Sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai để phát triển kĩ năng nói cho học sinh của trường tiểu học Hùng Sơn (Luận văn thạc sĩ)

THAI NGUYEN UNIVERSITY
SCHOOL OF FOREIGN LANGUAGES

TRUONG THI KIM NHI

USING ROLE PLAY TO DEVELOP SPEAKING SKILL FOR
STUDENTS IN HUNG SON PRIMARY SCHOOL

(Sử dụng hoạt động đóng vai để phát triển kĩ năng nói cho học sinh
của trường tiểu học Hùng Sơn)

M.A. THESIS
(APPLICATION ORIENTATION)

Field: English Linguistics
Code: 8220201
Supervisor: Dr. Nguyen Thi Viet Nga

THAI NGUYEN – 2018
i


DECLARATION
-----------*****----------I certify that the minor thesis entitled “Using role play to develop speaking
skill for students in Hung Son primary school” is my own study in the fulfillment
of the requirement for the Degree of Master of Arts at Foreign Language Faculty,
Thai Nguyen University.

Signature:

Truong Thi Kim Nhi

Thai Nguyen, 2018.

ii


ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
During the process of completing this graduation paper, I have been fortunate to
receive much support, assistance, guidance encouragement from many people.
First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor – Mrs.
Nguyen Thi Viet Nga, Ph.D. who has kindly given me constructive comments,
criticism, suggestions.
In addition, my thanks also are sent to all the teachers of College of Foreign
Languages at Thai Nguyen University who have taught me with all their heart in
unforgettable two years. They have directly and indirectly contributed to the
completion of this research.
I also wish to give my deepest thanks to my family who has been wholeheartedly
supporting me. They are always beside and motivate me in my study and my life.
Finally, I also would like to thank all my friends for their discussions, opinions and
encouragements. Without their instructive contributions, my research could have
been finished.
Moreover, the shortcomings in this study are unavoidable. Therefore, I hope to
receive the sympathy from teachers and friends.

Thai Nguyen, 2018

Truong Thi Kim Nhi

iii

TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION……………………………………………………………….…....i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………….….....ii
TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………..………...iii
ABSTRACT…………………………………………………….…..........................vi
LIST OF FIGURES, ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND CHARTS ……….….viii
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION. ..............................................................................1
1.1. Rationale ..............................................................................................................1
1.2. Aims of the study .................................................................................................2
1.3. Research questions ...............................................................................................2
1.4. Scope of the study ................................................................................................2
1.5. Significance of the research. ................................................................................2
1.6. Structure of the thesis ...........................................................................................3
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................4
2.1. Speaking. ..............................................................................................................4
2.1.1. Definition of speaking .......................................................................................4
2.1.2. Elements of speaking. .......................................................................................4
2.1.3. Types of speaking. ............................................................................................6
2.2. Teaching speaking for primary students. .............................................................7
2.2.1 Teaching speaking ..............................................................................................7
2.2.2. How to teach speaking for primary students. ....................................................8
2.3. Using role-playing activities teaching speaking for primary students .................9
2.3.1. Role- play ..........................................................................................................9
2.3.2. Types of role play. ...........................................................................................10
2.3.3. The organization of a role - play activity. .......................................................10
2.3.4. The teacher’s and student’s role in role play activity. ....................................11
2.3.5. The advantages of role play activity. ..............................................................12
2.3.6. The disadvantages of role play activity. ..........................................................13
iv

2.4. Review of Related Studies. ................................................................................14
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY ............................................................................16
3.1. Research questions .............................................................................................16
3.2. Participants .........................................................................................................16
3.3. Data collection instrument. ................................................................................16
3.3.1. Observation. ....................................................................................................17
3.3.2. Interview .........................................................................................................17
3.3.3. Test. .................................................................................................................18
3.4. Research procedure ............................................................................................20
3.5. Data analysis. .....................................................................................................23
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION. .....................................................25
4.1. Findings of the Observation. ..............................................................................25
4.1.1. The result of pre observation. .........................................................................25
4.1.2. The result of observation after implementing the Class Action Research. .....25
4.2. Findings of the Interview ...................................................................................26
4.3. The result of the test. ..........................................................................................28
4.3.1. The result of pre – test. ....................................................................................28
4.3.1 Findings of the first cycle .................................................................................28
4.3.2 Findings of the second cycle. ...........................................................................34
4.4.3. Findings of the Test Results. ...........................................................................38
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND SUGGESTIONS............................................46
5.1. Recapitulation ....................................................................................................46
5.2. Suggestions ........................................................................................................46
5.2.1. For teachers. ....................................................................................................46
5.2.2. For students .....................................................................................................47
5.2.3. For the researchers: .........................................................................................48
5.3. Limitations: ........................................................................................................48
REFERENCES ..........................................................................................................49

APPENDIXES ............................................................................................................ I
v


ABSTRACT
The aim of this research is to enhance students’ activity in learning speaking
skill, to check whether role play is effective learning technique, to know advantages
and disadvantages of role play. The research subject is fifth grade students of Hung
Son Primary School which is located in Hung Son town, Dai Tu district, Thai
Nguyen province. This research was classroom action research that conducted into
two cycles. In each cycle was consisted of plan, action, observation, and reflection.
Data collection techniques used are interviews, observations and tests. In this
research, the researcher acted as the practitioner. The tests were in the form of pretest conducted in the pre-research and post-tests conducted at the end of every cycle.
These tests were conducted to know how well students speak English by using role
play in teaching English.
The results of this research showed that the use of role-play can improve the
students’ speaking competence, role play is an effective technique of learning, and
there are some advantages besides the disadvantages. From the observations, it can
be seen that the students could speak well and improve their vocabularies and
grammatical structure. Using role play in speaking class could increase the student’s
scores in learning speaking. It can be proved by the improvement of motivation of
students. There were 7 students or 11.67 % of students in the class who achieved the
minimal mastery level criterion or KKM (65) in the pre – test. In the result of post –
test in cycle 1, there were 22 or 36.67 % of the students who achieved KKM. In the
result of post –test in cycle 2, there were 53 or 88.33 % of the students who
achieved KKM, and it means this action research is successful.
Based on the research finding above, at the end of this research, the researcher
wants to propose some suggestions to English teachers. First, before conducting
the instructional process especially in speaking class, choosing the most suitable
way of improving the students’ motivation in learning speaking is important

because this is the key of the success in teaching-learning process. Besides, it is
necessary to create an interesting and enjoyable atmosphere in the teaching learning
vi


process in order to make the students easier in improving their speaking
competence.

vii


LIST OF FIGURES, ABBREVIATIONS, TABLES AND CHARTS
1. Figures:
Figure 1: Kurt Lewin’s Action Research Design………………………………..21
Figure 2: The Phases of Classroom Action Research (Adapted from Kurt Lewin’s
Action Research Design)……………………………………………….………22
2. Abbreviations:
CLT: Communicative Language Teaching……………………………………12
CAR: Classroom Action Research……………………………………………..17
KKM: Criterion Minimum of Completeness………………………………….29
3. Tables:
Table 1: Assessing Students’ Progress…………………………………………..17
Table 2: The Rating Scores of Oral Test …………………………….…………18
Table 3: The students’ participation in speaking during CAR………….…….24
Table 4: The students’ participation in speaking during cycle 1…….….……31
Table 5: The students’ participation in speaking during cycle 2……..……..…36
Table 6: The students’ speaking score of pre – test, post – test 1, post - test 2..37
Table 7: The distribution of the students score…………………………………39
4. Charts:
Chart 1: The Students’ Score Mean Improvement……………………………41

Chart 2: The Students’ Score Class Percentage (pre - test, post - test I, post – test
II)……………………………………………………………………………42

viii


CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Rationale
English is an international language used in order to communicate in the fields of
education, technology, trade and politics so that it is learnt as a foreign language in
many countries around the world. In Viet Nam, speaking is appreciated as an
important skill in teaching English for primary students. Nowadays, the students
faced a number of difficulties in learning speaking skill.
The first problem students faced in speaking skill was they did not have sufficient
vocabulary, because of this; they found it difficult to express their ideas when
the teacher wanted them to speak in English. The second problem was the students
felt afraid if they made some mistakes when they conversed in English. Therefore,
many students were not confident to speak and take part in classroom interaction.
The third problem that the students faced in learning speaking skill was they had
very limited time to practice their English because they only practiced their English
at school, and after they returned home from school they did not use English
anymore. Moreover, the students just have an opportunity in classroom which is a
contrived situation that does not always make the opportunity for students to
practice natural speaking. Consequently, the students thought that their performance
in English was still low.
Because of these problems, in order to activate and motivate students in learning
speaking, teachers should use effective techniques for the teaching of speaking.
One of the most popular activities used is role play which is a very useful technique
in teaching speaking language. Ur (1981) stated that “The use of the play has added
a tremendous number of possibilities for communication practice”. Barkley (2004, p.

150) said that “Role Play is a created situation in which students deliberately act out
or assume characters or identities they would not normally assume in order to
accomplish learning goal”. It means the activity helps create interaction in the
language classroom. It is practical, entertaining, and gets students to produce
authentic English. Additionally, it can motivate the learners and establish good

1


relationships between the teacher and the students as well as among the students
thereby encouraging a supportive environment for language learning.
Deriving from the above mentioned reasons, “Using role play to develop speaking
skill for students in Hung Son primary school” is made. The researcher hopes that
this study will provide the teachers of primary school a suitable method to teach
speaking for primary students.
1.2. Aims of the study
This study had two aims:
- To find out whether role-play improves the speaking competence of
students at Hung Son primary school.
- To find out the advantages and disadvantages while applying role-play to
students at Hung Son primary school
1.3. Research questions
- How effective are role-playing activities in improving students’ speaking skills
at Hung Son primary school?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using role-play to teach
speaking English skill?
1.4. Scope of the study
The scope of the research focused on developing speaking skill for students in grade
5 in Hung Son Primary School by using role play. Any other related issues should
be included in further research.

1.5. Significance of the research
“Using role play to develop speaking skill for students in Hung Son Primary
School” is a research which is expected to be able to give some benefits for teachers,
learners and readers.
For teachers, this study can give more meaning and deeper understanding for the
English teachers for the innovative and creative methods that can be applied in
teaching speaking.

2


For students, the role-playing activities can provide a more comforting and
interesting situation in the classroom so that they are more interested in joining the
class.
For readers, the research can be used as additional reference for those who want to
conduct research an English teaching process by using role-playing activities,
especially in improving students’ English speaking ability.
1.6. Structure of the thesis
The thesis consists of five chapters:
Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the background to the study, states the aims of the
study. The significance and scope of the study are also discussed.
Chapter 2, Literature Review, provides the theoretical basis. Besides, the related
ideas in previous researches are included in this chapter. This chapter contains 3
sections: Speaking, Teaching Speaking and Using role-playing activities for
teaching speaking for primary student.
Chapter 3, Methodology, focuses on the methods used to gather and analyze data.
First, research questions are addressed. Then, instruments for data collection and
participants are described. The chapter ends with analyzing data.
Chapter 4, Finding and Discussion, in this part, the findings of the research will be
presented and then will be discussed.

Chapter 5, Conclusion, summarize the findings of the research. After that, the
limitation of the research as well as the suggestion for further research will also be
included.

3


CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter provides the theory and research to support and make the study more
clearly. The first section gives an overview of speaking skill including definitions
and its conception. The second section is about teaching speaking for primary
school. The third section discusses using role-playing activities teaching speaking
for primary students.
2.1. Speaking
2.1.1. Definition of speaking
Teaching English for primary students focuses on four skills: reading, listening,
speaking and writing. Speaking plays an important role in learning and
understanding any language. Bailey and Nunan (2005, p.2) assert that speaking is an
interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing, receiving and
processing information. It can be perceived that speaking is a kind of interaction
process involving two or more people (as speaker(s) and listener(s)) in order to
convey and receive the intended information.
Meanwhile, Donough and Shaw (2003, p.134) stated “There are some reason for
speaking involved expressing ideas and opinions: expressing a wish and a desire to
do something; negotiating and/or solving a particular problem; or establishing and
maintaining social relationships and friendships. Besides, fluency, accuracy and
confidence are important goal in speaking.”. Therefore, as a language skill,
speaking is as the main tool of verbal communication because it is a way to express
ideas and opinions directly what we have in our mind.
Based on the previous definitions above, it can be synthesized that speaking

component has the same importance as the other language skills such as listening,
reading and writing. This skill should be mastered by the students in order to
achieve the curriculum expectation.
2.1.2. Elements of speaking
According to Heaton (1990:70), either four or five components of speaking are
recognized:
- Pronunciation
4


The student can communicate effectively when they have good pronunciation and
intonation even though they have limited vocabulary and grammar. Pronunciation
refers to the traditional or customary utterance of words. It is the way for students to
produce the utterance words clearly when they are speaking (Kline, 2001, p.69).
Moreover, pronunciation includes all those aspects of speech which make for an
easily intelligible flow of speech, including segmental articulation, rhythm,
intonation and phrasing, and more peripherally even gesture, body language and eye
contact.
From the statements above, pronunciation is an essential aspect for the second
language learners to speak English properly.
- Grammar
To arrange correct sentences in a conversation, it is necessary to improve grammar
for students. In An Introduce to Language, Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman
(1998, p.14) mention grammar is the sound and the sound patterns, the basic units
of meaning, such as words, and the rules to combine them to form new sentences.
Thus, grammar is a rule that is needed for the students to combine correct sentences
in conversation and to arrange the correct meaning of sentences based on the
context. Grammar plays an important role in speaking because second language
learners do not use grammar structure accurately, they cannot speak English well.
- Vocabulary

A significant component of speaking English is vocabulary. Vocabulary means the
appropriate diction or the most important thing in a language especially in speaking;
furthermore, it is easy to express our ideas, feeling and thoughts both in oral or
written form when knowing a lot of vocabularies. In spoken language, the
vocabulary tends to be familiar and everyday (Turk, 2003, p.87). Therefore, to
understand and express an opinion, speakers need to build a system of vocabulary
abundantly. Students need to know words, their meanings, how they are spelt and
how they are pronounced. Thus, when teaching vocabulary, the teachers have to
make sure that they explain the meaning as well as the spelling and pronunciation.
- Fluency
5


Fluency is defined as the ability to speak communicatively, fluently and accurately.
Fluency usually refers to express oral language freely without interruption. In
teaching and learning process, if the teacher wants to check students’ fluency, the
teacher allows students to express themselves freely without interruption. The aim
is to help students speak fluently and with ease. The teacher does not correct
immediately whereas the idea being that too much correction interferes with the
flow of conversation (Pollard, 2008, p.16).
- Comprehension
The last element of speaking is comprehension. Comprehension refers to the fact
that participants fully understand the nature of the research project, even when
procedures are complicated and entail risks (Cohen et al., 2005, p.51). This element
is discussed by both speakers because it can make people get the information they
want. In addition, its function is to make the listeners catch the information from the
speech easily.
2.1.3. Types of speaking
There are a lot of activities in the classrooms that have been oriented to speaking for
real communication. The activities are conducted merely for giving students

opportunities to practice speaking. In his book, Brown (2004, p.141) divided the
basic types of speaking into 5 categories as follows:
-

Imitative

Imitative is the ability to simply imitate a word or phrase or possibly a sentence.
While this is a purely phonetic level of oral production, a number of prosodic,
lexical and grammatical properties of language may be included in the criterion
performance.
-

Intensive

Intensive is the production of short stretches of oral language designed to
demonstrate competence in a narrow band of grammatical, phrasal, lexical or
phonological relationship (such as prosodic element – intonation, stress, rhythm,
juncture). Examples of intensive include reading aloud, sentence and dialog

6


completion. In this type, the speaker must be aware of semantic properties in order
to be able to respond, but interaction with an interlocutor is minimal at best.
-

Responsive

Responsive includes interaction and test comprehension but at somewhat limited
level of very short conversation, standard greetings and small talk, simple request

and comments.
-

Interactive

The different between responsive and interactive speaking is in the length and
complexity of the interaction, which sometimes includes multiple exchanges and/or
multiple participants. Some examples of interactive speaking are interview,
discussion, games, and role-play.
-

Extensive

Extensive type includes speeches, oral presentations, and story-telling during which
the opportunity for oral interaction from listener is either highly limited or ruled out
altogether. This type needs more action and interaction to the listeners.
2.2. Teaching speaking for primary students
2.2.1 Teaching speaking
Brown (2000, p.7) states that “teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how
to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, proving
with the knowledge, causing to know or understand”.
Hornby (1995, p.37) defines that teaching means giving the instruction to (a person):
give a person (knowledge skill, etc). Meanwhile, speaking is how to make use of
words in an ordinary voice. So, teaching speaking is giving instruction to a person
in order to communicate.
Teaching speaking is the process of teaching students knowledge about the target
language and skill in order that they express their opinions, emotions and interact to
other person in any situation. According to Tarigan (1990, p.3-4) speaking is a
language skill that is developed in child life, which is preceded by listening skill,
and at that period speaking skill is learned. It means that speaking is the basic

language. The goal of teaching speaking skills is to communicate efficiency. This is
7


in line with what Nurmaida (2011, p.79) clarifies that “teaching speaking means
teaching students to involve in target language, since speaking course cannot be
separated from conversation itself ”. So, students will be directly involved in
speaking activities whenever they are conducting a conversation.
Hayriye Kayi (2010) defined that teaching speaking is to teach English language
learners to:
a. Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns
b. Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of
the second language.
c. Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social
setting, audience, situation and subject matter.
d. Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.
e. Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments.
f. Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses,
which is called as fluency.
In teaching speaking, learners are provided much knowledge to gain their purpose
that is learning to speak competently in English or ‘obtaining of communicative
competence’. In here they can practice to speak directly and get the material which
involved in the speaking, such as: fluency and accuracy.
Regarding the teachers, they become a guide for directing their students’ speaking
activities, analysis what their students’ problems while the activities is taking place
and after conducted it. Communication strategies are also implemented by the
teachers for their students. It may be, when their students lack of words, phrases, or
structures when they are speaking.
2.2.2. How to teach speaking for primary students
According to McKay (2006), young learners of English are children between 5 and

12 years old who are learning a foreign or second language. They are easy to be
interested in new things but get distracted due to their short attention span, which
lasts from 10 to 15 minutes only. Therefore, teacher must design many activities
which are not only simple but also creative. Moreover each leaner has different
8


characteristics; teacher needs to learn about each student’s character in order to give
suitable methods to students in lessons.
One of the skills young students like best is speaking which makes them widen a lot
of new knowledge, vocabulary, situations. There are many activities which make
young leaners work hard in speaking lessons. Kayi (2006, p.2-5) inferred from
many linguists that there are thirteen activities to promote speaking, they are
discussion, simulations, information gap, brain storming, story-telling, interviews,
story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture narrating, picture describing, find
the differences, and role play.
2.3. Using role-playing activities teaching speaking for primary students
2.3.1. Role- play
Many researchers have different opinions in defining role play.
Ladousse (1995:5) points out that when students assume a “Role”, they play a part
(either their own or somebody else’s) in specific situation. “Play” means being on in
a safe environment in which students are as an inventive and playful as possible.
According to Ur (1981:9), Role play is giving students a suitable topic provides
interest and subject – master for discussion, dividing them into groups improves the
amount and quality of the verbal interaction.
Gower (1995) stated a role play part of a particular person: a customer, a manager, a
shop assistant, for example. As this person, they take part in a situation, acting out a
conversation. It is unscripted, although general ideas about what they are going to
say might be prepared beforehand. These might well come out of a text or a
previous context. Here, students are no longer limited to the kind of language used

in a classroom; they play different roles and various situations. According to
Ladousse (1989) the situation can correspond to: 1) a real need in the learners’ lives
(at the doctor, at the station), the learners may or may not have the direct experience;
2) the events that few learners will ever experience but which are easy to play such
as being a journalist; 3) fantasy roles which are imaginary, absurd and have nothing
to do with reality.

9


Bailey and Nunan (2005, p.52) mention that a role play is a speaking activity in
which the students take the part of other people and interact using the characteristics
of those people (for instance, age, gender occupation, and so on). Moreover, they
also explain that role play includes a particular communicative task, such as
negotiating a purchase, solving a problem, making a reservation, getting
information, and so on. In addition, Mustafa (2011,p. 71) highlights that role play is
when students portray roles of particular type of people, for example, a principal, a
teacher, a father a driver, or a customer.
Role play is really a tremendous activity of Activity Based Approach. It helps in
building the confidence of the students and the vocabulary as well. The
communicative power of students gets strong and they are able to speak fluently. In
my point of view teacher can assign students some task on which they have to
collect information and speak or perform.
2.3.2. Types of role play
There are two types of role play stated by Byrne (2006) as scripted and unscripted
role plays. To perform role-plays of the scripted type, the students will have to work
in pairs or small groups. They are given prompts related to the target scenarios.
Then, they will have to use the prompts as the model to form the target dialogue.
The students rehearse that dialogue before performing it in front of the class.
Another type is an unscripted role play which means that students perform their

dialogue without any script. Teachers give a very clear instruction and picture of the
situation that should be understood by students. They are also given enough time to
practice before showing their performance.
2.3.3. The organization of a role - play activity
For a role-play to be a successful speaking exercise, it is useful to know some basic
principles about organizing such an activity. The teacher must prepare some steps to
make good performance. Departemen Pendidikan Nasional (2009, p.04) stated the
stages in role play activity:
- The teacher arranges and prepares scenario that will be performed by the students.
This scenario is important for the students to know the situation of their roles.
10


- The teacher appoints some students to learn about the scenario several days before
teaching and learning activity. Giving time for the students is useful to have them
good preparation for acting.
- The teacher makes groups of students which consist of five people per group. The
teacher has to make group in variant member due to their ability of speaking. So,
the master students are combined with the low students.
- The teacher explains about competence will be achieved. The teacher enlightens
the students that from their performance, they will know some expression of giving
opinions and responses, and making, declining and invitation.
- The teacher calls a group of students who have been chosen to play prepared
scenario. On the other hands, the teacher chooses the group to perform.
- Each student in his/her group observes scenario being performed.
- After finishing the performance, each student is given work sheet for discussing
each group performance.
- Every group which has performed gives conclusion about what scenario has been
performed.
- The teacher gives general conclusion. That is about the material that has been done

by the students in their role play.
- Evaluation. It is held by test to know their understanding in the material.
- Closing.
2.3.4. The teacher’s and student’s role in role play activity
The roles of teachers and learners in the CLT classroom are explained clearly by
Richards (2005, p.20). He said that learners in this classroom have to participate in
the classroom activities based on a cooperative rather than individualistic approach
to learning. He added that students have to become comfortable with listening to
their peers in group work or pair work tasks rather than relying on the teacher for a
model. They are expected to take on a greater degree of responsibility for their own
learning. He also added that teacher in this classroom have to assume the role of
facilitator or monitor. Rather than being a model of correct speech and writing and
one with the primary responsibility of making students produced plenty of error free
11


sentences, the teacher also had to develop a different view of learners errors and of
her/his own role in facilitating language learning. Since role play is one of the
activity types that are used in CLT, thus the teachers who apply role play in
teaching speaking have to perform the roles and also encourage the students to do
such roles that have been stated above.
2.3.5. The advantages of role play activity
Ladousse (1995) stated that there are some advantages for teaching speaking by
using role play in the class. The first one is that role play a very wide variety of
experience can be brought into the classroom and we can train our students in
speaking skill in any situations through role play. The second one is role play puts
students in situation in which they are required to use and develop those phatic
forms of language which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships,
but which are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses. The next one
is some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives. It is

helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they
will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom. Thus, role play
helps many shy students by providing them with a mask. Perhaps the most
important reason for using role play is that it is fun and they can use body language
automatically in the conversation.
Moreover, Sarah (2010) stated role play gives students a chance to use the language
they have practiced in a more creative way students improvise; it increases
motivation because the chance to imagine different situations adds interest to a
lesson; it encourages students to use natural expressions and intonation, as well as
gestures because they are acting out a situation, and by doing children even
teenagers and adults often imagine themselves in deferent situation and roles when
they play games.
Due to the above benefits, the researcher used role play technique. The researcher
assumes that role play technique is very enjoyable for students because they can be
more active and it can make good interaction to their friends through drama
situation based on their knowledge.
12


To sum up, role play encourages students to create their performance as well as
possible due to the freedom given to them to make up a conversation by themselves.
Therefore, most students are motivated to share and express their ideas during the
activity.
2.3.6. The disadvantages of role play activity
As mentioned above, role play is an effective technique to be used in teaching
speaking. However, this technique also has some weaknesses in teaching speaking.
Sam (1990) points out that some the disadvantages of role play as follow:
Firstly, the activity is artificial. Although role-play is supposed to provide authentic
situations for students to use language, the situations sometimes created were
artificial and not relevant to the needs of the students.

Secondly, the activities are difficult to monitor. Due to so much activity both
physical and verbal going on, it is sometimes difficult for the teacher to monitor a
student's performance. There is the fear among teachers that the students are having
too much fun and that no learning is taking place.
Thirdly, role play activity causes embarrassment. In some situations, especially
among adult learners, role-play and simulation activities cause a lot of
embarrassment, awkwardness and very little spontaneous language use. The choice
of appropriate roles for different students is thus very important.
Fourthly, the activity encourages incorrect forms. Because the teacher does not
correct mistakes immediately so as not to discourage students, this provides
opportunities for learners to produce and practice ungrammatical and inappropriate
forms.
Next, teacher worries about losing control. Since the activities require the full
participation of the students and minimum participation from the teacher, the
teacher may fear that he may lose control of the class. Furthermore the students may
get carried away and become disruptive.
Moreover, timing lessons is difficult. The teacher has to spend a lot of time in
preparation work especially for simulations. He is not able to predict the amount of

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class time that will be taken to carry out the activity since the ability of each class
varies.
Finally, the activities may not be suitable for all levels.
In conclusion, teaching speaking by using role play takes up a lot of classroom time
because the students need for preparation before playing a role. The activity is also
need an extra room, because if the room is too small, the students cannot move and
can make noisy in the room, so it is very difficult for the students to concentrate.
2.4. Review of Related Studies

There were several studies which discussed about applying role play activity for
speaking teaching before. Therefore, the researcher would like to review the studies.
The first study was conducted by Ladousse (1987). Its title was “Role play” which
introduced the significance of role play activity in the classroom and discuss about
actual classroom materials and techniques of role play activity.
The second is “Using role play in improving students’ speaking ability” which is
held in SMP PGRI II Ciputat by Nurina Ratna Sari. The writer took a research
whether influence or not the using of role play for students’ speaking skill in junior
high school. Then, the result showed role play could influence students to improve
their speaking ability by using experimental design.
Shen & Suwanthep (2011) studied the effect of role-play on speaking performance
and attitude by the implementation of e-learning on the New Horizon College
English (NHCE) e-learning site. It was conducted in eight weeks, all of the
instructions, assistance, answers, and feedback served as scaffoldings which
allowed students to pose questions and engage in interaction. Results showed that
the e-learning constructive role plays had significant effects on improving students’
speaking in terms of language quality and language production, and students
express positive opinions towards the implementation of e-learning constructive
role plays.
Nouralian (2013) studied the effect of role-play on speaking ability of 100 learners
of English at (ILI) Iran language institute in Iran. Then, 40 were selected randomly
into two groups: control and experimental. The treatment procedure took 10
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sessions. Finally, at the end of the course both groups sat for the post test of
speaking ability. The study showed that learner‘s speaking ability improved more
when they were provided with role-plays.
Up to now, in Viet Nam, there have been a lot of studies which used role play to
develop speaking English skill for students. However, there have not been any

studies on using role play activity to develop speaking skill for student in
mountainous schools, for instance, Hung Son Primary School. Therefore, it was a
great motivation for the writer to choose the topic for research. The author would
like to develop students’ speaking English ability in Hung Son Primary school and
help them be aware of the importance of speaking skill.

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CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY
This chapter introduces five different parts about the methodological details of the
study. In the first part, research questions are provided. The participants of the study
are described in the second part. The details of the instrument that was used to
collect data of this study are provided in the third part. In part four, the data
collection procedure in the study is explained. Data analyses conducted are
provided in the last part.
3.1. Research questions
- How effective are role-playing activities in improving students’ speaking skills at
Hung Son primary school?
- What are the advantages and disadvantages of using role-play to teach speaking
English skill?
3.2. Participants
The subject of this study is 60 Grade 5 students of Hung Son Primary School which
is located in Hung Son town, Dai Tu district, Thai Nguyen province. Each student
has an equal probability.
The study will be carried out to explore the effectiveness of role playing on Hung
Son Primary students’ speaking skill during 10 weeks of learning. They have 4
lessons per a week. Thus, the writer had 40 lessons to observe.
3.3. Data collection instrument
The approach used in this study is Classroom Action Research (CAR) which is

derived from the root an action research. Because it occurs in classroom frame, it is
call CAR The data on this research were in the form of qualitative and quantitative.
The qualitative data were collected through interviews from the teachers which
consist of questionnaires and the observation of the students. The quantitative data
were collected in the form of students’ score in pre-test and post-test. The criteria of
assessment were based in content, pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and fluency.

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3.3.1. Observation.
Observation is used to identify teaching and learning activities, especially speaking
activity directly by the real teacher, and to reveal problem of speaking activity in
classroom. It may be about the teacher’s performance during research and students’
response concerning the use of role play technique.
To measure students’ progress in speaking during Classroom Action Research, the
writer used observation table according to Matthews (1994) as in Table 1 follows:
Table 1: Assessing Students’ Progress.
Skills

Progress

Participation in class
Participation in conversations
Participation in discussions
Giving oral presentations (perform)
Pronunciation
Fluency
Feeling confident about speaking
Then, the researcher will use the following key to complete the table above:

“+”= satisfactory progress, but need a little more practice
“v” = some progress, but need much more practice
“-“ = little or no progress, need to pay special attention to improve this skill
3.3.2. Interview
In order to make the study more reliable, the interview questions were designed to
get more information about the teacher’s remarks on the student’s speaking ability
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