Role Play for ESL/EFL Children in the English Classroom
Role –plays are approach in the English classroom. They are very important in the communicative approach because they give student an opportunity to practice and use the English language for communicating in contexts of everyday life. In addition, they help improve students their listening, speaking and communication skills. Students can act and play happily. For the role play activities in my classes, there are six major steps in the procedure.
First, teachers decide on the teaching Materials. The teacher must decide which teaching materials will be used for role play activities. The teaching materials can be taken from text books or non-textbook teaching materials such as picture books, story books, readers, play-scripts, comic strips, movies, cartoons and pictures. The material is selected ahead of time by the teacher. The teacher can also create his or her own authentic teaching materials for role play activities. The teaching materials should be decided based on students' level and interests, teaching objectives and appropriateness for teaching
Second, teachers select situations and create dialogs. Then a situation or situations to be role played should be selected. For every role plays situation, dialogs should be provided (by the teaching materials or by the teacher) or created by the students themselves.
Third, teachers teach the dialogs for role plays. The teacher needs to teach the vocabulary, sentences, and dialogs necessary for the role play situations. The teacher needs to make sure the students know how to use the vocabulary, sentences and dialogs prior to doing the role play activities, otherwise, the teacher should allow students to ask how to say the words they want to say.
Forth, teachers have students practice the role plays. Students can practice in pairs or in small groups. After they have played their own roles a few times, have them exchange roles. That way, students can play different roles and practice all of the lines in the role play. When students are confident enough to demonstrate or perform in front of the class, the teacher can ask them to do so for their classmates.
Fifth, teachers have students modify the situations and dialogs. Once students have finished and become familiar with an original role play situation, they can modify the situations and/or dialogs to create a variation of the original role play.
Sixth, teachers evaluate and check students' comprehension. Teacher shall evaluate the effectiveness of the role play activities and check if students have successfully comprehended the meanings of the vocabulary, sentences and dialogs. There are several ways to do student evaluations. Students can be given oral and listening tests relating to the role plays. Example oral tests can include the following
- Students are asked to answer some simple questions relating to the role plays.
- Students are asked to reenact the role plays.
- Students are asked to translate the role plays into their native language.
Conclusion, role play is really a worthwhile learning experience for both the students and the teacher. Not only can students have more opportunities to "act" and "interact" with their peers trying to use the English language, but also students' English speaking, listening, and understanding will improve. Role play lightens up the atmospheres and brings liveliness in the classes. Students learn to use the language in a more realistic, more practical way. Thus they can become more aware of the usefulness and practicality of English. Role play is indeed a useful teaching technique which should be experimented and applied by ESL/EFL teachers more often in the ESL/EFL classrooms.
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