Role-Playing Madness!

In the world of language teaching, role-playing usually means a short activity where students pretend to interact in situations, such as "You are having lunch with a friend, but you forgot your wallet. Try to negotiate with the waiter to let you go get it, so you don't have to wash dishes all night." These make great speaking exercises, and I found a few I really like.

Strangers on a Train: In this activity, students are situated in groups of four, facing each other as if they are in a train car. They then engage in some light conversation about the weather, where they are going and why. Now, it may be unusual for Russians to talk to each other on the subway, but they have no trouble talking on trains in my experience. Why the difference? I have no idea.



The next part of the activity, though, is where it gets interesting! Taking students aside individually, you give them time to memorize a short phrase. They will have to work it into the conversation in a regular way, so the other students can't guess what their phrase is. This not only encourages fluidity of speech, but also focus on what their partners are saying. Phrases like "I agree" or "me neither" depend on what the former speaker said, and more uncommon phrases like "I've always wanted to go to Zimbabwe" depend on the topic of the conversation.

Jungle Survivors: This activity splits the class into reporters and the survivors of a plane crash. Questions could include everything from what they lost in the crash to how their bowels handled coconut milk. They have been living on their own in the jungle for two days, but that's not too unbelievable, is it? You can survive that long easily without food or water. I think students would have a much more interesting time explaining how they survived if they'd been lost for a week or more. And why did they leave the crash site to begin with? Maybe someone shot them down, or maybe they just couldn't stand each other anymore! I think this activity could be spiced up a bit, but the download comes with some nice resources.

Similar activities can be found on ESL Flow


Other Types of RPs
Now, these are fun, but there is also a wide, wide world of role-playing beyond this. It includes video games like Final Fantasy (one of my favorite, but pretty useless for the classroom), forum stories, IRCs (instant refresh chat rooms), and- best of all- the LARP (live action role-playing). Each of these have some similarities, though: participants create an original character that is appropriate for the story setting, and they reply to each other as if they are this character.

Now, I'm not telling you to have your students run around screaming "Lightning bolt! Lightning bolt! Plus 20 damage!" But this can be a great way to tie writing, reading, and speaking practice in with culture, depending on the setting.


Forums:
A forum is a place where members can create threads and reply to comments on each thread. On forums for computer trouble, for example, threads usually denote different types of problems, different conversations. An RP forum is laid out in exactly the same way, but the threads usually denote a new scene to help with organization. Other sections can also offer a place for students to provide information about their character. This alone could become a great research project for students.

For example, if you fancy a story that takes place in the old American West, students may need to become familiar with the geography, the relationships between immigrants and Native Americans, the different jobs available, and maybe a little history. As many times as I've been asked whether or not I ride a horse, this may not be as much work as it seems!

This can become an area for students to freely practice their English, or you can develop scenarios that elicit certain forms. If your cowboys are about to go on the Oregon Trail, for example, they need to buy some oxen and whatnots. This then becomes an interesting way for students to practice shopping vocabulary.

Free forums are available at My Free Forums, and the site offers a lot of tutorials for narrowing membership, adding sections, etc.


IRCs
Instant Refresh Chats are very similar to forums, but these would be even more helpful for advanced students because replies are required in real time. They are basically instant messaging tools that allow multiple people to write to each other at the same time. Many IRC role-playing groups usually have an accompanying forum or web page for members to reference information about their story setting or characters.

One free IRC service is Star Chat, but it may require a download of the program pIRCh. The same can easily be done by inviting multiple members to Windows Messenger or AIM conversations. But Windows, AIM, and pIRCh all allow participants to save or "log" conversations, so students can have something to show for their effort.


LARPs
The most famous LARP known is Vampires: The Masquerade, but if you ever played "make-believe" when you were a kid, then you have LARPed. In free-structure LARPs, this will be exactly the same, but just like with the others, if you want students to concentrate on something specific, then you simply do something like, oh, tell them they are strangers in a train car that strike up a conversation about the weather!

All LARPs give a little freedom, but there are also pre-made structured games online that you can purchase, such as Dinner and a Murder. These are a little costly (~$40) and much too long to be completed in class, but it is definitely worth it to organize a fun get together like this for students at the end of the year.

In the Dinner and a Murder games, students will receive information about their character, their background, and their personality. In the 1920s game, festivities are interrupted by a murder, and all the guests are detained while an investigator talks to them. As the night goes on, however, other guests may feel inclined to murder each other for various reasons. (After a body is discovered, these people get to come back as a secondary character of less importance.)

Once the party is dying down, the participants regroup to try to solve the mystery together, but this can also be revised into a writing activity-- just to make sure you cover all four skills!