Integrating Readers Theatre to Reinforce Reading Comprehension on Selected Short Stories among Low-Performing Students in A Rural School

One of the most significant purposes of reading is inarguably comprehension. Most researches have shown that reading fluency and reading comprehension goes hand in hand. One mostly suggested way to investigate this relationship is through repeated readings. Research has also shown that English language learners learn to read in much the same way as native English speakers (Egmand B, 2009). This study investigates the relationship between readers’ theatre exercises and students’ reading comprehension. This research therefore examined whether the ESL students have positive experiences on the integration of Reader’s Theatre in the classroom’s teaching and learning activity. This study specifically focuses on Form One ESL students from a rural secondary school in Kedah. Students are given a developmental reading assessment followed by five sessions of Readers’ Theatre exercises. The same assessment is given to the students following readers’ theatre instruction to determine gains made. Findings indicates that Readers Theatre practice integrated in classroom learning impacts respondents in a positive way and reinforces students’ reading comprehension on selected short story as well as motivates them to read. This study also reveals that most of the participants share the same view that such a practice is much favoured to be integrated in the learning event.