Online Role-plays: Combining Situational and Interactional Authenticity in Foreign Language Learning

Abstract

Role-plays have been almost ubiquitous in foreign language classes and their potential has been widely recognised. In the last decade, the dissemination of Web 2.0 has created a wide range of possibilities for this type of activity, including conducting online role-plays between institutions, the opportunity to combine synchronous and asynchronous communication tools and also articulate online with in which knowledge is emergent resulting from interactions between participants. It is also an activity that mirrors contextualised everyday situations and students autonomy. Within a dialogical and dialectical perspective of English language learning, the following research question was developed: how can online roleplays in English language learning in higher education be integrated in order to enhance the development of communicative competence? In order to answer the research question, an action research project was carried out, according to the model proposed by Stringer (2007), and an online role-play was implemented over six weeks in the English II course unit from the degree in Tourism at the Polytechnic Institute of Viseu, Portugal.