Creative Drama: A Possible Way to Alleviate Foreign Language Anxiety

Abstract

This study aims to identify the language anxiety level of students studying at a Turkish state university, and investigate the role of creative drama in reducing language anxiety in speaking classes. To have a general picture of students, 565 students were administered an adapted version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS). Then, a one-group pre-test/post-test study was carried out with 22 randomly selected students who attended a 6-week creative drama programme run by a researcher who had received creative drama and leadership training for 123 hours. The FLSAS (the adapted version of the FLCAS) was administered both at the beginning and end of the study. The findings from the questionnaires were analysed through the SPSS 16.0 software. A statistically significant decrease was found in the language anxiety levels of students who participated in the creative drama programme. Possible sources of language anxiety as well as the relationship between anxiety level and students’ proficiency level, and classroom performance grades are elaborated upon.