Chapter 9
Acting It Out: Using Role-Plays
In This Chapter
Getting students to interact and use their imaginations
Making role plays as effective as possible
Using a transport role play
Given the chance, most teachers would love to introduce their students to all kinds of situations in the real world that require the use of English. However, because time and opportunity rarely allow for this, practising differing contexts through role-play is the next best thing.
In this chapter, I talk about the advantages of role-playing and how to get your students involved in this very effective form of interaction. I also provide a level lesson plan for a taxi journey role play.
Using Role-Playing as a Lesson Resource
People use the term role-play to cover more than one thing these days. The basic meaning of the term refers to taking on another character and acting out a situation as that person. However, in class you often allow students to play themselves within a foreign situation too. This second type of enactment is really called a simulation, but most teachers tend to put it under the umbrella of role-play as well, and so I stick to that definition in this book too.
Here are some of the advantages of using role-plays:
- Acting out situations is good practice for using English in the outside world, but no harmful consequences result from errors.
- Students can practise an endless number of situations, including those they’d love to encounter but have little opportunity to do so. Putting yourself in someone else’s shoes leads to wider perspectives and sensitivities, which is very valuable when students are dealing with a variety of languages and cultures through language learning.
- Students use their imaginations and creativity, which is fun and motivating for them. Pretending to be someone else means students can throw off their usual inhibitions and be rude, devious or bossy – lots of scope for fun!
- You can be in character too, so the students don’t look to you for information. Instead, they exercise learner independence by keeping the scenario going using their own skills, and through collaborating with peers.
- Role-playing improves overall communication skills. Collaborating on role-play tasks allow students to put forward their own opinions, and overall speaking fluency improves.
- Giving students input in the form of watching, instead of just reading or listening, is good for retention. So when students watch others role play, they remember the content well. And acting things out is more memorable still.
Follow these basic steps to make sure that role-plays run smoothly.
- Decide on the objectives of the role play.
For example, establish a language point, situation or aspect of cultural awareness for your class to practise. Put this information on the board or on a worksheet for students to review and focus on.
- Demonstrate the role play yourself.
Then students have a good idea of what to do. Choose a confident student to role play with you. The other students can coach you by shouting instructions to you (that means you need to be hesitant in your performance here and there, until the class give you some input).
- Put students into groups of mixed abilities and personalities.
Either set up the role play yourself by providing students with the plot (not script) of the play and assigning each student a role within it. (When assigning roles, get students to try new things rather than always playing themselves.) Alternatively, allow students to organise the plot and script themselves, based on a few instructions from you.
- Get timing.
Make students aware of the timeframe: how much preparation time they have and how long the role play itself should last. As the activity unfolds, let students know how the timing is going, so the students can embellish or summarise according to how much time is left.
- Discuss.
Follow up with a discussion of how the role plays went, what could be improved and what the class have learnt.
You may get the class to perform a short, spontaneous role play from time to time if you’re sure that the students have the skills and confidence to pull it off. After all, many situations arise in real life that the students are not well-prepared for. So this kind of spontaneity is good practice for the world outside the classroom,
Above all, keep the atmosphere fun and light so students feel they can try dialogue out comfortably … and make the odd mistake!
This lower- level lesson teaches students very useful everyday expressions and allows them to work as a team to create and act out a taxi journey role play.
Lesson overview
Doing a warmer activity
5 minutes
Put the students into small groups and give them two minutes to brainstorm and list as many different kinds of transport as they can. The lists may include:
car
bicycle
helicopter
bus
motorbike
aeroplane
taxi
skateboard
hot-air balloon
(underground) train
boat (various kinds)
After two minutes, a representative from each group gives you his group’s list. Count who has the most correct answers and declare that group the winner. Point out any particularly dodgy spelling by putting the correct form on the board (without identifying the culprit).
Introducing the scenario
10 minutes
Draw or show a picture of a taxi with a driver and passenger. Elicit or teach the words taxi, driver and passenger, along with the words fare and cab.
Position five chairs as though they were the seats in a car and get a student to sit in a front seat (left or right to represent the driver, depending on the country you’re in). Shout ‘Taxi!’ and then pretend to get in the back seat.
Say hello to the driver, who will certainly reply. Then, look quizzically at the students and ‘driver’. Wait for someone to suggest the driver’s question (such as Where are you going, please?) and then take out a small piece of paper on which you’ve written the address. Again, pause for the students to suggest the next line of the conversation (such as I want to go to … ). Pretend to put your seat belt on and, after a little pretend driving, point frantically as though you’ve seen your destination. Again, let students suggest the words. Mime getting out and prompt the students to stop you and make the driver ask for the fare.
Teaching taxi journey expressions
10 minutes
Hand out a vocabulary sheet like the one shown in Figure 9-1, or put the vocabulary on the board. Explain and drill all the vocabulary thoroughly.
Figure 9-1: Vocabulary sheet for a taxi journey role play.
To help explain the questions and answers you could write a full dialogue on the board using the taxi driver and passenger as characters, like this:
- Taxi driver: Good morning! Where to, please?
- Passenger: I want to go to the sports centre. It’s in Holborn, on Chancery Lane.
- Taxi driver: What’s the address and postcode?
- Passenger: It’s 1543 Chancery Lane, London WC1Z 9DF.
Now put two more students in the ‘taxi’ (without vocabulary sheets). Give the passenger student an address and get the passenger and driver to act out a role play. Other students can assist by jogging their memories with vocabulary.
Organising the students
10 minutes
Explain that in groups students are going to act out one longer taxi journey or a couple of short ones, totalling approximately three minutes. Put the students in groups of three or four. In each group someone must play the role of the driver and the others are passengers. The passengers can travel together or one after the other.
Prepare secret role cards to add more drama to the role play. For example, passenger cards may read like the ones in Figure 9-2. You could give the taxi drivers similar cards to add colour to their performances too. Put your finger to your lips as you surreptitiously hand the cards out so students know the information is top secret. It’s more fun for other students to guess what’s going on with the various characters than to know for sure.
Figure 9-2: Examples of role cards for a taxi journey role play.
Students now work together note down and learn their role plays. They must choose a destination, and use expressions from the vocabulary sheet and their own general knowledge of English. Incorporating the information on their role cards affects what students say or simply how they say it.
Get the groups to move the furniture to make ‘taxis’ and act out their scenes privately before they show them to the class.
If one group finishes more quickly than the others, get them to switch the cast around. So let someone else try being the driver instead of being a passenger.
Acting out the role play to the class
10-15 minutes
Tell the groups to put their furniture back in the normal position except for one ‘taxi’ at the front of the classroom. Each group acts out their role play. The students watch each group respectively, and after the performance they try to guess what was on each person’s role card.
Discussing the role play
10 minutes
Discuss questions like these with the students:
- Which sentences from the vocabulary sheet can you remember easily? Why?
- Could you make your role play better? How?
- What did you like about each group?
- Which drivers and passengers were very polite?
- Which students are very good actors?
- What else do you sometimes talk about with a taxi driver?
Extension activities
In subsequent lessons use similar role plays to practise expressions for booking train and aeroplane tickets. You can then teach students how to handle single and return tickets, seat reservations and luggage restrictions.
A community language learning approach is effective here. Refer to Chapter 2 of this book for more information.