Chapter Three Methodology
To investigate the effects of teaching English through role-play, this study employed an action research. In this chapter, the methodology adopted for the study is described in the following sections. First of all, the design and procedures of the study, including the definition and purposes of action research, are introduced.
Second, the participants and the setting are addressed. Third, the details are given concerning the teaching process. In addition, the instruments used in the study are presented. Finally, data analysis methods to be adopted for the study are discussed.
3.1 Design and Procedure
Action research was employed in this study. In this section, the definition and purpose of action research are introduced first. Then, its various data collection techniques and the cyclical nature of the research process are delineated. Finally, the procedures of this study adopting Richards’ (2003) model of action research are presented.
3.1.1 Definition and Purpose of Action Research
Action research has been widely used as a means of improving curriculum and
practice in the teaching fields. It is “the process of systematically evaluating
consequences of educational decisions and adjusting practice to maximize
effectiveness” (McLean, 1995, p.3). Action research is a systematic inquiry
conducted by teachers to gather information about—and subsequently improves—the
ways their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how well their students
learn (Mills, 2000). The essential aim of action research is to understand better some
aspect of professional practice as a way to bringing about improvement instead of producing knowledge. Additionally, the research itself and its outcome focus on personal and professional involvement, marking it as different from other traditional research (Richards, 2003). It can be incorporated naturally into the normal routine of teaching.
3.1.2 Data Collection Techniques of Action Research
Action research can be described as a ‘multi-instrument’ approach, which collects information in many ways rather than relying solely on one. The data collection techniques often employed in action research include written methods and live methods (McNiff & Whitehead, 2005). Written methods include field notes, personal logs and diaries, questionnaires, questionnaires, and record sheets. Live methods contain interviews and audio- and videotape recordings.
3.1.3 The Action Research Process
Action research is more than just doing activities. McNiff and Whitehead (2002, p.16) hold that action research is “a form of practice which involves data gathering, reflection on the action as it is presented through data, generating evidence from the data, and making claims to knowledge based on conclusions drawn from validated evidence.” Various models of action research share the common four-step process: “a sense of purpose based on a ‘problem’ or ‘area of focus,’ (identify an area of focus), observation or monitoring of practice (collect data), synthesis of information gathered (analyze and interpret data), and some form of ‘action’ that invariably ‘spirals’ the researcher back into the process again, and again, and again (develop an action plan)”
(Mills, 2000, p.18). The action research process is best seen as a cycle: reflection on
the outcomes of one intervention will often lead to the identification of further
potential interventions. The four-step process, which Mills (2000, p.20) have termed
the Dialectic Action Research Spiral, is illustrated in Figure 1.
Figure 1
Mill’s Dialectic Action Research Spiral
Richards (2003, p. 237) proposes the framework of action research procedures (see Table 1), involving the cyclical process of planning, acting and observing, reflecting, and planning.
Table 1
Richards’ Action Research Cycle
The Action Research cycle
AR Cycle Gloss
Reflect Reflects on practice Understand the relevant professional situation.
Plan(1) Formulate a question Identify an aspect of practice where intervention would be appropriate.
Plan(2) Decide on a response Decide in what ways your approach to this aspect might be changed.
Plan(3) Make a plan Design an intervention where this change in Identify an
Area of Focus
Collect Data
Analyze and Interpret Data Develop an
Action Plan
practice can be implemented and decide on how this can be observed.
Act Make it happen Put into practice the planned changes.
Observe Make it happen Observe the changes and their effects.
Reflect Reflect on practice Evaluate the outcomes of the change in terms of professional practice and development and, in the light of this, identify any further changes that might be made.
Judging from Mills’ (2000) and Richards’ (2003) action research procedures, action research is a continuous and reflective process where educators make instructional decisions in their classrooms based on student needs reflected from classroom data. Above all, an action researcher is always reflecting on his or her practice before, during, and after the problem-solving process. The cyclical nature of action research provides educators with ongoing opportunities to reflect on and refine their own teaching practices. Compared with Mills’ four-step model, Richards’ (2003) seven-step process offers a more concrete and action-oriented guidance on how to implement an action plan. For its clarity and practicality, Richards’ (2003) model of action research procedures was adopted for this study.
3.1.4 Research Procedures
This study adopted the method of action research introduced by Richards (2003)
and employed role-play tasks in the teaching instruction. The research procedures of
the study included seven stages described as follows: 1. Reflect—Reflect on practice
(beginner-level English learners seldom have an opportunity to develop oral
proficiency), 2. Plan (1)—Formulate a question (what communicative activity can best be implemented as a regular component of the school syllabus for beginner-level English learners), 3. Plan (2)—Decide on a response (role-play has been valued as a potentially useful tool for oral language development), 4. Plan (3)—Make a plan (two role-play formats, i.e., skeleton and cued dialogues, are adopted for this study), 5.
Act—Make it happen (two teachers and two classes participate in this study), 6.
Observe—Make it happen (several data collection techniques are used to evaluate the effects of role-play activities), 7. Reflect—Reflect on practice (The practice of role-play is modified in light of reflection and evaluation).
1. Reflect — Reflects on practice
As a junior high school teacher myself, I was preoccupied with emphasizing student’s writing and reading abilities over communicative competence and oral ability. Since students didn’t engage in enough communicative activities, many of them lacked confidence and motivation to speak English, not to mention their poor oral ability.
Based on my new belief that language is for communication and interaction, students should be given an opportunity to practice speaking English at the beginning of English instruction. Then, they can build confidence and motivation to speak English, and hence develop communicative competence.
2. Plan(1) — Formulate a question
Communicative activities can provide students with opportunities to put what
they’ve learned into practice. Given the fact that local junior high school students
are only capable of basic sentence patterns and limited vocabulary, communicative
activities implemented in class have to interest and be accessible to them. I want to
know in what ways the communicative activities could be held efficiently and
effectively in the classroom for local junior high school students.
3. Plan(2) — Decide on a response
Role-play “embodies the communicative approach, the goal of which is to develop communicative competence” (Oxford & Crookall, 1990, p.111). Role-play provides students with opportunities for practicing in class the language they need for interacting outside the classroom. It has been used as a flexible, cheap, and easy device for instruction, and is ideally suited to enable students to learn spoken language (Van Ments, 1989). For beginner-level students, role-play may be one of the most practicable and applicable communicative activities to be implemented in language classes. Presumably role-play offers many beneficial effects on language learning (e.g., promoting motivation, reducing affective filter, fostering potential development level, increasing comprehensible input, and facilitating cooperative learning).
4. Plan (3) — Make a plan
My goal was to help students create their own sentences, not being confined to the memorization of textbook dialogues. Taking into consideration students’
beginning level of language proficiency, I used semi-structured role-plays, in which students can manipulate specific language behaviors and usages in a variety of contexts. Role-playing with skeleton dialogues and role-playing with cued dialogues were chosen as the two initial primary formats conducted in the classroom. By equipping learners with skeleton or cued dialogues, I can elicit forms which I have just taught and understand better if students meet my expectation.
5. Act — Make it happen
I invited one of my colleagues to take part in this action research, so two
teachers and two classes participated in the study. The role-play tasks were based on
the dialogues in the textbook. After learning dialogues of a lesson, students were assigned a teacher-designed worksheet of role-playing with skeleton or cued dialogues. They had to work in groups to finish the worksheets, and each member was assigned a role to play in the task. Each group had to practice it after class and then presented it in front of the class in the next class period.
6. Observe— Make it happen
I observed the changes and the effects of role-play tasks in my colleague’s and my classes. During observation, videotaping of students’ oral performance and field notes were used as tools to collect data. In addition, interviews and teaching journals were done during and after the study. The data collected from these methods helped me to monitor and evaluate the effects of role-play activities.
7. Reflect— Reflect on practice
After reflecting on teaching experience and discussing with my colleague, I identified or redefined problems related to using role-plays as a learning tool and sought possible solutions. The role-play tasks were revised or refined for better teaching effects only when necessary.
3.2 Participants and Setting
This study took place in a public junior high school in Taipei where I teach. Two teachers, my colleague and I, and two classes of ninth grader participated in this study.
Role-play tasks were applied to the normal routine of ninth grade English class in the first semester of school year, from September to December 2007.
3.2.1 Teachers
Two teachers, my colleagues and I, participated in this study. I have taught
English for eight years, and my colleague, 16 years. We both are experienced English
teachers and are willing to create an opportunity for students to practice oral ability in the classroom.
This study was a collaborative action research, that is, during the research I compared and contrasted my and my colleague’s perceptions and interpretations of the data. Through collaborative work, my subjective judgment was reduced so as to enhance the validity of this action research.
3.2.2 Participants
Two heterogeneous classes of ninth graders at a public junior high school in Taipei participated in this study. They have learned English for more than six years since the third grade of elementary school. Class I, 27 students, was taught by my colleague, and Class II, 27 students, was taught by me. The total participant students were 54 students. Based on the class average English scores of the previous semester, Class I and Class II were of a similar level. For statistical comparison, all participants’
language proficiency was classified into three levels respectively—high, intermediate, and low ability—on the basis of the achievement scores
1attained from the previous semester. The distribution of proficiency grouping is to divide the class into the top and bottom 27 percents (Henning, 1987). Therefore, the low ability participants are defined as those whose scores belong to the bottom 27% and the high ability participants, the top 27%. The intermediate ability participants are those whose scores fall in between the top 27% and the bottom 27%. In this study, there were 14 students in the high and low ability levels respectively, and 26 students in the intermediate ability level.
1
Students’ achievement scores attained from the previous semester were consistent with their
pre-study oral proficiency score gained from this study. That is, there was a high correlation between
the achievement test and proficiency test. Therefore, it is reliable to use students’ achievement scores
to divide the students into three language proficiency groups.
3.2.3 Instructional Materials
Based on the needs and level of the students, the role-play formats adopted in this study included a semi-controlled work (role-playing with skeleton dialogues) where students’ utterances are built up from extra support of a skeleton dialogue, and more flexible and creative work (role-playing with cued dialogues) where students have more freedom to decide what to say and how to say it by following the precise turn-by-turn cues.
According to Livingstone (1983), role-playing with skeleton dialogues is usually used as a preparatory exercise for weaker students. It is a refined form of ‘filling in the blanks,’ and it can give weaker students extra support. If carefully composed, it can give possibilities for selection of appropriate language. This may be illustrated by the following example (see Table 2).
Table 2
Example of Role-Playing with Skeleton Dialogues (from Livingstone, 1983, p.16) Go into the grocer’s and buy some things.
A: Good , can ?
B: like and . (etc.)
Role-playing with cued dialogues is one type of role-playing activities proposed
by Littlewood (1981). It offers precise turn-by-turn cueing on individual role cards so
that students can use cues as language support to produce utterances. This makes it
easier for students to draw on language forms that they would have difficulty in using
with complete spontaneity. The teacher can therefore used cued dialogues to elicit
forms which he or she has just taught or which his or her students would otherwise
avoid. For example of role-playing with cued dialogues, see Table 3.
Table 3
Example of Role-Playing with Cued Dialogues (from Littlewood, 1981, p.51) Learner A
You meet B in the street.
Learner B
You meet A in the street.
A: Greet B.
B:
A:
B: Greet A.
A: Ask B where he is going.
B:
A:
B: Say you are going for a walk.
A: Suggest somewhere to go together. A:
B: B: Reject A’s suggestions. Make a
different suggestion.
A: Accept B’s suggestion. A:
B: B: Express pleasure.
Compared with role-playing with cued dialogues, role-playing with skeleton dialogues provides students with more language support, that is, more language routines and patterns. Krashen and Scarcella (1978) assert that the use of routines and patterns may be encouraged when conversational demands are present and the acquirer is not yet competent in the second language. Therefore, role-play with skeleton dialogues is suitable for students at the beginner level, and can prepare them for later communication. However, in role-playing with cued dialogues, students are not limited to the framework of a skeleton dialogue, but can produce their own utterances by following the precise turn-by-turn cues. The aim of this activity is for students to produce appropriate language, and more importantly, to communicate meanings effectively. Role-playing with cued dialogues is less controlled and involves more creativity, so students will have greater responsibility for creating the interaction themselves. For students at the beginner level, it will be a more demanding and challenging activity than role-playing with skeleton dialogues.
Based on the two role-play formats, four role-play tasks, i.e., two skeleton and
two cued dialogues, were implemented in this study. The teaching materials and
syllabus mainly followed the textbook and school syllable. The role-play tasks were carefully designed in accordance with the contents of dialogues selected from the textbook (Kang Hsuan Textbook Book 5, 2007). The textbook has nine lessons, and each focuses on specific topic and language usages. All topics are considered relevant to students’ needs, experience, and ability. Since there were four role-play tasks implemented in this study, four lessons were selected as the teaching materials based on the school syllabus. That is, I designed each role-play task according to the lesson I was scheduled to teach during the study. The worksheets of role-playing with skeleton or cued dialogues were designed according to the contents of dialogues of the selected lessons. Also, specific language behaviors and usages which I wished to stress were integrated into them.
My colleague and I firstly applied the format of role-playing with skeleton dialogues in the first two role-play tasks in order to help students use acceptable language with reasonable fluency and prepare them for later communication. The last two role-play tasks then adopted the format of role-playing with cued dialogues to allow greater freedom for students to produce their own utterances. Table 4 shows the implementation of the four role-play tasks.
Table 4
The Implementation of the Four Role-play Tasks
Task 1: Role-playing with skeleton dialogues
Reflection and modification of practice
Task 2: Role-playing with skeleton dialogues
Reflection and modification of practice
Task 3: Role-playing with cued dialogues
Reflection and modification of practice
Task 4: Role-playing with cued dialogues
Reflection on practice
3.2.4 Time Distribution and Allocation
Basically, the duration of each role-play task comprised three periods, one period for pre-role-play activity (preparation), another for role-play activity (performance), and the other for follow-up activity (feedback). On account of limited class time and tight school schedule, both my colleague and I implemented the role-play tasks, instead of in regular classes, in the weekly eighth class used by teachers as a supplementary class. We both, therefore, made it a routine to conduct role-play tasks in the duration of 12 weekly eighth classes, covering nearly four months from September to December 2007.
3.3 Teaching Process
The procedures of this action research aforementioned included seven stages: 1.
Reflect—Reflects on practice, 2. Plan (1)—Formulate a question, 3. Plan (2)—
Decide on a response, 4. Plan (3)—Make a plan, 5. Act—Make it happen, 6.
Observe—Make it happen, 7. Reflect—Reflect on practice. In this section, I elaborate
the fifth, sixth, and the seventh stage, which can be defined as the actual teaching
stages of role-plays.
In an attempt to enhance the effect of role-plays in English learning/teaching, a carefully-planned and well-designed role-play is suggested by many researchers (Livingstone, 1983; Richards, 1995; Su, 1991, 1995; Kai & Chou, 1995; Shie, 2001;
Lin, 2004). Before my colleague and I implemented the role-play tasks for students to expose themselves in a real-world-like situation and to use the target language actively, a training session was designed for students to better understand the spirit and characteristics of role-play. Then, the design of role-play tasks mainly involved three stages: preparation, performance, and feedback.
3.3.1 Training session (warm-up)
The purpose of a training session was to help familiarize students with carrying out role-play tasks. At the beginning of the research, my colleague and I explained to students the implementation of role-play as a useful means of aiding students’ oral ability. The characteristics of role-play and examples of role-playing with skeleton dialogues or cued dialogues were introduced to students. To help students overcome the uncertainty and uneasiness of engaging in such a new task, my colleague and I modeled the role-playing process and guided students to complete tasks with cues as language support. Therefore, students can have a better understanding of what they are going to do in the upcoming role-play tasks.
3.3.2 Role-play activity
An implementation procedure of role-play tasks was developed to meet the
language competence of junior high school students. It mainly included three
activities: pre-role-play activity (preparation), role-play activity (performance), and
post-role-play activity (feedback). Each activity took about one class period to finish.
1. Pre-role-play activity (preparation)
To develop students’ linguistic tools necessary to cope with role-play tasks, a pre-role-play activity was designed and closely connected with the task immediately following it. In the pre-role-play activity, the pre-communicative activities were designed according to the sentence patterns which students just learned from the textbook dialogues. My colleague and I implemented structural drills for students to review the sentence patterns which they are going to use in role-play activities. These pre-communicative activities can prepare students for role-play tasks by relating students’ prior knowledge (schemata) to the task they are going to be involved in.
Also, we divided students into small groups, consisting of 3 persons each. The worksheets of role-playing with skeleton or cued dialogues were provided for each group to discuss and complete, and each member was then assigned a role to play in his or her group. Meanwhile, we maintained a close contact with each group to monitor students and offer necessary assistance. Then, students were asked to prepare for their performance at home and do role-playing in front of the class in the next class period.
2. Role-play activity (performance)
When the students did role-playing in front of the class, I observed their performance without too much interference and made notes of their frequent mistakes.
In addition, a digital video camera was used to record all of the students’ performance as well as the audience’s participation and reaction. The videotape recordings can provide me and the students with useful information for the post-role-play discussion.
3. Post-role-play activity (feedback)
After performance came feedback and follow-up activities. Teacher feedback
and peer feedback was offered in this stage. I evaluated and commented on students’
performance, and provided feedback to students. Also, students were asked to watch and discuss the recordings of their performance, and were encouraged to share their thoughts and opinions. The class’ reactions and suggestions on role-plays were used to help me design more successful role-plays and role-play preparation exercises.
3.4 Instruments
The instruments which were implemented in this action research are as follows:
(1) questionnaire, (2) oral proficiency test, (3) classroom observation, (4) sub-sample interviews, and (5) teaching journal. The questionnaire was designed to know students’ English learning background, motivation of learning English, confidence in speaking English, and perceptions of role-play activities. It was administered before and after the study. To investigate whether the application of role-play activities influences the oral performance of students, their oral proficiency was assessed by the oral proficiency test before and after the study. In addition, both classroom observation and teaching journals were done by me to reflect and identify difficulties which students experienced in role-play activities. Moreover, sub-sample interviews conducted during and after the study were to see how students feel about role-play activities as a learning tool.
3.4.1 Questionnaire
A questionnaire was administered before and after the study to find the changes
of student’s motivation of learning English and self-confidence toward speaking
English. The questionnaire (see Appendix A), which was written in Chinese, was
divided into three main sections: students’ background information, students’ attitudes
on English learning, and students’ perceptions of role-plays. Section one was to solicit
the students’ personal information (name, class, gender, years of learning English, and
their experience of taking the GEPT at the elementary level). Section two was to investigate students’ motivation of learning English, with questions adapted from the Motivational Questionnaires by Schmidt et al. (1996) and Peng (2002), and to examine students’ self-confidence in speaking English, with questions modified from the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz et al.,1986), Wu’s (2002) English Learning Attitude Scale, and Griffee’s (1997) Confidence in Speaking Questionnaire. Section three, designed by myself, was added to the post-study questionnaire to investigate students’ perceptions of role-plays, including students’
interests in role-plays and their perceptions of the effects and value of role-plays. The students were asked to answer the questions of section two and three with a five-point Likert-type scale: 1＝strongly disagree, 2＝disagree, 3＝no comment, 4＝agree, 5＝
strongly agree.
In section two, items 4, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24 are negatively worded and were reverse-coded for the analyses. In section three, items 28, 30, 37, 38 are also negatively worded and were reverse-coded for later analyses. Tables 4 and 5 display the distribution of the sections and their related issues in the pre-study and post-study questionnaires.
Table 5
The Distribution of the Sections in the Pre-Study and Post-Study Questionnaires
Questionnaire Sections included
Pre-study Section I Section II
Post-study Section I Section II Section III
Table 6
The Distribution of the Issues in the Pre-Study and Post-Study Questionnaires Sections Primary Issues Subdivided Issues Corresponded Item
numbers Section I Background
information
1-6 Intrinsic
Motivation
1-5 Motivation of leaning
English
Extrinsic Motivation
6-12 Section II
Confidence in speaking English
13-24 Interests in
Role-plays
25-31 Section III Attitudes and
perceptions toward participation in role-plays
Perceptions of the Effects and Value of Role-plays
32-40
To ensure the content validity of the questionnaires, all the items were examined
and modified from the consultations with two TEFL experts and English teaching
professionals. A pilot study was then conducted in order to examine the
internal-consistency reliability of the revised items in section two concerning
students’ motivation of learning English and confidence in speaking English. I
conducted the pilot test with two classes of pilot subjects to verify whether the
questionnaire adopted in this study is sufficiently reliable or not. The pilot participants
had similar background with the intended subjects. Thus, the pilot subjects
represented the target population well. On August 10 of 2007, the 24-item
questionnaire regarding motivation of learning English and confidence in speaking
English was administered to the pilot subjects. The Cronbach’s alpha for the two
primary issues was calculated respectively: motivation of learning English ( .88) and
confidence in speaking English ( .87). In addition, before the post-study questionnaire
was administered to the participants, the items in section three regarding students’
perceptions of role-plays were read out to six pilot participants by me to check whether the item statements needed to be rephrased clearly for students’
comprehension and understanding.
3.4.2 Oral Proficiency Test
The oral proficiency test, using the speaking section of the official practice version of General English Proficiency Test (GEPT) at the elementary level (See Appendix B and C), tested students’ oral proficiency before and after the study. The contents of the oral test can be divided into three parts—repeating, reading aloud, and answering questions, and it took approximately 10 minutes to finish the test. Students’
oral performance was evaluated based on the oral scoring system of GEPT at the elementary level. The scoring criteria consists of two parts: (a) pronunciation, intonation, and fluency; (b) grammar usage and correctness/appropriateness of language. The two parts were rated on a scale of 0 to 5 (see Appendix D and E). In addition, a digital voice recorder was used to record the responses of the students for the raters, my colleague and I, to score and for later reference. To avoid the subjective judgment of one teacher, both my colleague and I rated independently each student’s oral performance
To investigate whether the application of role-play activities influences the oral performance of students, comparisons between the scores gained on the pre-test and the post-test was made after the study.
3.4.3 Classroom Observation
The Classroom Observation Form provided general guidelines for me to keep
records of how students responded to role-play activities and how my colleague
interacted with her students (see Appendix F). The purpose of classroom observation
was to evaluate how effective the role-play activities were and to make improvement
in the implementation of role-play activities in the following class.
3.4.4 Sub-sample Interviews
The interviews were administered in Chinese three times during and after the study to learn more about students’ specific attitudes and perceptions toward participation in role-plays. Since the first two role-play tasks adopted the format of role-playing with skeleton dialogues, and the last two, cued dialogues, the sub-sample interviews were held after the first role-play task of each format during the study. The aim was to learn students’ perceptions of different role-play formats, and then I can use the data to improve the next role-play task of each format. In addition, after the study, the sub-sample interviews were held again to elicit further information about students’ perceptions and experiences of role-play activities. The results of the interviews were used to triangulate and supplement the data obtained from questionnaires and other means of data collection. Figure 2 shows the interview schedule for this study.
Figure 2
The Interview Schedule
During the sub-sample interviews, six students, two from high ability levels, two from intermediate ability levels, and two from low ability levels, were randomly selected from my class for a one-on-one interview with me. These one-on-one interviews took place in my office, and were tape-recorded and lasted around 10-15 minutes each. To gather more information about how students felt about role-plays,
1st skeleton
dialogues Interview 2
ndskeleton
dialogues
1st cued
dialogues Interview 2
ndcued
dialogues Interview
each student was interviewed only once. Since the sub-sample interviews were held twice during the study and once after the study, eighteen students
2were interviewed for this study.
The interview comprised four essential open-ended questions and twenty sub-questions based on the research questions (see Appendix G). The first two questions mainly focused on students’ perceptions of role-play as a class activity and suggestions on the conduction of role-play tasks, and they were used for the sub-sample interviews held during the study. The last two questions concerned students’ perceptions of role-play as a useful means of English language learning and how they felt toward the two role-play formats in this study. These questions were used for the sub-sample interviews held after the study. Although the content and procedures of interview was planned in advance, I modified the questions according to the interviewee’s response. Furthermore, the modification of the interview questions was made according to students’ participation and performance in role-play tasks.
3.4.5 Teaching journal
In the process of action research, I kept records of reflection in terms of the effects of role-plays on students’ motivation of learning English, confidence in speaking English, and students’ view of role-plays as a learning tool on learning English. Also, feedback offered by my colleague was noted to help me to reflect on my study. The ideas obtained from the teaching journals can not only offer possible
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