The acquisition of writing skills in secondary school Turkish lesson with drama method: A qualitative study

This study was conducted to examine the contribution of drama method in the development of writing skills in secondary school Turkish course. Phenomenological design from qualitative research method was used in the study. The participants were 7th grade students studying in a state secondary school in Doğanyol district of Malatya province. While determining the participants of the study, typical case sampling was preferred. The data were collected during the four-week drama workshops and were obtained through semi-structured interviews, student diaries and various documents. Within the scope of the drama workshops, techniques such as role-playing and improvisation were used, students were asked to write different types of texts in each workshop and panel activities were carried out. The thematic analysis method was applied in the analysis of the data and the main themes in the data were determined by following the six-stage analysis steps recommended for this process. The results of the analysis revealed that the students were able to write different types of texts with the drama method, learn formal writing rules, produce more meaningful and longer texts, and express themselves freely and creatively. In addition, it was observed that the cooperation between students increased, social skills developed and the objectives were met by the students. They were successfully adopted to their daily lives and the information learnt became permanent. It was seen that the findings obtained with the variety of data supported each other and it was understood that the drama method contributed positively to the development of writing skills. In conclusion, it was concluded that drama can be used as an effective teaching method in Turkish lessons. At the end of the study, various suggestions for institutions, practitioners and researchers were presented.