Mantle of the expertapproach in education in drama and English language teaching: A study on the fourth grade ellementary school students

This experimental study analyses the effects of the approach of ?Mantle of the Expert? by Dorothy Heathcote in drama in education on English language teaching. This study also suggests a theoretical framework of the similarities of this approach and ?Scenerio Based Learning? and Vygotsky?s ?Socio-cultural Theory?.The study was conducted at a public elementary school in Nazilli -district of Aydın- in 2007-2008 academic years. The participants of the study were 97 students that were divided in an experimental group and a control group. In the study which was lasted in 8 weeks, the drama activities based on the ?Mantle of the Expert? approach was used in experimental group and activities in the forth grade English Curriculum were used in the control group. The measurement instrument ?English Language Achievement Test? was given as a pre-test and post-test. In the beginning of the research, ?Personal Information Form? was given to find out the characteristics of the experimental group and control group.In the study, the data obtained by ?English Language Achievement Test? was operated by statistics computer program SPSS 11.5. Covariance analysis was used to find out if there was a meaningful difference. The level of significance was p<.01.As a result, it was found out that the drama activities based on the ?Mantle of the Expert? approach in English language teaching had a positive effect on the academic achievement of the students. On the whole, after achievement points were analyzed it was found out that there were significant results in favor of experimental group.