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

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

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY - -

TRẦN THỊ MAI

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

WEAK STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCES

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

NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH YẾU

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING

VINH UNIVERSITY - -

TRẦN THỊ MAI

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

WEAK STUDENTS’ SPEAKING PERFORMANCES

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

NÓI TIẾNG ANH CHO HỌC SINH YẾU BẬC TRUNG HỌC PHỔ THÔNG

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

Code: 60.14.01.11

SUPERVISOR: NGUYỄN THỊ QUYẾT, Ph.D

NGHE AN - 2017

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I gratefully acknowledge the encouragement and support of many individuals in

assisting me to accomplish this study

First of all, I would like to express my deepest thanks to my beloved

supervisor Nguyen Thi Quyet, Ph.D for her valuable time, suggestions, guidance,

and assistance in this study Without her help, the thesis would not have been

completed

I would also like to thank the students of the classes I visited in order to collect

information for my research Without their help, this study could not have been

successful

Finally, my thanks go to my colleagues, friends and especially my beloved

family I feel greatly indebted to them for their essential help and encouragement

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STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP

I hereby acknowledge that this study is my own work The data and findings discussed in the thesis are true, used with permission, and have not been published elsewhere

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1

1.1 Rationale 1

1.2 Aims of the study 3

1.4 Scope of study 3

1.5 Method of the study 3

1.6 Organization of the thesis 4

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND 4

2.1 Speaking skill 5

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill 5

2.1.2 Types of spoken language 5

2.1.3 Characteristics of spoken language 6

2.1.4 Aspects of speaking skills 7

2.1.5 Communicative competence 8

2.1.6 Teaching Speaking 9

2.1.6.1 Principles for teaching speaking 10

2.1.6.2 Types of classroom speaking performance 13

2.1.6.3 Classroom speaking activities 15

2.1.6.4 Designing lesson plans 17

2.1.6.5 The roles of the teacher and the students in speaking class 18

2.1.7 Difficulties learners have when learning speaking 19

2.1.8 The assessment of speaking skill 20

2.2 Role-play 21

2.2.1 The definition of role-play 21

2.2.2 The Advantages of role-play 22

2.2.3 Steps in applying role-play 24

2.2.4 Types Role-plays 30

2.2.4.1 Scripted role-play 30

2.2.4.2 Unscripted role-play 31

2.2.4.3 The strength of using Scripted role-play 32

2.2.4.4 Memorization in role-plays 33

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY 33

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3.1 Research questions 34

3.2 Participants 34

3.3 Materials 34

3.4 Procedure 36

CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 39

4.1 Results 39

4.1.1 The results of The general English test 39

4.1.2 Pre- and post-test results 40

4.1.3 Results from Questionnaires 47

4.2 Discussion 50

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 52

5.1 Conclusion 52

5.2 Implications 53

5.3 Limitations of the study 53

5.4 Suggestions for further study 54

REFERENCES 55 APPENDIX A I APPENDIX B IV APPENDIX C V APPENDIX D VI APPENDIX E VII APPENDIX F VIII APPENDIX G IX APPENDIX H X APPENDIX I XI APPENDIX J XII APPENDIX K XIV APPENDIX L XIX

test in the experimental group and the control group 39 Table 4 2: The means, medians and modes of the experimental group in the pre-test

and the post-test 40 Table 4 3: The means, medians and modes of the control group in the pre-test and

the post-test 40 Table 4 4: Student satisfaction levels in scripted role-play for improving speaking

skills 48

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LIST OF FIGURES

Page

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

speaking skills from the pre-test to the post-test 42 Figure 4 2: The grammar results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test 43 Figure 4 3: The vocabulary results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test 44 Figure 4 4: The pronunciation results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test

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

post-test 46 Figure 4 6: The fluency results of both groups in the pre-test and the post-test 47 Figure 4 7: Students’ attitudes toward using scripted role-play 50

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

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

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activities for speaking skills in the English book are good, however, for students who are eager for new knowledge and various activities, changing the activities to make them more interesting is necessary which can contribute to the success of the lesson

as well as the final results Many English teachers have consequently shifted their lessons to make them more active by employing Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) As the teaching method focuses on providing students opportunities to use the target language, many activities are introduced to the students in order to develop their speaking ability One of the most popular activities chosen by the teachers is role-play It is demonstrated in a number of studies that role-play helps to improve the students speaking ability effectively (Alwahibee, 2004; Klanrit, 2007; Liu & Ding, 2009) Role-play has been considered an effective approach in a communicative classroom to developing skills in active listening, problem-solving, working as a team, and communicating effectively, among others (Rao, 2011)

The role-play activities typically used in a language classroom can be classified into two types: scripted and non-scripted role-plays In scripted role- play, the students have to act out through the script given on assigned situations by using the target language in pairs or in small groups In non-scripted role-play, on the other hand, they are asked to act out a conversation in front of the class without preparing

or writing the script in advance (Byrne, 1986) When doing the scripted role-play, the students have time to prepare the scripts and rehearse them to achieve the ability

to speak smoothly Students, especially with low English proficiency, often find scripted role-plays easier to handle, thus being a more popular choice in English conversation classrooms (Chotirat, 2010) Non-scripted role-play, on the other hand, seems to be far too complicated, given the fact that students have limited knowledge

of the target language and little opportunity to prepare for it

Scripted role-play therefore seems to be a more appropriate choice of activity

to promote meaningful communication in a low-level language classroom Furthermore, there have been few studies that examined the implementation of this role-play type for weak students in Vietnam

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

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

performances”

1.2 Aims of the study

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

1.5 Method of the study

To conduct this study, the researcher used the experimental method To collect data, the used instruments are the general English test, pre-test, post-test, and questionnaire

The general English test was used to assess the students’ English ability and evaluate their English level

1.6 Organization of the thesis

The thesis consists of five chapters

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

scope, and design of the study

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

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

Chapter III - Methodology - presents the background information of the

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

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

detail and a thorough discussion of the findings of the study

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

suggestion for further research are also mentioned in the last chapter

CHAPTER 2: THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

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2.1 Speaking skill

2.1.1 Definition of speaking skill

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

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

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

Brown (2007, p.237) states that social contact in interactive language functions

is a key importance and in which it is not what you say that counts but how you say it what you convey with body language, gestures, eye contact, physical distance and other non-verbal messages

To sum up, there are different ways to define speaking, i.e speaking as an

action, a process and a skill In this study, the term “speaking” will be used as a skill

related to language teaching and learning In the next part, issues related to teaching speaking skills will be presented

2.1.2 Types of spoken language

There are two types of spoken language according to Brown (2001, p.251) They are monologue and dialogue In monologue of spoken language, when one speaker uses spoken language for any length of time, the hearer must process long stretches of speech without interruption-the stream of speech will go on whether or not the hearer comprehends Monologue is categorized into two subtypes They are planned and unplanned monologues

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Planned monologues usually manifest little redundancy and are therefore relatively difficult to comprehend Unplanned monologues exhibit more redundancy; which is made for ease in comprehension, but the presence of more performance variables and other hesitations can either help or hinder comprehension

Meanwhile, dialogues involve two or more speakers and can be subdivided into those exchanges that promote social relationships (interpersonal) and those for which the purpose is to convey proportional or factual information (transactional) Those subcategories are classified further into familiar and unfamiliar categories In each case, participants may have a good deal of shared knowledge (background information, schemata); therefore, the familiarity of the interlocutors will produce conversation with more assumptions, implications, and other meanings hidden between the lines In conversations between or among participants who are unfamiliar with each other, references and meanings have to be made more explicit to assure effective comprehension

(Adapted from Nunan 1991b: 20-21)

2.1.3 Characteristics of spoken language

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

Clustering

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

Redundancy

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The speaker has opportunity to make meaning clearer through the redundancy

of language Learners can capitalize on this feature of spoken language

Reduced forms

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

Performance variables

One of the advantages of spoken language is that the process of thinking as you speak allows you to manifest a certain number of performance hesitations, pauses, backtrackings, and corrections Learners can actually be taught how to pause and hesitate for example, in English our “thinking time” is not silent; we insert certain

“fillers” such as “uh”, “um”, “well”, “you know”, “I mean”, “like”, etc one of the most salient differences between native and non-native speakers of a language is in their hesitation phenomena

Stress, rhythm, and intonation

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

Interaction

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

2.1.4 Aspects of speaking skills

Vocabulary

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

Fluency

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

of the way they speak fluently

Accuracy

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

2.1.5 Communicative competence

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

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

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

do I put them into phrases and sentences?

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

is expressing?

Discourse competence is knowing how to interpret the larger context and how to construct longer stretches of language so that the parts make up a coherent whole Discourse competence asks: How are words, phrases and sentences put together to create conversations, speeches, email messages, newspaper articles? Strategic competence is knowing how to recognize and repair communication breakdowns, how to work around gaps in one’s knowledge of the language, and how to learn more about the language and in the context Strategic competence asks: How do I know when I’ve misunderstood or when someone has misunderstood me? What do I say then? How can I express my ideas if I don’t know the name of something or the right verb form to use?

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

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teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand Furthermore, he adds that speaking cannot be defined apart from learning, for teaching is guiding and facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, and setting the condition for learning The following part presents principles for teaching speaking, some types of classroom speaking performance, classroom speaking activities and designing lesson plans for speaking lesson

2.1.6.1 Principles for teaching speaking

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

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

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

- Focus on fluency and accuracy

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

- Use authentic language in meaningful contexts

- Provide appropriate feedback and correction

- Optimize the natural link between listening and speaking

- Give students the opportunity to initiate oral communication

- Develop speaking strategies

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

2.1.6.1.1 Focus on fluency and accuracy

Accuracy is the extent to which students’ speech matches what people actually say when they use the target language Fluency is the extent to which speakers use

part of learning a new language

2.1.6.1.2 Provide intrinsically motivating techniques

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

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

2.1.6.1.3 Encourage the use of authentic language in meaningful contexts

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

2.1.6.1.4 Provide appropriate feedback and correction

2.1.6.1.5 Capitalize on the natural link between speaking and listening

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

2.1.6.1.6 Give students opportunities to initiate oral communication

A good deal of typical classroom interaction is initiated by teacher We ask questions, give directions, and provide information while the students are conditioned only to “speak when spoken to” Part of oral communication competence is the ability to initiate conversation, to introduce new topics discussion, to ask questions, to control conversations, and to change the subject As the teachers are planing and creating speaking activities, ask themselves if they have allow the students to initiate language

2.1.6.1.7 Encourage the development of speaking strategies

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

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

Ě Asking for clarification (what?)

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

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

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

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

Ě Using paraphrasing for structures one can’t produce

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

Ě Using formulaic expressions (at the survival-stage)

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

Ě Using mime and non-verbal expressions to convey meaning

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

of classroom speaking performance will be presented in the following part

2.1.6.2 Types of classroom speaking performance

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

a) Imitative

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

From the statements above, it can be interpreted that drilling is still important for teaching speaking, mainly pronunciation and intonation as long as it is not overused and students know why they are doing it

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b) Intensive

In this type of performance, the students deal with their linguistic difficulties either phonological or grammatical aspect of language Brown (2001, p 273) states that intensive speaking goes one step beyond imitative to include any speaking performance that is designed to practice some phonological or grammatical aspect of language Intensive speaking can be self-initiated or it can even form part of some pair work activity, where learners are “going over” certain forms of language

c) Responsive

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

d) Transactional (dialogue)

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

e) Interpersonal (dialogue)

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

f) Extensive (monologue)

In this type of performance, students are called on to give extended monologues

in the form of oral reports, summaries, or perhaps short speeches This performance is

to develop students’ global oral ability of producing spoken language which is more formal and deliberate

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2.1.6.3 Classroom speaking activities

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

a Acting from script

Playing scripts and acting out the dialogues are two kinds of acting scripts that should be considered by the teacher in the teaching and learning process In the playing scripts, it is important for the students to teach it as real acting The role of the teacher in this activity is as theatre directors, drawing attention to appropriate stress, intonation, and speed This means that the lines they speak will have real meaning

By giving students practice in these things before they give their final performances, the teacher ensures that acting out is both a learning and language producing activity

In acting the dialogue, the students will be very helped if they are given time to rehearse their dialogues before the performance.The students will gain much more from the whole experience in the process

c Discussion

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

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fluently and immediately is to insert ‘instant comment’ mini activities into lessons This involves showing them photographs or introducing topics at any stage of a lesson and nominating students to say the first thing that comes into their head The last is formal debates Students prepare arguments in favour or against various propositions The debate will be started when those who are appointed as ‘panel speaker’ produce well-rehearsed ‘writing like’ arguments whereas others, the audience, pitch in as the debate progresses with their own thoughts on the subject

d Prepared talks

Students make a presentation on a topic of their own choice Such talks are not designed for informal spontaneous conversations because they are prepared and more ‘writing like’ However, if possible students should speak from notes rather than from a script

f Simulation and Role-play

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

on the role of completely different character and express thoughts and feelings as they doing in the real world Those activities can be used by teachers to teach speaking Teachers can choose an activity that related to the topic and objective of the lesson Besides, they must consider the situation, condition of the students and materials that will be taught For example, they use simulation and role-play activities when they teach expressions Teachers can ask them to write some dialogues and after that they have to act them out in front of the class It may be used by the teachers

in using acting from script In discussion, teachers can use some pictures or maybe

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

of speaking competence in their daily life communicatively and actively

2.1.6.4 Designing lesson plans

Speaking lesson plan is composed in this study based on PPP method PPP stands for Presentation, Practice, and Production It is a teaching model that consists

of three stages The first stage is presentation, the second is practice, and the third is production (Harmer 1998)

PPP becomes an effective model for teaching simple language at lower level It becomes less appropriate when the students already know a lot of language (Harmer 1998) This model then becomes appropriate to teach speaking in junior high school since the students are in low level of proficiency

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

Presentation

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

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Practice

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

Production

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

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

2.1.6.5.1 The roles of the teacher

A crucial parts of teacher job when organizing speaking activities is to make sure that the students understand exactly what they are supposed to do This involves giving clear and appropriate instructions and demonstrating the activity with a student so that no one is in doubt what they should do Harmer (2007, p 347) gives some teacher’s roles in order to help students in speaking activities as follow:

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.1.6.5.2 The roles of the students

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

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

2.1.7 Difficulties learners have when learning speaking

For Ur (1996), there are some speaking problems that teachers can come across in getting students to talk in the classroom These are: inhibition, lack of topical knowledge, low or uneven participation and mother-tongue use The first problem that the students often encounter is inhibition When students try to say things in a foreign language in the classroom they are often inhibited They are worried about making mistakes, fearful of criticism or losing face They are shy of the attention that their speech attracts Littlewood (2007) asserts that a foreign language classroom to can create inhibitions and anxiety easily Secondly, learners often complain that they cannot think of anything to say and they have no motivation to express themselves Rivers (1968) believes that the learners have nothing to express maybe because the teacher had chosen a topic which is not suitable for him or about which he knows very little It is difficult for many students

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

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

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

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

2.1.8 The assessment of speaking skill

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

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The criterion sheet explains the criteria of each scale for the teacher to evaluate the individual students’ oral performance The criteria consist of five topics including content, expressions and vocabulary, fluency, comprehensibility, voice and pronunciation Each topic is scored on a 5-point scale, ranging from 1 (very poor/ unacceptable), 2 (poor), 3 (average), 4 (good) and 5 (excellent) And a space is provided on the form for the teacher to write some comments and feedback for the students to improve their performance in the next classes (see appendix I, J)

2.2 Role-play

2.2.1 The definition of role-play

According to the Cambridge International Dictionary of English (1995), role

is defined as the person whom an actor represents in a film or play, while role- play is

a method of acting out particular ways of behaving or pretending to be other people who deal with new situations It is used in training courses in language learning and psychotherapy Ladousse (1987) illustrated that when students assume a role, they play a part (either their own or somebody else) in a specific situation “Play” means the role is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as inventive and playful as possible Via role-play activities, learners will get various experiences; in other words, they can learn language structures and functions, and have opportunity

to practice speaking in various forms or situations Moreover, they can learn to work

in groups, have more chances to practice speaking and interact with others in appropriate situations, as well as build self-esteem and self-confidence while using the target language

According to Crookal & Oxford (1990), there is little consensus on the terms used in the literature on role play and simulation A few of the terms often used interchangeably in the literature are simulation, games, role- play, simulation games, role-play simulation, and role-playing games For a language classroom, the term

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

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

in the communicative approach because they give learners an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles

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

It not only creates the opportunities for the students to communicate, but also encourages them to develop strategies to overcome problems that occur when performing their role-play This directly prepares the students to face communication

in their real life

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

2.2.2 The Advantages of role-play

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Using role-play in speaking class activities has many benefits It can encourage students to speak; it gives them the chance to communicate, even with limited language, using non-verbal communication, such as body movements and facial expression Role-play is a kind of drama act Here, there are some reasons which make drama or role-play a very powerful tool in the language classroom

Desiatova (2009) outlines some of the areas where drama or role-play is very useful to language learners and teachers, and they are listed below:

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

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

(3) To help learners gain the confidence and self-esteem needed to use the language spontaneously By taking a role, students can escape from their everyday identity and "hide behind" another character When you give students special roles, it encourages them to be that character and abandon their shyness

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

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

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

(7) When students dramatize, they use all the channels (sight, hearing, and physical bodies)and each student will draw to the one that suits them best This means

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they will all be actively involved in the activity and the language will "enter" through the channel most appropriate for them

(8) To stimulate learners' intellect and imagination

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

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

2.2.3 Steps in applying role-play

Before dealing with role-play in practice, we would like to focus on theoretical procedure of conducting such activity and later on try to arrange it according to the steps that will be described here In this section of thesis, several sequent stages of successful role-play activity will be provided with author’s comments on their importance

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

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

to choose teaching materials appropriate for the specific age, level, interests of the students, as well as their current linguistic aims and overall educational objectives When choosing the materials, Huang (2008) advises the following: “The teaching materials can be taken from text books or non-textbook teaching materials such as picture books, story books, readers, play-scripts, comic strips, movies, cartoons and

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pictures The material is selected ahead of time by the teacher The teacher can also create his or her own authentic teaching materials for role play activities” I would like to underline the point that Huang makes about the preparation of the materials

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

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

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

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

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

After presenting new items, it is time to move on to the role-play activity itself At that point, teacher’s role becomes highly important Firstly, he or she should let students understand the goal and the purpose of the role-play by, for example, verbalizing it or writing the goal on the blackboard Without the goal set

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

When the students are aware of the goal of the activity and when they understood their roles and role-play situation in general, they can start preparation

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

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

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

a) Who participated?

b) Who did not?

c) Why not?

d) Who was very good?

e) Who could have done better?

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

Moreover, when describing feedback, Ur (1996, p.242) comments that it consists of two main components: assessment and correction, where assessment refers to the information provided by the teacher how well or badly students have performed, whereas correction consists of more specific information on the

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learner’s performance (explanation, provision of better or other alternatives, etc.) including commentaries on what they did right These factors could be also taken into consideration when assessing the students’ overall participation in the activity Finally, according to Huang (2008), the assessment of role-play performance should also incorporate follow-up tasks in order to “check if students have successfully comprehended the meanings of the vocabulary, sentences and dialogues” What she suggests is giving oral and listening tasks related to the role-plays Example oral tests exercises can include the following: asking simple questions on the role-play situation, re-enacting the role-plays, translating the role-plays into their native language As for listening tests, her ideas of example tasks are divided for beginning and more advanced students For beginners, Huang suggests easy tasks in the form of “listen and circle”, “listen and number”, “listen and match” More advanced learners are expected to write words, lines and/or dialogues of the role-plays as well as to create variations of the role-plays Since the circumstances of teaching practice, during which the action research will take place, are quite limited, it seems highly time-consuming to incorporate large tests

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

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

Decide on the Teaching Materials

The teacher must decide which teaching materials will be used for role play activities The teaching materials can be taken from text books or non- textbook teaching materials such as picture books, story books, readers, play-scripts, comic strips, movies, cartoons and pictures The material is selected ahead of time by the teacher The teacher can also create his or her own authentic teaching materials for

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role play activities The teaching materials should be decided based on students' level and interests, teaching objectives and appropriateness for teaching

Select Situations and Create Dialogs

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

Teach the Dialogs for Role Plays

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

Have Students Practice the Role-Plays

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

Have Students Modify the Situations and Dialogs

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

original role-play

Evaluate and Check Students' Comprehension

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

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

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

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2.2.4 Types Role-plays

Previously, The researcher gave several definitions of role-plays Now we will see how many types of role-plays according to the different scholars Byrne (1986) groups role-plays into two types: scripted and unscripted Littlewood (1981) reported that role-play activities can be categorized into four types as follow: Role-playing controlled through cued dialogues, Role-playing controlled through cues and information, Role playing controlled through situation and goals, Role-playing in the form of debate or discussion In this study, The researcher only focuses on two types scripted and unscripted role-play and shows which of these types is suitable for weak students

2.2.4.1 Scripted role-play

Scripted role-play refers to role-play activities that allow the students to prepare

a script in advance and to rehearse it before performing them 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 memorably way For more details, Doff (1988, p.234) 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 it to get there quickly How much does it cost?

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

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

Angela : Thank you Where is the post box?

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

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

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

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

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

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

to help them Point out that the conversation should be similar to the one in 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 4) Call out a few other pairs of students in turn, and ask them to have other conversation based on the prompts Based on these procedures, it can be said 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

2.2.4.2.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 students are assigned to perform the role play activity in front of the class based on the prompts given without preparing or writing the script in advance (Byrne as cited in Davies, 1990)

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

One student has lost a bag

He/she is at the police station

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

To brings out this ideas: