FUNCTIONS OF ROLE PLAY IN
THE LITERATURE CLASS FOR EFL
STUDENTS AT HUCFL
Tran Thi Thanh Ngoc, M.Ed
Tran Thi Thu Suong, M.Ed
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CONTENTS
Introduction
Benefits of Role-play in EFL
literature class.
The study
Recommendations
Conclusion
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INTRODUCTION
1.
Reasons
Role play is a favorite activity for EFL
students at HUCFL
Role play is our regular and positive tool
Role play is approachable for any teacher of
language
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INTRODUCTION
2.
Aims
To explore the benefits of using role play in
literature class
To suggest more effective strategies and
activities of role play
To enhance the use of role play not only in
literature class but in language class as well
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WHAT IS ROLE PLAY?
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. (Joanna Budden: 2005)
Role-play is a speaking activity, normally in not
more than ten minutes long, that places students
in any characters they like and in imaginary literary
settings.
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WHY IS ROLE PLAY USEFUL IN
A LITERATURE CLASS?
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Role play creates a safe and supporting
atmosphere in a literature class
Being fun and air-changing
Increasing learners’ confidence
Enabling genuine
communication
Collie and Slatter (1987)
“ Role play is a means both of
creasing learners’ confidence
with the foreign language and
also of personalizing their
contact with it” (p.19)
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Role play stimulates students’
rich imagination
Putting students into
imaginary characters
Placing students in
imaginary literary
settings
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Role play helps to develop
students’ language skills
Providing students with tools for identifying distinctive
features in a literary text
Lazar(1993) “ Drama provides students with tools for
identifying distinctive features in a literary text and so
appreciating it more fully” (p.78)
Feeding students on appropriate vocabulary and language
structures in a natural and memorable environment
Helping students learn and acquire oral language at a
more profound level.
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Role play increases students’ awareness
of different cultural values
Enabling students to explore the social background and
cultural perspectives
Promoting students’ social interaction
Linser (2004) “ By explicitly taking on the attitude of
another, something we do implicitly as a matter of course in
communicating with others in many social backgrounds,
students discover issues that they would not have otherwise
encountered had they been viewing the material on the basis
of their own attitudes.” (p.110)
Bringing real life to literature classes
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THE BENEFITS OF ROLE-PLAY
Creating a safe and supporting atmosphere
Stimulating students’ rich imagination
Helping to develop students’ language skills
Increasing students’ awareness of different
cultural values
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THE STUDY
METHODOLOGY
 Methods:
Class observation , Questionnaire, Deep interview
 Subjects:
80 students of 3rd and 4th year classes at HUCFL and 5
teachers of literature
Theoretical backgrounds:
Carter and Long (1991)
Collie and Slatter ( 1987)
Lazar ( 1993)
Linser (2004)
Savignon ( 2001)
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THE STUDY
FINDINGS
Question: Do you feel safe and confident to
speak English in role-play activities?
Yes
87 %
No
2.6 %
A little
10.4 %
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THE STUDY
FINDINGS
Question: What do you benefit from role-play for
your language learning ?
Learn new language
Select and restructure new language
95%
82%
Integrate English more closely
78%
Express themselves in English through
different characters’ voices
Make meaningful interpretation
89%
85%
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THE STUDY
“ A simple cone of white card with the name Hamlet
or Mr. John written on it helps me feel more
empowered to express myself through different voices.
I also feel excited to explore my familiar classmates
under other names.” ( Student C )
By allowing reading and the adding of some
characterization to a drama, learners became fully
involved in the learning process and realistic social
context to express themselves through the multiple
voices of different characters” ( Savignon 2001)
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Creating a safe and supportive environment of
communication
- The freedom to exchange personal experiences
- The cooperation of all group members, including the
teacher
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Choosing appropriate literary works for role-playing
- theme
- language proficiency
- cultural background
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RECOMMENDATIONS
Selecting appropriate techniques and activities
Step 1: Starting
Step 2: Imagination stimulating
Step 3: Involving
Step 4: Presenting
Step 5: Feedback
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ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES
‘Film-making’
Character exploring
Listening and scripting
Creating new version
Portraying a character
Playing an additional scene
Puppet show
Silent plays
Returning to the past
Scripting the lines for an episode of a film.
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PROBLEMS AND
SUGGESTED SOLUTIONS
Communicative effect
may overweigh
interpreting goal
Differences in language
competence
Language barriers
Error correction
Setting clear goals for each
role-play
Having students choose
appropriate roles
Feeding in new language
before-hand
Self-correction, peer
correction, evaluation sheet
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THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
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