Analysis Of the Use of Role Play to Improve Speaking Skill at Primer

The objective of the study was to analyze the use of "Role Play" to improve the oral expression of students who are in the First Year of Bachillerato. After some observations, it was evident that it is very difficult for students to start, maintain and conclude a conversation in the classroom using English. The results obtained after the study show that the most important factors to apply the "Role Play" in activities that involve oral expression, were neglected in the different stages of the process, so the results are not as satisfied. It is suggested to take pedagogical courses, since the weaknesses detected in the application of "Role Play" did not affect only the development of speech, also the learning objectives in general, and it is also advisable to maintain a better relationship between theory and practice, this will help to improve the professional performance of the teacher and the learning of the students.


INTRODUCTION
Today the way of teaching foreign languages have adopted innovative approaches that consider students to be the principal character of the process.Everything is intended to do within the classroom is based on the students' needs, interests, age, level and background; therefore, it is the teachers' responsibility to promote meaningful contexts in which students can develop their communicative abilities in the target language, considering always their multiple realities.Nunan (2001) states, Role Play are one of the most suitable strategies for achieving the mentioned goal.
For Arham, Yassi, & Arafah (2016), role play is a strategy categorized as skill orientation development, since when role playing students play an active role in their own learning and assume part of the responsibility to improve their communication abilities.For Doff (1993) Role play provides students a deep learning, since learning through role play involves all senses of human beings: cognitive, affective and motoric aspects which are used simultaneously as in real life situations.
A similar approach is stated in the national context; the new English National Curriculum sets the policies and strategies to be followed in order to help students build up their communicative language competence in its linguistic, sociolinguistic, and pragmatic components (National Curriculum Guidelines, 2014).These new conceptions are established in all of the components of the Macro, Meso and Micro Curriculum.
A clear example of what was aforementioned is that in the textbooks, for both public and private schools and high schools, there are many speaking activities which foster the development of students' communicative abilities.For instance, it is possible to find: information gap activities, simulations, dialogues, and role plays.The material for practicing speaking is vast and so the situations or contexts where students can rehearsal it; in consequence, with this entire staff available in their hands, it is supposed that students may have a good speaking.
Unfortunately, for most of the students, speaking activities result very complex.Along some observations to students at Primero de Bachillerato at Unidad Educativa "Miguel Ángel León Pontón", located in the city of Riobamba, Chimborazo province, it was noticed that it was difficult for students to maintain a basic dialogue.

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The Unidad Educativa "Miguel Ángel León Pontón" is a public educational institution constituted with the mission of providing services of Educación Inicial, General Básica and Bachillerato Técnico Industrial, with specialization in machining and metal constructions, installations, equipment and electrical machinery; and, air conditioning.In the institution there are 3580 students who are technically formed under the responsibility of 146 teachers from whom 13 are English ones.
Role play in this English class was not more than a memorizing activity in which students repeated what was proposed in the work-book with no purpose and any emphasis in developing authentic communication abilities.In consequence, the benefits that many authors affirm that the use of role play has, are not gotten.In this context, the principal goal of the study was to analyze how this academic resource was being used when practicing speaking to determine the principal factors that obstruct the accomplishment of the desired learning goals.
To accomplish this goal, it was used the ethnographic method that facilitated the understanding of the research problem at its natural setting; for gathering the necessary data it was used a survey which was applied to the teacher and an observation.These facts place the study into the qualitative approach and within the English-teaching-methodology area.
The importance and pertinence of the study is determined by the qualified information which was gathered.Information may be beneficial for both teacher and students.Its feasibility was marked by the availability of the necessary scientific, technological, human and economic resources.

OBJECTIVES GENERAL OBJECTIVE
To analyze how Role Play is used when performing speaking activities at Primer Año de Bachillerato at Unidad Educativa "Miguel Ángel León Pontón"

1.
To identify how Role Play is used when practicing speaking activities 2.
To describe the tips to use Role Play in a proper way.

3.
To contrast the observation results with the information obtained from the teacher´s survey.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The study frames itself to the qualitative approach since the use of Role Play was analyzed, with students at Primero de Bachillerato at Unidad Educativa "Miguel Angel León Pontón" and thus, determined the principal reasons why this academic resource was not being effective; in this context the method used was the ethnographic with its corresponding techniques, a survey which was applied to the teacher and observations to English classes where Role Play was used.
Qualitative.-Because it was analysed the use of Role Play with students at Primero de Bachillerato at Unidad Educativa "Miguel Angel León Pontón" and thus, determined the principal reasons why this academic resource was not being effective.
Descriptive research.-due to it was described why the use of Role Play with students at Primero de Bachillerato at Unidad Educativa "Miguel Angel León Pontón" was not being as effective as in other academic encounters, in this regard it was carried out with some observations and a survey to teacher.
Ethnographic method.-this method is considered one of the most useful for the educational field; since it shows real information, and help to directly explore the problem in its natural setting.

RESULTS
The results obtained after applying the survey to the English teacher and the observations carried out in some classes at Primer Año de Bachillerato at Unidad Educativa "Miguel Ángel León Pontón" helped me to identify and understand the principal reasons that obstruct the improvement of the students' speaking skill when using Role Play.The data collection process followed a systematic dynamic marked by the specific objective of the study.
In the following pages, it is presented the results obtained from the survey and the observations, this information was analyzed and contrasted in order to achieve the first and third specific goals of the study.This interdependent analysis helped me to deeply understand the nature of the problem.

Study stage
The students' Then, in the second phase, learners need to study the new language; it may be grammar or vocabulary exercises.Having known the new item, students are given a possibility to activate both the new language and the language they already know.One positive factor observed in the application of role plays was the introduction of new vocabulary and pág.6216 grammar, therefore the students know which words to use and how.But a negative issue in this stage was that the new vocabulary presented was not related to what students already know, so they did not have the opportunity to meaningfully acquire the topic.
Having been engaged, being presented the new language and having practised it, learners try to activate it and carry the activity out, this is the third phase.When the role play is being prepared, there are other factors that the teacher has to bear in mind, for example Budden (2004) explains that the teacher may discover that students lack words or phrases and may need new language to successfully develop the activity, Kingen (2000) states that the teacher need to be always evaluating the class and offering help when it is necessary, and give remarks and advice at the end of the performances (Kuśnierek, 2015) teacher has to walk around the classroom listening to the students talking and putting down the mistakes that should be later discussed (Porter-Ladousse, 1987) as part of the feedback, reinforcement and reflection process (Nunan, 2001).Unluckily, most of these issues were omitted by the teacher in the application of role plays, in consequence, this negatively affected to the academic process and the learning goals were not accomplished.
When the application of role plays fits Harmer's suggestions, learners develop fluency in speaking this is affirmed by Kowalska (1991) since role playing involves a wide range of language functions that help students focus on: the communication of meaning rather than on the appropriate use of language.If used appropriately, role plays help learners be able to use speaking in any social situation (Porter-Ladousse 1987: 7).
For a good application of role plays Budden (2004) explains that the teacher should be a facilitator, in this regard discover students' language need and be a kind of a "walking dictionary", it is also important to be always evaluating the class and offering help when it is necessary.
Another vital teacher's role is to watch the role-play and then give remarks and advice at the end of the performances.

DISCUSSION
• Some pedagogical courses should be taken, since the weaknesses detected in the application of role plays did not affect only to the speaking development but to the learning goals in general.

•
To effectively apply Role Play, it should be considered all the issues involving the pre, while and post stages of an activity or a class.

•
It is recommended to keep a better relationship between theory and practice; it will help improve the teacher's professional performance and students' learning goals.

CONCLUSIONS
There were issues such as catch student attention, contrast previous and new knowledge and let students organize the role play which are not properly applied in the pre, while and post stages and so the results are not the desired.
The most important factors such as feedback, reinforcement and reflection to apply Role Play accurately in speaking activities were neglected.
The information gathered through the application of the survey and the observations evidenced that there was no relation between what was believed about Role Play and how it was used when practicing speaking.

Objective
it was stated that for catching students' attention, it is necessary to propose topics that are related to their interests, likes and preferences.This fact appeared to be contradictory with the results obtained after the observations.It was noticed that basically the Role Plays that were performed in the class were those presented in the work-book.One of them was about "Going to the doctor", it was evident that this topic did not catch the students' attention and it seemed that they performed the activity because they had to.From my perspective, this kind of problem generally occurs since in work-books, the factors before mentioned have not been updated.It was affirmed that it is important to, before starting a task, foster students' imagination and make them think about the principal features of the activity.The results obtained in the observation denied this appreciation.As stated before, the students did not have the opportunity to develop other activities apart from those presented in the work-book.In Kuśnierek (2015) advocates that Role-play can be a very successful tool in the teacher's hands as its prime goal is to boost students' interaction within the classroom.For the author, role play is the perfect activity to catch students' attention and make them practice the language through activities that fits their interest and needs.Harmer (2012), for a Role Play to be success, it is necessary to bear in mind three vital elements: the engage stage, study stage and activate stage.The author explains that in the first phase the teacher's task is to attract and keep learners' attention and interest in the lesson.Students' minds have to be involved and emotionally connected with the lesson.to "live the role and perform the characters as in real life" and tried to emotionally involve them in the class.But, when the students had to present the activity, most of them were only stood and repeat the dialogues by memory.From my view, this occurred due to the topics to be role played were not interesting.In the survey, it was advocated that students have to be part of the organization of the Role Play.
may use their previous knowledge with the new one, even when in the survey it was fostered the idea of relating the students' previous knowledge with the topics to be learned.level, teachers might elicit the development of the role play scenario from students and then enrich it.Students have to be those who propose the roles they can perform according to their potentials as well as the different resources they need to make the role play more real (Sciartilli, 1983).Once the role play is finished, it is very useful to spend some minutes to ask questions about the activity.It is also important to point out and correcting mistakes as a general feedback avoiding to specify who made the.If every mistake is analysed students will feel as there work was not well enough.It might also make the students get less confident and less willing to do the págsustains that for a correct usage of Role Play, it is necessary to bear in mind three vital elements:The engage stage, study stage and activate stage.The author explains that in the first phase the teacher's task is to attract and keep learners' attention and interest in the lesson.Students' minds have to be involved and emotionally connected with the lesson.The author explains that in the first phase the teacher's task is to attract and keep learners' attention and interest in the lesson.This was the first factor omitted by the teacher, she did not do anything to catch students' attention; on the contrary, by only using the topics proposed in the work-book the students' turned to get bored and so their engagement was weak.This made Students' minds not to be involved and emotionally connected with the lesson.