The effect of creative drama activities on 7th grade students' oral reading

This study aims to reveal the effect of creative drama exercises on 7th-grade students' reading aloud. In the study, data collection tools and data analysis techniques of quantitative and qualitative research methods were used within the framework of mixed-method research design. In order to investigate the effects of creative drama practices on students' reading aloud, an experimental pattern with a pretest-posttest control group was used. As a result of the experimental study, the shifts that occurred in the students were presented with a statistical process, and the evaluations of the learners about their development were asked to examine and the views of the students about the reflection of the creative drama activities were collected through the interview with the qualitative research data collection techniques. The study group of the research consists of 42 (21 experimental groups, 21 control groups) 7th-grade students in a school in the İpekyolu district of Van in the 2019-2020 academic year. In the study, the analysis of quantitative data was done by a t-test and the analysis of qualitative data was done by content analysis. Coder reliability was examined in data analysis. According to the post-test analysis conducted as a result of the research, it was seen that there was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups and this difference was in favour of the experimental group. After the creative drama activities were completed, 7 themes were obtained according to the results of the interview with the students in the experimental group. These themes are; the concept of creative drama, the contribution of creative drama applications to students, reflecting the character in lifelike animation, development, reading aloud, interest, and reading texts. The results of the experimental study and student views show that creative drama activities improve students' reading skills positively. This result is important in terms of demonstrating the contribution of creative drama activities to reading skills, especially in the Turkish teaching process.