Using role play in developing speaking skill for senior students of Faculty of Tourism at University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam Naional University

1 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HÒA USING ROLE PLAY IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL FOR SENIOR STUDENTS OF FACULTY OF TOURISM AT UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SỬ DỤNG BÀI TẬP ĐÓNG VAI TRONG VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH NĂM CUỐI KHOA DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 HANOI-2010 VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, HANOI UNIVERSITY OF LANGUAGES AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES FACULTY OF POST-GRADUATE STUDIES NGUYỄN THỊ THANH HÒA USING ROLE PLAY IN DEVELOPING SPEAKING SKILL FOR SENIOR STUDENTS OF FACULTY OF TOURISM AT UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES AND HUMANITIES, VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY SỬ DỤNG BÀI TẬP ĐÓNG VAI TRONG VIỆC PHÁT TRIỂN KỸ NĂNG NÓI CHO SINH NĂM CUỐI KHOA DU LỊCH TRƯỜNG ĐẠI HỌC KHOA HỌC XÃ HỘI VÀ NHÂN VĂN, ĐẠI HỌC QUỐC GIA HÀ NỘI M.A Minor Programme Thesis Field: English Methodology Code: 601410 Supervisor: Dr Lâm Quang Đông HANOI-2010 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS VNU: Vietnam National University, Hanoi USSH: University of Social Sciences and Humanities TEFL: Teaching English as a Foreign Language GE: General English ESL: English as a Second Language CLT: Communicative Language Teaching TESOL: Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES FIGURES Figure 1: Activities used by the teachers at USSH TABLES Table 1: Procedure of a role-playing process Table 2: Types of interaction skills Table 3: Role play discourse analysis-Pair TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENT OF AUTHORSHIP i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS i ABSTRACT iii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS iv LIST OF FIGURES AND TABLES v PART A: INTRODUCTION .1 1.Rationale Aims of the study 3 Scope of the study .4 Research methods .4 Research questions Organization of the thesis PART B: DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER 1: LITERATURE REVIEW 1.1 Role-play 1.1.1 Definition 1.1.2 Types of role plays 1.1.3 Process of role-playing 1.1.4 Role-playing and current teaching techniques 10 1.2 Speaking skill 11 1.2.1 Oral skills and interaction 11 1.2.2 Types of interaction skills 12 1.3 Using role-play in class to develop students’ speaking skills 15 1.3.1 Is Role play for language learning or language practice? 15 1.3.2 Role play is language at work 15 1.3.3 Role play is language learning, not a theory .16 1.4 Teachers prepare students for role play 17 1.4.1 Different roles for different students 17 1.4.2 Role card 1.4.3 Doing about mistakes 18 1.4.4 Debriefing 19 CHAPTER 2: THE STUDY .21 2.1 Background to the Study 21 2.1.1 The settings 21 2.1.1.1 The syllabus .21 2.1.1.2 The teachers 22 2.1.1.3 The students .22 2.1.2 The problems 22 2.2 The survey 23 2.2.1 Subjects .23 2.2.2 Instruments of data collection 23 2.2.2.1 Interview 23 2.2.2.2 Classroom observation 23 2.2.2.3 Diary keeping 24 2.2.2.4 Follow-up questionnaire 24 2.3 Procedure 24 2.3.1 Interview .24 2.3.2 Class observation 24 2.3.2.1 The pre-test stage .24 2.3.2.2 Data analysis and presentation .25 2.3.3 Follow-up questionnaire .36 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS 37 3.1 Findings 37 3.1.1 Findings from interviews with teachers .37 3.1.2 Findings from the follow up questionnaire with the students 38 3.2 Implications and suggestions 40 3.2.1 How to integrate role play in the syllabus to develop speaking skills 40 3.2.2 Note for teachers when using role play activities .40 3.2.3 Some possible difficulties and suggestions to overcome them when using role play activities 41 PART C: CONCLUSION 42 REFERENCES .43 APPENDICES 10 PART A: 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 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 11 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 12 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 13 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, diary keeping, 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? Organization 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 presented, 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: “Findings and Implications” presents the findings from the study and proposes some practical suggestions for teachers at USSH, including the ways to integrate role-play in syllabus The last part of the study is the conclusion, which gives a summary and recommendations for the further study 43 e Presentation 2: Quan Ho singing and Lim Festival Tour guide’s presentation: The Lim festival opens on January 13th (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), 44 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) were in very good relations with each other Every year, at the 13th 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 45 silk gauze dresses, long white pants, black turbans (accompanied with a black umbrella) 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 2.3.3 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 46 CHAPTER 3: FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS The previous chapter has presented statistically the data collected from different sources, which are class observing via keeping diary, tape recording, interviewing, and questionnaire Following are the findings from the analyses of the data: 3.1 FINDINGS 3.1.1 Findings from interviews with teachers (See the questions for interview in Appendix A) With regard to Question 1, which is about point of view over the importance of speaking activities, all the teachers strongly agreed that speaking activities are of the most important factors affecting students’ speaking skill improvement When asked about speaking activities they know, most of the teacher tend to believe in themselves They confidently listed as many kinds of activities as possible like the following: cured conversation role play problem discussion cued story oral report picture story picture description picture sequence 10 information gap activity 1l sentence/ paragraph correction 12 sentence repetition 13 retelling a story 14 others As for the third question: “What speaking activities you often use in your speaking class to develop your students’ speaking skills?” The answers are varied Of 19 teachers, 12 chose the activities coded (1) which was 63%; teachers chose (2) accounting for 10%; teachers chose (3), 4), (12), (13) accounting for (37%) ; 14 teachers chose (5), (6), accounting for 74% while surprisingly only teachers (31%) chose (7), (8), (9), (10), (11), 47 (14) were chosen by 7,8,10,3 teachers (accounting for 37%, 42%, 53%, 15%), respectively The data was demonstrated in Figure below Figure 1: Speaking activities used by the teachers at USSH 80 60 40 20 10 11 12 13 14 When asked question “Do you often use role play activity in speaking class?” most of the teachers said that they sometimes tried to use them The last question asked about the use of activities in the text book, 12 of 19 teachers told the truth that they always followed the suggestions in the book They blamed this for the lack of time to replace them with other activities Only two teachers said that sometimes they replaced the hard activities by more appropriate ones As seen from the interview, the teachers at USSH prefer to use some types of speaking activities like: cued story, oral report (74%) sentence/ paragraph correction (53%), information gap activity (42%) Some others, which are rarely used, are role play (10%), picture sequence and picture story (37%) The activities used are not useful They cannot create the chance for the students to use the language freely and creative Furthermore, they cannot bring about the realistic, high output communication practice in the classroom In respect to the students’ limitations in interactions, lack of chance for real life use of the language, a conclusion may be drawn out that the speaking activities used by the teachers are not very effective 48 3.1.2 Findings from the follow up questionnaire with the students (See Appendix F) 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: It 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 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 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 Together with the students’ opinions obtained from the follow-up questionnaires, these findings point out several ways of integrating role play in the syllabus, and such implications and suggestions – the third research question the author tries to answer – include the following 49 3.2 IMPLICATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS 3.2.1 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 3.2.2 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 50  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  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 3.2.3 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 51 PART C: CONCLUSION 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 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 52 REFERENCES References in English 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 21 Lê Văn Canh (2004) Understand Foreign Language Methodology Nhà xuất Đại học Quốc gia Hà Nội 53 APPENDICES Appendix A The interview with the teacher Do you believe that good speaking activities are of great importance in improving students’ speaking skills? Can you name all speaking activities you know? What speaking activities you often use in your speaking class to develop your students’ speaking skills? Do you often use role play activities in the class? Do you follow the activities suggested in the text book or adapt them? Appendix B Role card 1: Telephone inquires Participants: pair ( one caller and one customer) Situation: “Mr Nam, the Advance Reservation Clerk at the Lakeside, is busy on the telephone Work in pairs and practice the conversation between Mr Nam and a caller” Advance Reservation Clerk: You work for the Lakeside Hotel You are taking an advance reservation by telephone Remember to ask the caller’s name, address and his/her telephone number and ask him/ her to confirm the booking in writing Caller: Your name is Mr James Your address in 42 Station Road, York, England; and your telephone number is 0904-53666 Telephone the Lakeside Hotel and book a twinbedded room from the afternoon of the 21st August to the morning of the 27th Ask about 54 the rate Appendix C Role card 2: Money exchange Participants: (one guest and one cahier) (Long- Mr Smith a guest; Trang a cashier) Situation: One guest arrives at the hotel He or she wants to change some dollars in to Vietnamese dongs Work with your partner and look at the list of VND exchange rates Change the sums of money below ( cash or traveler’s cheques) into VND Take turns to be the cashier and the guest Role card: Guest: You are going to book a room at Sofitel Hotel On arrival, you forgot to bring Vietnamese dongs You want to change a certain sum of dollars into Vietnamese at the hotel Ask the cashier about the exchange rate Cashier: Ask the guest the amount of money he wants to change 55 Exchange rate VND VND 1,000 GPB 20,900.00 HKD 1,550.00 USD 12,900.00 FRF 2,120.00 JPY 97.50 AUD 8,500.00 Appendix D Role card 3: Hotel and restaurant services Situation: You go to a famous restaurant 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 56 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 Appendix E Presentation 1: 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 57 Appendix F Follow-up questionnaire with the students What you prefer about the role play activities you took part in? Should role play activities be integrated in the oral syllabus?