Teaching Academic Writing through Dramas for Korean EFL University Students

This paper investigates the effect of using dramas in teaching academic writing for university-level EFL learners. In order to discover whether or not using dramas as a supportive tool for the ordinary textbook would lead to benefit in writing development, two groups of Korean university students with varying proficiency levels in a basic writing class were compared. The experimental group was taught with the dramas of their interest, whereas the control group was taught only with the two main textbooks. Both groups were taught how to write a good academic essay during one semester. The students' performance on the pre- and post-writing tests and their responses to the survey questionnaire were analyzed. It was found that the experimental group improved different areas of writing ability (i.e. content, organization, vocabulary, grammar, and mechanics) much more than the control group regardless of different proficiency levels. The former group also provided positive comments on the drama-based writing class, and showed high interest and motivation in developing their writing by making many revisions on their essays. It is thus confirmed that using dramas in English writing class would help Korean university students get more interest, become motivated, and consequently improve their overall writing ability.