BENEFITS AND CHALLENGES WHEN USING THE TECHNIQUE OF ROLE-PLAYING IN SPEAKING EXERCISES IN TEACHING ENGLISH AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show the complete experiences, both benefits and challenges that A2 level students have when using role-plays in learning English as a foreign language. The respondents included in the survey consist of two groups of students: teenagers aged 12 to 15 (36 of them) and first-year students (38 of them) at the Department of Applied and Fine Arts of the University of Kragujevac (aged 18 up to 20 years). The teenage students attended an English language course at a private school in Kragujevac and were preparing for the international A2 knowledge test of the University of Cambridge, Cambridge A2 test also known as KEY (KET) in its pre-2020 version. In part 3 (conversation), task 2, the knowledge of those taking the test is assessed by means of a kind of a role play. Role-play is organized in pairs where both members of the pair have an equal chance to ask questions and provide information in predetermined situations that are partially structured. The task of the students was to play a role, to understand the situation and to express themselves in an adequate way both linguistically and in accordance with communicative competences. It was noticed that the students did not or to a lesser extent met with such activities, that their motivation for learning was higher than usual during and after the activities. There was also a gradual reduction of stage fright and fear of public speaking. On the other hand, the challenges that the examinees faced were the inability to form sentences grammatically correctly, especially questions, that they lack everyday vocabulary, as well as that they often sound unnatural and not polite enough. Some respondents could not avoid using their native language for more than a few seconds or not make long pauses in communication using postman’s sticks. Pedagogical implications of this research are the need for English teachers to systematically, and for a longer period, devote at least part of the lesson to such activities with the aim of relieving students of nervousness, activating knowledge and preparing for the challenges of the 21st century and the international circumstances of the use of the English language. We hope that this is one of a series of further investigations on similar topics that will give us better insight into how to improve learners’ communicative competence of English as a foreign language.