Using role play in developing speaking skill for senior students of Faculty of Tourism at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam Naional University

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HÒA USING ROLE PLAY IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HÒA

USING ROLE PLAY IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL FOR SENIOR STUDENTS OF FACULTY

OF TOURISM AT UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, VIETNAM

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

SỬ DỤNG BÀI TẬP ĐÓNG VAI TRONG VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH NĂM CUỐI KHOA DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ

HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology

Code: 601410

HANOI-2010

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES

FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HÒA

USING ROLE PLAY IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL FOR SENIOR STUDENTS OF FACULTY

OF TOURISM AT UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, VIETNAM

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

SỬ DỤNG BÀI TẬP ĐÓNG VAI TRONG VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH NĂM CUỐI KHOA DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ

HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI

M.A Minor Programme Thesis

Field: English Methodology Code: 601410

Supervisor: Dr Lâm Quang Đông

HANOI-2010

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VNU: Vietnam National University, Hanoi

USSH: University of Social Sciences and Humanities

TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language

GE: General English

ESL: English as a Second Language

CLT: Communicative Language Teaching

TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES

Figure 1: Activities used by the teachers at USSH

TABLES

Table 1:Procedure of a role-playing process

Table 2: Types of interaction skills

Table 3: Role play discourse analysis-Pair 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i

ABSTRACT iii

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv

LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v

PART A: INTRODUCTION 1

1.Rationale 1

2 Aims of the study 3

3 Scope of the study 4

4 Research methods 4

5 Research questions 4

6 Organization of the thesis 4

PART B: DEVELOPMENT 5

CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 5

1.1 Role-play 5

1.1.1 Definition 5

1.1.2 Types of role plays 7

1.1.3 Process of role-playing. 9

1.1.4 Role-playing and current teaching techniques 10

1.2 Speaking skill 11

1.2.1 Oral skills and interaction 11

1.2.2 Types of interaction skills 12

1.3 Using role-play in class to develop students’ speaking skills 15

1.3.1 Is Role play for language learning or language practice? 15

1.3.2 Role play is language at work. 15

1.3.3 Role play is language learning, not a theory 16

1.4 Teachers prepare students for role play 17

1.4.1 Different roles for different students 17

1.4.2 Role card

1.4.3 Doing about mistakes 18

1.4.4 Debriefing 19

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY 21

2.1 Background to the Study 21

2.1.1 The settings 21

2.1.1.1 The syllabus 21

2.1.1.2 The teachers 22

2.1.1.3 The students 22

2.1.2 The problems 22

2.2 The survey 23

2.2.1 Subjects 23

2.2.2 Instruments of data collection 23

2.2.2.1 Interview 23

2.2.2.2 Classroom observation 23

2.2.2.3 Diary keeping 24

2.2.2.4 Follow-up questionnaire 24

2.3 Procedure 24

2.3.1 Interview 24

2.3.2 Class observation 24

2.3.2.1 The pre-test stage 24

2.3.2.2 Data analysis and presentation 25

2.3.3 Follow-up questionnaire 36

CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 37

3.1 Findings 37

3.1.1 Findings from interviews with teachers 37

3.1.2 Findings from the follow up questionnaire with the students 38

3.2 Implications and suggestions 40

3.2.1 How to integrate role play in the syllabus to develop speaking skills. 40

3.2.2 Note for teachers when using role play activities 40

3.2.3 Some possible difficulties and suggestions to overcome them when using role play activities. 41

PART C: CONCLUSION 42

REFERENCES 43

APPENDICES

PART A: INTRODUCTION

1 Rationale

English has become the most essential language in the world used by almost all people from many different countries for international communication The area of English study has also become a special interest because of the importance of English in any scope of our lives

Julian Edge (1996) said: “Since British trade, followed by colonial and imperial expansion, English spread around the world Then the military and economic dominance of the United States of America has confirmed English as the international language of present historical period

In international relationship, English speaking ability is very important so people must be able to participate in the wider world of work The speaking skill is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language This reality makes teachers and parents think that speaking ability should be mastered by their students and children Based on the above reasons, in recent years, English language teaching has focused on teaching the language rather than teaching about the language The emphasis is not only on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of their communicative ability In order to develop the learners’ communicative ability, the teacher needs to create a scenario to teach the target language in a vibrant, active and interesting manner

In learning speaking skill, students often find several problems The problem frequently found is that the influence of their native language makes it difficult to use the foreign language Another reason is the lack of motivation to practice the foreign language in daily conversation They are also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation

Many factors can cause problems of the students’ speaking skills namely the students’ interest, the material, and the media among others including the technique in teaching English Many techniques can be applied including role play because many research findings say that this technique is effective to use

Role play is very important in teaching speaking because it gives students an opportunity

to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles In addition, it allows students to be creative and to put themselves in another person’s place for a while According to Stephen D Hattings (2007) based on his observation in the conversation class, the role play would seem to be the ideal activity in which students could use their English creatively and it aims to stimulate a conversation situation in which students might find themselves and give them an opportunity to practice and develop their communication skill For these reasons, the writer is interested in analyzing the use of role play in teaching speaking for the students of Faculty of Tourism at University of Social Sciences and Humanities She wants to show that using role play in developing students’ speaking skill offer a variety of benefits

A very wide variety of experience can be brought into the classroom through role play The range of functions and structures, and the areas of vocabulary that can be introduced, go far beyond the limits of other pair or group activities, such as conversation, communication games, or humanistic exercises Through role play we can train our students in speaking skills in any situation

Role play puts students in situation in which they are required to use and develop those phonic forms of language which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships, but which are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses Many students obtain information from that language teaching syllabuses Many students believe that language is only to do with the transfer of specific information from one person to another They have very little small talk, and in consequence often appear unnecessarily brusque and abrupt It is possible to build up these social skills from a very low level through role play

Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives: people who are going to work or travel in an international context It is helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom For these students, role play is a very useful rehearsal for real life It enables them not just to acquire set phrases, but to learn how interaction might take place in a variety of situations

Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask Some more reticent members of a group may have a great deal of difficulty participating in conversations about themselves, and in other activities based on their direct experience These students are liberated by role play as they no longer feel that their own personality is implicated

Perhaps the most important reasons for using role play is that it is fun Once students understand what is expected of them, they thoroughly enjoy letting their imagination rip Although there does not appear to be any scientific evidence that enjoyment automatically leads to better learning, most language teachers would probably agree that in the case of the vast majority of normal people this is surely so

Finally, role play is one of a whole gamut of communicative techniques which develops fluency in language students, which promotes interaction in the classroom, and which increases motivation Not only is peer learning encouraged by it but also the sharing between teacher and student of the responsibility for the learning process Role play is perhaps the most flexible technique in the range, and teachers who have it at their finger-tips are able to meet an infinite variety of needs with suitable and effective role play exercise

In brief, the needs of teaching about the language not the language itself, designing interesting speaking activities, and getting students to involve in oral activities are the reasons why the writer is interested in conducting this research

2 Aims of the study

The purpose of the study is

 To find out the importance of role play in developing speaking activities used by the teachers at University of Social Sciences and Humanities

 To examine the use of role-playing as a speaking activity in helping develop students’ speaking skill

The researcher hopes to change some ways in the choice of speaking activities, which is for the sake of students, not for the sake of the activity

3 Scope of the study

Because of its small scale, this study tries to examine how using role-play develops speaking skill in a number of aspects such as accuracy, fluency, lack of hesitations, turn-taking and negotiations of meaning Also, this study is limited to the context of USSH with the participation of twenty- five senior students at Department of Tourism

4 Research methods

The study is carried out employing the following techniques: holistic class observation done via tape recording, diary keeping, interviews and especially discourse analysis

5 Research questions

The study tries to answer the following questions:

1 What are the current speaking activities used at University of Social Sciences and Humanities to develop students’ speaking skill?

2 How could role-play help developing students’ speaking skill?

3 How could role-play be integrated into the current teaching syllabus to develop the students’ speaking skill?

6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis includes three parts The first part: “Introduction” introduces the motivation for the research, defines the specific aims, scope, methods and research questions

The second part consists of three chapters The first chapter, Chapter 1 “Literature Review” gives an overview of role-play and speaking skill

The second chapter, Chapter 2: “The study” tries to answer the two research questions of

the study In this chapter, background information for the study is presented, giving the premises for the next part Then there is the detailed description of how the study is carried out, including methods and procedure and summary of the findings of the study

Chapter 3: “Findings and Implications” presents the findings from the study and

proposes some practical suggestions for teachers at USSH, including the ways to integrate role-play in syllabus

The last part of the study is the conclusion, which gives a summary and recommendations

for the further study

PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW

In this chapter, some theories related to role-play are reviewed, including the definitions of role-play, their characteristics, and types of role-play as well as the process of carrying out

a role-play as an oral activity Then there is a discussion of what role-plays are The chapter is ended with the relation between role-play and speaking skill

1.1 Role-play

1.1.1 Definition

In Cambridge International Dictionary of English (2004) 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 training courses language learning and psychotherapy

In this case, Ladousse (1996) illustrated that when students assume a “Role”, they play a part (either their own or somebody else’s) in specific situation “Play” means that is taken

on in a safe environment in which students are as an inventive and playful as possible According to Crookal and Oxford (2007), there is a little consensus on the terms used in the role playing and 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 Role play is included in simulation as well

In defining role play, Byrne (1976) gave comments that role play is a part of drama activity In details, he described that there are three items to cover the drama activities They are mime (mimicry-memorization), role play and simulation He distinguished the terms as follows:

a Mime, the participants perform actions without using words (although as we shall see, this activity leads naturally on to talk)

b Role play, the participants interact either as themselves or others in imaginary situations

c Simulation, this 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 to be more appropriate as a language game It is performing actions without using words For instance, if someone mimes and action, the others try to guess what it is

Another definition is stated by Budden (1999) in British Council Teaching English (BBC)

on 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 favour and those who are against the theme

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 role play as 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 the students to encourage thinking and creativity, let the 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

1.1.2 Types of role plays

In view of the persons taking an actor, Gillian (1996) explained that there are several types

of role The first is the roles which correspond to a real need in the students’ lives In this category, it involves such roles as doctors dealing with patients, or salesman traveling abroad The second type of role is the students play themselves in a variety of situations of which they may or may not have direct experience The example for this category is a customer complaining or a passenger asking for information The third type is the type that few students will ever direct experience but it is easy to play because the teachers have such vast indirect experience of them The television journalist is a good example of this type and it is very useful kind of role taken from real life The last type is fantasy roles, which are fictitious, imaginary, and possibly even absurd

In case of role play activities, according to Byrne (2007), 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 text book 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, Adrian Doff (1997) gave an example of scripted role play dialogue and reading text and 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 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 office?

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

(Adapted from Living English book 2:A.G.A bdalla et al-1999)

To demonstrate a role play activity based on the dialogue, the procedures given by Doff is

4) Call out a few other pairs of students in turn, and ask them to have other conversation based on the prompts

Based on the procedures, the writer views that the ways of organizing this dialogue can be carried out into pairs of students who would improvise a 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 are 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 bring out these ideas:

1) The teacher could prepare the whole class, by:

a) Let them discuss together what they may say

b) Let them all try out the role play privately, before calling on one or two pairs to act out

in front of the class

2 Susan House (1999) explained that there are several procedures in using role play:

a Students read and familiarize themselves with the dialogue

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

c Let students act out their role play, not just say them but students should read it loudly

d Walk around correcting and checking

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

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

1.1.3 Process of role-playing

According to John (1982:31-37) each role-playing activity has four-part structure: preparation, introduction, activity and debriefing This is set out in Table 1

Table 1: Procedure of a role-playing process

confidence with interactive learning Assessing students’ needs, interests, and abilities

Selecting or writing the role-play activity Organizing the room and gathering resources

Learners engage in information collection tasks

Language input: useful lexis, structures, genres, discussions strategies, research skills, etc

Work arising from discussions, e.g report writing or oral presentations

Debriefing ( optional) Behavior: task review, discussion of tactics

employed, assessment or performance, possible discussion of cultural aspects Language: analysis of language used, discussion of errors, remedies work, further linguistic input

1.1.4 Role-playing and current teaching techniques

Role-playing fits well with the recent emphasis on action learning and “task” as both a communicative instructional technique and a concept of curriculum planning (Candlin

1987; Nunan 1989) This is because they provide a means of integrating various tasks into

a coherent and believable whole Essentially, a task is a complete communicative activity that involves learners in comprehending and using language while their attention is focused

on meaning rather the form (Nunan 1989:12) Tasks have a particular objective, appropriate content, a specified procedure, and a range of outcomes They are seen as a compelling and effective means for realizing fundamental principles of communicative language learning, such as those discussed by Canale and Swain (1980), Widdowson (1983), and others who stress the importance of pragmatic aspects of communicative competence In these terms, a role-play activity provides an optimal environment for communicative language learning The technique offers teachers a means of setting up large scale tasks and creating a structured context for linking sub-tasks that involve data gathering, problem solving or decision-making

1.2 Speaking skill

1.2.1 Oral skills and interaction

On looking more closely at what is meant by “skill”, Bygate, (1979:5) shows that perceptive skills and interaction skills are seen as skills The former involves perceiving, recalling and articulating in the correct order the sounds and structures of the language This is used to be the conception of second language teaching many years ago and can be seen in audio-lingual approach The learners try to listen and imitate the language in order

motor-to be native-like A series of exercises and tasks were chosen for the purpose of making learners to be good speaker: choosing the right forms, putting them in the correct order, sounding like a native speaker, even producing the right meaning (Mackey 1965:266) Some years later, people recognized that those types of exercises and tasks could not answer some problems arising during the course of teaching speaking as those ways of teaching are context-free teachings It is like teaching a person to dive and never letting him know what actual driving means Wilkins (1975:76) realized that “If all his language production is controlled from production he will not be able to transfer his knowledge from

a language-learning situation to a language-using situation”

sBesides motor-perceptive skills, interaction skills need to be developed So what are interaction skills? Bygate, M (1975:5) supposes that these skills refer to the ability of using

knowledge and basic motor-perception skill to achieve communication Interaction skills involve making decision about communication, such as what to say, how to say it, and whether to develop it, in accordance with one’s intentions, while maintaining the desired relations with others

As the focus of this study is on the interaction skills (oral interaction skills), perceptive skills will not be detailed in the following parts

motor-1.2.2 Types of interaction skills

As developing interaction skills has become the centre of discussion in the course of teaching and learning the second language, many linguists have tried to classify them Nunan (1989:32) suggests that to achieve good communication, a speaker should have the following skills:

 The ability to articulate phonological features of the language comprehensibly

 Mastery of stress, rhythm, intonation pattern

 An acceptable degree of fluency

 Transactional and interpersonal skills

 Skills in taking short and long speaking turns

 Skills in negotiating meaning

 Conversational listening

 Skills in knowing about and negotiating purposes for the conversation

 Using appropriate conversational formulae and fillers

Bygate, (1982: 4) states that interactions skills involve two sub-skills: routines and negotiation skills The former are the skills used when participants have to communicate in typical patterns He further discusses that there are two types of routines namely informational routines and interaction routines Examples of informational routines are stories, descriptions, and instructions The second type of routines is interactional routine, which can be characterized in broad terms to include the kinds of turns typically occurring

in given situations, and the order in which the components are likely to occur Examples of

these skills are telephone conversations, interview situations, casual encounter, conversations at parties, and conversations around the table

The second of interaction skills are negotiation skills which can be seen from two aspects: management of interaction and negotiation of meaning

Management of interaction refers to the freedom of participants when taking part in conversation They can function as they wish in the conversation without any external intervention

Interaction management has at least two aspects: agenda management and turn-taking Agenda management refers to the topic chosen by the participant and turn taking relates to the turns taken by whom and for how long in the conversation Efficient turn taking requires five abilities which can be seen in the following:

 Knowing how to signal that one wants to speak using phrases, sounds, gestures

 Recognizing the right moment to get a turn

 Use appropriate turn structure in order to use the turn properly

 Recognize others’ signal of their desire to speak

 How to let someone else have fun

Negotiation of meaning refers to the skill of communicating ideas clearly and Bygate, (1982:27) supposes that level of explicitness” and “procedures of negotiation” are two factors affecting the understanding in any oral interactions

The first factor which is called “level of explicitness” refers to the speakers’ choices of expression in the light of what our interlocutor knows, what he or she needs to know or can understand So it is suggested that it is not advisable to talk to two people in the same way about the thing that one of them knows a little while the other knows a lot Thus it is of great importance for a speaker to foresee what the listener has already known and what he has not known about or known just little In this situation, the speaker must decide to choose how much information should be delivered to each listener because no one wants too much or too little information

We have just discussed the first aspect of negotiation skills, which refers to the skills that a speaker needs to have, that is, knowing how much background information processed by the listener Based on that premises, he/ she will know how much information should be informed to the listener However, negotiation skills also concern the factor of deciding how specific we are in what we say Bygate, (1982:32) lists some strategies needed They are paraphrase, metaphor, the use of vocabulary to vary the degree of precision The classification of interaction skills by Bygate, (1982:32) can be charted as follows:

Table 2: Types of interaction skills

Interaction skills

Informative routines: describing, story

telling

Interactional routine phone conversations

Management of interaction: agenda management turn taking

Negotiation of meaning: how much and how specific information of something is mentioned

I have reviewed two ways of classification of interaction skills and find each way has its own advantages However, in my study, to assess the interaction skills achieved and developed, I will base on the criteria given out by Bygate since I found the classification very detailed and there is a discussion of things related to each skill

In the above parts, much space was spent for discussing two terms “role-play” and

“interaction skills” and related issues However, some may wonder if they have any relations and why much effort has been done to study them

1.3 Using role-play in class to develop students’ speaking skills

1.3.1 Is Role play for language learning or language practice?

“It is likely that you view the learning a process of language acquisition” (Ladousse, 1996)

In this sense, teachers present their students with some new items, they drill students with these items, and then they expect their students to be able to use them However, students have seldom acquired complete mastery of a new set of language items at the end of one lesson Exactly how and when learning takes place is still a mystery What is certain is that

a variety of mental processes go on before the new language is used spontaneously To see

it in terms of learning itself and then practice is perhaps only a question of definition, but these are unfortunate definitions because they do not openly acknowledge a whole area of the complex business of learning which often involves “doing” as much as “thinking”

Of course what teachers think learning is, and what their students think it is, are important matters for consideration It is essential for them as teachers to see the validity of the activities that they are proposing in their own terms, and for them to be able to demonstrate this validity to students so that, however loose-ended and unstructured a role play may appear, it may be stopped at any point so that the language that the students are using, or could, or should be using, can be analyzed in terms of structures, functions and lexis, etc Learning should not only take place, but should be seen to be taking place In absolute terms this may be an impossible task, for no one yet has any set answers to the question

1.3.2 Role play is language work

Role play belongs to the category of language learning techniques sometimes referred to as low input-high input This means that the teachers-centered presentation phase of the lesson is very short and not at all the same as it would be for a controlled practice drill After a brief introduction, the students plunge into an activity in which accomplishing the task is more important than using the exact word, in which fluency predominates over accuracy Obviously, the language the students use may not necessarily have been acquired

at an earlier stage

In fact, there are two ways of looking at language work in role play Either students manage with the language they know, or they practice structures and functions that have been presented to them at an earlier stage of the lesson or the course, in a free and uncontrolled way In the first situation, when the students just cope as best they can, the teacher’s aim is to bring them to the point of awareness at which the necessity of acquiring certain structures is evident, as these structures are of immediate relevance Students can see how they could have put them to good use They will retain them all the more easily

because they are rooted in a meaningful context In the second situation, role play is the active phase of learning and offers an opportunity for students to make personal use of language and offers an opportunity for students to make personal to make personal use of language Role play can be used in this way right from the start in elementary classes

Suggestions for precise language work are made under the heading Language in each role

play, but it will be up to you to decide exactly how you go about this, and how you link it

to the rest of your course work As for the kind of language work to be done, role play lends itself to almost every type: structure, lexis, functions, intonation pattern, and so on You will find most of the role plays particularly suitable for familiarizing students with registers, an aspect of language-learning which is neglected in many course books

Ultimately, we want our students to be both fluent and accurate in the way they speak Being accurate does not just mean using the right thing in the right place, at the right time The appropriacy of the message to the given social (professional) situation is a matter of cultural context as well as the choice of linguistic terms The more different the students’ culture is, the more difficult it will be to cope with the concept of register The way formality or informality of social relationships govern the choice of language can usefully

be discussed before or after many of the role plays

1.3.3 Role play is language learning, not a theory

The common association of the role play with the therapeutic professions means some students are reticent because they think they will in some way lose their own identity It should by now be clear to the reader that role play is far more akin to child’s play than to deeply disturbing psychological experiences We are teachers, not therapists, and any one

of us who ventures into highly charged emotional role plays without suitable training may well cause a great deal of distress Choosing subjects that are safe though not boring or trivial and placing the emphasis on “play” rather than “role” will reduce this resistance on the part of anxious students

A related problem is psychological problem that many people feel when they are asked to

be someone else Paradoxically, other people excel in this very situation I have often asked a group of students, who have carried out a role play for the first time, to evaluate

their feelings during the activity They use this five point scale: very embarrassed, slightly embarrassed, uneasy, natural, very natural

The variety of responses never fails to astonish the students who usually imagine that other people react in the same way they themselves do The more extrovert students often manage to convince the anxious ones that students in any class are more or less inhibited during the first few role-play activities This can be done very simply by providing role plays that are task-based For example, an information transfer exercise can be placed within the context of a role play The inhibited students will carry it out just as an information transfer exercise Then they will start looking around the class and learn form the bustle going on in other groups how they can get more out of the activity

1.4 Teachers prepare students for role play

1.4.1 Different roles for different students

The teacher assigns roles to students in classroom There are different types of role that students may take during role playing process Students may take roles in which they do have experience or they may take others in which they do not have experience In the first type, students find it easy to play roles as a real need In the second type, students find it motivating if the situations are relevant

Many teachers feel that students will not see the point of this type of role because it has nothing to do with real life This sad fact may explain the dull and prosaic nature of most published collection of role plays Therefore, teachers should have a thorough understanding about characteristics of students in order to assign students with appropriate roles Once students understand what they are trying to do in role, their imagination is often liberated and the fantasy becomes a very enriching and useful linguistic experience Imagination, which is surely as real as the rest of us, has been banished from the classroom for far too long

1.4.2 Role card

Teachers complain that role play has no life in it because students are glued to the role card This can only be because the information on the card is too complex to grasp rapidly,

or because it has not been made plain to the students that they should have mastered the information on the card before they began the activity Role cards should be concise and contain only essentials If linguistic structures are suggested for use they should be ones that the students are already familiar with When the students have read their role card they can either return it to the teacher or turn it over and refer to it only when completely stuck Then they are free to explore the possibilities of the role in a more spontaneous manner Some role cards say things like: “You are Mrs Smith You are angry.” Imposing emotional states in this way can be very inhibiting for students If you wish them to learn how to express strong emotions, it is much better to ensure that these stem naturally out of the situation you have set up

It is often difficult to decide how to distribute the role cards You can decide who is who, the students can choose, or the distribution can be done at random In a class in which the teacher is attempting to shift some of the responsibility for learning from her own shoulders to those of the students, the second and third solutions are infinitely better than the first In the second, the negotiation about who will play which role may well give rise

to an opportunity for authentic communication, which is a too rare occurrence in the classroom However, it may also mean that a very weak student gets a key role, and the role play falls apart Teachers soon acquire the necessary judgment to which is the best solution on each occasion

1.4.3 Doing about mistakes

More and more teachers are adhering to the view that, mistakes are integral part of the language-learning process, and that an opportunity to make them in a free phase in any lesson ultimately enhances learning, rather than hinders it Some mistakes do “fossilize”, but most of them just seem to indicate certain stages in the acquisition of the language They disappear gradually as the students become more competent and confident

Although you may be convinced of the validity of these recent theories on errors, your students may still worry about the mistakes they make as they carry out a role play They are likely to question the usefulness of the exercise, or beg you to stay close to them and correct them every time they make a mistake It is essential to explain to these students that

errors will be dealt with, that you are aware of the ones they are making, and that you will not forget about them

Students at a given level make similar kinds of mistakes in role play as they do with any other teaching material, and will soon be able to predict which will be the most obvious ones by considering which functions, structures, and lexical items are likely to crop up in the role play you have chosen The Language section in each role play in the book suggests areas in which error will probably occur A second solution, which should be considered as

an additional method, rather than as an alternative, is to walk round the classroom listening

to the students talking, and noting down the mistakes you would like to deal with After the role play, you can correct the mistakes immediately by eliciting the correct forms from the students, by writing them on the blackboard, or by providing some kind of remedial exercise that you had predicted would be necessary You can also simply incorporate remedial work into a later lesson, but in this case it is a good idea to let the students know how and when you intend to do this, as many of them believe correction to be a vital issue Whatever the procedure you adopt, do not let the consideration of errors stifle the role play while it is in progress

1.4.4 Debriefing

Debriefing is the term used to refer to the analytical discussion which may take place after

a role play or simulation The kinds of questions that are raised are:

a Who participated?

b Who did not?

c Why not?

d Who was very good?

e Who could have done better?

In many areas of education where these techniques are used, this interrogative phase is as important as the main activity In language learning, intermediate or advanced students who are self-confident and used to role play will benefit from a debriefing session which will offer an opportunity for authentic and spontaneous communication The teacher

should insist on evaluation rather than criticism, and make sure that the students talk about what went well before they get on to what went badly This encourages positive thinking about the experience As the students discuss the parts they played, they will probably notice that one or two people seem to have participated very little This fact may be a reflection of the fairly silent roles that these students play in real life, or it may reveal a lack of self-confidence or linguistic ability in the target language Whatever the reason, it is important to discuss the issue with understanding, and to make sure the silent students do not feel under pressure I have often noticed that giving a quite or reticent student a more passive part to play for a while- a listening role or a shared role- enables him or her to build up sufficient confidence to blossom at later stage

Debriefing is not, however, an absolutely essential part of language-learning simulation or role play Putting the performance under the microscope has a distinctly inhibiting effect

on many students, even on some seasoned role-players At a low level, the language needed to analyze the role play will be much complex than language of the role play itself

It is acceptable to consider that the objective of the role play or simulation has been met as the activity itself was carried out, and to move straight on to a completely different phase

of the lesson You will rapidly develop your own judgment as to when a debriefing is, or is not, useful

CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY

This chapter addresses the first two questions First background information is provided to help readers know about the teaching and learning context at University of Social Sciences and Humanities These are premises for the later study to find how role play could help develop the senior students’ speaking skill In the next part, the procedure, the data analysis, presentation, discussion and the summary of the findings are mentioned, respectively

2.1 Background to the Study

2.1.1 The settings

2.1.1.1 The syllabus

The study is conducted at the Tourism Faculty, USSH-VNU These students have to take part in a four-year course in which English is taught during the first three years in a formal setting with two stages During the first stage (consisting of the first three terms), students study general English with four macro skills namely: speaking, listening, reading and writing In the second stage (the rest of three terms), students join an ESP course

The first stage is considered to be the most important to students’ development of the four macro language skills since they have more time and opportunities to practice their skills basically and systematically than in second one However, class time allocation for the four skills in general and for speaking in particular is not always sufficient English is taught in

15 weeks each term For three first terms, there are 8 periods (two-school days) per week (each period is 50 minutes long) In the next term (the 4th term), students start learning ESP (5 periods per week)

All English teaching and learning materials are compiled under the tendency of based and task-based approach The course book Lifelines Elementary, Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate is chosen for the first stage which satisfies a number of factors such as the students’ needs, objectives of each school year and teaching time available The material for the second stage is “ English for Tourism” designed by a group of teachers working in English Department based on some textbooks about Tourism consisting of two