Role Play
Definition
According to Chaturvedi (2008), role play can be defined as a technique in which people are presented wit a real or artificial environment and they are exposed with some find of case or situation and they need to exhibit the same in form of roles.
It is a spontaneous human interaction involving realistic human behavior under artificial or stimulated environment .It consists of interviews or series of interview in which the participants or the trainees are provided with a role brief and a s et of circumstances which they need to enact.
The trainee develops a strategy to how should he react or think in a particular situation and possible suggestive solutions for resolving the problem or analyzing the situation .He also learns and forecasts what the other party or as per the case may be what can be the other reaction. This technique thus not only leads to self learning about expected job outcome or to create a fit in the job but also helps in understanding others perception about the task or issue.
Many teachers confuse role playing and drama. Although they are similar, they are also very distinct in style. Perhaps the most strategic point of difference is the handling of the subject matter: genuine drama usually requires a script, whereas role playing retains the element of spontaneous or at least extemporaneous reaction.
Types of role-play
There are various types of role plays, such as:
- Multiple Role Play – In this type of role play, all trainees are in groups, with each group acting out the role play simultaneously. After the role play, each group analyzes the interactions and identifies the learning points.
- Single Role Play – One group of participants plays the role for the rest, providing demonstrations of situation. Other participants observe the role play, analyze their interactions with one another and learn from the play.
- Role Rotation – It starts as a single role play. After the interaction of participants, the trainer will stop the role play and discuss what happened so far. Then the participants are asked to exchange characters. This method allows a variety of ways to approach the roles.
- Spontaneous Role Play – In this kind of role play, one of the trainees plays herself while the other trainees play people with whom the first participant interacted before.
Why should I use role-play?
Role playing can be used with students of most ages. The complexity of the role situations must be minimized in using the method with children. But if we keep it simple for their limited attention spans, role playing can be used even in teaching preschoolers.
- Role playing allows people to make mistakes in a nonthreatening environment. They can test several solutions to very realistic problems, and the application is immediate. It also fulfills some of the very basic principles of the teaching-learning process such as learner involvement and intrinsic motivation. A positive climate often results in which one can see himself as others see him.
- The involvement of the role playing participants can create both an emotional and intellectual attachment to the subject matter at hand. If a skillful teacher has accurately matched the problem situation to the needs of his group, the solving of realistic life problems can be expected.
- Role playing can often create a sense of community within the class. Although at first it may seem a threatening method, once the class learns to share a mutual confidence and commitment to the learning process, the sharing of analysis over the role situations will develop a camaraderie never possible in monological teaching methods such as the lecture.
Benefits of role-play
a) It helps in both cognitive and effective development of trainees and better learning by doing.
b) It permits practice by repetition and helps in better reinforcement
c) It also helps in improving human relation since it helps I developing empathy
d) It helps in making people sensitive towards others
e) It helps in better SWOT analysis of individuals and thus the feedback given helps in identifying and overcoming the deficiencies.
f) It enables the role player to control his behavior and enact as if he is enacting in a real life situation
g) It helps in bringing attitudinal changes in the employees as trainees
h) It is a more practical approach than other technique since in this the learning by doing and feedback that whether a behavior reflected is acceptable or requires change can be given.
Tips on successful classroom role-play
Prepare for success
Role-play is possible at elementary levels providing the students have been thoroughly prepared. 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. I recently did a 'lost property office' role-play with elementary adults and we spent time beforehand drilling the structures the students would need to use. When the role-play began the students felt 'armed' with the appropriate language. At higher levels the students will not need so much support with the language but they will need time to 'get into' the role.
The role of the teacher
Some of the possible teacher roles are:
- Facilitator - students may need new language to be 'fed' in by the teacher. If rehearsal time is appropriate the feeding in of new language should take place at this stage.
- Spectator - The teacher watches the role-play and offers comments and advice at the end.
- Participant - It is sometimes appropriate to get involved and take part in the role-play yourself.
Bring situations to life
Realia and props can really bring a role-play to life. A group of my young learners recently played the roles of pizza chef and customer. A simple cone of white card with CHEF written on it took a minute to make and I believe it made the whole process more fun and memorable for the class. As soon as it was placed on their heads they 'became' the pizza chef and acted accordingly.
Rearranging the furniture can also help. If you are imagining you are at the tourist information office or at the doctor's surgery try to make it as real as you can. Students can even leave the room and make an entrance by knocking on the door.
Keep it real and relevant
Try to keep the roles you ask students to play as real to life as possible. It may be hard for students who have little opportunity to travel to imagine they are in 'Ye Olde Tea Shop' in the heart of the English countryside. However, it may be within their schema to imagine they have been asked to help an English speaker who is visiting their own country. This may involve using some L1 to explain about the local culture or to translate local menus into English for the guest to their country.
Students working in the business world may find it easy to role-play a business meeting with colleagues visiting from abroad. If you are working with young children, try to exploit their natural ability to 'play'. They are used to acting out a visit to the shops or preparing food, as that is how they play with their friends.
Feed-in language
As students practise the role-play they might find that they are stuck for words and phrases. 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. If you are not happy doing this and you feel that the process of finding the new language should offer more student autonomy, you could have 'time-out' after the practice stage for students to use dictionaries to look up what they need.
As mentioned in the role of the teacher section, feeding-in the language students need is fundamental. By doing so, they will learn new vocabulary and structure in a natural and memorable environment. It is a chance to use real and natural language.
Role-play can be a lot of fun for both teachers and students! Why not try it out?
Recommended Web 2.0 Tools
- Second Life - http://secondlife.com/
- Pixton Comics - http://www.pixton.com/
- Secret Builders - http://secretbuilders.com/home.html
- Wiglinton & Wenks - http://wiglingtonandwenks.com/
Comments on a Role-Playing session
The role-playing was part of my course "Collaborative Learning & New Technologies". Three aspiring collegues used the virtual environment of Second Life and designed a role play based on the poem "Of the Dead Brother". The students (represented by avatars) assumed the roles of the main characters of the poem and acted out the story virtually.
The result was really impressive! Using their imagination & creativity, the students turned the poem into a play and created a 7 minute video clip. In this way, they had the chance to interact and collaborate with their peers, make decisions, see the result of their decisions, as well as have a deeper understanding of the characters' life and emotions at the time that the poem was written.
The students loved the role play and were greatly involved in it. The only "bad thing" was that it was a very time consuming activity not only for the students but for the teacher too.
References
http://bible.org/seriespage/teaching-through-role-playing
http://www.indianmba.com/Faculty_Column/FC896/fc896.html
http://www.teachingenglish.org.uk/articles/role-play
http://traininganddevelopment.naukrihub.com/methods-of-training/games-and-simulations/role-plays.html