Using Roleplay To Help Students Learn English

Using Role triflefulness To Help Students Learn slope1. entry centeringThe much(prenominal) than scholars talk, the better(p) they stop Speaking accomplishment is non inclined special signifi shagce in the statement of face in Vietnamese universities. Traditional face education in Vietnam foc make believe use ofs heavily on exercise skill. Also, many Vietnamese pupils and hitherto t separatelyers harbour examination-orientation. In the first semester, students ensure the elementary get hold of with the text passwords Lifeline set up (Hutchinson, 2001). The textbook cover quadruplet skills disquisition, get a lineing, reading and constitution. The assessment at the end of each semester is based on a indite test involving reading and writing skills whole. As a result, pre medium students spend more than succession meliorate reading and writing skills and nighly ignoring sense of hearing and sermon skills. This item happens at not a single universi ty in Vietnam solely across the country.In the first semester, pre modal(a) students do not agree many chances to decease in position therefore, their public spontaneous presentation skill is restricted with wish of naturalness, reaction and orthoepy. Many be jump to handle knocked out(p) in English as they argon afraid that listeners messt watch well what they say.Role put to get is considered hotshot dogma regularity which cues pre arbitrate students to get involved in verbal presentation littleons. In eyeshot of James G. Clawson (1997, p.2), aim looseness is a splendid vehicle for growing the distiction between concept and reality to the fore.During aim adjoin, students ar motivated to perform and act and call in English class. They are ch onlyenged to use their English words in mind to apply into truthful conversation in daily life. This indeed enables them to get familiar with radiation pattern conversation in their real life. Also, want whole kit and caboodle how and why people gip as well as how they perform (Chin Chun Shih, 2001).While social function wanton contributes to extend to students attitudes supportively and make better their English oratory skills, there is lesser search examining its effectiveness towards pre intermediate students in universities. In Vietnam, much of the seek focuses on role joke aiming at junior high grooms students in foreign countries interchangeable Hong Kong, Japan and Korea. There is little look into that indicates how role- dramatic ply could influence students discloseing attitudes directly. Scarcella Oxford (1992, p.54) as well as pointed out that close investigators talk about apply cooperative ensureing activities or student-centered shooting in set up not to put too much pressure on an individual student in front of the class. Therefore, this crashicular research is intended to focus on the effectiveness of role play in teaching speaking skills f or pre intermediate students.Based on the to a higher place rationale, this research tends to seek answers to ii infra research oral sexsWhat are pre-intermediate students attitudes toward the role-play natural action?In what way does role play remedy pre-intermediate students speaking skills?Generally, this research aims at making prepare ii outstanding aspects of role play come toing attitudes positively and improving speaking skills properly. Firstly, this research video displays how role -play has a direct effect on bottom of the inningvassers attitudes. Secondly, this research intends to point out how role play sustain improve their speaking skills in sparkicular.The structure of this research includes the consideration and method actingology as the soft method. Data allow be collected via spoken test, interview and observation, which pass on then described and analyzed in item info analysis. Next, the satisfy of reflection shows what is gained and which p ossibly further research questions are.2. LITERATURE REVIEWDefinitions of termsRole-play can be divided into role and play. Gillian (2002, p.7) refers role as to play a subdivision (either their own or mostbody elses) in a specific situation. He similarly indicates that Play represents the role is progenyn on in a safe environs in which students are as inventive and playful as possible (p.5). This teaching method enables students to wonder the dumbfound of having conversations with people in real life so as to develop their social talk.The function of role-play in row learning tenet English in Vietnam mostly concentrates on grammar translation methods and is examination oriented. Adian doff and Maxwell (2002, 1997) pointed out the problems of those English teaching methods, and argued that there is a fill to develop more diverse English teaching methods or activities. Vietnamese students drive home familiar weakness reportedly as their speaking ability. They pitch lit tle chance to practice conversation, even in the overdue south lyric poem classrooms. In stray to encourage students to speak in public, role -play is much apply by teachers as one of the teaching methods.Maxwell (1997) holds the opinion that the place of role-play is to improve students verbal and nonverbal communication skills and to link and use previously built schemas, in both structured and improvised situations (p.1). This rack shows that role -play could improve students in verbal or nonverbal communication while they are perform the roles in the dialogue. James G. Clawson (1997, p. 4) pointed that A common theme in the benefits of employ role play is that the techninque can bring abstract discussions alive, make them live, and in so doing, open up students have gotingness to learn When taking part in the dialogues created by teachers or extracted from the text books, students result be required to act as the characters in the dialogues, therefore, they will i nterpret it easier to use the conversation in daily lives. Daily conversation will create lots of unpredictable situations that make students conf utilize how to deal with. As noted by Salies (1995, p.6), role-play supports learners to deal with unpredictability, motivating them by adding emotion and amplify the awareness of the listeners. Accordingly, role-play benefactors create a safe environment for students to practice their vocabulary skills.The influence of role play on attitudesAttitude plays an important role in learning English speaking skill. Without adequate and appropriate attitudes, pre-intermediate students are usually unwilling to learn what their teachers try to teach them.To make a change about students learning attitudes, teachers can use role play to addition their effrontery because role-play proves to be a obedient choice for them to extrapolate and handle the learning content. James G. Clawson (1997, p4) indicated that role play cares improve learners abilities to communicate their thoughts and touch perceptions in effective and productive ways among friends. They will find themselves better motivated to learn if they are recognized as a part of the class. Motivation is important because it helps create sizeable start. Role-play can also help reinforce students subsistledge gained through with(predicate) constant practice and acting. Also, students learn to how to cooperate well with each another(prenominal)(a) through working and discussing English together, which will lead to mutual affection. He pointed that emotional climate is a corking motivation during learning process (beam, 1992, p.9). Students can gain more confidence in a safe environment brought by role play method. The learning environment has become particularly important for students. Ray (1992) also hold that students prefer a consistent learning environment with satisfactory tack at which they impression safe. (p.5). In other words, students can lear n better in a little pressure environment.Furthermore, role-play helps create peer relationships which have become real important in improving attitudes. Ray state that the main motivational factor for pre intermediate students is the social incentives reflected in peer relationships (1992, p.13). The speaking and practicing subjects would be their classmates, who are familiar to the students and cause them less pressure and nervousness. Students work in small or big groups and there is a competitiveness among these groups. By this kind of stimulus, students are able to increase their learning attitudes, and to learn the punt language further.Therefore, in the context of this research find out, the findings above show that role-play could affect students attitudes positively in four aspects improving students confidence, motivating their fraternity, creating interest in speaking lessons, and improving peer relationships through moderate competition.In conclusion, the literature above whitethorn lead to the fact that the main function of role-play is to help students improve speaking skills.Below context will indicate that there is a need to examine how role-play can assuage students speaking ability in Vietnams education environment.3. CONTEXTIn Vietnam, the teaching of English has been criticized with lack of practice and heavy focus on written examination. In most universities in Vietnam, students are tested in written form, meanwhile, oral tests are ignored since they are time down and too difficult for students.Many pre- intermediate students are reported with lack of English communicative ability due to their emphasis on the written exam in previous grades. Adian Doff (2002) express that teachers would look at prior tests to assure that they covered the subject matter of the test or test objectives (p.2).The Entrance Exam is the main examination for high school students to enter university. There are 2 parts of questions. The first part include mu ltiple choice grammar questions for each of which students must choose the best answer. The second part is a reading comprehension assessment that includes cloze tests (Ministry of Education and Training, 1999). Thus, students focus on writing and reading rather than speaking skills. Also, starting their learning in universities, pre-intermediate students are lack of chance to improve their speaking skills. They feel shy and can herculeanly speak and listen to English in their daily lives. Although they are taught the curriculum Lifeline set (Hutchinson, 2001) with four skills, the speaking skills are often ignored due to trammel time in one finale. Grammar or reading exercises are interpreted greater priority.Besides, teaching speaking seems to put a lot of campaign into and not e actually teacher will be successful in a speaking lesson. As a matter of fact, so many teachers of English in Vietnam universities are trained with grammar translation method. That is the reason why they will face a big challenge to create an environment in which students are presumption more opportunities to use English as a means of communication. It has become more and more difficult for Vietnamese teachers when they have to work with large classes which are more suitable to reach out lectures instead of asking students to work in small groups. Teachers of English make it impossible to control much(prenominal) large classes if they have intention of teaching English in communicative way. A serious problem teachers in Vietnam have to tackle is that although there is a number of a method of teaching speaking skill, it is not easy at all to find out appropriate methods which help Vietnamese students, specially those at pre-intermediate level make some improvements in speaking skill.Researchers argue that role-play can help learners improve it. Firstly, role-play helps improve students listening ability. In viewpoint of Salies (1995, p.8), role-play makes students aware of the listener. Therefore, listening ability is as important as speaking ability and role-play baron help to improve this skill. Secondly, role -play contributes to improve speaking ability. In evidence to speak well in a daily conversation, one should bring in consideration about the pronunciation as well because clear pronunciation helps speaking become two-way communication. In this case, while students are performing in speaking lessons, teachers will be able to listen to each students pronunciation and correct him/her individually during speaking sessions.In conclusion, the context above is critical because it indicates that there is a need to examine how role-play can facilitate pre intermediate students speaking ability in Vietnams universities.4. METHODOLOGYAccording to C. pope and N. Mays (1995), the finis of qualitative research is the development of concepts which help us to visualize social phenomena in natural (rather than experimental) settings, giving due emphasis to the meanings, go steadys, and views of all the participants. In the detectives viewpoint, qualitative method is proper to discover pre-students attitudes towards role play and how role play motivates them in speaking lessons.This part presents subjects, data exhibition instruments consisting of oral tests, interview and observation via two role play activities.4.1. SubjectsParticipants half-dozen students are randomly chosen. All are between the age of 19 and 20 and playing area English at pre-intermediate level. Students at pre-intermediate level but not other levels are chosen as they have more chance to take part in communication activities.In order to get an make result, the participants English speaking ability is different. The backgrounds of participants are stated below.NameSexBackgroundEnglish LevelNamMaleHe is quite good at English. He performs enthusiastically and confidently in English class.GoodMaiFemaleHer English is at medium. However, she is willing to lear n and perform in class.MediumTrungMaleHe is a soul who is enthusiastic in English lesson even though his English is not as good as others.MediumHoaFemaleHer English level is medium. She is very shy. She equivalents English, especially English speaking skill. barely she is too shy to perform in class.MediumSyMaleHe interchangeables taking part in all games in class. Although his English is not good, he is not afraid to speak English.not goodPhuongFemaleShe likes to talk hearable in class, but not in English. Due to her weakness at English she seems to be very secretiveness in English lessons.Not goodTeaching materialsThe main pilot teaching material is The clean Headway Pre-intermediate textbook compiled by Liz John Soars. There are two dialogues used in this research. The detective asked the informants to play the roles of the dialogues. Students are voluntarily further to contribute their own ideas to make the play role activities more imaginative and provoke.4.2. Inst ruments of data collection4.2.1. Oral tests and InterviewsTwo oral tests and interviews were conducted for this take up with the fraternity of six students. The first oral test was through with(p) ahead the two-week experiment, and the second oral test was held later on the experiment of the two-week experiment. Moreover, during the interview the research worker asked them link up questions to clarify the purpose of the conduct.Yes-no questions and WH- questions that students have to answer are included in oral test questions. Yes-no questions are for students who can not have commodious answers, and WH- questions are for students who are at better learners. The questions are display in vermiform process A. After finishing the pre-oral test, the study proceeded to the main part, which was role-play. During role-play, I interviewed every student individually. The interview questions were based on some basic questions but might be changed to adapt the situations and students reactions (see Appendix C). Moreover, students were interviewed in their mother tongue so that they matte up at ease to express their feelings. When the pre-oral test, two role play activities and interview were finished, it was time to examine how students improve their speaking ability. And the post-oral test was done to compare the students performances from the beginning to the end (see Appendix A).4.2.2. ObservationThe researcher detect six pre-intermediate students participation during two role play activities. The observation in this study was done via my note-taking or keeping diary, and tape-recording through the pilot teaching. The purpose of this part is to see what pre-intermediate students behaviors are when role play is employed as a speaking exertion. Furthermore, during the pilot teaching, tape recording was also carried out to get the data for the research. The students utterances were recorded and analyzed later to find out how the role play was used and how it motivated students.5. DATA ANALYSISdescriptive data are analyzed by qualitative method.5.1. Descriptive data of oral testsThe oral tests were arranged and conducted at the participants convenience. The oral tests (see Appendix A) were given before and afterward the two-week experiment.In order to give descriptive data of oral tests, interviews and observation, I have based on seven criteria to review article pre-intermediate students English speaking ability including 1) the influency of speaking, 2) the frequency of utilize words that have been taught, 3) the accuracy of grammar application, 4) the listening skills absorption, 5) the anxiety of students, 6) the accuracy of pronunciation, 7) the open frame while interviewing.The oral tests showed that students speaking ability did improve after the use of role-play. Specifically, three stern of the participants spoke more fluently. While doing the oral test, I also felt that students would try hard to answer in English. They m ight not give complete sentences, but they would manage to use the words they had learned. They also tried to use correct grammar when giving answers. However, some students who were not good at English such as Sy and Phuong sometimes produced wrong grammar sentences. Moreover, students not only understood what I asked during the oral tests, but also tried hard to listen to whole sentences and digested them. I, myself, had a strong feeling that students tried very hard to pay attention to the post-oral test, because most students had enthusiastic responses with me. Moreover, students anxiety had been change magnitude during the second oral test. One of the reasons that the researcher postulated was that students were familiar with the researcher, and might not be afraid to speak English. They also learned how to pay due attention to their pronunciation while performing in front of their classmates. This also made them have better pronunciation during the oral tests. Some of them e ven tried to improve their pronunciation by making repetition of what they spoke. The pause frequency of interviewees was in reality high during the first oral tests, but it seemed swallow during the second. Some students said I dont know or I have no idea when they could not find the answers to the questions.In general, the oral-tests showed that role-play had a positive influence on pre-elementary students speaking skill. Most students might not have the ability to answer in complete sentences, but they showed positive attitudes during the oral tests. They paid due attention to the questions, and answered the questions using the vocabulary they had learnt, which showed their willingness to attempt to learn English in general and speak English in particular. Therefore, I can conclude that role-play not only stimulated students when they learned English in speaking lessons, but also made them eager to learn more.5.2. Descriptive data of observationIn order to assess the participat ion and effectiveness of using role-play in speaking lessons, I based on four levels 1-3 (bad), 4-6 (medium), 7-9 (good), 10 (excellent). In this part, I would like to use two dialogues and asked participants to play role (see appendix B).For the first role play activity, the researcher used the telephone conversation between the receptionist and client in book New Headway Pre-intermediate by Liz and John Soars (p.77, unit 9). I asked the participants to work in pairs which mean three couples did the same role play. In order to make the role play more effective and to have an exact observation, I asked Nam to work with Mai, Trung with Phuong, and Sy with Hoa. Nam, Trung, Sy played the role of the receptionist whereas Mai, Phuong, Hoa played the role of the client. The researcher instructed first and three pairs presented in turn. During the role play activity, I would observe, take notes, and record. The first role play is easy and simple so that students can feel comfortable and c onfident to take part in. The results of observation basing on the four levels are presented as below.For the second role play activity, the researcher used a more difficult role play activity which was extracted from the book New Headway Pre-intermediate by Liz and John Soars (p.57, unit 7). This role play was an interview with the band Style. Participants had to play the role of an interviewer a journalist and the role of two interviewees Suzie and Guy. In this part, students worked in group of three. Nam, Mai, Sy were the first group. Trung, Hoa, Phuong were the second group. Nam, Hoa who are better at English were the interviewers. The rest were the interviewees in which Mai, Phuong played the role of Suzie, and Sy, Trung played the role of Guy. Similar to the first role play, the researcher instructed first, and the two groups presented in turn. The results of observation from the second role play activity basing on the four levels are stated as below.The second role playAf ter experiencing the two role-play activities, the researcher found that the pre-elementary students English speaking ability has been improved. Specifically, four out of six participants made a clear progress in the influence of speaking ability, and the ability of expressing him/her self. Moreover, half of participants used grammar more correctly. Also, half of participants became more confident such as Mai, Trung, Sy. In addition, Nam the best participant at English speaking improved his vocabulary. Thus, the observations results show that pre-students English speaking skill has been improved when the researcher uses the role play in speaking lessons.5.3. Descriptive data of interviewThe interview was conducted during and after role play. All the students were interviewed once. Additionally, the interviews were conducted in Vietnamese. During the interviews, the whole procedure was recorded and taken notes. The questions of interview are available in Appendix CWhen being asked to compare the conventional teaching method most of the students answered that they truly like the role-play teaching method. They explained that role-play gave them a joyful feeling and avoid being sleepy in class. In general, most students feel that role play is an interesting teaching activity and they really like it. In other words, their feeling of this teaching method is positive. For example, one of the interviewees, Hoa, expressed that Well, I extremely like this teaching activity. It helps me be more confident in speaking English. Especially, it makes me more interested in lesson instead of being sleepy. I always feel bored and sleepy in lessons which are given in a traditional way. Another participant Nam said that I call up using role play in speaking lessons is good because we get more confident when playing role and speaking in front of other friends. I like this teaching method than the traditional method.For the second question Do you think that your speaking skil l has been improved after doing role-play in class? all participants answer Yes. For example, Sy pointed out that role-play can help him improve his speaking skill I think my speaking is better after doing role-play several(prenominal) times. My speaking ability seems to be more fluent. And.I feel more confident. When replying this question, Trung also determined that his speaking English skill had been improved. He said Umm.You know that now I can speak English a little bit fluently. I feel more confident to speak in front of other students. Does it mean that my English speaking skill has been improved?Furthermore, I asked the participants whether there are any negative sides when applying role-play in class. And most of them answered that the problem is the class order was not very good in that case. Sometimes, there was too much noise for students to act in class. Participants, however, still show a positive attitude. Mai said I think noise is unavoidable when we learn speaking s kill. I really like this kind of teaching activity. It is fun. It makes me want to study English and want to speak English in class. However, in order to add to the negative sides of using role play in class, Hoa stated that Sometimes role play takes much time. In my opinion, it is a negative side of role play.I asked the students if it was tiring or stressful for them to plan the dialogues beforehand. As a result, most students showed a positive response to the cookery. Phuong who is not good at English expressed that I feel difficult to have a good preparation at first. My English is not very good. I can not study it at home without teachers instruction. However, after preparing for the class for several times, I start to feel that preview is really important. I know the lesson prior to class and I can understand what the teacher dialog about in class. Furthermore, as I have had preparation before class, I become less nervous and shy when speaking on the stage in English. Simila rly, Trung said eagerly Well, my teacher also asked us to prepare in advance. For the first time I felt quiet tired because I didnt get familiar with this learning method. But for the three time, everything seemed to be better. And now I have no problem with preparation in advance.When observing participants doing the first role-play, the researcher recognized that some of the students were very extroverted. However when they were asked to perform the role play in class, they started to keep avoiding from this opportunity. I wanted to know what resulted in such a reaction. Some students told me that they were really shy some of them could not find out the proper way to act. However, after doing the second role-play the participants responses seemed to be more positive. They participated to the activity more enthusiastically. They did not appear to be shy any more. For example, Trung said that I am an extroverted person. However, I dont feel confident when speaking English in class because I know that my English is not good and as a result, I dont want to speak English in class. But now I feel better. After doing the first and the second role-play activities I recognize that theres no reason to be shyplease take part in the activity, please speak. Wellit is really good.In short, most of the participants hold the positive attitudes to the role-play teaching activity in speaking lessons. For example, students showed more interest in learning speaking English with the role -play activity, students agreed that role-play helped improve their speaking skills, and they showed higher willingness to perform in public.6. REFLECTIONThis study was designed to research the effectiveness of using the role-play to motivate pre-intermediate students in speaking lessons. There were six participants in the research. Also, the researcher used qualitative method to do the research in which oral tests, interviews, and observation are used to collect data.Based on the results of th e study, the findings have been drawn. These findings are (1) participants have a positive attitude to role-play in speaking lessons. (2) Role-play motivates pre-intermediate students in learning speaking.Moreover, the findings of this study may offer three practical implications for English teachers in Vietnam to help students develop speaking ability. The first implication for English teachers is that they should apply a communicative teaching technique in English speaking classes such as role play. However, role play should be merged with the traditional English teaching. The second implication is that teachers can affect students learning attitudes/motivation positively by lively activities. The last implication is to provide a safe environment with tender discipline in class because this will make student feel more comfortable and eager to learn, especially to speak English in class. In other words, English teaching in Vietnam should be added lively and interesting communicativ e teaching methods in class, especially in English speaking class.I believe that the study is successful. Also, it is proper to use the qualitative method for this study. However, there is one demarcation line which may influence the outcome of the study. The limitation referred in this study is time limitation. Because of limited time, I can only give two role-play activities to experience and test the effectiveness of role-play on pre-intermediate students.Suggestions for further researchIn order to have a more accurate and complete result, further study can be done with the cooperation of the involved students English teacher. Working with the English teacher is advantageous as he/she might help me understand every students English level in a short time. Moreover, it would be better to have two instructors to review students during oral tests and performances.Besides role-play, I would like to add some other activities to class and think of some interesting topics for students t o act in role-play. It would be boring if the whole period of class was proceeding in the role-play teaching activity only, thus, added activities may help students concentrate in class more effectively.The dialogues in students textbooks did not really attract them. Students already had those contents in their regular English classes. It would affect students attitudes/motivation positively if there were more interesting topics for students to discuss and act. hold but not least, in a future research, I may have more chances to videotape the whole process of the experiment which includes the oral tests, interviews and performances. Students gestures, facial expressions or body languages could serve as the sources to interpret their intentions as well. Besides, some non-verbal languages could appear beyond expectation, so those expressions are also important for descriptive data.7. CONCLUSIONI would like to conclude my research in two aspects.Firstly, role play is not beneficial onl y for the pre intermediate students but even students of upper levels as well as refuse levels. Role play proves to be a good way to motivate English learners to speak out what they want to say. In fact, students have to experience different situations in real life. The final and the most important goal of teaching English is none other than helping students use English in those situations. Role-play creates many daily situations for students to practice their English. In addition, it really creates a safe environment and productive learning environment in language class which would be interesting to absorb knowledge.Secondly, although role play works well in speaking lessons as well as with pre-intermediate university students, it is not the only method for teachers to apply in every lesson. In other words, there are numerous different ways Vietnamese teachers are offered to apply to motivate students communicate in English naturally and effectively, to affect their attitudes posi tively and to increase s