"Do YOU want to play a game?"

Role-play for teaching English

“Now it's my turn to be a teacher”

   Majority of teachers wants to stimulate conversation and teaches beforehand phrases and vocabulary, that’s why teachers use the role-play. Usually, at the end of the lesson teachers ask pupils “Do you want to play a game?” and the answer is obvious – “Yes”. In fact, role-plays are used to allow pupils to practice speaking in a conversational situation, build confidence and fluency, assess progress, and put learning into action. And by letting pupils practice in pairs or small groups, every child can be involved in the role-play exercises and enjoy the benefits of role-play.

   Sure, you ask me " What's the connection between role-playing and learning English?" The answer is clear: firstly, you are often set up target particular frammar points - simple past tense, future with "going to", infinitives, etc. Secondly, you can test social interaction skills such as negotiating, interrupting, asking for assistance and making small talk. Thirdly, role-plays may be as simple or as complicated as the teacher desires; verbal instructions, secret messages, gestures are all common ways of setting a scene.
   How can we use the role-play in the classroom? Here 4 types you should put into practice:

1. The conflict role-play puts participants on a collision course and asks them to deal with this as best they can. Situations might include attempting to change an airline booking at a peak time or asking a noisy neighbor to turn down the stereo. They test language skills under pressure and are best for pupils who have some maturity and confidence in their abilities.

2. The cooperative role-play takes the opposite tack and requires participants to work together for the common good. Planning a party for the teacher, deciding the food list for a barbecue, brainstorming ways to attract tourists to local attractions are all cooperative role plays. Often involving ‘safe’ situations, cooperative role plays are good for gently easing shy pupils into conversations and for building relationships within a pupil group.

3. Information gap role-plays are based around filling in holes in the participants’ knowledge. Answering questions from customs officers, asking for timetabling details, making a library card or interrogating a murder suspect are all information gap type situations. If based on the pupils’ real selves these role plays are simple to set up, but fictitious situations may require more elaborate preparations. They are an excellent way to practice question and answer patterns and prepare pupils for real-life encounters.

4. Task-based role-plays require participants to complete a set activity such as checking into a hotel, giving directions to a taxi driver, ordering a meal or getting the phone number of a potential love interest. They are useful for helping pupils to practice realistic survival English skills and are an excellent way to build pupils’ confidence in their ability to function in real situations.

     As for me, the best type of role-play is the fourth – task-based role-play. The most appropriate situations of role-play are «The National Gallery», «The British Museum», «National Portrait Gallery», «Tower of London», «Wellington arch», «The Royal Shakespeare Theatre», «The Westminster Abbey».

     Let me give an example of role-play on the basis of situation "The National Gallery".

Teacher: Where is the London National Gallery situated?

Student 1: The National Gallery is an art museum in Trafalgar Square in the City of Westminster, in Central London.

Student 2: We aim to provide a friendly, accessible environment for all our visitors and the widest possible access to our buildings, exhibitions and collections. If you need any other assistance during your visit to the Museum our staff will be happy to help you.

Student 3: The National Gallery founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The Gallery is an exempt charity, and a nondepartmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Its collection belongs to the public of the United Kingdom and entry to the main collection is free of charge.

Student 4: The National Gallery opened to the public on 10 May 1824, housed in Angerstein’s former townhouse at No. 100 Pall Mall. Angerstein’s paintings were joined in 1826 by those from Beaumont’s collection, and in 1831 by the Reverend William Holwell Carr’s bequest of 35 paintings. Initially the Keeper of Paintings, William Seguier, bore the burden of managing the Gallery.

Student 5: Where can I see two paintings from Blenheim Palace, Raphael’s Ansidei Madonna and Van Dyck’s Equestrian Portrait of Charles I?

Student 6: Some of the Gallery’s most significant purchases in this period would have been impossible without the major public appeals backing them, including The Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John the Baptist by Leonardo da Vinci (bought in 1962) and Titian’s Death of Actaeon. I would like to see these paintings.

     Lastly, role-play lightens up the atmospheres and brings liveliness in the classes. Pupils 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 teachers more often in the classrooms.

Have fun!