The Implementation and Challenges of using Role-Play to Improve Chinese University Students’ English Communicative Competence

Hongming Fan

doi:10.31273/eirj.v8i1.592

Abstract

English is taught as a compulsory course in Chinese universities and it is necessary to find feasible ways to improve students’ English ability to communicate. Role-play is believed as an effective way to enhance second language learners’ communicative competence and it is also supposed to be able to be effective in Chinese universities EFL classes. The real effect, however, relies on the actual implementation in classes. If the teachers inappropriately adopt role-play, it is hard to be useful. Due to the lack of research paying attention to this issue, it is not clear how Chinese university English teachers use role-play and whether it is effective. For this reason, a case study was conducted, with a Chinese university EFL teacher taking part in the interviews. The results show that participants attempt to maximise the effectiveness of role-play to improve students’ English communicative competence by practising comprehensive language skills, linguistic knowledge, and workplace topics. Nonetheless, some issues, namely script preparation, students’ proficiency difference and class size are identified. These may challenge the actual effectiveness of role-play. Possible solutions, including selecting role-play according to students’ ability, considering individuals’ condition, mixed-ability grouping and small class size, are suggested thereafter.

Highlights

Since English has become the dominant language of global communication, it is taught compulsorily to students of all majors in Chinese universities (Ministry of Education (MOE), 2017)
The documents, including the national curriculum released by MOE (2017) and the university’s syllabus, were reviewed first for a better understanding of the contextual use of role-play because teaching had to align with the requirements of MOE and the university
Role-play was used to improve learners’ communicative competence by extending the procedure to provide students with opportunities to practise their comprehensive language skills, including speaking, listening, reading and writing (Table 2, item 4). This is consistent with the findings of Tran (2016) and Chaitanya and Ramana (2013) that role-play is useful in improving multiple language skills

Summary

Introduction

Since English has become the dominant language of global communication, it is taught compulsorily to students of all majors in Chinese universities (Ministry of Education (MOE), 2017). Students’ capacity is not always as satisfactory as expected (Gan, 2013; Li, 2018). It is necessary for educators and teachers to identify effective ways to enhance students’ communication competence. Chinese national curriculum emphasises students’ communicative competence in English. It is required by MOE (2017) that university students must be able to understand and conduct a certain length of everyday conversation, such as personal experiences and daily topics.

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion