ROLE PLAY AND SIMULATION IN TEACHING ENGLISH Syahrudin M
ABSTRACT
The process of teaching and learning English is closely related to the topics taught. In learning English, probably once in a while the learners do feel bored. In order to solve these “unwanted” situations, something new needs to be done. One of these activities is done through role plays and simulations. Role plays and simulations may motivate learners and involve them to develop creativity necessary for the process of learning to take place. The following paper will examine the techniques of presenting role plays and simulations as to when, how often, the preparation needed, the procedures as well as the errorcorrection.
INTODUCTION
Learning a language is meant to communicate. According to Brown (1987:202), communication may be regarded as a combination of acts, a series of elements with purposes and intent. Communication is not merely an event, something that happens, it is functional, purposive and is designed to bring about some effect-some change, however subtle or unobservable – on the environment of hearers and speakers. In case of a language, communication means a success because a successful communication is surely supported by the language use which is understandable by both parties, the sender and receiver of the message(s). The success of communication ought to be facilitated by the appropriate communicative skills.
Acquiring skills in communication, viewed from the sender’s message side will absolutely depend on the grammatical abilities or skills or skills and vice versa. If it is analyzed from the language learning and teaching perspectives, those two elements are terribly influential in the success of language learning and teaching.
CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION
For example, the teacher may give the students some challenging stories and later they are instructed to discuss them. The teacher may also ask them to form some small groups to solve certain problems together. All problems must be discussed by using English. Teachers’ “involvement” is needed when the students cannot really solve the problems given to them.
The communicative activities given in class should be graded, from the easiest to be the most difficult ones. This is done in such a way in order not to surprise the students. If initially they are given the most difficult ones, the students tend not to pay heed to what will happen next. The communicative activities given may be some sets of certain roles, such as cue cards, games, role plays and simulations. For example, we may give student A an incomplete train schedule and student B a complete train schedule. Student A should ask student B about the train schedule without having a look at student B’s train schedule. All the activities are to be carried out in English. Therefore, they must be “willing” to use English as the target language being learned.
Language skills include the main acquisition of the grammar and its use and practical competence a reconstruct and the habit to use it. In addition, one of the most important skills is the ability to interact with other people and the same time to use the target language learned (for communicative purposes). Nunan(1998:88) believes that, unlike the traditional theory which stresses that learners are taught about language and its rules, learners should be actively involve in using the language they are learning. Role play activities are parts of additional classroom assessment procedures and fuction as points to be considered in grading in grading the learners (Brown:222).
PROBLEMS AND THEIR SOLUTIONS
The main problems the teachers of English encounter are how to have the most appropriate techniques which may enable the students to gain more motivation and consequently the students may maximize the use of English in interacting with one another in relatively limited and certain contexts.
There are some ways that the teachers can do to advoid the students’ boredom in learning a language, namely with a variety of techniques and contents of teaching. The two ways which could encourage students to use “real” English is through role plays and simulations.
sex, age, or fuction from their own. Simulation is a teaching technique in which students act out language-using situations with or without preparation. Here, the students are expected to behave appropriately in the setting, but the emphasis is not on the adoption of a different personality.
Ladousse (1998:5) describes role plays as activities, as if we are explaining or telling something. It seems like a group of students playing in the school yard. He stresses that role play is a part of simulation. Simulations are more complex and elaborate, longer and relatively inflexible.
Both praticing a role play and simulation will create a “new” situation in the process of teaching and learning a language. To find these materials, we may consult some books entitled such as Keep Taking, Eight Simulations,Role Play,Business English Through Case Studies, Starters for Discussion and Role Play, Project Work or Conversation Inspiration for
ESL.
Through role plays and simulations which are contained in the aforementioned books above, the English learners are supposed to possess something “fresh” in terms of style, form, activity to encourage them to be more interested in using English in a relatively non-threatening setting, as Patricia K. Tompkins exhorts.
It is worth noting that whatever way is used, the main purpose in giving those two activities is to involve the learners of English in a certain language-activity which is not boring. They are Expected to express what they want to say and the main purpose is to practice and gain more fluency than accuracy in using English.
However, the success of carrying out role plays and simulations are not easy. The major problem is how to organize the learners into some certain groups. The less proficient learners (there’s no stupid learner) are to be combined with the more proficient learners, not vice versa (the slow learners with the slow learners). That is why, before the groupings are formed, the teacher supposed to know is general which is which. If the learners proficiency is not yet known, one of the ways is to ask the teacher who taught them before. If it is hard to do, the teacher will need some more time to be acquainted with the learners. The shortest way is to ask the learners just to write one paragraph about their daily routines. The teacher will know them sooner then.
The followings are some tips which must be kept in mind when giving role plays and simulations according to Dickinson (1981:382-84)
When
Do not give role plays or simulations in the first meeting since this activity needs to be selected and adapted in accordance with the learners’ competence.
Frequency
Role plays and simulations ought not to be given continuously. They are given after considering the syllabus, for example twice a month. Bear it in mind that all activities are to be closely related to the topics discussed.
Preparation
Teacher’s preparation
A good teacher must be able to select the activity in accordance with the learners’ level. After that the teacher should think a bit harder as to proceed the activity and a small not for writing is necessary in order to help the teacher to write down anything important when the activity is in progress. Some certain physical condition should also be pondered over, such as rooms and their facilities.
Students’ preparation
Linguistic preparation: It is better if the students are given important vocabulary and expression and or phrases and if necessary they may be given the pronunciation of certain bombastic words.
Administrative preparation: The learners must be well-informed of how to carry out the activity. Additional explanation must usually be given in a target language (English).
Follow up
If there is an error, according to some experts, the teacher should immediately make the correction because the instant correction proves to be the most efficient and can eliminate negative effects of the activity. However, there is little consensus on the practice of error correction. Some teachers believe that error correction should not be done immediately since the main point here is fluency, not accuracy; and therefore errors should not be the main problems.
Apart from those two controversial issues above, it is advisable for the teacher to bear it in mind that when the activity is in progress, the function of the teacher is to observe. There are many things to be observed such as the expressions and the techniques used, contents and its materials. Once in a while, every learner may produce faulty structures or expression. Whenever some learner produce unEnglish expressions, the teacher may jot them down and later discuss them with the rest of the learners. This is done in order to make the activity rum smoothly.
Errors
toward the errors. Are all the errors to be corrected? And how do the teachers correct them?
If there seems to be some errors, the following are to be considered seriously, namely: 1) to select the errors according to their classification; 2) to find out if the errors are significant; 3) to ponder if the errors need to be corrected; 4) to decide if the expressions are errors or only slips of the tongue.
After acquiring all the factors mentioned above, all of the most significant errors may be corrected in a group discussion. Hopefully, by a group discussion the learners will not produce the same errors again in the future while, at the same time, the English competence of the learners will gradually improve.
Miscellany
The use of the mother tongue by learners will very much depend on the situation. If the learners really do not know certain vocabulary, then they may use Bahasa Indonesia. The expression in Bahasa Indonesia “mengenakan sanksi ekonomi” or impose an economic sanction, will be very difficult for some learners. So, if a learner encounters some very specifically difficult expression(s) such as mengenakan sanksi, it is okay for the learner to Bahasa Indonesia. In this case, the teacher may write down some specific expression and or phrases. Then the teacher as well as the learners could discuss those important points in more details and consequently all the learners are supposed to have gained and mastered the difficult expressions and or phrases after a group discussion forum takes place.
CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
Broughton, Geoffery.1981.Teaching English as a Foreign Language. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
Brown, H. Douglas.1987. Principle of Language Learning and Teaching. Second Edition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Brown, H. Douglas. 2007. Prinsip Pembelajaran dan Pengajaran Bahasa. Fifth Edition. Jakarta: Pearson Education, Inc.
Brown, J. D. and Thom Hudson. 2001. A Focus on Language Test Development. Manoa: University of Hawai’i.
Dickinson, L. 1981. “Have you got Mr. Bun the Baker?” Problems and Solutions in the Use of Games, Role Play, and Simulations. English Language Teaching Journal Vol. XXXV, No.4 July, 1981.
Harmer, Jeremy. 2003. The Practice of English Language Teaching. Third Edition. Harlow, Essex: Longman.
Ladousse, G.P. 1987. Role Play. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Nunan, David. 1999. Second Language Teaching & Learning. Boston, Massachussets: Heinle & Heinle Publishers.
