The last section of this chapter addresses suggestions for future studies on role-play as a means to teach English to local junior high school students.

Chapter Six Conclusion

In this chapter, a summary of the major findings of the current study is firstly presented. Second, pedagogical implications based on the research findings for EFL teachers in Taiwan are provided. Next, limitations of the present study are discussed.

The last section of this chapter addresses suggestions for future studies on role-play as a means to teach English to local junior high school students.

6.1 Summary of the Findings

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of teaching English through role-play activities on local junior high school students. A total of 54 students from a junior high school in Taipei participated in this nearly four-month study, and were administered the pre- and post-study questionnaires, the pre- and post-study oral proficiency, and the sub-sample interviews held during and after the study. In addition, the students’ behaviors were observed and recorded by me in my teaching journals.

The data were then analyzed and cross-referenced. Major significant findings of the study are summarized as follows:

1. Teaching English through role-play activities significantly increased the learning motivation of local junior high school students.

2. Local junior high school students did not make a significant gain in confidence in speaking English after role-play instruction.

3. Local junior high school students did not make a salient progress in oral proficiency after teaching English through role-play activities.

4. Local junior high school students were generally in favor of the

implementation of role-play activities. Role-play activities were interesting and fun to

them, and most importantly, they perceived that these activities helped them to improve their oral skills, gain confidence in speaking English, enhance motivation of learning English, acquire new words, and develop writing skills.

5. Local junior high school students of different levels of language proficiency (high/intermediate/low) did not show important difference in their perceptions of role-play activities. In other words, these three language proficiency groups had similar amount of interest and equally positive attitudes toward role-play activities implemented in this study.

6.2 Pedagogical Implications

Role-play has long been regarded as a useful class activity for language learning (Long, 1986; Ladousse, 1987; Shie, 2001, 2002a, 2002b; Rosen, 1993). Since no other studies had been conducted prior to this study on role-play as an instructional vehicle for local junior high school students in Taiwan, the results of this action research can help local junior high school teachers with a better understanding about the pedagogical values and effects of role-play activities in teaching beginner-level English learners. Based on the findings of the present study, some implications for teaching English through role-play activities can be drawn.

First, this action research confirmed that role-play is beneficial to enhance students’ motivation of learning English, as suggested in previous studies (Stern, 1980;

Su, 1991; Kai & Chou, 1996; Shie, 2002a; Chang & Su, 2002; Yu, 2006). Meanwhile,

most of the students showed a general approval of role-play activities, and they

believed that role-play was beneficial because through role-play they improved their

oral skills, gained confidence in speaking English, enhanced motivation of learning

English, acquired new words, and developed writing skills. These positive results

speak cogently of role-play being as a regular component in the school’s English

curriculum for beginner-level English learners.

Second, according to the results of this study, students of different language proficiency levels held similar amount of interest and positive attitudes toward role-play activities. Hence, it can be concluded that the two role-play formats adopted in this study, i.e., skeleton and cued dialogues, were suitable for junior high school students to take part in, i.e., challenging but not overwhelming.

Third, a three-stage role-play involving the preparation, performance, and feedback stages is an effective teaching model for teachers to implement role-play activities in class. By managing the activity in these three stages, teachers can have a better idea about what to do and when to do it.

Fourth, team grouping for role-play is another important implication for teaching.

This study proves that heterogeneous ability grouping led to better cooperation and performance than homogeneous ability grouping. In heterogeneous grouping, the high/intermediate ability students can help low ability ones create and practice dialogues. The high/intermediate ability students also serves as models for low ability ones to follow and learn from. As pointed out by some researchers (Chang & Su, 2002;

Tseng & Huang, 2004; Tseng, 2004; Tseng, 2005), in role-play activities, students can work as a team to discuss, interact, and cooperate with others. Through peer cooperation and teamwork, students can help each other improve their oral skills.

Fifth, to prevent some audience from not attending to other groups’ performance at the performance stage of each role-play task, teachers should take measures to sustain students’ interest and ensure their understanding of other groups’ performance.

A solution used in this action research is to hold a Q&A activity at the end of each group’s presentation. This activity can help the audience not only pay attention to but also arrive at a better understanding of other groups’ role-play.

Sixth, in each role-play task implemented in this study, students were asked to

incorporate the new sentence patterns into the scripts they had to create. By doing this, students had an opportunity to practice what they had just learned from the textbook dialogues. Therefore, role-play activities can be a useful language learning tool for teachers to not only develop students’ communicative competence but also solidify their learning of grammar. Therefore, teachers can use role-plays to help students review the sentence patterns which they learned before, that is, students have to incorporate several sentence patterns into the scripts they have to create for role-plays.

Seventh, both video-taping and award presentation implemented in this study helped increase students’ motivation to prepare for role-play, which results in greater learning. By watching the videos of their own and other groups’ performance, students can learn from each other and generate more ideas to prepare for the following role-play tasks. The design of different award categories for each role-play task can motivate students of different levels of language proficiency to be more involved in role-play activities.

Last but not least, this study was a collaborative action research, as I cooperated with my colleague in brainstorming solutions to the problems we encountered in the process of this action research. Such collaborative action research has not only elevated my ability as a teacher but also enhanced the effectiveness of role-play activities.

6.3 Suggestions for Future Studies

Despite of the many positive effects found in the study of role-play as a vehicle

to teach English to beginner-level English learners, there are several limitations of the

present study regarding time frame, data collection techniques, participants, ways of

implementing role-plays, and focus of investigation in role-play studies. Targeting on

those limitations, directions of future research are suggested.

1. Time frame

The duration of this action research, covering 12 weekly eighth periods in nearly four months, was relatively short. A study of a longer term is suggested for a more thorough investigation of role-play as a means to enhance students’ motivation of learning English, confidence in speaking English, and their oral proficiency.

2. Data collection techniques

In this study, 18 students who were interviewed were all selected from my class, leaving the reactions of the students’ in my colleague’s class untapped. To enhance the credibility of the results of the interviews, the interviewees should be selected from all classes involved in a collaborative action research. In addition, the raters in this study, i.e., my colleague and I, were not trained to grade the GEPT oral proficiency test at the elementary level. In future studies, to ensure the credibility of the evaluation, raters should receive necessary training for rating students’ performance on the GEPT oral proficiency test. Furthermore, since students were not asked to improvise their performance in this study, the oral proficiency test should not include the improvising section, i.e., students should not be asked to answer questions spontaneously as part of their graded performance. In future studies, researchers should adopt appropriate sections of the GEPT oral proficiency test to reflect the design of the pedagogical intervention implemented in the study. Last, some items in the post-study questionnaire regarding students’ interests in role-plays were too similar and repetitive.

In future studies, to ensure the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, the questionnaire should be carefully designed.

3. Participants

In this action research, only 54 students at a local junior high school were

recruited as subjects, which was a small number. Whether role-play activities can

work well for other junior high school students in Taiwan is still a question. More

studies need to be conducted with more subjects. In addition, this study mainly focused on ninth-graders who were in preparation for the entrance examination of senior high school. Since these participants were under great pressure from preparing for the BCT, they may not be able to dedicate enough time and energy to prepare for role-play tasks. The amount of time appropriate for ninth-graders to engage in role-play activities needs further investigation so that the optimal effects of role-play as a means to enhance students’ motivation of learning English, confidence in speaking English, and their oral proficiency can be reached. It is also worth investigating how seventh- or eighth-graders who undertake less pressure from preparing for the BCT respond to role-play activities. The results will be useful in furthering an understanding of the overall effects of role-play as a language learning vehicle for local junior high school students in Taiwan.

4. Ways of implementing role-plays

Only two role-play formats, i.e., skeleton and cued dialogues, were used in this action research. These two more basic role-play formats may not satisfy students of high-level English proficiency, who are more capable of expressing themselves, and thus may find these two formats of role-play activities too easy and restricting. As a result, teachers can assign more challenging role-play activities to these students. In future studies, researchers can incorporate role-play tasks of different levels of difficulty to meet the needs of students of different levels of language proficiency.

Additionally, in this study, students were asked to memorize their lines for role-plays

without improvising. In future studies, researchers can have students, especially those

at high ability levels, improvise role-plays to enhance their oral proficiency. Last,

since students’ role-play performance was mainly based on teacher’s evaluation and

peer feedback was seldom provided by students, students may not get seriously

involved in the activity other than the group who is performing on stage. Future

studies therefore can include peer evaluation, i.e., students have to evaluate other groups’ performance based on the evaluation criteria determined by the teacher, to increase students’ participation in role-play.

5. Focus of investigation in role-play studies

This study mainly focused on the effects of role-play on beginner-level students’

oral proficiency without looking into its possible effects on learning of other language skills. In future studies, researchers can investigate whether role-plays can enhance beginner-level students’ ability in other aspects of language learning, such as writing skills. Thus, the overall effects of role-play as a language learning vehicle for beginner-level students can be better understood.

In conclusion, the issue regarding role-play and its effects on local junior high school students is worth further research and investigation. As a pioneering endeavor, the present study hopefully has led local scholars and English teachers to a better understanding of the effects of role-play on beginner-level learner’s English learning.

It is also hoped that this study will successfully generate more research interests in

looking into other pedagogical merits of role-play and its implementation in local

English classroom at the secondary school level.