The Effects of Integrated Drama-Based Role Play and Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) on Students’ Speaking Skills and Affective Involvement

Abstract

The study investigates the pedagogical use of integrated drama-based role play and Student Teams Achievement Division (STAD) cooperative learning, and its effects on the first year non-English majors’ speaking skills, motivation, and self-esteem. The study was conducted over an academic semester in a basic English class in a northeastern university in Thailand with two separate groups, with a quasi-experimental design. The participants in this study were 80 non-native undergraduate students whose major was not English. Over the 16 weeks of the study, both groups of students studied English with the same learning content; however, only the experimental group was introduced to drama-based role play and STAD, with blended-learning instruction, while the control group continued using the course book role plays with regular group work activities and classroom instruction. Both quantitative (t-test) and qualitative (content analysis) methods were used to analyze the results of the study. The results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis showed the effectiveness of drama-based role play combined with STAD on students’ speaking skills, motivation, and self-esteem in the experimental group. The study concludes with recommendations for the integration of the blended drama-based and cooperative learning to improve students’ English speaking skills and affective involvement.