Centro Universitario Regional

UNAN_CUR_CHONTALES
PROGRAMA UNIVERSIDAD EN EL CAMPO (UNICAM)
“Universidad del Pueblo y para el Pueblo”

Role Play in the development of Speaking Skill

Members:
 Lisbeth del Socorro Rodríguez Miranda
 Nancy Lorena Hernandez Sequeira
 Scarlett Zeledon

Teachers:
 Lic. Oscar Danilo Salazar
 Lic. Franco Salazar
 Lic. Luis Miguel Picado
 Lic. Angel Salinas

Career: Bachelor's degree in educational sciences with a major in English

Campus: Salto Grande

El Coral, June 23, 2024

INTRODUCTION

In this informative text, a topic of interest will be addressed in relation to roleplay in the
development of speaking skills. Roleplay is an instrument that is used to empathize with students
or a particular problem, the current educational context is used to enhance the comprehensive
progress of students not only in academic terms but also in social and emotional skills.

The focus of this text is to present the importance and benefits of roleplay in the educational
environment, highlighting its ability to promote dynamic and meaningful learning in a safe and
participatory environment through structured practice, promoting empathy, conflict resolution
and thinking critical.

Roleplay is important in the development of speaking skills because it allows students to express
themselves spontaneously and use their imagination to contextualize ideas and behaviors. It
helps them gain self-confidence, release skills and feel safe during practice.

With this technique, students obtain greater fluency in the English language by communicating
with their classmates in a relaxed and playful environment, which leads to better teaching since it
is considered an effective tool to develop oral skills because the participants appropriate certain
roles and handle them as real situations.
 DEVELOPMENT

Role Plays and the communicative approach are presented as beneficial methodological
strategies to improve oral production in English in students of different ages and educational
levels. In the current educational context, acquiring skills in a second language, such as English,
is essential for the academic and professional development of students. “The communicative
approach, focused on interaction and effective communication, has proven to be an effective
methodological strategy to improve oral production processes in English” (Acosta Coutín &
González Ramírez, 2020).

Role-playing games are interpretive games where the student has to assume the role of a
fictional or real character throughout a story or plot, where they interpret their dialogues. There
is no script, so the development of the story will depend on the creativity and ingenuity of the
characters/students and the development of their speaking skills.

Each player/student has to interpret a character with the characteristics that define it,
applying the skill of speaking for its development. Since there are no scripts, each person defines
the character of the character at their own discretion. In this way, he will improvise in the face of
situations that may arise.

“The objective of the game is to achieve a common goal and to achieve this, everyone's
cooperation is needed (although sometimes it does not happen). Each character will have
different skills and abilities,” according to the (MIGUEL DE CERVANTES EUROPEAN
UNIVERSITY, 2019).

The process of learning a foreign language is very similar to what is done when acquiring
and learning the mother tongue. In this sense, (Beltrán, 2017)comments that, “This process of
language acquisition requires the development of four skills: listening, speaking, writing and
reading.”

The place, (Agder.com.mex, 2019), establishes that “role playing” is a group dynamic
that allows language learning in a simpler and more dynamic way. Through dramatization or role
simulation, a particular real-life situation or case is represented. At the end of it, the members
and the audience hold a debate about each one's performance.
 (Solis, 2018), indicates that “role playing”, “It is the interpretation of roles and whose
sole purpose is not recreational and recreational leisure. During the role playing practice, the
participants (two or more) interpret a character.” It is similar to theatrical dramatization, only in
this case the members do not stick to a scripted story, but instead resort to improvisation under a
command outlined by a guide or director and applying the skills that we want to develop in them.
It has the particularity of being a cooperative game in which all its participants are actors and
spectators at some point in the process.

Importance of Role Play according to (Tres Puntos Learning, 2021):

Carrying out role playing in the classroom is important because it can provide enormous
benefits in the development of the English language as a second language, as long as it is
properly organized, following a series of phases and taking into account some essential factors
"It is an experience which you have probably experienced and which is in a training context to
develop your speaking ability, is an experience that can be very useful in the classroom if it is
properly organized and some factors are taken into account.”

As mentioned by (FACULTY OF EDUCATION OF PALENCIA, 2020), “Role-playing

is a very versatile technique to develop Speaking, since it allows us to adapt to different contexts
and be carried out by adults and children. Starting from the ability to speak in English, we will
prepare students to face new situations, constituting an excellent learning instrument.” This will
allow our students to begin solving subsequent conflicts, related to traditional, family, social
roles, etc.

According to (International House, 2024), these are the steps to take in organizing a Role
Play

Definition of the objective: Define the goal you pursue for your Speaking class: do you
want your students to practice vocabulary? What improve your social skills in the foreign
language English? Should they resolve situations and possible conflicts by applying speaking?
Define what your main purpose is.

Scenario selection: It can be an everyday situation, a job interview or a conflict situation.

For example, for role-playing activities in primary school, a scenario could be chosen in a candy
store or in the schoolyard through a conversation in English.
 Distribution of roles: Assign each student a character or role. They can be predefined
roles or that they themselves develop according to the communicative needs of the situation that
we want to present using English as a second language as a basis.

Game development: Let students interact according to their roles, apply their own
speaking skills, guiding them only if necessary. Of course, it is better to give clear and concise
guidelines beforehand, checking that all participants have understood them.

Feedback: At the end, discuss with the group of students what happened during the
activity, what they learned and how they felt when they put themselves in the role of that specific
situation.

Now, any new technique or strategy that is given the status of an educational resource is
because it is a useful means for the transmission of information, or it facilitates the learning
process of people who want to learn a new language.

In the case of role-playing in the classroom, both aspects are fulfilled, and it helps to
brilliantly promote the skills and abilities of the students in the ability to speak and in accordance
with (EUROINNOVA, 2023), among the most important benefits we have:

-Promotes creativity and imagination: If we talk about role-playing games in the

classroom, there are many available on the market. Each and every one has a context and a series
of particularities that make them different. But whatever we choose to apply inside or outside the
educational center, it will always be a help to promote imagination and creativity and the
development of English language skills.

-It is a way of introducing participants to a fictional world: With particular situations that
they must know how to represent. Of course, we can use different images or videos in English as
support to explain it properly, although the great weight of the entire action will depend on
assertive communication and the imagination of the young people.

-Develops the ability to make decisions: When we carry out a role-play in the classroom,
each participant will have to play a different role in the game, so they will be making decisions
for their character. These decisions will not have access in the real world, but they will serve to
face the adventure while the dynamic lasts and the teacher can evaluate the language capabilities
of his students.

-Along with the chosen options, they must be put before the situations that could arise as
the activity progresses. It may seem like a small thing, but this can help children learn to choose
wisely or meditate before taking any action in real life.

-Responsibility: This activity encourages participants to be responsible and know how to

make favorable decisions both for themselves and for the group in general, which favors
cooperative learning and the development of new experiences in the use of the English language.
Players must know that everything that happens in the role-play in the classroom will depend on
the decisions they make along the way and they must face the positive or negative consequences
of them.

Teamwork: We mentioned that scientists have largely studied these activities in different
fields of society. This has helped to determine and propose enrichment for the cooperation and
teamwork of those who participate in these activities. In them, everyone collaborates and puts
their skills to use to achieve a specific goal. And, as we all know, cooperative work is something
that will not only be experienced during classroom role-play, but in the real lives of students.

In Teaching: “Role playing in the classroom constitutes an active learning tool that
allows students to assimilate concepts in a more practical and enjoyable way.”(Santander
Universities, 2021). In this case, the students become active actors and the teacher is only
responsible for providing the necessary tools to carry out the role playing using Speaking skills
as a basis.

It is a technique applicable to all educational levels that increases the motivation and
interest of students, as well as improves skills such as empathy and teamwork.

An example of role playing in the classroom, specifically for English learners, would be
simulating a real trial with the aim of improving their skills and assimilating concepts. After the
activity, students can analyze and comment on the acts represented in a conversation.
 Apply Role-Playing to promote empathy in education, Role-Playing is not only a
technique of great value for transferring real-life situations to the classroom that will help the
student to apply them in their future life, it also means benefiting the student's participation and
encouraging their involvement and attention within the group, a pleasant and playful way. As he
points out,(Nebrija, 2023)“It is a method of great versatility, applicable and adaptable both for
Early Childhood Education, as well as in Primary and Secondary Education.”

Organization of a Role Play in the Classroom as expressed in the (UEMC,

2022):

This is one of the star activities in language classes, especially because it helps students
express themselves orally and practice vocabulary and you can organize it in each educational
space.

 Choose a topic that is interesting for that group of students and that helps in the
development of speaking. Take into account their age and their interest in the selected
topic.

 Define the objective for which you will develop it and integrate the necessary English
skills.

 Consider the level of your students. You will have to plan what vocabulary you want
them to review with the activity and what grammatical structures. Don't make it too
difficult for everyone to participate.

 Offer them some kind of help to avoid the mental block. They can be images that
represent some scenes, cards with vocabulary that they must use or even a short dialogue.

 Determine the time of the game. Surely in class, you will have students with different
learning levels.

 Provide feedback on what has been developed and evaluate the results.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Role Play According to (Roleplaying

Blog, 2023):

- Examines students' language skills.

 - Explore possible solutions to situations with a high emotional charge and train for
conflictive or tense situations through play.

- Increases understanding of a new language by adopting roles that involve assuming

attitudes different from those performed in real life.

- Achieve the identification of new vocabularies and use of speaking.

- Develops speaking, listening, reading and writing skills.

- It can provide greater language learning.

- It can be used to complement the learning of theories and to illustrate the emotional
dimension of a case study.

- You learn by doing and speaking is developed through practice.

- It is an effective way to change experiences and communicate in English.

-Lack of planning in conducting the method can lead to detrimental results.

- The artificiality of the situation can prevent the achievement of the objectives.

- Participants may not take the language learning method seriously.

-Panic when speaking in English.

- It can hurt the sensitivity of the people involved.

- For some it is very difficult to split their personality and speak in English out loud.

- Many participants may face a certain fear of making a fool of themselves in front of the group.
 CONCLUSION

It has been concluded that role-playing is an innovative strategy of great benefit to

students as it helps improve their oral skills through their active participation.

Participants manage to improve their pronunciation, grammatical vocabulary, speech

management and communicative interaction, contributing favorably to the development of
speaking.

It is an effective strategy in the teaching-learning process in oral English skills since it is

an advantageous instrument to promote skills, including reading comprehension and oral
communication, promoting socio-emotional and cognitive skills, enriching the educational
experience and preparing students. Students to face real-life challenges.

Students improve their ability to express themselves, therefore it is essential that teachers
demonstrate a positive attitude, identify each student's ability to adapt to factors, situations and
measure their fluency in the use of precise language by recording their actions.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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https://www.agder.org.mx/el-role-playing-como-activity-de-aprendizaje/

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