1 FUNCTIONS OF ROLE PLAY IN THE LITERATURE CLASS FOR EFL STUDENTS AT HUCFL Tran Thi Thanh Ngoc, M.Ed Tran Thi Thanh Ngoc, M.Ed Tran Thi Thu Suong, M.Ed

2 CONTENTS Introduction Benefits of Role-play in EFL literature class. The study RecommendationsConclusion

3 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

4 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

5 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.

6 WHY IS ROLE PLAY USEFUL IN A LITERATURE CLASS?

7 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)

8 R ole play stimulates students’ rich imagination Putting students into imaginary characters Placing students in imaginary literary settings

9 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.

10 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

11 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

12 THE STUDY METHODOLOGY Methods: Methods: Class observation, Questionnaire, Deep interview Subjects: Subjects: 80 students of 3 rd and 4 th 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)

13 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 %

14 THE STUDY FINDINGS Question: What do you benefit from role-play for your language learning ? Learn new language 95% 95% Select and restructure new language 82% 82% Integrate English more closely 78% 78% Express themselves in English through different characters’ voices 89% 89% Make meaningful interpretation 85% 85%

15 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)

16 RECOMMENDATIONS Creating a safe and supportive environment of communication - The freedom to exchange personal experiences - The cooperation of all group members, including the teacher

17 RECOMMENDATIONS Choosing appropriate literary works for role-playing - theme - language proficiency - cultural background

18 RECOMMENDATIONS Selecting appropriate techniques and activities Step 1: Starting Step 2: Imagination stimulating Step 3: Involving Step 4: Presenting Step 5: Feedback

19 ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES ‘ Film-making’ ‘ Film-making’ Character exploring Character exploring Listening and scripting Listening and scripting Creating new version Creating new version Portraying a character Portraying a character Playing an additional scene Playing an additional scene Puppet show Puppet show Silent plays Silent plays Returning to the past Returning to the past Scripting the lines for an episode of a film.

20 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

21 THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION