IMPROVING THAI ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (EFL) PRESERVICE TEACHERS’ READING FLUENCY AND COMPREHENSION WITH READERS THEATER

The aim of this mixed methods research project was to investigate the effects of Readers Theater (RT) on Thai EFL preservice teachers’ English reading fluency and comprehension. This study also examined these preservice teachers’ perceptions after their participation in the RT strategy for improving English reading fluency and comprehension. The participants included 67 Thai EFL preservice teachers from a northeastern Thai university. Thirty-five of them were placed in an experimental group and the other 32 formed a control group. The researcher collected quantitative data from pre-test and posttest events and also a 5-scale survey. The qualitative data was gathered from open-ended questions. For 5-scale survey data, the researcher used Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) to calculate the percentage, mean, and standard deviation (SD). The pre-test and posttest scores were analyzed by using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) to determine significant differences between groups within the treatment and control groups on the pre-test. The researcher also used Repeated Measures ANOVA to examine the scores within the experimental group and between the experimental and the control groups. The results showed that the RT participation had effects on Thai EFL preservice teachers’ English reading fluency and comprehension. These results showed that RT strategy significantly improved the participants’ accuracy and fluency but not their reading rate or comprehension. Furthermore, the participants had positive attitudes toward RT as a strategy to improve their English reading fluency and comprehension. The participants also believed that multiple parts of the RT strategy motivated their English reading fluency and comprehension. Additionally, the participants identified fewer disadvantages of the RT strategy in improving their English reading fluency and comprehension than they did the advantages.