A Study on Turkish EFL Teachers’ Perspectives on Using Drama to Develop Students’ Speaking Skills in the EFL

The purpose of the present study was to investigate K-12 EFL teachers’ perspectives and knowledge on the use and effectiveness of drama to develop students’ speaking skills. To achieve this purpose, 42 EFL teachers from different state secondary schools of a city located in the west part of Turkey participated in this study. The questionnaire designed by Dal (2017) was used in this study by the researchers with some minor modifications to it. The findings of this study displayed that Turkish K-12 EFL teachers generally revealed high levels of cognizance of the impact of using drama to develop students’ speaking skills. The findings also indicated that although EFL teachers generally had high levels of cognizance of the benefits of using drama to develop students’ speaking skills, they generally had moderate levels of knowledge of using drama to develop students’ speaking skills. Furthermore, as opposed to our expectations, the findings of this study indicated that EFL teachers generally exhibited low levels of cognizance of the prominence of drama in developing students’ speaking skills. Lastly, the results of this study revealed that EFL teachers taking drama education in their department had higher levelsof perspectives than those not taking drama education in their department with respect to the use of drama as a technique for improving students’ speaking skills.

İngilizceyi Yabancı Dil Olarak Öğreten Türk Öğretmenlerin İngilizce Sınıfında Öğrencilerin Konuşma Becerilerini Geliştirmek için Dramayı Kullanma Bakış Açıları Üzerine Bir Çalışma

Bu çalışmanın amacı, K-12 İngilizce öğretmenlerinin, öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerini geliştirmek için dramanın kullanımı ve etkililiği hakkındaki bakış açılarını ve bilgilerini araştırmaktı. Bu amaca ulaşmak için, Türkiye'nin batı kesiminde yer alan bir şehrin farklı devlet ortaöğretim okullarından 42 İngilizce öğretmeni bu araştırmaya katılmıştır. Bu çalışmada Dal (2017) tarafından tasarlanan anket, araştırmacılar tarafından üzerinde küçük değişiklikler yapılarak kullanılmıştır. Bu çalışmanın bulguları, Türk K-12 İngilizce öğretmenlerinin, drama kullanmanın öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerini geliştirme üzerindeki etkisine ilişkin yüksek düzeyde perspektifler ortaya koyduklarını göstermiştir. Bulgular İngilizce öğretmenlerinin, öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerini geliştirmek için drama kullanmanın yararları hakkında genel olarak yüksek düzeyde perspektifleri olmasına rağmen, öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerini geliştirmek için dramanın kullanımı hakkında genellikle orta düzeyde bilgiye sahip olduklarını da göstermiştir. Son olarak, bu çalışmanın sonuçları, okudukları bölümde drama eğitimi alan İngilizce öğretmenlerinin drama eğitimi almayanlara göre öğrencilerin konuşma becerilerini geliştirmek için dramanın önemi hakkında daha yüksek düzeyde bakış açısına sahip olduklarını ortaya çıkarmıştır.

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