USING SCRIPTED ROLE PLAY TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL WEAK STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCES

THESIS USING SCRIPTED ROLE-PLAY TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL WEAK STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCES SỬ DỤNG KĨ THUẬT ĐÓNG VAI CÓ KỊCH BẢN NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KĨ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH YẾU

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY - -

TRẦN THỊ MAI

M A THESIS USING SCRIPTED ROLE-PLAY TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL

WEAK STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCES

SỬ DỤNG KĨ THUẬT ĐÓNG VAI CÓ KỊCH BẢN NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KĨ

NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH YẾU

BẬC TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG

Major: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Language (TESOL)

Code: 60.14.01.11

NGHE AN- 2017

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY - -

TRẦN THỊ MAI

M A THESIS USING SCRIPTED ROLE-PLAY TO IMPROVE HIGH SCHOOL

WEAK STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCES

SỬ DỤNG KĨ THUẬT ĐÓNG VAI CÓ KỊCH BẢN NHẰM CẢI THIỆN KĨ

NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH YẾU

I gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and support of many individuals in assisting me

to accomplish this study.

First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved supervisorNguyen Thi Quyet, Ph.D for her valuable time, suggestions, guidance, and assistance in this study Without her help, the thesis would not have been completed

I would also like to thank the students of the classes I visited in order to collectinformation for my research Without their help, this study could not have beensuccessful

Finally, my thanks go to my colleagues, friends and especially my belovedfamily I feel greatly indebted to them for their essential help and encouragement

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work The data and findings discussed

in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Scope of study 3

1.5 Method of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 5

2.1 Speaking skill 5

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill 5

2.1.2 Types of spoken language 5

2.1.3 Characteristics of spoken language 6

2.1.4 Aspects of speaking skills 8

2.1.5 Communicative competence 9

2.1.6 Teaching Speaking 9

2.1.6.1 Principles for teaching speaking 10

2.1.6.2 Types of classroom speaking performance 13

2.1.6.3 Classroom speaking activities 16

2.1.6.4 Designing lesson plans 18

2.1.6.5 The roles of the teacher and the students in speaking class 19

2.1.7 Difficulties learners have when learning speaking 20

2.1.8 The assessment of speaking skill 21

2.2 Role-play 22

2.2.1 The definition of role-play 22

2.2.2 The Advantages of role-play 24

2.2.3 Steps in applying role-play 25

2.2.4 Types Role-plays 31

2.2.4.1 Scripted role-play 31

2.2.4.2 Unscripted role-play 32

2.2.4.3 The strength of using Scripted role-play 33

2.2.4.4 Memorization in role-plays 34

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 35

3.1 Research questions 35

3.2 Participants 35

3.3 Materials 35

3.4 Procedure 37

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 40

4.1 Results 40

4.1.1 The results of The general English test 40

4.1.2 Pre- and post-test results 41

4.1.3 Results from Questionnaires 48

4.2 Discussion 51

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 53

5.1 Conclusion 53

5.2 Implications 54

5.3 Limitations of the study 54

5.4 Suggestions for further study 55

REFERENCES 56 APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B IV APPENDIX C V APPENDIX D VI APPENDIX E VII APPENDIX F VIII APPENDIX G IX APPENDIX H X APPENDIX I XI APPENDIX J XII APPENDIX K XIV APPENDIX L XIX

LIST OF TABLES

Page

Table 3 1: List the sixteen topics in the textbook “English 10” 36Table 3 2: The lesson plan’s time allocation 37Table 4 1: The average total scores and standard deviations of the general English

test in the experimental group and the control group 40Table 4 2: The means, medians and modes of the experimental group in the pre-test

and the post-test 41Table 4 3: The means, medians and modes of the control group in the pre-test and

the post-test 41Table 4 4: Student satisfaction levels in scripted role-play for improving speaking

skills 49

LIST OF FIGURES

Page

Figure 4 1: The improvement of students of the experimental group in all aspects of

speaking skills from the pre-test to the post-test 43Figure 4 2: The grammar results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test .44Figure 4 3: The vocabulary results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test 45Figure 4 4: The pronunciation results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test

46Figure 4 5: The comprehension results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-

test 47Figure 4 6: The fluency results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test 48Figure 4 7: Students’ attitudes toward using scripted role-play 51

Role-play is very prominent in English speaking classroom because it allowsstudents to have more oral practice in different social contexts and roles Thepurpose of this study was the to find out whether or not scripted role-play couldmake a difference in improving weak students’ speaking skill achievement andinvestigate the students’ attitudes toward using these activities in teaching speakingskill The population of research was 70 tenth grade students of Trieu Son 1 Highschool in the academic year of 2016 - 2017 divided into two groups, experimentalgroup and control group The author carried out the general English test, pre-test,post test with questionnaires for students The rubric was used to measure students’speaking performance The findings showed that (1) there was a significantimprovement in speaking skill of the weak students, (2) there was also a significantmean difference between the speaking skill of the experimental and control group,(3) The students were interested in scripted role play activities, they felt moreconfident and relaxed when acting out roles in public Hence, from the researchfindings, it could be concluded that scripted role-play can significantly improve theweak students’ speaking skill achievement in English teaching and learningenvironment

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Rationale

In this globalization era, English has become an the important means ofinternational communication It plays recognizable roles in almost every society,whether large or small, across the globe Today, everyone needs to know English

in order to get connected with world communities and to exploit their knowledgeresources Indeed, the use of English has been increasing throughout the world Theincreasing demand of good communication skills in English has activated Englishteaching around the world (Richard, 2006) English language competence,especially the ability to communicate in English becomes a primary concern ofteaching programs launched at any education level in countries In Vietnam, todayEnglish is taught in every level; Vietnamese students are required to study thelanguage from primary school to university In fact, most of them spend more thansix years learning English through formal education Despite such a long time oflearning English in school, the results of their studying immensely vary

In teaching and learning English, there are four micro language skills, they arespeaking, listening, reading and writing One of those components, speaking, as aproductive skill, seems intuitively the most important of all the four language skillsbecause it can distinctly show the correctness and language errors that a languagelearner makes As English teachers, we can see that in some English classes thereare few students who can speak the language fluently The first problem faced bystudents in speaking skill that they do not have sufficient vocabulary As a result,they find it difficult to express their ideas when the teacher wants them to speak inEnglish The second problem is that the students feel afraid of making mistakeswhen they converse in English Therefore, many students are not confident to speakand take part in classroom interactions In addition to, A possible reason for this isthat the English classroom is too rigid The students always sit and listen to theteacher emphasizing the structure of language rather than participating in activitiesthat promote communication skills, or the development of even basic oral ability

The activities for speaking skills in the English book are good, however, forstudents who are eager for new knowledge and various activities, changing theactivities to make them more interesting is necessary which can contribute to thesuccess of the lesson as well as the final results Many English teachers haveconsequently shifted their lessons to make them more active by employingCommunicative Language Teaching (CLT) As the teaching method focuses onproviding students opportunities to use the target language, many activities areintroduced to the students in order to develop their speaking ability One of the mostpopular activities chosen by the teachers is role-play It is demonstrated in a number

of studies that role-play helps to improve the students speaking ability effectively(Alwahibee, 2004; Klanrit, 2007; Liu & Ding, 2009) Role-play has been considered

an effective approach in a communicative classroom to developing skills inactive listening, problem-solving, working as a team, and communicatingeffectively, among others (Rao, 2011)

The role-play activities typically used in a language classroom can beclassified into two types: scripted and non-scripted role-plays In scripted role-play, the students have to act out through the script given on assigned situations

by using the target language in pairs or in small groups In non-scripted role-play,

on the other hand, they are asked to act out a conversation in front of the classwithout preparing or writing the script in advance (Byrne, 1986) When doingthe scripted role-play, the students have time to prepare the scripts and rehearsethem to achieve the ability to speak smoothly Students, especially with lowEnglish proficiency, often find scripted role-plays easier to handle, thus being amore popular choice in English conversation classrooms (Chotirat, 2010) Non-scripted role-play, on the other hand, seems to be far too complicated, given thefact that students have limited knowledge of the target language and littleopportunity to prepare for it

Scripted role-play therefore seems to be a more appropriate choice ofactivity to promote meaningful communication in a low-level language

classroom Furthermore, there have been few studies that examined theimplementation of this role-play type for weak students in Vietnam

Based on these reasons, the researcher is interested in conducting a study on

“Using scripted role-play to improve high school weak students’ speaking performances”

1.2 Aims of the study

This study aims at determining how scripted role-plays can help to improveoral English performances of high school weak students and examining thestudents’ attitudes toward using scripted role play activities in teaching and learningEnglish

on choosing the activities: using scripted role-play in speaking lessons, evaluatingthe results and give implications

1.5 Method of the study

To conduct this study, the researcher used the experimental method To collectdata, the used instruments are the general English test, pre-test, post-test, andquestionnaire

The general English test was used to assess the students’ English ability andevaluate their English level.

The pre-test was used to investigate English speaking level and skills of thestudents before joining the applied procedure

The post-test was used to determine the effectiveness of the technique used bythe students during the research process by comparing with the pre-test scores The questionnaires were used to investigate the students’ attitude toward usingscripted role-play

1.6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters

Chapter I - Introduction - includes rationale for the study, the aims, methods,

scope, and design of the study

Chapter II - Theoretical background - presents the concepts and definitions to

be used in the study such as the definition of speaking, the principles of teachingspeaking, the concepts of role-plays, scripted role-play, etc

Chapter III - Methodology - presents the background information of the

subjects of the study, the instrument used to collect data, the procedure of datacollection and the procedure of data analysis

Chapter IV - Findings and discussion - is aimed at describing data analysis in

detail and a thorough discussion of the findings of the study

Chapter V - Conclusion - gives the summary of the findings and some

suggestion for further research are also mentioned in the last chapter

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

2.1 Speaking skill

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill

There are many definitions of speaking that have been proposed by someexperts in language learning

Brown (2001, p.267) cites that when someone can speak a language it meansthat he can carry on a conversation reasonably competently In addition, he statesthat the benchmark of successful acquisition of language is almost always thedemonstration of an ability to accomplish pragmatic goals through an interactivediscourse with other language speakers

Richards and Renandya (2002, p.204) state that effective oral communicationrequires the ability to use the language appropriately in social interactions thatinvolves not only verbal communication but also paralinguistic elements of speechsuch as pitch, stress, and intonation Moreover, non-linguistic elements such asgestures, body language, and expressions are needed in conveying messagesdirectly without any accompanying speech

Brown (2007, p.237) states that social contact in interactive languagefunctions is a key importance and in which it is not what you say that counts buthow you say it what you convey with body language, gestures, eye contact, physicaldistance and other non-verbal messages

To sum up, there are different ways to define speaking, i.e speaking as an action, a process and a skill.

In this study, the term “speaking” will be used as a skill related to language teaching and learning In the next part, issues related to teaching speaking skills will be presented.

2.1.2 Types of spoken language

There are two types of spoken language according to Brown (2001, p.251).They are monologue and dialogue In monologue of spoken language, when onespeaker uses spoken language for any length of time, the hearer must process longstretches of speech without interruption-the stream of speech will go on whether ornot the hearer comprehends Monologue is categorized into two subtypes They areplanned and unplanned monologues

Planned monologues usually manifest little redundancy and are thereforerelatively difficult to comprehend Unplanned monologues exhibit moreredundancy; which is made for ease in comprehension, but the presence of moreperformance variables and other hesitations can either help or hindercomprehension.

Meanwhile, dialogues involve two or more speakers and can be subdividedinto those exchanges that promote social relationships (interpersonal) and those forwhich the purpose is to convey proportional or factual information (transactional).Those subcategories are classified further into familiar and unfamiliar categories Ineach case, participants may have a good deal of shared knowledge (backgroundinformation, schemata); therefore, the familiarity of the interlocutors will produceconversation with more assumptions, implications, and other meanings hiddenbetween the lines In conversations between or among participants who areunfamiliar with each other, references and meanings have to be made more explicit

to assure effective comprehension

(Adapted from Nunan 1991b: 20-21)

2.1.3 Characteristics of spoken language

According to Brown (2001, p.270), there are some characteristics of spoken language that can make oral performance easy Those characteristics are:

Clustering

Fluent speech is phrasal, not word by word Learners can recognize theiroutput both cognitively and physically (in breath groups) through such clustering

Redundancy

The speaker has opportunity to make meaning clearer through the redundancy

of language Learners can capitalize on this feature of spoken language

Reduced forms

Contractions, elisions, reduced vowels, etc., all form special problems in teachingspoken English Students who do not learn colloquial contractions can sometimesdevelop a stilted, bookish a quality of speaking that in turn stigmatize them

Performance variables

One of the advantages of spoken language is that the process of thinking asyou speak allows you to manifest a certain number of performance hesitations,pauses, backtrackings, and corrections Learners can actually be taught how topause and hesitate for example, in English our “thinking time” is not silent; weinsert certain “fillers” such as “uh”, “um”, “well”, “you know”, “I mean”, “like”,etc one of the most salient differences between native and non-native speakers of alanguage is in their hesitation phenomena

Colloquial language

Make sure your students are reasonably well acquainted with the words,idioms, and phrases of colloquial language and they get practice in producing theseforms

Rate of delivery

Another salient characteristic of fluency is rate of delivery One of your tasks

in teaching spoken English is to help learners achieve an acceptable speed alongwith other attributes of fluency

Stress, rhythm, and intonation

This is the most important characteristic of English pronunciation The timed rhythm of spoken English and intonation patterns convey important messages

stress-Interaction

Learning to produce waves of language in a vacuum – without interlocutors –would rob speaking skill of its richest component: the creativity of conversationalnegotiation

2.1.4 Aspects of speaking skills

There are some items such as pronunciation, vocabulary, fluency, and accuracyshould be concerned in speaking skill.

Pronunciation

Pronunciation is a basic quality of language learning It is closely related to thespeaking ability It deals with the way we say, articulate, assimilate, intonate, andstress words Having poor pronunciation skill can obscure communication andprevent an ESL student from making meaningful utterances Harmer (2007) sayspronunciation teaching does not only make students aware of different sounds andsound features, but also can improve their speaking immeasurably such asconcentrate on sounds and make students aware of using stress when speaking

Vocabulary

Vocabulary is a foundation of a language It is a requirement students need tohave a good speaking ability McCarty (1990) states the biggest component of anylanguage courses are vocabulary In addition, Harmer (2007) says if the studentshave more vocabularies or at least 1000 words, they can communicate fluently

Fluency

Fluency deals with how comfortable students are when they speak, how easilythe words come out, whether there are great pauses and gaps in the student’sspeaking It is a parameter of students’ speaking ability goal It deals with thequality of the way they speak fluently

Accuracy

Spratt (2005, p.34) defines accuracy as the use of correct forms of grammar,vocabulary and pronunciation And Miller (2003) says accuracy as the ability toproduce correct sentences using correct grammar and vocabulary He said thataccuracy is relative As we can show that a child in early primary is not capable ofthe same level of accuracy as an adult

2.1.5 Communicative competence

Language teaching is based on the idea that the goal of language acquisition iscommunicative competence that is a term in linguistic which refers to a languageuser’s grammatical knowledge of syntax, morphology, phonology as well as social

knowledge about how and when to use utterances appropriately According toCanale and Swain (1980, p.47) Communicative competence is made up of fourcompetence areas: linguistic, sociolinguistic, discourse, and strategic.

Linguistic competence is knowing how to use the grammar, syntax, andvocabulary of a language Linguistic competence asks: What words do I use? How

do I put them into phrases and sentences?

Sociolinguistic competence is knowing how to use and respond to languageappropriately, given the setting, the topic, and the relationships among the peoplecommunicating Sociolinguistic competence asks: Which words and phrases fit thissetting and this topic? How can I express a specific attitude (courtesy, authority,friendliness, respect) when I need to? How do I know what attitude another person

is expressing?

Discourse competence is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how

to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole.Discourse competence asks: How are words, phrases and sentences put together tocreate conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles?

Strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair communicationbreakdowns, how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, andhow to learn more about the language and in the context Strategic competenceasks: How do I know when I’ve misunderstood or when someone hasmisunderstood me? What do I say then? How can I express my ideas if I don’t knowthe name of something or the right verb form to use?

In conclusion, communicative competence is admitted as the ability to use thelanguage system appropriately in any circumstances with regard the function andvarieties of language as well as shared social cultural supposition

2.1.6 Teaching Speaking

Speaking ability is a primary goal in learning a language It becomes acompulsory for the English teachers to guide the students to achieve that primarygoal by teaching speaking as interesting as possible Teaching is guiding learners instudying and getting new knowledge, skills, or attitudes Brown (2000, p.7) says

that teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, givinginstructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing

to know or understand Furthermore, he adds that speaking cannot be defined apartfrom learning, for teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner

to learn, and setting the condition for learning The following part presentsprinciples for teaching speaking, some types of classroom speaking performance,classroom speaking activities and designing lesson plans for speaking lesson

2.1.6.1 Principles for teaching speaking

Speaking is a productive skill According to O’Grady (1996), it is a mentalprocess This means that it is a psychological process by which a speaker puts amental concept into some linguistic form, such as word, phrases and sentences used

to convey a message of listener So the speech production in the process by whichthe speakers turn their mental concept into their spoken utterances to convey amessage to their listeners in communicative interaction

However many theories about teaching speaking skills , it still remains thematter of memory Thus, there are several general principles for successful teaching,which are valid for any method According H.D Brown (2007), the principles are:

- Focus on fluency and accuracy

- Use intrinsically motivating techniques based on students students goals and interest

- Use authentic language in meaningful contexts

- Provide appropriate feedback and correction

- Optimize the natural link between listening and speaking

- Give students the opportunity to initiate oral communication

- Develop speaking strategies

Of these strategies, we would like to clarify them in the following sections

2.1.6.1.1 Focus on fluency and accuracy

Accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people actuallysay when they use the target language Fluency is the extent to which speakers usethe language quickly and confidently, with few hesitations or unnatural pauses, falsestarts, word search, etc

In our current interactive language teaching, we can easily slip into interactiveactivities that don’t capitalize on grammatical pointers or pronunciation tips Weneed to bear in mind a spectrum of learner needs, from language-based focus onaccuracy to message-based focus on interaction, meaning and fluency When theteacher does a jigsaw group technique, play a game, or discuss solutions to theenvironmental crisis, she should bear in mind a linguistic (language-based)objective, and seize the opportunity to help students to perceive and use the buildingblocks of language At the same time, she should not bore students with lifeless,repetitious drills In other words, the teacher should make any drilling asmeaningful as possible The students can not develop fluency is the teacher isconstantly interrupting them to correct their oral errors Teachers must providestudents with fluency building practice and realize that making mistakes is a naturalpart of learning a new language.

2.1.6.1.2 Provide intrinsically motivating techniques

The teacher should appeal to students’ ultimate goals and interests, to theirneed for knowledge, for status, for achieving competence and autonomy, and for

“being all that they can be” Even in those techniques that are not very interesting,the teacher should help them to see how the activity will benefit them Oftenstudents don’t know why teachers ask them to do certain things, therefore, it is theteacher’s duty to tell them about the aim of the activity so that they would feelmotivated in doing it

2.1.6.1.3 Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts

This topic has been discussed for a long time Keeping come up with meaninginteraction is not easy Both teacher and students are used to using language inisolating way while devising authentic contexts and meaningful interaction takes alot of energy and creativity However, with the help of storehouse of teacherresource material, it can be done

2.1.6.1.4 Provide appropriate feedback and correction

Students are often dependent on the teacher for useful linguistic feedback inmost situations It is teachers’ responsibility to provide accurate and useful feedback

to the students to help the learn and grow Providing appropriate feedback andcorrection may help students to improve their ability However, it is important toremember that when giving feedback, the teachers make sure that it iscomprehensible to the students and allows them to analyse and fix their mistakes

2.1.6.1.5 Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening

It may seem common knowledge, but the techniques used to teach speakingalso involve aspects of listening Don’t lose out on opportunities to integrate thesetwo skills As you are perhaps focusing on speaking goals, listening goals maynaturally coincide, and the two skills can reinforce each other Skills in producinglanguage are often initiated through comprehension so assisting students in theirlistening skills will go a long way to help them understand speaking

2.1.6.1.6 Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication

A good deal of typical classroom interaction is initiated by teacher We askquestions, give directions, and provide information while the students areconditioned only to “speak when spoken to” Part of oral communicationcompetence is the ability to initiate conversation, to introduce new topicsdiscussion, to ask questions, to control conversations, and to change the subject Asthe teachers are planing and creating speaking activities, ask themselves if they haveallow the students to initiate language

2.1.6.1.7 Encourage the development of speaking strategies.

Students are allowed to learn from the teacher and are assessed based on theirperformance in tests and other performance based evaluations, however the growthand development of their skills is unknown Most of the time, the students are able

to digest the knowledge but not develop their own personal strategies foraccomplishing oral communication The classroom is designed to help studentsbecome aware of and have a chance to practice, such strategies as:

Ě Asking for clarification (what?)

Ě Asking someone to repeat something (pardon me?, Huh?Excuse me?)

Ě Using fillers (uh, I mean, Well) in order to gain (to get) time to process

Ě Using conversation maintenance cues (Uh-huh,Right, Yeah, OK, Hmm)

Ě Getting someone’s attention (Hey, Say, So)

Ě Using paraphrasing for structures one can’t produce

Ě Appealing for assistance from the interlocutor (to get a word or phrase, forexample)

Ě Using formulaic expressions (at the survival-stage)

(How much does cost? How do you get to the ?)

Ě Using mime and non-verbal expressions to convey meaning

We have just discussed different principles to teaching speaking and the types

of classroom speaking performance will be presented in the following part

2.1.6.2 Types of classroom speaking performance

There are six types of speaking performance that students are expected to carry out in the classroom (Brown, 2001, p.271) The six types of speaking

performances in the classroom are presented as follows:

a) Imitative

In this type of performance, the students are asked to repeat or imitate theteacher’s speech or tape recorder Imitation of this kind is carried out not for thepurpose of meaningful interactive but for focusing on some particular elements oflanguage form In other words, this activity focuses more on form rather than onmeaning Such activity is also called “drilling” Drills offer students opportunity tolisten and to orally repeat certain strings of language that may pose some linguisticdifficulties-either phonological or grammatical They offer limited practice throughrepetition Furthermore, Brown (2001, p 272) says that drills can help to establishcertain psycho-motor patterns (to “loosen the tongue”) and to associate selectedgrammatical forms with their appropriate context

From the statements above, it can be interpreted that drilling is still importantfor teaching speaking, mainly pronunciation and intonation as long as it is notoverused and students know why they are doing it

b) Intensive

In this type of performance, the students deal with their linguistic difficultieseither phonological or grammatical aspect of language Brown (2001, p 273) statesthat intensive speaking goes one step beyond imitative to include any speakingperformance that is designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspect

of language Intensive speaking can be self-initiated or it can even form part ofsome pair work activity, where learners are “going over” certain forms of language.c) Responsive

In this type of performance, students may give short replies to teacher or evenstudents have an initiative for asking questions or comments Student’s responsesusually sufficient and do not extend into dialogues However, such speech can bemeaningful and authentic

d) Transactional (dialogue)

In this type of performance, students are involved in exchanging specificinformation with their conversational partners This activity is carried out for thepurpose of conveying or exchanging specific information In this case, Brown(2001, p.273) says that transactional language is an extended form of responsivelanguage It may have more a negotiate nature than merely responsive speech

e) Interpersonal (dialogue)

In this type of performance, students actively participate in the authentic giveand take of communicative interchange This type of activity is carried out more forpurpose of maintaining social relationships than for the transmission of fact andinformation

f) Extensive (monologue)

In this type of performance, students are called on to give extendedmonologues in the form of oral reports, summaries, or perhaps short speeches Thisperformance is to develop students’ global oral ability of producing spokenlanguage which is more formal and deliberate

2.1.6.3 Classroom speaking activities

Teaching speaking should be taught in attractive and communicative activities.There are many types of classroom speaking activities Harmer (2001, pp 348-352)states six classroom speaking activities They are acting from script,communicationgames, discussion, prepared talks, questionnaires, simulation, and role play

a Acting from script

Playing scripts and acting out the dialogues are two kinds of acting scripts thatshould be considered by the teacher in the teaching and learning process In theplaying scripts, it is important for the students to teach it as real acting The role ofthe teacher in this activity is as theatre directors, drawing attention to appropriatestress, intonation, and speed This means that the lines they speak will have realmeaning By giving students practice in these things before they give their finalperformances, the teacher ensures that acting out is both a learning and languageproducing activity In acting the dialogue, the students will be very helped if theyare given time to rehearse their dialogues before the performance.The students willgain much more from the whole experience in the process

b Communication games

Games are designed to provoke communication between students The gamesare made based on the principle of the information gap so that one student has totalk to a partner in order to solve a puzzle, draw a picture, put a thing in the rightorder, or find similarities and differences between pictures Television and radiogames, imported into the classroom, often provide good fluency activities

c Discussion

Discussion is probably the most commonly used activity in the oral skillsclass Here, the students are allowed to express their real opinions According toHarmer (2001, p.272) discussion range is divided into several stages from highlyformal, whole-group staged events to informal small-group interactions The first isthe buzz groups that can be used for a whole range of discussion For example,students are expected to predict the content of a reading text, or talk about theirreactions after reading the text The second is instant comments which can train

students to respond fluently and immediately is to insert ‘instant comment’ miniactivities into lessons This involves showing them photographs or introducingtopics at any stage of a lesson and nominating students to say the first thing thatcomes into their head The last is formal debates Students prepare arguments infavour or against various propositions The debate will be started when those whoare appointed as ‘panel speaker’ produce well-rehearsed ‘writing like’ argumentswhereas others, the audience, pitch in as the debate progresses with their ownthoughts on the subject.

d Prepared talks

Students make a presentation on a topic of their own choice Such talks arenot designed for informal spontaneous conversations because they are preparedand more ‘writing like’ However, if possible students should speak from notesrather than from a script

f Simulation and Role-play

Simulation and role-play can be used to encourage general oral fluency, or totrain students for specific situations Students can act out simulation as them or take

on the role of completely different character and express thoughts and feelings asthey doing in the real world Those activities can be used by teachers to teachspeaking Teachers can choose an activity that related to the topic and objective ofthe lesson Besides, they must consider the situation, condition of the students andmaterials that will be taught For example, they use simulation and role-playactivities when they teach expressions Teachers can ask them to write somedialogues and after that they have to act them out in front of the class It may beused by the teachers in using acting from script In discussion, teachers can use

some pictures or maybe videos in a certain situation These activities can be used asthe way to measure how far students can speak, say and express their feeling inEnglish

In summary, there are variety of activities in speaking lesson However,teacher can choose a appropriate activities depends on many factors such as level ofstudents, materials, topic or objectives of the lesson

From these variations of speaking activities, role-play was chosen as one ofsuitable tasks to improve weak high school students’ speaking ability by creatingthe situation for learners to actively interact in the language; thereby the languagelearning is more meaningful At the same time, the learners are introduced to thedifferent styles-listening, remembering, discussing, writing and presenting Thestudents are hoped to be able to improve and enhance their own ability in mastering

of speaking competence in their daily life communicatively and actively

2.1.6.4 Designing lesson plans

Speaking lesson plan is composed in this study based on PPP method PPPstands for Presentation, Practice, and Production It is a teaching model thatconsists of three stages The first stage is presentation, the second is practice, andthe third is production (Harmer 1998)

PPP becomes an effective model for teaching simple language at lower level

It becomes less appropriate when the students already know a lot of language(Harmer 1998) This model then becomes appropriate to teach speaking in juniorhigh school since the students are in low level of proficiency

Harmer (2001) adds that in this procedure, the teacher introduces a situationwhich contextualizes the language to be taught then the language is presented Afterthe students practice the new language, they have to use it and make sentences oftheir own The following are the stages of this procedure

Presentation

In this stage, the teacher presents the context and situation for the languageand both explains and demonstrates the meaning and form of the new language

In this stage the students practice making new sentences of new forms of thelanguage Usually the teacher puts them in pairs to practice the sentences beforelistening to a few examples just to check that learning has been effective

Production

This is the end stage of PPP In this stage students are asked to use the newlanguage in sentences of their own

2.1.6.5 The roles of the teacher and the students in speaking class

2.1.6.5.1 The roles of the teacher

A crucial parts of teacher job when organizing speaking activities is to makesure that the students understand exactly what they are supposed to do Thisinvolves giving clear and appropriate instructions and demonstrating the activitywith a student so that no one is in doubt what they should do Harmer (2007, p.347) gives some teacher’s roles in order to help students in speaking activities asfollow:

(1) As a prompter; the teacher helps and supports the students by offeringsome suggestions without disrupting the activity done by the students

(2) As a participant; the teacher and the students may talk togethercommunicatively as near-equal participants It means that the teacher can join intothe activity but still under the term of scaffolding

(3) As a feedback provider; the teacher has to be tactful in giving appropriatefeedback in a particular situation Helpful and give a calm correction may getstudents out of difficult misunderstanding and hesitations

Davies and Pearce (2005, p.127) also explain some roles of a teacher,especially in managing the class Those are as follows:

(1) Present new information, control accuracy practice from the front, andmake sure that as many learners as possible participate in the class and that mosterrors are corrected

(2) Organize and facilitate lock-step fluency and skills activities from thefront, encouraging voluntary participation and ignoring most errors

(3) Monitor individual, pair, or group activities, moving around among thelearners and helping the learners when they face difficulty.

(4) Inform the learners about their progress, trying to combineencouragement with honest evaluation and useful feedback

From the mentioned roles above, it can be said that there are many roles of theteacher, indeed, but the crucial point to consider is that which roles will be major to

be applied in the classes depends on many factors such as the culture, context, type

of the course, the student’s level and characteristics, etc

2.1.6.5.2 The roles of the students

Nunan (1989, p.86) states that in oral interaction tasks, the students arerequires to put language role a range of uses, to use language which has beenimperfectly mastered, and to negotiate meaning rather than simply repeating andabsorbing the language

However, not all students are good learners who have the consciousness of theimportance of the learning There are often many reluctant students in the class,especially when dealing with speaking Here, the teacher should play his/her rolesappropriately to help the students successful in learning speaking

2.1.7 Difficulties learners have when learning speaking

For Ur (1996), there are some speaking problems that teachers can comeacross in getting students to talk in the classroom These are: inhibition, lack oftopical knowledge, low or uneven participation and mother-tongue use The firstproblem that the students often encounter is inhibition When students try to saythings in a foreign language in the classroom they are often inhibited They areworried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face They are shy ofthe attention that their speech attracts Littlewood (2007) asserts that a foreignlanguage classroom to can create inhibitions and anxiety easily Secondly, learnersoften complain that they cannot think of anything to say and they have nomotivation to express themselves Rivers (1968) believes that the learners havenothing to express maybe because the teacher had chosen a topic which is notsuitable for him or about which he knows very little It is difficult for many students

to respond when the teachers ask them to say something in a foreign languagebecause they might have little ideas about what to say, which vocabulary to use, orhow to use the grammar correctly (Baker & Westrup, 2003) Another problem inspeaking class is that participation is low or uneven In a large group, each studentwill have very little talking time because only one participant can talk at a time sothat others can hear him/her There is a tendency of some learners to dominate whileothers speak very little or not at all Finally, when all or a number of learners sharethe same mother-tongue, they tend to use it because it is easier for them Harmer(1991) suggests some reasons why students use mother tongue in class Firstly,when the students are asked to have a discussion about a topic that they areincapable of, if they want to say anything about the topic, they will use their ownlanguage Another reason is that the use of mother- tongue is a natural thing to do.

In addition, using the first language to explain something to another may receive theteacher’s encouragement Finally, if the teachers frequently use the students’language, the students will feel comfortable to do it

In closing, in language classroom, the students often get fear of makingmistakes, losing face, criticism, and shyness They have problems with findingmotives to speak, formulating opinions or relevant comments In group somestudents have tend of speaking a lot and some little or not at all They find it easier

or more natural to express themselves in their native language.All above problemsgive negative effect to learners’ speaking ability

2.1.8 The assessment of speaking skill

Speaking is a complex skill requiring the simultaneous use of differentability which often develops at different roles Speaking skill are generallyrecognized in analysis of speech process that are pronunciation, grammar,vocabulary, fluency and comprehension The form is used to evaluate the students’role-plays was adapted from the rubric used in Harris (1969) to score an oralinterview The form package consists of two different types of documents: thecriterion sheet and the evaluation form

The criterion sheet explains the criteria of each scale for the teacher toevaluate the individual students’ oral performance The criteria consist of five topicsincluding content, expressions and vocabulary, fluency, comprehensibility, voiceand pronunciation Each topic is scored on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (verypoor/ unacceptable), 2 (poor), 3 (average), 4 (good) and 5 (excellent) And a space

is provided on the form for the teacher to write some comments and feedback forthe students to improve their performance in the next classes (see appendix I, J)

2.2 Role-play

2.2.1 The definition of role-play

According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995),role is defined as the person whom an actor represents in a film or play, while role-play is a method of acting out particular ways of behaving or pretending to beother people who deal with new situations It is used in training courses inlanguage learning and psychotherapy Ladousse (1987) illustrated that whenstudents assume a role, they play a part (either their own or somebody else) in aspecific situation “Play” means the role is taken on in a safe environment inwhich students are as inventive and playful as possible Via role-play activities,learners will get various experiences; in other words, they can learn languagestructures and functions, and have opportunity to practice speaking in variousforms or situations Moreover, they can learn to work in groups, have morechances to practice speaking and interact with others in appropriate situations, aswell as build self-esteem and self-confidence while using the target language.According to Crookal & Oxford (1990), there is little consensus on the termsused in the literature on role play and simulation A few of the terms often usedinterchangeably in the literature are simulation, games, role-play, simulationgames, role-play simulation, and role-playing games For a language classroom, the

term “role-play” is often used to refer to an activity which gives the students the

opportunity to practice the target language they may need outside the classroom(Livingstone, 1983) It is a speaking activity which improves communicativecompetence and provides practice in contexts which simulate real-life experience

In role-playing, each student is representing and experiencing a characterknown in everyday life The students can either be themselves or another person

in a particular situation (Ments, 1999) The role-play is a technique that affordslanguage learners an opportunity to practice a new structure in the context ofnatural communicative usage (Al-Mutawa & Kailani, 1989) While dealing withpersonal concerns, problems, and behavior actively in the role-play, students areallowed to improve their interpersonal and communication skills According toLucantoni (2002), role-play can be very enjoyable for learners and can provideexcellent opportunities for using language in real-life situations It is acommunicative activity allowing the learner to use spontaneous language It alsohelps learners to develop real life speaking skills Ments (1999) and Livingstone(1983) contend that role play increases learners‟ motivation and involvement inthe learning process It lends itself well to mixed ability groups and provideslearners with opportunities to practice and develop communication strategies.Role-play also requires the learners to use their imagination, backgroundknowledge and communication skills Larsen-Freeman (1986) points out thatrole-plays, whether structured or less structured, are important in thecommunicative approach because they give learners an opportunity to practicecommunicating in different social contexts and in different social roles

From the definitions above, it can be concluded that role-play is an activity inwhich the students are given more opportunities to encourage their speaking ability

It not only creates the opportunities for the students to communicate, but alsoencourages them to develop strategies to overcome problems that occur whenperforming their role-play This directly prepares the students to facecommunication in their real life

In this study, the meaning of role-plays is limited to the communicativeactivities providing the student opportunities to use the target language to act thegiven roles in specific situations The researcher believes that scripted role-plays isone of the most effective activities to be presented in English classrooms in order toimprove weak students‟ speaking performances”

2.2.2 The Advantages of role-play

Using role-play in speaking class activities has many benefits It canencourage students to speak; it gives them the chance to communicate, even withlimited language, using non-verbal communication, such as body movements andfacial expression Role-play is a kind of drama act Here, there are some reasonswhich make drama or role-play a very powerful tool in the language classroom.Desiatova (2009) outlines some of the areas where drama or role-play is veryuseful to language learners and teachers, and they are listed below:

(1) To give learners an experience (dry-run) of using the language for genuinecommunication and real life purposes; and by generating a need to speak Drama orrole play is an ideal way to encourage learners to guess the meaning of unknownlanguage in a context Learners will need to use a mixture of language structuresand functions ("chunks") if they want to communicate successfully

(2) To make language learning an active, motivating experience

(3) To help learners gain the confidence and self-esteem needed to use thelanguage spontaneously By taking a role, students can escape from their everydayidentity and "hide behind" another character When you give students special roles,

it encourages them to be that character and abandon their shyness

(4) To bring the real world into the classroom (problem solving, research,consulting dictionaries, real time and space, cross-curricular content) When usingdrama the aim can be more than linguistic, teachers can use topics from othersubjects: the students can act out scenes from history, they can work on ideas andissues that run through the curriculum Drama can also be used to introduce theculture of the new language, through stories and customs, and with a context forworking on different kinds of behavior

(5) To emulate the way students naturally acquire language through play, makebelieve and meaningful interaction

(6) To make what is learned memorable through direct experience and affect(emotions) for learners with different learning styles

(7) When students dramatize, they use all the channels (sight, hearing, andphysical bodies)and each student will draw to the one that suits them best Thismeans they will all be actively involved in the activity and the language will "enter"through the channel most appropriate for them.

(8) To stimulate learners' intellect and imagination

(9) To develop students' ability to empathize with others and thus become better communicators

(10) Helping learners acquire language by focusing on the message they areconveying, not the form of their utterance

2.2.3 Steps in applying role-play

Before dealing with role-play in practice, we would like to focus ontheoretical procedure of conducting such activity and later on try to arrange itaccording to the steps that will be described here In this section of thesis, severalsequent stages of successful role-play activity will be provided with author’scomments on their importance

Although it seems that the very first stage should start with the learners, itcan be suggested that the first thing to consider is teacher’s own belief that role-play usage is worthy and logical in the existing educational context Without suchbelief, as Ladousse (1987) wisely points out, “the activity will fall flat on its facejust as you expected it to” (p.8) Ur (1996, p.133) suggests that teacher’senthusiasm is one of the key factors contributing to the success of role-play.Teacher has to be sure that role-playing is vital and that it is an exciting activityfor the students Lack of enthusiasm from the teacher’s side may ruin the wholeactivity from the very beginning

If the teacher is already sure about the necessity of role-play with the students,the next logical step is deciding on teaching materials to be used within role-playactivity The planning step should be considered highly important, because it is vital

to choose teaching materials appropriate for the specific age, level, interests of thestudents, as well as their current linguistic aims and overall educational objectives.When choosing the materials, Huang (2008) advises the following: “The teaching

materials can be taken from text books or non-textbook teaching materials such aspicture books, story books, readers, play-scripts, comic strips, movies, cartoons andpictures The material is selected ahead of time by the teacher The teacher can alsocreate his or her own authentic teaching materials for role play activities” I wouldlike to underline the point that Huang makes about the preparation of the materials

in advance: although the role-play itself is an exciting and entertaining activity, ithas its own pedagogical purpose, that is why the process of choosing the materialsshould be very careful – in many cases, it would require attentive preparation Theamount of time dedicated to that process needs to be adequate and sufficient

At the point when the materials are prepared, it can be thought that the teacher

is ready to conduct the role-play However, learners need to be presented the newlanguage – role-play will not be successful if learners do not possess necessarylanguage items It is the teacher’s task to prepare grammar or vocabulary exerciseswhich would precede the role-play in order to present the language which is likely

to appear during role-play communication Besides the new language, it could beuseful to activate previous knowledge if it can somehow help the learners increating their own dialogues, as well as to brainstorm on social and/or culturalcircumstances of the expected talk (for example, if they differ from the currentlearner’s surroundings, if learners had no experience with the simulated situation or

if the classroom is multinational) We will not give comments on possible ways topresent new items – it is up to teacher and learners, and this choice should bedependent on the current situation in the classroom Nevertheless, before the start ofthe role-play, teacher must make sure that learners are equipped with all necessarylexicon, whether it is grammatical structures, vocabulary or sample phrases.Ladousse (1989, p.45) also points out that later on “some help can be given on therole cards, but these should not be overloaded or the students will be tempted tofollow them too closely and simply recite the structures offered”

After presenting new items, it is time to move on to the role-play activityitself At that point, teacher’s role becomes highly important Firstly, he or sheshould let students understand the goal and the purpose of the role-play by, for

example, verbalizing it or writing the goal on the blackboard Without the goal set

up, the activity might seem useless for the students It could be also helpful toexplain how this role-play relates to the language presented right before its start Then, the teacher will distribute role-cards According to Ladousse, the teachershould “make sure that students have understood both the situation to play and alsowhat is on the role cards before the activity begins” (1987, p.12) Obviously, if thestudents have problems with understanding their role, they are not able to conductthe activity As we already mentioned, some useful language can be given on therole-card Another thing to remember when creating role-cards is the level of thestudents and the type of the role-play chosen (role-cards will look differently withdifferent types of role-plays, as could be seen in the previous part of the thesis) When the students are aware of the goal of the activity and when theyunderstood their roles and role-play situation in general, they can start preparation

of the performance Doff (1988, p.237) states that students will need some time toprepare for a performance and then try out their roles privately Nevertheless, asLadousse (1987, p.12) suggests, the teacher should “set a strict time limit and makeevery attempt to stick to it” The time allotted for the preparation would differaccording to the level of the students As learners of 10th grade at low level areexpected to have A2 level of English, they will be given enough time(approximately 5-7 minutes) to prepare, especially at the very first lessons thatinclude role-plays Ladousse (1987, p.12) also proposes to “keep the activity shortuntil students get used to it” Learners can be asked to work in pairs or smallgroups However, at first, we would try to make learners practice in pairs, followingLadousse’s (1987, p.12) advice – “begin with pair work rather than a group work”.She justifies that choice of pair work over group work in terms of practical reasons(two people’s talk at the same time will not cause much disturbance of the layout ofthe class) and psychological reasons (one-to-one communication helps to be moreengaged in the task) Huang (2008) comments that “teachers can also evaluatestudents' understanding and comprehension while observing students' interactions,practices, and performances of their role plays”, that is, some assessment will be

already provided during this stage Still, detailed feedback and evaluation can begiven at the end of the activity – this procedure will be explained further.

Next, one or two pairs of volunteers are asked to improvise the role-play infront of the class The core issue here is that students should not be forced toperform in front of the whole class Budden (2004) gives some useful piece ofadvice for making the performance of role-plays successful – use realia She gives

an example of playing the roles of pizza chief and a customer Easily created whitepaper cone with “Chef” written on it made, as she comments, “the whole processmore fun and memorable for the class” She also suggests that rearranging of thefurniture could also help to make role-play more realistic – e.g when playing thetravel agency, the surgery, etc

Finally, the teacher should provide feedback to the students on their activity.Ladousse (1987, p.16) claims that feedback stage “is not, however, an absolutelyessential part of language learning simulation or role” Nevertheless, during thelessons containing role-plays the author would try to give at least brief feedback tothe learners Ladousse (1987, p.16) proposes easy-to-use, but quite useful schemefor providing feedback The learners and the teacher can both comment on thefollowing questions:

a) Who participated?

b) Who did not?

c) Why not?

d) Who was very good?

e) Who could have done better?

That is, the learners will have a chance compare their ideas on presenting therole-plays during that stage, which is another opportunity for naturalcommunication apart from role-play itself

Moreover, when describing feedback, Ur (1996, p.242) comments that itconsists of two main components: assessment and correction, where assessmentrefers to the information provided by the teacher how well or badly students haveperformed, whereas correction consists of more specific information on thelearner’s performance (explanation, provision of better or other alternatives, etc.)

including commentaries on what they did right These factors could be also takeninto consideration when assessing the students’ overall participation in the activity.Finally, according to Huang (2008), the assessment of role-play performanceshould also incorporate follow-up tasks in order to “check if students havesuccessfully comprehended the meanings of the vocabulary, sentences anddialogues” What she suggests is giving oral and listening tasks related to the role-plays Example oral tests exercises can include the following: asking simplequestions on the role-play situation, re-enacting the role-plays, translating the role-plays into their native language As for listening tests, her ideas of example tasksare divided for beginning and more advanced students For beginners, Huangsuggests easy tasks in the form of “listen and circle”, “listen and number”, “listenand match” More advanced learners are expected to write words, lines and/ordialogues of the role-plays as well as to create variations of the role-plays Sincethe circumstances of teaching practice, during which the action research will takeplace, are quite limited, it seems highly time-consuming to incorporate large tests

as follow-up activities Huang’s suggestion on assessing students while observingthem which was mentioned previously could be the most suitable in givencircumstances Though if there is a possibility to integrate any follow-up tasksabout role-plays, that should be definitely worth trying – with respect to theoccurring situation

As a conclusion to this part, role-play procedure that will be used for thepurposes of the research can be briefly summarized in the following steps:

Decide on the Teaching Materials

The teacher must decide which teaching materials will be used for role playactivities The teaching materials can be taken from text books or non- textbookteaching materials such as picture books, story books, readers, play-scripts, comicstrips, movies, cartoons and pictures The material is selected ahead of time by theteacher The teacher can also create his or her own authentic teaching materials forrole play activities The teaching materials should be decided based on students'level and interests, teaching objectives and appropriateness for teaching

Select Situations and Create Dialogs

Then a situation or situations to be role played should be selected For everyrole plays situation, dialogs should be provided (by the teaching materials or by theteacher) or created by the students themselves

Teach the Dialogs for Role Plays

The teacher needs to teach the vocabulary, sentences, and dialogs necessary forthe role play situations The teacher needs to make sure the students know how to usethe vocabulary, sentences, and dialogs prior to doing the role play activities,otherwise, the teacher should allow students to ask how to say the words they want tosay

Have Students Practice the Role-Plays

The students can practice in pairs or in small groups After they have playedtheir own roles a few times, have them exchange roles That way, the students canplay different roles and practice all of the lines in the role play When the studentsare confident enough to demonstrate or perform in front of the class, the teacher canask them to do so for their classmates

Have Students Modify the Situations and Dialogs

Once the students have finished and become familiar with an original play situation, they can modify the situations and/or dialogs to create a variation ofthe original role-play

role-Evaluate and Check Students' Comprehension

Finally, the teacher shall evaluate the effectiveness of the role-play activitiesand check if students have successfully comprehended the meanings of thevocabulary, sentences and dialogs There are several ways to do the studentevaluations The students can be given oral and listening tests relating to the roleplays Example oral tests can include the following

a) Students are asked to answer some simple questions relating to the role plays

b) Students are asked to react the role plays

c) Students are asked to translate the role plays into their native language

2.2.4 Types Role-plays

Previously, The researcher gave several definitions of role-plays Now we willsee how many types of role-plays according to the different scholars Byrne (1986)groups role-plays into two types: scripted and unscripted Littlewood (1981)reported that role-play activities can be categorized into four types as follow: Role-playing controlled through cued dialogues, Role-playing controlled through cuesand information, Role playing controlled through situation and goals, Role-playing

in the form of debate or discussion In this study, The researcher only focuses ontwo types scripted and unscripted role-play and shows which of these types issuitable for weak students

Angela : Good morning I want to send a letter to Singapore

Clerk : Yes, do you want to send it by air mail or ordinary mail?

Angela : I think I’ll send it air mail I want it to get there quickly How muchdoes it cost?

Clerk : To Singapore? That will be 30 pence, pleas

Angela : (give the clerk 50 pence) Here you are Clerk : Here’s your stamp,and here’s 20 pence change

Angela : Thank you Where is the post box?

Clerk : You want the air mail box It’s over there, by the door

To demonstrate a role play activity based on the dialogue, the proceduresgiven by Doff is as follows:

1) First, the teacher guides the role play by writing these prompts: (where? /air mail / how much? / post box? / thanks) Talk as you write to show what theprompts mean

2) If necessary, go through the prompts one by one, and get students to givesentences or question for each one

3) Call two students to the front: one play the role as Angela and the other one

is the post office clerk They should improvise the conversation using the prompts

to help them Point out that the conversation should be similar to the one in thetextbook, but not exactly the same; the conversation can be shorter than thepresentation dialogue It should just cover the main points indicated by the prompts.4) Call out a few other pairs of students in turn, and ask them to have otherconversation based on the prompts Based on these procedures, it can be said thatthe ways of organizing this dialogue can be carried out into pairs of students whowould improvise a conversation in front of class, in turns The teacher can also askthe students to practice the conversation privately with their partners before they act

it out in front of the class

2.2.4.2.Unscripted role-play

In contrast to scripted role-play, the situations of unscripted role-play do notdepend on textbooks It is known as a free role play or improvisation The studentsthemselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation shoulddevelop In order to do this activity, good preparation from teacher and students isreally necessary The students are assigned to perform the role play activity in front

of the class based on the prompts given without preparing or writing the script inadvance (Byrne as cited in Davies, 1990)

The example and procedures of unscripted role play which is adapted from Adrian Doff’s book are as follows:

One student has lost a bag

He/she is at the police station

The other student is the police officer, and asks for details

To brings out this ideas: