The Impact of Readers Theatre on the Development of Preintermediate Iranian EFL Learners’ Oral Proficiency

The significant effect of employing Readers Theater (RT) in reading comprehension, fluency, and motivation of English language students has already been established. However, this study was an attempt to investigate the effect of RT on the oral proficiency 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 taken theQuick Placement Test tohelp the researchers make sure they were all homogeneous regarding their level of proficiency in English, 75 learners were chosen. Afterwards, an interview, which served as the pretest of the study, was run as the homogenizing test of oral ability and 60 homogenous preintermediate learners were ultimately selected as the subjects of the study. They were then assigned toeither of the two groups of control and experimental. During the treatment, the learners in the experimental group (EG) were exposed to RT, but the control group learners (CG)attended their regular classes. To gauge the oral proficiency development of the subjects, an interview was administeredat the end of the experiment. The results of data analysis indicated improvements of oralfluency and complexity because of the learners’ exposure to the treatment. 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.