Promoting the role playing for interactive learning to develop communicative skills
Authors: Hernández Freire Alba Paulina , Solís Bucheli Xavier Alejandro , Escalante Gamazo Marbella Cumanda , Sulca-Guale Xavier 
Published: October 2023

Introducción

The goal of the current research project is to assist students in developing their communication skills, which makes it intriguing. The use of the role-playing technique on students to encourage their interaction with the English language in real-time also serves to develop fluency and accuracy in the oral presentation of English in this context. This study was crucial because it could easily be integrated into the curriculum and because it aimed to develop cultural variety by enhancing language proficiency and reinforcing knowledge via the use of various stories. Also, the value of role-playing supports the teaching and learning environment by engaging students and achieving immersive learning. This research project aims to analyze the influence of role-playing on communicative skills. The participants were 34 students in the 5th semester in the career of “Pedagogía de los Idiomas Nacionales y Extranjeros” at “Universidad Técnica de Ambato”. The research was collected in three stages: pre-test, treatment, and post-test, in 8 interventions. The pre-test consists of 2 parts taken from a B1 Cambridge PET which are: speaking and writing. The intervention process involved presenting slides with information about role-playing, the different topics to be covered and a small demonstration of each role-playing to be carried out in each class, worksheets to practice grammar skills and other helpful resources. In contrast to the pre-test phase, where they frequently made fossilized mistakes, the post-treatment pupils demonstrated better communication abilities by speaking with more assurance and expanding their vocabulary. If the treatment had been applied for a longer period, the improvement and influence would have been more noticeable.

Objetivos

To determine the influence of role-playing in the improvement of communicative skills.

Método

Pre-experimental

Principales resultados

The data collected was taken from the pre-test and post-test which were based on a Cambridge standardized test. The criteria to assess students the progress for evaluating speaking and writing performance B1 was grammar and vocabulary, discourse management, pronunciation, and interactive communication. Hence, 18 was the greatest score and 6 was the lowest for each criterion. The findings from the pre-test and post-test are contrasted in this table. The speaking and writing pre-test averages are shown in the first column, along with the final average of these scores, which is 21.8 out of a possible 40 points. Secondly, in the second column presented the post-test averages of both parts are displayed in the subsequent column following the interventions, with the combined averages producing a total score of 24.44 out of a possible 40 points. It demonstrates that the speaking section scored 1.70 points higher than the writing section, which scored 0.94 points higher.

Conclusiones

After a thorough evaluation procedure, it was discovered that the children had a medium-low level. This is based on the results of the tests used to evaluate the students, and even after the interventions, they continue to utilize fossilized errors and a narrow vocabulary range at this level. Even though there weren’t enough sessions, role-playing proved effective in helping students in the fifth semester with their communication abilities. As a result, it is possible to show the difference between the pre-test and post-test and the advantages of using different topics to involve the class during the lessons. Additionally, the best settings were sports, animals, shopping, traveling, and transportation.