On the Efficacy of Process Drama as a Method of Teaching Collocations to Japanese University Students

Research Project

Project/Area Number	22K00831
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Section	一般
Review Section	Basic Section 02100:Foreign language education-related
Research Institution	Meijo University
Principal Investigator	川上綾名城大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (60805076)
Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha)	Rogers James 名城大学, 外国語学部, 准教授 (50533527)
Project Period (FY)	2022-04-01 – 2025-03-31
Project Status	Granted (Fiscal Year 2023)
Budget Amount *help	¥3,250,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥750,000) Fiscal Year 2024: ¥520,000 (Direct Cost: ¥400,000、Indirect Cost: ¥120,000) Fiscal Year 2023: ¥1,690,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000、Indirect Cost: ¥390,000) Fiscal Year 2022: ¥1,040,000 (Direct Cost: ¥800,000、Indirect Cost: ¥240,000)
Keywords	process drama / drama in education / new language acquisition / language correction / TESOL / collocations / Drama in Education / Collocations / Process Drama / Language Accuracy / Vocabulary Retention
Outline of Research at the Start	This study focuses on the Process Drama approach’s effectiveness in aiding language retention. Post-lesson test scores of students taught collocations using the model or a traditional direct study method will be compared to determine any difference of collocation acquisition between the methods.
Outline of Annual Research Achievements	The focus this year was to build upon the first phase of the research and to create lesson plans based on the model created. One challenge has been to create a process drama and traditional lesson plan of the same length of time in order to create a fair comparison. The finalized plan for the experiment has gone through ethics review and been approved. A pilot study has been implemented and the results of the pilot study have been analyzed with particular focus on the pre-experiment and post experiment tests which were analyzed by applying the Rasch model. Some slight modifications of the words and content are currently being finalized. Additionally, recruitment is to begin shortly. The experiment may need to be in two phases based on participant numbers and availability.
Current Status of Research Progress	Current Status of Research Progress 3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed. Reason The aim was to complete the experiments early on in the semester, however, due to challenges in recruiting students for the pilot study and some challenges in modification in order to create a more accurate comparison, recruitment for the experiment itself has been pushed back by a few months. In addition, it may be challenging to get all participants to be able to participate at once, and so there may need to be several sessions. Ideally, each session will be approximately 20 participants in order to simulate normal language classroom numbers.
Strategy for Future Research Activity	We are recruiting participants through distribution of information (flyers and emails to teachers) and organizing schedules. We are booking appropriate spaces in order to implement the experiment in alignment with participant schedules. We are printing out materials, making sure all the equipment is ready.