I confessed in the previous post that I don't personally care for role-playing and therefore don't tend to use them in my language teaching. It occurred to me that I might elaborate more on that, and my preferred alternative.
My aversion to role-play transcends language. I am uncomfortable doing improv, and I don't relate very naturally in forced perspective taking, even with children (so if a child hands me a figure and wants me to engage in conversation with it and other figures, I basically panic). It just feels so awkward. Other people excel at improv and are great at that kind of interaction. I'm not, and that's in my first language. Trying that activity in a second language is layering on additional stress. There are probably extroverted language learners out there who would shine in that circumstance, and/or instructors who could manage the activity deftly (more power to them), but as it's not in my nature and in case anyone in the room is as uncomfortable or anxious about role-playing as I would be in their place, I usually steer clear. Aside from the affective filter, the other reason I might balk at role-plays is that they often prompt developmentally inappropriate/unrealistic output. In one textbook I'm familiar with, within the first few pages of the first chapter (mind you, this is Introductory Spanish), students are asked to role-play registering for classes at the university registrar's office in a Spanish-speaking country. As novice language learners, even the student role of that dyad is intimidating enough, but asking a college student to take the perspective and language production of a university official seems ludicrous. Neither in their L2 knowledge nor their life experience do they have the background to play that part. One might argue, "But the textbook isn't expecting the students to have a completely native-like conversation, just practice asking and answering personal information," to which I would respond, "Sure, so why the role-play?" Why create a fake context to have students ask/answer personal questions, when there's a perfectly legitimate real context of the classroom in which people might be interested in their classmates? Additional hypothetical arguments include "But role-plays are more fun than just asking each other questions!" to which I will refer back to my original point about anxiety. Also, while I'm sure there are fun and silly combinations for role-playing, being imaginary does not necessarily make it more fun. Who would argue that pretending to be a registrar office secretary is especially exciting just because it's fake? Getting to know people for real can also be nice (awwww...) Finally, role-playing advocates may counter, "But students need to know how to _____. How will they know how to _____ if they do not practice _____ing in a role-play?" Examples of _____ (based on my perusal of textbooks) include: ordering food at a restaurant, buying clothing at a store, buying a plane/train ticket, reserving a hotel, etc. I think BVP would argue (I seem to recall hearing this argument on an episode of Tea with BVP?) that role-play doesn't really prepare students to do those things in the first place, since the contexts (here we go again) of those actions are unpredictable. Hence, the students should prepare for language use in general, not practice performing a particular function, and that students with plenty of communicative input and interaction will be able to navigate their way through those situations equally well. I'm inclined (again, perhaps selfishly) to agree. BUT if there is situation-specific vocabulary or form of address or common chunks of language that just don't occur naturally in the classroom (drumroll...) I have an alternative: dialogue. I am perfectly comfortable building dialogue into a narrative. We really need to be exposed to buying train tickets? Ok, let's weave a story where a person needs a train ticket. Why does s/he need a ticket? For a daily commute or a vacation? Did s/he get to the station in plenty of time or in a rush because the alarm didn't go off at the right time? Is there a problem with the ticket machine, is someone ahead in the line making a scene, have the tickets just sold out? That, to me anyway, is more interesting (and certainly involves more substantial and elaborate input) than breaking into pairs for two minutes to ask personal questions while imagining, but not really, that one is supposed to act like they sell tickets at a train station (or work at a Spanish university registrar's office). We can sit and park for a few minutes on the conversation between the characters even, if it needs more exposure. How do you [student] ask for a train ticket? Answers ranging from: "Can I have a ticket to XYZ please" to "One to XYZ" [real answer: in NJ at least, from the machine, to avoid human contact] But there's a problem, at least according to BVP: stories do not have a clear communicative purpose that is either psychosocial or cognitive-informational (p.71). So is my narrative alternative not "communication" any more than a role-play is? I... have thoughts about that. That I'll have to get to in a separate post.
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