Action Research Proposal

TABLE OF CONTENTS
I. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH..........................................................................2
II. RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION OF RESEARCH...........................2
III. LITERATURE REVIEW............................................................................3
IV. METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH SCHEDULE.................................6
1. Research design........................................................................................6

1.1 Subjects.....................................................................................................7
1.1.1 Students................................................................................................7
1.1.2 Observer...............................................................................................7
1.2 Research Instrument..................................................................................7
1.2.1 Pre-test...................................................................................................7
1.2.2 Post-test..................................................................................................7
1.2.3 The classroom Observation....................................................................8
1.2.4 The Questionnaires.................................................................................8
1.3 Tool of Analysis........................................................................................8
2. Independent and dependent Variables......................................................9
3. Data Collection and Procedures.............................................................10

3.1 Pre-intervention.......................................................................................11
3.2 Intervention.............................................................................................11
3.3 Post-intervention.....................................................................................11
4. Research Schedule..................................................................................12

V. EXPECTED FINDINGS..............................................................................13
VI. CLOSING REMARKS..............................................................................13
REFERENCE...................................................................................................14

Ngo Thi My Hien

Action Research Proposal

I. AIMS OF THE RESEARCH

The purpose of the research is to examine the effects of using Role Play in
English speaking class. The research questions of this research are:
1. To what extent does the use of Role Play improve students speaking skill?
2. What are the students attitudes towards the use of Role Play activities?
II. RATIONALE AND JUSTIFICATION OF THE RESEARCH
A vast majority of students in my school are ethnic minority and their
mother tongue is Ede. Moreover, all of them live in the remote areas so the
ability of using their second language Vietnamese in daily conversation is rather
limited. Sometimes, they dont understand much of what I say in Vietnamese.
This is considered a big obstacle preventing me from teaching my students
English as a foreign language. In learning English, students are asked to master
four skills through reading, listening, speaking and writing lessons. Among them
speaking seems to be the most difficult one for my students due to their lack of
vocabulary, their shyness in speaking, the English environment outside the
classroom and time limitation for teaching speaking. Furthermore, each week
they have only one period of speaking. Besides, most of the English teachers
have not provided them with activities that encouraged the use of oral English in
class. Therefore, teachers must help students by giving a suitable technique to
overcome this problem. Role Play is one of the teaching techniques which help
students talk more in class. Role Play forces students to concentrate and talk in
class actively and also enhances students speaking English fluency. Thus, Role

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Action Research Proposal

Play helps teachers and students fix the problems happening during conversation
in which students are playing the main roles.
For all things mentioned above, I carry out a research under the title The
Use of Role Play to Improve Students Speaking Fluency.
III. LITERATURE REVIEW
Role Play is a method of acting out particular ways of behaving or
pretending to be other people who deal with new situations. Role Play is one of
the activities to promote speaking. Through Role Play activities the students
learn how to express ideas, opinions, or feeling to others by using words or
sounds of articulation.
Larsen Freeman (1986) explained that Role Plays are important in the
communicative approach because they give learners an opportunity to practice
communicating in different social contexts and different social roles. Similarly,
Ments. V (1989) argued Role Play is highly motivating students. It can be used at
different levels to teach simple skills of communication, to show how people
interact to others. Some types of Role Play are best suited to skills training, others
to increasing sensitivity towards individuals and groups, and some to enabling
students to explore their attitudes and emotion.
Role Play has many advantages. Firstly, Role Play is the active phase of
learning. It offers an opportunity for the learners to make personal use of
language that has been presented to students formally. The students have to
concentrate on the speaking activity so that they can participate effectively.

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Action Research Proposal

Secondly, Role Play is a valid and exciting technique to use in the classroom
being suitable for both learning and practicing fluency and accuracy. Thirdly, the
roles can be designed for faster or slower learners.
However, Role Play also has some disadvantages. Firstly, some students
have fixed ideas as to what a good class teacher is. They are used to being
passive and expect teaching to be teacher-centered. Secondly, Role Play takes a
lot of time especially if they include preparation and follow-up work. It also
depends on the ability of the class to perform the tasks. Thirdly, noise level will
also be high and the class is difficult to concentrate if the size of the classroom is
small. So, monitoring of the different groups may also be a problem.
One way of getting students to speak is Role Play. In Role Play activities,
the teacher gives scenario to the learners such as who they are and what they
think or feel (Harmer, 1984). Role Play can be said to be a useful tool in teaching
oral communication as illustrated by the activity discussed above. Students are
given opportunities to express themselves, share their opinions and use a little of
their imagination. Role play is a technique which can develop students speaking
fluency in target language, promotes students to speak or interact with others in
the classroom, increases motivation and makes the teaching English learning
process more enjoyable.
According to Byrne, D. (1986), there are two kinds of Role Play: Scripted
Role Play and Unscripted Role Play. Scripted Role Play involves interpreting

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Action Research Proposal

either the textbook dialogue or reading text in the form of speech. Unscripted Role
Play does not depend on textbooks. The students themselves have to decide what
language to use and how the conversation should develop. The study focus only on
unscripted one, following five steps:
Step 1: Teacher asks students to discuss what the speaker in the picture.
Step 2: Teacher writes prompt on the board to guide the role play, and
write some key vocabulary.
Step 3: Teacher divides students into pairs and let them discuss together.
Step 4: Students try to role play themselves.
Step 5: Teacher asks some pairs role play in front of class
With the scope of this proposal, I focus on using Role Play technique in
teaching speaking skill for students in grade 10 at my school. Through using
Role Play technique I hope that my students will improve their speaking fluently.

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Action Research Proposal

IV. METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH SCHEDULE

1. Research design
The table below illustrates the research design adapted in this study.
Research

Research

Subjects

questions

instruments

1. To what extent

- Pre and post oral - 10 graders at NTrang

does the use of

test

Role Play

-Class observation school

Long

Tool of Analysis

Quantitative:

high boarding -Frequency count

for

ethnic - Mean

technique improve - Questionnaires

minority

-Percentages

students speaking

- Age 16

Qualitative:

fluency?

- English ability:

Thematic analysis

2. What are the

Pre-intermediate

students attitudes

-Sample

towards the use of

students

Role Play

Boys: 10

activities?

1.1 Subjects

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size:

30

Girls: 20

Action Research Proposal

1.1.1 Students
The research involves thirty students from one class of grade 10 in
NTrang Long high boarding school for ethnic minority. They are at the same age
of sixteen and had four years of learning English at secondary school.
1.1.2 Observers
A teacher from the English teaching staff will be invited to participate in
the research. She has been a teacher of English at high school for 8 years. She is
experienced and has B.A degree in English language.
1.2 Research Instruments
1.2.1 Pre-Test
The aim of this test is to help the teacher to collect the first data before the
intervention. Teacher gives the pre-test to the students. The pre-test is in oral test
form. The test consists of 5 questions. The scores are taken in five criteria, which
are

the

scores

of

pronunciation,

grammar,

vocabulary, fluency

and

comprehension. Then, to get the mean, the scores from all criteria are sum and
divided into five.
1.2.2 Post-Test
Teacher gives the post-test to the students. The post- test is similar with
the pre-test. However, the post-test is given after the implementation had been
done by teaching speaking using Role Play. The scores are taken in five criteria,
which are the scores of pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, fluency and

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Action Research Proposal

comprehension. Then, to get the mean, the scores from all criteria are sum and
divided into five. The results of the pre-test and post-test are used as the tools for
the teacher to analyze to see how much progress the students have made in
speaking skill.
1.2.3 The classroom Observation
Observations will be carried out during the intervention by a colleague of
the researcher. She will fill in the checklist, take notes the method that the
researcher does in the class. They are used to collect the data about the
participations of the students in a speaking class, and their attitudes towards the
role play technique.
1.2.4 The Questionnaires
The questionnaires will be designed to gather information on students
attitudes towards Role Play technique. Each question has five points Likert-type
scale, and students have five choices ranging from 1 to 5.1 stands for strongly
disagree and 5 stands for strongly agree.
1.3. Tool of Analysis
- Quantitative and qualitative will be used in my research.
- Students test will be marked by the researcher and the scores will be used
for data analysis. The data will be coded to calculate students average scores mean,
frequency count, percentages. Data from classroom observation and the information
got from the student questionnaire will be coded to facilitate categorization into

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Action Research Proposal

common themes from analysis.

2. Independent and dependent Variable
The diagram below shows the relationship between the independent variable
and the independent variable in this study

The use of Role

To improve

Play technique

students speaking
fluency

Independent Variable

Dependent Variable

Operational Definition

Operational Definition

Teacher uses Role Play technique to

Changes in students are speaking

teach speaking skills (for 10 graders at

fluency measured by:

NTrang Long high boarding school

+ Pre-test/ post test

for ethnic minority.)

+ Classroom observation

-Some Role Play activities will be

+ Questionnaires

applied such as: Scripted Role Play

and Unscripted Role Play.

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Action Research Proposal

3. Data Collection and Procedures

The Flowchart below shows in detail how the research will be conducted.
Constant
Pre-intermediate
Students-Grade
10
30 students

- Teacher
- Day
- Time
- Duration

Oral pre-test 1
Class
observation

- Environment

Use of role play

Oral post-test

Questionnaire

Data Analysis

Conclusion

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Action Research Proposal

3.1 Pre-intervention
- The research will be carried out in a grade 10 in NTrang Long High Boarding School
for ethnic minority with 30 students and a colleague.
- A pre- oral test will be given to students to collect the scores of the students speaking
abilities for comparison.
3.2 Intervention
- The intervention is targeted for a period of 17 weeks and is planned into the weekly
schedule
- During 5 weeks carrying the lesson, teacher will use the unscripted role play to teach
students. The steps to conduct the lesson are as follow: topic of the lesson will be varied
during the lesson. Firstly, teacher will deliver students a situation about a topic and then
ask students what the speakers in that situation may say. Secondly, teacher will give
students some prompts and vocabulary for them to prepare the conversation. Thirdly,
teacher divides students into five groups and asks them to take turn practice speaking
within their group. Finally, teacher asks some pairs to speak before class.
- Two observations will be carried out by the researcher and her colleague during the
intervention period. Teachers will observe how students study speaking in class.
3.3 Post-intervention
- At the end of the intervention period, a list of questions will be given to students to
collect the data for teacher knowing the attitudes of students with the new technique.
- At the same time, a post oral test will be carried out to get the scores of speaking
abilities of students for comparison.

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Action Research Proposal

4. Research Schedule
No
1

Activities
- Choose the subjects
- Prepare an oral pre-test

Date to carry out

September, 2011-week 2

- Find out the Role play on the book

- Give an oral pre-test
2

- Prepare the lesson plan for speaking lesson

September, 2011-week 3

3
4
5

- Mark the test and collect the scores of pre-test

- Carry out the use of Role play
- Prepare the lesson plan for speaking lesson
- Carry out the use of Role play
- Prepare the lesson plan for speaking lesson

September, 2011-week 4
October, 2011-week 1
October, 2011-week 2

6
7

- Carry out the use of Role play

8
9
10

- Prepare the lesson plan for speaking lesson

- Carry out the use of Role play
- Prepare the lesson plan for speaking lesson
- Carry out the use of Role play

11

October, 2011-week 3
October, 2011-week 4
November,2011-week 1
November,2011-week 2
November,2011-week 3
November,2011-week 4

- Prepare the post test

- Give an oral post-test
- Mark the test and collect the scores of pre-test
12

December ,2011-week 1
- Deliver questionnaires to the students

13
14

- Collect questionnaires
- Comparison of pre-test and post test scores
- Data analysis
-Writing a report with conclusion and

15

December ,2011-week 2
December ,2011-week 3,4
January, 2012-week 1,2

recommendation
V. EXPECTED FINDINGS

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Action Research Proposal

I hope that with the implementation of Role Play technique, and under the strict
control of the teacher, the speaking skills of the tenth grade students of my school will be
improved. The results of the research show that the technique of using Role Play
technique will be applied to all speaking classes. If most students have better results in the
post test, it means the technique of using Role Play technique is good, teachers in my
school will continue to apply it in teaching speaking skill.
VI. CLOSING REMARKS
In trying and experiencing new things, both teachers and students cannot avoid
encountering difficulties. However, through diagnosis, doing a trial, they will become
experts in them.
Role Play is a challenging, effective technique for improving students speaking
ability of many aspects of a language. I hope that the result of this research will encourage
English teachers at my school to use it to help their students to speak more productively,
confidently and enjoyably.

REFERENCES
1. Byrne, D. Teaching Oral English: Longman Handbooks for English Teacher.
(Singapore: Longman Group, 1986), p. 115
2. Gubbay, A (1980).Role play the theory and practical of a method for increasing
language awareness
3. Harmer, J. 1984.The Practice of English Language Teaching. London: Longman

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Action Research Proposal

4. Larsen-Freeman, D. (1986).Technique and principles in language teaching. Oxford:

Oxford University Press.
5. Lousses, G.P. Role Play.Resources Books for Teacher Series. New York: Oxford
University Press, 1995, p. 5.
6. Ments, V. (1989). The effective use of role play: a hand book for teachers and trainers,
USA, p.21.
7. McNiff & Whitehead (2005).Action research for teachers, David Fulton Publisher.
8. Noemi, K. (2008).Games in Teaching English as a Foreign Language. The United
Kingdom: Milton Keynes.

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