Abstract:

The term role play refers to the changing of someone’s behaviour to assume a role. The Oxford English dictionary defines role playing as the acting out of a particular role, either consciously (as a technique in psychotherapy or training) or unconsciously (in accordance with the perceived expectations of society).
This paper aims to show how students can be motivated to acquire the ability to play roles and enjoy the learning process with the use of such technique.

Jacob Moreno, who was a doctor, first used this technique in the 1920s with their patients. As a psychiatrist, he realised that his patients gained more by exploring their problems by acting them than by talking about them. By the late 1940s role playing had become a recognized part of business community. In the 1970s it was widely used as part of behavior therapy for assertion training and social skills training. It has been known as a method in education since the late 1940s.
There is a kind of vitality that attends this type of imaginative activity and so it can be used to help students to become more interested and involved as they integrate the knowledge in action by addressing problems, exploring alternatives and looking for creative solutions.

Role playing is a technology for intensifying and accelerating learning. It is the best way to develop the skills of initiative, communication, problem-solving, self-awareness, and working cooperatively in teams, and prepare them to real life situations.
One aspect of role playing was that of diagnosis or assessment--a test of how a person would act when placed in an imagined or pretend problematic situation. The conclusion is that the effective use of role-plays can add variety to the kinds of activities students are asked to perform. It encourages thinking and creativity; lets students develop and practice new language and behavioural skills in a relatively safe setting, and can create the motivation and involvement necessary for real learning to occur.

One of the primary concerns in the discipline of English is to help students understand the importance of communication in real contexts. The role-play approach is one of the most powerful techniques a language teacher can explore as it enhances students’ learning and prepares them to deal with all kind of speakers. Good students can help not so good students to communicate using the vocabulary they know, rephrasing complex sentences and achieve the same goal: communication.

Keywords:

l2 learning, role playing, simulation.