Using Role Play in the Business English Communication Classroom at a Private College in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Abstract

This paper studies the use of role play in the Business English communication classroom at the tertiary level specifically for Diploma students. This research further elaborates on how role play can be utilized to enhance and maximize students’ participation in the Business English communication classroom exploring more on the productive skills specifically the speaking component. Role plays are extremely rich in content, skills, creativity and could provide the learner with the opportunity to fully utilize schemata and train specific communication skills as well as promote a good cooperative teamwork in the Business English communication classroom. This qualitative research incorporates a case study as a method of the research paper. This research uses observation and interview as a method of data collection for a duration of three months in a studying semester. Students are supposed to choose any cases related to business communication and perform a role play in the classroom as a tool of their ongoing assessment in the semester. The results in the research are obtained through observation and interview. The findings of the research are this would benefit academicians in incorporating role play as a tool in enhancing the communication skills in the classroom. The role play task has really shown a promising result in the effort to produce well equipped and well-rounded graduates who are ready to meet the real-life scenarios in the future.