Role Play In Language Learning

Role play in language learning

1. Role play

Role play is a classroom activity which gives the student the opportunity to practise the language, the aspects of role behaviour, and the actual roles he may need outside the classroom. Most students will not need to fulfil in the foreign language the wide range of roles they fulfil in their mother tongue, unless, of course, they intend to live and work in the foreign language environment for an extended period of time. But just as we can never accurately predict what the learners will hear and need to interpret in the foreign language, so we can never accurately predict what they will want or need to use their knowledge of the language for; what situation they may find themselves in, or which roles they will have to fulfill.

We must therefore help our students to a broad awareness and understanding of role-behaviour, and give them extensive practice in using this knowledge.

The type of activity indicated above cannot be achieved in a totally teacher-dominated classroom. Here there are only two roles; those of teacher and student. As with all other roles, these have a set pattern of linguistic and non-linguistic behaviour.

The teacher is the person in control. He makes decisions regarding the materials to be used, the language to be practised, and the classroom activities in which it will be practised. He will probably make only

From suggestions given by the students, the teacher writes a dialogue on the blackboard or overhead projector. The dialogue can then be practised as above.

In this activity the students have to select appropriate and accept­able language to fit the situation, roles, attitudes, etc. These are still, however, only teacher and student roles. The teacher has determined the outer framework of the dialogue, and will probably decide which suggestions are to be used. The student is helped by the fact that he can review the written dialogue before making the next suggestion, something one can never do in real life.

This is a refined form of 'filling in the blanks', and can be done in groups or pairs. If carefully composed, it can give possibilities for selection of appropriate language. It is not role play for the reasons noted above.

In this case, the students are not limited to the framework of a skeleton dialogue, but can produce their own. Again, there is no immediacy, each utterance can be reviewed before the next is written.

Although the above-mentioned activities are not role play, they can all be used as part of the preparation for role play. How this can be done will be illustrated in following chapters.

Role play is, of course, one form of group work, but what is being discussed here is the kind of activity where the students, in pairs or .! larger groups, have a formal language exercise to discuss and complete, • some questions to answer, a topic to discuss, or some similar task to j perform. In most cases they will have to select and formulate language appropriate to the task and to monitor each other's speech. They will have the opportunity, at least at the advanced levels, of expressing their own opinions and feelings, but they are not playing roles within a situ­ation which resembles real life.

There is normally only one role involved, that of the student playing himself as student. The main aim of such exercises is that the group completes the task given as linguistically correctly as possible, so such aspects of role behaviour as formality and attitude will only become relevant in so far as they are concerned in the aim of the exercise, not as an integral and necessary part of the interaction within the group.

2. Description and analysis of а role play

The class of children has had about twenty hours' teaching (though the role play would also be suitable for adults). The classroom has been rearranged so there is plenty of room to move about. There are a few tables placed round the room. Above each is a sign: 'grocer', 'greengro­cer', 'butcher' and so on. The signs are nicely decorated and have obviously been made by the students. On the tables are a selection of the goods appropriate to each shop. Sometimes the goods are the 'real thing', sometimes empty packages, sometimes only pictures of the item. Every item is priced. Again, the students seem to have done most of the work. One student stands behind each 'shop' table and the rest of the class move around from 'shop' to 'shop' buying the 'goods'. Toy money changes hands and the bought 'goods' are taken away.

The teacher is standing unobtrusively near the window, near two of the 'shops'. He is ostensibly looking out of the window, but is actually listening carefully, and making mental notes. The 'shopping' goes on for about ten minutes before the class is reassembled.

Examples and comments

What do the students say when they are 'shopping'? What is the teacher listening for? Here are some examples.

Example 1

SI:     Hello, I'd like a pound of apples.

S2:     Here you are, anything else?

SI:     No, thank you.

S2:     40p, please.

SI:     Here you are.

S2:     Thank you, goodbye.

SI:     Goodbye.

This exchange is correct in every detail, and contains only words and phrases previously learned in class. The teacher need not note anything here.

Example 2

S3: Hello, can I help you?

S4: I'd like tea.

S3: How much tea?

S4: A pound.

S3: This tea or this tea?

S4: This tea.

S3: Here you are. Anything else?

S4: A pound of coffee.

S3: Here you are... (He hesitates, it seems he has said 'anything else'

already. He tries something new.)... and more? S4: No, thank you. How much is that? S3: £3.50.

S4: Here you are. Goodbye. S3: Thank you. Goodbye.

This exchange is more interesting as the speakers have tried to experi­ment a bit. The utterance: This tea or this tea?' and: This tea' are, from a purely formal grammatical point of view, not strictly correct. The students' gestures were such as to make 'that' the correct deter­miner in the latter two cases. From a classroom English point of view, however, it is perfectly acceptable at this level, as the meaning is quite clear. It also shows creative thought on the part of the students, as the only time they have encountered 'this' was in the question: 'What's this called in English?'. The 'this/that' distinction has not yet been made in class.

The question: 'and more?' shows a real feeling for the language. Previous lessons had included the phrase: 'and you?' said on a rising intonation, in the following: 'I'm very well, and you?', 'I live in London, and you?'. The word 'more' had not yet occurred formally in the classroom, so it is assumed that S3 had picked it up outside the class­room. As both of these attempts at experimentation were successful, i. e. they were completely understandable if not formally correct, the teacher did not correct the individuals concerned after the role play. Correction of such 'mistakes' may reduce the student's confidence, and curtail further attempts at experimentation.

This exchange is correct in every detail, and contains only words and phrases previously learned in class. The teacher need not note anything here.

Example 2

S3: Hello, can I help you?

S4: I'd like tea.

S3: How much tea?

S4: A pound.

S3: This tea or this tea?

S4: This tea.

S3: Here you are. Anything else?

S4: A pound of coffee.

S3: Here you are...and more?

S4: No, thank you. How much is that?

S3: £3.50.

S4: Here you are. Goodbye.

S3: Thank you. Goodbye.

This exchange is more interesting as the speakers have tried to experiment a bit. The utterance: This tea or this tea?' and: This tea' are, from a purely formal grammatical point of view, not strictly correct. The students' gestures were such as to make 'that' the correct determiner in the latter two cases. From a classroom English point of view, however, it is perfectly acceptable at this level, as the meaning is quite clear. It also shows creative thought on the part of the students, as the only time they have encountered 'this' was in the question: 'What's this called in English?'. The 'this/that' distinction has not yet been made in class.

The question: 'and more?' shows a real feeling for the language. Previous lessons had included the phrase: 'and you?' said on a rising intonation, in the following: 'I'm very well, and you?', 'I live in Lon­don, and you?'. The word 'more' had not yet occurred formally in the classroom, so it is assumed that S3 had picked it up outside the class­room. As both of these attempts at experimentation were successful, i. e. they were completely understandable if not formally correct, the teacher did not correct the individuals concerned after the role play. Correction of such 'mistakes' may reduce the student's confidence, and curtail further attempts at experimentation.

(a)   New material

Names of common shop goods.

Names of shops selling these.

Names of amounts (half a kilo, etc.).

Names of packaging (a packet, a jar, etc.).

Difference between number and amount (much/many).

The English monetary system.

Polite requests for goods.

The question 'How much/many?'.

(b)  Assumed knowledge

Numbers to 100.

Greetings ('Good morning', etc.).

'Goodbye'.

'Please', 'thank you', 'here you are'.

A way of asking the 'name' of things in English

(e. g. 'What's this called in English?').

The question 'Can  you?' (e.g.  'Can  you  buy  apples at  the        ?').

d) Requisite teaching aids

Pictures or realia of common shop goods.

Price tags.

Real or toy English money.

Pictures of the shops to be mentioned.

e ) role play cards.

A model dialogue.

A  dialogue  on  tape  for  listening  comprehension,  which  is  slightly

different from the model dialogue.

In  this  phase,  new  material  is  presented  and  practised;  previously learned material is revised:

A: What's this called in English?

B: A(n)     .

A: Thank you.

These dialogues are built up from the teacher's cues and the students' suggestions:

T: Which shop will we go to now? S:   (e. g.) The greengrocer's.

T: OK — what does the greengrocer say when you come in? S: Good afternoon, can I help you?  (T writes on blackboard.) T: And what do you say? What do you want to buy? S: I'd like a pound of tomatoes. (T writes on blackboard.) (etc. until the dialogue is finished.)

In this way the teacher can check the students' understanding of the material, and the students can see how what they have been learning can be rearranged and used to obtain the goods they want. The dia­logues can also be used for further oral practice (choral, individual, pair).

To give more scope to the role play, 'much' and 'many' can be
introduced  in the  next lesson.  A suitable exchange   (using visuals)
might be:

A: I'd like some          .

B: How much?/How many?

A: (3, 1/2 a pound, etc.)

B: Here you are. A: Thank you.

After the initial class practice, the exchange can be practised in pairs, using the visuals.

This phase is optional. If the students are now producing dialogues
reasonably quickly and correctly, it should be left out, or the class will
become bored.

The students work in pairs. Each pair is given a card, for example:

Go into the grocer's and buy three things. Begin:

A: Good morning, can I help you?

B: I'd like_ .

These cards can be designed with students of differing abilities in mind. A pair of 'good' students may be asked from the context, or example: 'What do you think "change" means?'.

A desk is turned into a 'shop'. The students suggest the kind of hop, and select and lay out the relevant goods. A reasonably confident student is given some English money, and is asked to be 'customer' while the teacher is 'shop assistant'. The student has no form of written help. The student buys a few things, goods and  takes his purchases away.

Students should be given a couple of minutes to write their own shopping list. This could include the shops they will go to, which goods they will buy there, and the amount they need. A few students play 'shop assistants', the rest play 'customers' and the role play is underway.

The teacher asks one or two students what they bought, and how much it cost. Full replies are not necessary, the student need only answer: 'A pound of sugar', Three apples', etc.

For subsequent lessons the teacher will work out exercises which practise the general mistakes he noted during the role play.

Shopping situations can be expanded. The next might be buying сlothes. Here the notions of size, colour and material could be introduced: I am looking for a red woollen sweater'.

Souvenir shopping is another obvious example: 'I'm looking for something to take back to my husband'.

At a later point functions other than buying can be included, for sample, complaining about faulty goods: 'I'm afraid I have a complaint to make'.

The use of phrases such as: 'I'd like' will be expanded to include the situations and functions, for example, ordering in a cafe: 'I'd like a cup of tea and a sandwich' or stating wishes to a friend: 'I'd like to go to the cinema tonight'.

A desk is turned into a 'shop'. The students suggest the kind of shop, and select and lay out the relevant goods. A reasonably confident student is given some English money, and is asked to be 'customer' while the teacher is 'shop assistant'. The student has no form of written help. The student buys a few things, goods and money change hands, and the student takes his purchases away.

The activity is repeated, this time with two students.

The role play

Some desks are made into 'shops' as in (f) above, the number de­pending, of course, on the size of the class. The preparation phases in this example have been so comprehensive that it should not be necessary to give out role cards, even to the 'weaker' students. Students should be given a couple of minutes to write their own shopping list. This should include the shops they will go to, which goods they will buy there, and the amount they need. A few students play 'shop assistants', the rest play 'customers' and the role play is underway.

Immediate follow-up can be done quickly by the teacher asking one or two students what they bought, and how much it cost. Full replies are not necessary, the student need only answer: 'A pound of sugar', 'Three apples', etc.

For subsequent lessons the teacher will work out exercises which practise the general mistakes he noted during the role play.

Shopping situations can be expanded. The next might be buying
clothes. Here the notions of size, colour and material could be intro
duced: 'I'm looking for a red woollen sweater'.

Souvenir shopping is another obvious example: 'I'm looking for something to take back to my husband'.

At a later point functions other than buying can be included, for example, complaining about faulty goods: 'I'm afraid I have a com­plaint to make'.

(b)The use of phrases such as: I'd like' will be expanded to include
other situations and functions, for example, ordering in a cafe: 'I'd like
a cup of tea and a sandwich' or stating wishes to a friend: 'I'd like to
go to the cinema tonight'.

Mixed ability groups

As no learning group is homogeneous, teachers are always in need of activities that can be graded to suit a wide range of abilities. Role play is an excellent exercise for dealing with this problem and can be graded in a number of ways.

Roles can be designed with 'faster' or 'slower' students in mind. In the advanced example in Chapter two, it is obvious that the 'school governor' has the most difficult role. He has not only to concentrate on what is being said, and give his own comments, but also to make sure everyone gets a chance to speak, to 'open' and 'close' the meeting, and to make sure it runs smoothly. This is a role for a student who is fairly fluent and confident, not one who has to concentrate closely on every utterance in order to follow the discussion.

Role descriptions can be altered to suit varying abilities. In a role play where the roles require more or less the same type and amount of student activity from each student, as in the 'shopping' example, then the students can be given guidance according to ability. If the teacher had judged it necessary to give out role play cards for this role play, they might have looked like this:

Role 1 — card for 'slow' student

Fill in what you want to buy. You want to buy:

______ at the grocer's.

______ and_____ at the greengrocer's.

______ at the butcher's.

Remember to say: Td like...' and 'Thank you'.

Role 1 — card for 'fast' student

Buy things at three shops.

Make a list of what you want first.

Similarly, in the advanced example, all the 'parents' have the same type of role, but these too can be rewritten to suit varying abilities and situations:

Role 2 — card for 'slow' student

You are a parent with children at the school. (How many? How old are they?)  Decide if you are for or against the move. Note down your arguments. Be prepared to give your opinions clearly and politely. Remember to use phrases like:

In my opinion... I think...

Try to agree or disagree with what the other people say, remember phrases like:

I agree entirely...

I'm not sure I agree. I think...

Role 2 — card for 'fast' student

You are a parent with children at the school. Decide whether you are for or against the move, and be prepared to give your opinion clearly and politely, and to counter any arguments against it.

When designing role cards of this type, the teacher should be careful not to give a slow student so much help that the student has no possibil­ity of choosing his own language. This would make the exercise guided dialogue work, not role play.

(c) Another possibility is to have students of mixed abilities prepare roles together. In the advanced example, a 'slower' student could prepare the role with a 'faster' student (in which case only the role card for the 'fast' student would be given out). The 'slower' student could make more detailed notes while the preparation was taking place so that he had some support when in the actual role play situation. Students are often willing to help each other in this way, especially in smaller groups, and should be encouraged to do so.

(d) Alternately, students of similar abilities can prepare roles together, and the amount of time given to groups for role preparation can vary. 'Slower' students might be given the role card for the 'slow' student and, say, twenty minutes' preparation time. 'Faster' students might spend ten minutes of this time on another role play-related exercise, and the final ten minutes on preparation (using the role card for the 'fast' student above).

After a little practice in the composition of role plays, teachers will find that there are many ways of relating role cards and role prepara­tion to the abilities of the individual students.

If the main aim of the class is oral/aural proficiency, then it is diffi­cult, from a pedagogical point of view, to find any disadvantages in using role play as a teaching and learning technique. But there is no doubt that in certain classes, and in certain teaching situations, there may well be some practical drawbacks.

Organisation

Few teachers operate in ideal circumstances. The majority work in classrooms which are too small, and with classes which are, numerically, too large. Often the furniture is bolted to the floor, and equipment other than books and a blackboard almost non-existent. Role play may therefore be difficult from a purely practical point of view. It is useless to suggest that role play groups be placed in extra rooms and corridors if these are not available. Similarly, the noise level produced by a class of forty, divided into eight role play groups in a small classroom, may be so high as to make concentration impossible.

There is little the teacher can do about such problems except choose or design role plays which will adapt to his particular situation. The short 'interview' situations in Chapter six, for example, can be done without the students leaving their seats. Perhaps two or three role play groups can be arranged, and the rest of the class given another, quieter task. I have even seen a successful role play based on 'asking and telling the way' done in a class where the furniture could not be moved. The aisles between the desks were 'streets' and each desk was a 'building' (town hall, bank, etc.), each 'building' being indicated by pictures.

With care in selection, and a little imagination, many practical problems are not insurmountable.

If the time taken for preparation and follow-up work is included, then role play will take up a lot of classroom time. The beginners' example in Chapter two takes at least four classroom hours; the advanced

Role play does not exist by itself. A look at the preparation phases for the two examples in Chapter two will show that all language skills are involved; understanding, speaking, reading and writing.

3. The teacher's new role

In most role plays the teacher will not take part. If he does, it will not be in his role as teacher. The teacher's role during the role play phase is to be as unobtrusive as possible. There are two ways in which this can be done. The first is as described in the two examples in Chapter two, where the teacher either sits somewhere where he can hear much of what is going on (as in the advanced example); or, when the role play requires a lot of moving around on the part of the students, as in the beginners' example, the teacher can move quietly round the room. Where there is a large class, with a lot of role play groups, or where the groups are in corridors or other rooms, tape recorders can be used.

The second way in which the teacher can observe the role play is by taking a role himself. This should not be a major role, or the teacher may quickly become the dominating personality, and the role play will turn into something resembling teacher-guided group work. Minor roles, which nevertheless give the teacher a chance to be near ihe 'action', are, for example, a porter, a head waiter, a secretary.

With classes used to role play, and used to discussing teaching techniques and their aims, these subterfuges may not be necessary. Such classes are well aware of what is happening and acknowledge the 'rules' of the whole language learning game. They will therefore not be self-conscious or inhibited if the teacher is seen making notes. They may not even notice it.

The advantage of the teacher's new role, either as observer or minor player, is that he is freed from the task of running and organising the class. A well planned, well prepared role play runs itself. The teacher is therefore free to listen for mistakes, misunderstandings and problems. From these he can evaluate the effectiveness of his teaching, and decide if further work on certain points is necessary. Role play is the nearest he can come in the classroom to being able to watch his students perform in the foreign language environment.

Most teachers have definite attitudes towards classroom management and discipline. They know how they want their students to behave towards them, the teacher, towards the classroom activities the subject requires, and towards their fellow students. Teachers who are consider­ing the use of role play as one of their regular teaching procedures may worry about the discipline problems that may crop up (see 3.1.2 above). A much greater, psychological problem for many teachers is the fact that role play requires, not only in the actual role play phase, but also in many of the preparation phases, a lessening of the traditional authority and classroom dominance of the teacher. For role play to be of maximum effectiveness it muss be accompanied by a more open approach to teaching and learning. This is manifested in many ways:

- Greater student involvement in the choice of materials and learning activities. Students should be encouraged to suggest topics and ideas for class and group work, and to discuss which activities they enjoy and find of most use.

- The  use  of more  'open-ended'  exercises,  i. e. the  replacing  of
mechanical stimulus/response drills with exercises which more closely
resemble real communication.

- More exercises and activities which require that the students work
in groups or pairs, with the minimum of teacher direction. ]

- Less formal classroom arrangement and management. You cannot
have a conversation with the back of your companion's head. Wher­
ever the furnishings of the classroom allow, students should be able to
look at each other, if not in one large group, then in several smaller
groups. Similarly, it is very difficult to speak naturally if every utter­
ance must be preceded by the speaker raising his hand, or standing up.

Even though the teacher is prepared to adopt, or has, wholly or partly, adopted this more open attitude, there may still be problems.

Role play is an exercise which gives the student freedom to select and use his own language and accompanying para-linguistic and extra-linguistic behaviour, without the interference or guidance of the teacher. As the student is not yet proficient in the foreign language, it is obvious that students will make mistakes in the execution of such an exercise.

The nature of the activity means that there is a possibility of making mistakes across the full range of the linguistic spectrum: mistakes in structure, lexis, phonology; mistakes in para-linguistic and extra-linguistic features; mistakes in formality and attitude. Sometimes these mistakes will lead to the formulation of utterances which are unacceptable or inappropriate within the given situation.

Mistakes will be made during role plays, no matter how carefully prepared, and, due to the nature of the exercise, they cannot be corrected immediately. To many teachers, especially those trained in a language teaching method based on behaviourism.

- The exercises have been so designed as to  leave  no possibility
of making a mistake (as in mechanical stimulus/response drills).

- The student may be reacting to cues given, consciously or uncon­
sciously, by the teacher. If the teacher frowns, the answer must be in
some way wrong; if he smiles, it is probably correct. Each teacher has
his own, very subtle, cues. These cues may be helpful in a formal,
controlled exercise, but the teacher cannot always be around to guide
the student in this way.

If, then, only formal, teacher-controlled exercises are used in the classroom, the teacher cannot be sure that the student can select and use the correct language when the teacher or the textbook is not in control. By giving students freedom in the classroom to try out arid experiment with the language on their own, we can find out how much of what they have learned they understand how to use. Any mistakes made can be analysed by the teacher and used as a basis for further exercises.