THE EFFECT OF READERS THEATER ON INTERMEDIATE IRANIAN EFL LEARNERS IN TERMS OF ORAL PERFORMANCE AND L2 VOCABULARY KNOWLEDGE

This study was an attempt to investigate the effect of readers theater on oral proficiency and lexical knowledge of iranian learners of english as a foreign language. From among the learners studying English at a language school in isfahan, iran, a sample of 90 female intermediate efl learners were asked to participate in this study. Having administered oxford placement test to ensure the homogeneity of the participants in terms of proficiency, 75 learners were chosen. Afterwards, an interview which served as one of the pretests of the study was run on the 75 subjects as the homogenizing test of oral ability, and ultimately 60 homogenous preintermediate learners were selected as the participants of the study. They were then assigned to the two groups of control and experiment. Another pretest used in this study was a vocabulary knowledge test developed by the researcher. During the treatment, the learners in the experimental group were exposed to reader's theatre, but the control group attended their regular classes. To gauge the lexical and oral development of the subjects, vocabulary posttests as well as an interview were administered. The findings of data analysis indicated improvements of fluency and complexity as a result of learners' exposure to the treatment; besides, the experimental group outperformed the control group regarding the improvement on lexical knowledge. The results may provide further impetus for teachers to make attempts at extending the students' active knowledge for real time communication as well as providing language which is both more complex and fluent.