LÊ THỊ TUYẾT MAI

VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Thị Tuyết Mai

ENGLISH LANGUAGE

USING ROLE - PLAY TO IMPROVE THE
FIRST - YEAR STUDENTS’ ENGLISH
SPEAKING SKILL AT VIETNAMESE
UNIVERSITY OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE

MA THESIS IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE

COURSE: 2016 – 2018

HANOI, 2018
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VIETNAM ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
GRADUATE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Lê Thị Tuyết Mai

USING ROLE-PLAY TO IMPROVE THE
FIRST-YEAR STUDENTS’ ENGLISHSPEAKING SKILL AT VIETNAMESE
UNIVERSITY OF TRADITIONAL MEDICINE


by a large amount of enthusiasm, effort and assistance from many people.
First and the foremost, I would like to express my gratitude to my
supervisor, Phạm Hiển,Ph.D. for all of his support. If it had not been for his
guidance, as long as the advice and comments from him, I would not complete
this research paper.
Moreover, I would like to send my special thanks to all of teachers at
Vietnamese University of Traditional Medicine for all their help and
suggestion which are very necessary and useful to me during the progress of
completing this .
Additionally, I am so grateful for all of the assistance from the students
at Vietnamese University of Traditional Medicine with their answers for all of
the interview, I would not have completed this research paper otherwise.
Last but not least, I would like to send my special thanks to my beloved
family, who are always supportive and enthusiastic to me during the progress
of making this .

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ABSTRACT
This is created and completed on the purpose of researching the way of
using Role-Play as an effective teaching method, especially in the scope of
teaching English at universities. According to the theoretical foundation about
Role-Play implementation, the aim of this is to enhance the English-speaking
competence of students in the first year of the university. Furthermore,
applying Role-Play method is becoming more and more popular in teaching
and guiding English speaking skill to the students, therefore, this focuses on
analyzing the necessity as well as the way of using this helpful method in
universities, particularly the Vietnamese University of Traditional Medicine.
Figures, data and information was collected and analyzed mainly through

Skill ................................................................................................................ 7
2.2. An Introduction of Role-Play in Teaching the Skill of Speaking .......... 8
2.2.1. Definition of Role-Play ....................................................................... 8
2.2.2. Forms of Role-Play ............................................................................. 9
2.2.3. The Steps for Role-Play Activity ....................................................... 10

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2.2.4. The Necessity of Role-Play Method in Teaching the Skill of Speaking
..................................................................................................................... 13
2.2.5. The Teachers’ Role in this Activity ................................................... 13
2.3. Chapter Summary................................................................................. 14
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY............................................................... 15
3.1. Research Questions .............................................................................. 15
3.2. Research Participants: The Researcher and The Subjects ................... 15
3.3. Research Procedure .............................................................................. 15
3.4. Instruments of Collecting Data. ........................................................... 15
3.4.1. Survey Questionnaires ...................................................................... 15
3.4.2. Observations ..................................................................................... 17
3.4.3. Interview ............................................................................................ 18
3.5. Assessment ........................................................................................... 18
3.6. Chapter Summary................................................................................. 18
CHAPTER 4: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS ....................................... 19
4.1. A Brief Analysis of the Survey’s Results ............................................ 19
4.1.1. Questionnaires .................................................................................. 19
4.1.1.1. Questionnaire for Students. ......................................................... 19
4.1.1.2. Questionnaire for Teaches ........................................................... 38
4.1.2. Interviewing....................................................................................... 46
4.1.2.1. Teachers’ Interviewing ................................................................ 46

Table 3: Students’ Level of Impression on the Activities .......................... 21
Table 4: Was Students’ Confidence improved after Exercises................... 22
Table 5.1: Students’ Opinion about Today’s Lesson: LEVEL OF
HELPFULNESS ......................................................................................... 23
Table 5.2: Students’ Opinion about Today’s Lesson: LEVEL OF
DIFFICULTY ............................................................................................. 24
Table 6: The Skill Needs Improving ........................................................... 25
Table 7: Self-evaluation of Students about their Communicative Skill in
English......................................................................................................... 26
Table 8: Whether Developing Speaking Skills during Classes is Essential ...
................................................................................................................. 27
Table 9: Do you find it difficult to communicate in English? .................... 29
Table 10: Factors Prevent Students from talking English fluently ............. 30
Table 11: Have you ever played a role during a language lesson? ............. 31
Table 12: Preference for Playing Roles than other Activities in Class....... 32
Table 13: Frequency of using Role-Play in English Speaking Classes of
Students. ...................................................................................................... 33
Table 14: Feelings when Participating in Role-Play Activities .................. 34
Table 15: Difficulties in Applying Role-Play in Speaking Classes ............ 35
Table 16: Factors Influencing Role-Play Classes ....................................... 36
Table 17: Reasons for the Excitement of Role-Play Classes ...................... 37
Tables of students’ survey questionnaire analysis
Table 1: Viewpoint of Teachers on Student’s Speaking Competence ....... 38
Table 2: Viewpoint of Teachers about Students’ Attitude to Learning
Speaking ...................................................................................................... 39
Table 3: Teachers’ Application of Role-Play Method in Class .................. 40
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Table 4: Benefits of Applying Role-Play.................................................... 41


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Figures of students’ survey questionnaire analysis
Figure 1: Viewpoint of Teachers on Student’s Speaking Competence ...... 38
Figure 2: Viewpoint of Teachers about Students’ Attitude to Learning
Speaking ...................................................................................................... 39
Figure 3: Teachers’ Application of Role-Play Method in Class................. 40
Figure 4: Benefits of Applying Role-Play .................................................. 41
Figure 5: Level of Difficulties in Applying Role-Play ............................... 42
Figure 6: Difficulties when Applying Role-Play: Reasons ........................ 43
Figure 7: Frequency of Using Role-Play in Class ...................................... 44
Figure 8: Viewpoint about Students’ Enhancement ................................... 45

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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
This chapter introduces some very first parts of the ; there are seven
parts in this chapter: (1) Rationale; (2) Aims of the study; (3) Research
Methods; (4) Scope of the Study; (5) Significance of the Study; (6) Research
Methods and (7) Organization of the Study.
1.1. Rationale
It is undeniable that improving the ability of using English of students,
especially the speaking skills, is the key and responsibility of teaching
English in our contemporary society. Due to the fact that speaking is one of
the most popular and most-used skills when a student access to the program
of learning English, many teachers are finding their own ways, methods and
steps with a view to helping their students to enhance their English

The goal of this thesis is to elevate the speaking skills of first year
students at a university. Moreover, this

can help teachers recognize the

benefits of this method in order to apply it in their classes.
1.3. Research Questions
The is conducted in order to support the answers of these following
questions:
Question 1: What are the 1st year students' attitude toward using role play
activity?
Question 2: In what way does role play improve 1st year students' speaking
skill?
1.4. Scope of the Study
The scope of the study is about approaching and using Role-Play as a
new method of teaching and improving the skill of Speaking on first-year
students at Vietnamese University of Traditional Medicine.

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1.5. Significance of the Study
It is hoped from the that it can raise the awareness of teachers and
students of the importance of Role-Play in English speaking skill so that
learners can speak English more appropriately and spontaneously. Moreover,
the advantages, difficulties, as well as some useful recommendation and
solutions of this method mentioned and analyzed in this thesis could help
teachers to find out the most suitable way to apply this method to their
students.
1.6. Research Method

analyzed.
Chapter 4: Findings and discussions
As aptly named, this part presents and analyses the results of the
questionnaires carried out in 100 first-year students at the class of Y-A1 at
Vietnamese University of Traditional Medicine. Furthermore, analysis after
observing classes and teachers’ interview are also included in this part.
Chapter 5: Conclusion
This chapter holds responsible for providing an overview of the whole ,
including benefits and limitations of the study as well. By analyzing this
information, some recommendation for further research are also suggested.

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CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1. An Overview of a Method of Teaching and Learning the Skill of
English-speaking
Due to the fact that learning the skill of speaking is of great importance
to every English learner, numerous of researchers and scholars found some
ways and methods to convey the knowledge of learning speaking effectively
to their students, especially students in the countries where English is
considered the second language. After a long procedure of adaptation and
changes, there are several most popular and effective methods of teaching
speaking, which are still being applied at schools in many nations, including
Communicative Language Teaching approach and Role-Play. In the first part
of this chapter, a general view of these two ways of teaching is provided, go
along with an analysis of the characteristics of each of them; and, obviously,
Role-Play is mainly focused.
2.1.1. A Language Teaching Method with Surprising Effectiveness:
Communicative Language Teaching approach (CLT)

the more improvable they can get in their speaking skill.
On the purpose of achieving the goal of CLT approach, there are some
possibilities and progress for learners as a reference to follow. The first step is
that there must be a recognition from learners that it shouldn’t be a burden or
pressure when learning English. Instead of feeling uncomfortable, learners
had better consider learning English is a hobby and take it easy. A class with a
learning-friendly environment will, certainly, stimulate the learning interest
from students.
Additionally, it’s widely known that another important complement of
enhancing the skill of speaking English is a range of grammar and
vocabulary. Undoubtedly, a basic knowledge of words and grammatical
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aspect has a great impact on how a student can produce a proper response will
definitely happen when they have enough word ranges to use and they don’t
have to concern too much on how correctly grammar is used.
Moreover, speaking style is another necessary factor which must be
taken notice of when learning speaking, since there is a substantial difference
between a person who speak timidly with a lot of fluctuation and interruption
and the others with a confident style of speaking. A person can speak and
convey their expression fluently and confidently requires a great deal of
efforts and practice.
2.2. An Introduction of Role-Play in Teaching the Skill of Speaking
This part holds responsible for introducing the main method on which
the focuses – Role-Play.
2.2.1. Definition of Role-Play
“Role-Play” itself is a compound noun which is combined with two
independent words: “role”, which is defined as the person whom an actor
represents in film or play by, and “play”, which means that is taken on in a

There are two forms of Role-Play, based on the viewpoint of
Mc.Gill(1995), which will be mentioned below. The first form is Scripted
Role-Play, which have a relation to the involvement of the interpretation in
textbook conversation, or, reading text in the speech form; and the other is
Unscripted Role-Play. Different from the first form, the situation of
Unscripted Role-Play, or known by another name – free Role-Play, is
independent of the contents of the course book. According to Turner (1992),
the feature which make Unscripted Role-Play differ from Scripted Role-Play
is the decision of language used and the development of the dialogue.
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Because Unscripted Role-Play activities do not use guidance from course
book, it is more creative and comfortable for both students and teachers to
produce a talk; however, go along with this creativeness is the requirement of
a good preparation from teachers and learners.
2.2.3. The Steps for Role-Play Activity
In order to carry out a successful lesson with Role-Play actives, it is
necessary to conduct in steps. It is suggested in the book Role-Play in
Teaching Culture: Six Quick Steps for Classroom Implementation by the
author Kodotchigova that there are six steps which can be used to make an
effective lesson.
o Step 1- Choose an appropriate situation
According to Livingstone (1983), the first step is choosing a situation
for a role play, keeping in mind students' needs and interests. One of the most
popular and suitable way to the teacher is that he or she can choose exactly
what the students have just learned to form a speaking topic, as it will be a
terrific opportunity for them to practice and apply speaking structures and
vocabularies related to the lessons’ contents that they have just been
conveyed. More interestingly, teacher can let students choose the topic and

provide students with more detailed information and describe the role of each
student clearly. For example, when a situation about the working condition is
formed, the teacher and students should set up and present information about
it as much as possible, including the name, position and the scale of the
company. Moreover, the context “working condition” should also be
described thoroughly by some illustration like the working hours, salary, the
manager’s and colleagues’ behavior, etc. This step will help students imagine
more easily about the job that they are going to becoming, so that they will act
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more confidently.
In order to collect this kind of detailed information, it is necessary for
teacher to ask student to prepare the contents of the lesson at home in
advance. For example, if the topic for the lesson is “working condition”,
students can search at home about the working condition in a certain
company.
o Step 5- Assigning the Roles
This step is also noted by Harasim&Turoff(1995), that some instructors
ask for volunteers to act out a role play in front of the class because it can be a
model for student to follow. Even if nobody wants to be a volunteer, teacher
can help by acting out for the first time, because when students access to this
method for the first time, they might not have known what to do and need
guidance from teacher. In case there is not much time left, teacher can ask
students to perform their play at home as a preparation and will act in the next
lesson. It is mentioned by many scholars that doing Role-Play activities with
friends could be very effective, such as the opinion of Horner
&Mc.Ginley(1990) that very often, optimum interaction can be reached by
letting the students work in one group with their friends.
o Step 6 - Follow-up

It is widely known that the significance of role play in language
teaching is undeniable, and it is helpful for both teacher and students due to
the worthwhile learning experience it brings. Thanks to role play activities,
students can enhance not only their skills of speaking, listening and
comprehending but also the knowledge that they learned previously by using
them directly and immediately after the lesson. Furthermore, role play is of
great importance because it lightens up the atmosphere of the class. Instead of
sitting and listening, students now have to stand up to act, communicate with
others and express their ideas, viewpoints and feelings actively.
It is explained by Horner &Mc.Ginley (1990)that the reason for the
significance of role play in the communicative approach is the opportunity it
gives students to practice communicating in particular situation, attached
closely with different social contexts and roles. Additionally, students, by
taking part in Role-Play activities, will be allowed to think and speak more
creatively, therefore, it becomes an ideal activity to develop communication
skills.
2.2.5. The Teachers’ Role in this Activity
Because of the specific characteristics of Role-Play activities, generally,
teachers do not involve and participate actively in the speaking class.
However, they have a certain role, which is quite important, in class.
According to the viewpoint of Horner &Mc.Ginley (1990) that "The teacher
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