sáng kiến kinh nghiệm MAKING USE OF ROLE PLAY IN TEACHING ENGLISH AT HIGH SCHOOL

Improving the quality of teaching and learning has been a necessary issue, which concerns the whole society. Teaching and learning must be comprehensive innovation: content, objectives, methods, means and other requirements. Teaching today is to promote selfdiscipline, initiative and creativity of learners. In recent years, the documents of the State and of the Ministry of Education and Training emphasized the need to renew teaching methods. The focus of teaching method innovation is changing from the way of transmission of onesided teaching, mainly force the learners memorize knowledge, to positive ways with the guidance and help of teachers to promote activeness, self discipline, initiative, creativity, the spirit of cooperation, to create fun and excitement for learners, so that they can train their habit and ability in self learning, but how to have a flexible teaching approach, engaging the learner, evoking the learning desire of students. It is a question. Moreover, we all know it isnt easy to learn a language. The process of learning a language is not only complex but also very long. Learning English is the same. Theories and exercises in class will become useless if students are not taught how to apply what they have learnt into practice, because speaking another language in real life is completely different and often students are confused with their lists of memorized vocabulary and they dont know how to order in a restaurant or book a ticket at the airport …. Through teaching at high school, I realized that I need a new method that meets those requirements of learners. Using role play in teaching English is such a method. Roleplay is an effective technique to animate the teaching and learning atmosphere, arouse the interests of learners, and make the language acquisition impressive. My subject is making use of role play teaching English at high school. So in this writing, I will mainly focus on how to apply it successfully, make use of it and take the most advantage of it in English class and the final purpose is to bring daily situations into classrooms. Therefore learners can communicate in English as the second language (ESL) in classrooms as well as outside classrooms

SỞ GIÁO DỤC VÀ ĐÀO TẠO THANH HÓA

TRƯỜNG THPT HÀ TRUNG

SÁNG KIẾN KINH NGHIỆM

MAKING USE OF ROLE - PLAY IN TEACHING

ENGLISH AT HIGH SCHOOL

Người thực hiện: Nguyễn Cẩm Thủy Chức vụ: Giáo viên

Đơn vị công tác: Trường THPT Hà Trung SKKN thuộc môn: Tiếng Anh

THANH HÓA NĂM 2015

I INTRODUCTION

1 REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC

2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY

3 OBJECTS OF THE STUDY

4 DURATION OF THE STUDY

5 STUDYING METHOD

II PROCEDURE

1 RATIONALE

2 REALITY

3 RESULT OF THE REALTY

4 SOME PRINCIPLES OF USING AND MANAGING ROLE - PLAYS

5 STEPS IN CARRYING OUT ROLE-PLAYS

5.1 Preparation

5.2 Sample lesson plans

III CONCLUSION AND SUGESTION

1 THE RESULT OF THE SUBJECT

2 CONCLUSION

3 SUGGESTION

I INTRODUCTION

1 REASON FOR CHOOSING THE TOPIC:

Improving the quality of teaching and learning has been a necessary issue, which concerns the whole society Teaching and learning must be comprehensive innovation: content, objectives, methods, means and other requirements Teaching today is to promote self-discipline, initiative and creativity of learners

In recent years, the documents of the State and of the Ministry of Education and Training emphasized the need to renew teaching methods The focus of teaching method innovation is changing from the way of transmission of one-sided teaching, mainly force the learners memorize knowledge, to positive ways with the guidance and help of teachers to promote activeness, self- discipline, initiative, creativity, the spirit of cooperation, to create fun and excitement for learners, so that they can train their habit and ability in self - learning, but how to have a flexible teaching approach, engaging the learner, evoking the learning desire of students It is a question

Moreover, we all know it isn't easy to learn a language The process of learning

a language is not only complex but also very long Learning English is the same Theories and exercises in class will become useless if students are not taught how to apply what they have learnt into practice, because speaking another language in real life is completely different and often students are confused with their lists of memorized vocabulary and they don't know how to order in a restaurant or book a ticket at the airport …

Through teaching at high school, I realized that I need a new method that meets those requirements of learners Using role - play in teaching English is such a method Role-play is an effective technique to animate the teaching and learning atmosphere, arouse the interests of learners, and make the language acquisition impressive My

subject is "making use of role - play teaching English at high school" So in this

writing, I will mainly focus on how to apply it successfully, make use of it and take the most advantage of it in English class and the final purpose is to bring daily situations into classrooms Therefore learners can communicate in English as the second language (ESL) in classrooms as well as outside classrooms

2 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY:

Applying role - play in teaching English at high school is to achieve the following purposes:

- Contributing in renovation of teaching methods, improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning, adding knowledge and skills for teachers

- Making and using various and flexible teaching methods to help students learn and exploit knowledge actively

- Creating excitement for students, and deepening knowledge, promoting self-discipline, independence and creativity of students

- Equipping students the knowledge, values, attitudes, behavior and healthy habits, eliminating negative habits, to solve the social issues that are of concern

3 OBJECTS OF THE STUDY:

To implement the subject, I selected four classes: 10A, 10C, 10Đ, 10H in in school year 2013-2014 and four classes: 10A,10B,10H, 10G in school year 2014-2015

Number Of students: 367

Characteristics of Students: The students in the classes above include excellent and good students (10A), but most of the rest acquire knowledge slowly, they are timid and afraid of speech Therefore, when selecting these students, I hope that my method will increase student's interest and self confidence in learning English

4 DURATION OF THE STUDY:

The time for studying this subject is in two academic years 2013 - 2014 and 2014- 2015

5 STUDYING METHOD:

To study this content, I use some of the following methods:

- Reference document Method: search the theory of educators on the use of role - play

to create interest in learning for students in the educational materials and English materials related to the topic Collect documents, knowledge about role - play Thereby, filter the information with practical value, which can apply in order to illustrate and supplement, paraphrase, and deepen English language

- Observation Method: Regularly take part in colleagues' lesson to observe and learn enrich my knowledge and teaching skills

- Experimental Methods: Assess the skills of students as well as the effectiveness of role - play methods through the exercises, tests

II PROCEDURE

1 RATIONALE:

Learning to participate is an important skill for students at high school in today's multimedia world Role - play method contribute to improve the understanding of the complexities in professional practice and allows students to develop the skills to engage in multilateral discussions in a controlled environment of the classroom Role - play in the classroom can be done in many ways: online or face

to face interaction The duration of this process may vary depending on the objectives

of the operation Role-play requires students active in the learning process by allowing them to act as partners in a real or imaginary scenario It is an additional

technique for assignment forms and Traditional Teaching in High School In role -play, we can see:

- Teachers select an event or a special situation, which helps to clarify the theory or may be vital for the research topic

- When prepared, students are provided reading / basic topics and assigned the role of partners

- Forms of interaction between partners can be changed and may depend on the time and resources available

- Role - play was concluded by an exchange or reflects, reinforce the concepts introduced by the role - play method

Role - play creates a stimulating environment, realistic simulation that allows students to enhance the understanding of the situations acted by them Students gain a deeper insight about the key concepts by acting the discussed issues in class They also develop skills for professional practice

Role - play also introduce important concepts in professional practice as knowledge, how to create and develop it, especially the use of language and the construction of language, logic and the prominence of voices Students learn how to express knowledge in a meaningful and convincing way

Moreover, role- play clarifies the division and differences among groups and in the same group Acting in the classroom effectively demonstrate that different partners use different information sources and often organize separately, if not the opposite opinion, but the solution can be achieved Students learn to work with different personalities, beliefs, value systems, capabilities and experiences

Overall, role - play is a useful teaching method as it helps to develop practical skills and knowledge of academic expertise And role - play also meets the demand of the students who generally prefer practical approach to learn and expand knowledge through the experience simulation

2 REALITY:

Through investigation, exploration and attendance my colleagues' lessons and through the process of teaching at Ha Trung high school over the years I see that the process of teaching and learning English of teachers and students meet some limitation This comes from several reasons below:

Teachers at high schools are in the period of getting used to new English textbook Role - plays weren't used much in class, so a lot of us – teachers of English

at high school – get stuck in organizing role-plays effectively

Some teachers haven’t been clearly aware of the effectiveness of role - plays in teaching and learning a foreign language

What's more? Students haven't still found interested in learning English because many lessons are difficult as well as impractical for them to learn

So I find myself that besides using traditional methods as before, to make each English teaching and learning lesson more attractive, active, passionate for students, there is an extremely important solution that teachers should use role - plays to teach

and improve the quality of their work I also see that role - play method can be used

in all blocks: 10, 11, 12 and teachers should design suitable role - plays in lessons wherever they can

3 RESULT OF THE REALTY.

To understand the status of the studying problem, I have conducted a survey of the quality of students in classes 10A, 10C, 10Đ, 10H in my school in academic year

2013 to 2014 Before applying role - play method, the quality of the students is quite low

It is clearly that the quality of the subject doesn't really meet the educational objectives Thus, I found myself; the renovation of teaching methods in the classroom must be associated with the strengthening of passion, excitement of learners, helping them to achieve high results in learning Role - play bring more efficiency So, not much ambition with this topic, I just want to give some basic solutions in the application of role - play to solve problems that arise in the process of teaching English

4 SOME PRINCIPLES OF USING AND MANAGING ROLE - PLAYS:

The outcome shows there are some crucial factors for its success:

- The topic chosen should be real and relevant The purpose of role-play that applies

to practical usage in communication demands the flexibility of participants' words, generally speaking, the more approximately the activity access to reality, the more interests students will take in, so the choice of roles and contexts become very important

- The teacher:

+ needs 'feed-in' the appropriate language In the practice stage the teacher has a chance to 'feed-in' the appropriate language This may need the teacher to act as a sort

of 'walking dictionary', monitoring the class and offering assistance as and when necessary Try to think through the language the students will need and make sure this language has been presented Students may need the extra support of having the language on the board When the role-play began the students felt 'armed' with the appropriate language

+ should create a comfortable atmosphere so that the students wouldn’t feel nervous and pressed

+ as facilitator of the role-play, must support students in their role, spectator or participant

+ corrects errors in a proper way There are many ways to correct mistakes when using role-play It is rarely appropriate for the teacher to jump in and correct every mistake This could be incredibly de-motivating! Some students do like to be corrected straight after a role-play activity, while the language is still fresh in their minds Sentences with errors can be written on the board for the group to correct together Self-correction - the teacher should repeat the students' mistake sentence They may find it easy to spot their own mistakes Peer-correction - Fellow students may be able to correct some mistakes made by their peers or leave grammar correction to the end

- Incorporating role-play into the classroom adds variety, a change of pace and opportunities for a lot of language production and also a lot of fun!

- The more engaging the better The value of role-plays comes from students immersing themselves in the material

- Preparation is very important to success Give students 'personality cards' or power point slices which sketch out their personal characteristics or scenario Divide students into groups and give them time to sketch out various scenarios, and go over extra or special vocabulary, ask them to discuss how they will act, think about the character and plan what they will say

- Exaggeration is good! Encourage students to exaggerate their actions, opinions and movements Exaggeration helps students immerse themselves in the role

- Stage a rehearsal first Have students practice their role in small groups with coaching from the other students

- While the role-play or debate is in progress, have other students suggest vocabulary first, and act as backup if they do not know

Role-plays are unpredictable which makes them both a valuable learning tool and at the same time difficult to manage Sketch out the various routes the role-play can take from the initial scenario This will give you some ideas what to expect and avoid any surprises

5 STEPS IN CARRYING OUT ROLE - PLAYS:

5.1 Preparation:

- Chooses the topic, based on the topic of the lesson or the main grammar point of that lesson

- Prepares materials especially role-play cards (Teachers can make up the cards themselves, or search for them on the Internet) or role-play slices on Power Point)

- Provides students with enough language to be used in their role-plays

- Makes use of role - play in teaching It means that teachers should set up the scene for role-plays and use them in their teaching lessons as many as possible, especially

in Reading and Speaking

5.2 Sample lesson plans:

Sample 1 Unit 1: A day in the life of … (English 10)

B Speaking Family Role-play Duration: 45 minutes

Aim: Oral fluency practice

Summary: There are 4 roles: mother, father, brother or sister and Quan.

(Depending on the number of boys and girls in each group)

Introduction

The teacher introduces that today students will learn Speaking via role-play The teacher will divide class into groups of 4 students They play their roles in a happy family as mother, father, brother or sister and Quan

Preparation

Designs lesson plan on Power Point to show four cards providing the information that help each role what to say

Procedure

A WARM UP:

- calls two volunteers to go to the board

- asks one to write the names of the subjects they are learning at school, and the other write some phrase words about daily activities:

Student 1:

5 Civic education 10 Physical education

…

Student 2:

5 do house work 10 …

- leads in the new lesson

B PRE- SPEAKING:

- helps students to revise how to say the time: 7:15, 9:45, 18:30…

- guides students to make some questions:

+ What time do you start work?

+ What do you do in the afternoon?

+ When do you finish school?

…

C WHILE - SPEAKING:

- divides class into groups of 4 students and asks them to play roles as father, mother, sister or brother and Quan

- shows slices on power point that tell each role what to say

- asks them to looked at the slices and then play family role to tell about their daily activities

Father's routine:

- get up at 5:30

- take exercises

- water flowers and plants

- go to work and then start work at

7:00

- have lunch in the factory

- continue to work at 13:00 p.m

- drink beer with some fellows after

work

- go home at 18:00

Mother's:

- wake up at 5:00 a.m

- prepare breakfast for everyone

- rush into the market to buy food

- go to the school to give lectures for the students

- go home and cook lunch

- make lesson plan from 14:00 to 16:00 pm

- go shopping with the colleagues

- reach home at 18:15

Brother's or sister's:

- get up at 5:20

- jog round the garden in 20 minutes

- have breakfast

- have Literature, Maths, English and

Vietnamese from 7:00 to 10:15 at Tran

Phu primary school

- eat lunch at school

- learn Maths and Vietnamese in the

afternoon

- go home by bus at five

Quan’s:

- wake up at 5:45

- sweep the house

- have breakfast

- have Physics, Literature, Biology and Chemistry, History from 7:00 to 11: 05

- read books at 14:15

- watch TV at 16:30

- play football with classmates at 17:15

- ride home and take a shower at 18:15

- have dinner with family

- asks students to make dialogue as model, explain that they can change, add more or leave out the information if they want to make their conversation become smooth

- gives model dialogue and practice dialogue with some excellent students of the class: during dinner time:

Father: Honey! Are you working tired today?

Mother: No, honey As usual, I get up at 5:00 to prepare breakfast for all of us, then I

rush into the market to buy food and then go to the school to give lectures You know,

I have to make lesson plan from 14:00 to 16:00 pm but after that I have a wonderful time with my colleagues We go shopping together What about you? I am sure you have a hard day

Father: yes, quite hard I wake up at 5:30 and water the flowers and plants as you can

see I have to work at 7:00 and finish late We only have 30 minutes to have lunch, next we start afternoon work immediately We all feel tired because it is too hot today After work we drink beer and chat to relax

Mother: poor you! Quan, what lessons have you got this morning and what do you do

in the afternoon?

Quan: I have Physics, Literature, Biology and Chemistry, History, mom First, I read

books at 14:15, watch TV at 16:30, then play football with classmates at 17:15, finally, ride home and take a shower

Father: well done dear! What about you, my little boy (girl).You have English lesson today, right? What time do you have it?

Brother/sister: me? Oh yes I have English at 7:50.I also have Maths and

Vietnamese In the afternoon, I continue to learn Maths and Vietnamese

……

- leaves students some time to practice in group

- goes round to help them

- calls some groups to speak out before class

- feedback and corrects mistakes

D POST - SPEAKING:

- Asks students to close the books and talk about their daily routine (only mention their main/important activities

- calls some students to present in front of class

- feedbacks, then give them marks

Sample 2 Unit 4: Special education (English 10)