The Effect of Drama-based Method on Pre-intermediate EFL Learners' Speaking Skill and Elementary EFL Learners' Speaking Fluency, Comprehensibility, Grammaticality, and Willingness to Communicate

Over years, there has always been a debate about how different methods and techniques improve speaking ability of foreign language learners. In this regard the present study examined two separate treatments. The first treatment was conducted for 20 sessions to examine the effects of "drama-based method of teaching" or more concisely "drama-based method" to enhance the speaking skill of 20 non-English major Iranian students; their English proficiency level based on the scores they gained in a standard proficiency test was pre-intermediate. Role-play was used for pre/posttests. To examine if a drama-based method improves elements of speaking skill _including fluency, comprehensibility, grammaticality, and willingness to communicate_ in learners with a lower level of language proficiency, a second treatment was conducted with 30 Iranian students whose major was not English and their English proficiency level was Elementary. In both treatments, participants took an oxford placement test to reveal if their English language proficiency was were at the intended levels. The same kind of role play test, which was introduced by Bartz, was used as the pretest/posttest. Data collection was quantitative and data analyses were conducted through paired t-tests in the first treatment and Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests in the second treatment. The findings of the first treatment revealed improvement in speaking skill and the second treatment confirmed that each intended element of speaking skill (fluency, grammaticality, comprehensibility, and willingness to communicate) was enhanced. Being related to real-life situations, drama-based activities are more purposeful and motivate the learners more than usual.