A Study on the Effect of Role Playing vs. Question and Answer Method in the Reading Comprehension of Grade Six Students

Abstract

Various researchers have been undertaken to find out the best instructional procedure that would foster better reading performance. This researcher conducted a study to find out whether role playing or question and answer is best suited for the enhancement of reading comprehension among sixth graders. The study was conducted on thirty sixth graders of the College of the Holy Spirit, elementary department, of the school year 1990-1991. They were randomly selected from Grade six Ilang-Ilang and Hasmin, fifteen of which were assigned to the experimental group and fifteen to the control group. In the pretest and posttest, the control group used the question and answer method in discussing the short stories prior to the comprehension test. The experimental group was exposed to the question and answer method during the pretest and hard role playing as the post test. The results showed that there was no significant difference between the comprehension test scores of the control and experimental group.

This indicated that the two methods used were not any different from each other in enhancing reading comprehension. It could be attributed to the smallness of the sample. Hence, the difference of the effects of the methods were not clearly defined. The researcher suggests that another study similar to this be conducted to a larger number of subjects. Using the time series experimental design instead of the pretest – posttest control group design might also be more ideal in bringing out the effect of the methods tested. She also suggests that the eclectic approach be tested against the question and answer recitation. By this, the different techniques or teaching aids would be combined into one approach in the study of a certain subject. This approach will then be compared to a single method like question and answer for instance, in order to determine which method is more beneficial to the students.