Elementary School Students’ Learning Strategies and Collaboration in Adapting Dialogues to Readers Theater Scripts Advisor: Dr. Shen Graduate Student: I-Chen Liu

Contents CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1.2 Motivation 1.3 Statement of the problem 1.4 Purpose and research questions 1.5 Significance of the study

1.1 Background of the Study A. In Taiwan, team work and cooperation are needed more and more. Students deserve and need more opportunities to learn to work together. B. English is not the first language that students can use daily in their life and have few opportunities to expose themselves in authentic contexts.

1.2 Motivation A. How to raise students’ learning movtivation has been a major challenge for teachers in an EFL class in elementary school. B. Reader’s Theater has been well-known in English as Second Language (ESL) countries and English as Foreign Language (EFL) countries because it is an effective method for all students, especially those beginners.

1.3 Statement of the Problem A. Many teachers encountered difficulties in conducting RT in their English classes. B. The lacking training of RT prevented English teachers in Taiwan transferring the theory to authentic teaching instruction. C. Researching exploring the effects of RT on elementary students’ writing is scarce. D. In elementary school English teaching, the focus is on listening and speaking. Reading and writing abilities do not develop as the other two skills.

1.4 Purpose and Research Questions This study set out to explore elementary school students’ English writing in an RT script from textbook. The purpose was to find out how students perform in RT writing activities. The research questions: 1.What are the strategies that students use in adapting dialogues to Reader’s Theater scripts? 2.How do students collaborate in composing Reader’s Theater scripts? 3.What are students’ reactions to script writing activities?

1.5 Significance of the Study With the implementation of RT in elementary school EFL classes, if the writing aspect is explored, we might have more insights to elementary school students’ writing and help them to develop writing ability through RT activities.

Contents CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Reader’s Theater 2.2 Cooperative Learning 2.3 Collaborative Writing 2.4 RT Script

2.1 Reader’s Theater  Walker, 2005: RT is literature-based oral reading which communicates story through oral interpretation rather than through acting.  Latrobe, 1996: “Theater of the mind” is a useful definition for RT because it does not exist on a stage but rather in the imagination of the audience, who envision the scenes by hearing dialogue presented by readers.

2.2 Cooperative Learning  Johnson, Johnson, and Holubec, 1994: Cooperative learning is “ the instructional use of small groups through which students work together to maximize their own and each other’s learning.”  Walker, 1996: One of the procedures in RT can be cooperative learning. Walker explained that the teacher assembles students into groups and passes out scripts.

2.3 Collaborative Writing  Storch, 2005: His research findings on L1 and L2 collaborative writing were both positive. L1 learners reflect on their thinking when they explain their ideas. L2 learners think not only about grammar and vocabulary but also discourse.  Forsythe, 1995: The long-term training of group work contributed to the successful and efficient collaborative writing.

2.4 RT Script  Walker, 2005: Walker suggested four steps to adapting a short story: a) Choose short tales with plenty of dialogue. b) Assign dialogue lines to readers taking “Character parts”. c) Assign narrative lines to “Narrator parts”. d) Take out unneeded lines and add new lines.

Contents CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Setting and participants 3.2 Research design 3.3 Procedure 3.4 Data collection and analysis 3.5 Reliability

3.1 Setting and Participants  The participants: 27 four-grade students in NanKe elementary school in Tainan City in Taiwan.  Grouping: The students were grouped by three based on students’ third grade scores.  English ability: The participants had had English courses in school since the first grade.

3.2 Research Design  Time: The study was conducted in class time once a week (40 minutes). There would be 20 periods in a semester.  Materials: The textbook – Family and Friends 1 (Oxford)

3.3 Procedure  Pre-instruction group interview: With the company, the students were more relaxed and willing to express their real feelings.  RT script adapting instruction: The instruction had six steps - dialogue reading, story map, script rules, script adapting, teacher-students conference, and final script.  Post-instruction group interview: To know the students’ perceptions about the writing activities.

3.4 Data Collection and Analysis  Students’ interviews were audio-recorded.  Students’ discussions were audio-recorded and transcribed.  The teacher’s reflexive journals were kept during the whole instruction.  Student’s writing products were analyzed.

3.5 Reliability The data used to analyze writing process and strategies was mainly from the student’s discussion, the teacher’s observation, students’ interviews, and the student’s writing products.