Role Playing: Theory And Practice

Although the communicative language teaching (CLT) approach was introduced into China in the early 1980s, not much improvement and effect have proved in China's EFL teaching. The foreign language educators and policy makers are facing a problem, that is, how can a borrowed teaching approach root and grow in the soil of China's EFL education. Considering this, this thesis aims at researching kto cultivate a relatively real language learning environment which motivates the learners to learn, thus, ultimately improve learners' ability to use a foreign language.This thesis first examins the relations between CLT approach and communicative classroom activities. It indicates that CLT has two aims: to develop learners communicative competence and to produce correspondent teaching techniques. As for CLT, learning a language in communication is a typical characteristic. As one of the most often used classroom techniques, research in role playing is quite significant. Then it turns to explore the definition, values, components, types of role playing activities.Chapter Two continues to examine all the probable padegogical implications of role playing in teaching including acquisition and learning, performance and competence, simulation and authenticity, cooperation and competition, which are in pairs and inter-related and interactive with each other. Various role playing activities can respectively applied in acquisition or learning, or the same role playing activity can simultaneously arplied for acquisition and learning. As for competence on the one hand, adequate language ability or communicative competence does not guarantee good performance; on the other hand, good performance is based on adequate language ability and does not rely only on language competence. As for simulation, it is actually improvement of a real world experience adapted for use in classroom environment so that learners can get ready for their coming real worldexperience without leaving school. CLT is also characterized by authenticity, which is a very important motivating device needed by every learner in a real communicative task. As for cooperation, learning a language by means of CLT is essentially a cooperatve learning, in which all the teaching and learning activities are organized around the center: learners. In pairs or groups, learners are both competitive and cooperative.After examining the padagogical implications of role playing, Chapter Three proposes a three-way improvement method, including improving classroom management, improving learners role and teacher role and making role playing activities task-based. As improving classroom management is concerned, it indicates that classroom emvironment should be socialized and allow learners to choose their ways to interact with teacher and other learners. As improving learners role is concerned, it proposes that learners should take the initiative in learning and take part in the teaching process. As improving teacher role is concerned, it proposes that teacher should act as imparter of knowledge, designer, counselor, coordinator, participant, explicator and assessor etc,, to sum up, as a facilitator in learning. Besides, it goes further to explore the concept of task and the probable types of tasks which may appear in role playing. Based on all this, it draws the conclusion that role playing activities are not simple fun games but communicatively interactive classroom activity with the learners as the center of learning and with task as the central part.In the end, it stresses that role playing is just a teaching technique, an integral part of the whole foreign language teaching methodology. It is a rather flexible and effective teaching technique and its implementation has a higher demand for teacher's ability.