How to promote speaking skills for 7th graders at bach dang secondary school in hai phong

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BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHỊNG
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ISO 9001 : 2008

KHĨA LUẬN TỐT NGHIỆP
NGÀNH: NGOẠI NGỮ

HẢI PHÒNG - 2010


HAIPHONG PRIVATE UNIVESITY
FOREIGN LANGUAGES DEPARTMENT
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GRADUATION PAPER
HOW TO PROMOTE SPEAKING SKILLS FOR 7TH GRADERS AT
BACH DANG SECONDARY SCHOOL IN HAIPHONG

By:
Lê Thị Thu Hằng

Class:
Na1001

Supervisor:
Nguyễn Thị Huyền, M.A

HAI PHONG - 2010
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BỘ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO
TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC DÂN LẬP HẢI PHÒNG
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Nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt nghiệp

Sinh viên:............................................................Mãsố:............................
Lớp:.............................Ngành:..................................................................
Tên đề tài: .................................................................................................
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Nhiệm vụ đề tài
1. Nội dung và các yêu cầu cần giải quyết trong nhiệm vụ đề tài tốt
nghiệp
( về lý luận, thực tiễn, các số liệu cần tình tốn và các bản vẽ).
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2. Các số liệu cần thiết để thiết kế, tình tốn.
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3. Địa điểm thực tập tốt nghiệp.
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CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN ĐỀ TÀI
Người hướng dẫn thứ nhất:
Họ và tên:.............................................................................................
Học hàm, học vị:...................................................................................
Cơ quan công tác:.................................................................................
Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................

Người hướng dẫn thứ hai:
Họ và tên:.............................................................................................

Học hàm, học vị:...................................................................................
Cơ quan công tác:.................................................................................
Nội dung hướng dẫn:............................................................................
Đề tài tốt nghiệp được giao ngày 12 tháng 04 năm 2010
Yêu cầu phải hoàn thành xong trước ngày 10 tháng 07 năm 2010
Đã nhận nhiệm vụ ĐTTN

Đã giao nhiệm vụ ĐTTN
Người hướng dẫn

Sinh viên

Hải Phòng, ngày tháng năm 2010
HIỆU TRƯỞNG

GS.TS.NGƯT Trần Hữu Nghị

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PHẦN NHẬN XÉT TÓM TẮT CỦA CÁN BỘ HƯỚNG DẪN
1. Tinh thần thái độ của sinh viên trong quá trình làm đề tài tốt
nghiệp:
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2. Đánh giá chất lượng của khóa luận (so với nội dung yêu cầu đã đề ra
trong nhiệm vụ Đ.T. T.N trên các mặt lý luận, thực tiễn, tính tốn số
liệu…):
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3. Cho điểm của cán bộ hướng dẫn (ghi bằng cả số và chữ):
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Hải Phòng, ngày ….. tháng ..… năm 2010
Cán bộ hướng dẫn
(họ tên và chữ ký)

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NHẬN XÉT ĐÁNH GIÁ
CỦA NGƯỜI CHẤM PHẢN BIỆN ĐỀ TÀI TỐT NGHIỆP
1. Đánh giá chất lượng đề tài tốt nghiệp về các mặt thu thập và phân tìch tài
liệu, số liệu ban đầu, giá trị lì luận và thực tiễn của đề tài.

2. Cho điểm của người chấm phản biện :

(Điểm ghi bằng số và chữ)

Ngày.......... tháng......... năm 2010
Người chấm phản biện

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First of all, I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my lecturer
Nguyen Thi Huyen - M.A who directly instructs me. Thank to her tireless and
helpful support in the preparation as well as the correction. In addition, I
would like to give my sincere thanks to Mrs. Tran Thi Lien – the dean of the
department of Foreign languages of HPU as well as my teachers at the
Department for the enormous help and their various lectures on the main
points related areas during the time I study at the university.

Also, I would always acknowledge the encouragement and support of my
family, especially my dear mother.

Besides, my special thanks send to all teachers and students in Bach Dang
secondary school for their enthusiasm in finishing the survey questionnaires.

Finally, I would like to send my thanks to my friends for their directly help
and encouragement with source materials in my writing process.

Hai Phong, June,2010.
Student

Le Thi Thu Hang

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PART I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................... 1
1. Rationale........................................................................................................ 1
2. Aims of the study .......................................................................................... 2
3. Scope of the study ......................................................................................... 2
4. Method of the study ...................................................................................... 2
5. Design of the study........................................................................................ 3
PART II: DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................... 4
Chapter 1: Literature review ........................................................................ 4
I. Speaking skill: an over view ....................................................................... 4
1. What is speaking? ....................................................................................... 4
2. Types of speaking. ........................................................................................ 5
2.1. Form-focused speaking .............................................................................. 5
2.2. Meaning-focused speaking ......................................................................... 6
2.3. Fluency focused speaking .......................................................................... 8
3. The purpose of speaking activities. ............................................................... 8
4. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity .......................................... 9
II. Teaching speaking .................................................................................... 10
1. The importance of speaking skill. ............................................................... 10
2. The Techniques for Teaching Speaking...................................................... 10
3. Activities to promote students’ speaking .................................................... 12
3.1. Why teachers should give students a variety of speaking activities? ...... 12
3.2. Activities to promote speaking. ................................................................ 12

3.2.1. Information- gap activities .................................................................... 13
3.2.2. Discussions and role plays .................................................................... 13
3.2.3. Activities using pictures ........................................................................ 16
3.2.4. Using games ......................................................................................... 16


Chapter 2: Study on learning and teaching speaking skill for the 7

th

classes at Bach Dang secondary school in Hai Phong................................ 18
I. Reality .............................................................................................................
. English teaching staff .................................................................................... 18
2. The students................................................................................................. 18
3. English teaching and learning condition ..................................................... 19
II. Survey questionnaires ............................................................................... 19
1. Participants .................................................................................................. 19
2. Purposes of the survey questionnaires ........................................................ 19
3. Design of the survey questionnaires ........................................................... 20
4. Data and analysis......................................................................................... 21
4.1. Students’ English learning time. .............................................................. 21
4.2. Students’ interest in learning English ...................................................... 22
4.3. Studying on students’ attitude toward speaking skill as well as kinds of
working in speaking activities. ........................................................................ 23
4.4. Students’ difficulties encounter when speaking in class. ......................... 27
4.5. Advantages which students have when speaking in class ........................ 28
4.6. Students’ expectation while taking part in speaking lessons ................... 29
4.7. Students’ opinions on current used techniques and their effectiveness in
teaching speaking. ........................................................................................... 30
4.8. The way of learning and teaching a speaking skill. ................................. 31

III. Findings and discussion of findings ....................................................... 32
Chapter III: Some suggested techniques to promote speaking skill for 7 th
graders at Bach Dang secondary school in Hai Phong. ............................. 34
I. Pre-speaking................................................................................................ 34
1. Brainstorming .............................................................................................. 34
2. Games .......................................................................................................... 35
2.1. Hang man game ...................................................................................... 35
2.2. Opposite Adjective Crossword ................................................................. 37
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2.3. “Jumbled words” game ........................................................................... 40
3. Picture.......................................................................................................... 41
3.1. Matching................................................................................................... 41
II. While-speaking .......................................................................................... 44
1. Pictures ........................................................................................................ 44
1.1.Find the difference ................................................................................... 45
1.2. Pictures description ................................................................................. 47
1.3. Story telling ............................................................................................... 5
2. Games .......................................................................................................... 55
2.1. Crossword ................................................................................................ 55
2.2. The word order game ............................................................................... 55
3. Information-gap........................................................................................... 56
4. Debate.......................................................................................................... 59
5. Role play ..................................................................................................... 60
III. Post-speaking ........................................................................................... 61
1. Games .......................................................................................................... 61
1.1.“ Jumble words” game ............................................................................. 61
1.2. Cross words ............................................................................................. 62
2. Complete sentences ..................................................................................... 64

3. Using songs ................................................................................................. 65
4. Using poems ................................................................................................ 67
PART III: CONCLUSION. .......................................................................... 69
Appendix 1: The survey questionnaires for students ...................................... 70
References

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PART I: INTRODUCTION
1. Rationale
In the 21

st

century, the countries all over the world are tending to develop

basing on international cooperation. The English language has become crucial
to the way we interact with the different people in the world; not being able to
communicate in English imposes what seem to be formidable limitations on
us. With English we are able to bridge cultural, economic, and even social
gaps, in turn we are able to better understand and tolerate each other.
Therefore, it is not just important but in fact crucial that the English language
be learnt by all individuals. However, this also raised an issue that foreign
language education should be taken seriously in which English is the most
popular language in use. Teaching and learning English, thus, are very
important and necessary because mastering English seem to be one of the best
and the shortest ways for us to have a great deal of opportunities to reach the
success of life. English learners, from elementary pupils to students, from
workers to government employers study English with the interest and

enthusiasm. As for Viet Namese students, especially the 7th graders have
many difficulties in learning and practising English speaking skill. They also
fall into confusion when speaking English because of their lack of
professional knowledge, confidence, and surely good learning methods.
The goal of teaching speaking, surely, is to improve the oral production of the
students. Viet Nam has officially become a member of WTO, students should
improve and promote their communication skill so that they can express
themselves and learn to follow the social and cultural rules appropriating in
each communicative circumstances. Speaking for schools has not apparently
been paid much attention. Teachers’ role is not only to create a warm and
friendly classroom but also to provide students with effective and plentiful
activities.


These factors mentioned have aroused my ambition to carry out the study of
“How to promote speaking skills for 7th graders at BACH DANG secondary
school in HAI PHONG “.
2.Aims of the study
My study is about to help the 7th graders at Bach Dang secondary school
improve their speaking skill through extra-activities and to prepare for them
to the basic knowledge of speaking skill with higher requirement for the next
graders. My study is aimed at:
Firstly, the study focus on the different aspects of speaking skill that serves as
overview, the features and characteristics of teaching speaking skill.
Secondly, the study explores the real situation of teaching English-speaking
skill in 7th graders at Bach Dang secondary school in Hai Phong.
Thirdly, the study investigates the students and teachers’ attitude toward
speaking skill.
Finally, the study suggests some effective activities that can be applied in
Bach Dang secondary to promote students’ speaking skill.

3.Scope of the study
There are so many different material resources and researchers that require a
lot of time and effect while my personal experience is limited. Therefore, this
study can only focus on study some effective techniques in studying English
speaking skill, especially for the 7th graders at Bach Dang secondary school.
I hope that this study helps the 7th graders to improve speaking skill at Bach
Dang secondary school as well as in others.
4. Methods of study
To finish this study, I myself carry out some following methods:

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Firstly, websites and reference books related to speaking, methodology are
reviewed to get background knowledge of what speaking is, successful and
interesting techniques in teaching speaking.
Secondly, a survey is conducted for five 7th classes at Bach Dang secondary
school with a point of view to find out their recognition, attitudes, evaluation
of the matter and the difficulties they encounter as well as what activities they
like doing in speaking lessons.
5. Design of the study
The study consists of three main parts: Introduction, Development, and
Conclusion.
Part I: Introduction shows reasons to choose the study, the aims, scope,
methods, and design of the study.
Part II: Development includes chapters:
Chapter 1: Literature review aims to answer the questions related to speaking
that introduces the speaking skill and its features.
Chapter 2: “How to promote speaking skills for 7th graders at Bach Dang secondary
school in Hai Phong” referred to the analysis and findings obtain from the survey

questionnaires made to 7th form students and interview for teachers of Bach Dang
secondary school. This helps examine the real situation of teaching speaking and
the need of using various activities in speaking lessons.
Chapter 3: “Suggested the techniques to attract students’ interests and
involvement in speaking skill for 7th graders at Bach Dang secondary school”.
Part III: Conclusion which summarize all the presented information.

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PART II: DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW
I. Speaking skill: An overview
Speaking in a second language involves the developments of a particular type
of communication skill. It has occupied a peculiar position throughout much
of the history of language teaching, and only in the last two decades has it
begun to emerge as a branch of teaching, learning and testing in its owns
right, rarely focusing on the production of spoken discourse (Nunan and
Carter,2001).
1. What is speaking?
Different people use the term “speaking” in different ways, which can cause
much confusion. Speaking a foreign language usually seems much harder
than learning to write and read it, especially to the 7 th graders. Often the most
important problems people have with foreign language are that they cannot
speak their thinking and their ideas as well. In fact, it is like a vicious circle:
they make mistakes, they become afraid of speaking and thus they never get
the practice which would able to correct their mistakes. Most of the beginning
learners do not understand exactly “what is speaking?” We only regard
speaking as a simple, easy process that involves speaking the words, the
ideas…by speaking out what they think without the correct.

Chaney (1998:13) indicates that speaking is the process of building and
sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a
variety context.
According to the website Lingua Link Library Version 3.5, published on CD
ROM by SIL International 1998, speaking is also understood is the productive

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skill in the oral mode. It, like the oral skills, is more complicated than it seems
at first and involves more than just pronouncing words.
Moreover, the book “ Collins Cobuild English for advanced learner 4 th
edition”, published in 2007 by Tomaz P.Szynalshi definites that “Speaking is
the activity of giving speeches and talks, to indicate the opinion you are
giving”.
Furthermore, Brown (1994) also believes that speaking ability is integrated
closely to writing, reading, and listening. So, in language teaching, it is of
great importance to emphasize the interrelationship of skill.
In general, speaking is the action of conveying information or expressing ones
thoughts and feelings in spoken language. Its forms and meaning are
dependent on the context in which it occurs, including the participant
themselves, their collective experience, the physical environment and the
purpose for speaking.
2. Types of speaking
(Extracted from website: www.wordpress.com )
According to Saverinus Kaka-the headmaster of SMA Tarsisius II, West
Jakarta, in speaking classes, students must be exposed three key items:
2.1. Form-focused speaking
Form-focused speaking, that is attention to details of pronunciation, grammar,
vocabulary, and so forth…

When learners first begin to speak in another language their speaking will
need to be based on some form-focused learning. Based on the writer’s
experiences in teaching speaking for the beginners, it is an effective way to
learn to speak a language. It will enable the learners to improve the language
and grasp it by themselves outside the classroom.
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The speaking activities can be started on some useful, simple memorized
phrases and sentences. A teacher can begin the speaking activities by giving
the learners some common greetings, simple personal descriptions, and
simple questions and answers. All the activities can be practiced in Repetition
drills.
The teacher first says a phrase or sentence (for example; “What is your
name?”) several times and then asks the class to repeat. Some learners can be
called on to repeat individually. Then the teacher says the answer (answer; my
name is James) and the learners repeat again. Then they repeat it by changing
the answer with their own names. By the same question and answer, the
learners can take turns to do with friends.
Having done the simple practice and repetition, the teacher can change the
object of the question with others word, such as; What is your hobby? What is
your favorite color? What is your favorite food? What is your favorite
animal? And so forth. To avoid boring atmosphere, the teacher needs to find
out ways of varying repetition activities, so it will keep the learners interested
and continuously practice the language.
The use of drills, however, should be seen as merely one kind of formfocused activity that needs to be balanced with other types of form-focused
activities, as well as with meaning-focused and fluency development
activities. Drills play a useful part in a language course in helping learners to
be formally accurate in their speech and in helping them to quickly learn a
useful collection of phrases and sentences that allow them to start using the

language as soon as possible.
2.2. Meaning-focused speaking
Besides form-focused speaking, language learners should also be exposed to
and given opportunities to practice and use meaning-focused communication,

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in which they must both produce and listen to meaningful oral
communication.
Meaning-focused instruction, that is opportunities to produce meaningful
spoken massages with real communicative purposes.The following are some
ways to explore the learners’ skill in speaking:
For beginning learners, the oral speaking can be started by giving each
learner a number and a topic. The topics could be about family, hobbies,
sports, school activities, colors, traveling, and so forth. Then all the learners
are requested to take a number and a topic. Having got them, each learner can
think about their topics for a minute or two and then the teacher calls a number.
The learner with that number then says two or three sentences about his or her
particular topic. The speaker then calls a number and the learner with that
number has to ask the speaker a question or two related to the topic just spoken
about. When the question is answered, the questioner calls for another number to
do the same. After several times then the speaker calls the number of a new
person who will speak about the topic that she or he was given. Then he or she
will do the same steps as the first learner has already done.
Before the learners speak on a topic, they can work in pairs or groups of
three or four to prepare it. This gives the learners the chance to learn new
items from each other. Here is an example using a same or different
information gap activity. Then each learner can describe pictures or topics to
each other. Without looking at other learner’s picture or topic, the opponent

speaker must response to the description whether it is the same or different.
All learners can take changes in practicing this way.
The learners are given topics to talk about. They prepare at home, using
dictionaries, reference texts, reading sources, and so forth. Each learner has to
choose a short and interesting article from an English language newspaper to
present to the class. The learner must not read the article aloud to the class but
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must describe the main points of the article. The class should then ask the
presenter questions.

2.3. Fluency focused speaking
Fluency in speaking is the aim of many language learners. Signs of fluency
include a reasonably fast speed of speaking and only a small number of
pauses. These signs indicate that the speaker does not have to spend a lot of
time searching for the language terms needed to express the message. There
are some techniques for developing fluency:
The learners can be called to read certain reading or text in a limited
time given by their teacher. The learners should be completed reading the text
on the exact time provided.
The learners choose a topic or are given a topic with which they are
very familiar. Then they try to explain the topic given as fast as possible with
the limited time provided.
The learners can be led to work in groups of about four people. First
they read a given text carefully until they have reached a good understanding
of it. They discuss their understanding of the text to make sure everything is
fairly clear. Then each learner takes turn to retell the text in their own word,
and others will deliver some questions. Then the next learners utter the tasks
again in turn, like role plays.

3. The purpose of speaking activities.
Speaking is usually topic priority probably the most importance aspect of the
language for communication and students enjoy it. Furthermore, speaking
activities improve the atmosphere in the classroom, group dynamic and help

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build a rapport among students, and between teachers and students. Speaking
activities are also a good indication of student’s strengthen and weakness.
When we speak English as a foreign language, it is not simple to repeat what
the teachers say. Students have to use activities in speaking as a tool to
perform oral tasks with real motivation behind them. When give a purpose,
spoken actives are much more rewarding and engaging not to mention
motivating.
4. Characteristics of a successful speaking activity
(Extracted from website: www.caslt.org)
According to Ur, P. (1996), a successful speaking activity is characterized as below:
4.1. Learners talk a lot
In a successful speaking activity, the students talk a lot in the foreign
language. One common problem in a speaking activity is that students often
produce one or two simple utterances in the foreign language and spend the
rest of time chatting in their mother tongue. Besides, teachers talk too much
of time, thus taking way valuable practice time from students. Therefore,
teachers should notice to avoid students’ talking in native language and too
much teacher’s talk. As much as possible of the period of time allotted to the
activity is in fact occupied by learner talk.
4.2.

Participation is even

Whether the activities take place among the whole class or in small group, a
successful speaking task should encourage speaking from as many different
students as possible. Classroom discussion is not dominated by a minority of
talkative participants: all get a chance to speak, and contributions are fairly
evenly distributed.
4.3. Motivation is high

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Learners are eager to speak: because they are interested in the topic and have
something new to say about it, or because they want to contribute to achieving
a task objective.
4.4. Language is of an acceptable level
Learners express themselves in utterances that are relevant, easily
comprehensible to each other, and of an acceptable level of language
accuracy.
In general, classroom activities play an important role in developing students’
ability to express them. A successful speaking activity is characterized by
students’ talk, high motivation, even participation.
II. Teaching speaking
1. The importance of speaking skill.
As you know, the speaking skill is quite difficult so the teaching of skill has
become increasingly important. Since when we communicate, we use the
language to accomplish some functions such as greeting, asking, arguing or
promising within social context.
If the students do not learn how to speak or do not get the chance to speak,
they will soon get de-motivated and lose interests in learning. Therefore, the
teaching of speaking should start right from the first lesson of English that

students have which can make the lesson more interesting, dynamic and even
funny for the students.
2. The Techniques for Teaching Speaking
(Extracted from website: www.nclrc.org )

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To help students develop communicative efficiency in speaking, instructors
can use a balanced activities approach that combines language input,
structured output, and communicative output.
2.1. Language input comes in the form of teacher talk, listening activities,
reading passages, and the language heard and read outside of class. It gives
learners the material they need to begin producing language themselves.
Language input may be content-oriented or form-oriented.
Content-oriented input focuses on information, whether it is a simple
weather report or an extended lecture on an academic topic. Content-oriented
input may also include descriptions of learning strategies and examples of
their use.
Form-oriented input focuses on ways of using the language: guidance
from the teacher or another source on vocabulary, pronunciation, and
grammar (linguistic competence); appropriate things to say in specific
contexts (discourse competence); expectations for rate of speech, pause
length, turn-taking, and other social aspects of language use (sociolinguistic
competence); and explicit instruction in phrases to use to ask for clarification
and repair miscommunication (strategic competence).
In the presentation part of a lesson, an instructor combines content-oriented
and form-oriented input. The amount of input that is actually provided in the
target language depends on students' listening proficiency and also on the
situation. For students at lower levels, or in situations where a quick

explanation on a grammar topic is needed, an explanation in English may be
more appropriate than one in the target language.
2.2. Structured output focuses on correct form. In structured output,
students may have options for responses, but all of the options require them to
use the specific form or structure that the teacher has just introduced.

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Structured output is designed to make learners comfortable producing specific
language items recently introduced, sometimes in combination with
previously learned items. Instructors often use structured output exercises as a
transition between the presentation stage and the practice stage of a lesson
plan. Textbook exercises also often make good structured output practice
activities.
2.3. Communicative output, the learners' main purpose is to complete a
task, such as obtaining information, developing a travel plan, or creating a
video. To complete the task, they may use the language that the instructor has
just presented, but they also may draw on any other vocabulary, grammar, and
communication strategies that they know. In communicative output activities,
the criterion of success is whether the learner gets the message across.
Accuracy is not a consideration unless the lack of it interferes with the
message.
In everyday communication, spoken exchanges take place because there is
some sort of information gap between the participants. Communicative output
activities involve a similar real information gap. In order to complete the task,
students must reduce or eliminate the information gap. In these activities,
language is a tool, not an end in itself.
In a balanced activities approach, the teacher uses a variety of activities from
these different categories of input and output. Learners at all proficiency

levels, including beginners, benefit from this variety; it is more motivating,
and it is also more likely to result in effective language learning.
3. Activities to promote students speaking.
3.1.

Why teachers should give students a variety of speaking
activities?

It is important to provide the students with a variety of speaking activities
because:

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A variety of speaking activities will enable students to cope with different
situations in reality.
Variety helps keep motivation high because any kind of activity, if
overused, may become less interesting.
Variety may suit students of different learning styles because each student
has his own learning style so some kinds of activities may suit some students
while others may suit other students.
3.2.

Activities to promote speaking

In order to encourage students to speak, teachers need to have various
activities. These activities given from website can be a
suggestion and applicable in a speaking lesson.
3.2.1. Information-gap activities
One excellent way to make speaking tasks communicative is to use

information-gap activities. Information gap activities are those where students
have different pieces of information about the same subject and have to share
this information (usually without looking at what their partner has got) in
order for them both to get all the information they need to perform a task.
In an information gap activity, one person has certain information that must
be shared with others in order to solve a problem, gather information or make
decisions (Neu & Reeser, 1997).
In this activity, students are supposed to be work in pair. Information-gap
activities serve many purposes such as solving a problem, or collecting
information. Also, each partner plays an important role because the task
cannot be completed if the partner does not provide the information the other
needs. These activities are effective because everybody has chance to talk in
the target language.
Information gap activities can also reinforce vocabulary and a variety of
grammatical structures taught in class. They allow students to use linguistic
forms and functions in a communicative way. These activities bring the
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language to life for students. Grammar is no longer a concept they have
difficulty applying to their speaking. Students have the opportunity to use the
building blocks of language we teach them to speak in the target language.
3.2.2. Discussions and role-plays
3.2.2.1. In role-plays, students are assigned roles and put into situations that
they may eventually encounter outside the classroom. Because role plays
imitate life, the range of language functions that may be used expands
considerably. Also, the role relationships among the students as they play
their parts call for them to practice and develop their sociolinguistic
competence. They have to use language that is appropriate to the situation and
to the characters.

Students usually find role playing enjoyable, but students who lack selfconfidence or have lower proficiency levels may find them intimidating at
first. To succeed with role-plays:
Prepare carefully: Introduce the activity by describing the situation and
making sure that all of the students understand it
Set a goal or outcome: Be sure the students understand what the product
of the role play should be, whether a plan, a schedule, a group opinion, or
some other product
Use role cards: Give each student a card that describes the person or role
to be played. For lower-level students, the cards can include words or
expressions that that person might use.
Brainstorm: Before you start the role play, have students brainstorm as a
class to predict what vocabulary, grammar, and idiomatic expressions they
might use.
Keep groups small: Less-confident students will feel more able to
participate if they do not have to compete with many voices.
Give students time to prepare: Let them work individually to outline
their ideas and the language they will need to express them.
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