Contextualization in Longterm Role-Play

To further the growing emphasis on meaning in foreign
language classrooms, many classroom teachers have turned to role-play. Role-play
activities can increase student participation, give students an opportunity
to practice interactive communication skills and may, as Al-Khanji (1987)
stated, be "capable of renewing class interest and enthusiasm"
[and promote] "both teacher and student creativity and spontaneity"
(p. 12). In addition, role-play may help weaken the affective filter that
Krashen (1985) believes inhibits students from fully participating in and
gaining from classroom discussions due to lack of motivation, shyness, or
apprehension. Role-play activities can create learning situations and events
that encourage active student participation and reduce student anxiety because
they are fictional and therefore perceived as less threatening (Fellenz
& Conti, 1986). Role-play also compels students to pay more attention,
encourages them to focus on the meaning of language and use it creatively,
and increases their motivation, interest, and participation (Garr, 1988;
Horwitz, 1985; Rosen, 1993; Smith, 1986).

Weaknesses of role-play are identified by Horwitz (1985), who points
out that in role-play activities only a few students can participate, leaving
the rest of the class inactive; role-playing is dependent on the students'
"poise, creativity, and acting ability" (p. 206) and the differences
in student comprehension levels can leave many of them "confused and
frustrated" (ibid., p.206). In addition, because most role-play is
not goal oriented and is usually dominated by more fluent students, producing
artificial conversations to gain fluency may not work for the majority of
students (Smith, 1986).

Longterm Role-Play

Longterm role-play is a modification of role-play which allows students
to develop and use a character throughout a number of activities (Long,
1986). Since it is difficult for students to assume roles for short periods
of time, longterm role-playing enables students to "relax and grow
into their second selves" (Long, p. 148). Once students are comfortable
with their new personas, they perceive actions and words to be "directed
toward (their) assumed identities . . . rather than toward them personally"
(Long, p.145), which reduces their anxiety level and increases their confidence.

In longterm role-play, students choose their roles based on their interests
and needs (Nizegorodcew, 1987). This increases their interest and motivation
in the role-playing activities and can lead to scenarios that can be sustained
throughout the course (Horwitz, 1985). In addition, longterm role-play enriches
vocabulary for the whole class, personalizes cultural information, and breaks
the conventional question and answer format of traditional classrooms (Clark,
1982; Long, 1986). Perhaps most importantly, longterm role-play facilitates
student communication by giving them schema and context from which they
can construct meaning in and outside of the classroom.

To overcome the weaknesses of role-play and exploit its strengths, we
have developed a longterm role-play technique which focuses on the creation
of schema and context before the simulations begin. This technique can be
used to practice a variety of language skills learned throughout an entire
semester and compels all students in a large class to simultaneously participate
in the simulated activities. Students are provided with appropriate language
support to complete the tasks and have freedom to say what they wish.

The following activities have been successfully implemented in Japanese
university integrated skills courses which emphasize conversation with 30-40
low intermediate to advanced English majors. One class period is 90 minutes
long, and classes meet four times per week. Table 1 summarizes the time-frame
for a one-semester longterm role-play.

Table 1: Activities Time-Frame

Contextualized Longterm Role-Play

Students are prepared for contextualized longterm role-play with a pair
information-gap activity which provides an overview of what longterm role-play
is and what the students will do, suggestions on how to make the activities
successful, and an explanation of its goals. Using handouts provided by
the teacher, one student in the pair explains that they will create for
themselves fictional role-play characters from English speaking countries.
During certain activities they will assume those characters and discuss
their personalities, hometowns, possessions, problems, and occupations,
and react to situations, questions, and events from the characters' point
of view. The student also reinforces the idea that they should follow their
own interests when creating their characters.

The other student in the pair explains that to complete the activities
successfully they must research how people live in the country their characters
come from, acquire the vocabulary they need to discuss their characters'
lives, and remember that their characters are native English speakers who
think and speak in English at all times. In addition, the student explains
the goals of the role-play: (1) to acquire vocabulary sufficient to discuss
various topics; (2) to acquire grammatical structures and speaking skills
appropriate to specific situations; (3) to experiment with language used
in different social relationships and situations; and (4) to increase confidence
in using English.

Step One: Regional Studies

Students begin with a three-week study of a region of an English speaking
country of their choice. For example, students interested in the United
States can choose one of eight regions to study: the Northeast, the Old
South, the Southwest, the Great Lakes region, the Great Plains and Rocky
Mountains region, the West, the Northwest, or Hawaii and the Pacific Islands.
In small groups interested in the same region, students work through a series
of communication tasks. These tasks progress from one week of teacher-assigned
and controlled vocabulary development, listening, writing, and communication
tasks to a week of student controlled research assignments, and culminate
in a week of presentations where the small groups teach what they have learned
about their region to their classmates.

To illustrate, a group of four students who were interested in the American
Southwest began their study by splitting into pairs and reading either an
essay concerning the Grand Canyon or one about San Antonio. After reading
the essay and answering vocabulary and comprehension questions prepared
by the teacher, the students exchanged partners and told each other about
what they had read.

Next, the group watched a segment about the region from the video America--Catch
the Spirit (U.S. Department, 1987) and together answered the accompanying
vocabulary and comprehension questions. When they had finished, each student
chose a different tourist attraction or place found in the region, researched
it, and wrote a short report describing its location, what you can do and
see there, its industry, its cultural attractions, and its history. When
they had completed their reports, they presented them to the other members
of their group. Using the university library and the Internet, the members
of this group wrote about and reported on the Dallas/Fort Worth area, Carlsbad
Caverns National Park, the Colorado River, and Roswell, New Mexico.

Finally, the group prepared and gave a class presentation on the six
places already researched plus two more. This took the form of a tour through
the region suggesting where to go, what to do, places to stay, things to
see and learn, how to travel between sights, and how much transportation,
hotels, and tourist attractions cost.

During this three-week unit, students acquired knowledge about the area
from which their characters would come and the ability to talk about it.
In the process, they learned important facts, statistics, and cultural information
concerning the region which increased their vocabulary and world knowledge
as well as helped them build schema for creating their role-play characters'
personality and history.

Step Two: The Personal Profile

Next, the students develop their characters' profile and personal history.
The character profile consists of the character's name, age, nationality,
hometown, occupation, place of work, family, interests, goals, and a short
personal history. The students create all this information using the knowledge
gained in Step One.

For example, a student who was interested in the American Southwest created
a character named Emmett L. Brown, a 65-year-old FBI investigator from Roswell,
New Mexico. According to his personal history, when he was 16 years old,
the United States government was said to have covered up a UFO crash in
Roswell. This incident changed Emmett's life. He devoted his life to UFOs,
collected information on them, and dreamed of proving "what really
happened in Roswell back in 1947."

Another student who studied the Great Lakes region created a 27-year-old
cellist for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Her character grew up in Urbana,
Illinois, studied music at the University of Illinois and in Austria, and
liked to play tennis. Students later used these initial interests as the
basis for further research and discussion.

Step Three: Character Development: Input, Production, and Practice

The personal profiles are the starting point for a series of teacher
created sub-units that cover personal information such as hometowns, families,
occupations, living arrangements, habits, hobbies, personal qualities, hopes,
and predictions. Each sub-unit follows a pattern of language input, production,
and practice which can be completed in one or two class periods.

In the language input stage, the instructor provides vocabulary, grammatical
forms, and phrases the students will need to discuss the sub-unit topic.
In the production stage, the students apply this input to produce their
own ideas based on their role-play characters' profile and background. In
the practice stage, the students assume their characters and use their ideas
in discussions with their classmates. Throughout each sub-unit the instructor
takes note of common errors and problems to review and correct at the end
of each class or at the beginning of the next class period.

For example, students begin one sub-unit in small groups going over a
list of phrases used to introduce hopes and predictions. They then watch
a teacher-produced video (Edwards, 1996) featuring three native English
speakers discussing their hopes and predictions for one year, five years,
and thirty years. These speakers say things such as "By this time next
year, I'll probably have a new job," or "Within five years, I'd
like to travel more in Southeast Asia." During the first showing, the
students listen for specific hopes and predictions. In a second showing,
they listen for the language used to introduce each hope or prediction.
Finally, they compare their answers and listen one last time to confirm
them.

In the production stage, students review grammatical forms used to express
future tenses and help one another describe their role-play characters'
hopes and predictions. The contextualized longterm role-play lets the students
express hopes and predictions they would not normally have. For instance,
the student whose character was the cellist from Chicago would perform in
all the famous concert halls of the world by the year 2000; another student
who created a baker from Indianapolis wanted to spread her bakery chain
around the world before she was sixty-five; and a third who was a table
tennis player from Las Vegas hoped to be world champion within five years.

During the practice stage, students receive a handout explaining that
they must interview three other characters to find out at least three things
about their futures. After making their questions, they circulate around
the class gathering the information. They then relate it to a fourth student.
The repetition of interviews and the relaying of information require the
students to recycle information, vocabulary, grammatical forms, and phrases
thus aiding the language acquisition process.

Step Four: Teacher-Constructed Simulations

In the teacher-constructed simulations, the students use the information
and skills they have developed in actual discourse to achieve linguistic
and functional objectives such as describing places, people and things,
discussing past events, giving advice, or making future plans. These simulations
require one or two classes each and follow the pattern of input, production,
and practice. After each simulation, there is a period of teacher error
correction and assessment and student self-reflection in the form of learning
logs.

The simulations begin when the students (in character) arrive in Japan
for an extended stay and find they need a roommate. Their search begins
at a simulated party where they introduce themselves and make small talk
with the intention of finding three potential roommates. They later interview
these people to find out about their habits, hobbies, qualities, and daily
routines with the goal of finding a suitable roommate. The roommates play
a key role later because they are the ones to whom each student will describe
the events and outcomes of future simulations.

Once they have found their roommates, the students plan a social schedule
for the coming week. They arrange a date with a different member of their
class (anyone except their roommate) for each night of the week and verbally
report that schedule to their roommates. They then create and describe one
of the dates. Students who decided to go out together on Tuesday night create
the scenario for what happened and then tell their roommates about it (see
Appendix). The date simulation can lead into other simulations such as marriage,
honeymoons, relationships that go wrong, travel scenarios, relocation plans,
moral dilemmas, or dangerous events. The number of possibilities for simulations
is as enormous as the number of events in life and limited only by the instructor's
and students' imaginations.

Students reach the linguistic/functional objective of each simulation
basing all their desires, hopes, intentions and arguments on what they know
of their role-play characters. For instance, a role-play character that
doesn't drink and usually retires early avoids a roommate who likes to party
and listen to loud music. Another who hates driving argues against living
in the country where a car would be necessary. A third who is an environmental
activist tries to convince others that recycling is important.

Step Five: Student-Created Simulations

In the final stage, groups of four or five students plan a 20-minute
drama for their characters in one of several possible settings, such as
a group hike in the mountains, a New Year's Eve party, a crowded train or
plane, or a house on fire. The only restriction placed on the students is
that they use what they know about their role-play characters to decide
what they say and do in the drama. Each group writes its drama's dialogue,
practices it, and revises it. During this time, the instructor monitors
progress, makes suggestions, helps with dialogue, and corrects errors. The
groups then perform their dramas for the class and are videotaped. Later,
the tapes can be used for group and self-assessment, and feedback from the
teacher.

Our students created some interesting communicative events not normally
associated with the classroom. For example, one group, which included the
FBI agent, was involved in an encounter with a UFO on a flight over the
Pacific that led into a time-travel scenario. In another simulation, a drunken
lion tamer from Seattle accused a group of American tourists on a Tokyo
train of stealing his lion with hilarious results. In a third group, a pair
of dedicated environmentalist decided to take a group of politicians hostage
in order to publicize their cause. However, they inadvertently abducted
the wrong party and ended up trying to justify their actions to a group
of businessmen.

Conclusion

Contextualized longterm role-play gives students time to develop the
context they need on which to base communication and the creative freedom
to use it. It exploits the strengths of role-play by helping students overcome
the affective filter, maintain concentration for longer periods of time,
focus on the meaning of the language, and feel increased motivation for
learning. It also avoids one of the major weaknesses of role-play by requiring
all students to participate in the activities simultaneously. In addition,
it minimizes student confusion and frustration by giving them sufficient
learning goals, time to develop the necessary schema to take on a role,
and sufficient language support to achieve the task. Most importantly, by
allowing students to create and sustain role-play characters for the simulations
used in class, they can be comfortable, creative, and successful in developing
their ability to communicate in English.

Note: All times are approximate and are based on 90-minute class periods.
It is best to have each activity last one day especially if classes are
separated by a number of days.

References

Al-Khanji, R. (1987). Strategic interaction: A method
that enhances communicative competence. (ERIC Document Reproduction
Service No. ED287301).

Clark, J. (1982). Some sociolinguistic and discourse
analysis considerations in oral proficiency interviews. (ERIC Document
Reproductions Service No. ED247762).

Edwards, J. (1996). Hopes and predictions. Unpublished
lesson plan with in-house produced videos. Kanda University of International
Studies.

Fellenz, R. & Conti, G. (1986). Putting variety in
the ESL classroom: From theory to practice. Adult Literacy and Basic
Education, 10(3), insert.

Garr, M. (1988). How writing, acting, and monitoring
create good advanced conversation. Paper presented at the annual meeting
of the Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages. Chicago, IL,
March 8-13.

Horwitz, E. (1985). Getting them all into the act: Using
audience participation to increase the effectiveness of role-play activities.
Foreign Language Annals, 18(3), 205-208.

Krashen, S. (1985). The input hypothesis: Issues and
implications. Harlow: Longman.

Long, S. (1986). A strategy for long term role-play in
the second language classroom. Foreign Language Annals, 19(2),145-148.

Nizegorodcew, A. (1987). Discussion Classes at University
Level. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED286372)

Rosen, E. (1993). Tips from the classroom: Role-playing
in large classes. TESOL Journal, (3), 20-34.

Smith, F. (1986). Is role-playing an effective EFL teaching
technique? (ERIC Document Reproductions Service No. ED274203)

U.S. Department of Commerce. (1987). America - Catch
the spirit. Washington, D.C.: U.S.A. Travel and Tourism Administration.

Appendix: Teacher-Constructed Simulation: The Date

(Real name: )

Name:

You are going to tell your roommate about the date you went on Tuesday
night.

Task 1: With the person you went out with on Tuesday night discuss what
you did and how the evening went. Try to answer the questions below. Try
to provide as much detail as you can. In addition, include an unusual event
that happened on your night out (i.e., You were robbed coming home or found
\1,000,000 in a taxi.) Use your dictionaries, your teacher, and your classmates
to learn the vocabulary you need to talk about your date. Remember you are
talking about past events so think about when and in what order the events
occurred. Make notes as you work.

1. Was the event simply completed in the past? (simple past verb)

We ate at a Chinese restaurant in Harajuku.

1. Was the event completed before another event or time in the past? (had
   + past participle)

By 8:00 we had eaten our dinner, so we decided to go to a bar for
drinks.

1. Was the event in progress at a specific time in the past or when another
   event occurred?

(was/were + -ing form)

We were waiting for a taxi, when it started to rain.

What did you do there?

What did you see there?

Who did you meet there?

Did you have a good time?

Where else did you go?Who did you go with?

When and where did you meet? Where did you go?

How did you go there?

What time did you get there?What else did you do?

What time did you leave?

How did you go home?

Why did an event happen?

Write notes about your Tuesday night out.

Task 2: Now join your roommate and tell him or her about your Tuesday
night out.

Task 2a: If your roommate is telling you about his or her Tuesday night
out be sure to ask questions when you don't understand something, need new
words defined, or want to know more about something