Developing Literacy Skills in Primary Schools through Theater-in- Education

Abstract

This paper investigated the effects of using theatre in teaching story reading in seven government primary schools within Awka town in Anambra State, Nigeria. The study was guided by one research question and one hypothesis. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 168 pupils from primary 3 classes (24 pupils from each of the seven schools). The population is divided into two to form the control group and the experimental group. Both groups were exposed to pre-test to ascertain their homogeneity level prior to teaching. A 12 item literacy performance test was the instrument used for data collection. Pre-test was administered to both groups before treatment. The experimental group was exposed to story reading lesson using theatrical activities while the control group was taught the same lesson using oral reading and explanation. Both groups were post tested after 4 weeks of teaching. The result revealed that the experimental group performed better than the control group. It was therefore recommended that the use of theatre should be encouraged in teaching story reading in primary schools because it is a vital tool for building literacy skills.