The effects of creative drama on story comprehension for children in Taiwan (China)

Play and comprehension studies are widely examined and well documented by researchers. Although the independent variables examined in these play studies are varied, including different age groups (K∼3), with/without adult intervention, economically advantaged/disadvantaged backgrounds, and familiar/unfamiliar book uses, studies concentrating on investigation of different ethnic groups other than American children are rather limited. In order to observe characteristics inherent in different racial groups, the present study chose children from Taiwan as the ethnic subjects.; The purpose of the study was to examine, with Taiwanese children, whether a creative drama group approach is more effective for story comprehension than an adult led discussion group or an adult-directed, repeated read-aloud group. Eighty five subjects, who were five to six years old with a range of 5:4 through 7:2 years, participated in three experimental treatments: drama condition, discussion condition, and repeated read-aloud condition. The research was conducted over a period of seven weeks.; Data were collected from the three measurements: ten-item interview questions, picture sequence exercise, and story retelling. A one-way ANOVA and a factorial ANOVA 3 x 3 x 2 design were conducted to analyze these data.; The creative drama strategy did enhance story comprehension for children in Taiwan from five to six years old. Story style also affected children's story understanding. The children in the present study showed a better performance on story understanding when stories were familiar, which demonstrated the values of repeating literature experiences. A significant interaction between story style and story familiarity revealed that the effect of story style was moderated by that of story familiarity on story comprehension.