Journal of Mother Tongue Education

Abstract

The
aim of this study is to examine the effect of the creative drama method on 4^th
graders’ acquisition of reading comprehension skills. To that end, experimental
method was used in the research. The research was conducted with 4th grade
students who attended the Saray elementary school in the Pursaklar District of the
province of Ankara during the Spring semester of the 2016/2017 academic year. Taking
into consideration the pre-test scores of all 4^th grade sections as
the selection criterion, two sections that had similar attributes were selected
as the test group – section 4/C (29 students) and the control group – section 4/K
(29 students). A 16-hour drama workshop, based on the pre-determined learning
outcomes on the reading comprehension skills of the Turkish course, was carried
out with the test group students. As for the control group, a 16-hour Turkish instruction
based on the same learning outcomes was given by the researcher, using the
traditional method. At the end of eight weeks, post-test was given to the test
and control group students. At the end of the study, the data showed that the
workshop model, based on creative drama, provided increase in academic
achievement at a significant level in the test group. In terms of improving the
reading comprehension skill in the Turkish course, the creative drama method
effectively leads to rapid progress in newly learned subjects, and carries
students’ reading comprehension skills to a higher level in previously learned
subjects. In addition, while creative drama, which concretizes the learning
process, improves the reading comprehension skill, it offers a fun learning
environment that makes students happy.