Role Play in Teaching Culture: Six Quick Steps for Classroom Implementation

Maria A. Kodotchigovamashamaria2001 [at] yahoo.comTomsk State University, Russia

An extended version of this paper first appeared in:Sysoyev, P.V. (Ed.). (2002). Identity, Culture, and Language Teaching. Iowa City, IA: Center for Russian,

East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Abstract

As language and culture are interrelated, language cannot be taught without culture, but there are many ways of co-teaching language and culture. One of them is role play. This paper addresses the issue of role play in teaching foreign language and foreign culture. It introduces a step-by-step guide to making up a successful role play and examines role play in preparing learners for intercultural communication.

Introduction

There are different ways of teaching second/foreign language (L2) culture. One of them is a role play. Though the concept of role play is not new, scholars did not find agreement on the definition of the terms. Such words as role play, simulation, drama, and game are sometimes used interchangeably, but, in fact, they illustrate different notions. Some scholars believe that the difference between role play and simulation is in the authenticity of the roles taken by students. Simulation is a situation in which the students play a natural role, i.e. a role that they sometimes have in real life (e.g., buying groceries or booking a hotel). In a role play, the students play a part they do not play in real life (e.g., Prime Minister, Managing Director of a Multinational Company or a famous singer). The other scholars consider role play as one component or element of simulation (Greenblat, 1988; Crookall & Oxford, 1990). Thus, in a role play, participants assign roles which they act out within scenario. In a simulation, emphasis is on the interaction of one role with the other roles, rather than on acting out individual roles. One way, or the other, role play prepares L2 learners for L2 communication in a different social and cultural context.

In this paper, I decided to express my understanding of teaching culture with a role play and I will use the term ãrole playä to determine a teaching technique in which the students are asked to identify with the given familiar or non-familiar roles and to interact with the other role characters within the given sociocultural situation.

A Step-by-Step Guide to Making a Role Play

There have already been some attempts to introduce a guide to making up a role play (Shaw, Corsini, Blake & Mouton, 1980; Milroy, 1982; Livingstone, 1983; Rodriguez & White, 1983; Horner & McGinley, 1990). Scholars suggest different steps and various successions in applying role play in teaching. Based on the empirical evidence, we suggest our step-by-step guide to making a successful role play.

Step 1 - A Situation for a Role Play

To begin with, choose a situation for a role play, keeping in mind students' needs and interests (Livingstone, 1983). Teachers should select role plays that will give the students an opportunity to practice what they have learned. At the same time, we need a role play that interests the students. One way to make sure your role play is interesting is to let the students choose the situation themselves. They might either suggest themes that intrigue them or select a topic from a list of given situations. To find a situation for a role play, write down situations you encounter in your own life, or read a book or watch a movie, because their scenes can provide many different role play situations. You might make up an effective role play based on cultural differences.

Step 2 - Role Play Design

After choosing a context for a role play, the next step is to come up with ideas on how this situation may develop. Students' level of language proficiency should be taken into consideration (Livingstone, 1983). If you feel that your role play requires more profound linguistic competence than the students possess, it would probably be better to simplify it or to leave it until appropriate. On low intermediate and more advanced levels, role plays with problems or conflicts in them work very well because they motivate the characters to talk (Shaw, Corsini, Blake & Mouton, 1980; Horner & McGinley, 1990). To build in these problems let the standard script go wrong. This will generate tension and make the role play more interesting. For example, in a role play situation at the market the participants have conflicting role information. One or two students have their lists of things to buy while another two or three students are salespeople who don't have anything the first group needs, but can offer slightly or absolutely different things.

Step 3 - Linguistic Preparation

Once you have selected a suitable role play, predict the language needed for it. At the beginning level, the language needed is almost completely predictable. The higher the level of students the more difficult it is to prefigure accurately what language students will need, but some prediction is possible anyway (Livingstone, 1983). It is recommended to introduce any new vocabulary before the role play (Sciartilli, 1983).

At the beginning level, you might want to elicit the development of the role play scenario from your students and then enrich it. For example, the situation of the role play is returning an item of clothing back to the store. The teacher asks questions, such as, 'In this situation what will you say to the salesperson?', 'What will the salesperson say?' and writes

what the students dictate on the right side of the board. When this is done, on the left side of the board the instructor writes down useful expressions, asking the students, 'Can the customer say it in another way?', 'What else can the salesperson say?' This way of introducing new vocabulary makes the students more confident acting out a role play.

Step 4 - Factual Preparation

This step implies providing the students with concrete information and clear role descriptions so that they could play their roles with confidence. For example, in the situation at a railway station, the person giving the information should have relevant information: the times and destination of the trains, prices of tickets, etc. In a more advanced class and in a more elaborate situation include on a cue card a fictitious name, status, age, personality, and fictitious interests and desires.

Describe each role in a manner that will let the students identify with the characters. Use the second person 'you' rather than the third person 'he' or 'she.' If your role presents a problem, just state the problem without giving any solutions.

At the beginning level cue cards might contain detailed instructions (Byrne, 1983). For example,

Cue Card A:

YOU ARE A TAXI-DRIVER 1. Greet the passenger and ask him where he

wants to go.2. Say the price. Make some comments on the

weather. Ask the passenger if he likes this weather.3. Answer the passenger's question. Boast that

your son has won the school swimming competition. Ask if the passenger likes swimming.

Cue Card B:

YOU ARE A PASSENGER IN A TAXI 1. Greet the taxi driver and say where you want to

go. Ask what the price will be.2. Answer the taxi-driver's question and ask what

kind of weather he likes.3. Say that you like swimming a lot and that you learned to swim 10 years ago when you went to

Spain with your family.

Step 5 - Assigning the Roles

Some instructors ask for volunteers to act out a role play in front of the class (Matwiejczuk, 1997), though it might be a good idea to plan in advance what roles to assign to which students. At the beginning level the teacher can take one of the roles and act it out as a model. Sometimes, the students have role play exercises for the home task. They learn useful words and expressions, think about what they can say and then act out the role play in the next class.

There can be one or several role play groups. If the whole class represents one role play group, it is necessary to keep some minor roles which can be taken away if there are less people in class than expected (Horner & McGinley, 1990). If the teacher runs out of roles, he/she can assign one role to two students, in which one speaks secret thoughts of the other (Shaw, Corsini, Blake & Mouton, 1980). With several role play groups, when deciding on their composition, both the abilities and the personalities of the students should be taken into consideration. For example, a group consisting only of the shyest students will not be a success. Very often, optimum interaction can be reached by letting the students work in one group with their friends (Horner & McGinley, 1990).

Whether taking any part in the role play or not, the role of the teacher is to be as unobtrusive as possible (Livingstone, 1983). He or she is listening for students' errors making notes. Mistakes noted during the role play will provide the teacher with feedback for further practice and revision. It is recommended that the instructor avoids intervening in a role play with error corrections not to discourage the students.

Step 6 - Follow-up

Once the role play is finished, spend some time on debriefing. This does not mean pointing out and correcting mistakes. After the role play, the students are satisfied with themselves, they feel that they have used their knowledge of the language for something concrete and useful. This feeling of satisfaction will disappear if every mistake is analyzed. It might also make the students less confident and less willing to do the other role plays (Livingstone, 1983).

Follow-up means asking every student's opinion about the role play and welcoming their comments (Milroy, 1982; Horner & McGinley, 1990). The aim is to discuss what has happened in the role play and what they have learned. In addition to group discussion, an evaluation questionnaire can be used.

Teaching Culture

Main Approaches to Teaching Culture

Teaching culture has been an important part of foreign language instruction for decades. In the comprehensive literature review, Sysoyev (2001a) indicates that there exist many approaches to teaching foreign culture: lingvostranovedenie (teaching language through culture and teaching culture through language) (Vereshchagin, Kostomarov, 1990; Tomakhin, 1996; cited in Sysoyev, 2001a), Cultural Literacy (Hirsch, 1987; cited in Sysoyev, 2001a), ethnographic approach (Hymes, 1962, 1972, 1974; Byram, 1986, 1989; Byram, & Fleming, 1998; Korochkina, 2000; cited in Sysoyev, 2001a), sociocultural approach (Saphonova, 1991, 1992, 1996; cited in Sysoyev, 2001a). Sysoyev argues that although all of these approaches aim to integrate teaching language and culture, they differ in goals, objectives, and context of application.

Sociocultural approach is the most recent approach currently applied in L2 teaching in Russia. Its major objective is to prepare learners for intercultural communication and dialogue of cultures. In their research, Sysoyev (2001 a,b) and Savignon & Sysoyev (In press) provide empirical evidence that sociocultural strategies can be seen as one of the efficient ways of achieving learners' sociocultural competence within L2 communicative competence (Savignon, 1997), and, thus, preparing them for intercultural communication. Role play can be seen as one of the instructional techniques of sociocultural strategy training. Much will depend on the way L2 culture is incorporated in the role play.

Incorporating Teaching Culture into Role Play

Tomalin and Stempleski (1993) suggest four role play activities which deal with cultural products and examine cultural behavior and patterns of communication. For example, in one of these role plays, students dramatize an incident that happened to them and caused cross-cultural misunderstanding. In a long run, it will enable them to develop communicative strategies to overcome similar problems in real L2 communication. However, Byram and Felming (1998) warn us about the danger of teaching L2 culture via role play. They argue that learners may form false stereotypes and generalizations, which, in their turn, will result in cross-cultural misunderstanding and cultural conflicts. Therefore, there should be developed activities that would examine our beliefs as well

as the reasons why we have them. For example, activities dealing with culture shock, cultural differences and perceptions of representatives of L2 societies.

One such role play set was introduced by Smith and Otero (1977). In their role plays, two Americans are traveling through imaginary countries, each role play set represents one of the following lands: Crony, Ord, Fondi, Dandi or Lindi. The two Americans go out on their own to explore what the given land is like. After some time, they want to go back to their hotel, but they have walked far from it and, unfortunately, lost their money. They need enough money for bus fare back to their hotel. They decide to ask two natives for help. The two students, who take on the roles of native citizens, should behave as they think real citizens would behave. In these imaginary lands, there are certain ways of doing things, for example, when Fondis agree with something, they frown and look down. When they disagree, they smile and nod their heads. Dandis stand 12 inches or closer to people when talking to them. Cronies would not listen to a male if he asks for a favor, because in their society everything important is decided by females, males talk only of unimportant things.The students who play Americans have to figure out a proper way to ask money from the natives. If they fail to understand how the things are done in these lands, the natives will not give or loan them the money. These role plays examine nonverbal communication issues and make the students think about the importance of non-verbal communication.

Thus, if introduced carefully, role playing can be very effective for experiencing cultural principles and cultural awareness because it gives an opportunity to be emotionally involved in cross-cultural learning and reflect upon cultural differences. The students learn to examine their perceptions and treat representatives of other cultures with empathy.

Conclusion

In this paper I addressed the issue of using role play as one of the ways of co-teaching a foreign language and L2 culture. I suggested a six-stage step-by-step guide to applying role play in L2 teaching and using role play in preparing learners for intercultural communication.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Professor Pavel V. Sysoyev for his help and inspiration while working on this project.

Research for this paper was supported in part by the Junior Faculty Development Program, which is funded by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the United States Department of State, under authority of the Fulbright-Hays Act of 1961 as amended, and administered by the American Council for International Education: ACTR/ACCELS. The opinions expressed herein are the author's own and do not necessarily express the views of either ECA or the American Councils.

References

Byram, M., & Fleming, M., (Eds.). (1998). Language learning in intercultural perspective: Approaches through drama and ethnography. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Byrne, D. (1983). Cuecards. In S. Holden (Ed.), Second selections from modern English teacher (pp. 90-91). Harlow: Longman.

Crookall, D., & Oxford, R. L. (1990). Linking language learning and simulation/gaming. In D. Crookall & R.L. Oxford (Eds.), Simulation, gaming and language learning (pp. 3-24). New York: Newbury House Publishers.

Greenblat, C. (1988). Designing games and simulations: an illustrated handbook. Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications.

Horner, D., & McGinley, K. (1990). Running simulation/games: A step-by-step guide. In D. Crookall & R. Oxford (Eds.), Simulation, gaming and language learning (pp. 33-45). New York: Newbury House Publishers.

Livingstone, C. (1983). Role play in language learning. Harlow: Longman.

Milroy, E. (1982). Role-play: a practical guide. Aberdeen: Aberdeen University Press.

Rodriguez, R. J., & White, R. N. (1983). From role play to the real world. In J.W.Oller & P. Richard-Amato (Eds.), Methods that work: a smorgasbord of ideas for language teachers (pp. 246-255). Rowley, MA: Newbury House Publishers, Inc.

Savignon, S. Communicative competence: Theory and practice. Second edition. N.Y.: McGraw Hill.

Savignon, S., & Sysoyev, P. (In Press). Sociocultural strategies for a Dialogue of Cultures. The Modern Language Journal, 86 (4).

Sciartilli, G. (1983). Canovaccio: cue cards for role-playing. In S. Holden (Ed.), Second selections from modern English teacher (pp. 95-97). Harlow: Longman.

Shaw, M.E., Corsini, R.J., Blake, R.R., & Mouton, J.S. (1980). Role playing: A practical manual for group facilitators. San Diego, CA: University Associates, Inc.

Sysoyev, P.V. (2001a). Cultural identity in the context of dialogue of cultures. Tambov: Tambov State University.

Sysoyev, P.V. (2001b). Language and culture: Looking for a new dimension in teaching foreign language culture. Foreign Languages at School Journal, 4, 17-24.

Sysoyev, P.V. (Ed.). (2002). Identity, Culture, and Language Teaching. Iowa City, IA: Center for Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies.

Tomalin, B., & Stempleski, S. (1993). Cultural awareness. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Teaching approaches: task-based learningAn article discussing different models for the organization of language lessons, including Task-Based Learning.

What is TBL?

How often do we as teachers ask our students to do something in class which they would do in everyday life using their own language? Probably not often enough.

If we can make language in the classroom meaningful therefore memorable, students can process language which is being learned or recycled more naturally.

Task-based learning offers the student an opportunity to do exactly this. The primary focus of classroom activity is the task and language is the instrument which the students use to complete it. The task is an activity in which students use language to achieve a specific outcome. The activity reflects real life and learners focus on meaning, they are free to use any language they want. Playing a game, solving a problem or sharing information or experiences, can all be considered as relevant and authentic tasks. In TBL an activity in which students are given a list of words to use cannot be considered as a genuine task. Nor can a normal role play if it does not contain a problem-solving element or where students are not given a goal to reach. In many role plays

students simply act out their restricted role. For instance, a role play where students have to act out roles as company directors but must come to an agreement or find the right solution within the given time limit can be considered a genuine task in TBL.

In the task-based lessons included below our aim is to create a need to learn and use language. The tasks will generate their own language and create an opportunity for language acquisition (Krashen*). If we can take the focus away from form and structures we can develop our students’ ability to do things in English. That is not to say that there will be no attention paid to accuracy, work on language is included in each task and feedback and language focus have their places in the lesson plans. We feel that teachers have a responsibility to enrich their students’ language when they see it is necessary but students should be given the opportunity to use English in the classroom as they use their own languages in everyday life.

How can I use TBL in the classroom?

Most of the task-based lessons in this section are what Scrivener** classifies as authentic and follow the task structure proposed by Willis and Willis***.

Each task will be organized in the following way:

Pre-task activity an introduction to topic and task Task cycle: Task > Planning > Report

Language Focus and Feedback

A balance should be kept between fluency, which is what the task provides, and accuracy, which is provided by task feedback.

A traditional model for the organization of language lessons, both in the classroom and in course-books, has long been the PPP approach (presentation, practice, production). With this model individual language items (for example, the past continuous) are presented by the teacher, then practised in the form of spoken and written exercises (often pattern drills), and then used by the learners in less controlled speaking or writing activities. Although the grammar point presented at the beginning of this procedure may well fit neatly into a grammatical syllabus, a frequent criticism of this approach is the apparent arbitrariness of the selected grammar point, which may or may not meet the linguistic needs

of the learners, and the fact that the production stage is often based on a rather inauthentic emphasis on the chosen structure.

An alternative to the PPP model is the Test-Teach-Test approach (TTT), in which the production stage comes first and the learners are "thrown in at the deep end" and required to perform a particular task (a role play, for example). This is followed by the teacher dealing with some of the grammatical or lexical problems that arose in the first stage and the learners then being required either to perform the initial task again or to perform a similar task. The language presented in the ‘teach’ stage can be predicted if the initial production task is carefully chosen but there is a danger of randomness in this model.

Jane Willis (1996), in her book ‘A Framework for Task-Based Learning’, outlines a third model for organizing lessons. While this is not a radical departure from TTT, it does present a model that is based on sound theoretical foundations and one which takes account of the need for authentic communication. Task-based learning (TBL) is typically based on three stages. The first of these is the pre-task stage, during which the teacher introduces and defines the topic and the learners engage in activities that either help them to recall words and phrases that will be useful during the performance of the main task or to learn new words and phrases that are essential to the task. This stage is followed by what Willis calls the "task cycle". Here the learners perform the task (typically a reading or listening exercise or a problem-solving exercise) in pairs or small groups. They then prepare a report for the whole class on how they did the task and what conclusions they reached. Finally, they present their findings to the class in spoken or written form. The final stage is the language focus stage, during which specific language features from the task and highlighted and worked on. Feedback on the learners’ performance at the reporting stage may also be appropriate at this point.

The main advantages of TBL are that language is used for a genuine purpose meaning that real communication should take place, and that at the stage where the learners are preparing their report for the whole class, they are forced to consider language form in general rather than concentrating on a single form (as in the PPP model). Whereas the aim of the PPP model is to lead from accuracy to fluency, the aim of TBL is

to integrate all four skills and to move from fluency to accuracy plus fluency. The range of tasks available (reading texts, listening texts, problem-solving, role-plays, questionnaires, etc) offers a great deal of flexibility in this model and should lead to more motivating activities for the learners.

Learners who are used to a more traditional approach based on a grammatical syllabus may find it difficult to come to terms with the apparent randomness of TBL, but if TBL is integrated with a systematic approach to grammar and lexis, the outcome can be a comprehensive, all-round approach that can be adapted to meet the needs of all learners.

Tasks: Getting to know your centre

The object of the following two tasks is for students to use English to:

Find out what resources are available to them and how they can use their resource room. Meet and talk to each of the teachers in their centre.

To do these tasks you will require the PDF worksheets at the bottom of the page.

Task 1: Getting to know your resources

Level: Pre-intermediate and above

It is assumed in this lesson that your school has the following student resources; books (graded readers), video, magazines and Internet. Don’t worry if it doesn’t, the lesson can be adjusted accordingly.

Pre-task preparation: One of the tasks is a video exercise which involves viewing a movie clip with the sound turned off. This can be any movie depending on availability, but the clip has to involve a conversation between two people.

Pre-task activity: In pairs students discuss the following questions:

Do you use English outside the classroom? How?

What ways can you practise English outside the classroom?

Stage one - Running dictationPut the text from worksheet one on the wall either inside or outside the classroom. Organize your students into pairs. One student will then go to the text, read the text and then go back to her partner and relay the information to her. The partner who stays at the desk writes this information. When teams have finished check for accuracy. You can make this competitive should you wish.

Stage twoIn pairs students then read the Getting To Know Your Resources task sheet (worksheet two). Check any problem vocabulary at this stage. This worksheet can be adapted according to the resource room at your school.

Stage threeDepending on how the resources are organized in your centre, students then go, in pairs, to the resource room or wherever the resources are kept and complete the tasks on the task sheet.

Stage fourWorking with a different partner students now compare and share their experience.

Stage five - FeedbackHaving monitored the activity and the final stage, use this opportunity to make comments on your students’ performance. This may take form of a correction slot on errors or pronunciation, providing a self-correction slot.

Task 2 - Getting to know your teachers

Level: Pre-intermediate and above

Students may need at least a week to do this activity, depending on the availability of the teachers in your centre

Pre-task activity: In pairs students talk about an English teacher they have had.

What was her name? Where was she from?

How old was she?

Do you remember any of her lessons?

What was your favourite activity in her class?

Stage oneUsing the Getting To Know Your Teachers task sheet (worksheet three) and the Interview Questions (worksheet four) students write the questions for the questionnaire they are going to use to interview the teachers.

Stage twoTo set up the activity students then interview you and record the information.

Stage threeDepending on which teachers are free at this time they can then go and interview other teachers and record the information. You may wish to bring other teachers into your class to be interviewed or alternatively give your students a week or so to complete the task, interviewing teachers before or after class, or whenever they come to the centre.

Stage fourWorking with a different partner students compare their answers and experiences then decide on their final answers on the superlative questions.

Stage fiveFeedback and reflection. Allow time for students to express their opinions and experiences of the activity. Provide any feedback you feel is necessary.

Further activities

The Get To Know Your Resources task sheet could be turned into a school competition entry form. Possible prizes could include a video or some readers.

References

*Krashen, S. (1996). The Natural Approach: Language Acquisition in the Classroom. Prentice Hall**Scrivener, J. (2005). Learning Teaching. Macmillan.Anchor Point:bottom***Willis, J. & Willis, D. (eds.) (1996). Challenge and Change in Language Teaching. Macmillan (now out of print).

Note from editor: Jane and Dave Willis have recently published another book (see below)

Willis, D. & Willis, J. (2007), Doing Task-based Teaching. Oxford University Press

They have also set up a website which offers articles on task-based teaching and a number of lesson plans: http://www.willis-elt.co.uk/

 

How to Teach Using Role-Playing

Role-playing exercises can be hard work for the instructor, both in preparation and in execution, but

the work tends to pay off in terms of student motivation and accomplishment. As with any big project,

it's best to take it one step at a time:

1. Define Objectives

2. Choose Context & Roles

3. Introducing the Exercise

4. Student Preparation/Research

5. The Role-Play

6. Concluding Discussion

7. Assessment

Fortunately, much of the work of preparation, once done, can be distributed to other educators

. Many well-developed role-playing exercises are available on the scenario pages, organized by

topic or by type.

Define Objectives

The details of what you need to do depend entirely on why you want to include role-playing

exercises in your course.

What topics do you want the exercise to cover?

How much time do you and your class have to work on it?

What do you expect of your students: research, reports, presentations?

Do you want the students role-playing separately or together?

Do you want to include a challenge or conflict element?

Choose Context & Roles

In order to prepare for the exercise:

Decide on a problem related to the chosen topic(s) of study and a setting

for the characters. It is a good idea to make the setting realistic, but not

necessarily real. Consider choosing and adapting material that other

instructors have prepared.

o For problems and settings with lots of detail, have a look at

examples in the Starting Point Case Study Module. The

module itself contains more information about using cases

to teach.

If the characters(s) used in the exercise are people, define his or her

goals and what happens if the character does not achieve them.

You should work out each characters' background information on the

problem or, better yet, directions on how to collect it through research. If

possible, prepare maps and data for your students to interpret as part of

their background information rather than the conclusions upon which

they would ordinarily base their decisions (especially if the characters are

scientists).

Introducing the Exercise

Engage the students in the scenario by describing the setting and the problem.

Provide them with the information you have already prepared

about their character(s): the goals and background information. It

needs to be clear to the student how committed a character is to

his/her goals and why.

Determine how many of your students have done role-playing

before and explain how it will work for this exercise.

Outline your expectations of them as you would for any

assignment and stress what you expect them to learn in this

lesson.

If there is an inquiry element, suggest a general strategy for

research/problem solving.

Student Preparation/Research

Even if there is no advance research assigned, students will need a few

moments to look over their characters and get into their roles for the

exercise. There may also be additional questions:

Why they are doing this in character? Why did you decide

to make this a role-playing exercise?

Students may have reservations about the character that

they have been assigned or about their motives. It is

good for the instructor to find out about these before the

actual role-play. It can be very difficult for a student to

begin researching an issue from a perspective very

different from their own because even apparently

objective data tends to be reinterpreted as support for

pre-existing world-views.

o With regards to environmental issues, many

environmental groups have well-written,

carefully researched, and nicely-engineered

websites that will provide arguments as well as

information for a student assigned a character

to whom protecting the environment is very

important.

The Sierra Club Homepage (more

info)

Worldwatch Institute Homepage

(more info)

Natural Resources Defense

Council Homepage (more info)

o Similar websites representing the very

common viewpoint of the worker, property

owner, or industrialist whose future may be in

conflict with environmental interests are hard

to find. One site, Debate Central, has

constructed arguments for characters

promoting property rights and wary of

government intervention. Their topic coverage

is still limited, however. A poorer alternative is

to send students to the websites of companies

involved in an issue to read their PR material.

o Often, the best resource for understanding

people is other people. Model UN encourages

participants to call the embassy of the country

they are to represent for advice. The same can

be done with the PR divisions of mining firms

and unions, environmental and taxpayer

protection groups, etc.

If there is an inquiry component (i.e. student-led

research), the students may need help coming up

with a research plan and finding resources.

The Role-Play

Depending on the assignment, students could be writing

papers or participating in a Model-UN-style summit. For a

presentation or interaction, props can liven up the event, but

are not worth a lot of effort as they are usually not important to

the educational goals of the project.

Potential Challenges with Interactive Exercises

Concluding Discussion

Like any inquiry-based exercise, role-playing needs to

be followed by a debriefing for the students to define

what they have learned and to reinforce it. This can be

handled in reflective essays, or a concluding paragraph

at the end of an individual written assignment, or in a

class discussion. The instructor can take this

opportunity to ask the students if they learned the

lessons defined before the role-play began.

Assessment

Generally, grades are given for written projects

associated with the role-play, but presentations and

even involvement in interactive exercises can be

graded. Special considerations for grading in role-

playing exercises include:

Playing in-character

o Working to further the

character's goals

o Making statements that reflect

the character's perspective

In an interactive exercise, being

constructive and courteous

For many assignments, being able

to step back and look at the

character's situation and

statements from the student's

own perspective or from another

character's perspective.

Types of Role-Playing Exercises

Role-playing can be thought of as unstructured drama (Dallman-Jones et al., 1994). In these exercises,

a student looks at the topic from the perspective of a character, who will affect and be affected by the

topic. The instructor provides the setting and the characters, but the students have to decide their

characters' lines and directions. Generally, the students will need to do some research to make

informed decisions from their characters' perspectives. This research opportunity can easily become

an inquiry element.

The character might be a miner trying to figure out how to stake a claim and to make his or her

fortune off of it or an engineer who wants to build a space probe. Alternatively, the character could be

an organism that is part of a food web and the student's job is to work out his or her relationships to

the other members of the food web (role-played by classmates).

Role-playing exercises teach skills that are often assumed to be learned outside of the classroom (and

sometimes aren't), and how to use those skills to complement scientific knowledge. These exercises

require the students to use imagination, background knowledge appropriate to the character being

role-played, and communications skills.

Individual Role-Playing Exercises:

The students research and write about or present the issue being studied in a format appropriate to

the character they've been assigned: a letter to the editor, or a report to the board of a corporation.

The challenge for these exercises is for the student to "get into character", to accept and work in the

role that they've been assigned, especially if their character is very different from them.

Individual Role-Playing Exercises - Typical individual role-playing scenarios.

For example, students could have a general lecture on groundwater depletion and recharge

and then research and write a short paper from the perspective of a modern California farmer

about groundwater and problems associated with it.

Interactive Role-Playing Exercises:

These are group projects that range from simple brainstorming exercises or scripted

demonstrations to in-character debates or problem-solving exercises dealing with

environmental or geoscience topics. These lessons may include individual assignments to

prepare the students for their roles and for the project as a whole. It is easier for students to

get into character and stay there with help from their classmates, but keeping the debate

friendly and productive can be challenging.

Interactive Role-Playing Exercises - Group role-playing scenarios, with links to

specific examples.

One of the most common scenarios, and one that will be relevant to many students'

lives is to give them the roles of stakeholders in a zoning decision that will be resolved

at a town meeting. For example, some students would be developers, others

landowners, scientists, or environmental advocates.

Read a detailed example from JGE.

An interesting variant on this scenario is to have the students role-play

stakeholders in a judicial decision in a hearing that follows some kind of

disaster or discovery, such as a flood or a new gold mine.

Read a detailed example from JGE.

Individual Role-Playing Exercises

Students can write a paper or give a presentation from the perspective of another person or even from

an object within the process being studied. This exercise can be a simple brainstorming exercise or a

full-blown research project. The process is similar to those of other research projects, but the writer

needs to know not only about the subject, but also the character from whose perspective the project is

being done and the audience for whom it is theoretically being done. This could be a stand-alone

project or it could be part of the preparation for an interactive exercise.

Typical Individual Role-Playing Exercises

Stories: much more fun than a typical research paper, especially when they deal with such

topics as the Calvin cycle.

In an introductory environmental studies class, Rosemary Tong (now at UNCC) taught the

water cycle by having the students write a brief paper about a water molecule and its

voyage from the ocean, to land, and back to the ocean again. It was less dull than

memorizing the diagram! There are many possible variants to this project: in a biology

class, ask the students to tell the story of the water molecule and one of its hydrogen

components as it goes through a chloroplast and a mitochondrion. Alternatively, require

it to make part of its return trip to the ocean as groundwater or through transpiration.

Letters: simply learning the format is a valuable experience.

Is it time for another manned expedition to the moon? Have the students write letters to

their representatives in Congress (or the appropriate national legislature) about funding

another expedition to the moon. What data do we want and how should we go about

getting it? Could an unmanned expedition do the same job?

Problem statement: includes a summary of the problem, and a plan of action for dealing

with it. These are often appropriate substitutes for term papers, especially in

environmental science class.

NASA's ESSEA Online Courses: 9-12 Earth System Science Course ( This site may be offline. ) for

high-school teachers is written around a series of team problem statement assignments.

For each problem: on coral bleaching, tropical deforestation, ozone depletion, and global

change, the students, acting as a team of scientific experts employed by an affected

community, determine:

o What is known about the problem?

o What is the evidence?

o What is the argument that interprets the evidence?

o Are there alternative explanations or better ways of explaining the situation

or solving the problem?

Political position papers: should combine social, economic, and scientific research.

Have the students read about restrictions on mining on public lands in the U.S.,

particularly about the disposal of tailings. Have some write papers in favor of lighter

restrictions and some in favor of stricter ones, then have each student turn their paper

over to an opponent to read and critique before turning them in to be graded. There

should be a final paragraph about what the student (out-of-character) thinks about the

issue.

o Public Lands for the People (more info) : has several statements, an interesting

list of accomplishments, and links to mining groups.

o Environmental Frontlines Issue Summary: mining on public lands (more info) :

has an introductory article and links to a variety of shareholders in the

issue.

Speeches: can later be followed with a debate.

Have each student take the role of an interested party and speak for 5 minutes about

whether they support or oppose exploratory oil drilling in Alaska. Roles could include: an

Alaskan university student who survives on his annual check (state residents get a small

percentage of oil revenues), an environmentalist concerned about preserving the tundra,

a pacifist concerned about U.S. involvement in the Middle East, an Alaskan salmon

fisherman, an oil-company geologist, a representative from the Saudi Arabian

government, etc.

Report on findings: usually scientific, but often focused on a political or economic

objective.

Pack your students off to Pangaea! Well, give them some time to get ready first. Explain

that they are preparing for a time-traveling expedition to the Late Permian. Before they

go, they'll need a map, so give them some markers and send them to the library and the

computer room and have them bring back a colored map of Pangaea, including locations

of mountains, deserts, ice sheets, known plant and animal distributions (especially of

dangerous animals), the contemporary positions of modern continents, and other

features of interest, with sources noted. Once your students find out about the end-

Permian mass extinction, they may not be willing to actually make the trip...

Interactive Role-Playing Exercise

Most interactive role-playing scenarios currently available are debates and collaborative problem-

solving exercises. These have many features in common and tend to grade into one another.

Productive debate requires the participants to build a consensus by a certain deadline (perhaps the

ultimate challenge in problem-solving), and arguments can build within originally collaborative

projects, often as a natural and often healthy part of the process. More unusual exercises include

scripted interactive demonstrations and introductory projects in which groups of students work out a

character's perspective on a topic and then present it in character (i.e. Havholm, 1998).

For example, the students could be citizens of a town on a river that is receiving so much pollution

from the town that neighbors downstream have requested that the town rein themselves in before

they are forced to involve a higher authority. Some could role-play farmers whose crops need fertilizer.

Others could represent the union of workers from a factory that disposes of waste in the river or

people from downstream who no longer have safe drinking water or from the government. The

instructor could provide the students with backgrounds for their characters, maps, details on what

kinds and quantities of pollutants the river is carrying (and where they came from), and a budget for

remediation projects. The students could do research on the consequences of the sorts of pollution at

issue and on remediation and restrictions. They can then try to work out which methods are feasible,

and simulate the kinds of compromises that communities and industries in the real world must make

to keep the environment livable.

For most exercises (not the scripted ones), there is no "correct" outcome; these scenarios are open-

ended. The obvious education goals are dealt with when students research their roles and the problem

under discussion. The subtle goals are for students to learn not just their characters' but other

characters' perspectives in order to work with them and/or to persuade them to some end. After the

exercise, instructors can show, with examples, that modern environmental policy and resource

economics were and are shaped by the processes that the students have spontaneously simulated.

Many more scenarios (most more detailed than the above) are available in:

Scenarios by Type

Scenarios by Topic

Familiar forms of Interactive Role-Playing

Many students are already experienced role-players because of their extracurricular activities.

There are two thriving hobbies based on interactive role-playing, one of which is

straightforwardly educational and the other of which has educational potential. Both are

recognizable examples for students when trying to explain role-playing to them.

Model UN: is one of the most ubiquitous (and highly organized) instances of educational

role-playing. The students prepare to serve as delegates from a variety of countries, then get

together to simulate a UN meeting. Many students have experience with Model UN from

middle and high school. This may actually be an appropriate format for some lessons, as the

UN often deals with environmental and resource issues. The strict rules for debate and the size

of the actual General Assembly make this an attractive interactive role-playing debate for a

large class. The United Nations' resource site has a wealth of links for Model United Nations

Headquarters (more info)

A lot of countries depend on fishing in international waters to feed their people. However, over-

fishing has depleted many fish populations and destroyed others. How can these countries

continue to survive without wiping out their major protein source? In a large class, have

students, individually or in small pairs, represent UN delegations from countries like Japan,

Ghana, Argentina, the U.S., China, Russia, etc. One place to for students to start investigating

the issue is the Kyoto Conference Outcome & Papers Presented (more info) .

Role-Playing Games: such as Dungeons and DragonsTM, are a form of extertainment. The

relationship between role-playing games and interactive educational role-playing exercises is

similar to that between fantasy adventure novels and geoscience textbooks. The design and

execution of a gaming adventure and of an educational role-playing exercise have many

elements in common. However, random events and outcomes (determined by die rolls or

cards) are often important to role-playing games, whereas educational role-playing exercises

are focused more on how and why than on what is happening. As with books, the variation

within each genre is sometimes greater than the differences between them. A number of

hobbyists have written material on the Educational Uses of Role-Playing Games (more info) .

An early Dungeons and DragonsTM sourcebook, The Dungeoneer's Survival Guide (Niles, 1986 )

included a section on different types of caves, the role of water in shaping and maintaining

them, and the hazards of wandering around in them. Gaming hobbyists may well be motivated

to research caves, carbonate geology, and real cave fauna and fungi.

Why Use Role-Playing?

"There's three sides to every story:

Yours and mine and the cold, hard truth."

- Don Henley ("Long Way Home", I Can't Stand Still, 1982)

The problem with teaching pure, undiluted information is that afterwards, the students, if they paid

attention, will be left asking "What is it for? What does it mean?" Role-playing enables them to start

answering these questions and to start expanding them: "What does it mean to a farmer in Nigeria, to

a coal miner in Ohio, to an oak population in the Balkans." Information, alone, rarely makes people

change their minds, but personal experience often does. Role-playing, like any good inquiry approach,

transforms the content of education from information into experience.

Motivating Students

The creative aspect of the exercise will make it seem more like play than like work.

The pressure to solve a problem or to resolve a conflict for their character can motivate a student

far more than the sort of pressure that they usually face preparing for an exam, and it is far more

typical of the pressure that will be on them in real life.

Role-playing exercises are particularly useful in courses for non-majors to emphasize the

intersection between science and daily life. Popular geoscience role-playing scenarios generally deal

with hazards and environmental issues that combine natural and social sciences.

Augmenting Traditional Curricula

The primary purpose of role-playing exercises is to get students to look at the material they are

learning in a new light. The instructor is persuading them to alter their mental maps of the world

instead of just filling them in (Blatner, 2002 ).

Role-playing exercises show the world as a complex place with complicated problems that can only

rarely be solved by a simple answer that the student has previously memorized (Cage, 1997 ).

Additionally, the students learn that skills they learn separately (such as quantitative and

communications skills) are often used together in order to accomplish many real-world tasks (Bair,

2000 ).

Adding a sympathetic, generally human element to science is often encouraging to students with

science and math anxiety. Lessons can use role-playing to emphasize the value of feelings and of

creativity as well as of knowledge (Dallmann-Jones, 1994 ).

Exercises emphasizing the importance of people and their viewpoints are important preparation for

students who will go on in many professions, including business, academia, and politics.

Real-World Skills

Students need to understand the needs and perspectives of the people around them to get through

life, and to understand themselves.

Role-playing exercises can be used to develop skills important inside and outside of science: the

kind of skills needed to make learned information useful in the real world. Many of these are very

difficult to teach using more traditional methods of instruction: self-awareness, problem solving,

communication, initiative, teamwork (Blatner, 2002 ).

If an assignment includes research or problem solving, students are more likely to retain knowledge

that they have constructed themselves more than that simply handed to them in lecture (Havholm,

1998 ; Duveen and Solomon, 1994 ).

Bonnet, 2000 tried, with some success, to instill ethics in school children using role-playing.

Accounting students from the University of Illinois had an easier time finding jobs after completing a

curriculum that included role-playing than they did after the traditional curriculum (Cage, 1997 ).

Why Use Individual Role-Playing Exercises?

Motivating Students

Even if students are not excited by the assigned topic, they should be able to understand why it is

important and to whom it is important.

Augmenting Traditional Curricula

As with any role-playing exercise, the most important task is to understand the topic from new

perspective.

Among the pressing questions for any science class is: What do people need to know about the

environment in order to live there or about resources in order to work with them? Above all, what do

people need to know about each other?

For example: someone moving to Tacoma, Washington, needs to know about the risk of Mount Rainier

erupting and destroying their home, possibly killing their family. So they have to find out about the

nature of the hazard(s) posed by Mount Rainier, the geographic extent, the likelihood of eruption

according to geologic monitors, etc. Do they want to work and live in Tacoma at all? Are some parts of

the city that are safer than others?

Real-World Skills

Most of the writing and presenting projects the student will do after graduation will not be done from

an objective viewpoint. However, an academic role-playing exercise can emphasize that scholarly

journal and magazine articles are vital for researching policy and persuasive writing. For controversial

topics, materials ordinarily considered biased by scientists, such as editorials, are also valuable for

research, as they are in the real world.

On the average, students need to know how to write a good letter more than they need to know the

half-lives of uranium and lead isotopes, but a lesson that has a student writing a letter to the editor of

his hometown paper about the problem of nuclear waste can teach both in context.

Public speaking is an important skill in countries where most citizens have free speech and

important issues to address. Students need to be able to defend their opinions in order to make good

use of their rights.

Given a particular problem, students should be able to decide which topics to research in pursuit of

a solution, because this is expected in all but menial jobs. The ability to ask the right questions and

then to independently research them is rarely expected in undergraduates in introductory courses, but

if this is the last science class they are likely to take, make it count!

Why Use Interactive Role-Playing Exercises?

People who use their erudition to write for a learned minority ... don't seem to me favored by fortune

but rather to be pitied for their continuous self-torture.

- Desiderius Erasmus (Praise of Folly, ch. 50, 1509)

Motivating Students

These exercises are generally fun for students, as they contain social, creative and sometimes

competitive elements.

Properly run, they are student-centered, open-ended, and feel more like real life than lectures and

tests.

Students perceive interacting with small groups to be easier than writing for the instructor or

presenting to the whole class. However, poor preparation on advance research will prove embarrassing

and let down teammates and allies.

Augmenting Traditional Curricula

A distinct role can help a student focus an analysis of both sides of a controversy, although in this

case it is often helpful for an instructor to follow up at the end of the assignment and ask the student

his or her own, out-of-character, assessment of the controversy. Additionally, some role-playing

exercises will make time for students to switch sides and try the opposite role from the one explored

previously, an opportunity the real world can rarely offer.

Collaborative problem-solving exercises offer an opportunity for informal assessment. Francis and

Byrne (1999) found that instructors were able to identify which parts of the course material that

students were having trouble with during an interactive role-playing exercise before giving students a

graded test.

Real-World Skills

Teamwork is one of the important social skills that these exercises can teach. Often the students

must combine information gathered by different groups and apply it. If assigned research in advance,

the team can divide a project up and have each piece be the province of a different team member.

Cooperation and persuasion will require the students to practice courtesy. In any role-play with an

interactive component, the instructor can (and should) include formal and informal training in conflict

management and consensus-building and the students must of necessity learn tolerance or at least

civility.

In order to devise win-win solutions or compromises that other characters will accept, they'll need to

figure out those other characters' goals. Empathy is key to enlightened self-interest as well as a virtue

in its own right.

A debate, as part of the lesson or as a consequence of different approaches to problem-solving, will

enable the students to develop effective rhetorical techniques, both through practice and by offering

them the opportunity to observe one another's efforts. Effective and ineffective arguments make a

good topic for the follow-up discussion: what worked and what didn't?

Ground Rules for Interactive Exercises

This page is intended as a handout, or as the basis for a handout, for students about to engage in an

interactive role-playing exercise, especially a debate. Instructors may ask students to sign the form

before the exercise and to turn it in, posting another copy.

Role-Playing

Argue your character's viewpoint as best you can. Don't assume that your opponents personally prefer

their main arguments; they're in character too.

Courtesy and Open-mindedness

It's a bad idea to let an in-class debate or argument get heated for several reasons. Your school has

rules restricting abusive language, and your instructor will be enforcing them. This is only a simulation;

even if it weren't, people are entitled to their opinions and being rude to them won't make your

opinions more attractive. You should also avoid dirty rhetorical tricks like interrupting people, speaking

for longer than you need to in order to keep your opponents and critics silent, or making ad hominem

attacks (against the person instead of against their idea). These tend to be poor substitutes for a

carefully researched and well-thought-out argument.

Honesty

Never lie in an interactive exercise. Further, be ready to back up any and all of your claims with

evidence. You're simulating an important real-world event, in which experts and representatives who

lie would ordinarily damage their careers and harm their causes. If you don't know something, ask

around to see if one of your fellow participants does. If not, you'll just have to admit that you don't

know. Likewise, if pressed, be truthful about data that undermine your position.

Competence

Careful preparation and examination of your character and of the scientific issue you're approaching

will make it less likely to encounter data that weaken your arguments. Logical, well-thought-out

arguments are more likely to convince others. While debating, stay on topic and seek a solution that

furthers at least some of your character's goals, even if it will require a compromise.

Potential Challenges with Interactive Exercises

Large Classes

For large classes, split the group up, or use an etiquette like Robert's Rules of Order (more info) to ensure

that people who have something to say can say it. A Model UN works well for large groups.

Good Vs. Evil

The students need to sympathize with their characters, so it is a bad idea to assign overtly evil ones.

It's too much to ask of students to represent the interests of genocidal tyrants. These exercises are

supposed to be fun! Likewise, the instructor should use situations without simple or obvious solutions

or situations that are doomed. Because of issues in the students' own backgrounds, it is also generally

good to choose settings and characters that are either fictitious or well removed from the students in

space and time. Asking college students to role-play well-known Republican or Democratic politicians

can be a recipe for trouble.

Not Letting Go

One reason that open-ended, problem-solving exercises are fun and somewhat realistic is that the

students, in character, decide the outcome of the scenario. This can be damaged if the instructor

decides on the "correct" ending or pushes the students to play characters a certain way.

Lack of Social Skills

A chronic problem with role-playing is that some students don't pay attention to others and that

charismatic students can overwhelm less assertive ones. If the student is violating the rules you as the

instructor have established for the role-play, do not hesitate to remove them from the exercise

immediately. Disciplinary action may be appropriate depending on the student's behavior. However,

within the limits of the rules, there will still be minor problems, which may actually become a useful

part of the lesson. Bonnet's (2000) 10-year-old students reported that they were alienated by

characters that came across as too angry about issues. These children may well recognize that

courtesy and calmness are valuable tools for a debater.

Article

Indeed role plays work wonderfully and not just as part of edutainement or learner satisfaction I often find that a question asked can be completely impenetrable but contexualised into a role playing situation works wonders.

I quite often like to ask a challenging question using inappropriate language (too complex but normal discourse in the appropriate environment), which stumps the learners.

I think it's useful to challenges learners, puts them on the back foot creates all kinds of negative feelings and tension but then you can pull them round and it's a good technique - you ask them to visualise them being in the situation you are alluding to, you talk them through getting out of bed, getting dressed, talk a little bit about fashion, what are they going to wear, what car are they driving and perhaps talk to them about the day that an imaginary person is having who is effectively going to answer the question by proxy.

So a historian might ask a question about Boadicea for example and you could have a discourse about chariots (perhaps a few gags about Fiat Pandas being chariots etc) or Top man hooped ear rings.

...and then go back to the original question, which they answer quite easily because now we are not dealing with abstract facts but a contexualised personal experience.

And of course this is exactly how the brain works visualising the self against an environmental context. I also think it;s quite useful to invoke the limbic brain by being a little negative if you do it carefully they start to want to seek out the answers and solutions to the threat as opposed to just being passive.

Role plays are an excellent teaching technique but I will re-iterate my usual mantra; poor curriculum, Ofsted there are not enough opportunities to use it.

Really what you are teaching learners is a thinking technique to handle difficult problems by drawing on empathy (a socially constructed word not a cognitive process) as opposed to facts so it's useful to be able to have a persistent discourse alluding to a role that applies to different knowledge.

Phew I can really waffle on - when i get going.

Better to spend lessons doing role-plays that the students remember for life than boring them to death with didactic teaching that they can barely recall. Many concepts students cannot grasp except through role play; and because they emotionally engage in role play they have far better uinderstanding. That learning has to be consolidated in a written format eventually, but the analysis and evaluation are at a far higher level post role play.

"Role plays are an excellent teaching technique but I will re-iterate my usual mantra; poor curriculum, Ofsted there are not enough opportunities to use it."

There are endless opportunities to role play in every subject. Forget OFSTED the teaching will be at such a high level if you follow Kolb's theories of experiential learning and ensure that there is "learning through evaluation and reflection", by consolidating the activities into a written activity, use writing frames etc and lo answers will hit higher level scores.

Works every time, and if there is a massive gap between the students written skills and their oral skills then there is an underlying physiological problem that needs sorting out to enable students to reflect their real abilities in their written work.

With all the will in the world you can't forget Ofsted. Also some types of learning do not lend themselves as well to role playing such as improving language construction.

Works every time, and if there is a massive gap between the students written skills and their oral skills then there is an underlying physiological problem that needs sorting out to enable students to reflect their real abilities in their written work

Don't agree with that, language is best taught using cognitive / behaviourist techniques; re-iteration, reciting and just plain old getting on and doing it.

It's a specigfic kind of learning, which used poorly turns off many young learners because they cannot understand what the problem is.

Better off letting them take their time, understanding the underlying pedagogy as opposed to medicalising them.