WRITING THROUGH ROLE PLAY ACTIVITIES Aosta
Role play Role-play is a natural part of a child’s every day life. By role playing, children gradually learn to think in the foreign language. They develop confidence, good pronunciation, good intonation and.. they don’t need to translate into their mother tongue.
Role-play for young learners can be... warm ups free expression, improvisation based on sketches and stories related to the “here and now” of the classroom simulations of future or past situations
Various aspects of language where role-play works Social dimension Affective dimension Pragmatic dimension Self dimension Choice dimension Time dimension
From Stories to Role Plays 1- Pupils listen to the story or follow it on the video. 2- The teacher reads the story and mimes the different scenes, modulating and changing tone of voice; the pupils listen and repeat the gestures.
From Stories to Role Plays 3- The pupils listen to or watch the story again and mime the characters’ gestures; the teacher does not ask them to repeat the dialogues, but if some pupils want to try, they should be encouraged, (making mistakes is a valid learning process).
From Stories to Role Plays 4- The teacher reads the story again, without miming while the pupils do the correct gestures. The children are not required to speak, but anything they choose to say is welcome!
From Stories to Role Plays 5- Pupils follow the story again this time they have to concentrate on what they see (either in the book or on the video) : the expressions of the characters, colours, objects, and backgrounds.
From Stories to Role Plays 6- The teacher asks the pupils to close their eyes, listen to the story and mime as many details as possible of what they have seen and heard. 7- Now the pupils are ready to speak.
From Stories to Role Plays 8- The pupils, divided into groups, are now ready to study the story; they know they will be asked to act out their stories in front of the class. 9- The teacher invites the pupils to bring or create objects or masks to make the story more realistic.