Many English as a Second Language textbooks for teachers list role play as one of the best ESL activities for English students. These textbooks will role play everyday activities teaching new words, definitions and sentence structures to help students use the English language more effectively. But what happens when the students are in an advanced ESL class? They've done so much role play where they buy something, talk about the weather, talk about school, and other mundane things that this activity makes them groan in boredom.
For English teachers in advanced classes this can lead to serious problems. The students may ignore the educational activity and put in only minimal effort at best, often repeating old role play scenario's they've done before. They may also complain to their head master that English class is boring and they don't like the teacher. This will hurt the student or the teacher. Yet role play remains a very useful ESL game, provides the busy teacher an easy lesson and if done properly can be very fun for the students.
Provide Options for Fun ESL Activities
When dealing with advanced English students the best way to make role play useful again is to make it interesting. ESL teachers should give their students a chance to use creativity by offering multiple role play choices. Instead of giving them one scenario, students should have 4 or 5 choices that are distinct from each other.
If the previous class dealt with travel, the role play choices could be "trying to return a plane ticket," "missing a train," "lost in New York," and so on. Students can pick the one they think is most interesting and use the language they were taught last class or already know to come up with unique acts. Too many ESL lesson plans call for every student to do the same scenario, which in a large class gets boring. Offering different role play activities can make the class a little more lively.
Add a Twist to Make a True ESL Game
Giving advanced English students choices will help to make a class more interesting, but many of the options have likely been done in the past. So adding twists to the game will breathe new life into old lessons.
For the common role play scenario "Ordering food at a restaurant” change it to "Ordering food at a restaurant, the waiter is very bad." Suddenly instead of simply being a way to remember different foods and how to order, the advanced students have to deal with a waiter that could be clumsy, angry, slow or many other things. Let the students decide why the waiter is bad and they'll come up with many interesting ideas.
Instead of simply adding a twist the teacher could make the entire scenario unique such as "You're robbing a bank," or "You won 1 million dollars." Few students will not have done these before. If they're "robbing a bank" the students have the chance to practice how to speak in an emergency, calling police, trying to give instructions, arguing and they will have a great time copying what they see in movies. If they won money they can act out buying the ticket, calling all their friends with the good news and talking about what they'll do with the money.
Good ESL Role Play requires Extra Time
These ESL activities will require extra time for the students to prepare. A well done role play of 2 to 3 minutes acting will usually take advanced students 20 to 30 minutes to prepare. The teacher should spend this time wandering around the classroom reading what the students have written and listening as they practice their lines.
Role play should be and interesting and fun game not only for the students but the teacher as well. By encouraging the creativity and interests of the students, teachers can get the class talking and participating like never before.
Videos can be another fun way to get ESL students participating.
Remember to study conversations if teaching IELTS.
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Daniel Clarke - Dan Clarke is a freelance writer and English teacher living happily with his wife and daughter in Nanjing, China. He moved to China 4 ...
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