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LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Degrees of students’ interest in different kinds of role-play activities SQ-Q5 Table 2: How teachers form a pair/group/team TQ-Q2 Table 3: Students’ preference i

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Communicative Language Teaching & Cooperative Learning 5

2.1.1 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching 5

CHAPTER III: THE STUDY

3.1 Setting of the study 22

CHAPTER IV: CONCLUSION

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1: Degrees of students’ interest in different kinds of role-play activities (SQ-Q5) Table 2: How teachers form a pair/group/team (TQ-Q2)

Table 3: Students’ preference in pair/group/team forming (SQ-Q6)

Table 4: Students’ preference in being prepared for a role-play activity (SQ-Q7) Table 5: How teachers give instructions to students (TQ-Q3)

Table 6: How teachers monitor the activity (TQ-Q4)

Table 7: Students’ preference in terms of teacher monitoring the activity (SQ-Q8) Table 8: How teachers encourage students to use English in the activity (TQ-Q5) Table 9: Time of correction (TQ-Q6)

Table 10: Ways of correction (TQ-Q7)

Table 11: Students’ preference in having their mistakes corrected (SQ-Q9)

Table 12: Difficulties students face in role-play activities (SQ-Q11)

Table 13: Difficulties teachers encounter in conducting a role-play activity (TQ-Q10) Table 14: Students’ expectations of teachers’ roles in RP activities (SQ-Q12)

Table 15: Teachers’ expectations for effective role-play activities (TQ-Q11)

Chart 4: Influence of RP on students’ motivation (SQ-Q3)

Chart 5: Students’ opinion about the benefits of role-play (SQ-Q4)

Chart 6: Students’ evaluation on role-play activities introduced in their speaking lessons

(SQ-Q10)

Chart 7: Teachers’ evaluation on students’ enjoyment in role-play activities (TQ-Q8) Chart 8: Teachers’ evaluation on the effectiveness of role-play activities (TQ-Q9)

TTT : Teacher Talking Time

STT : Student Talking Time

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

This initial chapter presents the rationale, purpose, scope, significance, research methods and design of the study Above all, it is in this chapter that the research questions are identified to work as clear guidelines for the whole research

1.1 Rationale

Nowadays, when Vietnam is on the way to regional and global integration, a demand for training students as competent communicators has been generated for Vietnamese education in general and foreign language education in particular A high proficiency of spoken English becomes not only an academic goal but one of the crucial keys to a guarantee of a successful career

However, there exists one problem that teachers and students of English in Vietnam cope with: the target language is mainly used in the classroom and learners have few opportunities

to use English in authentic contexts outside the classroom This problem sets a challenging task for teachers of English in Vietnam, that is to design communicative activities which can provide students with “real” contexts for negotiating meaning so that they can develop communicative competence

This requires some changes in teaching approach from traditional ones which put emphasis on the production of accurate grammatical sentences into CLT approach which focuses on developing learners‟ communicative competence, i.e the ability to communicate through language In CLT, learner-learner interaction is paid more attention with such classroom tasks

as problem solving, decision – making, opinion exchange, picture dictation and jig saw tasks, etc However, if teachers want to make these tasks beneficial and motivating to students, they should take into consideration the following questions raised by Hedge (2002: 263, cited in Rong, R & Lanying, X 2008):

1 Which activities encourage participation from all students and so ensure that they all get practice opportunities?

2 Which activities oblige negotiation of meaning?

In order to determine the effectiveness of classroom activities, a search for teachers and students‟ perception of these activities is necessary otherwise students may undervalue the tasks assigned by teachers if there are any differences between their beliefs and teachers‟ ones, which may cause students‟ inactive participation and gradual loss of motivation in learning

Considered an integral part of English learning, “communicative task” has been introduced at HaUI but implementing it is not a simple work Proper pedagogical tasks are of significance to the effectiveness of English course here However, little research has been carried out on this topic Hence, there exists a gap which the current study will be aimed at bridging

The above reasons have urged the author to conduct a study to gain more insight into the current situation of using classroom activities with a focus on role-play tasks and try to draw some implications for using role-play to improve speaking skills for 1st-year students at the Faculty of Chemistry – Hanoi University of Industry (FC - HaUI) It is hoped that this study will lay a foundation on which subsequent research into this matter is based and developed

1.2 Aims of the study

Firstly, this research is carried out in order to investigate the reality of applying role-play activities in teaching speaking skills to 1st-year students at the Faculty of Chemistry – Hanoi University of Industry Additionally, it is planned to explore students and teachers‟ attitude towards role-play activities as well as the difficulties in using these activities in improving speaking skills

In brief, the research paper seeks the answers to the following questions:

a What is the current situation of using role-play activities to teach speaking to 1 st -year students at the Faculty of Chemistry – Hanoi University of Industry?

b What are teachers and students’ attitude towards using role-play activities in speaking lessons?

c What are the difficulties in using role-play activities to teach speaking skills to 1 st -year chemistry majors at HaUI?

d What are implications of making role-play activities successful in speaking class of 1 st year FC students?

-1.3 Scope of the study

Within the scope of a graduation paper and due to the limitation of time, the study is confined

to the Faculty of Chemistry, Hanoi University of Industry with focus on first-year chemistry majors Moreover, although role-play activities could be used extensively in different contexts and for different purposes, the study is dealing with role-play in developing speaking skills only

1.4 Significance of the study

The study is carried out with the intention to provide teachers of English at FC – HaUI with a deeper understanding of using role-play activities in teaching speaking skills In addition, it is hoped that the study will be of great significance in helping teachers find an effective way to increase their students‟ participation in speaking lessons as well as supply them with successful communication outside classrooms

1.5 Methods of the study

Questionnaires and interviews will be utilized to collect data for the whole paper A survey is done by delivering a questionnaire to 20 teachers of English and another questionnaire to 120 first-year students at FC- HaUI who are being taught speaking skills under the process-based approach

After completing questionnaires, those who are willing to give further response on the issue will be invited to take part in semi-structured interviews

All the collected information and data are then analyzed and discussed

1.6 Design of the study

The thesis consists of four chapters as follows:

Chapter 1 provides a general introduction, including the rationale for the research and its aim,

significance, scope, research questions and the design of the thesis

Chapter 2 is an attempt to review some theoretical background for the study The two

underlying theories: communicative approach and cooperative learning - the background for

role-play activities to occur are discussed In addition, the theory of teaching speaking and an overview of role-play activities are also presented

Chapter 3 presents the methodology of the study, including the background information of the

context where the study is conducted, the subjects, the instruments used to collect data, and the procedures of data collection Furthermore, a detailed description of data analysis is presented; and some explanations and interpretations of the findings of the study are given in this chapter

Chapter 4 is the conclusion of the study, providing some pedagogical implications The

limitations of the study as well as some suggestions for further research are also discussed in this chapter

Summary

In this first chapter, the following points have been discussed:

(a) The rationale for the study

(b) Aims of the study

(c) Scope of the study

(d) Significance of the study

(e) Methods of the study

(f) Design of the study

These issues have not only justified the major contents and structures of the study but will also work as the guidelines for the rest of the paper

CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, the writer attempts to provide a review of theoretical background of role-play activities

2.1 Communicative Language Teaching & Cooperative Learning

2.1.1 Characteristics of Communicative Language Teaching

The communicative approach (Communicative Language Teaching or CLT) emphasizes communication as both the means and the goal of foreign language teaching and learning The communicative approach aims to help students use the target language in a variety of contexts Its primary focus is to help learners create meaning rather than help them develop perfect grammar or acquire native-like pronunciation This means that successfully learning a foreign language is assessed in terms of how learners have developed their communicative competence

The communicative approach is usually characterized as a broad approach to teaching rather than as a teaching method As such, it is most often defined as lists of general principles One

of the most recognized of these lists is five features of CLT pointed out by Nunan:

- An emphasis on learning to communicate through interaction in the target language

- The introduction of authentic texts into the learning situation

- The provision of opportunities for learners to focus, not only on language, but also

on the Learning Management process

- An enhancement of the learner’s own personal experiences as important contributing elements to classroom learning

- An attempt to link classroom language learning with language activities outside the classroom

(David Nunan, 1991) These five principles show that the communicative approach focuses on the needs and desires

of their learners Based on these principles of CLT, it can be concluded that any teaching practice that helps students develop their communicative competence in an authentic context is deemed an acceptable and beneficial form of instruction

There are various classifications of activities that are typically found in a communicative language classroom, among which role-play is one of the most popular and often used at high

frequency Paulston and Bruder (1976), in their book Teaching English as a Second Language: Techniques and Procedures, included role-play in the activity types that they

thought were of maximum benefit in enabling students to attain communicative competence

In role plays, students are assigned a fictitious role The students may even act out the role of themselves The complexity of role plays and the improvisation is a matter of student proficiency Paulston and Bruder (1976) maintain that the teacher should attach importance to the format of the role play which consists of three basic components (the situation, the roles

and useful expressions), whether or not it is a complex one In terms of situation, the teacher

clearly explains the scene and the plot of the role play, which is followed by the description of

the task and the action to be accomplished Then, the teacher assigns the roles, the list of characters, making sure that the roles are not too elaborate for the students to carry out Useful expressions part contains the linguistic information, primarily expressions and phrases that

will facilitate the acting out of the roles

In short, role-play in which students practice and develop language functions is one kind of communicative classroom activities which often take the form of pair work and group work

and require certain degree of cooperative learning

2.1.2 Cooperative Learning (CL)

2.1.2.1 Definition

CL has received much attention of many researchers and become popular over the last decade

In general, CL is one instructional strategy which is under the learner – centered approach

According to Slavin (1995), CL is “an instructional program in which students work in small groups to help one another master academic content.” Holding the same opinion with Slavin, Brown (1994) states that “CL involves students working together in pairs or groups, and they share information They are a team whose players must work together in order to achieve goals successfully”

Kressler (1992) gives a more specific definition of CL in terms of language learning context

He claims that CL is one way of grouping students of different levels of language proficiency when working together on specific tasks so that all of them can gain benefit from the

“interactive experience”

In defining cooperative learning, Johnson, Johnson and Holubec (1994) stress the benefits of

CL that “cooperative learning is the instructional use of small groups through which students work together to maximize their own and others‟ learning" In classrooms where collaboration

is practiced, students pursue learning in groups of varying size negotiating, initiating, planning and evaluating together Rather than working as individuals in competition with every other individual in the classroom, students are given the responsibility of creating a learning community where all students participate in significant and meaningful ways Cooperative learning requires that students work together to achieve goals which they could not achieve individually

Johnson et al (1991) elaborate how CL takes place by stating that, cooperation is not assigning a job to a group of students where one student does all the work and the others put their names on the paper Neither is it having students sit side by side at the same table to talk with each other as they do their individual assignment It is not having students do a task individually with instructions that the ones who finish first are to help the lower students On the contrary, CL is a teaching strategy in which small teams, each with students of different levels of ability, use a variety of learning activities to improve their understanding of a subject Each member of a team is responsible not only for learning what is taught but also for helping teammates learn, thus creating an atmosphere of achievement Students work with assignment until all group members successfully understand and complete it

In brief, there are many definitions of CL, but most cooperative learning definitions involve small, heterogeneous teams, usually of four or five members, working together towards a group task in which each member is individually accountable for part of an outcome that cannot be completed unless the members work together; in other words, the group members are positively interdependent

2.1.2.2 Cooperative Learning and Language Acquisition

In general, CL has been proven to be effective for all types of students because it promotes learning and fosters respect and friendships among diverse groups of students Students in cooperative classrooms achieve many social and academic benefits as Slavin (1987) stated:

“Cooperative classrooms are classrooms where students are likely to attain higher levels of

achievement, to increase time on task, to build cross-ethnic friendships, to experience enhanced self-esteem, to build life-long interaction and communication skills, and to master the habits of mind (critical, creative and self-regulated) needed to function as productive members of society.”

CL is particularly beneficial for any students learning a second/ foreign language Language teachers frequently hear that CL is an effective strategy for classrooms with English language learning (ELL) students CL strategies have been shown to improve academic performance (Slavin, 1987), lead to great motivation toward learning (Garibaldi, 1979), to increase time on task (Cohen & Benton, 1988), to improve self-esteem (Johnson & Johnson, 1989), and to lead

to more positive social behaviors (Lloyd et al., 1988) For ELL students especially, CL promotes language acquisition by providing comprehensible input in developmentally appropriate ways and in a supportive and motivating environment (Kagan, 1995)

Olsen and Kagan (1992) also report some research on CL with respect to some of its benefits for language learning According to them, in traditional classrooms, teachers do most of the talking leaving students very little time to speak and to do language production, especially low-achieving students are given fewer opportunities to participate In contrast, in cooperative classes, up to 80 percent of cooperative class time may be devoted to activities Half of the students may do language production while the others are engaged in language comprehension This results in increased active and complex communication for students

Furthermore, CL is found to have a positive impact on almost all the variables critical to language acquisition because small group work enriches the language classroom with comprehensible, developmentally appropriate, irredundant, and accurate input and it also promotes frequent, communicative, and referential classroom talk in a supportive, motivating, and feedback-rich environment (Kagan, 1994)

In conclusion, CL activities promote peer interaction, which helps the development of language and the learning of concepts and content Therefore, it is important to assign ELL students to different teams so that they can benefit from English language role models Apart from learning to express themselves with greater confidence when working in small teams,

they can pick up vocabulary and benefit from observing how their peers learn and solve problems

2.2 Role-play in developing speaking skills

2.2.1 What is role-play?

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

Ladousse (1995) illustrated that when students assume a “Role”, they play a part (either their own or somebody else‟s) in specific situation “Play” means that it is taken on in a safe environment in which students can be as inventive and playful as possible

According to Oxford Advanced Dictionary (1995) and Crookal (1990), there is a little consensus on the terms used in the role playing and simulation literature A few of the terms often used interchangeably are simulation, games, role play, simulation-game, role play simulation, and role playing game There seem to be some agreement; however, simulation is

a broader concept than role playing Simulations are complex, lengthy, and relatively inflexible events Role play, on the other hand, can be a quite simple and brief technique to organize It is also highly flexible, leaving much more scope for the exercise of individual variation, initiative and imagination

In defining role play, Byrne (1986) gave comments that role play is a part of drama activity In details, he described that there are three terms to cover the drama activities They are mime (mimicry-memorization), role play and simulation He distinguished the terms as follows: In

miming, the participants perform actions without using words (although as we shall see, this activity leads naturally on to talk) In role play, participants interact in imaginary situations

Simulation involves role play as defined above However, for this activity the participants

normally discuss a problem of some kind with some setting that has been defined for them Both role play and simulation are commonly used in foreign language classes to facilitate communicative competence whereas mime seems more appropriate as a language game It is

performing actions without using words For instance, if someone mimes an action, the others try to guess what it is

Another definition is stated by Budden (2006) on British Council Teaching English (BBC) in her article with the title “Role Play” She said 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

What is meant by imaginary people is that students can become anyone they like for a short time The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star…., the choice is endless Students can also take on the opinions of someone else 'For and against' debates can be used and the class can be split into those who are expressing views in favor and those who are against the opinion

Functional language for a multitude of scenarios can be activated and practiced through role play in imaginary situations 'At the restaurant', 'Checking in at the airport', 'Looking for lost property' are all possible role-plays

From those explanation above, the writer views that role play is a technique which involves fantasy or imagination to be someone else or to be ourselves in a specific situation for a while, improvising dialogue and creating a real world in scenario It aims at encouraging the students

to think and create, lets students develop and practice new language and behavioral skills in a relatively non-threatening setting, and can create the motivation and involvement necessary for learning to occur

2.2.2 Types of Role Play and Procedures in Using Role Play

In case of role, Ladousse (1995) explained that there are four types

The first is the roles which correspond to a real need in the students‟ lives In this category, it involves such roles as a job applicant at an interview or a tourist traveling abroad

The second type of role is the students play themselves in a variety of situations which may or may not have direct experience The example included in this category is a customer complaining about a product, service or a passenger asking for information

The third type is the type that few students will ever experience directly themselves, but it is easy to play because they can get help from teachers who have such vast indirect experience of them A television journalist or a master of ceremony is good example of this type and they are very useful kinds of role taken from real life

The last type is fantasy roles, which are fictitious, imaginary, and possible even absurd, such

as a superman or an alien

In case of role play activities, according to Byrne (1986), role play can be grouped into two forms, scripted and unscripted role play In details, those types of role play activities are described as follows:

a Scripted Role Play

This type involves interpreting either the textbook dialogue or reading text in the form of speech The main function of the text after all is to convey the meaning of language items in a memorable way

For more details, Doff (1988) gave an example of scripted role play dialogue and explained how the process is:

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 much does it cost?

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

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

(Adapted from living English book 2: A.G Abdalla et al)

The procedures given by Doff (1988) are as follows: First, the teacher guides the role play by

writing the prompts such as “where? / air mail / how much? / post box? / thanks” The teacher

can talk as she writes to show what the prompts mean Secondly, if necessary, she can go through the prompts one by one, and get students to give sentences or question for each one Thirdly, the teacher may call two students to the front to play the role They should improvise the conversation using the prompts to help them and point out that the conversation should be similar to the one in the textbook, but not exactly the same; the conversation can be shorter than the presentation dialogue It should just cover the main points indicated by the prompts Finally, the teacher calls out a few other pairs of students in turn, and ask them to have other conversation based on the prompts

Based on these procedures, the writer views that the ways of organizing this dialogue can be carried out into pairs of students who would improvise a conversation in front of class, in turns The teacher can also ask the students to practice the conversation privately with their partners before they act it out in front of the class

b Unscripted Role Play

In contrast to scripted role play, the situations of unscripted role play do not depend on textbooks It is known as a free role play or improvisation The students themselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation should develop In order to do this activity, good preparation from teacher and students is really necessary

The example and procedures of unscripted role play which is adapted from Doff‟s book (1988) 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

(Doff, 1988) Procedures in conducting this role-play may come as follow: Firstly, the teacher could prepare the whole class by discussing what the speakers might say (e.g the police officer would ask the students how he or she lost the bag) and writing prompt and any key vocabulary on the board to guide the role play Secondly, the teacher could divide the class into pairs, let them discuss together what they may say and let them all try out the role play privately, before calling on one or two pairs to act out in front of the class

With a broader view, House (1997) explained that there are several procedures in using role play:

a Students read and familiarize themselves with the (example) dialogue

b Teacher divides the class in pairs, A and B, give A and B roles from the dialogues

c Teacher lets students act out their role play, students should read it loudly

d Teacher walks around correcting and checking students‟ work

e Students swap roles and repeat, those who finish first can be asked to make up their own role play, using different words to fill the gaps

The above procedures do not need to be used exactly It is flexible; teacher can create or develop procedures which is appropriate and suitable with his/her own class

Holding different ideas from Byrne, in dividing types of role-play, Littlewood (1981) reported that role-play activities can be categorized into four types as follow:

a Role-playing controlled through cued dialogues

Following is an example of this kind of role-play:

them to predict a large proportion of what the other will say and, of course, to prepare the general gist of their own responses This makes it easier for a learner to draw on language forms that he would have difficulty in using with complete spontaneity The teacher can therefore use cued dialogues to elicit forms which he has just taught or which his learners would otherwise avoid This use of the forms in a „semi-communicative‟ context helps to prepare learners to use them later in fully spontaneous interaction

b Role-playing controlled through cues and information

In cued dialogues, two sets of cues must interlock closely, in such a way that no cue produces

an utterance which conflicts with what follows This places tight limits on the amount of creativity that is possible within that format

A more flexible framework is created if only one learner is given detailed cues The other has information that enables him to respond as necessary Here, for example, two learners play the roles of a prospective guest and a hotel manager(ess):

Student A: You arrive at a small hotel one evening In the foyer, you meet the manager(ess) and:

Ask if there is a room vacant

Ask the price, including breakfast

Say how many nights you would like to stay

Ask where you can park your car for the night

Say what time you would like to have breakfast

Student B: You are the manager(ess) of a small hotel that prides itself on its friendly, homely atmosphere You have a single and a double room vacant for tonight The prices are: £8.50 for the single room, £15.00 for the double room Breakfast is £1.50 extra per person In the street behind the hotel, there is a free car park Guests can have tea in bed in the morning, for 50p

The main structure for the interaction now comes from learner A‟s cues A can thus introduce variations and additions without throwing B into confusion For the most part, B‟s role

requires him to respond rather than initiate, though he may also introduce topics himself (e.g

by asking whether A would like tea)

This kind of framework is obviously best suited to those situations where there is a natural initiator, whose cues can control the interaction These are mostly situations where one person needs to gather information or obtain a service, for example: in a travel agency, where one learner needs to find out train times and fares, and the other has timetables and brochures; in a bank, where the manager has to obtain personal information about a client who wants to borrow money; interviews for jobs, interview for news reports; and so on In this type of role-play, there is greater emphasis on the social context in which the information is obtained

c Role-playing controlled through situation and goals

The 2 types of role-playing above provide specific cues for learners These enable teachers to control the interaction and to ensure that learners express a particular range of meanings in addition to any variations they may introduce The cues also provide learners with a supportive framework which relieves them of some of the responsibility for creating the interaction themselves

As learners progress, the teacher will not necessarily abandon the use of specific cues He will still sometimes want to produce a particular kind of interaction and elicit a particular range of functional meanings and forms There will also be increasing scope, however, for providing a looser structure, which gives learners greater responsibility for creating the interaction themselves The control now determines not so much the specific meanings that learners express It is directed at the higher level of situation and the goals that learners have to achieve through communication For example:

Student A: You wish to buy a car You are in a showroom, looking at a hand car that might be suitable You decide to find out more about it, for example how old it is, who the previous owner was, how expensive it is to run and whether there is a guarantee You can pay up to about £900 in cash

second-Student B: You are a car salesman You see a customer looking at a car in the showroom The car is two years old and belonged previously to the leader of a local

pop group It does about twenty miles to the gallon Your firm offers a three-month guarantee and can arrange hire purchase The price you are asking for the car is

£1,400

During the activity, the learners‟ attention might be focused on a picture of the car in question,

in order to add realism and avoid misunderstandings about its appearance

In this role-play, learners are initially aware only of the overall situation and their own goals in

it They must negotiate the interaction itself as it unfolds, each partner responding spontaneously to the other‟s communicative acts and strategies

d Role-playing in the form of debate or discussion

This is a variation of the kind of role-playing activity just discussed The situation is a debate

or discussion about a real or simulated issue The learners‟ roles ensure that they have (a) adequate shared knowledge about the issue and (b) different opinions or interests to defend At the end of the activity, they may have to reach a concrete decision or put the issue to a vote

For example, here is an activity from Over to you Learners work in groups of four

You are a group of people who are anxious to help the old in your small town, and you have managed to make a start by collecting £1,000 from local inhabitants and holding jumble sales

Study your role and then discuss how the money can best be used

Student A: Role: Miss Julia Jenkins, spinster

You feel that you should contact one of the charity organizations, at least for advice

Student B: Role: Rev Ronal Rix, the local vicar

You wish to found an Old People’s Club which will meet in the church hall Some of the £1,000 that has been collected was raised by holding jumble sales in the church hall

Student C: Role: Mr David Hicks, headmaster of the local primary school

You are anxious for the pupils at your school to play a role in helping the aged

Student D: Role: Mrs Dorothy Foster, widow

You think the money should be used to renovate an old country house which could be used as an old people’s recreation centre

The skills that learners need to practise are similar to those in the problem-solving activities, except that here the social constraints are stronger The activity is also similar in nature to the discussion sessions Here, the simulated roles ensure that there will be sufficient conflict of opinion to sustain the interaction

In summary, there are a number of ways to categorize role-play activities; however, the writer highly appreciates Littlewood‟s division because it is clear, specific and it covers almost all the cases in which role-play occurs

2.2.3 Roles of teachers and students in role-play activities

2.2.3.1 Roles of teachers

In discussing the roles of teachers, Wright (1987) proposed two major teacher roles in play activities: the first, the “enabling” or management function, is to create the conditions under which role-play can take place; the second, the instructional function, is to impart, by a variety of means, knowledge to the students

role-To encompass these two roles in the role-play activities, Littlewood (1981) used only one term

“facilitator” Breen and Candlin (1980) added another two and thus vested the teacher three roles in role-play: the first is to act as facilitator of the role-play process, the second is to act as

a participant, and the third is to act as an observer and learner

a Facilitator

First, as a facilitator, the teacher may need to perform a variety of specific roles, separately or simultaneously These include the following:

(1) He may perform the familiar role of language instructor

He may provide the students with learning materials and initiate role-play activity

(2) He is the organizer of the classroom activities

According to J Harmer (1991), of all the roles, it is the teacher as organizer that is the most

important and difficult from the perspective of classroom management: “The success of play activities depend on good organization and on the students knowing exactly what they are

role-to do A lot of time can be wasted if the teacher omits role-to give students vital information or issues conflicting and confusing instructions The main aims of the teacher when organizing a role-play activity are to tell the students what they are to talk about, give clear instructions about what exactly their role is, get the role-play activity going, and then organize feedback when it is over This sounds remarkably easy, but can be disastrous if teachers have not thought out exactly what they are going to say beforehand.”

In addition to this, the teacher has to break the whole class into pairs or groups, and decide on procedures of pair, group or class work When the role-play is being conducted, the teacher has to walk around the classroom and make sure the communication is going smoothly

(3) He may be the error-corrector

Before the performance of role play activity, the linguistic errors should be strictly monitored and corrected, but at the group work and class work levels in the process of role-play activity, errors are viewed as the unavoidable by-products of communication and can be ignored unless they hinder communication

(4) He may choose to be a by-stander (passive viewer), making no intervention after initiating

the proceedings, and let communication take place through independent activities

(5) While role-play is in progress, he may act as consultant or adviser, walking in the

classroom and helping where necessary or when asked The students may have questions about the language items and the role And the teacher‟s presence in this capability may be an important psychological support for many students, especially for those who are slow to develop independence

b Participant

There is no reason why the teacher should not participate as an equal in the activity He can offer his information, and at the same time stimulate and present new language, without taking the main initiative for communication away from the students themselves

When engaging in role-play activities, the teacher has to be clear in mind that he should act as one equal in position to the students and one only authoritative and superior in language ability and language teaching skills

c Observer and learner

The teacher may also act as an observer and learner

When the role-play activity is in progress he may move about the classroom in order to monitor the strengths and weaknesses of the students, as a basis for planning future learning activities He can use the weaknesses as signs for learning needs which he must cater for later, probably through more controlled, pre-communicative activities

In conclusion, role-play activity is one of the main types of communicative activity designed for developing the learners‟ communicative abilities in the foreign or second language classroom In this kind of activities the teacher is less dominant but by no means less important than in the traditional classroom activities He is a facilitator of the communicative process in which he may play the roles of instructor of language items, organizer of the role-play activity, error-corrector, passive viewer, and consultant He may also take part in the role-play activities as a co-communicator, or observe the students‟ performance for planning future activities

2.2.3.2 Roles of students

The roles of students have changed since the invention of Communicative Teaching Approach According to Morrow, (1977: 71), “the learner is now concerned with using language, not English usage In order to do this, learners take on roles and interact with other learners who also have roles What they say is determined by the roles they play, their communicative intentions and the contribution of the other learners”

It is obvious that the roles of students in role-play activities are different form those found in the traditional classroom activities These roles are suggested being closely related to the functions and status of the teacher in a role-play activity

Breen and Candlin (1980) claim that the learner serves as a negotiator – between the self, the learning process and the object of learning This role emerges from and interacts with the role

of joint negotiator within the group The student should contribute as much as he gains, and thereby he can learn in an independent way This fundamental role is clarified by the following set of particular roles:

 Learners regularly work in groups or pairs to transfer (and, if necessary, negotiate) meaning in situations in which each person plays his own role

 Learners often engage in role play or dramatization to adjust their use of the target language to different social contexts

 Learners‟ needs, styles and aims are focused on or accounted for

 Learners are given some control; their creativity and innovation are encouraged

To sum up, it can be said that all of these roles help to enhance learners‟ sense of competence and self-worth, a sense of mastery of their learning and thereby add to their intrinsic motivation

2.2.4 Significance of Role Play in Developing Speaking Skills

Larsen-Freeman (1986) explains that role plays, whether structured or less structured, are important in developing speaking skills because they give learners an opportunity to practise communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles

A role play is a highly flexible learning activity which has a wide scope for variation and imagination According to Ladousse (1987), role play uses different communicative techniques and develops fluency in the language, promotes interaction in the classroom and increases motivation Here peer learning is encouraged and sharing of responsibility between teacher and the learner in the learning process takes place

Ladousse (1987) also stressed that role play can improve learners' speaking skills in any situation, and helps learners to interact As for shy learners, role play helps by providing a mask, where learners with difficulty in conversation are liberated In addition, it is fun and most learners will agree that enjoyment leads to better learning

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

Summary

In this chapter, the researcher has just discussed the background of her paper with concepts of the key terms such as Communicative Language Teaching, Cooperative Learning –foundation for role-play practice In the end, an overview of role-play activities in developing speaking skills has been provided

CHAPTER 3: THE STUDY

This chapter discusses the setting of the study, the informants involved in the study and different methods of data collection The data collected from the survey questionnaires and interviews will be analyzed in details The chapter ends with some explanations and

interpretations of the findings of the study

3.1 Setting of the study

The study was conducted at Hanoi University of Industry among first-years chemistry-majors whose English competence is of mixed levels Almost all of these students studied English at high school in traditional approaches which focus on grammar, vocabulary and reading Therefore their communicative competence, especially speaking is limited The teachers‟ difficulty lies not only in helping students generate or organize ideas, but also in increasing their participation and motivating them to use English in speaking lessons In order to provide students with opportunities to practice their speaking skill though communicative activities,

the faculty chooses the course book New Headway elementary – third edition (Liz & John

Soars) in which role-play activities play a significant part

3.2 The study

3.2.1 Type of research

This research is a survey research because it uses questionnaires to gather information on:

 The current situation of using role-play activities to teach speaking to 1st -year majors at Hanoi University of Industry?

chemistry- Teachers and students’ attitude towards the implementation of role-play activities in

speaking lessons?

 Difficulties in using role-play activities in speaking classes at FC-HaUI?

 Recommendations to make role-play activities successful in speaking class of 1st -year FC students?

3.2.2 Participants

Students

The study was conducted at Faculty of Chemistry, Hanoi University of Industry With 360 students in total, the number of students joining the survey was 120 informants who came from 4 first-year classes Because this was a small-scale study, this number of subjects would

be reasonable and manageable Most of these informants‟ English proficiency is at elementary

level though in reality, that of some students may be lower or higher

Teachers

Twenty teachers were involved in the research All of them have been teaching English for at least 2 years and have taught the target students for at least one year so they may provide objective and panoramic view of the situation Most of them are young teachers who were trained in communicative approach while some others were trained in traditional approach

This may vary their responses to the questionnaires

3.2.3 Data collection instruments

In order to collect sufficient, reliable, and valid information for the study, questionnaires and

interview were employed

3.2.3.1 Questionnaire

Survey questionnaire was used in collecting data for the study due to its unprecedented efficiency in terms of research time, research effort and financial resources according to Jo and Steve (1997, cited by Nunan, 1998) Thanks to a questionnaire, the researcher could collect a huge amount of information in a short period of time and “with well – constructed questionnaires, processing the data can also be fast and relatively straightforward” (Gillian, 2000) Moreover, three types of data including “behavioral”, “factual” and “attitudinal” which are easily obtained from questionnaires can provide the researcher with information to answer the research questions about the current situation of using role-play activities to enhance speaking skills of 1st-year FC-HaUI students In brief, due to its great effectiveness, the researcher chose survey questionnaire as an effective method of data collection in this study

Questionnaire for students

The survey questionnaire for students aims at investigating the current situation of role-play practice (question 1 and 2), students‟ attitude towards the application of role-play in speaking lessons (question 3 - question 10), their difficulties in using role-play (question 11) and their expectations for successful role-play activities (question 12)

Questionnaire for teachers

The survey questionnaire for teachers consists of questions about teachers‟ current practice of using role-play (question 1 - question 7), teachers‟ attitude towards role-play activities (question 8 and question 9), their difficulties in using role-play (question 10) and their expectations for successful role-play activities (question 11)

3.2.3.2 Interview

The interview involved 10 students and 10 teachers only Unlike the questionnaires, all ended questions were included in the interview schedules The interviewees were asked for their opinion to clarify their answers to the questionnaires Semi-structured type was chosen

open-since “it gives the interviewee a degree of power and control over the course of interview […] and the interviewer a great deal of flexibility” (Hoang & Nguyen, 2006: 45) Moreover, “the interactions are incredibly rich and […] the researcher can produce extraordinary evidence […] that he doesn’t get in structured interview or questionnaire methodology” (Dowsett,

1986: 53 cited in Hoang & Nguyen, 2006: 45) This advantage coincides with the researcher‟s

purpose of using this data collection instrument to clarify participants‟ responses when necessary as well as to get further information on the topic

3.2.4 Data collection procedure

The study took place in the second term of the 2010-2011 academic year and consisted of 2

main phases as follows

In the initial step, all preparation for the data collections was made After being designed, the two set of questionnaires were piloted on 2 voluntary teachers and 3 voluntary first-year students Piloting is essential since it can indicate problems or potential pitfalls The first version of interview questions was treated in the same way Before being improved, this version had been conducted on a teacher and a student whose comments made a great contribution to the final version

In the next step, the researcher had a direct interaction with the respondents and delivered questionnaires to them Before asking the participant to do the survey questionnaire, the researcher briefly explained the purpose, the format and the length of the questionnaire All of participants‟ questions would be thoroughly answered to clarify any misunderstanding about the survey questions 120 questionnaires for students and 20 questionnaires for teachers were returned After that, interviews with the participants were conducted in classrooms on campus, which are familiar with the interviewees to assure their comfortability During the interviews, respondents were encouraged to give response while tactfully prevented from being off-track

by the interviewer

3.2.5 Data analysis procedure

The data were collated and analyzed to address the research questions Regarding the questionnaire, answers to close-ended questions whose response “can readily be quantified and analyzed” were categorized into appropriate groups before those to open-ended ones which provide “more useful/insightful” but “more difficult to quantify” (Hoang & Nguyen, 2006:38) data were listed and explained carefully Responses collected from different interviews were analyzed to compare interviewees‟ opinions Discussion and comparison between the data from the interviews and those from the questionnaires were also made All

the data were presented in table and bar charts for better illustration and explanations in a reader – friendly way to easily compare different variables in the same category

3.3 Results

3.3.1 Research question 1 and 2: What is the current situation of using role-play activities to teach speaking to 1 st -year students at the Faculty of Chemistry – Hanoi University of Industry? What are teachers and students’ attitude towards using role-play activities in speaking lessons?

Chart 1: Frequency of students’ participation in role-play activities in speaking lessons (SQ-Q1)

The above chart shows that more than half of students asked (62%) is familiar with role-play activities None of them has never been introduced to such activities While 30% of the students indicated that their teacher sometimes used role-play activities in speaking lesson, only 8% of them reported they had very few chances to take part in these activities It can be said that role-play activities have been used at a quite high frequency at FC – HaUI, which indicates teachers‟ awareness of the advantages of these activities in teaching speaking

62 30

often sometimes rarely never

s Role-playing controlled throughcued dialogues

Role-playing controlled through cues and information

Role-playing controlled through situation and goals

Role-playing in the form of debate

or discussion

Chart 2: Frequency and kinds of role-play activities used in speaking lessons (TQ-Q1)

It can be seen from the chart that all the four kinds of role-play activities have been introduced

to the students in speaking class The most common type to be chosen by teachers is playing through cued dialogues The reason may lie in its easiness for students The second most common type is role-playing in the form of debate or discussion Although this kind of role-play somehow is a challenge for students, it brings students chances to speak freely The other two types of role-play are also used with less frequency It is due to students‟ interest that teachers have different choices

role-Kinds of role-play

activities

Number of students

Strongly dislike

Dislike Fairly

dislike

Fairly like

Like Strongly

like

Role-playing controlled

through cued dialogues

(each student has cues)

Role-playing controlled

through cues and

information

(1 student has cues, 1

student has information)