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EFFECTIVENESS OF ROLE PLAY IN TEACHING SPEAKING ENGLISH TO JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS Table of content I.. Significance of role play in teaching speaking English to junior high school s

EFFECTIVENESS OF ROLE PLAY IN TEACHING SPEAKING ENGLISH TO JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS

Table of content

I Introduction

II Development

2.1 An overview of role play in speaking

2.1.1 Definition of role play

2.1.2 The importance of teaching speaking

2.1.3 Role play in speaking

2.2 Significance of role play in teaching speaking English to junior high school students

2.2.1 Characteristics of junior high school students

2.2.2 Benefits of role play in teaching English

2.3 Application of role play in teaching speaking to junior high school students

2.3.1 How to teach using role play

2.3.2 When (not) to use role play

2.2.3 The elements for role play stimulation

2.2.4 Possible problems, suggested solutions and tips on successful role play

III Conclusion

Reference

I Introduction:

In contemporary life, English has become a compulsory component of

education in many countries and in Vietnam, English is taught at junior high school as a compulsory subject for students And the emphasis is not only on the linguistic competence of the language learner but also on the

development of the communicative ability of the learner The speaking

ability play an crucial part in assessing their progress in terms of

accomplishments in spoken communication Though the importance of

speaking ability of English has been recognized, how it is taught can often be questioned when the classroom is not a natural setting for learning a

language and creative in learning process of speaking The techniques for teaching and learning are so various; however, using role play to teach

speaking English seems the most interesting one for junior high students It gives students an opportunity to practice communicating, peer learning is also encouraged Besides, for the shy learners, for instance, role play helps them by providing a mask where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated We can also see plenty of other benefits in using role play as a teaching method

In this essay, I intend to develop three main sections To begin with, the definition of role play, speaking ability and role play in speaking will be presented Next, the most important part of the Englissh is significance of rol play in teaching speaking english will be discussedd Last but not least, it is about the application of role play in teaching language to junior high school students This study will give some suggestions so thaty teachers can use role play more effectively

II Development

2.1 An overview of role play in speaking

2.1.1 Definition of role play

There are several definitions of role play defined by various researchers Role play can be separated into “role” and “play” “role” refers to “play

a part(either their own or somebody else’s) in a specific situation” (Grillian,

2002, p.7) “play” represents “the role is taken on in a safe environment in which students are inventive and playful as possible” (Grillian, 2002, p.5)

In Cambridge International Dictionary of English, role 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 be other people who deal with new situations It is used in training courses language learning and psychotherapy

Similarly, Teaching English (BBC) that “Role-play is any speaking activity when you either put yourself into somebody else’s shoes or when you stay

in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation.”

Role-Playing is “the act of imitating the character and behavior of a type

of a person who is very different from yourself, either deliberately, for example as

a training exercise, or without knowing it” (Collins Cobuild English Language Dictionary, 1994:1526) In this sense, the students pretend as someone else in the real world situation brought into the classroom As a kind of guided conversation technique that is essential to the development of the speaking skill, role-playing provides framework in which the students build their own sentences but they may decide by themselves what they want to say (Valette and Disick, 1972:231, 235)

As a kind of guided conversation technique that is essential to the development of the speaking skill, role play provides framework in which the student build their own sentences but they may decide by themselves that they want to say ( valette & Dsick 1972: 231, 235).

2.1.2 The importance of teaching speaking English:

Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching

Mastering the spoken language is not merely mastering its articulation and forms The ultimate aim of mastery of spoken language is to communicate This means that mastery of rule of speaking and conversational skill is necessary

In other words, the students must be able to use English for either interactional or transactional purposes

Teaching speaking is a very important part of second language learning The ability to communicate in a second language clearly and efficiently contributes to the success of the learner in school and success later in every phase

of life Therefore, it is essential that language teachers pay great attention to teaching speaking Rather than leading students to pure memorization, providing a rich environment where meaningful communication takes place is desired With this aim, various speaking activities such as those listed above can contribute a great deal to students in developing basic interactive skills necessary for life These activities make students more active in the learning process and at the same time make their learning more meaningful and fun for them

2.1.3 Role play in speaking

Considering how important a teacher should make his or her lesson classroom activity enjoyable, active, secure, and full of more exposure to

language input and more choice to practice the languages, he or she needs to

develop his or her teaching techniques One of the techniques to be used in

teaching the speaking skill is role-play Role play allows students to explore their inner resources, empathize with others, and use their own experiences as scaffolds upon which credible action As a result, students can improve their ability to

produce the target language, acquire many of its nonverbal nuances, improve the ability to work cooperatively in group situations, and effectively deal with

affective issues Role play has high appeal for students because it allows them to

be creative and to put themselves in another person’s place for a while (Richard-Amato, 2003:214, 222)

2.2 Significance of role play in teaching speaking English to junior high school students

2.2.1 Characteristics of junior high school students

Teaching students needs to take not only their age but also their marurity into

consideration.

Students in grades six through nine are changing physically, socially, emotionally, and intellectually, together with their tendency to be very active, causes frequent fatigue in early adolescence During this time, children are

struggling to define themselves as individuals and in relation to others At the

same time, they are often concerned about their ability to learn and whether or not they can meet the expectations of parents and other adults They seek

associations, relationships, and links with people, things, and new ideas They are usually excitable, easily motivated,creative, inquisitive, and eager to explore; but

if not active participants in learning situations, they may easily drift into daydreams

Middle school learners are qualitatively different than younger learners Using the right instructional strategies to maximize the learning advantages and address the learning challenges of middle school learners can make all the difference in their success

Generally, children who are10 to 15 years of age and in grades six through nine are qualitatively different than younger learners and they are similar

in the ways they learn They tend to learn best by doing, experiencing, and using their senses They often require concrete models and have a need to make relevant associations between what they learn and their everyday experiences

2.2.2 Benefits of role play in teaching English

Comparing to other techniques, role-play seems the most interesting one for the students The benefits of Rp as a technique in teaching speaking English

is undeniable , and followings are some main its advantages in teaching speaking

First, role play can improve learners’speaking skill in any situations and helps learners interact/ give students chance to practice communicating

Through role play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling to others by using words or sounds of articulation ,Larsen Freeman explained that role plays give learners an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and different social roles RP structured like activity providing information gaps since students can not be sure( as with most forms of communication) what the other person or people will not they haave effectively communicatived Through role play activities the students learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling to others by using words

or sounds of articulation The purpose of role play is “to improve students” verbal and nonverbal communication skills and to link and use previously built schemas,

in both structured and improvised situations” (Maxwell, 1997, p.1) Teachers use role play as one of the teaching methods to force students to speak in public The common weakness of Vietnamese students is their speaking ability They seldom have the chance to practice conversation, even in the second language classroom Therefore, role play could improve students in verbal or non verbal communication while they are acting out the roles in the dialogue Maley and Duff et al pointed out that “an ideal technique to encourage students to talk the real language is role play” (Maley & Duff, 1982; Marinelli, 1983; Siskin & Spinelli, 1987; Snyman &De Kock, 1991) No matter whether the dialogue is set

by the teacher or not, students could adapt themselves to the dialogues they learn

in classes and use the conversation in daily lives Daily conversation includes lots

of unpredictable situations that students might not know how to deal with “Role play prepares learners for such unpredictabilities, adding emotion, inventiveness, and awareness of the listener to language teaching” (Salies, 1995, p.6)

It could increase students’interests and motivation in learning.In addition, the most important reason for using role play is peer learning in

learning progress Provided that the RP is well organized operated the participants

in variably enjoy it, becom involved in it and remember it long after they have forgotten much of the learning which they obtained in other ways Thr motivational aspect of RP is the central aspect which all T and other usuers coment upon And if you motivate the Ss to learn then half the battle is won As Doff (1988) points out, role play increases motivation Always talking about real life can become very dull, and the chance to imagine different situations adds interest to a lesson In addition, role play gives a chance to use language in new contexts and for new topics it is fun and most learners will agree that enjoyment leads to better learning

Role play might help students overcome their shyness when

speaking English on stage In the first place RP exposes attitudes and feelings in

a way which is both positive and safe because they are acknowledged as a

legitimate area for discussion and analysis and also because the rp itself provides

an opportunity to learn how to The use of role play brings home to the student that some aspects of behavior , such as the development of good human relations, require specific skills in the same sence that these skills can be taught – they are not something that people are born with, the emphasis in role play is on requiring students to do and to act , rather than just talk about something As for the shy learners, role play helps by providing a mask, where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated We can also see plenty of other benefits in using role play as a teaching method

In conclusion, role play is a technique which can develops students’ fluency in target language, promotes students to speak or interact with others in the classroom, increases motivation and makes the teaching and learning process more enjoyable

2.3 Application of role play in teaching speaking to junior high school students

Because of all the benefits above, I strongly agree that RPs playing an essential role in teaching speakign, and we should further a movement in using this method Although they are widely utilized all over the world, they remain underexploited in Vietnam

2.3.2 When to use role play

When applying role play into the teaching practice, what should be kept in mind is that interaction is an important way of learning Therefore, increased oral emphasis should be included in our teaching to give the students as much speaking time as possible Role play is often used at the end of the class

Can be used in any of these three stages: presentation, practice and production

Our task, an English teacher is to think about how to give the students some practice in our teaching instructions It means we should give them chance to practice their English so that, they can express their thought orally Everything in role play is well suited for practicing language in realistic communication situations

Communicative language teaching is based on reallife situations that require communication By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or

to complete a task

2.3.1 How to teach using role play

In order to come up with a good role-playing lesson, the teacher must have first read extensively on the subject being covered and then “summarize the

information and convert the material into a meaningful story with a setting, characters, and conflict,” (Morris, 2003, p 44) The next step is for the teacher to convert the summary of the lesson into objectives and put them up in the form of questions somewhere in the classroom that is highly visible to the students to enable the students to see what they should be learning from the lesson (Morris,

2003, p 45)

Morris’s (2003) idea for the actual lesson is to have the students divided into groups and have them go around to different stations where they participate

in something from the time period they are studying (p 45) By having station such as these, the students get an idea of what it was like to live during that time period They get to learn about the culture as well as the economy within the time period

After the students go through the stations they then go back to their seats and get into another group and answer the lesson objective questions together By answering the questions to together they get to discuss and reflect on what they each have learned and help each other review (Morris, 2003, p 46) Morris (2003) states “because they have learned both background knowledge and conceptual tools by acting out history, all students can experience success,” (p 47)

Finally, the teacher shall evaluate the effectiveness of the role play activities and check if students have successfully comprehended the meanings of the vocabulary, sentences and dialogs

In this study, the researcher implemented 7 (seven) major steps in the procedure for the role play activities First, the teacher decides on the teaching materials The second step is organizing the group of the students The third step is providing the situation and dialogue to be role played The forth step applied by the researcher in implementing role-playing technique is explaining the situation in the cue card as well as the dialogue The fifth step is having the students practice the role plays The sixth step is having students modify the situation and dialogue The last step is having the students perform the dialogue in front of the class

2.2.3 The elements for role play stimulation

McDaniel (2000) says there are four basic elements that are essential for the success of any role-playing activity (p 357) The first element is that the activity builds on knowledge the students already possess about a particular historical context (McDaniel, 2000, p 357) A teacher cannot expect students to role-play about something they have no prior knowledge of The second element

is to design the roles yourself to maximize student involvement and student conflict Having conflicting perspectives is a must (McDaniel, 2000, p 358) The third element is to set up a specific situation Do not let the students go without giving them a focal point for debate (McDaniel, 2000, p 359) The last element is the instructor’s limited involvement and willingness to be flexible The instructor needs to guide the students along, but not overbear the conversation and let the students take their own path to understanding (McDaniel, 2000, p 360)

2.2.4 Possible problems, suggested solutions and tips on successful role play

Problem: it is very likely that the implementation of role play in

teaching speaking will encounter a number of obstacles

- Traditional methods are still popular and favored in many of our high schools

- Due to our strict syllabus, time restrictions make it hard to use role ply to their full capacity as well as vary the communicative activities in speaking classes both teachers and students have to suffer the great pressure of catching up with the schedule or falling behind, let alone spending time practicing speaking

- As Kumar (1992) mentions, large class size might make interaction and

involvement difficult It is obvious that in Vietnam’s language teaching context, a classroom often houses approximately 40 students That is to say, a teacher has to