BOOK REVIEW
Role Plays for Today. Photocopiable activities to get students speaking. Jason Anderson (2006) Reviewed by Raquel Fernández Fernández Raquel
Fernández works at the Escuela Universitaria Cardenal
Cisneros training future English primary teachers. She holds a PhD in
Modern Languages by the University of Alcalá, February 2006, and
her main research interests are literature in EFL, bilingualism, and
learning styles. |
I first became acquainted with real role-playing, not just reading the dialogues of the textbook aloud, while attending theatre lessons in English at the Escuela Oficial de Idiomas. It was at that moment when I thought: “Why don’t we do this at high-school?” Role plays are attractive to most students, even if they are shy, as I was (and am). They are characterised by giving students a short description of the characters they have to play, and providing some language basics to help them give their performance. EFL teachers and experts tend to relate role-playing to task-based learning, as role plays are considered a basic technique to simulate situations which involve the completion of tasks. One of the main advantages of role-plays is that they should favour students’ fluency and improve their communicative strategies. Nevertheless, this depends to a great extent on the material used. Role Plays for Today (RPT) is presented as an easy-to-use and highly accessible book which includes 39 role-plays to “get students speaking”. The fact that it is photocopiable material makes it really appealing; apart from having official permission to make as many copies as you need, the format is very attractive: DIN-A4 size spiral-binding, clear letter type, nice illustrations, etc. The first impression is positive. Once we have opened the book there is something which strikes the reader immediately: the content pages. The book starts with a clear classification of role-plays according to their topic and level, and the grammar, functions and vocabulary used. That makes it easy to find what one is looking for.In the content pages we can see that the topics contained in the book can be very easily linked to any of the topics usually included in our EFL/ESL textbooks; there are five general topics: (1) Services: practical, leisure and travel; (2) Shopping: supermarkets, clothes and restaurants; (3) Social life: going out, friends and relationships; (4) Lifestyle: work, accommodation and education; and (5) Creative role plays. Each of these main sections encompasses from 6 to 14 activities each. As far as the classification into levels is concerned, RPT covers a wide range of levels, from elementary to advanced level (A2-C1), and activities are classified into several levels, showing their suitability to different groups of students. Furthermore, for each role play, the grammatical structures needed are described, as well as the language functions practices (expressing surprise, sympathising, etc.) and the vocabulary used, normally related to topics (work, pets, crime, etc.). All this information is shown in perfectly organised tables, which make important information available to the reader at a glance. If teachers have little experience in role-playing, the book offers a two-page introduction which includes a very useful “making role plays work” section, explaining the main steps to use the book successfully and effectively in the classroom. Among the comments given by the author, it is important to remember that role plays function differently according to the group of students, and that the tools offered in the book have to be wisely applied by the teacher. The book continues with the presentation of the role-plays. Each follows a structure which is also clear and very helpful. Most role-plays take up one or two pages. First, there is a Teachers’ notes section which includes information of great importance: the approximate time the role play can take, a list of the target language used (which is also available for students in their worksheets), and a short indication about the preparation needed to carry out the role play. The role-play instructions are accompanied by both a lead-in and a follow up-suggestion. Lead-in activities highlight the importance of making students feel motivated to participate, and to elicit some of the vocabulary they will need later on. In the case of follow-up suggestions, activities ensure further work on the target language, and offer good alternatives to work with larger/smaller groups. Within this clear over-all structure, each role-play provides a different proposal. Some have more complex lead-in activities, others rely on illustrations or flashcards, and there are activities to be carried out not only by pairs of students, but by groups of 6 or more people. In my opinion, this is a clear advantage when working with large groups, and also, to make role plays more authentic and complex, it involves a bigger number of speakers, each of them contributing with his/her ideas and imagination. Up to this point, my description has been focused on a visual inspection basis. But, what happens when you try to use this book in the classroom? I tried three role plays with a group of high-school students attending conversation lessons. They were used to having dynamic activities in the classroom: improvisation, theatre, etc. and I supposed that the use of role plays would not, for a start, make any difference to the way they worked. In general, students enjoyed the lessons based on role-plays taken from this book. They considered they had enough language input to speak confidently. Some of them thought that the target language table available in their worksheets was really useful, but they sometimes forgot to look at it during the role play (they were interacting so passionately!). Many of them asked me: When are we going to have more role-plays? Despite my positive evaluation of the book, there are some aspects which can be improved. First, the book relies heavily on the ability of the teacher to model pronunciation and intonation. Audio and/or video resources which stimulate students’ awareness of these linguistic aspects would be really helpful, apart from providing information on non-verbal language, which is equally important. Second, this book tries to cater for too many levels and topics. Although this can be considered an advantage, teachers working with elementary students can find this book of little help, as just 12 out of 39 activities are directed to this level. Another issue which could be improved is that, according to topic, creative role plays only take 6 out of 39 activities, being the ones which foster students’ fluency more clearly. It would be a good idea for the publisher to think about offering different books classified into different levels and topics (the teacher’s dream!). To finish with, I would like to focus on the title, which has been very wisely chosen. “For Today” can have two different interpretations. First, RPT offers situations which are common in our everyday lives, “today” situations. This is a great advantage; who hasn’t been in the embarrassing situation of using an activity from a book of the 70s/80s and having to explain students what a typewriter was? RPT offers interesting contexts, such as in an internet café, or giving bad news through an e-mail, which are familiar to students as well as useful for them. Second, “for today” can refer to the availability and easy-to-use nature of this book. It is as easy as opening the content pages, having a look at the topics and language details, choosing the right level, and going to the photocopy while happily singing: “I’ve found my role play for today”.
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