LUÂN VĂN THẠC SĨ KHOA HỌC GIÁO DỤC SỬ DỤNG BÀI TẬP ĐÓNG VAI TRONG VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH VIỆT NAM CUỐI KHOA DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN , ĐAIỤ HỌC QUÔC GIA HÀ NỘI L

1 INTRODUCTION Rationale English has become the most essential language in the world used by almost all people from many different countries for international communication The area of English study has also become a special interest because of the importance of English in any scope of our lives Julian Edge (1996) said: “Since British trade, followed by colonial and imperial expansion, English spread around the world Then the military and economic dominance of the United States of America has confirmed English as the international language of present historical period In international relationship, English speaking ability is very important so people must be able to participate in the wider world of work The speaking skill is measured in terms of the ability to carry out a conversation in the language This reality makes teachers and parents think that speaking ability should be mastered by their students and children Based on the above reasons, in recent years, English language teaching has focused on teaching the language rather than teaching about the language The emphasis is not only on linguistic competence of the language learners but also on the development of their communicative ability In order to develop the learners’ communicative ability, the teacher needs to create a scenario to teach the target language in a vibrant, active and interesting manner In learning speaking skill, students often find several problems The problem frequently found is that the influence of their native language makes it difficult to use the foreign language Another reason is the lack of motivation lack to practice the foreign language in daily conversation They are also too shy and afraid to take part in the conversation Many factors can cause problems of the students’ speaking skills namely the students’ interest, the material, and the media among others including the technique in teaching English Many techniques can be applied including role play because many research findings say that this technique is effective to use Role play is very important in teaching speaking because it gives students an opportunity to practice communicating in different social contexts and in different social roles In addition, it allows students to be creative and to put themselves in another person’s place for a while According to Stephen D Hattings (2007) based on his observation in the conversation class, the role play would seem to be the ideal activity in which students could use their English creatively and it aims to stimulate a conversation situation in which students might find themselves and give them an opportunity to practice and develop their communication skill For these reasons, the writer is interested in analyzing the use of role play in teaching speaking for the students of Faculty of Tourism at University of Social Sciences and Humanities She wants to show that using role play in developing students’ speaking skill offer a variety of benefits A very wide variety of experience can be brought into the classroom through role play The range of functions and structures, and the areas of vocabulary that can be introduced, go far beyond the limits of other pair or group activities, such as conversation, communication games, or humanistic exercises Through role play we can train our students in speaking skills in any situation Role play puts students in situation in which they are required to use and develop those phonic forms of language which are so necessary in oiling the works of social relationships, but which are so often neglected by our language teaching syllabuses Many students obtain information from that language teaching syllabuses Many students believe that language is only to with the transfer of specific information from one person to another They have very little small talk, and in consequence often appear unnecessarily brusque and abrupt It is possible to build up these social skills from a very low level through role play Some people are learning English to prepare for specific roles in their lives: people who are going to work or travel in an international context It is helpful for these students to have tried out and experimented with the language they will require in the friendly and safe environment of a classroom For these students, role play is a very useful rehearsal for real life It enables them not just to acquire set phrases, but to learn how interaction might take place in a variety of situations Role play helps many shy students by providing them with a mask Some more reticent members of a group may have a great deal of difficulty participating in conversations about themselves, and in other activities based on their direct experience These students are liberated by role play as they no longer feel that their own personality is implicated Perhaps the most important reasons for using role play is that it is fun Once students understand what is expected of them, they thoroughly enjoy letting their imagination rip Although there does not appear to be any scientific evidence that enjoyment automatically leads to better learning, most language teachers would probably agree that in the case of the vast majority of normal people this is surely so Finally, role play is one of a whole gamut of communicative techniques which develops fluency in language students, which promotes interaction in the classroom, and which increases motivation Not only is peer learning encouraged by it but also the sharing between teacher and student of the responsibility for the learning process Role play is perhaps the most flexible technique in the range, and teachers who have it at their fingertips are able to meet an infinite variety of needs with suitable and effective role play exercise In brief, the needs of teaching about the language not the language itself, designing interesting speaking activities, and getting students to involve in oral activities are the reasons why the writer is interested in conducting this research Aims of the study The purpose of the study is • To find out the importance of role play in developing speaking activities used by the teachers at University of Social Sciences and Humanities • To examine the use of role-playing as a speaking activity in helping develop students’ speaking skill The researcher hopes to change some ways in the choice of speaking activities, which is for the sake of students, not for the sake of the activity Scope of the study Because of its small scale, this study tries to examine how using role-play develops speaking skill in a number of aspects, such as accuracy, fluency, lack of hesitations, turntaking and negotiations of meaning Also, this study is limited to the context of USSH with the participation of twenty- five senior students at Department of Tourism Research methods The study is carried out employing the following techniques: holistic class observation done via tape recording, keeping diary, interviews and especially discourse analysis Research questions The study tries to answer the following questions: What are the current speaking activities used at University of Social Sciences and Humanities to develop students’ speaking skill? How could role-play help developing students’ speaking skill? How could role-play be integrated into the current teaching syllabus to develop the students’ speaking skill? Design of the thesis The thesis includes three parts The first part: “Introduction” introduces the motivation for the research, defines the specific aims, scope, methods and research questions The second part consists of three chapters The first chapter, Chapter “Literature Review” gives an overview of role-play and speaking skill The second chapter, Chapter 2: “The study” tries to answer the two research questions of the study In this chapter, background information for the study is given, giving the premises for the next part Then there is the detailed description of how the study is carried out, including methods and procedure and summary of the findings of the study Chapter 3: “Applications” proposes some practical suggestions for teachers at USSH, including the way to integrate role-play in syllabus In this chapter some difficulties and some recommended solutions are also presented The last part of the study is the conclusion, which gives a summary and recommendations for the further study CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, some theories related to role-play are reviewed, including the definitions of role-play, their characteristics, and types of role-play as well as the process of carrying out a role-play as an oral activity Then there is a discussion of what role-plays are The chapter is ended with the relation between role-play and speaking skill Role-play 1.1 Definition In Cambridge International Dictionary of English (2004) role is defined as the person whom an actor represents in a film or play, while role play is a method of acting out particular ways of behaving or pretending to be other people who deal with new situations It is used in training courses language learning and psychotherapy In this case, Gillian Porter Ladousse (1996) illustrated that when students assume a “Role”, they play a part (either their own or somebody else’s) in specific situation “Play” means that is taken on in a safe environment in which students are as an inventive and playful as possible According to Crookal and Oxford (2007), there is a little consensus on the terms used in the role playing and simulation, games, role play, simulation-game, role play simulation, and role playing game There seem to be some agreement; however, simulation is a broader concept than role playing Simulations are complex lengthy and relatively inflexible events Role play, on the other hand, can be a quite simple and brief technique to organize It is also highly flexible, leaving much more scope for the exercise of individual variation, initiative and imagination Role play is included in simulation as well In defining role play, Donn Byrne (1976) gave comments that role play is a part of drama activity In details, he described that there are three items to cover the drama activities They are mime (mimicry-memorization), role play and simulation He distinguished the terms as follows: a Mime, the participants perform actions without using words (although as we shall see, this activity leads naturally on to talk) b Role play, the participants interact either as themselves or others in imaginary situations c Simulation, this involves role play as defined above However, for this activity the participants normally discuss a problem of some kind with some setting that has been defined for them Both role play and simulation are commonly used in foreign language classes to facilitate communicative competence whereas mime seems to be more appropriate as a language game It is performing actions without using words For instance, if someone mimes and action, the others try to guess what it is Another definition is stated by Joanna Budden (1999) in British Council Teaching English (BBC) on her article with the title “Role play” She said that 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 What is meant by imaginary people is that students can become anyone they like for a short time The President, the Queen, a millionaire, a pop star…, the choice is endless Students can also take on the opinions of someone else “For and against” debates can be used and the class can be split into those who are expressing views in favour and those who are against the theme Functional language for a multitude of scenarios can be activated and practiced through role play in imaginary situations “At the restaurant”, “Checking in at the airport”, “Looking for lost property” are all possible role plays From those explanation above, the writer views role play as a technique which involves fantasy or imagination to be someone else or to be ourselves in a specific situation for a while, improvising dialogue and creating a real world in scenario It aims at the students to encourage thinking and creativity, let the students develop and practice new language and behavioral skills in a relatively non-threatening setting and can create the motivation and involvement necessary for learning to occur 1.2 Types of role plays In view of the persons taking an actor, Gillian (1996) explained that there are several types of role The first is the roles which correspond to a real need in the students’ lives In this category, it involves such roles as doctors dealing with patients, or salesman traveling abroad The second type of role is the students play themselves in a variety of situations of which they may or may not have direct experience The example for this category is a customer complaining or a passenger asking for information The third type is the type that few students will ever direct experience but it is easy to play because the teachers have such vast indirect experience of them The television journalist is a good example of this type and it is very useful kind of role taken from real life The last type is fantasy roles, which are fictitious, imaginary, and possibly even absurd In case of role play activities, according to Donn Byrne (2007), role play can be grouped into two forms, scripted and unscripted role play In details, those types of role play activities are described as follows: a Scripted Role Play This type involves interpreting either the text book dialogue or reading text in the form of speech The main function of the text after all is to convey the meaning of language items in a memorable way For more details, Adrian Doff (1997) gave an example of scripted role play dialogue and reading text and how the process is Angela: Good morning I want to send a letter to Singapore Clerk: Yes, you want to send it by air mail or ordinary mail? Angela: I think I’ll send it air mail I want to get there quickly How much does it cost? Clerk: To Singapore? That will be 30 pence, please? Angela: (give the clerk 50 pence) Here you are Clerk: Here’s your stamp, and here’s 20 pence change Angela: Thank you Where is the post office? Clerk: You want the air mail box It’s over there, by the door (Adapted from Living English book 2:A.G.A bdalla et al-1999) To demonstrate a role play activity based on the dialogue, the procedures given by Adrian Doff is as follows: 1) First, the teacher guides the role play by writing these prompts: (Where? / air mail/ how much? / post box? / thanks) Talk as you write to show what the prompts mean 2) If necessary, go through the prompts one by one, and get students to give sentences or question for each one 3) Call two students to the front: one plays the role of Angela and the other one is the post office clerk They should improvise the conversation using the prompts to help them Point out that the conversation should be similar to the one in the textbook, but not exactly the same; the conversation can be shorter than the presentation dialogue and it should just cover the main points indicated by the prompts 4) Call out a few other pairs of students in turn, and ask them to have other conversation based on the prompts Based on the procedures, the writer views that the ways of organizing this dialogue can be carried out into pairs of students who would improvise a conversation privately with their partners before they act it out in front of the class b Unscripted Role Play In contrast to scripted role play, the situations of unscripted role play not depend on textbooks It is known as a free role play or improvisation The students themselves have to decide what language to use and how the conversation should develop In order to this activity, good preparation from teacher and students is really necessary The example and procedures of unscripted role play which are adapted from Adrian Doff’s book are as follows: One student has lost a bag He/she is at the police station The other student is the police officer, and asks for details To bring out these ideas: 1) The teacher could prepare the whole class, by: a) Let them discuss together what they may say b) Let them all try out the role play privately, before calling on one or two pairs to act out in front of the class Susan House (1999) explained that there are several procedures in using role play: a Students read and familiarize themselves with the dialogue b Divide the class in pairs, A and B, give A and B roles from the dialogues c Let students act out their role play, not just say them but students should read it loudly d Walk around correcting and checking e Students swap roles and repeat, those finish first can be asked to make up their own role play, using different words to fill gaps The above procedures not mean an exact to be used It is flexible; teacher can create or develop procedure which is appropriate and suitable with his/ her own class 1.3 Process of role-playing According to John (1982:31-37) each role-playing activity has four-part structure: preparation, introduction, activity and debriefing This is set out in Table 10 Table 1: Procedure of a role-playing process Preparation Ensuring students’ familiarity and confidence with interactive learning Assessing students’ needs, interests, and abilities Selecting or writing the role-play activity Organizing the room and gathering resources Introduction Information input: tasks, roles, background Learners engage in information collection tasks Language input: useful lexis, structures, genres, discussions strategies, research skills, etc Activity Group discussions and works on tasks Work arising from discussions, e.g report writing or oral presentations Debriefing ( optional) Behavior: task review, discussion of tactics employed, assessment or performance, possible discussion of cultural aspects Language: analysis of language used, discussion of errors, remedies work, further linguistic input 1.4 Role-playing and current teaching techniques Role-playing fits well with the recent emphasis on action learning and “task” as both a communicative instructional technique and a concept of curriculum planning (Candlin 30 Cashier: Today it’s twelve thousand dong to the dollar Guest: OK Cashier: How much you want to change, sir? Guest: A hundred dollars Cashier: Right, sir That’s one million two hundred thousand VND Cashier: Thank you, sir Some analyses are reviewed from the above dialogue Two students play roles as a hotel guest who wanted to change dollars into Vietnamese Dong and a hotel cashier Two students practised the conversation basing on the given situation They used the correct language items in order to get the aim of the communication For example, when the guest needs to change some dollars into Vietnamese Dongs, he says “Can you change these dollars into VND (Vietnamese Dong) for me? Alternatively, the hotel cashier asks “How much you want to change?” They understand their role and switch their turns well A remark drawn from this conversation is that when given a certain situation and assigned with a role, students can play their roles well to achieve the aim of communication The ability, correct usage of language items and turn-taking improve during the process of performing the roles c Role play 3: See Appendix D Hotel and restaurant services Situation: You go to a famous hotel along with your husband You order food and drinks by telephone Guest: You order food and drinks by telephone For the starter, you want to have prawn cocktail for you and melon for your husband For the main course order veal and peas for you and roast beef for your husband Both you and your husband would like to have tea Your room number is 302 31 Floor waiter: Take the order from the guest Remember to ask her what they would like to have for the starter, the main course and the dessert Ask about the time and the room number Guest: Hello, Room Service This is room 302 We’d like to order dinner for tomorrow Floor waiter: Yes, madam What would you like? Guest: We’d like to start with prawn cocktail for me and melon for my husband Floor waiter: Right, sir One prawn cocktail and one melon Guest: Good And then veal and peas for me and roast beef for my husband Do you have different marmalades? Floor waiter: Yes, madam We’ll put a selection of preserves on your tray And is it tea or coffee? Guest: Tea, please, but with melon, not milk Floor waiter: Fine, and could you give me your name, madam? Guest: It’s Sands Mr and Mrs Sands, room 302 Floor waiter: Thank you, madam 32 In order to develop students’ speaking skill, role play activities are not only performed with situations at hotel or restaurants but also with presentations with situations like being a tourist and tour guide The following are some presentation activities between a tourist and a tour guide d Presentation 1: See Appendix E Hoi An Task: Work in groups of five students One student is a tour guide, and the others are tourists Role card Tourists: Four tourists ask as many questions as possible about Hoi An Tour guide: Make presentation on Hoi An and answer tourists’ questions 33 Tour guide: Hoi An lies 30 km south of Danang on the banks of the Thu Bon River Hoi An has other names like Lam Ap Pho (Champa City) During the period of China trade, the town was called Hai Pho (Seaside Town) The town is known to the French and Spanish as Faifo Hoi An was an international port in the late sixteenth century and reached its apex in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries At that time Hoi An had trade links with China, Japan, Siam, the Malay Peninsula, Luzon, and even European countries such as England, France, Holland, and Portugal The town grew prosperous exporting silk, sugar, gold, cinnamon, sandalwood, pepper, areca nut, ceramics, timber, tortoise shell, rhino horn, bird nests Hoi An has a distinct Chinese atmosphere with low, tile-roofed houses and narrow streets; the original structure of some these streets still remains almost intact All the houses were made of rare wood, decorated with lacquered boards and panels engraved with Chinese characters Pillars were also carved with ornamental designs In 1999, the old town was declared World Heritage by the UNESCO, as a well- preserved example of a Southeast Asian trading port of the 15 th to 19th centuries, whose buildings display a unique blend of local and foreign influences Hoi An is an outstanding material manifestation of the fusion of cultures over time in an international commercial port Hoi An is an exceptionally well preserved example of a traditional Asian trading port There are some activities for tourists in Hoi An Tourists can see Japanese Covered Bridge, on the west end of Tran Phu Street Built in the early 1600’s by Japanese community, roughly 40 years, and renovated in 1986, it’s the symbol of Hoi An They can see Quan Cong Temple, 24 Tran Phu Street, Hoi An Museum of History and Culture, Nguyen Hue Street, Museum of Sa Huynh Culture, 149 Bach Dang Street, Phung Hung House, Nguyen Thi Minh Khai Street Traditional two-story wooden house, inhabited over 100 years by eight generations, Quan Thang House, 77 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Tan Ky 34 House, 101 Nguyen Thai Hoc Street, Cantonese Assembly Hall (Quan Dong), 176 Tran Phu Street, Built in 1885, Fujian Meeting Hall (Phuc Kien), 46 Tran Phu Street, built in 1757, Chinese All- Community Meeting Hall (Trieu Chau), 157 Nguyen Duy Hieu, built in 1887 Besides, tourists can go swimming on Cua Dai Beach, enjoy some cooking lessons offered at several restaurants around town They can buy made-to-measure suits of 40 USD, shirts 10 USD, skirts 7-10 USD and dresses10-14 USD Cloth market is located next to the Central Market and looks like a cloth warehouse Yaly, Tran Phu Street, has a great and extensive range of fabrics to choose Thanh Ha Pottery Village-about km west of town, this traditional village has been making pottery for more than 450 years Kim Bong Carpentry Village is about km west of town In Hoi An, there are some specialties such as Cao Lau, white rose, a type of shrimp dumpling made from translucent white dough bunched up to look like a rose or wantan (hoanh thanh) dumplings, essentially the same as the Chinese kind, served up in soup or seep-fried Tourist 1: Why did Hoi An lose its role of an international commercial port? Tour guide: The first reason is that at the end of 18 th it was destroyed by the civil war between Tay Son and Nguyen Lord The second reason is that ever increasing deposit in Thu Bon river, prevented big ships to enter Hoi An The third reason is that the colonist French built Da Nang port Tourist 2: Why are houses in Hoi An decorated with eyes? Tour guide: Because people in Hoi An believe that men and animal have eyes to see and so things and the eyes serve both as decorative purpose and for protecting the people inside from evil spirits Tourist 3: Why is the title named yin-yang title? Tour guide: Because this curve tile was imported from China and Japan from 16 th- 18th century and the titles when roofed are arranged in two layers The upper layer is turned over and called “ yang” and the lower layer is turn upward and called “ yin” e Presentation 2: 35 Quan Ho singing and Lim Festival Tour guide’s presentation: The Lim festival opens on January 13 th (lunar year), in Noi Due commune, Lung Giang (Lim) village, Tien Son district, Bac Ninh province, 25 km from Hanoi I would like to talk about Lim festival’s legend A native woman in Noi Due commune, named as Ba Mu, became a Buddhist monk at the Lim pagoda and, thereafter, reached enlightment When a serious drought hit the village, the inhabitants came to the pagoda and begged her for assistant and the drought was ended As a result, the villagers of Lung Giang, worshipped her as their Village Spirit Protector and took the date of her enlightment as the date of the festival Elaborate preparations are made several months in advance for the Lim Festival: intense training is done by individual groups of male and female singers, then several song exchanges are rehearsed and invitations are sent to famous Quan Ho song groups to attend the festival During Lim festival, Quan Ho folk songs are performed between groups of singers In addition to singing performances, the Lim festival is also celebrated with traditional temple games such as swinging, human chess, wrestling and more But the Quan Ho folk song performance remains the most striking feature of the festival Next, I would like to talk about Quan Ho singing I terms of history, Hat Quan Ho camt to life a little later in about the 16th century The singers who have been called the Queens of Quan Ho were Mrs A Nuong from Tam Son and Mrs Nam Nong from Lung Giang The princess Dang Thi Hue, Viceroy Trinh Sam’s wife, was considered as having the merit of developing this folk song According to ancient books, the forty-nine Quan Ho practicing villages have all turned to Diem Xa (Diem village-Yen Phong county-Bac Ninh province), to consider it as the village of origin of Quan Ho One of the old popular tales narrates as follows: in order time, Lung Giang village (Liem village) and Tam Son village (Tu Son) 36 were in very good relations with each other Every year, at the 13 th of the first lunar month, Tam Son village held a festival and invited five or six elderly men and five or six elderly women together with a great number of young singers of Lung Giang to come and participate to the festival The village elders and young men of Tam Son went out to the Mandarin Road to welcome the friends from Lung Giang and invite them to go into the communal house to attend a banquet and afterward to participate in the singing party Alternatively, each time the young men of one of the villages had sung the girls from the other village would reply in singing Such singing competitions lasted all night until the morning of the following day According to people of ancient time: Every year at springtime the Ly Kings always returned to their native locality, Kinh Bac, to hold joyful fesivals Each time, the fleet of dragon boats of the king entered Thien Duc River (or Duong River), the kindred and officials of the Ly family, all stood on the two banks of the royal canal which is reserved to welcome royal dragon boats They sang hymns of praise clapping their hands and sang songs praising the king to the rhythm of the boat’s oars and to the rhythm of the castanets of the chief Rower The king often gave special traditions feast, granted money, silk and opened an official sanity party who recited poems and sang Since then on, this kind of folk-songs bears the name of Quan Ho songs, or the song of the Officials and the Kindred Quan Ho is often performed in teams or in individual singers It can be performed indoors or outdoors Indoor performance involve elaborate preparations and thoughtful hospitality, with a host and a hostess providing Quan Ho-styled food, tea, betel and a convenient and clean room Outdoor performance can be seen in open air spaces and around the Lim Hill Usually a pair of women starts, presenting challenge phrase lasting three to eight minutes A pair of men of the opposing team responds with matching phrase, which must match the melody of the women’ song in order to be considered correct Next it will be the men’s turn to challenge the women with a song that can be completely different from the previous pair of songs The song exchange is most multifaceted, involving analogies, questions and replies, quizzes on a myriad of subjects All messages must be in songs with occasionally some explanations to further elucidate the ideas Virtually all songs heard in festivals express personal subjects such as unfulfilled love, expectation, longing, and intimacy With regard to costumes, men wear back long silk gauze dresses, long white pants, black turbans (accompanied with a black umbrella) 37 Women wear traditional long red crepe dresses provided with trimmings of various colors, rosy belt, golden ear rings Tourist 1: What does “Ket cha” mean? Tour guide: It means to make friends Two person pledge themselves to a special friendship for life, in which both partners love and help one another as if they were full brothers or sisters Tourist 2: Why can’t Quan Ho singers get married to each other? Tour guide: Actually, quan ho singers can’t get married to each other only when they ket cha When two Quan ho villages ket cha singers of the two villages can never be allowed to get married However, singers of the villages who don’t ket cha with each other can get married Tourist 3: What is the difference between indoor and outdoor performance? Tour guide: the indoor performance, which requires preparations and thoughtful hospitality, is for the invited singers Meanwhile, outdoor performance is for uninvited quan ho singers from the neighborhood, who came to enjoy and to find friends 4.2.2 Follow-up questionnaire After taking in three role plays, the students were asked to answer three open ended questions in a written questionnaire (See Appendix F) For more comments, they were asked to use Vietnamese, and then their answers were translated into English The first question asked students to compare the role play activity with other speaking activities having been used by the teachers Twenty students regarded this technique more productive than other activities they had experienced before: S1: It was fun because the students were in control of the situation rather than the teacher is telling what we should next S2: I was useful experience because the parts of the role play activity didn’t come straight out of a textbook S3: Each thing we did was related to the next, so I had the chance to try many things at once 38 S4: I felt confident and happy when I had a chance to participate in the class activity I was shy to so in other activities S5: It simulated the pressure of the real thing and allowed me to see whether I had mastered my English or not The second questions asked what they like most about those role play activities S1: It was fun S2: I like it because I can say what I intended to say The language used was not restricted to the cued language The final question asked to find out if they wanted to have role play activities in their speaking syllabus Twenty students suggested that it should be done immediately and that they expected them in the syllabus CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS This chapter has so far presented statistically the data collected from different sources, which are class observing via keeping diary, tape recording, interviewing, and questionnaire Based on the results of the study, the discussion has been proposed, and the key findings have been drawn These findings are: The answers to question indicate that the activities often used by teachers at USSH to develop students’ speaking skill are cued story, oral report, sentence/paragraph correction, information gap activity and they are not effective (See Figure 1) The answers to the follow-up questionnaire reveal that role play could help develop speaking skill for students by creating realistic environment for the target language use and offering students opportunities to use the language Students have the chance to try in many situations and master English These findings added with the students’ opinion got from the follow-up questionnaire encourage the researcher to think about the way of integrating role play in the syllabus, which is discussed in detail in the next chapter CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS This chapter discusses how role play should be integrated in the syllabus at Tourism Faculty to develop speaking skills for the students and the issues to be considered when 39 using role play in speaking classes Also this chapter identifies a number of possible difficulties in order to help the teachers think about the solutions to overcome them How to integrate role play in the syllabus to develop speaking skills As role play could help develop speaking skills, they should be considered an essential and integral part of the language syllabus As a general principle, role play should be given enough time for students to realize their importance, and enough prominence outline of the syllabus for students to understand that role play are a unique education technique, particularly suited to language teaching A question is that role play can be fit into the syllabus and at what stage We can turn back to the aim for the course, role play chosen should match with the aim That is, if the aim is to develop students’ interaction skills They should create the realistic environment for developing speaking skills If the syllabus is focused on developing students’ presentation skill when being a tour guide, role play activities are more emphasized Then teacher should make lessons plan carefully such as outlining clear steps for preparing role play for students When senior students come to the end of the course, the course should be aimed at providing them with knowledge related to the subject matter and helping students develop speaking skills The course books are Presentation in English, Going International, and High Season There should be one role play activity every two week or three weeks It can be integrated into each lesson as separate activity or the one which replace the inappropriate existing activity in the book Note for teachers when using role play activities When role play activities find their place in the syllabus, the following key points should be noted when they are used • A teacher should know before hand that her/ his students are familiar with the technique, if not a detailed briefing should be carried out • She/ he must make sure that the role play activities matches well with her students’ level of language, culture and interest Also in this stage, the thing like room, space, hardware should be considered and prepared in advance 40 • Roles should be best allocated at random, which accords with the nature of role play It is fair as everyone has the same chances • The role of a teacher in a role play is the Controller A controller should not either interfere too much or ignore student and he/she should be available anytime for help when needed Some possible difficulties and suggestions to overcome them when using role play activities When using role play activities in the language class, teachers may encounter some difficulties For inexperienced teachers, using them is really challenging They may feel insecured of using something new Furthermore, a role play activity may run well in this teaching context but not others Even experienced teachers may also find it difficult when their traditional roles change that is, they are not teachers anymore but controller This may make them feel as if they lost power in the eyes of their students Other difficulties may be also foreseen, e.g is the shortage of sources for language role play activities, the weighty demand of classroom requirements In order to overcome those obstacles and fully benefit from role play activities, teachers should consider the following suggestions • Inexperienced teachers should learn about role play activities and how to employ and make use of them in class • To make sure a role play activity fit well in a particular teaching context, a trial run of it may be needed The participants may be other teachers • It is incorrect to think that teachers are the people who are very powerful It is imperative to think about the role of a Controller in a role play activity that is participating in the role play activity at right time, providing help, observing students’ behavior and giving assessment • When there is a lack of source of role play activity, teachers should think about the ways to adapt the existing ones, or rewrite new ones CONCLUSION Summary of the study 41 In this study, the author has already tried to • Provide background information to the study • Review theories that are relevant to the aims of the study • Apply the research methods to seek the data from different sources • Explore the oral activities used in the classroom • Discuss findings from the analysis of the data collected • Suggest implications in terms of theory and practice In short, I would like to emphasize that I not see role play as the only one technique appropriate for developing students’ speaking skill, but they are practically possible for our context It is expected that the study will provide a basis for further attempts to design a suitable oral syllabus and more effective techniques for teaching speaking to students in Vietnam and at USSH-VNU, in particular Further research The presentation and discussion of the results indicate that the teachers at USSH should think about the choice of oral activities The implications in terms of theory and practice have been proposed in this study However, a number of pertinent questions could be raised for further investigation Given that the sample size was small, and that the study was confined to a small context and was conducted in a short period of time, the study merits further research with a large sample size, in a broader context if the results are to be generalized The number of the participating teachers should be increased and context extended beyond the Tourism Faculty at USSH-VNU REFERENCES References in English 42 Allwright, R.L and K.Bailey (1991) Focus on the language classroom Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Bafa Bafa (1997) Shirts, R.G Simile II, Del Mar, California Bygate, M (1978), Speaking Oxford University Press Brown, G and Yule, G (1983), Discourse Analysis Cambridge University Press Canale, M and Swai,M (1980) Theoretical bases of communicative approaches to second language teaching and testing Cambridge University Carter, Rand Nunan, D, (2002) The Cambridge Guide to Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Cambridge University Press Chelle.de.porto,B Developing speaking skills by creating your own simulations for our EFY courses Vol 35 No 3, July-September 1997, Page 51 Crisis (c.1996) Developed by Western Behavioral Science Institute, Simile II, Del mar, California Fraenkel, J.R and Wallen, N.E (1996) How to Design and Evaluate Research in Eduaction US: McGraw-Hill Inc 10 Gay,L.R (1996) Educational Research New Jeysey: Prentice-Hall, Inc 11 Gass, Susan M (1997) Input, Interaction, and the Second language Learner.Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates 12 Hyland, K (1989) Buzz groups in the conversation class Modern English Teacher 13 Nunan, D (1989) Designing tasks for the communicative classroom Cambridge University 14 Nunan, D (1991) Language Teaching Methodology UK: Prentice-Hall International 15 Nunan, D (1991) Research Methods in Language Learning Cambridge University Press 16 Gillian Porter Ladouse Role Play Oxford: Oxford University Press 17 Stevick, E.W (1976) Memory, meaning and method Rowley, Mass Newbury House 18 Thomas,L.Good and Jere, B, Brophy (1987) Looking into Classroom, New York 19 Wilkins, D.A (1975) Second Language Learning and Teaching London: Edward Arnold 20 Widdowson, H (1983) Learning purposes and language use Oxford: Oxford University Press References in Vietnamese 43 21 Le Van Canh (2004) Understand Foreign Language Methodology Nhà xuất Đại Học Quốc Gia Hà Nội TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES .v APPENDICES ... such as England, France, Holland, and Portugal The town grew prosperous exporting silk, sugar, gold, cinnamon, sandalwood, pepper, areca nut, ceramics, timber, tortoise shell, rhino horn, bird nests... syllabus to develop speaking skills As role play could help develop speaking skills, they should be considered an essential and integral part of the language syllabus As a general principle,... According to Crookal and Oxford (2007 ), there is a little consensus on the terms used in the role playing and simulation, games, role play, simulation-game, role play simulation, and role playing game