The Use of Drama in Developing the Skill of Speaking in Standard Arabic Among Third Grade Arabic Speaking Students Dina Antar Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, School of Arts & Sciences, American University of Ras Al Khaimah, Ras Al Khaimah, United Arab Emirates Abstract—This research aims to develop the skill of speaking Standard Arabic among third-grade Arabic- speaking students through using drama. The research sample consisted of 60 third-grade Arabic native students. Their ages ranged between 8-9 years, with a mean of 8.55, and a standard deviation of 0.50. They were divided into two equal groups; experimental and control groups. Each group consists of 30 students. Moreover, the research tools consisted of a test of speaking skill in Standard Arabic, and a drama program (prepared by the researcher).The results related to the post-measurement revealed the effectiveness of drama in developing speaking Standard Arabic language in the experimental group, compared to the control group. Moreover, there were no statistically significant differences between the post and follow-up measurements. Index Terms—drama, speaking, standard Arabic language, third grade I. INTRODUCTION Speaking is one of the four language skills that are indispensable for communication. We cannot imagine living without a way to communicate verbally with those around us. Moreover, speaking is one of the skills that need to be developed inside and outside the classroom. Its development depends more on practice in the external environment and interaction through it with others, not just studying or memorizing words. Much importantly, learning a new language requires practice; using the newly acquired utterances in real life situations. Unfortunately, the environment is not always conducive to practicing the language naturally even if it is one's own mother tongue. For example, being a native speaker of Arabic doesn't indicate that a person is able to speak Standard Arabic. In this case, the person may speak one or more dialects of Arabic, but he finds it difficult to speak Standard Arabic, especially in the situations in which this research was applied. This research was applied in Dubai. It was applied on a sample of students of International schools who speak English for most of their school day and then return home. Moreover, surveys conducted on parents of these students indicate that nearly 70% of these students speak English or another foreign language in their homes, despite the fact that they are Arab students. The remaining 28% speak Arabic in its colloquial dialects, not the standard Arabic. In this respect, the Standard Arabic is rarely used, as in the Arabic language class, which lasts for an hour, on a daily basis, which is not enough time to develop students' speaking. As this study aims to develop all the four Arabic skills, it is argued that the speaking skill in Standard Arabic is not given sufficient time, bearing in mind that the majority of these students are Muslim students, based on the data and information records of these students in the school. This indicates their need to use the Standard Arabic on a daily basis. That is, the Noble Qur’an and the hadiths of the Prophet are in Standard Arabic, so are Arabic books, TV shows and online programs, most of which are also in Standard Arabic, not colloquial dialects. Moreover, since the UAE is an Arabic country, looking for a job in the future and conducting interviews necessitates that the applicant should be able to communicate in both Arabic and English. This point represents a significant motive behind conducting this research in an international school, Dubai Arab American School. It is a school that follows the American curriculum. Its area, the Muhaisnah area, is inhabited by people of different nationalities; more than 50 nationalities, Arab and non-Arab, with 60% of Arab students, compared to 40% of non-Arab students. Students gather together, Arabs and non-Arabs, in all the lessons of the school day and separate only in the lessons of Arabic and Islamic education. Thus, most of their conversations are in English for most of the school day. Due to the different nationalities of Arab students, they speak different dialects. They even resort to speaking in English most of the time, perhaps because they think that the English language is more easy and smooth on their tongue. They get used to use it throughout the school day. This research was applied to a sample of third-grade students, who speak Arabic, in the school year 2021-2022, September 2021-December 2021. Their ages ranged between seven to eight years. An experimental sample was selected to which the drama strategy was applied, and a control sample to which the mentioned strategy was not applied. It was noted that the third-grade native students have poor levels of speaking Standard Arabic. This is due to the variation in ISSN 1799-2591 Theory and Practice in Language Studies, Vol. 13, No. 7, pp. 1601-1613, July 2023 DOI: https://doi.org/10.17507/tpls.1307.01 © 2023 ACADEMY PUBLICATION