with less English proficiency in
linguistic forms could interact with others in speaking classes with the use of drama
technique by starting a conversation and developing more ideas.
Relating to learners' attitudes toward the implementation of drama-based activities in
speaking classes, the qualitative findings showed that drama technique was positively
evaluated by participants.
Based on the findings, this study draws some pedagogical implications for teachers,
students and administrators.
First of all, for teachers, positive effects of drama-based activities on speaking
performance raise teachers' awareness of discourse management in relation to students'
expectations. In other words, teachers will design the lesson plans by finding more ways
to integrate drama-based activities into speaking classrooms. When students participate
in the lessons, they are given opportunities to practice speaking through interactive tasks
or real life contexts to enhance their motivation and their interest in learning how to use
English in terms of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation, fluency and discourse
management effectively. Additionally, a combination with the other techniques can be a
good way for teachers in English lessons because students can be bored or unpleasant
with the exposure solely to these activities throughout the learning process. Therefore,
teachers need to use flexibly between drama technique and other ones speaking setting.
For students, it is obvious that drama-based activities bring much benefits to students.
Particularly, they improve and foster students’ oral interaction practices. Therefore,
beside teachers’ efforts, students must study responsibly by actively joining the lessons
and cooperating with the teachers to make the speaking lesson successfully and ensure
the positive effects of this technique on language learning. It may be that some students
lack their enthusiasm and their motivation in learning. They are less active than the
others or it could be possibly a result of affective filters such as low self-image; shyness;
the lack of linguistic knowledge and public speaking skills.
There are some limitations in this study in terms of its contents and time. Firstly,
because the researcher was also the teacher of the current study, his present knowledge
of drama techniques was limited. Thus, the variety of drama activities provided by the
teacher was mostly relied on one type of drama- role-plays. Secondly, there were only
two classes involved in the research and their English proficiency may affect the
research results. Thirdly, the time set up by the school was limited in forty-five minutes
for a period. Therefore, both teacher and students lack time to complete all drama-based
activities sufficiently or they just focus on the main parts of the drama. Moreover, the
sample size was relatively limited in eleventh grade due to time constraints, which make
the study weaken its generalizability.
Based on the limitations mentioned above and the results of the study. There are some
recommendations for further studies, school administrators, educators and teachers,
First of all, with further studies, the future research may also explore the effects of
drama on speaking skills of different number of students with different proficiency
levels and different ages because the present study was conducted merely with pre-

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1008 Effects of Applying Drama-Based Activities in Speaking …

intermediate level in eleventh grade. Besides, further studies need to investigate other
language skills deeply relating to drama with the aim of developing learners’ language
skills completely because the findings also found out that drama affected both learners’
reading skill, listening skill and writing skill, not just speaking skill.
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International Journal of Instruction, July 2023 ● Vol.16, No.3