A study on the use of role plays in developing the english speaking skills of 10th graders from kim lien high school

VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
FACULTY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE TEACHER EDUCATION

GRADUATION PAPER

A STUDY ON THE USE OF ROLE-PLAYS IN
DEVELOPING THE ENGLISH SPEAKING SKILLS OF
10TH GRADERS FROM KIM LIEN HIGH SCHOOL

Supervisor: Luc Dinh Quang, M.A
Student: Hoang Hai Chi
Course: QH2012.F1.E5

HA NOI – 2016


ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỌI
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC NGOẠI NGỮ
KHOA SƯ PHẠM TIẾNG ANH

KHĨA LUẬN TƠT NGHIỆP

NGHIÊN CỨU VỀ VIỆC SỬ DỤNG HOẠT ĐỘNG ĐÓNG
VAI TRONG VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN KĨ NĂNG NÓI TIẾNG
ANH CHO HỌC SINH LỚP 10 TRƯỜNG THPT KIM LIÊN

Giáoviên hướng dẫn : ThS. Lục Đình Quang
Sinh viên: Hồng Hải Chi
Khóa: QH2012.F1.E5

HÀ NỘI – 2016


ACCEPTANCE

I hereby state that I: HoàngHải Chi, class: QH2012.F1.E5, being a candidate for
the degree of Bachelor of Arts (TEFL) accept the requirements of the University relating
to the retention and use of Bachelor’s Graduation Paper deposited in the library.
In terms of these conditions, I agree that the origin of my paper deposited in the
library should be accessible for the purposes of study and research, in accordance with
the normal conditions established by the librarian for the care, loan or reproduction of the
paper.

Signature

HOANG HAI CHI
Hanoi, 1th May 2015

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to send my deepest gratitude to my supervisor, Mr.
Luc DinhQuang (M.A.) for his enthusiastic support, critical comments and corrections
throughout my preparation for this research paper.
My appreciations are also extended to three teachers of English in Kim Lien high
school in Hanoi who allowed me to observe their speaking classes as well as interview
them during the time I conduct the research. I also would like to thank all 10th form
students of class 10A2, 10A3, 10A4, 10A6 and 10A7 who assisted me pilot and fulfill the

questionnaires. Without their help, I could not reach the target as nowadays.
Finally, it would be a lack if I did not express my great gratefulness to my family
and my friends, particularly, the whole 12.E5, who has constantly encouraged me during
the writing of this paper.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

ACCEPTANCE ......................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ....................................................................................... ii
LIST OF TABLES AND FIGURES ...................................................................... iii
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................ vii
CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ..............................................................................
1.1. Statement of the research problem and rationale for study............................. 1
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study .................................................................... 2
1.3. Significance of the study ................................................................................. 2
1.4. Scope of the study ........................................................................................... 2
1.5. Organization of the study ................................................................................ 2
CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................
2.1. Definition of speaking ......................................................................................... 4
2.2. Definition of speaking proficiency ...................................................................... 4
2.2.1. Speaking proficiency ........................................................................................ 5
2.2.2. Speaking proficiency versus communicative competence (CC) ...................... 5
2.3. Components of speaking proficiency .................................................................. 6
2.4. Teaching speaking skills in ELT ......................................................................... 7
2.4.1.Teaching speaking in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) .................. 7
2.4.1.1.The goal of teaching speaking ............................................................... 7
2.4.1.2.Definition and characters of CLT .......................................................... 8

2.4.1.3.Activities promoting speaking skills in CLT ......................................... 9
2.4.2. Stages of a speaking lesson .................................................................... 10
2.5. Using role-play in speaking lessons .............................................................. 11
2.5.1. Definitions of role-play .......................................................................... 11
2.5.2. Types of role-play .................................................................................. 12
2.5.3. Organization of a role-play activity ....................................................... 13
2.5.4. Significance of a role-play activity in teaching speaking skills ............ 15
2.6. Summary......................................................................................................... 16
CHAPTER III: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ..................................................
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3.1. Research design ............................................................................................. 18
3.2. Participants and the selection of participants ................................................ 18
3.3. Data collection instruments ........................................................................... 19
3.3.1. Observation ............................................................................................ 19
3.3.2. Interview ................................................................................................ 19
3.3.3. Questionnaire ......................................................................................... 20
3.4. Data collection procedure ............................................................................. 20
3.4.1. Phrase 1 .................................................................................................. 21
3.4.2. Phrase 2 .................................................................................................. 21
3.5. Data analysis procedure ................................................................................ 21
3.5.1. Classroom observation ........................................................................... 21
3.5.2. Interview ................................................................................................ 21
3.5.3. Questionnaire ......................................................................................... 22
3.6. Summary............................................................................................................ 22
CHAPTER IV: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION ....................................................
4.1.Research question 1........................................................................................ 24
4.1.1. Quantitative results from questionnaire ................................................. 24
4.1.2. Qualitative results from interview and classroom observation.............. 25

4.1.2.1.Interview ....................................................................................................... 26
4.1.2.2.Classroom observation ................................................................................. 27
4.1.3. Discussion ....................................................................................................... 27
4.2.Research question 2........................................................................................ 27
4.2.1. Qualitative results from interview .............................................................. 27
4.2.2. Qualitative results from classroom observation ......................................... 29
4.2.3. Discussion .................................................................................................. 31
4.3. Research question 3....................................................................................... 32
4.3.1. Quantitative results from questionnaire ..................................................... 32
4.3.2. Qualitative results from interview and classroom observation .................. 33
4.3.2.1.Interview................................................................................................... 33
4.3.2.2.Classroom observation ............................................................................. 35
4.3.3. Discussion .................................................................................................. 36
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4.4. Research question 4....................................................................................... 36
4.4.1. Quantitative results from questionnaire ..................................................... 36
4.4.2. Qualitative results from classroom observation ......................................... 37
4.4.3. Discussion .................................................................................................. 38

4.5.Summary ........................................................................................................ 39
CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION .................................................................................
5.1. Summary of the findings ............................................................................... 40
5.2. Limitations of the study ................................................................................ 41
5.3. Suggestions for further research.................................................................... 41
5.4. Implications of the study ............................................................................... 41
5.4.1. Implication for the teachers of English .................................................. 42
5.4.2. Implication for the students ................................................................... 42
REFERENCES ....................................................................................................... 43

APPENDICES ........................................................................................................ 48

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LIST OF TABLES AND FINGURES

Table
Table 1: The framework of the students’ questionnaire
Figures
Figure 1: Students’ interest level to using role-plays
Figure 2: Students’ attitude towards the usefulness of role-plays
Figure 3: Benefits of role-plays to learning speaking
Figure 4: Difficulties to using role-plays
Figure 5: Students’ expectations to using role-plays
Figure 6: Students’ responses to the use of role-plays improving their speaking
Figure 7: Evaluating students’ role-play performance results

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ABSTRACT

Of four skills taught in tertiary education, speaking has become the focus of not
only the educators but also the learners because of its good response to society’s demand.
Under the effect of communicative language teaching (CLT), out-dated teaching methods
have therefore been shifted to communicate approach with the exploitation of a variety of
speaking activities including role-play.
As an attempt to explore the effectiveness of role-plays in speaking classroom for
a certain group of learners, namely, the 10th Kim Lien high school graders, this paper will

shed light on four dimensions. It describes the perception of both students and teachers
on the use of role-plays, the ways of organizing a role-play, the challenges during the
activity and its results towards the improvement of the students’ speaking skills. For the
achievement of those targets, 200 students and 3teachers are involved in completing the
questionnaires and interviews. Observing classes is also adopted so that the researcher
can examine more closely the results. The research consists of two main phrases at which
the first one is for observing and interviewing from the beginning of the survey while the
second is for collecting questionnaires’ results.
In the paper, it is displayed that a vast majority of students and teachers have a
good attitude towards using role-plays. By applying this technique, the students have
chance to work in teams as well as motivate themselves to speak English. Based on the
concrete analysis of the survey, many aspects of speaking skills are confirmed to be
attained by the learners when they participate in the activity. Moreover, the participants
concede that they find their speaking ability much better, which implies how successful
role-plays are in learning and teaching a language.

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CHAPER 1: INTRODUCTION
1.1. Statement of the research problem and rationale for the study
As an interactive process of constructing meaning that involves producing,
receiving and processing information (Burns & Joyce, 1997), speaking skill in a language
plays an integral role in communication. In the book “A course in language teaching”,
Ur (1996, p.120) asserted that:
… Of all the four skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing), speaking seems
intuitively the most important: people who know the language are referred to as
“speakers” of that language, as if speaking included all other kinds of knowing; and
many if not most foreign language learners are primarily interested in learning to
speak.

Accordingly, from the standpoint of English language learners, the mastery of speaking
skill is viewed as their priority. It is this ever-growing need for communicative
competence in Englishthat there has caused a worldwide transition from traditional
teaching methods towards communicative-focused instruction.
In Vietnamese education, the communicative approach has beengraduallyadopted.
Instead of utilizing most common pedagogical techniques in form of repetitive drills and
translation mechanics (memorization of dialogues), teaching methods are updated in
order to foster learners’ independence in speaking. However, the new theory confronts a
few obstacles, such as students’ hesitation and limited opportunities in practising
communication in the target language (Hoang et al., 2006). Hence, it deserves a full
attention in finding appropriate and specific strategies to minimize current difficulties and
fulfill the function of the new approach. One of recommended solutions Vietnamese
educators concern in speaking skill development is role-play.
Role-plays are recognized as excellent activities for speaking in the relatively safe
environment of the classroom (Bailey, 2005)where learners can practise speaking through
performing different roles in different social contexts. In some cases, role-plays even
require creative thinking and develop learners’ imagination (Kowalska, 1991).
Additionally, it is a good way to animate classroom atmosphere and arouse learners’
interest in speaking.

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As a matter of fact, the topic about using role-plays in teaching speaking skills is
no longer a new phenomenon. However, with regard to the scope of ULIS, VNU, most
researches are examined into college students. All the aforementioned factors have
offered the researcher a chance to carry out “A study on the use of role–plays in
developing the English speaking skills of 10th graders from Kim Lien high school”.
1.2. Aims and objectives of the study

In brief, the study seeks to answer the following questions:
1. What are these teachers & students’ attitudes towards the use of role-plays in their
speaking classes?
2. How are role-plays designed & performed in these speaking classes?
3. What difficulties exist in using role-plays in the target teaching context?
4. In what ways do role-plays help improve the speaking skills of these students?
1.3. Significance of the study
Once having been completed, the research would bring significances to students,
teachers and researchers. Firstly, not only teachers but also students will have a
heightened awareness of the importance of role-plays in improving English speaking
skills. Secondly, the findings of this study can assist teachers with designing appropriate
tasks in their speaking lesson. Finally, it can be used as an additional reference for
researchers in order to conduct a study of an English teaching process, especially in
improving students’ English speaking skills.
1.4. Scope of the study
The study focuses on examining the use of role-play activities in order to enhance
students’ speaking skills in a number of areas (grammar, vocabulary, fluency,
communicative skills, etc.). Furthermore, the research is conducted in a high school with
a limited number of participants, so the collected data may not be fully representative of
all the major 10th grade students of English in Hanoi.
1.5. Organization of the study
The study comprises five chapters:
Chapter 1 is the introduction that covers the overview of the research with statement
of the problem and rationale, aims of the study, scope of the study and researcher paper
organization.
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Chapter 2 contains a number of the underlying theories related to the concepts about
speaking and speaking proficiency, the aspects of teaching speaking and the notion of

role-play.
Chapter 3 describes the research methodology. There are the research design, the
participants, the used methods and the procedures in the study.
Chapter 4 is devoted to a detailed description and analysis of the collected data from
the survey.
Chapter 5 is conclusion, limitations, suggestions for the further researches and
implications for both teachers and students
References and Appendices are the last sections of this research paper.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
This chapter mentions scholarly journals, books, dissertations and other
theoretical resources that are relevant to the study. It also shows an insight of
differing arguments and a set of critical discussions linked to the main research
objective in which the basic backgrounds of speaking skills and role-plays can be
described.
2.1. Definition of speaking
It is a common notion that speaking is a verbal use of language to communicate
with others. In other words, within a context, speaking is a production of auditory signals
combining with sounds in a systematic ways, which is designed to produce verbal
responses to listeners (Bygate, 1987). As suggested by McDonough and Shaw
(1993,p.152), it is viewed as “a skill that enables us to produce utterances, when
genuinely communicative, speaking is desire- and purpose-driven”since speakers want to
achieve a particular purpose through communication. In line with this definition, Burns
and Joyce (1997) report that speaking is an interactive process of constructing meaning
that produce, receive and process ideas. Its form depends on the context, the participants
and the targets of speaking. According to the purpose of the spoken language, Brown and
Yule (1983) claim that speaking isboth interactional and transactional, where the former

is fundamentally characterized asa listener-oriented speech whilethe latter is primarily
message-oriented.Interactional spoken language is intended to establish and maintain a
social relationship, as opposed to the transactional languages containing factual and
propositional information and solving the transfer of that information.
From the above definitions, it can be indicated that speaking is a process of the
transmission of information. It encourages expressing feelings, informing and showing
our perspectives by using words and sounds. Speaking is also described as a vehicle to
link individuals together as throughout it, people can reach particular communicative
aims in different circumstances in order to build social relationships. The writer of this
study would like to use this concluded notion in its connection with speaking proficiency
and teaching speaking skills in the ELT classroom.
2.2. Definition of speaking proficiency

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2.2.1. Speaking proficiency
The specific notion of proficiency in a language is still the subject of ongoing
debate because it is viewed quite differently from researcher to researcher. Cambridge
and Collins COBUILD dictionaries equate proficiency with “skill” or “ability”. In the
Applied linguistics literature, this word may be replaced by fluency or competence.
Additionally, proficiency is termed the variability and conventionally relates to testing
and measurement in second language teaching and learning (Llurda, 2000). It is thus
subdivided into two perspectives: one focusing on the establishment of levels of
proficiency and the other basing on the components of proficiency. The second
perspective is more controversial and complicated, from a global factor to several
separate elements (Oller, 1976, as cited inLlurda, 2000).
Beyond the scope of the research, the expression “proficiency” directs the explicit
awareness of how language works in which it is presented in terms of communicative
growth (ACTFL Guidelines, 1985, 1999). Taylor (1988) also considers it as the “ability

to use of competence” and a substitute for competence (Stern, 1983) in a second language
acquisition. These understandings can avoid the misinterpretation between speaking
proficiency and competence in language performance in general. For that reason, the
paper concentrates on the viewpoint of two experts Canal and Swain (1983) about
“communicative language proficiency” based on “social, interpersonal uses of language
through spoken channels” (p.339). That also means as “the actual performance of given
individual learners or groups of learners” in speaking (Stern, 1983, p.341).
2.2.2. Speaking proficiency versus communicative competence (CC)
Soon after the appearance of Chomsky’s view of linguistic competence, the
concept of communicative competence (CC) is discussed by Dell Hymes. He supposes
that CC is developed by not only the inherent grammatical efficiency but also the
potentials for using them in plenty of communicative situations. In other words, CC is
what speakers need to know to communicate in different social environments. In relation
to this, Ying (2010) also expounds on the ability of learners to use the target language
successfully in real life. It thus can be remarked that CC’s aim is to cover all kinds of
knowledge that a fluent speaker must have so that he is able to produce and comprehend
contextually suitable utterances in a particular language.
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Savignon (1983, p.246) discusses that “language proficiency is communicative
competence and should be defined and evaluated as such”. He refers that assessing a
learner’s overall proficiency in a language should be taken into account his or her own
ability to use a language orally in real communicative surroundings. Along with the same
line, Wiemann and Backlund (1980) point out that proficiency is for the manifestation of
CC and these terms can be indeed used interchangeably. In short, proficiency in speaking
skillsmay be interpreted abstractly as communicative competence and analyzed into
grammatical, sociolinguistic competence, strategic and discourse competence (following
the framework of Canale and Swain, 1980; Canale, 1983). As the sake of clarity and
consistency, this paper refers to speaking proficiency as the competence in

communication whenever this term is mentioned.
2.3. Components of speaking proficiency
Based on the framework of Canale and Swain (1980) which wasthen developed by
Canale in 1984, the research concentrates on four competences underpinning speaking
proficiency:
Grammatical competence
Grammatical competence is claimed to be the capability of recognizing and generating
distinctive grammatical structures of a language used in communication (Orwig, 1999).
Hence, it can be said that the domain of this competence is not just limited to grammar. It
specifically highlights the command of language codes involving the knowledge of
lexical items and rules of morphology, syntax, semantics and phonology. The accuracy of
sentence information as well as vocabulary thus is promoted in the second language
production (Gao, 2001). Throughout that, ESL learners can be aware of the importance of
grammatical correctness and know “how to express accurately the literal meaning of
utterances” (p.30).
Discourse competence
Discourse competence is defined as the selection, sequence and arrangement of words,
structures and utterances to achieve unified texts or whole meanings. Basically, discourse
competence is the ability of knowing how to interpret the large content andconstruct long
stretches of language so that a whole coherent unit can be made up. It primarily consists
of cohesion, coherence and rhetorical organization.
6


Sociolinguistic competence
Sociolinguistic competence is the knowledge of the socio-cultural rules of language and
discourse. In other words, this kind of CC requires an understanding of the social context
in which the rules of the participants, the exchanged information and the function of the
interaction are used. The elements of this competence are listed as registers, politeness,
metaphor and cultural related aspects of language.

Strategic competence
It can be conceptualized as the efficiencyin using communicative strategies. There are
verbal and non-verbal communication strategies that “may be called into action to
compensate for breakdowns in communication due to performance variables or to
insufficient competence” (Canale & Swain, 1980, p.30). Lacking strategic competence
may accountfor problematic situations where students have to confront the difficulty in
carrying out their communicative intentions notwithstanding the firm knowledge of
grammar and vocabulary.
All things considered, attaining speaking proficiency should go with gaining all
competences in the light of the CLT methods and communicative approach. Among a
vast variety of activities, selecting an appropriate one in teaching speaking skills has to
consider this mission.
2.4.

Teaching speaking skills in ELT

2.4.1. Teaching speaking in Communicative Language Teaching (CLT)
2.4.1.1. The goal of teaching speaking
It is worth considering that the main criterion for success in learning speaking is
whether learners can communicate fluently in English or not. As a result, proficiency in
communication is regarded as the key target of teaching spoken language(NCRLC The
Essential Language Teaching, 2014), which particularly aims to warrant the ability of
communicating accurately, fluently and confidently without any hesitation (Byrne, 1980).
It also emphasizesthat the main goal of teaching speaking in relationship to “an out of the
classroom” is encouraging the acquisition of communication skills and fastening real
communication (Celce-Muria, 1991, p.126). Overall, teaching speaking directs learners to
develop communicative competence so thatlearnerscan use a language not only for
grammatical and vocabulary accuracy but for its function of communication.
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2.4.1.2. Definition and characteristics of CLT
It could be claimed that the primary purpose of teaching speaking English mostly
presents the ordinary sense of communicative language teaching (CLT). CLT refers to
both processes and targets in classroom learning and CC becomes its central theoretical
concept. As considered by Richard and Roger (1986), CLT is an approach rather than a
method as it demonstrates language teaching philosophies that may be interpreted and
applied in various ways in the classroom. Munby (1978) expounds that CLT specifies the
nature of the classroom interaction and sometimes the teaching point in which teachers
provide learners with ample opportunities to familiarize with how language is used in
actual communication. All in all, CLT starts with a theory of language in communication
and aims to develop learners’ communicative competence in authentic contexts. With
CLT, students are instructed how to use right languages in right situations in the real-life
communication.
Nunan (1991, p.279) characterizes CLT as“an emphasis on learning to
communicate through interaction in the target language”, “the introduction of authentic
texts into the learning situation” and “an attempt to link classroom language learning with
language activation outside the classroom”. Besides, he perceives a clear contrast
between CLT and the teacher-centered approaches in which teachers are believed as
knowledge-givers and students are receivers. CLT gives learners not only a more social
relationship with teachers but also the sense of ownership of their knowledge. They have
more chances for experiencing new things, acquiring and self-educating language skills,
which strengthens motivations for learning English (Brown, 1994). With teachers’
supports, learners engage themselves in negotiating meaning by trying to self-understand
and understand others within the classroom procedures and activities. Nunan adds other
two CLT’s attributes as the provision of chances for learners to focus“not only on the
language but also on the learning process itself” and “an enhancement of learner’s own
personal experiences contributing elements to classroom learning”.
It can be concluded that CLT stresses the process of communication and lead
learners to the development of this process. They are regarded as active participants in

obtaining knowledge while teachers are partly responsible for supporting and guiding.
2.4.1.3. Activities promoting speaking skills in CLT
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On account of the fundamental characteristics of CLT, educators have already
established wide-ranging speaking activities to use in the language classes. Their main
priorities to a successful speaking activity include the authenticity and the fulfillment of
learner-centered principles.This means that speaking activities should enhance the
engagement of students with real-world communication whilst they occur in the space of
the classroom. Learners can get more chances to practice oral language with social skills
in contextual situations. Furthermore, learners can join in the activities matching with
their interests and concerns.
Therefore, there are several ways to clarify speaking activities. Kayi (2006)
creates a list of 13 major activities: discussion, role-play, information gap, simulations,
brainstorming, storytelling, interviews, story completion, reporting, playing cards, picture
narrating, picture describing, and finding the differences. In another report, Celce-Murica
(2001) shortens them to five activities. Discussion is probably the most commonly used
in classrooms where students are encouraged to get into arguments and seek solutions to
a controversial issue. Speech is another form of speaking tasks. This activity can mostly
be split into other types such as mini-presentation or report.Topics for speeches can vary
depending on the level of learners. Normally, students can have a leeway in determining
the content of their own talks and teacher takes a role as a guide. Conversation is also
implemented as one of the recent trends, which allows learners to analyze and evaluate
the language they or others produce in the roles of both a speaker and an interlocutor. The
fourth popular activity is Information Gap,requiring participants to share and get missing
information together. The last effective strategy Celce-Murica mentions in his list is
Role-play. This technique has recently drawn attention’s educators in many schools
worldwide because of its advantages. During role-playing activity, learners are in
performanceof different characters in a particular context. They also make use of

guidance cards with important information related to the topic, for example, “You are
David; you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night…” (Harmer, 1984).
Sometimes, it is helpful for them to be taught relevantexpressions before acting outtheir
roles. In addition, teacher relies on the number of students to decide class’s group
division.

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With a substantial number of activities, teachers need to know how to apply them
properly in a speaking lesson. It is usual that these practicing activities are arranged in the
middle or the last parts of the lesson in order to revise students’ theoretical knowledge.
2.4.2. Stages of a speaking lesson
As a rule, a lesson combines three intimately linked stages. In a speaking class,
building a lesson with three sections is also considered. Below is the brief description of
pre-speaking, while-speaking and post-speaking stages.
Pre-speaking stage
Pre-speaking is a stage of preparing and organizing (Regina, 1997). In other words, its
purpose is setting up a contextual framework at the beginning of the lesson. It contains
one or several activities for warming up the class, introducing the topic and presenting
important new vocabularies and structures. The key advantage of this stage is raising
learners’ positive attitude towards learning as class atmosphere is more highly charged.
What is more, it helps establish peer relationships, which allows them to get involved in
negotiation with each other for the following activities (Hansen & Liu, 2005).
While-speaking stage
Named as “Go Public” stage (Regina, 1997), while-speakingrefers to the interactions
among learners andteacher throughout speaking activities. Basing on the supportive
background of knowledge in the previous stage, thereare various forms of tasks such as
discussion, conversation, speech and presentation. Thus, students can have plentiful
opportunities to come up with ideas, express them in a creative performance with their

own speaking skills.
Post-speaking stage
Regina (1997) considers post-speaking stage as a time of revision and reflection. Besides
summarizing and reporting the lesson,teachers can design games or other activities such
as role-play or pictures description. Peer comments and teacher correction are also
encouraged since they aim for facilitating students’ speaking proficiency in the future.
Commonly, a speaking lesson follows these above stages in order. Nevertheless,
the procedure of a speaking lesson can be flexible owing to the requirements of time
constraint, the objectives of each lesson, and the characteristics of students.
2.5. Using role-play in speaking lessons
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2.5.1. Definition of role-play
It is interesting to notice that there is noprecise definition for role-play since each
author views this term in different ways. Role-playinitially derived from the ancient
Greek language whose time the plays of Hamlet were in popularity. Greek actors had to
memorize their characters’ speeches; therefore, the rolls of parchment or rolled-up scripts
were used as a part of the success of actors’ performance in public. Afterwards,
Cambridge International Dictionary of English described role-play as a method of acting
out certain behaviors or pretending to be someone in a new situation.
In terms of education, role-play technique still reflects its nature. A definition
proposed by Ur (1996) is that role-play refers to all sorts of activities where learners
imagine themselves in a situation outside the classroom. Likewise, Livingstone (1983,
p.6) maintains that it is “a classroom activity which gives the students the opportunity to
practice the language, the aspects of role behavior and the actual roles he may need
outside the classroom.” Ments (1999) also states, “In a role-play, each player acts as a
part of social environment of the others” and gives a framework “in which they can test
out their repertoire of behaviors or study the interacting of the group” (p.5). It could be
said that these authors seem to put a considerable emphasis on the communicative

purposes of role-play that exploit the context of social situations and its setting. As
claimed by Halliday (1987, p.10), particularly, “the context of situation is a theoretical
construct for explaining how a text relates to the social processes within which it is
located” and contains three components: the main social activity taking place (field), the
people involved in it (tenor) and the roles and functions of the text within the situation
(mode). Meanwhile, the situational setting is seen as a manifestation of the context when
it consists of diverse “linguistic event material environments” such as the workplace, the
university or the shop center (Figueiredo, 2010, p.124). As be noticed, role-play offers
two aspects as a result of CC and CLT in teaching speaking English, leading the writer to
adopt the definition proposed by Livingstone (1983) in the paper as the notion shows the
key features of role-play in learning language.
In a role-play, the guideline cards play an integral function. Thanks to the cards,
learners can be equipped with some main information about the characters, the setting of
the talk and other clues. A good set of role cards is frequently designed for the aim of not
11


only informing students about different points of view (Scrivener, 2005) but also
allowing them a good time and language preparation before acting out their roles.
2.5.2. Types of role-play
The variety of notions of role-play is considered as a noticeable contribution to the
diversity of ways to clarify its types. It is also important to point out that different types
of role-play activities are reliant on the using target of the teachers. With the aid of cue
cards, Littlewood (1981) presents four certain kinds on the basis of the gradual
progression from dependent to independent activities: role-playing controlled through
cued dialogues, cues and information, situation and goals, and role-play in the form of
debate or discussion. However, Byrne (1986)concerns the context of communication, and
thus he separates role-plays into open-ended dialogues, mapped dialogues, role
instruction and scenarios.
The research focuses on the clarificationof Doff (1989) with two types, namely

scripted and unscripted role-plays since they are mainly utilized in speaking lessons by
the teachers at Kim Lien high school. Concretely, those types of role-play activities
described as follows:
 Scripted role-play
This type involves interpreting either the textbook dialogue or reading text in the
form of speech. It is also known as role-play activities allowing students and teachers to
have a script in advance and rehearse it before performing, as the example of Adrian Doff
(1988):
Angela: Good morning! I want to send a letter to Singapore.
Clerk : Yes, do you want to send it by airmail or ordinary mail?
Angela: I think I’ll send it airmail. I want it to get there quickly. How much
does it cost?
Clerk : To Singapore? That will be 30 pence, please.
Angela: (give the clerk 50 pence) Here you are.
Clerk : Here is your stamp, and here is 20 pence change.
Angela: Thank you. Where is the post box?
Clerk : You want the airmail box. It is over there, by the door.
(Adapted from living English book 2: A.G. Abdalla et al, p.233)
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To carry out the activity, the teacher prepares a kind of dialogue as the sample in advance
of demonstrating a role-play through the given conversation. She or he writes down on
the board some prompts as a guidance: place, kind of mail, price, post box’s location, and
thanks and then explains them. For instance, she says firstly “Where do you want to send
the letter, to France or to Japan?” then which way to deliver it, by air or ordinary mail.
Students listen to all suggestions with making sentences for each one. Following that, two
good pairs of students are called to the front: one as Angela and the other as the clerk in
order to improvise a semi-similar or similar conversation with the example.
 Unscripted role-play

As contrasted with the former, the situations of unscripted role-play activities are
independent from the textbook or any reading materials. It asks learners’ improvisation in
provided cases; therefore, they make decisions about what language will be used and how
the conversations will be taken on. During the class, teachers could put the whole class
into a discussion and guidelines of vocabularies and grammar prior to the performance if
necessary. Here is the sample adapted from Adrain Doff’s book:
One student has lost a bag
He/ She is at the police station.
The other student is the police officer, and asks for details.
(Adapted from living English book 2: A.G. Abdalla et al, p.237)
In the procedure of this type,the teacher draws a certain text up and asks students to read.
After that, the discussions (in pairs) are generated to find out what the role-play could
base on the text. Every pair has to prepare a conversation where one takes the role of who
lost the bag and the other acts as the police with the prompts of the teacher. This is
followed by the performance of some pairs.
2.5.3. The organization of a role-play activity
Due to the diversity of types, the ways of forming a role-play activity are varied.
However,educators broadly adhere to a same form of organization. Firstly, it is essential
to pinpoint some basic principles about organizing such an activity. Secondly, teachers
need to convince of the validity of using the role-play or the activity itself “will flat on its
face just as you expected it to” (Ladousse, 1987, p.8). Another rule is the enthusiasm of
the teacher about the play because it can affect the success of this speaking exercise.
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Going with that, teachers need to make sure that learners have understood both the
situation and the information in the cards (Ladousse, 1987). It is also worth remembering
that evaluating students’ speaking performance is crucial to guarantee the result of roleplay (Huang, 2008).
According to these rules, a role-play can be engaged in four steps: presentation,
process, ending and feedback (Ur, 1991) or three proposed stages by Harmer (2001):

before, during and after as same as the common procedure of a speaking activity. For
details, Maria (2009) recommends six quick steps for a role-play as the outcome of the
empirical attempts and theoretical acquirements. These steps are used in the study for
comparing with those of a role-play organized in Kim Lien high school.
Step 1: A situation for a role-play
In the first step, selecting a specific situation for a role-play shows whether the content is
authentic and comprehensible or not. Therefore, topics related to students’ concern might
be more profitable because they will be interested in participating and making up
effective role-plays.
Step 2: Role-play design
Producing ideas on how this situation may develop in the next stage as well as taking
student’s level of language proficiency into consideration are very important in this
section. For example, with the topic of food and price topic for tenth graders, teacher
themselves can set a market scene with customers and sales clerks, goods and price tags,
lists of buy-and-sell structures, which enhances the active class atmosphere and suits to
the students’ learning degree. Moreover, role-plays need to contain sufficient details,
context and credibility to engage students and enable them to perform in roles that truly
simulate realistic situations. One of the ways to achieve this is to stimulate learners to
make up their own work (Conley-Tyler &Cukier, 2005).
Step 3: Linguistic preparation
Language prediction for role-plays such as jotting down new words or sentence models
beforehand is fundamentally essential. Teachers should elicit the ongoing development
and unexpected events of the role-play scenario from students and enrich them.
Step 4: Factual preparation

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This step is a period of showing cue cards containing name, age, problem, solution, etc.
These cards supply learners with concrete information and role descriptions so that they

could play their roles with confidence.
Step 5: Assign the roles
At this stage, teacher asks volunteers to act out a role-play in front of the class. In some
cases, it will be better for teacher to perform as a model if students are in the beginning
level. Students have an instruction with topic-related words and expressions for their own
roles. There can be one or several role-play groups. Supposing that the whole class
represents a role-play group, some minor roles can be taken away in order to be suitable
for the class size. For groups, teacher should carefully decide who take this role instead
of the other based on their abilities or personalities. What is more,teacher needs to be as
unobtrusive as possible (Livingstone, 1983). He or she takes responsibility for observing
students and writing down necessary information of their mistakes and attitudes during
the role-play. It is also recommended that instructor avoids intervening in the role-play
with error corrections as that can quickly reduce students’ attention and their motivation.
Step 6: Follow-up
Debriefing and giving feedbacks from both teacher and students are central points in the
last part of the role-play activity. Peer-assessment is encouragedas students are easily
influenced by teacher’s comments that can make them less confident and willing to take
part in other plays (Livingstone, 1983). Teacher’s evaluation can be conducted at the end
of the role-play to minimize psychological problems to learners.
2.5.4. Significance of a role-play activity in teaching speaking skills
To encapsulate the above-mentioned CLT principles, role-play can function as an
effective tool in teaching speaking skills. Below are some reasons for incorporating roleplays in the EFL classes.
Role-play provides reality
Role-playing exercises relate closely to the outside world since they allow teacher
to bring reality into the classroom and expose learners to various registers (Littlewood,
1981). There are also more diverse forms of interaction with real language and a wide
range of cultural situations where learnerspossibly encounter outside classroom. As a

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result, students are able to gain practical experience and social skills they may need in the
daily life.
Role-play facilitates communication
Given situations motivate learners to interact and exchange any negotiate
meanings for the aim of facilitating critical thinking and communicative abilities and
skills (Dawood, 2013). Actually, the classroom is a friendlyand suitable environment to
the setting of the activity in groups or pairs; hence, it can maximize an amount of
interactive statements among individual students. Therefore, the use of role-plays can
ensure the development of communicative ability.
Role-play develops fluency
In role-plays, language is used as a vehicle of conveying meanings rather than as a
test of correctness, which means that practising fluency is more respectful than takingcare
of accuracy. Student’s mistakes in speaking are usually tolerated in order for the
conversations to becarried out smoothly. Furthermore, using dialogues crafted with
realistic scenes helps students bettertheir fluency with time control. Added to that, the
mastery of words and grammatical expressions in a fixed linguistic feature improves the
development of fluency.
Role-play is a good assessment tool
Role-playing activities let students discover insights about themselves and other
peers as well as express strong opinions (Glass, 1975). In particular, studentsmake both
self-assessment and peer assessment through observing, learning and obtaining
sustainable formative feedbacks (UNSW Australia, 2013). After each or all
performances, teacher’ comments are given. Because of the combination among teacher
and students, the effectiveness of evaluation and measurement in role-plays is increased.
2.6. Summary
In fact, there are some teachers are unaware of the potentials of role-play. They
suppose that such an activity is inappropriate for classes, especially larger ones, which can
cause discipline problems and conduct chaos. However, role-play is believed as one of the
most effective teaching speaking techniques because of its overwhelming benefits. Most

researchers remark that learners’ personal growth and speaking skill development are by
using role-play since it is interactive, creative, interesting and motivating(Qing, 2011).
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