Using role - Play technique to improve the students’ speaking skill at Thường Xuân 2 high chool

THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN THANH HOÁ
THƯỜNG XUÂN 2 HIGH SCHOOL
THE INITIATIVE FROM TEACHING EXPERIENCE
USING ROLE-PLAY TECHNIQUE TO IMPROVE THE STUDENTS’ SPEAKING SKILL AT THƯỜNG XUÂN 2 HIGH CHOOL
Teacher’s full name: 	 Vũ Thị Hồng
Position : 	 Teacher
 	The initiative of : Teaching English
THANH HOÁ, 2016
I. INTRODUCTION
1. Reason for choosing the topic:
In fact, teaching and learning a language is a complex and long process as anyone who has tried will agree. One of the most difficult and frustrating things is making the transition from the classroom to the 'real' world. In the classroom, everyone knows you are a student and mistakes are allowed, and the environment is contained and safe. Speaking another language outside the classroom is completely different and often students are lost at sea as soon as they step outside the door. Lists of memorized vocabulary are suddenly useless when ordering in a restaurant. 
The problem becomes more complicated when it comes to Vietnam setting. English teachers in Vietnam have just adopted communicative approach for just a few years since the using of the new textbooks. However, they have not paid enough attention to speaking skill. The speaking tasks are simple, and more importantly, impractical. 
In this writing, I would like to recommend a more practical way of teaching speaking in high school classrooms; that is using role-plays and simulations. Role-plays, or simulations are one of the ways ESL instructors can ease students' transition into using English in real world situations. A simulation is where students act out a real-life situation, for example checking into at a hotel, but do not act out a different personality. Role-plays are where students take on different personalities. In a role-play, for example, one student may be asked to take on the role of "an angry neighbor" which is out of character for the student. 
Other reason that role-play is also an effective technique to animate the teaching and learning atmosphere, arouse the interests of learners, and make the language acquisition impressive. So I think we should mainly focus on how to apply it successfully and take the most advantage of it in English class. The outcome shows there are four crucial factors for its success: the topic chosen should be real and relevant; the teacher need 'feed-in' the appropriate language; correct errors in a proper way; some of teachers role are facilitator, spectator or participant. Incorporating role-play into the classroom adds variety, a change of pace and opportunities for a lot of language production and also a lot of fun.
The purpose of role playing is to give the students an opportunity to work with others in determining how an individual or group might behave in response to a particular situation. Role playing is often used primarily to promote classroom discussion. The use of role playing as a cooperative learning model also includes class discussion as a vital step, but in this approach the entire class is involved in preparing and presenting role plays through group activity. 
In short, there are many reasons why I choose using role-play technique in teaching speaking for the initiative from my teaching experience, but here I will only show some main reasons. They are:
- Role play allows a wider range of language functions and language varieties to occur than would normally occur within a classroom.
- Role play allows exploration of cultural issues, in particular, appropriate ways to behave in certain situations such as when being offered food or drink.
- Role play can add interest to an activity and by distributing roles can ensure participation in an activity.
- Role play can result in repetion of speaking activity by providing a change.
According to me, role play covers a wide range of possibilities because students have to enter many different situations. Moreover, it can help students to achieve maximum communication. 
2. Aim of the research:
The aims of the research are to know whether role-play improve students’ speaking ability in the class.
3. The subject of study:
The subject of this study is the students in class 11B1 at Thuong Xuan 2 High school. The number of students consists of 35.
4. Research methodology:
	- Observing.
	- Listening.
	- Analysis.
II. CONTENT
1. The research projects of using role-play in speaking:
Speaking is "the process of building and sharing meaning through the use of verbal and non-verbal symbols, in a variety of contexts" (Chaney, 1998, p. 13). Speaking is a crucial part of second language learning and teaching. Despite its importance, for many years, teaching speaking has been undervalued and English language teachers have continued to teach speaking just as a repetition of drills or memorization of dialogues. However, today's world requires that the goal of teaching speaking should improve students' communicative skills, because, only in that way, students can express themselves and learn how to follow the social and cultural rules appropriate in each communicative circumstance. In order to teach second language learners how to speak in the best way possible, some speaking activities are provided below, that can be applied to ESL and EFL classroom settings, together with suggestions for teachers who teach oral language.
* What  is "Teaching Speaking"?
What is meant by "teaching speaking" is to teach English speaking language learners to:
- Produce the English speech sounds and sound patterns.
- Use word and sentence stress, intonation patterns and the rhythm of the second language.
- Select appropriate words and sentences according to the proper social setting, audience, situation and subject matter.
- Organize their thoughts in a meaningful and logical sequence.
- Use language as a means of expressing values and judgments.
- Use the language quickly and confidently with few unnatural pauses, which is called as fluency. (Nunan, 2003)
* How to teach speaking: 
Now, many linguistics and English speaking language teachers agree on that students learn to speak in the second language by "interacting". Communicative language teaching and collaborative learning serve best for this aim.  Communicative language teaching is based on real-life situations that require communication. By using this method in ESL classes, students will have the opportunity of communicating with each other in the target language.  In brief, ESL teachers should create a classroom environment where students have real-life communication, authentic activities, and meaningful tasks that promote oral language. This can occur when students collaborate in groups to achieve a goal or to complete a task.
Activities to promote speaking as: Discussions, Information Gap, Brainstorming, Storytelling, Interviews, Story Completion, Reporting, Playing Cards, Picture Narrating, Picture Describing, Find the Difference, Simulations and the last is Role play. 
Role Play is one way of getting students to speak is role-playing. Students pretend they are in various social contexts and have a variety of social roles. In role-play activities, the teacher gives information to the learners such as who they are and what they think or feel. Thus, the teacher can tell the student that "You are David, you go to the doctor and tell him what happened last night, and" (Harmer, 1984)
Simulations are very similar to role-plays but what makes simulations different than role plays is that they are more elaborate. In simulations, students can bring items to the class to create a realistic environment. For instance, if a student is acting as a singer, she brings a microphone to sing and so on. Role plays and simulations have many advantages. First, since they are entertaining, they motivate the students. Second, as Harmer (1984) suggests, they increase the self-confidence of hesitant students, because in role play and simulation activities, they will have a different role and do not have to speak for themselves, which means they do not have to take the same responsibility
2. The reality of speaking before applying this initiative:
I have been teaching English at Thuong Xuan 2 high school for many years. This school is in a mountainous area so I know clearly what my students’ purpose is. So far, I have been able to confirm one thing: Most of my students learn English for the GCSE, only a few study for the University entrance examination.
Generally, the quality of students’ input is not high so it is very difficult for both teachers and students in teaching and acquiring English. In fact, we don’t only teach the very basic knowledge in the textbook but we have to teach students all the knowledge that they learned before also. 
Besides, there are also many reasons which make teaching and learning English are prevented development, for example: Students don’t have further materials, students don’t have time to study at home (their families are very poor so they usually help their parents to get more money), they don’t have chance to practice English much,  Because the living conditions of most local people are still poor and backward so learning in general has not been focused, particularly, learning English is attended hardly. Students have no any reference and means of learning except their textbooks. 
There are about 40 students in each class in my school. I think it is a large class. So, it is very difficult for me to control my class while speaking and students have no more chances to practice English skills, too. Especially in oral skill because they have few words. My students cannot communicate in English, even though they spent 6-7 years learning English at grammar schools. Actually, in English curricula, there are lessons that use tapes and CDs to practise listening and speaking skills, but my school resources and the habits of individual teachers mean they are rarely used, especially in rural areas. Students mostly copy the way their teachers speak, but many teachers mispronounce the words themselves.
The other problem is that they learn English just to pass regular tests or examinations, while they cannot use English in reality. Especially, many students got high scores from exams and tests, but they can only write grammatical sentences, while they are very bad at listening and communicating. Many students tell me that they like learning English, and some of them always have good learning results at school. However, when they meet foreigners or go to an English club, they find out that they are afraid of speaking English in crowded places because they was afraid of making mistakes. 
Beside that, there is no place of tourism or some factory which foreigners work or live in here so my students have no chance for communication. That's why their listening and speaking skills are poor and my students become frustrated by this.
I think that bad English skills have become a hot topic on education forums. Educators have pointed out that it is the nature of Vietnamese people that they can easily get embarrassed when making mistakes, therefore, they would rather not to speak English to make mistakes. My students do, too.
3. The initiative is being applied to teach speaking English in my school. 
In the past, the teachers of English in my school used to teach English in traditional teaching method which students stayed passive in learning and did not have a communication environment. I think it is the main reason behind the ineffective teaching and learning of English in our school because this makes our students become afraid of speaking English.
We focused on teaching grammar much, and our students also focused on grammar lessons in order to pass tests and examinations. This traditional way of teaching I think we put our students in the "passive voice" when learning English, and they cannot have good communication skills, even though students can be good at grammar. 
Since many recent years, I have been trying to perfect the questions: What should teachers do to make students speak English more? and How do the teachers do to make English more attractive and easier? These are some ways I have used to improve the speaking English problem in our school:
 Asking Open and Closed Questions.
I use closed questions during lessons to identify what students know and are usually asked in a quick and successive manner. It will also seem that these questions are used when the teacher has a particular idea or answer that they want the students to come up with. 
Open questions are often displayed in the classroom and related to the unit of inquiry. In discussion they are often used to discuss the unit of inquiry that my students are working on. The use of open and closed questions during a lesson may have provided participants with an insight into what individuals in their class know and could have helped to activate individual’s prior understanding and knowledge of a particular concept.
I also use questions to check if my students know what they are expected to do and asked students to re-tell instructions to a partner to help reinforce their instructions and what learners have been asked to do. Checking the comprehension of instructions would appear to be an important strategy to use in the classroom and may provide the teacher with an indication of how much learners have recalled from discussion, instruction or previous lessons. 
 Asking a Specific Student 
I use questions to encourage a more in-depth response from a student may be rather than accepting short answers, we support learning if more extended answers are sought. Therefore, directly asking an individual a question may be a useful technique to employ when wishing to help develop an individual student’s language skills. I think it might also be useful in teacher-fronted interactions to help distribute response opportunities widely to ensure that all learners are kept alert and given an opportunity to respond.
Response To and Repetition of Student Answers
 The type of responses to student answers that teachers use varied from one word responses such as yes, yeah and okay, to instances where the teacher will repeat a student’s answer to reinforce a key concept or point. I think this is an occasion that a student could provide his teacher with a one or two word answer. A teacher would respond to this by providing a full sentence with the student’s answer incorporated. 
 Giving Instructions 
I usually use this in teaching all skills, not only in teaching speaking. Giving instructions accounted are used during lesson speaking. Instructions are given for a variety of purposes such as for a teacher to state their intentions, to prepare students for an activity, to organize students into groups or pairs and as part of the management of the class. 
 Activity Related Language
I use this activity because I think that through it language may provide students with a type of scaffolding, which is essentially a way to nudge a student toward higher level performance and may help them reach the goal of being an autonomous learner. 
In short, I have been using the above ways for many years, I see that they have brought to me some valuable effects. But for me, they are not the best, so I still continue looking for the way which I believe that it is the most suitable for my students. 
After having applied many methods in teaching speaking, at last, I realize that Role-play is the most suitable way which I am looking for. I have been applying this with some above ways in teaching speaking English in my school for two years. I have reached the result that I expect. 
3.1. These are some principles of using and managing role-plays: 
- The more engaging the better. The value of role-plays come from students immersing themselves in the material. 
- Choose a 'hot' topic and stage a debate. Assign students positions on the topic (for/against). This will get students out of their personality and into the role where they do not have the same inhibitions. 
- Preparation is very important to success. Give students 'personality cards' which sketch out their personal characteristics or scenario. Divide students into groups and give them time to sketch out various scenarios, and go over extra or special vocabulary, ask them to discuss how they will act, think about the character and plan what they will say. For example, what are possible responses/replies for the angry neighbor? 
- The teacher, as facilitator of the role-play must support students in their role, i.e. they 'are' in the backyard arguing over the fence. Don't do anything to interrupt the pretend environment. Leave grammar correction to the end. Correcting students in the middle of an argument interrupts the pretend environment. Make notes and do a debriefing after. 
- Exaggeration is good! Encourage students to exaggerate their actions, opinions and movements. Exaggeration helps students immerse themselves in the role. 
- Stage a rehearsal first. Have students practice their role in small groups with coaching from the other students. 
- While the role-play or debate is in progress, have other students suggest vocabulary first, and act as backup if they do not know. 
Role-plays are unpredictable which makes them both a valuable learning tool and at the same time difficult to manage. Sketch out the various routes the role-play can take from the initial scenario. This will give you some idea what to expect and avoid any surprises. 
Role-plays can range from 30 minutes to one hour. 
3.2. Steps in carrying out role-plays: 
3.2.1. Outside the classroom:
_ Choosing the topic, based on the topic of the lesson or the main grammar point of that lesson.
_ Preparing materials, especially role-play cards (Teachers can make up the cards themselves, or search for them on the Internet)
3.2.2. Inside the classroom:
_ Providing students with enough language to be used in their role-plays.
_ Setting up the scene for role-plays.
3.3 Sample lesson plans:
Unit 1: Friendship (English 11) 
Match making Role-play
Duration: 	15–20 min
Aim: 	Oral fluency practice
Requirements: 	Lots of space
Summary: 	Each student is given a "child", and tries to pair him/her up with a suitable partner.
Introduction 
The students are initially organised into groups, with each group member receiving a different information card describing their son or daughter. But the actual speaking is done on a one-to-one basis, with the students mingling in their group and talking to the other "parents". 
Groups contain 8 to 10 students, so this mingling requires a classroom with lots of space, and preferably no desks to obstruct movement. 
Preparation 
Print enough copies of ten_singles.doc so that each student can receive one information card. 
Optionally, use a different colour of paper for each set of information cards. 
Procedure 
If the information cards are all white, then the teachers need to organise the students into groups of 8 or 10 first (ideally an even number, otherwise one poor child will miss out on a husband or wife). If we have a different colour for each set of information cards, then we can simply hand out the cards as you wish, and get the students to form groups according to the colours after they have read the card. 
Explain that we are going to give each student a son or daughter! Tell them to read the card and imagine what the person is like: do you think they are romantic? Friendly? Humourous? Hard-working? 
Give out the cards and allow some time for reading. (If there are some groups of eight, simply give them four male and four female information cards). 
Explain that the students can add extra details that aren't on the card. For example, does your child have a car or a motorbike? Is he/she clever? To encourage this, give the students an extra minute to think of one detail to add. 
Now explain that each person should talk to t