Investigating the Role of Plays in Reducing EFL Learners' Speaking Anxiety.

Abstract

The present study investigates the role of using plays as a teaching method to reduce the EFL learners' speaking anxiety. The aim of this research is to examine the effectiveness of acting plays and their positive effects on developing students' speaking skills. To achieve this purpose, a case study was conducted at the Department of English at Ibn Khaldoun University of Tiaret. A questionnaire was administered to fifteen EFL teachers and another one for fifty second year EFL learners. The findings of this research proved that the majority of learners face the problem of speaking anxiety while speaking in front of the audience. The results of the present study disclosed that drama activities or plays have an effective role in reducing the speaking anxiety. These activities provided them with a supportive, secure and creative learning environment. Besides, the findings revealed that plays have abundant language learning benefits, especially in speaking. The use different kinds of plays such as, role play, dialogues, interviews, pieces of theatre, simulation, or storytelling is very effective in reducing the speaking anxiety and enhancing the communicative abilities.