Sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai nhằm cải thiện kỹ năng nói trong môn tiếng Anh chuyên ngành cho giao dịch viên bưu điện tại trường trung học Bưu Chi

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

--------

TRẦN THỊ THỦY

USING ROLE-PLAY ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE
SPEAKING SKILLS IN ESP FOR POST CLERK AT PT & IT
HIGHLAND SECONDARY SCHOOL, THAI NGUYEN.
Sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai nhằm cải thiện kỹ năng nói trong mơn
tiếng Anh chun ngành cho giao dịch viên bưu điện tại trường trung học
Bưu Chính Viễn Thông và Công Nghệ Thông Tin Miền Núi, Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10

HA NOI, 2013


VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HA NOI
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES

--------

TRẦN THỊ THỦY

USING ROLE-PLAY ACTIVITIES TO IMPROVE
SPEAKING SKILLS IN ESP FOR POST CLERK AT PT & IT
HIGHLAND SECONDARY SCHOOL, THAI NGUYEN.
Sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai nhằm cải thiện kỹ năng nói trong mơn
tiếng Anh chun ngành cho giao dịch viên bưu điện tại trường trung học
Bưu Chính Viễn Thông và Công Nghệ Thông Tin Miền Núi, Thái Nguyên

M.A MINOR PROGRAMME THESIS

Field: English Language Teaching Methodology
Code: 60 14 10
Supervisor: Assoc. ProF. Dr. Vo Dai Quang

HA NOI, 2013


i

STATEMENT OF THESIS ORIGINALITY

I, Tran Thi Thuy, K20D, declare that this thesis is
the result of my own research and that the substance
of the thesis has not, wholly or in part, been submitted
for a degree to any other university or institution.
Signature
Tran Thi Thuy


ii

ACKNOWLEDEMENTS
The largest debt of all is to my supervisor, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vo Dai Quang, who
has given me much invaluable advice and encouragement since the very
beginning.
I am indebted to all the lecturers of the Faculty of Post-Graduate Studies,
Universities of Languages and International Studies, Vietnam National
University, Hanoi for their valuable teaching and assistance during my study at
the College.
My sincere thanks also go to my friends, colleagues, and students at Post
Telecommunication and Information Technology Highland Secondary school,
Thai Nguyen for their support and cooperation in helping me complete this
thesis.
Last but not least, my gratitude is extended to all members of my family for their
love and continuous encouragement during the time I carried out this study.


iii

ABSTRACT
“The specific English for post clerk” is the compulsory subject which has
been taught in Post Telecommunication and Information Technology Highland
Secondary school in Thai Nguyen (PT & IT highland secondary school) for a
long time; however, the result it obtains is not as good as we have expected.
After completing the course for a post clerk (24- month course), most of the
students in my school are not able to use English in their career. There are
numerous reasons for this reality, in which teaching method is one of the
considerable causes. As a teacher of the school, the writer has carried out this
study in order to do something or “act” something to change or to improve the
students’ learning result. This paper aims at improving accuracy and fluency in
speaking skills via role-playing activity. The writer hopes that role-playing will

bring for teachers and students in the school new atmosphere in teaching and
learning the specific English which is formally thought as difficult subject and
hard to overcome. Moreover, the writer is eager to see the changes in students’
attitude toward the subject; from their thinking that they have to learn the
subject, into that they want to take experience with the subject.
It is hoped that this thesis will make some useful contributions to the teaching
and learning of English at PT & IT highland secondary school.


iv

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
PT:

Post Telecommunication

IT:

Information Technology

PO:

Post Office

PC:

Post clerk

ESP:

English for Special Purposes

Ac:

Accuracy

Fl:

Fluency


v

LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES
Table 1: The Holistic Rating Scale
Table 2: Students’ mark of two oral tests before role-playing
Table 3: Students’ mark in term of accuracy and fluency in Pre-test
Table 4: Students’ mark in term of accuracy and fluency in Post-test
Figure 1:
Percentage of students in different ranges of mark before role-playing.
Figure 2:
Percentage of students in different ranges of accuracy mark in Pre-test
Figure 3:
Percentage of students in different ranges of fluency mark in Pre-test
Figure 4:
Percentage of students in different ranges of accuracy mark in Post-test
Figure 5:
Percentage of students in different ranges of fluency mark in Post-test

vi

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Contents

Page

Statement of thesis originality

i

Acknowledgements

ii

Abstract

iii

List of abbreviations

iv

Table of content

v

PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale to the study

1

2. Aims of the research

2

3. Objective of the research

3

4. Scope of the research

3

5. Signification of the research

3

6. Structural organization of the thesis

3

PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis

5
5

1.1.1. Related research 1

5

1.1.2. Related research 2

6

1.1.3. Related research 3

7

1.2 Review if theoretical background

8

1.2.1. Statement of analytical framework chosen.

8

1.2.2. Review of theoretical preliminaries employable as tools for

8

conducting the thesis.
1.2.2.1. Role Play

8

1.2.2.1.1. Definitions of Role play

8

1.2.2.1.2. Types of Role Play.

11

1.2.2.1.3. Significance of Role Play in teaching speaking.

14

1.2.2.2. Speaking

15


vii
1.2.2.2.1. Definitions of Speaking

15

1.2.2.2.3. Criteria to evaluate Speaking skills.

16

1.2.2.3 Motivation in Second Language Teaching
1.3. Summary.

19
20

CHAPTER II: METHODOLOGY
2.1. Research orientations

21
21

2.1.1. Research questions

21

2.1.2. Research hypothesis

21

2.1.3. Research setting

21

2.1.3.1. The syllabus

21

2.1.3.2. The Students

24

2.1.3.3. The Problems

25

2.1.4. Research types

26

2.1.5. Research approaches

26

2.1.6. Principles/criteria for intended data collection and data analysis.

27

2.2. Research methods

28

2.2.1. Major methods vs. Supporting methods

28

2.2.2. Data collection instruments and procedure

28

2.2.2.1. Data collection instruments.

28

2.2.2.2. Procedure.

29

2.2.3. Data analysis procedure

30

2.3. Summary
CHAPTER III: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS
3.1. Findings related to research question 1

30
31
31

3.1.1. The students‟ accuracy and fluency before Role-playing.

31

3.1.2. The students‟ accuracy and fluency after Role-playing.

35

3.1.3. Discussion

37

3.2. Findings related to research question 2.

39

3.2.1. The students‟ motivation before Role-playing

39

3.2.2. The students‟ motivation after Role-playing

40

3.2.3. Discussion.

41


viii
3.3. Findings related to of research question 3.

41

3.4. Summary.

42
Part C: CONCLUSION

1. Recapitulation.

43

2. Concluding remarks.

43

2.1. Conclusion on objective 1

43

2.2. Conclusion on objective 2

43

2.3. Conclusion on objective 3

43

3. Limitations of the current research and suggestions for further ones

44

PART D: REFERENCES

45

In English.

45

In Vietnamese.

46

Data sources.

46
PART E: APPENDICES

Appendix A: Interview questions for teachers
Appendix B: Questionnaire for students
Appendix C: Tables of criteria to evaluate speaking skills.

I
II
III


1
PART A: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale to the study
English plays a more and more important role in connecting our world together.
Having a look at the development of English in any country, we can partly guess its
prosperity as well as its cooperation with other countries. In Vietnam, with its process
of developing and joining, teaching and learning English are always seriously taken
care to develop. Especially, in recent years, renewing teaching methodology into
communicative approach is the concern in teaching foreign languages. Communicative
Language Teaching (CLT), according to Richards (2006, p6), is a set of principles
about the goals of language teaching, how learners learn a language, the kinds of
classroom activities that best facilitate learning, and the role of teachers and learners
in the classroom. In other words, CLT is a new method of teaching that is learnerscentered education; CLT is basically about promoting learning (Richards & Rodgers,
in Guang Wei, Hu). With the presence of CLT, teaching and learning English in
Vietnam has been changing in different aspects. A lot of teaching facilities have been
equipped; syllabus and textbooks have been changed several times with the purpose of
improving students’ ability to perceive the language. Some progress has been reached,

and some problems have also been appeared.
As Li (1998) comments, CLT has extended in scope and has been used by
different educators in different ways. However, we must accept that whatever way to
apply, problems still exist for us to deal with. Teaching English in Viet Nam with CLT
method also has to cope with unsuitable things; such as the irrationality between the
way students are taught and the way they are tested. While students learn to produce
the target language in four skills (Listening, speaking, reading and writing), they are
mainly evaluated through grammar-focus tests. That’s the reason why most of students
are not motivated to use the language with communicative purpose.
In my school, at PT and IT highland secondary school, the teachers often face
with their students’ low level of participation in English lessons, especially in ESP
subject through which students are taught how to use English in their future jobs. Most
of students are unmotivated when learning the subject; they take the ESP course as


2
they are required to do so. This may partly result from the very low competence in
English of the students in mountainous areas (This reason will be discussed more
clearly in the later part of the thesis).
In “ESP for post clerk”- a compulsory subject for the student in the Business
Management Faculty- with its typical characteristics, students are mainly trained the
speaking skill to communicate with foreigners. However, the final scores of students
after taking this course have been very low during the recent years. Most of students
fail to use English effectively for their job after finishing school.
What is the best way to teach the future PC to speak English? Belchumber once said
that: “producing language is a skill, and when we learn a skill, we practice in
improvised settings”. In teaching speaking, each method has its own advantage;
however, it’s clear that creating communicative atmosphere is a vital role to gain
success in speaking skills.
It is now common knowledge that using Role-play activities helps brings about

good outcome in teaching speaking skills. Role-play technique may bring about good
settings for students to practice their skills.

But so far, at PT and IT highland

secondary school, this teaching technique has not been paid attention to. For this
reason, I have made up my mind to go further into this area of research.
2. Aims of the research
The thesis is an attempt to:
(i) Make teachers and students fully aware of the advantages and the strengths of roleplay activities in the improvement of speaking skills.
(ii) Help improve the teaching of speaking skills at PT and IT highland secondary
school via the solutions offered.
3. Objectives of the research
(i) To identify the students’ degrees of progress related to speech accuracy and fluency
via role-play activities.
(ii) To clarify the changes in the students’ motivation via role-play activities.


3
(iii) To establish the major types of difficulties encountered by learners and teachers in
using role-play activities, and then propose possible solutions to the problems
identified.
4. Scope of the research
The research is confined to two communicative situations at Post office; they are
Accepting Mails and Parcels and Retail service.
The research only deals with accuracy, fluency and motivation in speaking skills.
The research is done on a small group of students in PT & IT highland secondary
school.
The research is carried out on the materials obtainable by the writer. The materials
collected are published books and articles from internet sources.

5. Significance of the research
(i) Theoretical significance:
The study supplies the English teachers at PT and IT highland secondary
school with deeper understanding of Role Play activities in term of its advantages in
teaching speaking skill, especially in ESP for post clerk.
(ii) Practical significance:
The research provides the language teachers at the school with suggestions to
improve the learners’ communicative skill and increase their participation in the
speaking lesson.
6. Structural organization of the thesis
This thesis consists of three main parts:
- Part A, Introduction, presents the rationale, the aims, the objectives, the scope, and
the significance of the research.
- Part B, Development. This part is subdivided into three chapters:
+ Chapter 1, Literature Review, deals with some previous studies related to the
research area of the thesis and some theoretical background that is relevant to the
purpose of the study.
+ Chapter 2, Methodology, presents the research orientations, including research
questions, hypothesis, research setting, research types, research approaches, and some
principles for intended data collection and data analysis. Furthermore, major methods


4
are presented in the chapter; and the subjects of the study, the instruments used to
collect data, the procedures of data collection, and a detailed description of data
analysis techniques are given in this chapter.
+ Chapter 3, Findings and discussions, provides with the findings of the study and
some explanations, interpretations and comments on these findings.
- Part C, Conclusion, gives a summary of the main points presented in the thesis, and
concluding remarks on the three objectives of the thesis. Limitations of the current

research and suggestions for future one are also given in this part.
- The appendices are the last part of the thesis, following the References.


5
PART B: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPER I: LITERATURE REVIEW
1.1. Review of previous studies related to the research area of the thesis
1.1.1. Related research 1:
“Role-Playing in the Second Language Classroom”- An article.
The article was written by Mark Sasse, and published in Teacher’s Edition,
Issue 1 October 1999. Working as a teacher in several universities in Vietnam for a
long time, the writer understands deeply about the students and the culture of our
country. Therefore, his studies are very practical and beneficial for both teachers and
students in teaching and learning English in Vietnam.
In the article, the writer has demonstrates that “Role-playing is an effective,
fun, and creative way to provide a needed outlet for real communication”. Three good
reasons for using Role-play activities were given out as evidence for his hypothesis:
Role-play gives students opportunities to produce communication freely; Role-play
creates relationships between students in classroom and these relationships can give
students necessary structure and guidance needed to produce real-life communication;
and role-play “unlock” creative doors and provides an outlet for expression without
asking for embarrassing personal revelations. Mark also reports that role-playing can
be used as an alternative method of assessment, and gives out examples of using roleplaying as testing method. Additionally, the research determines the uses of roleplaying in teaching English for large classes and helping student to internalize difficult
concepts within the classroom. The article was concluded by emphasizing one more
time the use of role-play activities in teaching second language as they accomplish the
goals and criteria of a communicative classroom, and they can range from controlled
to completely free, depending upon their purpose.
As presented, the advantages of Role-play and the use of it to motivate students
toward real-world communication are focused to discuss in this article. However, the

effect of Role-play activities on teaching language skills (reading, writing, speaking
and listening) has not been mentioned in this writing. Obviously, using Role-play
activities can make a push toward the students’ perspective skill (listening) and a
producing skill (speaking). This thesis is particularly an attempt to study Role-playing
in developing speaking skills.


6
1.1.2. Related research 2:
“Role Playing:

One Alternative Teaching Method To Improve Students‟

Communicative Skill”- An article.
Written by Dra. Wienny Ardriyati, in M.Pd. Dinamika Bahasa& Budaya Vol.3,
No. 2, July 2009 (218-228), the article is an suggestion that role playing is something
which can be included in language teaching to help make classes the dynamic,
energetic, harmonious, speaking-focused experiences. The research was carried out in
Indonesia, where English curriculum emphases on the fourth skills, namely, listening,
reading, speaking, and writing, but speaking skill does not get much attention. The
English teachers here do not create the English speaking atmosphere, and they do not
give chances to the students to express their feeling by communicating to each other.
From this reality, role-play is considered one alternative of effective teaching method
to improve speaking skill.
Rebecca (2009) explained that in most role-playing exercises, each student
takes the role of a person affected by an issue and studies the impacts of the issues on
human life and/ or the effects of human activities on the world around us from the
perfective of that person. This is one of the crucial reasons Dra. Wienny chose roleplay as an effective way to help Indonesian students practice their ability in their
communication.
The article is also a careful study about the way and also certain steps to apply

role-play successfully and effectively. According to the writer, some principles must
be followed when using role-play activities in teaching English:
1. Define objectives: the details of what you need to do depend entirely on why you
want to include role-playing exercises in class (topics, time, and expectation)
2. Choose context and role: Choosing a problem related to the chosen topics and a
setting for the characters; teachers should define the goals for each character.
3. Introduce the Exercise: Engage the students in the scenario by describing the
setting and the problem. The teacher provides the students with the information he has
already prepared about the character the goals and background information.
Moreover, according to the writer, using role-play activities in teaching foreign
language only gains success when it is thoroughly prepared through the following
steps: Preparation (for-think about the students’ need for help and support), Role of the
teacher (facilitator, spectator, participant), Bring situation into life (create a real life,


7
introduce the language, error correction). The purpose of all those steps is to help
student to “get into” the role confidently and actively; and the final aim is at the
students’ fluency and accuracy in their oral presentation. An interesting idea given out
in the conclusion of this article is that fluency and accuracy are always wanted to gain
in students’ oral presentation; however, accuracy does not mean using structures and
vocabularies correctly, but saying the right things in the right place, at the right time.
Language teaching can be an interesting challenge when teachers make the
effort to explore a variety of approaches. As the writer stated, role-play is just one of
many methods available for exploitation to improve the students speaking skills and to
create English speaking atmosphere class. Nevertheless, we must agree that the effect
of each method vary in different contexts, for different levels of students’ proficiency.
So, how effective is role-playing in teaching speaking? This has not been counted or
measured yet in the study. It has left this issue for further consideration. The thesis will
study the students’ progress in practicing speaking with the presence of role playing

technique. The scores they gain before and after applying role playing will be
compared to see the differences.
1.1.3. Related research 3:
“Using Role Play in developing speaking skill for senior students of faculty of tourism
at university of social sciences and humanities, Vietnam National University” – An
M.A. minor thesis.
To continue studying role play activities in speaking skills, Nguyen Thi Thanh
Hoa conducted her M.A. minor thesis in 2010 (University of Languages and
International Studies). The purpose of the study is to find out the importance of roleplay in developing speaking activities used by the teachers at University of Social
Sciences and Humanities, and to examine the use of it as a speaking activity in helping
develop students’ speaking skills. The writer wants to emphasize that she doesn’t see
role-play as the only one technique appropriate for developing students’ speaking
skills, but they are practically possible for the context of the students whose future jobs
are tourist guides. Having been measured by pre-test and post-test, role-play activities
were proved to be effective in developing students’ communicative skill in terms of
accuracy, fluency, pronunciation, response, etc…


8
In a certain aspect, the thesis is a continued development in proving the use of
role-playing toward speaking skills. The study mainly focused on promoting the
students’ communicative ability rather than encouraging them to speak (I mean their
motivation). It leaves issues for further researches. The use of role-play in term of
improving the students’ motivation will be further dealt with in this minor thesis.
Furthermore, with regard to tourism aspect, situations studied in Thanh Hoa’s
thesis are very variable and flexible with different contents and contexts; and the
students here were required to be very quick and creative practice speaking in each
situation they encounter. In the smaller scope of this thesis, speaking in ESP for post
clerk has distinguished characteristics from communicative activities in tourism. It will
deal with communicative situations happening in a Post office where a foreign

customer wants to use one of the services provided here. Actually, role play is studied
here to promote speaking with the knowledge of job (a post clerk).
1.2. Review of theoretical background.
1.2.1. Statement of analytical framework chosen.
This part will explore some theoretical background related to the study. Firstly,
some theories related to Role-Play are reviewed, including the definitions of RolePlay, types of Role-Play, and significance of Role-Play in teaching speaking skills.
Secondly, theories about speaking skills are also discussed in terms of its definitions
and criteria evaluation. The part is ended with the review of motivation.
1.2.2. Review of theoretical preliminaries employable as tools for conducting
the thesis.
1.2.2.1. Role Play
1.2.2.1.1. Definitions of Role play
Since English was taught and learned based on CLT approach, various
techniques have been applied in order to reach the communicative ability of learners.
The activities such as role-play, simulation, drama and so on, are bought into language
classes by teachers. They provide learners with chances to practice the language they
learn, to convey meanings that are functionally effective and appropriate to the social
situations. Of all these activities, role-play seems to be the most appropriate to develop
communicative ability while their linguistic competence and cultural knowledge are
limited.


9
In order to understand role-play, it’s a good way to look at it from different
sources. From the point in Wikipedia, role playing refers to the changing of one's
behavior to assume a role, either unconsciously to fill a social role, or consciously to
act out an adopted role. While Oxford English Dictionary defines role-playing as "the
changing of one's behaviour to fulfill a social role".The term is used more loosely in
four senses that a role play is:
 To refer to the playing of roles generally such as in a theater, or

educational setting;
 To refer to a wide range of games including computer role playing
games, and more;
 To refer to taking a role of an existing character or person and acting it
out with a partner taking someone else‟s role, often involving different
genres of practice;
 To refer specifically to role playing games.
In defining role-play as a teaching strategy, Joyce and Weil (2000) stated this
strategy fits within the social family of models. These strategies emphasize the social
nature of learning, and see cooperative behavior as stimulating students both socially
and intellectually. Accordingly, all definitions above agree that role-play activity is
the changing of social role in order to meet a certain social requirement.
In a wiser view, role-play is understood in compare and contrast with
“simulation”. It’s claimed that it is not easy to distinguish between role -play and
simulation because they both mirror the reality. The main difference is that
simulations are more structured and contain more diverse elements.
According to Oxford (1995) and Crookal (1990), there is a little consensus on
the terms used in the role playing and simulation literature. A few of the terms often
used interchangeably are simulation, games, role-play, simulation-game, role-play
simulation, and role playing game. There seem to be some agreement; however,
simulation is a broader concept than role playing. Simulations are complex, lengthy,
and relatively inflexible events. Role-play, on the other hand, can be a quite simple
and brief technique to organize. It is also highly flexible, leaving much more scope
for the exercise of individual variation, initiative and imagination. Role-play in
included in simulation as well.
In defining role-play, Byrne (1976) gave comments that role-play is a part of
drama activity. In details, he describes that there are three items to cover the drama
activities. They are mime (mimicry-memorization), role-play and simulation. He
distinguished these terms as follows:

10
Mime: the participants perform actions without using words (although as we shall
see, this activity leads naturally on to talk).
Role play: the participants interact either as themselves or others in imaginary
situations.
Simulation: this involves role-play as defined above. However, for this activity the
participants normally discuss a problem of some kind with some setting that has been
defined for them.
Ten years later, 1986, Byrne in his study titled “Teaching oral English” defined
role-play by the phrase “Let’s pretend”, added by “Role-play is a way of taking the
students out of the classroom for a while and showing them how English can be used
in certain situations” (p.117). In role-play activities, students are not themselves any
more, they are put in either realistic or imaginative situations to act.
Similarly, Harmer considers role-play activities are those where students are
asked to imagine that they are in different situations and act accordingly. We may tell
them to role play being guests at a party, participants in a public meeting about a
road-building project, or post clerks on the duty to serve customers.
With humorous looking, another definition is stated by Joanna Budden (2004)
in her article titled “Role play”. She said that: Role-play is any speaking activity
when you either put yourself into somebody else's shoes, or when you stay in your
own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation! By this definition, it is easy to
understand and to imagine about role-play activities. Students can also take on the
opinions of someone else. “For and again debates can be used and the class can be
split into those who are expressing views in favor and those who are against the
opinion.
So, role-play is defined differently by different linguists. Among all the
understandings of role-play, I am really impressed and satisfied with a very short but
interesting and comprehensible definition by Doff (1988). He stated that “Role-play is
a way of bringing situations from real life”. He pointed out the two characteristics of

role-play: imagination of a role and/ or a situation and improvisation. They may
pretend to be a different person, doing something different. The situation is fixed, but
they make up the exact words to say as they go along.
In short, it is clearly that each scholar has his own opinion of Role-play;
however, they all agree that role-play is a technique which involves fantasy or
imaginative to be someone else or to be ourselves in a specific situation for a while,
improvising dialogue and creating a real world in scenario. It aims at the students to
encourage thinking and creativity, lets them develop and practice new language and
behavioral skills in a relatively non-threatening setting, and can create the motivation
and involvement necessary for learning to occur.


11
1.2.2.1.2. Types of Role Play.
Similar to different ways of defining role-play, it is also classified differently by
linguists. Role-play can be divided into two or four types depending on the various
points of view. The thesis will discuss the types of role-play according to two authors:
Littlewood (1981) and Donn Byrne (1986).
Littlewood divided role-play into four types according to the nature of control
exercised by the teacher. The activities are part of a continuum ranging from precommunicative activities. The former is defined as activities that “… aim to equip the
learner with some of the skills required for communication, without actually requiring
him to perform communicative acts” (p.8). The later consists of activities in which
“…the learner uses the linguistic repertoire he has learnt in order to communicate
specific meanings for specific purposes” (p.17). Four types of role-play are parts of
this continuum: Role-play controlled through cued dialogues, role-play controlled
through cues and information, Role-play controlled through situation and goals and
Role-play in the form of debate and discussion.
a. Role-play controlled through cued dialogues
In role-plays controlled through cued dialogues, each learner receives cues on
separate cards, “two sets of cues must interlock closely” (Littlewood-1981), so that

cues can only generate utterances that match cues that follow. Even though learners’
creativity is quite limited, this kind of role-play still presents a certain amount of
uncertainty and spontaneity inherent to real communication. Learners have to listen to
their partner before providing an appropriate response.
b. Role-play controlled through cued and information.
This kind of framework is obviously best suited to those situations where there
is a natural initiator, whose cues can control the interaction. These are mostly
situations where one person needs to gather information or obtain a service. For
example, in a travel agency, where one learner needs to find a train time and fares, and
the other has timetable and brochures. Another example is in a bank, where the
manager has to obtain personal information about client who wants to borrow money.
Because of the information-gathering element, this type of role-play may often be very
similar to some of the functional communication activities. However, there is greater
emphasis on the social context in which the information is obtained.
c. Role-play controlled through situation and goals.
All the activities in the previous sections provide a framework of specific cues
for the learners. These enable the teacher to control the interaction and to ensure that
learners express a particular range of meaning (in addition to any variations they may
introduce). This cue also provides the learner with a supportive framework which
relieves them of some of the responsibilities for creating the interaction themselves.


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

In this role-play, learners are initially aware only of the overall situation and
their own goals in it. They must negotiate the interaction itself as it unfolds, each
partner responding spontaneously to the other’s communicative acts and strategies.
d. Role-play in the form of debate and discussion.
The last role-play in Littlewood’s continuum “… is debate or discussion about a
real or simulated issue” (p. 57). The prerequisites for the activity are having adequate
knowledge about the topic, and having opposite opinions or interests. Learners can
either get to a decision or just put the issue to a vote at the end. The interaction is a
result of the conflict of opinions. The skill that learners need to practice is similar to
those in the problem-solving activities. The activity is also similar in nature to the
discussion sessions. Here, the simulated roles ensure that there will be sufficient
conflict of opinion to sustain the interaction phase because students are usually
interested in comparing their decisions with those of other groups. It also gives
students an opportunity to talk about problems they had and it rounds off the activity.
Beware; however, of making this stage unduly long-to listen to fifteen groups of
students reporting back in turn would clearly be tedious.
According to Donn Byrne (1986), in case of role-play activities, Role-play can
be grouped into two forms: scripted and unscripted role-play. In details, those types of
role-play activities are described as follows:
a. Scripted Role-Play
This type involves interpreting either the textbook dialogue or reading text in
the form of speech. The main function of the text after all is to convey the meaning of
language items in a memorable way.
For more details, Doff (1988) gave an example of scripted role-play dialogue and
explained how the process is:
Angela: Good morning, I want to send a letter to Singapore.
Clerk: Yes, do you want to send it by air mail or ordinary mail?
Angela: I think I‟ll send it by air mail. I want it to get there quickly. How much does it
cost?
Clerk: To Singapore? That will be 30 pence, please.

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Angela: Here you are.
Clerk: Here‟s your stamp, and here‟s 20 pence change.
Angela: Thank you. Where is the post box?
Clerk: You want the air mail box. It‟s over there, by the door.
(Adapted from living English book 2:A.G. Abdalla et al)
The procedures given by Doff (1988) are as follows: First, the teacher guides
the role play by writing the prompts such as “where? / air mail/ how much? / post box?
/ thanks”. The teacher can talk as she writes to show what the prompts mean.
Secondly, if necessary, she can go through the prompts one by one and get students to
give sentences or question for each one. Thirdly, the teacher may call two students to
the front to play the role. They should improvise the conversation using the prompts to
help them and point out that the conversation should be similar to the one in the text
book, but not exactly the same; the conversation can be shorter than the presentation
dialogue. It should just cover the main points indicated by the prompts. Finally, the
teacher calls out a few other pairs of students in turn, and ask them to have other
conversation based on the prompts.
Role-play activities studied in this thesis belong to the scripted type; however,
there are some differences in the procedures applied in PT and IT highland secondary
school from the ones given by Doff (1988). They will be discussed in details in the
following parts of the thesis.
b. Unscripted Role-Play
In contrast to scripted role-play, the situations of unscripted role-play do not
depend on textbooks. It is known as a free role-play or improvisation. The students
themselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation should
develop. In order to do this activity, good preparation from teacher and students is
really necessary.
The example and procedures of unscripted role play which is adapted from

Doff’s book (1988) are as follow:
One student has lost a bag.
He/she is at the police station.
The other student is the police officer, and asks for details.


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Procedures in conducting this role-play may come as follow: Firstly, the teacher
could prepare the whole class by discussing what the speakers might say (e.g. the
police officer would ask the student how he or she lost the bag) and writing prompt
and any key vocabulary on the board to guide the role-play. Secondly, the teacher
could divide the class into pairs, let them discuss together what they may say and let
them all try out the role-play privately, before calling on one or two pairs to act out in
front of the class
1.2.2.1.3. Significance of Role Play in teaching speaking.
Role-play activities have been studied by many great linguists, from different
perspectives for a long time. Therefore, various advantages have been gained through
role-play method, and pointed out in the previous researches.
According to Ladousse (1987), using role-play activities is signification in
teaching speaking skills for the following reasons:
 Through role-play we can train students in speaking skills in any situation
 Role-play is very useful dress rehearsal for real lives. It enables them not
just to acquire set phrases, but also to lean how interaction might take place
in a variety situation.
 Role-play may help many shy students by providing them with mask.
 Role-play is fun. The students can enjoy their immigration trip.
 Role-play gives the students a chance to explore and play with the
possibilities offered by the new language, and provide situations where this
new language can be related to the students’ own experiences.
In addition, he pointed out that most learners will agree that enjoyment leads to better

learning. In the same point of view, Jeremy Harmer advocates the use of Role Play for
the following reasons:
 It’s fun and motivating
 Quieter students get the chance to express themselves in a more forthright
way
 The world of the classroom is broadened to include the outside world.
 It offers a wider range of language opportunities.
Larsen-Freeman (1986) also agrees when he explains that role play, whether
structured or less structured, are important in developing skills because they give
learners an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in
different social roles.


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With a deeper view on advantages of role-play as a teaching strategy, Lori
Levis (2002) showed several uses of role-play for both teacher and student. First,
student interest in the topic is raised. Research has shown that “integrating experiential
learning activities in the classroom increases interest in the subject mater and
understanding of the course content”. Secondly, there is increased involvement on the
part of the students in a role-playing lesson. Students are not passive recipients of the
instructor’s knowledge. Rather, they take an active part. A third advantage to using
role-playing as a teaching strategy is that it teaches empathy and understanding of
different perspectives. A typical role-playing activity would have students taking on a
role of a character, learning and acting as that individual would do in the typical
setting.
In short, role-play activities are very significant in teaching a foreign language,
especially in speaking skills. Role-play is a technique which can develop students’
fluency in the target language, promotes students to interact with others in the
classroom, increases motivation and makes the teaching-learning process more
enjoyable.

1.2.2.2. Speaking.
1.2.2.2.1. Definitions of Speaking
In order to understand definitions of speaking thoroughly, it’s better to overlook
the term above “speaking skills”: that’s ORAL COMMUNICATION, which was
given by Mead, Nancy A. and Rubin, Donald L.(1985). They said that: Most people
define oral communication narrowly, focusing on speaking and listening skills
separately. Traditionally, when people describe speaking skills, they do so in a context
of public speaking. Recently, however, definitions of speaking have been expanded.
One trend has been to focus on communication activities that reflect a variety of
settings: one-to-many, small group, one-to-one, and mass media. Another approach
has been to focus on using communication to achieve specific purposes: to inform, to
persuade, and to solve problems. A third trend has been to focus on basic
competencies needed for everyday life -- for example, giving directions, asking for
information, or providing basic information in an emergency situation. The latter
approach has been taken in the Speech Communication Association's guidelines for
elementary and secondary students. Many of these broader views stress that oral
communication is an interactive process in which an individual alternately takes the