The effect of script as a drama technique on self-confidence and language use

iABSTRACTTHE EFFECT OF SCRIPT AS A DRAMA TECHNIQUE ON SELF-CONFIDENCE AND LANGUAGE USEGebenliler, Hatice EdaEnglish Language Teaching DepartmentSupervisor: Assist. Prof. Abdullah ERTAŞSeptember-2006This study tries to find out about the students? opinion on the use of dramatechniques in the classroom, to determine the students? level of language use and self-confidence after and before the application of the scripts, and to compare their languageuse and self-confidence levels in order to demonstrate the influence of the scripts.Drama is doing and being. Drama is a complementary technique of theCommunicative Approach. Drama activities include role-play, games, mime, warm-upexercises, and scripts. Scripts are the written form of a speech, play, film or broadcast.Drama activities and scripts have a lot of psychological and linguistic benefits. Dramaactivities positively affect teacher-student relationship, motivation, participation,classroom atmosphere, classroom management, and self-confidence. As a result,students? language skills and areas, communication, knowledge of a foreign culture andacquisition are enhanced.This study serves to demonstrate what students? knowledge of drama is, and theinfluence of scripts on the students? language use and self-confidence level. This isrealised through a questionnaire which was conducted twice in the same classes. Thefirst questionnaire was carried out before the use of four scripts, and it consisted of 33statements to reveal the opinions of the students on drama, language use, and self-confidence. Afterwards, four different scripts were covered in the same classes (D 3 andD 20) for a month. The scripts were exploited fully. The whole class worked onvocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, culture; they dealt with listening, reading,speaking, and writing activities, and they performed the scripts in front of the class.Next, the same questionnaire was conducted again to reflect the difference between pre-iiapplication and post-application in terms of language use and self-confidence in order todemonstrate the influence of the scripts. The second questionnaire consisted of 27statements on language use and self-confidence. Since the researcher tries to reflect thestudents? attitudes towards drama before the application of the scripts, she did notinclude statements on drama in the second questionnaire. Having completed the datacollection process, all the questionnaires were analysed and the results were interpreted.The analysis of the questionnaires illustrated that although most of the students had anidea of what drama was, they were not accustomed to using drama techniques in theclassroom as they were not exposed to drama while learning or practising new items.The results of the questionnaires also demonstrated that the students? language use andself-confidence level was not satisfactory before the application of the scripts while afterthe use of the scripts, their language use and self-confidence level had improved. Thus, itmay be claimed that the use of scripts had a positive effect on the students? level oflanguage use and self-confidence. To sum up, the thesis has proved to be successful indemonstrating the positive influence of scripts on the students? level of language use andself-confidence.The researcher has provided a procedure for implementing scripts in theclassroom in the fifth chapter. Four different scripts were utilised during a month in D 3and D 20 classes. They were taken from two different books and the Internet. The scriptsincluded particular language items. All of the scripts practised the grammar points andfunctions the students had learned. The whole class worked on the script in a detailedway with the teacher and they performed the scripts in the classroom. It took four to fivehours to cover a script. At the end of the thesis, the researcher has also given someadvice for other researchers about using drama techniques in their studies.