The effects of the role play instructional model on Taiwanese ESL students' learning attitude, social skill and oral performance

The purpose of this experimental study was to explore the theory of the role-play instructional model and compare it with the traditional instructional model as related to Taiwanese EFL students' learning attitude, social skills, and oral performance.Data were analyzed with ANCOVA and multiple regression analysis. The analysis of covariance indicated that the role-play instructional group significantly outperformed the traditional group in learning attitude and social skills ability. Multiple regression analysis revealed that in the role-play instructional group, learning attitudes and gender differences were positively related to the students' speaking ability.The results revealed that implementing the role-play instructional model would improve students' learning attitude toward English learning, social skills ability, and oral performance. These findings provide evidence to support adopting the appropriate instructional model to maximize Taiwanese EFL students' achievement.The participants in this study were 100 students from two different classes in one department, the Department of Physical Therapy, in a private five-year college in southern Taiwan. These subjects were divided into two groups--one assigned as the control group that received the traditional teaching method (grammar-translation method) and the other constituting the experimental group that received the role-play teaching method. Learning attitude, social skill ability, and the elementary level of GEPT (General English Proficiency Test) speaking ability test were administered in the first and the eighth weeks to evaluate how instructional methods affected each of these in relation to students' English achievement.