Using role plays in speaking classes

USING ROLE PLAYS IN SPEAKING CLASSES

Kuchkarova Yana Davidovna – Senior teacher, NamSU

Shahobiddinova Dilnavoz – student, NamSU

Annotation: The article discusses the issues related to organizing role plays in English classes. Also it is being suggested different types of role plays to make the classes interactive and improve speaking. Furthermore, it is presented the ideas how role plays can influence to development of speaking skills.

Key words: role play, teaching speaking, drama, simulations, games, conversations.

It is known that role-play is a different types of role-playing activities such as reading by roles, staging herself playing game and etc. A role-playing game realizes methodical technique that is conditional playing real situation participants of life that creates the conditions for a real communication. In the article written by Joanna Budden, we can understand that, role-play is any speaking activity when you either put yourself into somebody else's shoes, or when you stay in your own shoes but put yourself into an imaginary situation [7,1]. While designing the learning process and in preparation for the lessons it is important for teachers to think about numerous factors related to what kind of level the students are or what kind of topics should be covered in a lesson and what type of role play can be beneficial for learners. In role plays it can be observed how students apply content in a relevant, real world context. "In role play, students need to imagine a role, a context, or both and improvise a conversation. The context is usually determined, but students develop the dialogue as they proceed "Students take on a decision making persona that might let them diverge from the confines of their normal self-imposed limitations or boundaries. Students can transcend and think beyond the confines of the classroom setting.

Being an authentic learning activity role play can better engage learners mentions Emre Erturk. Also he says that role playing is an interesting example of an active learning and teaching strategies. It can incorporate drama, simulations, games, and demonstrations of real life cases related to any topic". In the classroom there are four main types of role plays, but bear in mind that there is often overlap and particular situations may combine two or more of these elements.

1. The conflict role play puts participants on a collision course and asks them to deal with this as best they can. Situations might include attempting to change an airline booking at a peak time or asking a noisy neighbor to turn down the stereo. They test language skills under pressure and are best for students who have some maturity and confidence in their abilities.

2. The cooperative role play takes the opposite tack and requires participants to work together for the common good. Planning a sayonara party for the teacher, deciding the food list for a barbecue, brainstorming ways to attract tourists to local attractions are all cooperative role plays. Often involving ‘safe’ situations, cooperative role plays are good for gently easing shy students into conversations and for building relationships within a student group.

3. Information gap role plays are based around filling in holes in the participants’ knowledge. Answering questions from customs officers, asking for timetabling details, making a library card or interrogating a murder suspect are all information gap type situations. If based on the students’ real selves these role plays are simple to set up, but fictitious situations may require more elaborate preparations. They are an excellent way to practice question and answer patterns and prepare students for real-life encounters.

4. Task-based role plays require participants to complete a set activity such as checking into a hotel, giving directions to a taxi driver, ordering a meal or getting the phone number of a potential love interest. They are useful for helping students to practice realistic survival English skills and are an excellent way to build students’ confidence in their ability to function in real situations.

In the role playing method both teachers and students can get interested in any topic. This can be a way to remove boring and usual lessons with dry speech.

Looking back at the history of the role play as a teaching method we can find out that role play was originally tried out in industrial and managerial trainings. It now connects activities in the teaching of English as a foreign languages ranging from participation in everyday situations in which the learners play himself in this everyday roles, e.g. "The person in the room next to yours keeps you awake late at night with his record player" [3, 13]. If we use daily situations for role play performance in the lessons, it will be easier and more flexible for students to perform say Morrow and Johnson.

But, there can be some failures while implementing role play. "Two reasons may explain why role play is failing to achieve: The individual's role is often irrelevant; and the model of interaction the teacher has in mind is often irrelevant to the learner's future experience: [4, 14]. For these reasons teachers should choose appropriate role plays situations for students. In this progress teachers may divide them into smaller groups by considering their gender, level, interests, characters or ages. "To prepare for role playing, divide students into several smaller groups, each with approximately the number of students required to act out each scenario. You could group students by cooperative learning groups if they have already been established in your classroom. You can change the gender of the students in the role-play script to match the genders of the students into small groups or you could small groups of all boys (for the "Joshua" role-play) and all girls (for the "Natalie "role-play). You can, of course, also asks students to play the roles of persons of the opposite sex, but do not exert pressure to do this" suggests Hazalden [6, 1]. Teaching students with role play method can be efficient and very useful if it is chosen correctly. It can have a good improvement on students' mental and physical as well as social development. In teaching English role play method can increase student's enthusiasm, self-confidence and empathy, and courage to think critically. It is widely agreed that learning takes place when activities are engaging and memorable. Jeremy Harmer advocates the use of role-play for the several reasons. Being fun and motivating activity role play will create the opportunity for quieter students to express themselves in a more forthright way. Another reason is that the world of the classroom is broadened to include the outside world - thus offering a much wider range of language opportunities. In addition to these reasons, students who will at some point travel to an English-speaking country are given a chance to rehearse their English in a safe environment. Real situations can be created and students can benefit from the practice. Mistakes can be made with no drastic consequences. [2, 252]

The teacher`s role in organizing role plays in classes is significant. Acting as facilitator teacher support students who may need new language to be 'fed' in. If rehearsal time is appropriate the feeding in of new language should take place at this stage. As students practise the role-play they might find that they are stuck for words and phrases. In the practice stage the teacher has a chance to 'feed-in' the appropriate language. This may need the teacher to act as a sort of 'walking dictionary', monitoring the class and offering assistance as and when necessary. If you are not happy doing this and you feel that the process of finding the new language should offer more student autonomy, you could have 'time-out' after the practice stage for students to use dictionaries to look up what they need. As mentioned in the role of the teacher section, feeding-in the language students need is fundamental. By doing so, they will learn new vocabulary and structure in a natural and memorable environment. It is a chance to use real and natural language. As a spectator, the teacher watches the role-play and offers comments and advice at the end and motivate during the role play. In addition to being the motivator and possibly the writer and director of the role plays teacher presents in the class, usually is also involved in the activity. Richard-Amato suggests that this gives a teacher a reason for circulating in the group, providing prompts, helping where needed, and observing and assessing language use [5, 182].

Talking about functions as a basis for role plays it can be said that the most common situations for role plays are those in which the students may need to function in the target language. As with dialogues, the situations used for role play should be within the realm of experience, possible experience, or knowledge of the students. The more familiar a situation is, the easier it will be for students to participate fully. Appropriate situations include topics that students see or in which they participate in their own lives. Examples include shopping, interacting at school, talking on the telephone, asking for directions, making appointments, and attending business meetings. "while doing the role play the most exciting stage is to have the students actually perform the role play”. Concerning time for having a role play in the class it is suggested that teacher set a time limit on the role play. If it involves a solution to a problem, teacher should be sure that teacher have students write down or be prepared to report on the problem and solution they have chosen. The tenant-landlord example is best done in pairs of students with you circulating to observe and provide assistance. Pairs should switch their roles halfway through the time allowed. If the role play includes more than student pairs, you should take on one of the roles. If pairs or small groups are participating in the role play, be sure to have a related or extension activity for those who finish early" [1, 6]. There exist other possible situations for role plays such as including fantasy situations from stories, television, or simulations and situations in which students prepare for a future event, for example, interviewing for a job in employment readiness programs. In given role play it is advisable to not to give daily situations if your students are high level students. Then they can learn different types of words which are used in that role play they do. It can be summarized that the role plays are used to allow students to practice speaking in a conversational situation, build confidence and fluency, assess progress, and put learning into action.

REFERENCES:

1. 
   Emre Erturk “Role play as a teaching strategy” National Tertiary Learning and Teaching Conference. 2015
   
2. 
   Jeremy Harmer “The practice of English language teaching” Longman. 1989
   
3. 
   Morrow.K and Johnson,K. “Communicate” draft edition, Cambridge University Press. 1979
   
4. 
   Patricia Mugglestone. Role-play // Games, Simulations and role play.- London 1997, ELT-24, 14.
   
5. 
   Richard-Amato, P. Making “It Happen: Interaction in the Second Language Classroom, from Practice to Theory” White Plains, NY: Addison-Wesley, 1996. 26
   
6. 
   Hazalden Foundation "Bullying Role play activities" 2007
   
7. 
   Jo Budden, British Council, Spain https://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/article/role-play