Role Playing: A Pedagogy in Teaching Oral Communication

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Speaking confidently among secondary ESL learners inside the classroom is quite challenging. They opt not to speak even though they know the answer because they are shy or afraid that their fellow classmates might laugh. Many problems were found related to speaking. Most of the students were less motivated in speaking tasks. Some of the students want to express their ideas and feelings, but they do not know how to. Some of the students know how to construct sentences, but they are reluctant to speak. They are afraid of making mistakes. They are also afraid of being laughed at by other students, so they just keep silent and keep their ideas and feelings in their mind (Iswardati 2016).

METHODS

The purpose of this study is to utilize role-playing in teaching and overcoming the stage fright of the students in Oral Communication using the experimental design. Cluster sampling was used, where the researcher divided the population into separate groups called clusters. Then, a simple random sample of clusters was selected from the population. The researcher conducted her analysis of the data from the sampled cluster. To come up with more reliable results, questionnaire, performance tasks with rubrics, and lesson plans were also used.

RESULTS

The level of proficiency of learners under the controlled group excelled in oral communication having the 2.25 SD and with the Mean of 24.60 having 30 as the perfect score. While the other group showed a low-performance level in proficiency. It is a factual statement that learners using role-playing in teaching perform well and even better compared to those who used the traditional way of teaching communication.

DISCUSSIONS

In oral English teaching, teachers are supposed to help their students form the good habit of communicating with others orally and think in English at the same time. Thinking in English means having to understand, judge, and express yourself in English. If students get used to portraying and presenting the English language with the use of role-playing or simulation, they will soon get used to it, not just with the use of English language but also with the formation of enough confidence to talk in public. Role-playing also helps boost g humor or the sense of individuality of each person to freely express their thoughts and emotions without any hindrance in delivering it.