Abstract
Fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-grade students in a private rural school in Sabah, East Malaysia, participated in a 7-day pilot study to determine the efficacy of using puppets and natural science scripts in learning English. The experimental group read printed puppet scripts while listening to them on a battery-operated audiotape player, rehearsed several times while manipulating the puppets, and then presented to an audience of their peers. To minimize the Hawthorne effect, the control group was involved with distracter activities, such as creating some type of engaging craft object or listening to the researcher read an English-language illustrated story to them. Five students randomly chosen to be in the experimental group attained considerably higher average post-test than pre-test reading comprehension scores as well as slightly higher average post-test vocabulary scores on a standardized reading test. Average post-test scores for students in the control group stayed the same for reading comprehension and went down for vocabulary. The qualitative component of the study showed strong motivation and engagement on the part of the students who used puppets, suggesting that this approach may be valuable in teaching science terms to rural schoolchildren in Sabah.