Running head: IMPROVING READING COMPREHENSION THROUGH DRAMA AND THEATER 1

The implementation of storytelling to improve reading comprehension through drama and theater

in students from the primary in Juan Bautista la Salle from Florencia-Caquetá.

Michael Andrés Alzate Güiza

Professor Hans Humberto Oviedo Gómez

Universidad De La Amazonia
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The implementation of storytelling to improve reading comprehension through drama and theater

in students from the primary in Juan Bautista la Salle from Florencia-Caquetá.

Reading is an important skill when acquiring a new language. For that reason, it is

essential to strengthen reading comprehension using storytelling through drama and theater as a

teaching strategy for primary students at Juan Bautista la Salle High-School from Florencia-

Caquetá. This research study presents, the importance of the improvement of reading

comprehension in primary students. The aim is to implement storytelling as a reading strategy. It

is certain that reading comprehension is a complex skill for students which required an automatic

and cognitive process. In this sense, Milord (2007) proposes that the area of understanding in

hearing stories, the students acquire new and significant vocabulary which promotes an

improvement in skills and an orderly structure in the elements of reading comprehension.

Therefore, this paper tends to explain the theoretical constructs, their relation, the setting,

participants, and variables, as well as expected outcomes, results, and implications. In the end,

there is an analysis of the importance of this research process for the context, my professional and

personal development. To sum up, the intention of this research is to examine the effects of

storytelling on reading comprehension through the integration of the arts.

Reading comprehension is the important construct in this proposal. For that reason, the

aim is focused on the implementation of storytelling through the art to enhance the understanding

of reading, due to those constructs complement the sense of this study. In the First place,

regarding reading, Milord (2007) explains that “reading is a multi-faceted process that includes

more than just decoding words. When teaching reading, classroom teachers must incorporate a

series of methods and activities that will promote reading comprehension” (p. 12). In this sense,

the reading comprehension looks as a complex process for students. In the second place, Aiex
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(1988) explains that storytelling is a strategy where the imagination takes an important role and

provides interaction in students. Finally, in regard to art, Milord (2007), “the benefits of art and

educational connections show that students can actively participate in these reading

comprehension reinforcement exercises and further strengthen and improve students' abilities”

(p.6). According to that, the arts incorporated in storytelling will awaken in the students an even

greater interest in the reading. All in all, storytelling could be an effective tool in reading

comprehension and the acquisition of the English language as a foreign language.

This project is going to be developed in a primary school called Juan Bautista la Salle

located in Florencia-Caquetá. This is one of the institutions responsible for providing educational

service to students from first to eleventh grade, located in the Vega neighborhood in Florencia.

The participants of this study will be students from third to fifth grade between 8 and 12 years

old. The participants show some weaknesses in terms of reading comprehension. In this order of

ideas, those students from first to third grade should have a level A1 and students from fourth to

fifth grade should have a level of A2 according to the standards of competencies presented in the

guide N. 22. In that order, students from primary section should develop some activities relate to

reading such as: identify words, understand short descriptions about people, known places, and

actions, read and understand authentic and simple texts about concrete events etc. On the

contrary, elementary students are not able to understand or identify short texts or phrases due to

lack of strategies on the part of teachers and the lack of reading comprehension.

Based on this study, it is expected to obtain positive results in the development of reading

comprehension, in order to harmonize and improve the ability through the implementation of

storytelling in students from the primary section. In this sense, this study will help not only

students but also teachers: at first place, teachers will get meaningful tools in order to teach in a

better way. They will have the opportunity to implement storytelling to improve reading
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comprehension. Thus, classes will cease to be traditional and could become creative. In the

second place, students of the primary section with the help of arts and storytelling could enhance

their reading comprehension. Likewise, it is expected that in the development of storytelling and

arts works in favor of students’ motivation during the classes. In short, the study will contribute

to the improvement of reading comprehension. Thus, the study allows the application of the art as

an alternative methodology, with the intention to reinforce reading and improve comprehension

of text to benefit students' motivation.

To conclude, I want to expose the following reasons why this research proposal is

important for my professional and personal development. Firstly, the proposal will help me to

increase research abilities in searching of new strategies to contribute to the education. Secondly,

it provides me the opportunity to explore and visualize other learning strategies to improve

reading comprehension in students of the primary section. Likewise, it allows me to innovate

teaching strategies that have not been deepened to improve reading comprehension. On the other

hand, this proposal helps me to strengthen the bond between teacher and students through drama

and theater. By doing this, I can really discover the different skills that my students possess and

that I should not underestimate the abilities that each one has. Finally, it depends on us as future

teachers to improve our educative context with attitude and commitment. In this way, our efforts

will be reflected in the learning process of our students. In closing, this study will get the

expected results in the main objective that is strengthen reading comprehension using storytelling

through drama and theater in students from the primary section in Juan Bautista la Salle from

Florencia-Caquetá.
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References

Gungor, Azur (2008) Journal for Learning through the Arts retrieved from:

https://escholarship.org/content/qt4d62r6p9/qt4d62r6p9.pdf

Milord (2007) The Effects of Using Storytelling on Reading Comprehension Through

Drama and Theater, retrieved from: file:///E:/Documentos/descargas/The-Effects-of-Using-

Storytelling-on-Reading-Comprehension-Throug.pdf

Handayani (2013) using children short stories to enhance students` reading

comprehension retrieved from:

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.912.6005&rep=rep1&type=pdf

MEN (2006) Estándares Básicos de Competencias en Lenguas Extranjeras: Inglés Guia

No 22, Retrieved from: https://www.mineducacion.gov.co/cvn/1665/articles-

115174_archivo_pdf.pdf