Do students really learn a foreign language through role-playing? (Language Teaching & Learning).

Abstract

The pedagogical value of role-play in second language acquisition has theoretically long been acknowledged. However, here, it is intended to look at this type of interaction with a more practical approach, ie., considering the role-play as an interaction by itself. A micro-interactional analysis is conducted, based on a corpus of spontaneously performed role-plays by young Chinese adults in a class of French as a Foreign Language in Hong Kong. Various individual and collective learning strategies are shown, thus confirming the idea that it is possible to learn while role-playing.

1. Introduction

The pedagogical value of role-play has long been acknowledged by English-speaking scholars (Maley & Duff 1978; Jones 1982; Livingston 1983; Porter Ladousse 1987; Van Ments 1989) as well as by French practitioners (Care & Debyser 1978; Ancelin Schutzenberger 1981 ; Dufeu 1983). Only a handful of authors analysed classroom role-play as a verbal interaction in itself: Cicurel (1990) conducted a study on stereotypes in role-plays whereas Tabensky (1997) dealt with the feature of spontaneity. Yet, to my knowledge, no studies, so far, have closely examined, through an interactional analysis, how the learning process practically takes place in classroom role-plays.

2. Research objectives and method

The purpose of this study is to observe whether role-play is an interaction which can effectively trigger the learning process in the foreign language and to see how the learning occurs by looking at the various learning strategies students use while role-playing.

3. Data and setting-up of the role-play

The data comprised of a set of role-plays video-taped in a French class in a university in Hong Kong. Participants are all learners of French at different levels: beginners and intermediate (around 350 hours of French). All are Hong Kong Chinese, aged between 19 and 21. The role-plays are improvised in class: students agree with the teacher upon a common situation to role-play, randomly allocate roles and have a few minutes to imagine the characters. Depending on the situation, the participants' group size varies between 2 to 6 students. The role-play is performed in front of an audience (the non-playing classmates and the teacher). The teacher is video-taping and informs students beforehand that she will not intervene during the role-play.

4. Conclusions of the study

The interactional analysis of the data highlighs learning mecanisms which occur during the role-play. Indeed, participants do not only monitor their own speech, but also assist each other in making the communication more effective, by using various individual as well as collective strategies.

4.1. Individual learning strategies

The data being an oral discourse and speakers having limited competency in the foreign language, the data reflects abundant indicators (ie., hesitations, self-repetitions, self-corrections) showing their difficulties in communicating and their efforts to put their thoughts into words. Moreover, participants introduce in the role-play elements learnt previously in class or outside the class. Below are some examples of how these individual learning strategies occur:

4.1.1. Self-repetitions

Example 1

(Situation: a young couple tell their parents they intend to travel with 3000 F of savings)

la mere       TROIS MILLE FRANCS ? NON::: c'est: trois mille francs ?
              c'est quatre mille euh::: cinq cent:: (rires des autres)
              cinq cent Hong Kong dollars ce n'est pas assez::: (rites
              des autres) euh ce n'est pas assez pour le:::: (rires
              des autres) pour:: pour le bilet euh:: / d'avion

The mother    THREE THOUSAND FRANCS ? NO::: it is: three thousand
              francs? it is four thousand hum::: five thousand::
              (laughter of the others) five thousand Hong Kong dollars
              it is not enough::: (laughter of the others) hum it is
              not enough for the::: (laughter of the others) for the::
              for the ticket hum:: / for the plane ticket

Despite the fact that Janet's numerous hesitations trigger laughter among the other participants, she remains serious and involved in her part as well as in the learning process. Indeed, she manages, without any help, to terminate what she wanted to say and to say it properly. This example illustrates well how students' spontaneous discourse progresses: in fact, the speaker uses many self-repetitions followed by extensions of the sentences (<< it is not enough::: hum it is not enough for the::: for the:: for the ticket hum::) to finally find the word ("for the plane ticket").

4.1.2. Self-corrections

Self-corrections are also learning indicators of the speaker's reflexive work on his/her own discourse: (s)he corrects a word or a syntaxic structure:

4.1.2.1 lexical self-correction

Example 2

Since in Cantonese, sixteen is said "ten six", it seems obvious that the speaker, by saying "dix six" in French, is influenced by his mother tongue:

Le pere       (a sa fille) non:: tu as seulement dix SIX (realise sa
              faute et rit) SEIZE ans

The father    (to his daughter) no::: you are only ten SIX (realises
              his mistakes and laughs) SIXTEEN::

4.1.2.2. Syntaxic self-correction

Example 3

(Situation: a family is discussing about hobbies).

La mere       ahje veu::x je veux voir eu::h un film francais
Le fils 1       oh
Le fils 2     mais il y a::: il y a::: il yen a //maintenant ?

The mother    ah I want: I want to watch hum::: a French movie
The son 1     (nodding) oh
The son 2     but are there are there are there any//now ?

Here, the speaker (son 2) tries to remember the French grammatical rule (partitif): after a few hesitations ("il y a:::, il y a:::"), he manages to produce a grammatically correct sentence ("il yen a") without being helped by his classmates, which shows proficiency in that grammatical point.

4.1.3. Introduction of previous knowledge in the role-play

Example 5

(Situation: in a cafe, a young German lady introduces her family to an unknown young lad who took a seat at her table).

La jeune fille    nous habitons avec mon pere ma mere mon frere mon
                  frere euh mon oncle et ma tante ma tante et trois
                  cousines et mes grands-parentes euh: parents
Le jeune homme    (admiratif) c'est une grande fami:::lle

The young lady    we live with my father my mother my brother my
                  brother hum my uncle and my aunt and three cousins
                  and my grand-parent hum: parents
The young lad     (with admiration) how large is your family:::

This role-play was performed right after the teacher taught the grammatical point (adjectifs possessifs) and explained the vocabulary of the family members. The student (the young lady) properly uses her lexical and grammatical knowledge.

4. 2. Collective learning strategies

Additional to these individual learning strategies, numerous strategies of assistance between the participants themselves are found in the data: Indeed, when a participant realises that what (s)he said has not been understood, (s)he tries to make his/her speech clearer by repeating the problematic sentence or word and by explaining it in the mother tongue. (s)he also corrects classmates' speech. In case (s)he is corrected by another participant, (s)he then reformulates the proper sentence, as the following examples show:

4.2.1. Strategies facilitating mutual understanding

In case of misunderstanding, one of the participants can be asked, more or less explicitly, to repeat what (s)he was just saying.

4.2.1.1. Explicit repetition requests

Example 6

(Situation: two lovers want to marry. The father warns them that the wedding costs might be high).

1 le pere       CINQUANTE MILLE FRANCS
2 le fiance     com // combien ?
3 le pere       cinquante mille francs
4 le fiance     cinquante mille francs ?

1 the father    (triumphant) FIVE THOUSAND FRANCS ?
2 the fiance    how // how much ?
3 the father    five thousand francs
4 the fiance    (surprised) five thousand francs ?

The wedding costs have been pronounced too quickly, therefore, the fiance (2) does not grasp its meaning right away. He then asks his classmate to repeat, what he does. This classmate's repetition results in the participants' thorough understanding allowing the scenario to go on.

4.2.1.2. Non explicit repetition requests

Example 7

(Situation: in a real estate agency, the Director is phoning her assistant to get further information about an accomodation for her clients).

La directrice    (a son assistante) est-ce qu'il y a un(e) villa // qui
                 est libre ? qui est LIBRE / avec deux parkings quatre
                 chambres un(e) grand villa a cote de la mer euh::

The director     (to her assistant) is there any villa // available ?
                 (she notices a sign of lack of understanding on her
                 clients' faces) AVAILABLE with two parkings four
                 bedrooms a big villa next to the sea hum::

Because of the non verbal signal from her classmates (the clients), the student (the director) is made aware that they have not understood the new word she uses ("libre" / "available"). She then repeats it slowly and distinctly for them to understand.

4.2.1.3. Translation in the mother tongue

Example 8

Instead of repeating slowly the problematic word (as in the example 7), here, the participant immediately translates it into Chinese, and does so not only to ease the understanding of the group and ensure the play will continue to run, but also for the speaker to check his own knowledge:

Le fils         il est:: il a il a le mal du pays gwajynh gaheung (le
                mal du pays)
La fille          oh:: oui

The son         he is:: he is he is homesick gwajyuh gaheung (homesick)
The daughter    oh:: yes

4.2.2. Strategies assisting the classmates' verbal production

4.2.2.1. Mutual assistance

Example 9

(Situation: Two friends are discussing about emigration)

1 Helena       je sais que euh recemment il y a des::: discriminations
               au Austri::
2 Catherine    Australie
3 Helena       en Australie cst-ce que vous etes au courant ?
4 Catherine    je pense que euh de plus en plus des Au::s
5 Ruth         Australiens
6 Catherine    Australiens euh: euh: acceptent des emigrants acceptent
               des: emigrants etrangers

1 Helena       I have heard that hum: recently there are:::
               discriminations in Austri::
2 Catherine    Australia
3 Helena       in Australia have you heard about it?
4 Catherine    I think that hum more and more Au::s (is looking at
               Ruth)
5 Ruth         Australiens
6 Catherine    Australiens hum: hum: accept emigrants accept foreign
               emigrants

In this excerpt, two students consecutively have speaking difficulties. The missing word is immediately provided to them by another participant. It is noticeable that the assistance has moved from one student to another: Catherine is indeed the first one to provide support to a classmate (2) and in turn, she is later supported by another classmate (Ruth in 5). Taking a closer look at what happens for C. at the learning level shows that she transferred part of her lexical knowledge to her classmates by giving them the missing word they needed ("Australia") and, in return, she learnt from them a new term ("Australiens").

4.2.2. 2. Reformulations of support

In the example 9, the two assistances (2, 5) are taken into account by the speakers H. and C. who reformulate the word provided ("in Australia" in 3 and "Australiens" in 6) and reuse it in their discourse. At the role-play level, this demontrates the mutual listening abilities between participants and at the learning level, the students' will to memorise and improve their lexical knowledge. Such a word-circulation process between participants is a great learning facilitator. Moreover, this example shows that even a very short conversation can provide students with the opportunity to improve their knowledge in the foreign language.

4.2.3. Corrective strategies

4.2.3.1. Phonetic self-corrrections by means of mutual assistance

Example 10

1 la fille Cindy     alors on va acheter euh:: le lotel
2 le fils Jeffrey    LOTO [LOTO
3 le fils Him             [loto
4 la fille Cindy     loto
5 le pere            loto oui:::
6 le fils Jeffrey    non:: on va visiter le petit ami de Martine

1 the daughter C.    well we are going to buy hum:: the lotel
2 the son J.         LOTO [LOTO
3 the son H.              [loto
4 the daughter C.    loto
5 the father         loto yes:::
6 the son J.         no:: we are going to visit Martine's boyfriend

Laughter (1) shows that the phonetic mistake ("lotel" instead of "loto") has been noticed by the other participants but it is the son J. who explicitly provides the proper pronunciation (2). The correct word is then confirmed by another classmate, the son H.(3) before being reformulated by the daughter C. (4). The word is once again reformulated and assessed by the father (5). Thus, the correct term has been repeated by four different participants like in a ball game. It is precisely these frequent repetitions which allow students to assimilate and memorise the vocabulary.

4.2.3.2. Mutual corrections and their reformulations

In the following example, one of the participant is correcting one classmate's mistake and the assisted student takes into account the given correction:

Example 11

1 la mere       TROIS MILLE FRANCS ce n'est pas assez pour le gateau
                pour nous
2 le pere       oui oui cadeau
3 la mere       CAdeau pour nous

1 the mother    THREE THOUSAND FRANCS it is not enough for the "zift"
                for us
2 the father    yes yes (softly) gift
3 the mother    GIft for us

4.2.4. Additional learning strategies

In order to ease mutual understanding, it may happen that players repeat several times the same formula and also use non verbal strategies.

4.2.4.1. Repetitions combined with non verbal

Example 12

(Situation: In a cafe, a young lady meets two young lads).

1 le jeune homme 2   aujourd'hui aujourd'hui c'est:: c'est quel jour ?
2 la jeune fille     (fronce les sourcils) c'est jour ? // (evasive) le
                     JOU::R le JOU::R
3 le jeune homme 2   quel jour aujourd'hui c'est quel jour ?
4 la jeune fille     aujourd'hui c'est quel jour ?
5 le jeune homme 1   excusez-moi//aujourd'hui c'est quel jour ?
6 la jeune fille     c'est:::
7 le jeune homme 2   (montre quatre doigts)
8 la jeune fille     jeudi jeudi
9 le jeune homme 1   jeudi (hoche la tete)

1 the young lad 2     today today it is:: what day is it?
2 the young lady      (knitting her brows) it is day ?//(evasive) the
                      DAY:: the DAY::
3 the young lad 2     what day today what day is it ?
4 the young lady      (uncertain) today what day is it ?
5 the young lad 1     excuse-me//today what day is it ?
6 the young lady      (understands) it is::: (uncertain -- searching
                      for help)
7 the young lad 2     (shows four fingers)
8 the young lady      thursday thursday
9 the young lad 1     thursday (nodding)

This excerpt from a beginners' role-play is particularly rich in learning strategies:

-- the young lad 2 accurately reformulates in the play a formula he just learnt in class, "what is today's date ?" (1).

-- the student (the young lady) can manage to remember the meaning of this sentence (6) only thanks to the combined support of her two classmates: in order to help her to understand, they repeat several times the same sentence (1, 3, 5).

-- because the student (the young lady) is calling for help (6), one of the participants shows four fingers (7) in order to help her find the day of the week. Thanks to this non verbal assistance, she finally manages to find the correct answer (8).

-- finally, one of the participants confirms her speech (9), thus acting as a teacher.

4.2.4.2. Making others speak

Sometimes, students invite their classmates to speak more and even test each other's knowledge as in the following example:

Example 13

1 fils 1          est-ce que vous pou: est-ce que vous pouvez proposer:
                  un film ?
2 mere            (mecontente) j'ai deja propose:
3 fils 1          quel film ?
4 fille           quel film ?
5 mere            un film francais
6 fils 1          mais [
7 fils 2               [quel est le nom ?
8 fils 1          (insistant) je veux le NO::M
9 mere            (fait mine de chercher)
10 fils 2         (insistant) le NO::M du film
11 mere           euh:: Rouge Blanc
12 fils 1         bien::::::: mais tu as tu as oublie tu l'avais vu

1 the son 1       can you can you suggest:: a movie ?
2 the mother      (unsatisfied) I did it already:
3 the son 1       which movie ?
4 the daughter    which movie ?
5 the mother      a French movie
6 the son 1       but [
7 the son 2           [what is the name ?
8 the son 1       (insisting) I want the NA::ME
9 the mother      (is searching)
10 the son 2      (insisting) the NA::ME of the movie
11 the mother     hum:: Rouge Blanc
12 the son 1      good::::::: but you forgot you forgot you had seen it

A student (the son 1) is asking from another learner (the mother) to give the name of a French film (3, 8). By doing so, he is inviting his classmate to show off her cultural knowledge and he is testing it. The student's answer (11) demontrates a sound knowledge about recent French movies. The (son 1) finally assesses the answer (12) as a teacher would do.

Conclusion

This interactional analysis does confirm the pedagogical value of role-play by demonstrating the presence in role-plays, of a certain amount of learning mecanisms, both verbal and non verbal, individual and collective: Indeed, while role-playing, participants are able to reuse their linguistic and cultural knowledge, to ask for, as well as giving some clarification, in order to ease mutual understanding. They play with the words by repeating them, hesitate, try formulas until they find the correct one. They mutually support each other in their effort to communicate and, more or less explicitely, invite each other to improve their linguistic performance. Besides, they take into account corrections made by others and reuse the corrected version in their speech. All these strategies demonstate how in role-plays, learning efficiently takes place, which teachers may not be fully aware of.

In fact, during a role-play, learning does not occur on a traditional basis, ie., through the teacher, but more often occurs without him/her, mainly through the sharing of students' knowledge among themselves. Even more, students, in order to boost the learning of their classmates, tend to borrow some functions (e.g., solliciting, reformulating and assessing), which usually belong to the teacher's role. The improvised role-play then turns out to be a self directed interaction during which students are effectively training for greater autonomy and responsibility in the learning of the foreign language. This self-guided learning may perhaps be the major benefit of the entire role-play experience.

Transcription Conventions

//                       break
un(e) villa              "e" is not pronounced
OUI, beauCOUP            a word or a syllabus is emphasized
Oui: bon:::              short and long hesitations

A: [oui
B: [oui mais             overlapping
A: on peut [
B:         [reflechir    interrupting

Acknowledgements

This research is part of a Ph.D (on "students' involvement in role-playing") financially supported by The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

References

Ancelin Schutzenberger A., 1981, Le jeu de role, Paris, ESF/EME.

Care JM. & Debyser F., 1978, Jeu, langage et creativite, les jeux dans la classe de francais, Collection Le Francais dans le Monde -- BELC, Paris, Hachette.

Cicurel F., 1990, "Elements d'un rituel communicatif dans les situations d'enseignement" dans Dabene L., Variations et rituels en classe de langue, Hatier-Credif, Paris, pp. 22-52.

Dufeu B., 1983, "Le jeu de role: Reperes pour une pratique" dans le Francais dans le Monde 176, pp. 43-44 et "Techniques de jeu de role ", pp. 69-74.

Jones K., 1982, Simulations in Language Teaching, Cambridge University Press.

Maley A., & Duff A., 1978, Drama Techniques in Language Learning. A Resource Book of Communication Activities For language Teachers, Cambridge University Press.

Porter Ladousse G., 1987, Role-Play, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Livingston C., 1983, Role Play in Language Learning, Longman, Essex, Harlow.

Tabensky A., 1997, Spontaneite et Interaction: le jeu de role dans l'enseignement des langues etrangeres, l'Harmattan, Paris.

Van Ments M., 1989, The Effective Use of Role Play: A Handbook for Teachers and Trainers, New York, Nichols Publishing.

Marie is a lecturer and teaches French as Foreign Language. Her research interests include classroom and conversational code-switching, cross-cultural communication and language learning strategies. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics on students' involvement in role-playing and its impact on learning.