A Study On The Application Of Readers Theatre To Primary School English Teaching

In recent years, our country actively advocates teenagers’ reading activities, in the hope ofimproving teenagers’ reading skills and increasing the quantity of reading in the information age.Good reading habits can benefit teenagers for life and provide them with more diversified andinformational learning atmosphere. Meanwhile in English classroom of primary school, teacherspromote diversified and innovative teaching method reform. Based on the foreign successfulexperience of Readers Theatre teaching, Readers Theatre is reading activity featured withinterest, motivation and convenience, and many foreign education researches have madeconclusions that Readers Theatre can effectively improve students’ English reading fluency andreduce the students’ anxiety about learning English. But the Readers Theatre research based onEFL environment is relatively less up till now. This study adopts the action research method onthe fifth grade students for fifteen weeks. Through classroom observation, interview after classand teachers’ self-reflection and with quantitative data as convincing evidence, teacherundertakes in-depth research on the changes before and after Readers Theatre. Three researchquestions are presented as follows:1. Do primary students have anxiety in English reading? If so, can Readers Theatre help reducestudents’ anxiety? How does Readers Theatre reduce students’ anxiety?2. How does Readers Theatre improve fifth graders’ oral reading fluency?3. How does Readers Theatre apply to primary students’ class?The results of the study are as follows:1. Primary students have anxiety in English learning. After Readers Theater, students haveevidently reduced their anxiety. While in Readers Theatre activities, students are asked tocooperate with group members to make performance, and share ideas about different roles withothers. Through Readers Theatre, students greatly increase the frequency of using English. Afterfifteen weeks’ Readers Theater, students like to communicate in English. Therefore, ReadersTheatre effectively reduce students’ English learning anxiety.2. Students repeatedly read English lines so loudly that the students greatly improve Englishreading fluency through fifteen weeks’ learning activities.3. In English class, Readers Theatre follows the several steps such as teacher modeled reading,students reading script, students role assignment, students reading aloud to practice repeatedly,team cooperation rehearsal, stage performance, feedback and communication.To sum up, this research focuses on primary students anxiety in English learning as well asEnglish reading fluency. It is hoped that Readers Theatre can make English teaching more informational, open and efficient. Therefore, Readers Theatre can expand students’ visions andincrease students’ interests in English learning.