The impact of role play on using new vocabulary in speaking by

EFL learners
Mahsa Vajak
MA student in TEFL Zanjan Azad University
Mohammad Hossein Qasemi
MA student in TEFL Zanjan Azad University
Abstract
The current study targeted role-play as a class activity to research and
show its result on using new words in speaking by EFL learners. This
study tried to see whether or not using role-play activities in speaking
classrooms would possibly enhance a more acceptable speaking ability
in EFL learners. To answer this question, thirty intermediate language
learners in farhikhtegan Language Institute in Zanjan were randomly
chosen. A pre-test of vocabulary was administered at the beginning of
instruction to urge convinced that the new words were unknown to
participants. They were equally divided into the experimental and control
groups. The control subjects received no treatment and just memorize
some new words, whereas the experimental participants were assigned
the responsibility of participating in one role-play game after the teaching
of the new vocabulary introduced in each lesson. Then, a 30-item
vocabulary test was administered as a final teacher-made achievement
test. At the end of the treatment, a similar pre-test of vocabulary was
given as a post-test to each groups, as experimental and a control
group, in order to visualize whether or not the technique was effective in
learning vocabulary. By comparison of the mean scores of each groups,
.the results showed that there was a significant difference

Introduction
English includes both skills and sub- skills. Its skills are as follows:
reading, writing, Speaking, and listening. And its sub-skills contain
vocabulary, grammar, collocationetc. Among these sub-skills, vocabulary
is one of important elements of English, and

Its learning in an efficient method is very substantial. Swan and Walter

(1984) wrote Vocabulary acquisition is the largest and the most
important task facing the language Learner. Course books began to
include activities that specially targeted vocabulary.How important is
vocabulary? According to David Wilkins, (cited in Thornbury(2002)), You
can say little or no with grammar, but you can say almost anything with
words.(P.13).Besides these mentioned statements relating to the
importance of vocabulary, it is to signifies that there are a great variety
of different approaches to language learning, each with a distinct outlook
on vocabulary (Richards & Rodgers, 2001; Jesa,2008). At times,
pedagogy and vocabulary teaching are interconnected to each other,
.and generally it's been neglected (Schmitt, 2000)
In apply, syntax and pronunciation of the words are the significant part of
language learning, whereas, vocabulary has been neglected in most
foreign language classes (Femndez, Prahlad, Rubtsova, &
.Sabitoy, 2009; Farghal & Obiedat, 1995)
Nowadays it's quite believed that vocabulary learning is one among the
foremost substantial parts of both ones native language acquisition and
foreign language learning(Morra & amp; Camba, 2009)Vocabulary
learning and its retention in learners mind is incredibly momentous. So,
it ought to be instructed in a way that learners are capable of recalling
them simply, knowing the way to use and when to use words. Based on
these mentioned specific cases, the research worker during this study
intends to research a method so as to learn vocabulary better.
Apparently there are several operative vocabulary learning techniques
like concept-mapping, matching, role-play, Semantic-mapping, dictionary
use, learning vocabulary through the context, and lots of others. Among
these, role-play, as a method, has been chosen by the research worker.
According to Chaney (1998), speaking is that the method of building and
sharing which means through the utilization of verbal and non-verbal

symbols, in different contexts. Speaking is important in language

learning and teaching. For several years, students recurrent the drills
and memorized the dialogs however these days, they ought to learn the
way to express themselves. They ought to learn to follow social and
cultural rules in any situation. They learn to talk in several
communicative circumstances. As Redd and Schmidt-Crawford (2011)
place it, recent studies call for using games for vocabulary learning since
they're said to produce the simplest way for words to be presented in an
organized manner which will extend the school day and amount of time
spent operating in a content area. That's to say, vocabulary-enriched
games may offer the additional support for learners to attain success
.and build their vocabulary word bank

Arends (1998) stressed on the practice of interacting with others as the

way of constructing teachers teaching style spirited. It will stop teaching
from being stale and routine. When tying new techniques, they're not
essentially amusing new principles. Most of them shared a typical theme
of emphasizing verbal tasks that targeted on which means instead of
.language structure (Breen, 1984)
Van Ments (1983) provided some support and clarification on the
advantages that accumulate from using role play activities by stating that
perceptions are shaped when ones brain codes and groups data.
Comparisons and selections will be created as individuals examine the
approach others behave in different situations. He further stated that
roles act as shorthand ways in which of recognizing, distinguishing, and
labeling a collection of appearances and behaviors. Individuals form
assumptions based on appearance, behavior, and characteristic of a

specific person. They predict what they'll do in a given state of affairs.

Ladousse (1987) noted that that will be allotted by social position in daily
life, like a police, clerk, engineer, teacher, president or juvenile
delinquent. A role is a manner of explaining or expression group norms
and societys ability to handle an individual or a group (Van Ments,
.1983)
Role refers to the part learners and lecturers are expected to play in
carrying out learning tasks as well as the social and social relationship
between the participants (Richards and rodgers, 2001).Role-play could
be a piece of activity exploited by different approaches to language
teaching. It's a useful tool since through this activity, as Tateyama (1998)
points out, more cognitive demands on learners comprehension and
production system are created and learners ability to instantaneously
incorporate sociopragmatic and pragmalinguistic information in
interaction are examined. this method is virtually one among the ways in
which we will provide our learners the chance to follow up a spread of
real-life spoken language in the classroom (Chen-jun, 2006). It deserves
notice that there's a substantial body of literature in applying role-play.
for instance, Platt and Brooks (1994) studied the interpretation of roleplay by 2 completely different groups. In their study, one group simply
applied the instructions in a very mechanical fashion. Another group
reconstructed the task in accordance with their own goals. They
managed to show that the kind of speak created by 2 groups differed
greatly, with far more metatalk evident in the second. Also, in a study on
the result of roleplay
technique on the acquisition of English language structures, Najizade

came to conclusion that role-play as an activity for transportation (1996)

real language situations into classroom was significantly effective in
improving subjects acquiring the foreign language structures. In another
study on the effect of task-based activities on the acquisition of
structures, Najafi (1996) pointed out that learners language structure
improved through utilizing TBLT activities far more than structural
techniques. Accentuating the merits of TBLT, Jalilifar (2005) persuades
English lecturers to create use of this perspective of pedagogy in high
schools thus as to develop learners communicative competence. On the
same issue, Rashidi (2005) states that tasks are effective tools for
applying the principles of CLT thatrepresents the starting-point of a new
movement in pedagogy. And finally, Alavi (2005) prioritizes TBLT for
learners at the level of high school since it goes through negotiation of
which means present in each communication as the key factor instead of
forms Looking back at the literature, one would notice the problem that
Voluminous analysis studies are enforced on the utilization of TBLT and
the result of role-play on acquiring language structure or reading
comprehension. However, at least at the Iranian national scale, few
projects have been conducted on investigation the impact of TBLT on
speaking ability. As a result, this research makes an attempt to exhibit
the result of roleplay as a task-based technique on EFL learners'
speaking ability. Another study has been implemented by Mollazamani
.& Dr. Fathi Ashtiani(2008)

Many studies regarding vocabulary, as one of the sub-skills of English,

as a foreign language, are accomplished. Apparently, each of those
studies has opened a door toward the importance of learning vocabulary
and therefore the necessity of teaching vocabulary better. Through such

studies we have a tendency to notice that vocabulary should be

considered seriously in EFL classes because it's a considerable sub skill
that mustnt be ignored. As well as, several researchers are conducted
with relevancy role-play and acquisition, because the useful techniques
in second acquisition. Presently,the research worker of this study has set
to research a very important issue within the field of learning English
vocabulary. That is, she has planned to look at this substantial topic that
its result's required in educational fields: Contrastive study on learning
vocabulary through role-play and acquisition among EFL feminine
learners. it is hoped that the end result of this research topic are a great
help to all or any lecturers and learners. Goss (1982) argues that
listening comprehensions a complex cognitive process in which the
listeners attempt to reconstruct the means out of what they received
from the speakers. This cognitively complicated process is performed
when listeners admit their background data of the language in addition
as their world knowledge (Byrnes
Nagle & Sanders, 1986; Young, 1997) and recombine data in ;1984
their long term memory to interpret the language (Mendelsohn, 1994;
murphy, 1985; Young, 1997). GBI will assist language learners in the
sophisticated process of development of listening skill through
familiarizing them with theconventions of language use and equipping
them with background knowledge within the specific genres of
. language

Methodology

In conducting the current study an experimental research technique was

adopted Farhady (1995) draws the schematic pattern of such kind of
:research as follows
Random Sampling
Cont. Group Pretest Placebo Posttest
Exp. Group Pretest Treatment Posttest

This study was conducted in Farhikhtegan English institute that is

located in Zanjan. The subjects of the study were thirty Iranian EFL
learners with an average age of 10to 15years old. Their home language
was Farsi. So as to perform the experimental project, equal numbers of
participants were randomly divided into 2 groups, an experimental and a
.control group
In this study a paper and pencil take a look at was used twice with 2
totally different purposes. The researcher administered a test of
vocabulary as the pretest at the beginning, then she employed pretest
as the posttest at the end of instruction there have been fifty items
during this vocabulary test, that were in the style of multiple choices. it's
.essential to illustrate that each multiple choice contains 3 items
Among these fifty questions, forty two ones assess synonyms. Moreover,
there are seven questions, that tap collocations, as well as, there is one
question, that valuate antonym. The students in the each of the
experimental groups of were required to work on a role-play on the
basis of the new vocabulary items introduced at the end of the lessons in
5 treatment sessions and lasted for forty minutes to investigate the
impact of utilizing new vocabulary in conversation .Thus, they were
.asked to form use of those words in their role-play performances
The test was conducted after the role-play games on the degree of the
experimental participants acquisition and recall of the vocabulary items
instructed in each session as compared with the control participant
vocabulary recall performance. to this end, the mean scores obtained for
the performance of each group were compared through the use of the

two-tail, independent t test procedure. so as to fulfill the quantitative

assessments, the statistical analyses were practically carried out on the
basis of the comparison of the calculated t score obtained from the
distinction between the 2 mean scores attained from the administered
test and the critical t score. It's worth stating that the critical t score and
the level of significance (the level of ) were constant across the
numerical analyses; that's, the critical t score equaled 3.040 as was
assumed 0.01. Therefore, the p value was assumed 0.01. Since the
independent t test was a two-tail one because of the autonomous
participation of forty subjects equally divided into the experimental and
control groups, was divided by 2 that equaled 0.005. Additionally, the
degree of freedom (df) was assumed 19. To analyze the impact of roleplay games on the vocabulary acquisition and vocabulary recall
performance of Iranian EFL learners, the subsequent procedures were
followed. The subjects participating in the control group received no
treatment, whereas the experimental participants in every sub-group
received role-play games as a treatment. Each sub-group was assigned
the responsibility of participating in one role-play game after the teaching
.of the new vocabulary introduced in each lesson

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Technically, the statistical results obtained from the final achievement
test of vocabulary are determined to reveal exceptional findings that are
worth considering. The experimental group is conceived to gain the
mean score of 15.1 while the control group is viewed to achieve the
mean score of 12.7. The succeeding tables exhibits that the participants
.have performed differently

TABLE 1
PAIRED SAMPLES STATISTICS

Pair 1

Control

Mean

Std.
Std. Error
Deviation Mean

12.7000

15

2.65766

59427.

Pair 1

Experimenta
l

15.1000

15

2.80788

62786.

TABLE 2
PAIRED SAMPLES CORRELATION
Sig.
483.

Correlation

166.

15

Control and
Experimenta
l

Pair 1

In the light of foregoing results, it's evident that the distinction between
the mean score obtained for both groups is significant since the p value
equals 0.007 < 0.01. As a result, it's usually assumed that there exists
a major discrepancy between the performances of the two groups.
Basically, the close examination of the numerical analyses reveals the
notorious impacts of the role-play games on the experimental
participants recall of vocabulary items. the subsequent lines of argument
are meant to yield further conjectural justifications for the obtained
.results
Critically, the statistical results of the present study indicate that the
proper utilization of communicative games, in general, and role-plays
games in the native contexts of the argument under discussion will have
a major impact on the amount and degree of the vocabulary learning
and recall of Iranian EFL learners

Discussion

After administrating the procedure, giving treatment to the experimental

group, and giving the related tests, as pre-tests and post-tests to each
group, the result indicates that there's a major distinction between roleplay and memorization, as two techniques of teaching and learning
vocabulary, among EFL feminine learners Although in control group
learners had promotion in achievement however this promotion wasnt
important over learners in experimental group, who performed role-play.
That is, role-play implementation in the class showed more vital
improvement than memorization use. Furthermore, the researcher
believes that this noticeable progress made through role-play in the
classroom led to a much better understanding, better retention
vocabulary in mind for a longer time, quicker recalling and more
successful using In addition, the researcher, as the teacher, observed
that learners, via the role-play focused on the way to behave, and what
to mention within the conversation. This is precisely what Richard
Courtney(1974), cited in Irene Y. Huang(2008), proved and explained
that playing, acting, and thoughts are interrelated within the role-play.
They are mechanisms by that the individual tests reality, gets eliminate
his anxieties, and masters his setting." Moreover, learners practiced their
interactions that were on the premise of various social roles. So,
accepting to perform role-play in a variety of roles can assist learners to
.achieve success communicators in their real world society

Conclusion
Learning vocabulary could be a basic issue in learning a language. So,
the way the words are given to learners and the method learners learn
those words are such considerable issues that teachers should
concentrate to them. based on the obtained results in previous chapter
and discussion during this chapter, the following conclusions have been
.achieved
In other words, the results extracted from the findings of the study made
it certain that role-play, as underlined and recommended by several
specialists in the field, was practically shown to be an effective and
fruitful activity for English learning courses.The quantitative analyses
have indicated that the positive effects of role-play games in learning

and recalling vocabulary items. based on the findings of the current

study, it seems that games adjust to the affordance options advocated in
the ecological approach to SLA advocated by Van Lier (1996, 2000,
2004a, 2004b, 2010) in that they are observed to assist the students
.gain agency in accomplishing the gaming activities
Despite the benefits of games in teaching and learning vocabulary, the
teachers are suggested bring around mind Huyen and Ngas (2003)
words of caution that though the role of games in teaching and learning
vocabulary can't be denied, so as to achieve the most from vocabulary
games, it's necessary to pick out appropriate games for the EFL
students. Whenever a game is to be conducted, the number of students,
their levels of proficiency, cultural background, timing, learning topic, and
therefore the classroom environments are essential factors that need to
be taken into consideration
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