Role Play ©
By Michael Casey
I was just talking to a FB friend and as ever I
had an idea after I was talking to him. So I’m going to share it with you. Now
how many of you have done Role Play while on training courses?
It can be very daunting, embarrassing even, like
being asked to strip in the class room, or in the middle of the sports field. I
hurry to say that’s NOT what I want any of you to do.
I’ve done a bit of role play on training courses,
and remember as a writer I’ve written a play or two. But there through my words others are doing the stripping in
public. They are the actors, I’m the writer/director.
I’ve been on training courses to help company
moral by binding the staff together. To teach customer service, to teach my
students a few lessons in life, even to learn how to be a bookie.
So when I became an Esol teacher I had a variety
of experience, I’d done all kinds of everything. I boasted I’d written a book,
now I have 6 to my name. So how do you use words?
Well I’m a firm believer in making lessons fun,
though I do have to say you have to balance it so the students don’t think that
learning is a joke, or that you are just a clown. You have to get the balance
right. It’s like pushing a swing, gentle pushes at first then gradually you get
the big swing. You do have to make sure you don’t push so hard that your
wife/girlfriend/children go flying into space or get wrapped around the swing
structure.
You need a lesson play, well you should have one,
if you are very clever a flow chart will do. Now say for 15 mins you tell the
students they are going to pretend to be Harry, William and Kate, with the
class pretending to be baby George gurgling in the background. So the students
put on their best posh accents and talk about babies, and car seats and all
kind of everything.
During this you the teacher write any vocabulary
on the white board. So the students have fun learning to speak clear English.
Then the class can discuss the role play, and any associated vocabulary. Now
I’ve chosen the Royals as they are very topical at the moment.
Wayne Rooney would make a great role play, him and
the Special One, the Chelsea manager with the Man U manager too. So the role
play would be the 3 of them having a coffee in StarBucks to decide Wayne’s
future. This would be a fun activity, with vocabulary being added to the white
board, you could also suggest vocabulary as the role play continues. I imagine,
numbers very high numbers would be
involved. £35,000,000 would be one of the numbers.
Role play for the girls in class could revolve
around picking a Wedding dress, and/or organising a full celebration.
Everything down to the cake and disco and whatever. Word appropriate language
would be learnt.
Remember they are learning English as a 2nd
language. Hopefully once they have learnt English they’ll visit and come and
spend some money in England. Certainly Chinese students will go to Bister
Village and buy 4 LV bags each, I am told they are too expensive in Shanghai.
As a teacher sometimes you need to teach something
that can only be done via role play. I wrote a role play for our students about
time keeping. I got the 3 other teachers to perform it. I pretended it would
just be me teaching that session to the 120 students. Then one by one the other
teachers arrived and started to disrupt the lesson. I have to admit I started
to laugh like a nervous girl.
After a couple of minutes the students realised
what was going on. We proceeded with the role play. Say twenty minutes later I
stopped, then we divided into our groups then you talk about the role play. A
simple thing but it works. As for the 10 people the lesson was really aimed at,
they missed it, they had arrived late.
I also wrote a role play about interviews and
interview technique, so the students would have an idea of how you do it in
England. So I was the interviewer, and the 3 other teachers were the good, the
bad and the ugly candidates. Now for some who have never had an interview in
their life this is a great role play. It informs and they learn some vocabulary
by watching it and during the discussion afterwards.
You have the perfect candidate, in a suit and on
time. You have the average candidate, and then you have the guy who should have
stayed in bed. The last guy looked like he has been in bed with his clothes on.
The teacher had his shirt hanging out and was wearing a baseball cap. I could
explain all this in detail, but I’ll leave that for another time.
Once the teachers had their interviews I
interviewed a few of the students, while the 120 looked on. Now this is play
learning if you like. My own play Shoplife as well as being a very funny play,
could also be turned on its head to teach Customer Service on a Laugh and Learn
basis. With English Language students you can teach through laughter. I am available
if any training company wants to use my skills.
There is a balance that has to be maintained
between all fun and no work, and all work and no fun. I think I got it right in
my teaching days. Hopefully my playwright days are beckoning, for the role as
writer is my best stage.
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